Egypt: ABC News Reporter Brian Hartman Threatened With Beheading

[WestVirginiaRebel]

ABC News:

A group of angry Egyptian men carjacked an ABC News crew and threatened to behead them today in the latest and most menacing attack on foreign reporters trying to cover the anti-government uprising.

Producer Brian Hartman, cameraman Akram Abi-hanna and two other ABC News employees were surrounded on a crowded road that leads from Cairo's airport to the city's downtown area.

While ABC News and other press agencies had been taking precautions to avoid volatile situations, the road to the airport had been a secure route until today. One of their two vehicles was carrying cameras and transmission equipment strapped to the roof, indicating they were foreign journalists.

Hartman says it was only through the appeal of Abi-hanna, who is Lebanese and a veteran ABC cameraman, that they were saved from being killed or severely beaten.

"We thought we were goners," Hartman said later. "We absolutely thought we were doomed."

Word of their harrowing ordeal came in a Twitter message from Hartman that stated, "Just escaped after being carjacked at a checkpoint and driven to a compound where men surrounded the car and threatened to behead us."

"The men released us only after our camera man appealed to the generous spirit of the Egyptian people, hugging and kissing an elder," he added in a subsequent tweet.
________

I think Egypt could do with less "Generosity" right now...

[pollyannaish]

Well, all I can say is that goodness this was only a threat. For now.

 

A dicey situation with no easy answers.

[ErnstBlofeld]

Well, all I can say is that goodness this was only a threat. For now.

 

A dicey situation with no easy answers.

 

I guess they were looking for a human interest story.

[pollyannaish]

Well, all I can say is that goodness this was only a threat. For now.

 

A dicey situation with no easy answers.

 

I guess they were looking for a human interest story.

 

Dude! I've never seen such "blame the victim" stuff from you. What's up with you?

 

I understand why you'd be frustrated with hot dog anchors like Amanpour and Cooper getting caught in the fray they ARE their to insert themselves in the situation for relevancy...but the rest of these guys are real on the ground reporters doing their job—the same job they were doing before this broke out.

[Pepper]

Pollyannaish!

 

[ErnstBlofeld]

Well, all I can say is that goodness this was only a threat. For now.

 

A dicey situation with no easy answers.

 

I guess they were looking for a human interest story.

 

Dude! I've never seen such "blame the victim" stuff from you. What's up with you?

 

I understand why you'd be frustrated with hot dog anchors like Amanpour and Cooper getting caught in the fray they ARE their to insert themselves in the situation for relevancy...but the rest of these guys are real on the ground reporters doing their job—the same job they were doing before this broke out.

 

Well, tell the ABC journalists who came very close to having his head detached from his body and being used as a soccer ball. He will not enter area where he is not wanted.How would you react if someone wanted detach your head from your body because you were not wanted reporting in an area? In Los Angeles, no reporter does a television story from South Central Los Angeles or Pacoima because you are likely to get robbed,etc.They only go as far south as the USC campus.