What A (Sick) Joke

When an Australian journalist was taken hostage in Iraq yesterday, the Australian foreign minister immediately went on TV, implying it was the journalist's own stupid fault:

"(He) went to a part of Baghdad that he was advised not to go to but he went there anyway..."

The journo has since been released and explains:

"That's ridiculous because I was actually in the street outside the only the hotel in Baghdad occupied by journalists, which is directly across the road from the Australian embassy!"

Oh, but guess what? The government has just announced that "Australia's embassy in Baghdad is to be moved to a more secure area".

What a hoot! And then there's the Iraqi spin on it all. Iraqi national security adviser Mouwaffak Al Rubaii said he had no idea why an Australian would be abducted:

"The Australians in Iraq are not considered to be our enemies, and there's no anti-Australian sentiment in Iraq. People in Iraq like Australians..."

Sure, just like they love the USA. The journalist himself has a more plausible reason of why he was released:

"I was able to basically establish that I was an independent journalist reporting what was going on and that I had no links to the Coalition."

ABC News Online has more details, or you can read the journalist's own blog (and presumably an upcoming report) for SBS Television's excellent Dateline program.