Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[Ace Hanlon]

Captives: Terrorists hoped for Bush re-election
By ASSOCIATED PRESS



LONDON

Two French journalists who were held hostage in Iraq told a British documentary program that their captors believed George W. Bush's re-election as US president would help radicalize Iraqis.

Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, who were seized in August and released after four months, told the British Broadcasting Corp.'s "Panorama" program that they were allowed to interview the leader of an Islamic militant cell within the group that seized them.

"We felt we were on planet bin Laden," Malbrunot said on the program, which airs Wednesday night.

The cell leader trained with terror leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and told them the insurgents supported a Bush presidency because they believed it meant that "there will be confrontation, occupation and radicalization of the Iraqi people," Malbrunot said.