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www.adamhodges.com

Monday, December 27, 2004

Christian Chesnot et Georges Malbrunot lib�r�s

In an interview published in Le Figaro on 24 Dec 2004, Georges Malbrunot told of his four month captivity in Iraq. Malbrunot, a reporter for Le Figaro, and Christian Chesnot, a journalist for Radio France Internationale, were held by a cell of the Islamic Army.

"J'ai v�cu sur la plan�te Ben Laden," Malbrunot said, as he provided telling insight into the thinking of his captors. The full article can now be accessed through Le Figaro's archives. Here is a rough translation of a short section of interest:

We said to him [a captor], "We are 15 days from the American elections. Do you hope Bush or Kerry wins?"

They responded, "We want Bush. We want Bush because with him, the American soldiers will stay in Iraq, and with that we will be able to develop ourselves."

We felt there was a game of mirrors between Bush and the jihadists, who wanted a clash of civilizations.

He said to us, "Bush. The intervention in Afghanistan was very good for us; it permitted us to swarm across the world. We are present in 60 countries across the world and our objective is to overturn the power structure in the Arab world and return the Caliphate from Andalusia to the Chinese frontier."

We asked him, what are his priorities?

"We have two of them: Saudi Arabia, Egypt. As for Jordan, we know that it's a matter of a country in the hands of the CIA. This is not good. But this is not our priority. We know that all the Arab leaders are traitors. None are true Islamists."

More on the liberation of Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot: