Skip to footer

Kidnappers free American journalist missing since 2012

Kidnappers in Syria on Sunday freed a US journalist missing since 2012 following Qatari efforts to win his release, according to al Jazeera reports.

  • By Amena Bakr Reuters
  • Yara Bayoumy Reuters

| Dubai

While the family of slain journalist James Foley mourns his passing, another American journalist held captive for two years in Syria has been freed by his kidnappers, al Jazeera reported Sunday.

Peter Theo Curtis was freed from captivity on Sunday, after reportedly being abducted in Antakya, Turkey, where he planned to enter Syria in October 2012.

The Qatari-owned television station named the journalist as Peter Theo Curtis, and said he had been handed over to a representative of the United Nations.

A family friend confirmed on Sunday that Mr. Curtis, originally from Boston, had been handed over to a United Nations representative, The New York Times reported.

His reported release happened just days after the Islamic State militant group fighting in Iraq and Syria issued a video shown the beheading of American journalist James Foley.

That video, together with a threat to kill another American journalist being held hostage, Steven Sotloff, inspired widespread revulsion in the West and a desire to hunt down the killer.

The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists estimates that about 20 journalists are missing in Syria. Many of them are believed to be held by Islamic State.

In a video statement released by Curtis's kidnappers at some point during his captivity, Curtis said he was a journalist from Boston, Massachusetts, Al Jazeera reported.

Commenting on his treatment, Curtis said he 'had everything' he needed and 'everything has been perfect, food, clothing, even friends now.'

On Tuesday, a video surfaced on YouTube depicting the execution of American journalist James Foley, who had also been missing since 2012. In that video, IS vowed to kill another American journalist Steven Sotloff if the United States does not withdraw from Iraq. 

Three Americans are now believed to be captives of IS, two men and one woman, according to the Times.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Kidnappers free American journalist missing since 2012
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2014/0824/Kidnappers-free-American-journalist-missing-since-2012
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe