Twist of a Screw

Since the disengagement from the Gaza Strip kidnappings have been an ongoing affair. One could even characterize it as a growth industry. Last week, I posted on a protest by Palestinian journalists for the release of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston. Today the Jerusalem Post is reporting that Palestinian Authority security forces are examining this possibility:

Palestinian security forces are investigating the possibility that missing BBC correspondent Alan Johnston staged his own kidnapping, an Arab newspaper reported Monday.

According to London-based Arab language newspaper, Al-Hayat, Johnston staged his capture by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip after he received notification from his superiors that he would be forced to leave his position in the near future. Johnston, said the report, waited 15 minutes for his "captors" to pick him up, and has been held willingly in an undisclosed location for over a month.

Really, I have no opinion on whether or not Johnston staged his own kidnapping except to say that nothing under heaven is out of the realm of possibility in the Gaza Strip. But it does give the Palestinian Authority a rather too convenient out and a rather valid excuse to do nothing.