Once again, thank you AmericaBlog for giving me an aneurysm. Those two FOX reporters held in Palestine, remember them? At the time, I thought it was shady that they were released so early, and my suspicions were rather bolstered by an odd report claiming the US gave in to the terrorists’ demands. Just to remind you:

The announcement that the two journalists had converted to Islam as a reason for their release was only a camouflage to conceal the fact that the U.S. had agreed to the hostage-takers’ demands, according to the sources cited in the article. A few days ago the Rafah crossing was reopened for a few hours daily, and the Israeli forces stopped shelling residences of activists in the past few days, noted the paper’s sources.

That report, as well as others, were rather frowned upon by a lot of people as either irresponsible journalism or anti-patriotic for some reason. Well here’s the followup: reportedly a $2 million sum was paid for the reporters’ release.

Palestinian terror groups and security organizations in the Gaza Strip received $2 million from a United States source in exchange for the release of Fox News employees Steve Centanni and Olag Wiig, who were kidnapped here last summer, a senior leader of one of the groups suspected of the abductions told WND.

…

The terror leader, from the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees, said his organization’s share of the money was used to purchase weapons, which he said would be utilized “to hit the Zionists.”

…

A spokeswoman for Fox News Channel told WND she could not provide an official statement about whether Fox was aware of money paid to free its two employees.

A source at Fox told WND many parties were involved with the freedom of Centanni and Wiig, including the U.S. government, and that it was possible money was paid.

That’s FOX for ya, sending a powerful message to the terrorists: you kidnap an American and we will reward you for it. Why does FOX love terrorists?

This is the kind of story that doesn’t surprise us so much as reconfirm what we already knew: FOX loves the “terrorists love Democrats” storyline, as evidenced by this internal memo. Highlights:

“And let’s be on the lookout for any statements from the Iraqi insurgents, who must be thrilled at the prospect of a Dem-controlled congress.”

“Murtha will challenge HOyer for the leadership. A former hawk v. a political hack.”

“Just because Dems won, the war on terror isn’t over.”

To bastardize an Al Franken gag: in the Congressional race, the Democrats were the winners. And you know what else is a winner? Fair and balanced news.

The Bush Clan has been oddly silent about the genocide going on in Sudan for a while now. Maybe that’s because it’s self-contained, since they were so up in arms about Hamas and Hezbollah attacking Israelies. With that in mind, I’m wondering what the furor will be with Arab terrorists killing civilians in Chad.

In all, at least 220 people have been killed, and small, poorly equipped local hospitals have been overwhelmed by dozens of wounded people, the United Nations said today.

The Chadian government has declared a state of emergency and accused Sudan, its neighbor to the east, of fomenting a crisis in Chad.

“By exporting its Darfur conflict to Chad, Sudan wants to weaken Chad by making different Chadian communities fight each other,” Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor, a government spokesman, told the Associated Press on Monday. “All this is to prepare the ground for a large-scale war.”

Now, if the chatter on the Hill is to be believed, we can expect any time now that Bush will hop on the tube and tell us that he is going to stop these “terrists” from killing civilians. Because we, as America the beacon of hope to the world, will not stand for terror.

The recent violence has been particularly vicious. One man had his eyes gouged out with bayonets, said David Buchbinder, a researcher with Human Rights Watch, who is traveling in the region affected by the attacks. Another pair of women were burned alive in their hut, he said.

“It is extremely horrific violence,” Mr. Buchbinder said. “It is as if it is driven by hatred. It is a coordinated action over a large part of eastern Chad, and not always with theft as a motive. Sometimes the motive is only to kill.”

I haven’t heard a single report from Iraq as bad as this.