Suppose I have this insane desire to make big bucks rebuilding Iraq, and I get over there somehow and get captured by, well, whoever, maybe the same people who got Nick Berg, or some similar group.
I tell them, "I am Boyo Jim, an outspoken critic of American policy in Iraq, and I have pulished my opinion on the internet. " Then I have then fire up a laptop (assuming my holding cell has at least a phone jack, or wireless), point them to the SDMB, and show them this post I made in another thread in which I say IMO Donald Rumsfeld is guilty of was crimes.
Would they spare my life? Would they search for more of my posts that they DON’T like, call it even and kill me anyway? Or would it they even bother to look? I think I’ve published enough boring details about my life on these boards that, if they interrogated me for a personal history, a search of my posts would be a pretty strong confirmation that the body they were interrogating was the one typing the posts to the discussion boards.
Somehow I really don’t think they would care one bit…only possibly if you were a major ‘name’ like Dan Rather or whoever is flogging on CNN/major network news/major internet news/politic website. I really doubt anything like SDMB would even blip their radar=\
If you coud prove to them that you are not only a Muslim, but a devout Jihadist who is dedicated to the overthrow of the infidels, you are fine.
If not, you’re dead meat. I doubt they have the time or energy for subtle distinctions among nonbelievers.
“Dis one’s a bit too liberal… Toss 'em back.”
Nope. A captured American is a captured American. Good luck talking your way out of it… Though if it happened to me I’d try (knowing how few my options are).
Well, first of all if you were over there rebuilding Iraq…I think they would see you as part of the “Occupying force” and therefore as guilty as anyone else over there. Secondly, if they’re taking a hostage they’re more interested in what you represent as an American than you as an individual.
What were Nick Berg’s politics, anyway?
I guess if you were over there as a journalist, you might convince then you were symathetic to them and therefore more use alive than dead…maybe. Probably not, though.
I find it hilarious, that someone would think a jihadist would like them more, just because they hate George W. Bush.
The first World Trade Center bombings took place back in 1993, when he was just a baseball executive in Texas.
Boyo Jim, you need to be very realistic about why these folks hate us. It ain’t because of who our president happens to be at any transient moment.