# Perhaps she might have denounced them a wee bit more **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 1, 2004, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perhaps-she-might-have-denounced-them-a-wee-bit-more/267056 "2004-10-01T16:32:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perhaps-she-might-have-denounced-them-a-wee-bit-more/267056/1 "2004-10-01T16:32:57Z")
So, she’s kidnapped, freed, and has this to say: [The guerrillas are right.](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=9&u=/nm/20041001/ts_nm/iraq_italy_hostage_dc) OK. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perhaps-she-might-have-denounced-them-a-wee-bit-more/267056/2 "2004-10-01T16:46:04Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > So, she’s kidnapped, freed, and has this to say: [The guerrillas are right.](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=9&u=/nm/20041001/ts_nm/iraq_italy_hostage_dc) > > OK. Stockholm syndrome. I’m also puzzled by her saying she supports the guerrilla war but is against the kidnapping of civilians. Who the hell does she thinks gets worked over the worst in a guerilla war? She’s lucky they didn’t behead her. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perhaps-she-might-have-denounced-them-a-wee-bit-more/267056/3 "2004-10-01T16:53:23Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > So, she’s kidnapped, freed, and has this to say: [The guerrillas are right.](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=9&u=/nm/20041001/ts_nm/iraq_italy_hostage_dc) > > OK. She could conceivably agree with the underlying principles (very important distinction) of the guerillas’ opposition _and_ be against their execution of their beliefs. She’s not necessarily right, but her sitch isn’t completely unbelievable. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perhaps-she-might-have-denounced-them-a-wee-bit-more/267056/4 "2004-10-01T17:35:17Z")
It looks like they’ve made advancements in the science of decapitation, removing the brain while keeping the cranium intact. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perhaps-she-might-have-denounced-them-a-wee-bit-more/267056/5 "2004-10-01T18:57:35Z")
If Berlusconi _did_ pony up the million bucks that got them out, he might be thinking about asking for a refund. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perhaps-she-might-have-denounced-them-a-wee-bit-more/267056/6 "2004-10-01T19:28:45Z")
Have you all (other than **Kythereia** , who’s made the same point) considered this? > [@](#): > > Describing the administration of Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi as “a puppet government in the hands of the Americans,” Torretta said elections planned for January would have no legitimacy: “During my days in detention … I came to the conclusion it will take decades to put Iraq back on its feet.” > > Torretta, **who lived in Iraq before, during and after the U.S.-led invasion** , said she wanted to return despite her ordeal – but would not do so as long as U.S. troops were there: “I’ve got to wait until the end of the U.S. occupation,” she said. Seems to me she has plenty of first-hand evidence on which to base her assessment, and to distinguish between the aims and the methods of the insurgents. It also seems quite possible that the kidnappers who snatched her aren’t the same bunch who’ve done the beheadings, given the chaotic jumble of competing interests running rampant in Iraq. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perhaps-she-might-have-denounced-them-a-wee-bit-more/267056/7 "2004-10-01T22:13:00Z")
In addition to what **ETF** pointed out, y’all may want to consider that in her reported comments, Toretta distinguished between guerillas and kidnappers. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perhaps-she-might-have-denounced-them-a-wee-bit-more/267056/8 "2004-10-01T22:24:48Z")
Sure, she’s sympathetic to the guerrillas. And she chooses to use her 15 minutes of fame to promote their cause. Is it too much to wonder whether she might have used the opportunity to put the emphasis on the kidnappers. I mean considering her (relative) good fortune and the other, less fortunates who remain in their hands. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perhaps-she-might-have-denounced-them-a-wee-bit-more/267056/9 "2004-10-01T22:54:39Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > Sure, she’s sympathetic to the guerrillas. Which guerrillas? The Ba’athists? The Shi’ite fundamentalists? The Sunni irredentists? The Al Qaeda infiltrators? The foreign Muslims looking to get a shot in at the hated West? The Iraqis who’ve lost family to the invasion and seek revenge? The opportunistic gangsters in it for the profit? I’d like to see her full comments, not just what was summarized in the news story. My guess is she’s well aware of all those factions, and what the invasion has done to set them loose on the Iraqi population as well as the foreign workers. Don’t forget, Iraqis are being kidnapped, too, for ransom profit. If they’re not being gruesomely slaughtered on video like the Western captives, it’s because that won’t score propaganda points. She said: > [@](#): > > I believe that (the kidnappers) were a very political, religious group and that in the end they were convinced that we were not enemies." Quite possibly that is why she and her companion were released. For all we know, she may have argued passionately for mercy to other captives. For all we know, her captors may have nothing to do with other kidnappings. I don’t agree that her comments arose from Stockholm syndrome. She’s quoted as saying > [@](#): > > Simona Torretta also called on Rome to withdraw the troops it sent to Iraq to support its U.S. ally. > > “I said it before the kidnapping and I repeat it today,” she told Corriere della Sera newspaper in an interview published Friday. > > “You have to distinguish between terrorism and resistance. The guerrilla war is justified, but I am against the kidnapping of civilians.”