The prime suspect in Alan Johnston's abduction is naturally the Durmush clan (and here and actually all over the net) of Gaza – an organized crime family with many ramifications operating a private militia of several hundred armed terrorists, whose infamous record boasts several similar cases, such as the abduction of two Fox News journalists in August 2006. Rumor has it that USD 2 million bought the release of Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig.
Up until a few months ago, the relationships between Hamas and the Durmush clan were fruitful and idyllic. Hamas often employed the services of the clan for contracted jobs (assassinations and other dirty work) in exchange for hefty sums of money and constant supply of weapons. The clan's name seems to be connected with the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. The "romance" ended a few months ago when two Durmushes were killed by Hamas gunmen. It appears that Alan Johnston was abducted in order to renew the income lost in the wake of the Hamas-Durmush feud.
An unknown terrorist group in Gaza claimed recently to have executed the BBC correspondent and even promised to release the videotape of the "event", but the footage was never produced. It appears however that the journalist was killed in the abduction and the fake promise was meant only to clear the Durmush clan of the suspicion of abduction and possibly murder. The BBC has been silent all along, probably reluctant to offend the kidnappers by some inappropriate comment. After all, one never knows, the group holding Johnston might be ideology-driven, and that would complicate the situation greatly (I don't get it, most British journalists are such suckers for Palestinian lies and propaganda, that someone like Chas Newkey Burden is frowned upon when visiting Israel for a travel piece; the Palestinians should be licking the asses of British journalists instead of kidnapping and maltreating them – who knows, perhaps even killing them. Sorry, British journalists, I thought you were smarter than that!!! On the other hand, it's not that, it's your irrational anti-Semitism that turns you into such obsequious lackeys ).
Some 20 journalists have been abducted in Gaza in the past few years, and behind inflammatory declarations there were hierarchy skirmishes or cash shortages involved in all instances. Johnston's abduction seemed just another one of those, except one can never be certain that things wouldn't take a turn for the worst (after all, contrary to general belief, Gaza IS a terrorist haven, I might quote Dante's Inferno – Relinquish all hope, ye who enter here. Gaza is Inferno made in the Palestinian Authority with the assistance of Hamas).
Last year, Amit Cohen of Ma'ariv wrote that the American Intelligence Services warned the PA of contacts between an Al-Qaeda operative and a Gaza resident, and that the Gaza resident received USD 5,000 from Al-Qaeda in order to purchase weapons and attack Westerners, mostly US nationals. Luckily, the Gazan resident was apprehended before doing any harm. British officials fear that Johnston's kidnappers may have been acting on behalf of Al-Qaeda (after all it is no secret that Al-Qaeda has been operating in Gaza for some time now).
A close friend of Alan's, Stephen Farrell of the Sunday Times, says the Gaza is so complex and stratified, that it is premature to conclude that Alan is being held by a certain family. As it is practically impossible to distinguish in Gaza between ideology, money and business, one can never be sure of the real cause behind Alan's abduction was, or who it was that kidnapped him. "But this is our line of work," Farrell says, "and this is what we have to cope with, always fearing a missile launched from an IAF helicopter (you just couldn't help releasing that stinking fart via you buccal orifice, now could you, how many journalists were killed by attack helicopters? And while you are at it, don't you know IAF pilots never release a single missile, it's always a double strike, Mr. Farrell, objective journalist!!!), being shot by a Palestinian sniper (that's more like it) or getting caught in the crossfire of two rival gangs shooting it out in the streets of Gaza (now you're talking!).
Farrell himself had a similar experience while being held for ten hours by Sunnis in Iraq: "I know that the real reasons behind Alan's abduction are far more complex than money or faction rivalry, because nobody really knows what's going on in Gaza." (What are you doing over there then, how can you do any honest reporting? Oh, I forget, you are a British journalist, i.e. you can get away with pointing an accusing finger at Israel.)
Prior to Alan Johnston, no-one had been held in Gaza for more than two weeks:
September 27, 2004: Riad Ali, a producer for CNN, was seized at gunpoint from a car in Gaza City. He was freed the following day. CNN said a tape surfaced shortly before Ali’s release in which the producer said he was being held by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a militant Palestinian group with ties to Fatah. The brigade had earlier denied involvement in the kidnapping and had joined other groups in condemning it. Ali said on the tape that he is a Druze, a minority Arab population in Israel whose members often serve in the Israeli army. He called for the Druze not to serve in the Israeli army. No demands were made.
January 8, 2005: Ramon Lobo and Carmen Secanella, El Pais. Reporter Lobo and photographer Secanella of the Spanish daily El Pais were briefly abducted by masked gunmen in Gaza’s Khan Younes refugee camp. They were released unharmed 90 minutes later.
August 15, 2005: Mohammed Ouathi, France 3. Ouathi, a soundman for French television channel France 3, was forced into a car on August 15 by three men with rifles as he walked to his hotel in Gaza City with France 3 colleagues. He was released on August 22. No group claimed responsibility for Ouathi’s abduction. Reuters reported that a Palestinian militant umbrella group called the Popular Resistance Committees said it had helped mediate Ouathi’s release, but it did not identify the kidnappers.
September 10, 2005: Lorenzo Cremonesi, Corriere della Serra. Masked gunmen abducted Italian journalist Cremonesi, of the newspaper Corriere della Serra, in the town of Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. He was released later that day unharmed. He claimed that all his abductors wanted "was to see their faces on Al-Jazeera."
October 12, 2005: Dion Nissenbaum, Adam Pletts, Knight Ridder. Nissenbaum, a U.S. reporter for the Knight Ridder newspaper chain, and British photographer Pletts, a freelancer working for the news organization, were abducted by armed gunmen in the southern Gaza Strip. “A car followed our vehicle for three or four minutes and then stopped us. Six gunmen pointed their weapons and said ’We want the foreigners,’” Ziad Abu Mustafa, a Palestinian interpreter who was with the journalists, told Reuters. He said the captors ordered him to stay behind as they drove off with the two journalists, heading toward the southern Gaza town of Rafah. The journalists were freed later that day after several hours in captivity. Palestinian security officials said the men were kidnapped by renegade members of the ruling Fatah party, CPJ sources said. They said Fatah officials and Palestinian security officers negotiated their release.
March 14, 2006: Caroline Laurent, Elle, Alfred Yaghobzadeh, SIPA, Yong Tae-young, KBS. Gunmen seized Laurent, a reporter for the French women’s weekly Elle, Yaghobzadeh, a photographer from the photo agency SIPA, and Tae-young, a correspondent for South Korea’s public broadcaster KBS, at the Al-Dira Hotel in Gaza. All three were released unharmed 22 hours later. Palestinian security services said the kidnappers were members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Reuters reported at the time. The abductions came after Israeli forces stormed a prison in the West Bank town of Jericho and seized a PFLP leader, Ahmad Saadat, and five other group members held in connection with the assassination of an Israeli minister.
August 14, 2006: Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig, Fox News Channel. Centanni and Wiig, a correspondent and freelance cameraman respectively for Fox News Channel, were ambushed by gunmen on Omar al-Mukhtar Street in the center of Gaza City. Two vehicles trapped the journalists’ satellite uplink truck marked “TV.” Gunmen forced the driver to the ground, and abducted the two journalists. A previously unknown group called the Holy Jihad Brigades later claimed responsibility. The group demanded the release of Muslim prisoners held by the United States. The journalists were released unharmed on August 27. They were videotaped converting to Islam and reciting suras. They were also forced to praise their captors in a press conference.
October 24, 2006: Emilio Morenatti, Associated Press photographer, was abducted by unidentified Palestinian gunmen as he walked out of his Gaza City apartment toward his driver and interpreter Majed Hamdan, the AP reported. Hamdan said four gunmen grabbed his keys and phone and told him to turn away, pressing a gun to his head, and threatening to harm him. The gunmen shoved Morenatti into a white Volkswagen and sped off. He was released later that day. The AP said no group claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. (However, Morenatti seems to be quite close to the terrorists, perhaps rivals of the faction that kidnapped him? We'll never know, Stephen Farrell himself cannot make his mind up. However, Morenatti appears to be a very good friend of Kevin Frayer, who eagerly promotes anti-Israeli propaganda, as seen in his contributions from Gaza/West Bank (on an almost daily basis) and Lebanon (during the second Lebanon war).
January 1, 2007: Jaime Razuri, Agence France-Presse, a veteran staff photographer for AFP, was seized by a group of unmasked, armed men as he was entering the news agency’s bureau in Gaza City, AFP reported. He had been returning from an assignment with his interpreter and driver. Razuri was released on January 7. It is unclear who abducted him. Palestinian security officials suspected that the Dughmush family, a large armed clan in Gaza City, was behind the abduction. The Dughmush clan had been pressuring the ruling Islamic Resistance Movement to turn over 18 people suspected of killing two of its members, according to reports and CPJ sources. But an aide to President Mahmoud Abbas said the family helped in releasing the journalist and was not directly linked to the abduction. (Dughmush is an alternate spelling of Durmush.)
