After a serious New York Times investigation Engel and NBC correct their story
On Tuesday, NBC Chief Correspondent Richard Engel spoke at length about Obama’s Strategy in Iraq and his administration’s coalition against ISIS to take back the city of Ramadi. Engel who deems himself an expert on these matters perhaps because he was kidnapped in Syria called Obama’s strategy “almost laughable”. What’s no laughing matter is Engel’s version of his kidnapping.
After the Brian Williams saga, the New York Times diligently combed through other kidnapping reports from journalists. They specifically assigned nine reporters to research Engel’s kidnapping story in Syria.
During the kidnapping in November 2012, Engel and his crew said they were being held by militiamen loyal to the Syrian leader Bashar Assad, and that’s what they later reported. Engel’s revised account is that they were held by a Sunni “criminal gang,” and that the gang leaders had ties to the armed rebel group known as the Free Syrian Army, a rebel group supported by the U.S. Engel went on to say,
The kidnappers put on an elaborate ruse to convince us they were Shiite Shabiha militiamen.”
According to the Times investigation, NBC knew more than they presented about the kidnapping. According to their investigation, NBC knew at the time that Engel and the others were held on a chicken farm controlled by a Sunni criminal group. NBC was also knowledgeable about the identities of two Sunni men possibly involved in the kidnapping, but the station and Engel never relayed this information to the public and repeatedly claimed the kidnapping was done by Shiite militants linked to Syria President.
-Abesi Manyando(@abesipr)
