following the abduction story

I’m on the story, as promised. Here are the latest headlines from Google News about the status of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston, who was kidnapped in Gaza on Monday, March 12:

SNP predicts big win in May election
Times Online, UK - 14 minutes ago
Rival Palestinian factions held a joint rally yesterday to condemn the kidnapping of the BBC’s Gaza correspondent, Alan Johnston. …

Search goes on for kidnapped BBC reporter in Gaza Middle East Times, Egypt - 19 minutes ago Alan Johnston, 44, was forced from his car by gunmen Monday while driving home from his Gaza office, the latest in a spate of abductions foreigners in the …

Hunt continues for Gaza reporter
BBC News, UK - 1 hour ago
Efforts continue in the Gaza Strip to find BBC correspondent Alan Johnston, who has been missing since Monday afternoon and is feared kidnapped. …

Gaza officials claim to know who is responsible for the abduction …
New Criminologist, UK - 1 hour ago
The Hamas-led administration said it identified the abductors of Alan Johnston and hoped to locate him soon. Security officials said four masked gunmen in a …

DEBKAfile Exclusive: The Sword of Islam (al Qaeda) kidnapped and …
DEBKA file, Israel - 1 hour ago
Our counter-terror sources report that Johnston, 44, was snatched Monday, March 12, in Gaza City, by the same group which together with Hamas kidnapped the …

Hamas government acts to free kidnapped BBC man
Mail & Guardian Online, South Africa - 2 hours ago
The Hamas-run Palestinian government said on Tuesday that it was working to release Alan Johnston, the British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) Gaza …

As I write, at 8:30 a.m. on March 14, some 48 hours after the abduction, CNN’s American Morning is airing a clip from its Middle East correspondent Ben Wedeman. It’s about the Jesus tomb story. Wedeman also appears live and talks to Miles O’Brien about his canned piece.

Nada—nada—about his fellow journalist, who was kidnapped in Gaza. I guess it’s not on CNN’s “news” menu for the day.

For what it’s worth, in direct contradiction to yesterday’s narrative, in which it was said that “criminals” kidnapped Johnston, Debka (linked above and notoriously tendentious but often enough knowledgeable) writes the following:

The Sword of Islam (al Qaeda) kidnapped and is holding BBC reporter Alan Johnston

Our counter-terror sources report that Johnston, 44, was snatched Monday, March 12, in Gaza City, by the same group which together with Hamas kidnapped the Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit in June 2006. It is led by the brothers Mumtaz and Muetaz Durmush.

Palestinian security units have been going through the motions of hunting for the missing journalist, throwing up roadblocks and searching vehicles. In actual fact, they know exactly who is holding him. Although it is an open secret, the Palestinian authorities, like the British, who maintain a broad intelligence presence in the Gaza Strip, and Israel all feign ignorance about the party behind the kidnap.

The BBC is counting on a private deal for freeing Johnston, thereby giving the Durmush brothers another boost. Every few weeks the al Qaeda group they head targets a Westerner as a hostage. All of them, excepting the Israeli soldier, have been ransomed for hundreds of thousands of dollars, a supply of weapons and guarantees of safety for the Durmishes and their Sword of Islam gang.

Here comes the tendentious part:

DEBKA file’s counter-terror sources see this process, which repeats itself periodically, as abject surrender by the United States, Britain, other European governments and Israel to a virulent form of al Qaeda terror instead of fighting it.

Indeed, this story isn’t being reported on American television, as far as I can tell. Should we call this an “abject surrender” or mere suppression of the news?