DAMASCUS, Syria, Oct. 9, 2008
Missing Americans Freed From Syrian Jail
Journalists Were Detained For Crossing Into Country With Aid Of Smugglers
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This is an undated image of American journalists Taylor Luck and Holli Chmela made available by the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon on Wednesday Oct. 8, 2008. (AP Photo/US Embassy)
A spokesman says Holli Chmela and Taylor Luck are in good condition and getting in touch with their families after being picked up while allegedly trying to cross illegally into Syria from neighboring Lebanon. Their disappearance this month prompted the U.S. Embassy in Beirut to appeal for information about their whereabouts.
They were reported missing by their families after they failed to return to Amman, Jordan, last weekend from a vacation in Lebanon. They had last been heard from on Oct. 1, when they checked out of their Beirut hotel. The pair work for an English-language newspaper, the Jordan Times in Amman.
Smugglers are known to be active on the Lebanon-Syria border where they use unpaved mountainous roads to bring goods to both countries. Gangs are also known to smuggle people, mainly workers looking for jobs in Lebanon.
Chmela and Luck arrived in Lebanon on Sept. 29 from the Jordanian capital of Amman on vacation. They told a friend on Oct. 1 that they were traveling from Beirut to Tripoli through the coastal town of Byblos that day, the U.S. embassy said. From Tripoli they planned to cross by land into Syria, it added.
Luck, of Oak Park, Illinois, has been a reporter at the Jordan Times for the past 18 months. He graduated last year from Beloit College in Wisconsin as an international relations major but also studied Arabic, said the school's public affairs director Ron Nief. He said the college awarded Luck a grant to return to Jordan for study.
Chmela worked as a clerk for The New York Times in Washington before leaving earlier this year to study Arabic in Jordan, according to Times' Bureau Chief Dean Baquet. In a memo to staff about the disappearance, he said she later took an internship with the Jordan Times.
She worked as an intern at the English-language daily for three months before leaving the job several weeks ago, the paper's chief editor, Samir Barhoumeh, said.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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- They are the typical "ugly American".
Posted by longtree
Why? - Reply to this comment
- Maybe they are not just nice journalists.
Posted by CBS_Oliver
How is your job going at the CIA CBS_Oliver? - Reply to this comment
- Why are they still calling these two "missing". I thought missing meant their whereabouts were unknown?
- Reply to this comment
- Two very stupid journalists. They should be fired from their jobs and black listed from any other jobs in foreign countries. Syria was too easy on them. The USA has better things to do than look out for two idiots who are poor representatives of Americans. They are the typical "ugly American".
- Reply to this comment
- I plan on taking the wife & kids to Lebanon for vacation during the holidays. Maybe we''ll see Damascus & Baghdad too!
Our trip to Mogadishu last year was fantastic, almost as nice as Bogota! - Reply to this comment
- [Take out Syria, Iran and North Korea now. Why wait until they have nuclear weapons? They are enemy states and should be declared as such immediately. We do not need to use ground forces as was done in Iraq where we wasted American lives and financial resources.]
[Posted by whatwhy001 at 11:48 AM : Oct 09, 2008]
korea already has them. why aren''t we bombing pakistan and india ... they have them too. what about china and russia ... they''re potential advesaries and therefore we should preempt any possibility of their use against us.
so ... now military objectives will be able to be met with air strikes? what precedent is there for this? - Reply to this comment
- least though, unlike you, Bush is able to recognize a threat to America.
Posted by whatwhy001
Yeah...sure, Iraq was a real threat...wasn''''t it. All those nukes were pointed right at us...
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Posted by Displeased at 12:38 PM : Oct 09, 2008
ARE YOU SAYING THAT IRAQ DID NOT HAVE NUKES POINTED AT US?????
ALL THAT TIME I WAS THINKING THAT THATS IS THE REASON WE ATTACKED AND DESTROYED 2 NATIONS AND DESTROYED ITS HUMAN BEING!!!.... OMG! - Reply to this comment
- t least though, unlike you, Bush is able to recognize a threat to America.
Posted by whatwhy001
Yeah...sure, Iraq was a real threat...wasn''t it. All those nukes were pointed right at us... - Reply to this comment
- What are we waiting for, just send in the F16s and get it over with. Take out Syria, Iran and North Korea now. Why wait until they have nuclear weapons? They are enemy states and
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Posted by whatwhy001 at 11:48 AM : Oct 09, 2008
YEA... LETS THEN ATTACK INDIA WHO ALREADY HAVE NUKE AND YEA... INDIAN DO LOOK LIKE IRAQI SO LETS BOMB INDIA...
YEA .... LETS THEN BOMB NEPAL WHO LIVE IN STUPID PLACE SUCH AS UNDER HIMALYA..
YEA... AND THEN LETS BOMB SRILANKA, BANGLASDESH, MALDIEV, SUMATRA, JAVA, BORNIO....
YEA... AND LETS THEN BOMB CHINA.....
YEA... AND WHEN WE BOMBING CHINA LETS MAKE SURE THAT WE SEND OUR ALL MILITARY AND BOMBERS TO BOMB RUSSIA, IRAN AND REBOMB IRAQ AND AFGANISTAN...
YEA.. LETS ALSO BOMB FRANCE, ENGLAND, GERMANY, ITALY, JAPAN BECAUSE SOMETIME THEY DONT LISTEN TO AMERICA!
YEA... - Reply to this comment
- What are we waiting for, just send in the F16s and get it over with. Take out Syria, Iran and North Korea now. Why wait until they have nuclear weapons? They are enemy states and should be declared as such immediately. We do not need to use ground forces as was done in Iraq where we wasted American lives and financial resources.
Posted by whatwhy001
And just where do you propose we get the manpower and the money to establish wars on three more countries? I think you deserve the definition antoniof123 gave the two who went into Syria.... - Reply to this comment
- Syria should lock them up according to their laws. They are illegal aliens. Syria can also, if it so chooses, deport them back to the USA. They deserve some jail time, here or in Syria.
- Reply to this comment
- Go ahead liberals, fight for these two illegals. Come on, voice your displeasure. You fight for all the illegals over here. Fight for them abroad too.
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- brdliky = Wack-job Troll
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Posted by lagerboyz at 09:24 AM : Oct 09, 2008
HE IS WAY WAY SICKER THEN WACK. ... THIS PEACE OF CHITT TALK ABOUT UNIMAGINABLE VIOLENT THINGS TO LITTLE BABIES IN HIS/HER POST.
THIS brdliky MUST BE INVESTIGATED BY FBI. HIS/HER TALKS/POSTS PROOVES THAT HE MUST HAVE DONE SOMETHING VERY VIOLENT UNIMAGINABLE THINGS TO BABIES. - Reply to this comment
- brdliky = Wack-job Troll
- Reply to this comment
- I''m so glad these two reproters are in the hands of the Syrians. People were especualting they were kidnapped by Muslim militants and if that was the case they''de be in deep doo-doo.
The Syrians will just ask them a few questions and then give them over to the US embassy.
I want to know why they did what they did, and if The Jordan Times will keep them employed. - Reply to this comment
- These two are the definition of stupid.
- Reply to this comment
