Kidnapped Brit Reporter Appears In Video

Kidnapped British reporter Alan Johnston appeared in a video posted on an Islamic militant Web site on Friday, saying he has been treated well, and calling for the lifting of international sanctions against the Palestinian government.

There was no way to tell when the video was recorded.

Johnston, a correspondent for the British Broadcasting Corp., was kidnapped March 12 by Palestinian gunmen in Gaza City, and before Friday, hadn't been seen or heard from since.

The tape appeared on the Al-Ekhlaas Web site, frequently used by Islamic militants. It bore the logo of the Army of Islam, the shadowy Palestinian group that had been believed to be holding the 45-year-old reporter.

Johnston, looking fit and calm, spoke of the suffering Gazans have endured and urged a lifting of sanctions imposed in an effort to pressure the Palestinian government to recognize Israel's right to exist and renounce violence.

He was shown from the waist up, wearing what looked like a red sweatshirt.

Britain's Foreign Office said it condemned the release of the video. Traveling in South Africa, Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed his sympathy for Johnston and his family, and renewed his call for the reporter's immediate release.

The BBC said it was also investigating the reports, but had not yet obtained a copy of the video.

"We are aware of the reports and we are investigating urgently," said Simon Wilson, the BBC bureau chief in Jerusalem.

The company planned to issue a statement later Friday, a BBC spokesman in London said.

Last week, an aide to Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Johnston was alive and well, and could soon be released.

He has been missing far longer than any Western journalist kidnapped in Gaza, and his disappearance has touched off numerous protests and solidarity marches in London and the Palestinian territories.

The Army of Islam released a 20-minute recording recently, showing a picture of Johnston's press card and demanding the release of a radical Islamist held in a British jail.

That demand was repeated in the video released Friday, with an Arabic narrator saying after Johnston's statement that Abu Qatada Alfelestiny must be released, according to the translation provided by the group.

On the video, Johnston speaks for several minutes on the plight of the Palestinian, Iraqi and Afghan people at the hands of the American and British governments.

"We can see the British government working endlessly to occupy the Muslim lands, against the will of the people in those places. From history the British worked to bring about the state of Israel, which is the cause of all the suffering of the Israeli… of the Palestinian people," Johston says.

His statement echoed rhetoric frequently used by al Qaeda, and appeared well rehearsed. The group, Army of Islam, is still not well-known by analysts. It only surfaced in 2006 when it claimed the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier.

After this portion, he says: "and to my family," and then the audio and video is stopped. It is replaced by a printed message on the screen that reads, "BBC refused to take this message to his family."

No further explanation was given, nor was there any other suggestion of an attempt by the group to communicate with Johnston's employer. The BBC has maintained since Johnston disappeared that his family is being kept well informed of the situation, and nothing has been kept from them.

The British government has said it would not make any deals to secure the journalist's release.