The guy from Israel has asthma and the other people are very demoralised They have to walk a
“The guy from Israel has asthma, and the other people are very demoralised They have to walk, a lot, every day, in the rain. The guerrillas weren’t giving us very much food.” He added that he did not know which armed group his captors belonged to. His parents James and Katherine Scott said last night that they were very pleased that their son had been found. “We’ve just spoken to him and he is tired, as can be expected,” Mr Scott said.”When we asked him if there was anything he wanted he said a baked potato I don’t know why, but that’s what he said he would like. We’re just very happy and looking forward to seeing him.”Mr Scott was among a group of eight backpackers kidnapped during a trek to the ancient ruins of La Cuidad Perdida, the Lost City.A second Briton, Mark Henderson, a television producer aged 31 from Harrogate, North Yorkshire, is still missing.The travellers were seized by camouflaged guerrillas during a dawn raid on 12 September.It is believed that the hostages are being forced into long, daily hikes through steep mountains and thick undergrowth to evade the army, which is searching for the missing tourists in the area.One Indian from the village where Mr Scott was found told local television: “He was dizzy and vomiting.
Speaking from a hospital bed at a military base in Santa Marta on the Caribbean coast, Mr Scott told reporters: “I have eaten hardly anything for the last 12 days “We were walking in a line with the guerrillas. It was raining in the mountains, the visibility wasn’t good, and I quickly slipped down the mountain. The episode has raised fears that al-Qa’ida, far from being on the run in the US, may have penetrated the military that is pursuing it.Almost certainly SA Halabi and the chaplain, US Army Captain James Yee, knew each other. The charges also suggest SA Halabi did not report unauthorised communications between detainees and other military personnel at Guantanamo Bay, raising the possibility of a wider ring. At least two other people are being investigated, CNN reported yesterday.Whatever the outcome, the affair will cast a further cloud over ties between America and Syria. Although the two countries maintain diplomatic relations, Washington has long accused Syria of being a sponsor of terrorism, in particular of radical groups operating against Israel.
America also says Damascus operates secret chemical and biological weapons programmes. Tensions reached a peak immediately after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein when Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, even hinted at military action against Syria.He suggested Damascus had offered sanctuary to prominent members of the former Iraqi regime, and accused the Assad government of allowing terrorists and weapons across its borders to aid the resistance opposing the American invasion force.. It has called into question the security of a remote and supposedly super-safe facility at the heart of President George Bush’s “war on terrorism”. They agreed he visited the Syrian embassy in Washington, but simply to arrange visits to his native country to move his Syrian-born fianc?to the US. Otherwise, he has no contacts with the government of President Bashar Assad, and has applied for US citizenship, they say.Whatever the outcome, the case, days after the disclosure of the arrest of a Muslim chaplain at the camp, has shaken the US authorities. His laptop computer also contained 180 messages from some of the 660 al-Qa’ida and Taliban suspects held at Guantanamo Bay.
