David Rhode, a 41-year-old New York Times reporter, was kidnapped by the Taliban in late 2008. For the past seven months, the journalistic world has engaged in a conspiracy of silence, of sorts, prompted by urgent requests from our New York Times colleagues and by the advice of regional experts who warned that calling attention to his captivity would endanger his life. Rhode's wife of two months waited quietly. Today, the Times announced that Rhode escaped from captivity. He is free and he is safe.
"From the early days of this ordeal, the prevailing view among David's family, experts in kidnapping cases, officials of several government and others we consulted was that going public could increase the danger to David and the other hostages," said Bill Keller, the executive editor of The Times. "The kidnappers initially said as much. We decided to respect that advice, as we have in other kidnapping cases, and a number of other news organizations that learned of David's plight have done the same. We are enormously grateful for their support."
