PM denies deal freed reporter.

This is from the Star. So far there seem to be few details of exactly how the release took place and if any of the kidnappers are arrested. If there were a deal it is unlikely that the government would admit it. False denial is hardly considered lying in these circumstances, rather it is standard protocol! Of course the denial could be true but we certainly do not have much evidence to support it so far just the word of two politicians. Harper may be more reliable than Karzai but maybe not by much! There is a lot of murkiness about what happened. Reports seem to indicate the kidnappers were not Taliban but then why would Taliban be released in exchange or were they also of a different group or was there no quid pro quo at all? Then how come the release? Was it just that authorities had intelligence about where she might be and the kidnappers fled? Maybe more detail will be released or else the whole episode will fade into history.

PM denies deal freed reporter

REUTERS/National Directorate of Security
Freed Canadian journalist Mellissa Fung, left, is seated next to Amrullah Saleh, the head of the Afghan National Directorate of Security, after being released in Kabul, Nov. 8, 2008.
Says no ransom paid, no prisoners released or exchanged to free CBC journalist
Nov 11, 2008 04:30 AM
Tonda MacCharles Ottawa Bureau
OTTAWA–Prime Minister Stephen Harper has denied reports Taliban prisoners were exchanged for the release on Saturday of CBC journalist Mellissa Fung, who was kidnapped outside Kabul four weeks earlier.
"I think I've said already there've been continued reports about ransoms or money being paid," Harper said yesterday of a story in the Pakistan Observer and referred to in many Canadian reports. "That was not done in this case. Likewise, there's been no release or exchange of political prisoners.
"This matter is being handled according to the laws of the government of Canada and the government of Afghanistan and that's all I'll say in that regard."
The report in the Pakistan Observer, and a similar one by the Afghan Islamic Press Online, said Fung was released only after two Taliban leaders were freed from jail.
Fung, 35, was kidnapped by armed men Oct. 12 after doing interviews at a refugee camp on the outskirts of the capital of Kabul.
The Pakistan Observer's website said Fung "got freedom after intense negotiations with a Taliban source in Afghanistan and abroad."
The paper cited an Afghan source denying initial reports that she was freed "as a result of an operation."
"An Afghan source Sunday confirmed that she was released only after Canadian and Afghan governments had agreed to release the two `dangerous militants.'"
The pair was being held on charges of terrorism and the murder of foreign troops, the Observer report said. It also said the journalist was expected to leave Kabul yesterday for "home."
However, CBC media relations spokesperson Jeff Keay said in an email reply to the Star that Fung's arrival "in Canada is not imminent; i.e., not for several days at least."
Keay also added she was not expected to speak to media yesterday or today.
Canada's ambassador to Afghanistan, Ron Hoffman, also denied any prisoner exchange occurred.
"I've been very close to this and there was no such exchange," Hoffman told The Canadian Press yesterday. "I am more than reasonably confident that there was no exchange of Taliban prisoners."
A spokesperson for the Afghan government also denied any sort of swap had taken place.
"There is absolutely nothing, no exchange, nothing," said Ahmed Wali Karzai, the chairman of Kandahar's provincial council and younger half-brother of President Hamid Karzai.
Karzai credited the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan's often controversial secret police, for securing Fung's release.
Fung has not yet spoken publicly to Canadian news outlets, which suppressed news of her kidnapping at the request of her employer, the CBC, as part of an international effort to try to ensure her safe release.
Canadian news editors have defended the decision, but readers' comments on the websites of several news organizations have raised questions about whether the same regard would have been shown for another kidnap victim who was not a member of the media.