NBC’s Richard Engel and members of his production crew were freed from kidnappers Monday—five days after being abducted by an unknown group, NBC News confirmed. Engel, 39, disappeared on Thursday shortly after crossing into Syria from Turkey, and the network had been unable to contact him until Monday. The network said no group had claimed responsibility yet, and it was never contacted with any ransom demands or had any contact with Engel and the crew while they were missing. Engel said that after being abducted, he and his crew were transported blindfolded to an unknown location, and they were freed Monday when the truck they were in was stopped at a checkpoint manned by a Syrian rebel group.
“It is good to be here,” Engel said during a live appearance on TODAY from Turkey. “I’m very happy that we’re able to do this live shot this morning.”
Engel said that they were traveling with Syrian rebels when a group of about 15 gunmen “jumped out the trees and bushes” and captured them.
He said the gunmen executed one of the rebels “on the spot,” and later during their captivity they were subjected to mock executions while blindfolded and bound.
"We weren't physically beaten or tortured. It was a lot of psychological torture, threats of being killed," Engel said.
"They made us choose which one of us would be shot first and when we refused there were mock shootings. They pretended to shoot Ghazi [Balkiz, an NBC producer] several times,” Engel said.
A horrific experience, but wonderful news that everyone is free.
Dark money groups flooded Albuquerque's airwaves in August, aiming to sway a hotly contested U.S. Senate race by making more than half the political ad buys on top TV stations.
That fact, gleaned through a review of TV station political ad records now available in our Free the Files news application, highlights the role that unlimited anonymous money is playing in this year's election.
Our analysis of a month of ad orders in the Senate race between Republican Heather Wilson and Democrat Rep. Martin Heinrich is possible because of a new Federal Communications Commission rule requiring major-market affiliates of ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC to upload political ad files to a government website.
In statements to ProPublica, the campaigns of Heinrich and Wilson blamed each other for relying on dark money.
Wilson campaign spokesman Chris Sanchez accused "environmental extremists" of pouring money "into New Mexico to falsely attack Heather Wilson because they know her opponent, Congressman Heinrich, supports their radical agenda."
Heinrich campaign spokeswoman Whitney Potter accused "corporate special interest groups" of spending millions in secret money to support Wilson "because they know she will support their misplaced priorities that put the wealthy special interests ahead of middle-class families in New Mexico."
The Senate race has attracted national attention because, with incumbent Democratic Sen. Jeff Bingaman retiring, it is a rare open seat. The race was considered tight earlier this year. After a summer of heavy spending by outside groups on both sides, Heinrich is now the favorite.
In August, while Wilson's campaign contracted to spend about $512,000 on ads in Albuquerque, four prominent conservative groups booked almost $658,000 of ads attacking Heinrich, station records show.
That means about 56 percent of the ad orders on the Republican side came from groups that don't disclose their donors, including Americans for Prosperity, founded by billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch, and Crossroads GPS, launched by GOP strategist Karl Rove. Campaigns are required to report their donors.
Heinrich, who as a congressman has called for donor disclosure and campaign-finance reform, booked an estimated $246,000 worth of ads in August. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which also reports its donors, chimed in with another $74,000.
But nonprofits on the Democratic side spent an additional $288,000 on ads criticizing Wilson, about 47 percent of the money spent on ads overall.
The liberal dark money groups included a coalition of environmental organizations and the Citizens for Strength and Security Fund, which appears to be a successor to a nonprofit active in the 2010 election.
The spending figures are estimates because most of the files uploaded to the FCC website are ad orders. Sometimes, ordered ads never run because of changes in programming. The numbers also are not comprehensive; other TV stations in the Albuquerque market besides affiliates of the major networks do not have to put political ad files online until 2014.
While the FCC files have long been public, they were previously kept on paper at TV stations and were largely inaccessible. The files capture certain spending not reported to the Federal Election Commission and offer a detailed look at how campaigns and outside groups are spending ad dollars, including how many ads have been ordered, which stations are running them, the programs they run on, and how much they cost.
“Saturday Night Live” ripped Mitt Romney on his taxes and his 47 percent comment. But the NBC show also defended the Republican presidential candidate by letting his wife, Ann -- played by Kate McKinnon -- blast GOP naysayers on “Weekend Update.”
“Do you really think this would be going better if you’d nominated someone else? Who? Rick Santorum?,” “SNL” had Mrs. Romney saying. “Do you think you missed the boat with Newt Gingrich? If you think I’m unrelatable, check out Callista Gingrich. She’s like a character from ‘Mars Attacks.’ ”
The “SNL” Ann Romney blasted Ron Paul as “a lunatic who doesn’t understand how voting works.” She said Rick Perry’s name three times, and Perry (Bill Hader) showed up from under the desk. “If this race was so winnable, how come Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and Marco Rubio decided not to run?” the candidate’s wife asked.
Romney certainly gave the "SNL" writers a lot of material to work with in the last week. “Weekend Update” anchor Seth Meyers ridiculed Mitt Romney for paying a 14 percent tax rate, “just a little less than restaurants add on for a party of six or more.” How did Romney pay such a low rate? “He claimed 47 percent of Americans as dependents,” Meyers said.
Meyers also weighed in on speculation that Romney applied a self-tanner before appearing on Spanish-language TV. “Speculation? He looks like my dad’s recliner,” Meyers said.
Meyers offered President Obama some advice during the "Weekend Update" segment, “What Are You Doing?” Meyers wondered why Obama said he couldn’t change Washington from the inside.
“Why are you saying anything during Romney's tailspin?” Meyers asked. “Don’t do anything to take the focus off the Romney follies. Their campaign is getting crazier than the last season of ‘Lost.’ ”
