It it was a great opportunity we put on circulation. And won awards and we did incredibly well but at that time the signs of the decline in the print industry were on the horizon the accountants were taking over the newspapers. From there i moved on to fleet street and that was a pretty hard drinking masculine male dominated culture but youre of more than held jordan you went through a range of newspapers what king for the express group and thats what you faithfully to afghanistan a after 911. 00 that the invasion and the airstrikes were a boat to be launched there you were listening vesta good of. Journalist im in afghanistan framing i know what the taliban was all a boat and then kind of disaster happened what you were for a donkey yes thats right well there was 3000 journalists from around the world waiting for the war to start and we were all in pakistan and i decided that i would try and sneak into afghanistan it worked very well for 2 days but coming back i was done for by a rogue donkey i was wearing the all enveloping blue. The only piece of equipment that i had taken in to afghanistan was a camera and when this donkey bolted the camera fell out of the folds of my burka right in front of a taliban soldier i just remember going up in the air and crashing to the ground and having this very angry taliban soldier screaming and shouting at me i took the the camera off my neck and handed it to this young soldier who continued screaming and shouting and then i stood back and closed my eyes waiting to be shot and about 10 seconds later i opened my eyes again and he god he didnt realize i was a westerner he wanted to find out who is in charge of this woman and then well get to the bottom of this crime because cameras were forbidden under the taliban so then for followed was the most extraordinary 11 days which basically shaped your life you were defaming 11 days in your life but what happened to you after the start to tell again you try to find out who you were probably trying to do what to do where they thought i was an american spy they thought i was some sort of g. I. Jane character. And i kept telling them that i was british and they said well youve got this accent that we dont understand that majority from from the tribal areas and they quite like that i. Will you speak into the milingo assured you picked up some parts so. I spoke to them in english and and this young man. Who spoke to me and english and he acted as the translator so then we were taken to fort a person or an encampment or what happened i was taken to the Intelligence Headquarters and in truth i just thought this is the end they will kill me i believed all of the propaganda. Attached to them and so i just thought pointless kissing the hand that slaps you. Lets just accelerate it and beat the prisoner from hell and i was hoping. That they would just take me out and shoot me and that would be the end of it and so i was the prisoner from hell so will you be interrogated will the will the trying to find out where were you subjected to torture him and what was happening yes somehow i mean every day half a dozen of the scariest looking men. Had been brought down from kabul to interview me and they all had these massive big black b. Its in these huge black turbans the more pious the person the larger their turbans and they were very scary to to look at but. It turned out that we had a real clash of culture i was ignorant of their coach they were ignorant of mine and in the end there was one incident. They just got up and walked out they couldnt deal with me they said to me through the translator you have lie to us and i said everything ive told you is the truth and one of them said that you have a daughter and i said well you didnt ask me if i had it all to and he said but you said youre not married just that im not married and he threw his arms in the air and screamed at me how can you have a daughter if youre not married as a present from concert and. As i said have you got the concept of divorce in this crazy world of your living in. So i explained you know about the father and we were still in touch but we were divorced and then he said why havent you got another husband and i looked and said i have my own job i have my own car i have my own home i have my own salary why would i need a man and the translators started this out to the rest and they just got up and had to go and they looked at me as though they found something bad on the bottom of their shoe they just couldnt deal with it but this point your employers expressed newspapers are running up a new car rescue mission or that we start. A Diplomatic Mission and i think it was widely assumed youd die theyll be tortured or killed or or ransom as a hostage be a human shield or Something Like that both the strain the the bombing was about to start so youre right in the middle of the the on set of a huge bombardment in reality the what the tough plans were trying to do business to have you where they did. Journalist in the end against all the arts they. Let me go my newspaper i know richard desmond. He was the publisher and people are you know hes a very modern might character but as soon as. I was arrested he sent out a team to sit down and negotiate with the taliban and. Friends who were involved in. P. R. The crown took my mother to give press conferences they went right. Against all government advice to say nothing keep quiet keep your head down and in the end the taliban said we are releasing the english woman on humanitarian grounds shes a very bad woman with a very bad mouth. And so i was released. While i wouldnt be critical of the Foreign Office what i would say is to anybody who finds themselves or a Family Member in my situation is dont listen to the government dont think that doing anything when they say were working behind the scenes just go out there and do it for you know for yourself i mean there are times where governments cannot be seen to be sitting down. With the enemy or with terrorists and negotiating but theres nothing to stop families theres nothing to stop companies of employees doing this and keeping it in the public eye because the think that publicity is all important because of the activities of your family in your company you show up to International Stardom moment any concept whatsoever as you will still being held and to believe. That your members. In the world the joy of any concept at all that youre an International Celebrity because of your confinement no idea at all no idea i was i was horrified actually because my job in london was as you said just an investigative journalist and involving a lot of undercover work and to be suddenly find that my photograph was in every single newspaper around the world. Was not what i wanted you know no journalist wants to become the story was going to the police or how to be really sure they would listen was the english woman with the bad mouth too so how did the 100 to go bowed to the Point Charlie of what happened in the end the diplomats who was in charge of me just. Decided that it was safer for my security just to hand me over and i was handed over to the pakistan authorities questioned by them because they wanted to know the identity of the 2 guides whod taken me in. Which you know again i didnt say in my guide state eventual get released as well and weve been in turkish so eventually by the time. The i was handed over to the british authorities in. Our i was given a lecture by a man from the Foreign Office saying. You were so badly behaved in prison they said we were hearing these tales about you throwing things that the taliban and shouting and spitting up them and he said dont you know how to behave in prison and i said i cant believe this and that said im out there are 8 of the west in this in their. And im. Using safe bets of plates and both. Are excellent legal of one would leave the least in the hands of the taliban often the most extraordinary a live in days in captivity but time to experience was took a life in a totally different direction join the south of the big to find out what that was. Luscious and they. Could total more than the beach he could hold most for a team youll be set its some shots that only sting we can. Get him into. You wouldnt want to because you know he said you needed. A use of it i was one of them commenting that in the scheme you should. Get into a sweat through the South Koreans are still empty some corn summed up. The mummy of what you called the british mr bush time imo sure but just. Put clothes from our einstein here i once said that compound interest is the 8th wonder of the world he who understands it turns it he who doesnt pays it this is a remarkable quote from einstein and it has so much to do with todays stock market volatility and the coronavirus. All working at the same time and showing what compound interest is all about. As budget we talk about trouble hes gonna demystified to so political space if you werent clear before like these folks are no better than us so you know i you know you can reach out to friends say you know take responsibility maybe run for office at the end of the day you know i dont see how we have a lot of system where these people get away with you know misrepresenting us why not step up and do it yourself. Welcome back Yvonne Ridley was captured into sized and one by the taliban i trust already caught the public imagination since her release her life has taken some surprising turns with her dedicated campaign against western policy towards the muslim world now shes back with a new book the caledonians and once again is subject matter if is something of a surprise. Avan released from the hands of the taliban but this your life the sullivan days in a totally different direction well the day before i was released the war started and ive covered wars before but ive never been bombed by britain and america and its a truly terrifying experience and i dont know why i hadnt thought of it before i just realised bombs dont discriminate these bombs that are coming down dont know im british they dont know civilian and you can hear a Cruise Missile from 20 miles away these were coming within half a mile of the prison and i just thought. I am going to be killed but not by the taliban but by my own country and i sort of made a parked with the big fellow upstairs and said if i get out of here on going to commit myself to the Antiwar Movement which i did. And. In the november of 2001 i was speaking 260000 people in the. Intro Falcon Square talking them to them about the futility of war and how bombs and missiles. Dont serve any real purpose for peace at all so the Antiwar Movement against the action afghanistan was strong but nothing like the antiwar protest that was to rise 2 years later the invasion of iraq so you your involvement in the Antiwar Movement your conversion to islam came just about the time that the the war in iraq the war against terror was being and loves george bush and tony blair to invade iraq so who should activities in the in the protests around the i went right across. Germany talking about my experiences. Other European Countries and i was in scotland when the war began and i remember the students and schoolchildren in scotland were absolutely magnificent they just left their classrooms and held protests and they stopped the traffic on the 4th bridge it was there was a vast march in glasgow of course at the time of us i remember the Labor Party Conference was being held and theres this huge march which there which convened polling to the Labor Party Conference with the Prime Minister was full and council and his own person in the in the Conference Hall with those hundreds of thousands of people outside the bonding that shouldnt be a name that a right be invaded so you were part of that protest or i. Yes i told so been to iraq a few months earlier and which was obviously end of the control of the saddam regime but it was quite clear then that there were no weapons of mass destruction it was quite clear speaking to ordinary iraqis that this was not going to play well there was a lot of hostility towards the west because of the sanctions which had destroyed again entire middle class of iraq at the time and it was clear that the last thing that the iraqis wanted was to go to war with britain and america so from your own personal perspective the statement 20032004 i just completed journey your journey from being a vessel of journalist a professional journalist one of the the leading female journalists in the country into being an antiwar activist and that was a journey that you had that you had taken and carried forward after your experience of captivity. I was still working as a journalist i was the 1st journalist into into janine in palestine in 2002 after the massacre there and thats when i began to realize again probably not i this sounds naive but thats when i began to realize that powerful people in powerful places will lie and i listened to. Colin powells standing at the King David Hotel in jerusalem saying i saw no evidence of a massacre in janine and that was because he never left the. King david hotel in jerusalem i went and i could smell the rotting corpses under the rubble. Before i even saw those who say that you were calling poll. Who most people would regard as an orrible man was pressurised by the position of office to mislead than to to give a false impression i dont know what sort of pressure would make you tell such a plate and lie or better hospital american secretary of state and the exegesis of american states after the foreign powers well he has previous for it i mean this is the man who was in vietnam when he said i saw no evidence of a massacre over my lai i was only a paying my orders now where did we hear that one your one position when you would engage the integrating contributing your position ironically as a captive of the taliban and giving you an International Profile and you had decided even in your journalism to translate that into political activism and that led you directly into Party Politics because you became not just a member and not just a count of the convenor of the respect party which was a rising as an Antiwar Party at that time yes well the i had been in the labor party as a teenager and in 2003 i tore up my labor Party Membership card and said i cant remain in this party i spoke to the wonderful tony band he said at the time dont leave there are far too many good socialists out there with no home to go to and he was right but then the respect party was created after the war people often get confused over that and so were all of those homeless socialists gravitated around the respect party you saw the respect party as a as a home for the the. Or saw the yes yes and became a leading figure under of course or a candidate because if youve actually fought but just european elections where you fought a parliamentary by election and rather of the learning of number correctly you know us about that experience well that vast was. Quite a tough gig the. Labor m. P. Dennis macshane had. Been charged with expense fiddling award at the sun Something Like that and he had to stand down. The climate felt right George Galloway had just been elected in bradford west so we would try and emulate that in. The reason so this was about 2009201201 extension 0. It was a very tough campaign you could see the rise of the the far right in politics which has been normalized today but shows a tough campaign but i mean you perform got a bill you save your deposit which is always you know a great test for minority parties and such contests. Your desire for parliamentary contests to do say ok ive tried done that and the like so much has the respect party it was was 5 years old and difficulties and turmoil yes. I was becoming quite disillusioned and then i heard whispers of the scots going for independence and this really excited me because you know i lived in westminster i used to have a lot the past i could see up close and personal. The corruption and the shenanigans that were going on in westminster which made it was difficult to separate the tories from the labor party so the thought of independence really excited me in this as the s. N. P. On the rise into government led by somebody whose name escapes me at the present moment so there is a lot of them Straight Party leading members moved to the borders of scotland i have all of those the debatable worlds yes i i moved 2011 i voted with my feet i resigned from the respect party which at that point i think was going nowhere. And. And i was reinvigorated. By this desire for independence so youve been active in the borders of your activities on being just confined to the political activism youve been taking up your tail again you know youve contributed to a number of books and obviously books and journalism but books about your time of the taliban but your latest book is quite different its entitled the color duty and so we can have a a look at the front piece no but this is this is i was expecting a political novel and what it is is a traveling adventure story would that be a reasonable description it is but there are politics in there in fact theres an incident recounting margaret thatchers last day as Prime Minister in which the main character sneaks into downing street and gets the keys into her private office on the day that she leaves to remove the documents which is. To secure the Galloway Hills because at that she died and to fight them at one point is a great place to store Nuclear Waste elemental be on the demonstration but it did occur to me as i was reading the description of this which is laced with Scottish History and as you say a bit of politics but the landscape of scotland time travel that you know if it becomes a film or Television Series a psycho called David Tennant who came to that into such a rule of across cuba i think the book would make a great. T. V. Or film using the amazing backdrop of scotland is a amazing backdrop indeed of all Yvonne Ridley the editor campaigning journalist captive of the taliban political activists and no Science Fiction author or for. A listing of politics and history of many success and didnt thank you so much for being on the alex imus show and to say enjoy your with you titled the queer as you well know the over for loving cup thank you very much. Thats wonderful i certainly treasure this. Thank you place of the lord thank you. What sort of markable interview then your death experience had been captured by the taliban could have impacted on hard bitten journalists upon ridley in a variety of ways few would have expected her life journey a convert to islam and an ancient into the vatican site of u. K. Politics now a campaigner for Scottish Independence and a Science Fiction writer and volatile except to surprise us for some time to come next week we focus on Northern Ireland the storm and to simply has now been reconvened and has united to condemn Boris Johnsons bricks. After shin fein stunning victories in the elections and the public is either shoot a teen i was closer than it any time since partition for not if im alex myself and all of the team we hope to see you next to. My. In the United States president ial candidates debate the future of the u. S. And the world. But dig into the burning questions of this election cycle. Every week. Student trade was money universal basic. Running. Exclusively. No not once i. Dont want the definitions and im bad and. Take them into the. Docks. And then youre going to bring the hell is that guys. Movie right now. How did you know one of the. Saudis are. Just doing this one mean a leftist now you know. Hes just numb tokyo find it hes going to go. With his look was because did it because it didnt seem quite a cultural if you pulled the grammys. From Army Intelligence analyst on whistleblower Chelsea Manning days in hospital after attempting suicide in jail should be refusing to testify further in the u. S. Governments wiki leaks probe. Leaders lambaste president told trumps decision to suspend all air travel to the u. S. From 26 European Countries stressing that the coronavirus pandemic requires a coordinated international response. Experimented with explosives in britain can be low fall off the Supreme Court clears a mound of terror related challenges we discussed the ruling. Good it was just experimentation it was just learning as the Supreme Court said you know 70
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