Centanni and Wiig Freed

Being up at 5:00 this morning, getting ready for the NYC Half Marathon, I had the pleasure of hearing this great news from Fox News itself as it was breaking this morning.

Two FOX News journalists were released by their kidnappers Sunday, nearly two weeks after they were taken hostage in the Gaza Strip.

Steve Centanni, 60, and Olaf Wiig, 36, left Gaza and have since crossed into Israel after their release. The men left Gaza through the Erez border crossing.

The freeing of Centanni, a correspondent, and Wiig, a cameraman, ends the longest-running drama involving foreign hostages in Gaza.

Hot Air has YouTubed the "conversion video" that the journalists' captors forced them to make, declaring their acceptance of Islam ("without pressure"), reciting their new Muslim names, and decrying various actions of the West.

I have to say both Centanni and Wiig appear incredibly calm, even professional as they read the statements in front of them.  It makes you wonder what their state of mind was at the time - whether they thought they uttering their last words or whether at this point, they had an inkling that they were taking part in a face-saving exercise that their captors were undertaking as they prepared to release them.  They don't seem to exhibit either terror or elation, but they must have been either cautiously overjoyed, fearing imminent death, or at least cognizant that their situation was about to change dramatically, even if they didn't know whether for much better or much worse.

Whatever the case, their staid demeanors and their ability to recite their coerced statements calmly and cogently, if nothing else, seems to say a lot about their skills as television journalists.

Welcome back, Steve and Olaf.