The journalist’s nightmare: how it ended for Rory

Yesterday, the Guardian had a tautly written first-person account by Rory Carroll, of what happened during and at the end of his recent kidnaping in Iraq.
Carroll was seized in Sadr City on Wednesday afternoon, and at first feared that– even if his immediate kidnapers were Shiites– they might “sell” him to the highest bidder. Initial utterances from his driver magnified that fear. (Seemed like the driver knew how to terrify Rory.)
But he ended up in an oubliette in the family home of a thirty-something guy with connections to Moqtada Sadr’s Mehdi Army, which wanted to swap him with a Sadrist who was being held by the British. Rory is Irish; and he doesn’t make clear– quite likely, he didn’t even know– whether any such swap took place.
At some point in the second night in the oubliette, he was bundled into the trunk (boot) of another car and taken to the office of — guess who?– Ahmad Chalabi, who had negotiated his release.
A great outcome! Al-hamdu lillah ala salamtak, Rory. And a few moments of quiet to remember the lives of the 73 media workers who’ve been killed in US-occupied Iraq in the line of duty.