amanda lindhout and nigel brennan were kidnapped on a dusty road in somalia by islamic rebels and taken to a compound somewhere in mogadishu, she had no idea where. we were in a room together. there were thin foam mattresses on the floor and a sheet on each one. that was amanda s new reality. her mother lorinda s new reality, lead negotiator. familiarly members don t normally participate in negotiations, it s too emotionally draining, but because she had developed a rapport with the negotiator they asked her to keep going. we were trying to find out as much information as we could. did you have this in front of you when you were on the phone?
head would be cut off, because it was something that they threatened us with a lot. i was sure that that was it. that they were going to kill me. must have felt like an eternity. it did. i felt despair, because i, i didn t want to be the end. and then they hand you a phone? and who s on the phone? my mom. desperate, amanda had only three minutes to beg for her life. mom? amanda? amanda, i love you. amanda, amanda, how are you? mom, listen, listen to me, okay? okay, okay. closely. if you guys don t pay $1 million for me by one week, they will kill me. okay? tonight they have brought me out to kill me. but they ve, they ve given me one more chance to call you guys.
that. i have a whole new respect for lorinda and what she went through and how strong she is. she literally worked around the clock, 24/7. by the third week of captivity, amanda and nigel s existence was reduced to one room. her body was soar from the hard floor. the thing she missed the most was seeing the sky. some of their captors were nicer than others. some threatening. she says abdullah was the worst. almost as soon as we were taken abdullah seemed to lay some claim on me. during their ordeal, amanda and nigel were moved house to house, many times. some worse than others. mold on the walls, cockroaches and rats on the floors. they were always trapped indoors. but all that changed nearly a month after they were taken. they were roused out of their room and taken outside. we were terrified and a small individual yes camera was brought out and sat down on the ground before us, and we were told to beg for our lives. it was a pivotal moment. on september 17, 2008, lorinda tu
i said yes. and i was thanking him. lorinda and nigel s family flew to kenya to coordinate the release. the private security company sent try former special forces operatives into mogadishu with bags full of cash. three days later, they re still there. it s dangerous for them. they ve got all this money. at the last minute, the deal had hit a snag. the kidnappers wanted more money than they agreed to. the families made a difficult decision, call off the plan and bring the security team back to kenya. we wanted the kidnappers to know that we were serious. from nairobi, she was forced to renegotiate with the kidnappers. we keep negotiating, come to an agreement again, send our team back in with the money. that was the very same night amanda and nigel found themselves crying in that car with to idea what was happening. and then i smell cigarette smoke.
operations center. and you re all by yourself now, no negotiators sitting next to you. just you on the phone. that s an unbelievable amount of pressure. you do what you have to do, and i had to do it. i didn t have a choice. are you healthy at that point? well, i wasn t eating. wasn t sleeping. i was just running on adrenaline. amanda and nigel s families realized they needed help and hired a private security company with expertise in getting hostages out. lorinda held secret fund-raisers to raise the ransom money. ananda and nigel s health deteriorated. she also saw how frustrated their captors were getting. they felt like if only my family could come up with this money they would have their lives back. and they took their growing frustration out on me.