The New York times revealed today that one of its reporters, David S. Rohde, escaped from his captors after being held for more than seven months by the Taliban. But, apparently this is the first time anyone has heard of it:

From the early days of this ordeal, the prevailing view among David’s family, experts in kidnapping cases, officials of several governments and others we consulted was that going public could increase the danger to David and the other hostages. The kidnappers initially said as much,” Bill Keller, the Times’ executive editor, said in a story posted on the Times’ Web site.

So, if I understand this correctly, if one of its employees gets kidnapped by the terrorist thugs, the Times stays mum about it in order to “not increase the danger” to said employee. However, when it comes to going public with information that can potentially put thousands of American citizens in danger, well Bill Keller and Pinch Sulzberger are just fine with that.