A version of what happened in Somalia is available as a Long Read at The Guardian, and, in somewhat shorter form, for German readers, in Der Spiegel. It’s not even near complete. Enormous parts of the story have been left untold. They’ll have to wait for a book. But it was important to lay out some basic facts and correct the strange idea that I had traveled in Somalia without security. That rumor was nonsense, and the rumor that I’d been shot in the hand was also pure pirate fabrication. Those bits of gossip had a strange half-life among my friends after I went free; now I hope they’ll be put to rest.

A short Radio 4 interview about the story aired on the BBC as well as NPR. It’s archived here, at 29 min 55 sec. And the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting has a roundup of coverage so far.

I want to thank everyone who helped get me out of Somalia, in Germany and the United States, and for the still-astonishing support from my family and friends.

ALSO: The picture above shows our arrival in Hobyo in January 2012, several days before my abduction. A Land Rover shaped in plaster, on the right, decorates the mansion of a Somali pirate boss named Fatxi.

Republished from June 3, 2015