SOURCES SAY

NYT Would Have Paid Ransom?

Nearly gave $5 million to Taliban for freed reporter.

It appears The New York Times was prepared to dip into its diminishing budget and pay $5 million to Taliban kidnappers to free its reporter David S. Rohde before he made a surprising escape on Friday. After using a third party to contact his captors during Rohde’s seventh month ordeal in captivity, a source with “direct knowledge of the case” says the newspaper organization considered paying the ransom. Reached via email, Executive Editor Bill Keller said, “We paid no ransom...We’re just not going to talk about who did what, or who advised what.” A stunning media silence of 40 news organizations surrounded the story to protect the safety of the reporters. The Pulitzer Prize-winning Rohde and a local reporter escaped from Pakistan by scaling a wall on Friday night after being captured last November while en route to an interview.