Photo: Getty Images

Matthew Cole reports for New York that there was much more going on at the Times during the seven-month imprisonment of their kidnapped journalist David Rohde than has been revealed so far. Multiple hostage-negotiation companies (did you even know this was an industry?) were hired to help, and, at one point, a tactical-assault team was being prepped to do a surgical rescue. And while ransom numbers were passed back and forth between the paper and Rohde's captors, the Times staff was increasingly split over whether a payoff was necessary, or whether it would just make things worse for other journalists in the future. By the time Rohde and his fixer escaped, a $1 million ransom was prepared and ready for exchange.

The David Rohde Puzzle [NYM]