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Texas Hostage Recounts His Experience
(Times of Israel) Jacob Magid - Jeffrey Cohen told the Times of Israel in an interview on Monday that Texas kidnapper Malik Faisal Akram "had bought into the extremely dangerous, anti-Semitic trope that Jews control everything, that we could call President Biden and have him release" al-Qaeda operative Aafia Siddiqui, who is serving an 86-year sentence at a military prison 15 miles away. "He told us that he chose the closest synagogue to the facility where [Siddiqui was] being held." Cohen expressed gratitude for having taken an active shooter course, which provided him with the "forethought" for how to conduct himself and helped him stay alive. Akram let the hostages call their families in what they believed would be the final conversations with their loved ones. "I called my wife and children and left them each a very brief message where I basically said 'I'm at the synagogue. We have a gunman here who says he's got a bomb. This may not end well. I love you. Remember me,'" Cohen recalled, overcome by emotion.