On June 16, FOX News Channel host Oliver North said, "[W]e're giving ammunition to the likes of the captors of [American hostage] Paul Johnson" by pursuing the issue of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. North asserted that the U.S. media and “politicians in Washington” who continue to raise the issue of the abuse -- specifically Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) -- “have blood on their hands ... of people like Paul Johnson.”

From the June 16 edition of Hannity & Colmes:

NORTH: In the original statement issued by his [Paul M. Johnson Jr.] captors, they referred to Abu Ghraib. Now, that whole scandal has been elevated to the level of self-flagellation by our media and by politicians in Washington hoping to gain some kind of political traction from it. They have blood on their hands if they keep this up, because what we're doing is giving ammunition to the likes of the captors of Paul Johnson.

[...]

NORTH: The very fact that they're raising the issue, a politician in Washington, a very powerful one, Ted Kennedy, is raising Abu Ghraib again ... is further proof of what I said earlier: They have blood on their hands ... of people like Paul Johnson.

Johnson is being held by terrorists in Saudi Arabia who have threatened to execute him if the Saudi government does not release imprisoned Al Qaeda suspects.