Now, somebody told me that there was a webpage showing Mr. Powell's speech. I'll excerpt the part -

MR. KANEHIRA: In the history of the modern nation, it is said every government has an obligation to protect their own citizens. Some people in Japan are saying that those who are kidnapped are willing to take risk and they were expected to assume the responsibility for their own act. What is your comment?

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, everybody should understand the risk they are taking by going into dangerous areas. But if nobody was willing to take a risk, then we would never move forward. We would never move our world forward.

And so I'm pleased that these Japanese citizens were willing to put themselves at risk for a greater good, for a better purpose. And the Japanese people should be very proud that they have citizens like this willing to do that, and very proud of the soldiers that you are sending to Iraq that they are willing to take that risk.

But even when, because of that risk, they get captured, it doesn't mean we can say, "Well, you took the risk. It's your fault." No, we still have an obligation to do everything we can to recover them safely and we have an obligation to be deeply concerned about them. They are our friends. They are our neighbors. They are our fellow citizens.
www.state.gov/secretary/rm/31489.htm

Quite different from our Government officials are now claiming.