Dow aircraft helped in freeing journos

We take a moment from our busy day to note that Dow Chemical Co. helped free the two female journalists from the clutches of North Korea and its nutty leader.

Hooray to Dow and its swashbucklin' and decidedly less nutty leader, Andrew Liveris, who's from Australia.

The freed journalists spilled the beans about the role of Dow and Liveris today, when they also expressed gratitude to former President Clinton and former Vice President Gore.

The connection between the chemical company and the Current TV journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, was not readily apparent, until Liveris issued a statement that explained that a plane owned by the Midland, Mich.-based company was used "in different parts of the mission in recent days."

More from the Forbes story:

"Dow is appreciative of the opportunity to provide assistance in support of the release of Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee, by providing aircraft support," said Liveris.

"Dow is grateful that Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee are back home safely and we were honored to contribute to President Clinton's humanitarian mission to obtain their release."

The two journalists, along with Clinton, flew home on a plane owned by Stephen Bing, a close Clinton friend and longtime Democratic fundraiser, said Marc Foulkrod of Burbank, Calif., chairman of Avjet Corp., the company that manages the aircraft.

(Liveris "said" that in a statement, of course. Who wants a bunch of reporters asking probing questions at a noisy press conference about what else Dow does at the behest of the government? Only a fool subject himself to that sort of torture. Good call, Mr. L.)

While we're talking about Dow, we'll also take note that its stock price today closed at $23.15 -- a way-big improvement over its 52-week low of $5.89, so it looks like the company that made Brazosport famous will survive the current global economic woes.

And we're sorry, sort of, that we called for the Dow board to fire Liveris back when things didn't look so rosy.

You go, Mr. Liveris!