BBC: Kember returning to UK amid row

[BooScout]

Freed British hostage Norman Kember is returning home - to a row over whether he thanked the soldiers who saved him.

Peace campaigner Mr Kember, 74, of Pinner, London, was kidnapped in Iraq last November. He and two Canadian hostages were rescued on Thursday.

Head of the British Army, Gen Sir Mike Jackson, said he was "saddened" there did not seem to be any gratitude.

Christian Peacemaker Teams, the group all three men were campaigning for, insisted it had thanked the soldiers.

(more) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4841480.stm

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Do I smell some over-baked Religious Rightists?

Hmmm ...

Corrupt, so-called Christian leaders.

Pacifist Christians, gone to Iraq to do relief work, and get kidnapped.

Soldiers who rescued them.

How can we spin this?

--p!

[BooScout]

2. How about....

Mike Jackson is a petulant prick? .....works for me.

[Dogmudgeon]

9. That sounds about right

Mind you, as a Yank, I had to read it twice to realize you weren't just dissing The Gloved One.

He commands a few choice epithets, too, but "petulant prick" isn't one of the most likely.

--p!

[CJCRANE]

3. Storm in a teacup

probably designed to be the top Iraq story of the day and knock another story off the headlines.

[BooScout]

4. Naaaaaaaa

They don't do that over here in the UK... When Iraqi's die they actually lead with it.

[CJCRANE]

5. Righteous indignation

always gets a headline - Tony's a past master at it.

[pretzel4gore]

6. the only issue for the pigmedia is

'how to make the nazipoohs look good?'
fukk the 'hostages' all to hell as far as the 'poohs are concerned

[USA_1]

7. very convenient of the "terrorists" to leave ...

when the soldiers were approaching. Had they been real terrorists rather than CIA undercover men, they would have booby trapped the place or taken martyrdom. To this day, no Arab or Muslim group knows the actual identity of this 'terrorist' group. Obviously, it's because they are CIA operatives.

[DoYouEverWonder]

8. I see

that you see what's going on here.

[CJCRANE]

12. Maybe not CIA

but possibly some kind of patsies or "assets".

[acmavm]

10. I think that this is nuts. While I admit I would be truly groveling

grateful to anyone who rescued me from nasty men who just might cut my head off, I am also wondering what the hell is wrong with this Gen. Jackson guy. I mean, rescuing civilians during a war is part of the job description, isn't it? I know that they sure as hell haven't done much of that during this war unless there's been embedded reporters and tv cameras, but this is just plain nuts.

It's like bitching at a person being held hostage during a bank robbery for not kissing the asses of the cops who got them out of the vault.

[TheBaldyMan]

11. Poor Old Mike is increasingly having to defend UK troops in Iraq

mainly because of the gradual realistation that they shouldn't have been sent there in the first place. The BBC Radio flagship newsprogram 'Today' had an interview with him on Friday 24th March. Although he is a capable and experienced soldier he has been forced as head of UK Armed forces into defending the policies he personally had no hand in drafting. In the interview he gave a poor performance because of the position he is being asked to defend.

The British Army has had to carry out a fundamentaly flawed policy shaped by career politicians. Gen. Jackson's interview was an exmple of how badly the cracks are beginning to show in the facade of how the government says it is and how it really is. The objections to the cost of the rescue operation are being pushed as proof that the peace-activists are misguided and foolish, compared to the continuing cost of the war I think it is no more than a drop in the ocean. It is certainly dwarfed by the obscene contracts handed out to western contractors.

I consider it is more foolish paying top dollar for two dozen trucks fit for nothing but scrap.

[BooScout]

13. Update....now that he's landed in the UK.....

....He has thanked the troops...I guess he just wasn't fast enough for dear old Mike.:eyes:

_______________________________

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4844800.stm

"Freed Kember thanks rescue troops

Freed hostage Norman Kember has thanked the soldiers who rescued him from kidnappers in Iraq as he arrived home.
But, in a statement released as he was reunited with wife Pat at Heathrow airport, he said he did not believe armed force achieved lasting peace.

He had faced criticism after apparently failing to thank the men who freed him.

Mr Kember, 74, a peace campaigner from Pinner, London, was kidnapped in Iraq last November. He and two Canadian hostages were rescued on Thursday.
(more)

[Briar]

14. A deliberately blown up row

largely courtesy of the BBC news team, who led with Sir Mike's whinings throughout the morning (though they could just as easily have led with the CPT's public declarations of gratitude).

Of course this pushes a lot of buttons with the flag waving warmongers who read the Telegraph or want to defend Blair and those who bought his case for the war. They are wrong footed by sincere and genuine Christians whose heroic non violence seizes the moral highground from them. So Kember must be attacked (a) because if they are so-called Christians he exposes their hypocrisy by taking Christ's pacifism literally and (b) because if they are "patriots" he seems, in their narrow-minded view of an "us" and "them" world, to have sided with "the enemy" instead of "our boys".

Hurrah for Professor Kember and thank goodness he is home.

[WhiteTara]

15. Kember forgot to lick some boots in

gratitude.
Yikes! That was the soldiers' job.

[IndianaGreen]

16. If US/UK had not invaded Iraq, Kember would not have been there!

Expecting a pacifist to start licking American and British jackboots is a bit too much.

I do welcome a debate on the morality of the war!

[Joe Chi Minh]

17. The headline in today's Daily Mirror reads:

KEMBER: I don't want RAF to fly me home - Activist refuses military jet.

It begins:

"Rescued British hostage, Norman Kember yesterday refused to fly home from Iraq in a RAF military jet.

Instead the veteran peace campaigner, 72, was due to touch down at Heath Row Airport this afternoon on a British Airways flight from neighboring Kuwait." (Snip) Later it mentions that "Mr Kember left the capital in a military transport plane for an overnight stay in Kuwait."

This was how the Mail Foreign Service correspondent of the far-right Daily Mail reported the rebuff by Mr Kember and his altered travel arrangements:

"Mr Kember, 74, left the British Embassy in Baghdad where he had been taken following his rescue and boarded a British military transport plane. It was believed to be heading to Kuwait for an overnight stop, before flying on to London."

Could it be that the Mail's "Mail Foreign Service correspondent" was not privy to the news concerning Mr Kember's wish to minimize to the utmost his use by our UK authorities as a pro-war propaganda tool? A kind of outsider among the correspondents out there, who was routinely marginalized. Or was it that he/she sent off their report before the change of plan re Mr Kember's travel arrangements became known. Or simply that they didn't want to report it. News management.

Call me cynical, if you like, but the last of the alternatives strikes me as the Mail's characteristic M.O. The prerogative of the whore: power without responsibility.

PS: No offence to prostitutes intended.

[daleo]

18. These guys show how hard it is to really follow Jesus's words

Imagine taking "turn the other cheek" and "love your enemy" seriously. The state always hates and reviles true pacifists.