Freed Peace Activists Plan To Head Home From Iraq

[CHIMO]

The recently freed kidnapped members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams are enjoying their first full day of freedom and preparing to head home. On Thursday British, U.S. and Canadian troops raided a home in Baghdad and found the three peace activists. The men -- Norman Kember of Britain, and Canadians James Loney and Harmeet Singh Sooden - were alone in a house and reportedly in good condition. It was only after their release that the men learned that their colleague Tom Fox had been killed two weeks earlier. The four men were kidnapped together in November. Following their release, the Christian Peacemaker Team organization vowed to stay in Iraq and continue their efforts in helping the families of jailed Iraqis. In a statement the group said "During these past months, we have tasted of the pain that has been the daily bread of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis... We renew our commitment to work for an end to the war and the occupation of Iraq." Officials estimate an average of 30 Iraqis are kidnapped every day.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/24/1459255

[MrPrax]

1. I was wrong...I figured they were toast

One disconcerting note from a naysayer who sees this as all rather sinister...

Popping Canada's N.W.O. Cherry

Canada’s armchair warriors, keyboard killers, and all around American wannabes are all a twitter with the finally public revelation that Canadian forces are interchangeable with the Anglo-American occupiers in Iraq.
It has been a real sore point of shame for these little Canuck warmongers that Canada did not outright jump on America’s natural resource/strategic military base slaughter wagon from the start.
...
With our American puppet Neocons now openly promoting Canada as a 21st Century imperialist adjunct to America’s natural resource occupations, these bold and bellicose couch moistening wannabes are finally stiff with pride over the fact that Canada’s black ops teams are taking part in the crushing of the Western right wing’s designated untermenchen in Iraq as well as Afghanistan.
I suppose with the alleged month long occupation of Iraq by Canadian forces supposedly “training” for what is beginning to look more and more like a psyop “rescue”, we can all beam with pride that Canada is now indistinguishable from the U.S. where matters of foreign policy and illegal occupation of sovereign nations is concerned.
...
Our new Neoconservative government’s coming out party for our American-integrated armed forces has the tainted stench of set-up written all over it.
It was really a clever way to have even seemingly reasonable, so-called “progressive” Canadians join in the groupthink, stand and give a big “huzzah” for Canada’s willingness to “take care of our own” despite the fact that the British SAS and the many different levels of American occupation forces could have readily handled the storming of the curiously empty “Sword of Righteousness Brigade” prop house that held the CPT hostages without Canadian forces integration.
Youngfox Canada

Rather impolite fellow and not at all like 'nice' Canadians. :evilgrin:

[Briar]

2. The British right wing and war supporters

led by the BBC are tearing Norman Kember apart, calling him a naive idealist who refused to thank the troops (when he did, they called it grudging) for rescuing him (though in fact they only had to collect him when the kidnappers disappeared). Obviously he destroys their claim to the moral high ground, and this cannot be tolerated by Christian Warriors. Is Canada the same?

[Lisa]

3. there was a rather ugly article on the front page of the National Post,

... our right-wing paper, this week (they make the Globe and Mail look like raving lefties).

Sure, they claimed to be only quoting someone at the Iraqi Embassy in Ottawa -- but they were eager to stress the secondhand accusation that the Christian Peacemakers were "using the same language as the terrorists" when they criticized Bush's aggression. Basically, anyone browsing through the Post would have come away with the impression that those who were taken hostage were a) asking for it, b) were actually helping the insurgents, going way beyond being naive dupes to doing their bidding, c) were ungrateful and borderline-abusive to the British and especially the Americans who rescued them.

All very cleverly done, and I'm sure the Post will be able to back away if they are challenged (especially by any devout Christians who may support the CPT) -- by pointing the finger at the Iraqi officials.