I am so sad about the death of CPT-er Tom Fox

[undeterred]

He was there to make peace and help the Iraqi people. This group was among the first to report the abuses going on at Abu Gharib prison- they developed a trusting relationship with the Iraqi people and were hearing all kinds of things about what is going on over there.

His body was found yesterday outside Baghdad and reports are that he had been tortured. The three other CPT-ers who were kidnapped were seen on a film recently but now it seems like they will probably meet the same fate. Nothing really coherent has come from the kidnappers, the so-called "Swords of Righteousness", just the impossible demand that all Iraqis be freed.

No one seems to know who this group is- and it has been unresponsive to the please of Muslim clerics to
release these men, who are not the enemy. I have a bad feeling about this.

[libnnc]

1. Me too. He had ties to a Quaker college in Greensboro

It's a sad, sad day on the campus of Guilford College. I feel really bad for the students and faculty who knew him.

[arcane1]

2. I think we all know what's going on there..

too many dead reporters, it's hard not to wonder who's doing the killing

especially now that we have a guy like Negroponte wokring things

[undeterred]

3. When I hear the word torture the first thought that pops into my mind

is "trained by the CIA".

[sasha031]

4. yes, the same thing entered my mind

[arcane1]

6. perhaps Mr Fox wasn't reporting enough of the so-called "good news"?

[Joanne98]

5. Maybe he was murdered by Nick Berg's killers?

That would be the well known terrorist group called, "The USA Message Senders".(tin foil)

[arcane1]

7. no tin-foil needed

we've been practicing this sort of thing south of the border for decades

[Catchawave]

8. Why would "they" kill the peacemakers ?

Why?

[undeterred]

10. I think the radical Islamists might want to kill them for being from

coalition countries (though 2 are from Canada)- they might have really thought they were spies or that they could raise a reaction by killing these people. However, there was plenty of time to figure out that these hostages were not of much use.

CPT does human rights work, and they were exposing torture and misbehavior by the American military. So there is more of a motive there- certainly makes any human rights activist or journalist who wants to find out what is really going on over there think twice about it.

I'm sure there will be much speculation in the days to come. The truth is we just don't know what happened.

[Catchawave]

11. Yes, sad as it is,

I'm glad we don't negotiate with them. :cry:

[undeterred]

13. kick!

[gratuitous]

9. As a CPTer, Tom Fox's only enemies were war and hatred

Figure out who loves war so much that he'll actually go looking for any excuse to start one, and you'll probably be on the trail of his killers.

[undeterred]

12. More info here:

Kember family braced after hostage killing
Maurice Chittenden and Christopher Morgan

THE family and friends of Norman Kember, the 74-year-old British pacifist held hostage in Iraq, fear time is running out for his safe return after an American kidnapped with him was found tortured and murdered. They believe Kember’s British passport could mark him down as the next to die if the previously unknown terrorist group, the Swords of Righteousness Brigades, carries out its threat and kills another hostage. It wants all Iraqi detainees to be released in return for the release of Kember and two Canadian captives.

The three and Tom Fox, a 54-year-old American, were in Baghdad as a team from Christian Peacemakers, a Canadian charity, when they were seized in November. Sources in Baghdad close to those trying to negotiate their release claimed yesterday that an Iraqi hostage negotiator was killed by the kidnap gang in December but the murder had not been made public. The Foreign Office in London declined to comment on the claim.

Fox’s body was founded wrapped in a blanket and dumped close to a main road and railway station in western Baghdad on Thursday evening. He was wearing grey trousers and a grey shirt.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2081393,00.html