Two taken hostage in Iraq worked for Christian Peacemaker Teams Canada

[leftchick]

TORONTO -- A Christian peace workers' organization came forward late Monday, confirming that two of its members were the two Canadians taken hostage in Iraq.

In its first public announcement since the kidnapping over the weekend, Christian Peacemaker Teams Canada said it will provide an update on the hostage-taking Tuesday. Efforts to negotiate the release of the two Canadians have been feverish, but there has been no indication the peace workers are any closer to freedom.

The organization, one of the few Western humanitarian organizations still in Iraq, has been extraordinarily careful in providing any information up until now, saying the lives of other members of its team in the wartorn country could be jeopardized.

"Release of any details is really detrimental to people who are in danger," said a Toronto spokeswoman for Christian Peacemaker Teams Canada.

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=b5e8c184-40f4-45db-8774-cf2b5206991c&k=81608

[meganmonkey]

1. Yuck

:(

I don't understand this tactic. Regardless of their ability to affect positive change in Iraq, these people have the best intentions. Peace groups and humanitarian groups should be off-limits. The whole thing is such a mess

:cry:

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

5. It's simple.

They want money. They know they can get money by kidnapping westerners. Humanitarian groups are good targets (at least the ones with significant financial resources.)

[Freddie Stubbs]

12. Apparently terrorists don't make distinctions between combatants

and non-combatants. Remember the wedding in Jordan? :shrug:

[Dunvegan]

2. With contractors using Iraqi citizens for target practice...

I agree, NGOs should be off-limits.

But with Aegis contractors using Iraqi citizens for target practice, and the use of white phosphorous, it seems the coalition is sending the message that non-combatants are ARE NOT off-limits.

As per this video of the contractors firing on several different drivers at several different venues:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/11/27.html#a6076

Crooks and Liars is reporting today that they have identified the contractors that were seen firing on civilians:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/11/28.html#a6099

C&L has learned through sources close to the investigation that the man who is seen shooting vehicles on this video in Iraq was a South African employee of Aegis Victory team named Danny Heydenreycher. He served in the British military for 6 years. After the incident the Regional Director for Victory ROC tried to fire Heydenreycher, but the team threatened to resign if he did. Aegis held an "inquiry" into it.

[brentspeak]

17. Your post is in the wrong thread

The terrorists who kidnapped the aid workers didn't kidnap them because of the Aegis contractors. The kidnappings have been going on for two years now.

[Dunvegan]

3. Dup Post Hiccup...

.

[enigma000]

4. They don't see aid workers helping Iraqis

They see infidels that are an affront to their God - it would be evil, in their minds, not to murder them.

Keep in mind, many of these insurgents want to turn Iraq into a terrorist state. And then, forgive the bluntness, they want to come to Europe and North America and, well, kill us all.

They recognize no innocents.

[wixomblues]

8. WTF?

Maybe some of the insurgents are just annoyed that the freedom they never asked for has taken away the rights they once enjoyed and murdered the people that they love.

The insurgents don't want to turn Iraq into a terrorist state. Nobody wants that. They just want their own government, and don't seem to trust the United States with installing one.

It would be similar to you coming home, finding your entire family murdered, and the house freezing. IN your basement there's a furnace installer, who explains to you that your house was to cold, your family were perceived as a threat, but don't worry, he's going to install a new furnace in six to twelve months, for which you'll have to pay the bill.

I'm not saying that the insurgents are right, or justified, but I don't think religion is the driving force.

[Centered]

31. Welcome to DU

:)

[Judi Lynn]

9. You've got history to bear out your charges, don't you?

Who can ever forget the Reverse Crusades?

[enigma000]

10. I would say al-Zaquari qualifies as someone waging a crusade

His band of jhadists don't seem to care much for the common Iraqi people. Still, on reflection, I think this may be the standard hostage for cash situation (a large source of income for Iraqi economy)

[Judi Lynn]

11. You're referring to the dead, apparently resurrectable, one-legged Zarqawi

who was seen running away from a bombing, etc. He's quite scary.

[enigma000]

15. Well, his friends blew up three hotels last week

I'm rather sure this wasn't to express their displeasure of poor electrical service in Baghdad.

My point is: thanks to this botched occupation we have Sunni religious fanatics operating in Western Iraq while a Shiite religious party - the Da'wa-SCIRI alliance - running the government. Religion is a factor and kind secular aid workers are not exempt.

[leftchick]

20. that would be the

US government telling us the all powerful one legged Zarqawi and his "followers" did it. I always think first of what the US government is capable of doing under the radar before blaming a convenient bogey man for them.

Where is OBL? shrug:

[enigma000]

23. I used to think that way too.........

Every terrorist bombing, every assassination, every coup d'etat

I recall being convinced that Korean airline flight shot down back in......1983 was it?.... was used for American spying. I was absolutely convinced the US was involved, and blamed them. I never considered blowing a civilian airliner out of the sky was a poor choice of action on Soviet command.

Sometimes the monsters do exist. Sometimes we are not them..........

[Psephos]

24. Good point

If we replace one hidebound ideology with another, then has anything really changed?

Peace

[PassingFair]

19. Hey! You forgot...

...the sucking chest wound!

Edited to add the hilarious new descriptor: "Who may be dead"

[Bridget Burke]

14. What if the kidnapers just want to make some ransom money?

Hardly honorable. But far more likely than your Islamic Menace raving.

Please--supply some proof.

[enigma000]

16. It probably is about money

The hostages will stay with the insurgents for a while, then get released. Probably. Then again, sometimes that doesn't happen:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/10/08/uk.hostage/

Who Killed Margaret Hassan?

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1117-29.htm

al-Zarqawi (who may be long dead) or at the very least, al-Qaeda, has the intent to use a destabilized Iraq as a base of operations. I mean, its the perfect place right now. And there are reports of people using Iraq as a training ground before returning to their home countries in the Middle East and Europe:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/06/05/opinion/edwikstrom.php

One such organization is Ansar al-Islam, responsible for hundreds of attacks against civilians in Iraq. Ansar al-Islam helped Abu Musab al-Zarqawi establish an underground railroad, for bringing radicals to Iraq through Europe, Turkey and Syria. Semitic leaflets.

Looking ahead, we need to consider what will happen when jihadist fighters return to Europe from Iraq. The U.S. State Department has warned that foreign fighters are transforming the insurgency in Iraq into a training ground and an indoctrination center for jihadists from around the world. In the months and years ahead, a large number of young men who went to Iraq as volunteers could return to Europe as full-fledged guerilla fighters with experience in urban terrorist operations.

I might have been a bit glib, but this is what I meant.

[Bridget Burke]

27. Cecilia Wikstrom wants Europeans to coordinate...

Their own anti-terror efforts. She isn't recommending an overseas crusade.

There are several suspects in Margaret Hassan's death--not all Muslim.

Lest you forget: Iraq was NOT destabilized until we invaded.

[enigma000]

30. Can't argue with that

But a destabilized Iraq is what we have now. And the clock is tick-tocking down to the start of the withdrawal of American forces. When this happens, the Iraqi government (and Kurdish and Shia militia forces) will take the gloves off and things will really start to get messy. I don't expect any aid groups to be operating in Iraq then......I just hope they escape in time.....

[coffeenap]

6. This is from the CPT site--sounds likes they are serious about peace:

IRAQ: Christian Peacemaker Team in Iraq releases "Statement of Conviction"

Tuesday, 29 November 2005

International violence-reduction organization Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) confirmed today that the four human rights workers missing in Baghdad on 26 November are associated with their organization. One of the missing persons is Norman Kember, a member of the current CPT delegation to Iraq. The British Foreign office confirmed Mr. Kember's name on Sunday.

CPT has been present in Iraq since October 2002. The Team's work has focused on documenting and focusing public attention on detainee abuses and connecting citizens of Iraq to local and international human rights organizations. Iraqi friends and human rights workers have welcomed the team as a nonviolent, independent presence and asked that the team tell the their stories.

In a "Statement of Conviction," the long-term Team members stated that they "are aware of the many risks both Iraqis and internationals currently face," and affirmed that the risks did not outweigh their purpose in remaining. They express the hope that "in loving both friends and enemies and by intervening non-violently to aid those who are systematically oppressed, we can contribute in some small way to transforming this volatile situation." (snip)

http://www.cpt.org/

[daleo]

7. I don't know if the proselytize Christianity

But, the name of the organization is bound to create problems in Iraq at the present time.

[Jacobin]

13. Yep. They symoblize infidel crusaders of old

[Psephos]

25. Yeah, right down to the swords, spears, and torches

Oops. Not.

Peace

[Bzzzz]

18. Xtianity...

is the last thing that a Muslim nation wants. These so called 'peace maker teams' should know they are not welcome and will be prone to the consequences that come.

[Xithras]

21. Iraq has a large Christian population.

In fact, Iraq was a Christian nation until the Arabians invaded and converted most of the populace. Still, a large population of Christians survives to this day and had peacefully co-existed with the Muslims for 1400 years.

The muslims aren't targeting them because they're Christian, they're targeting them because they're foreign and western.

[Bzzzz]

28. 3% is not large...

Muslim 97%, (Shi'a 60-65%, Sunni 32-37%), xtian or other 3%.

http://english.china-customs.com/customs-statistic/by-region/Asia/Iraq/

Scroll down to 'religion'...

[Xithras]

29. That's 900,000 people.

Not exactly a tiny group.

[Bzzzz]

32. Compared to the # of Muslims...

in Iraq = 20,779,623, it is a very small #.

[revkat]

22. CPT knows what they are doing

CPT is well aware of the situation in Iraq. They have been there since before the invasion. They are among the few, if not the only, westerners not living in the green zone. Instead they live in an apartment in a regular neighborhood in Bagdad. Their primary work has been to record and document the abuses of detainees by US forces. They were reporting abuse before any of the media picked up the Abu Graib story. Read about them at cpt.org before you make any quick judgements.

[Psephos]

26. Try googling "Chaldean" and see what you come up with n/t