CPT Interview Exclusive: 'Waiting Has Taken on a Whole New Meaning'

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'Waiting has taken on a whole new meaning'
by Rose Marie Berger

Living in Baghdad outside the Green Zone, Christian peacemaker Maxine Nash talks about what Advent means while four of her team members are held hostage.

WEB EXCLUSIVE

When Maxine Nash volunteered to go to Iraq, she didn't go with weapons ready. She went armed with her faith, her skills in conflict resolution, and her courage to be as defenseless as those she was serving: the ordinary people of Iraq.

Nash, 43, a Quaker from Waukon, Iowa, joined the Christian Peacemaker Teams' steering committee in June 2002. CPT provides organizational support to persons committed to faith-based nonviolent alternatives in situations where lethal conflict is an immediate reality. As her service with CPT continued she was hooked by CPT's fundamental question: What would happen if Christians devoted the same discipline and self-sacrifice to nonviolent peacemaking that armies devote to war? In the summer of 2003, Nash went through CPT's rigorous training in nonviolent intervention in conflict situations. In February 2004 she was on her way to Iraq, where she has been stationed full-time ever since.

CPT member Tom Fox visits with refugee children the month before he and three other team members were abducted.

On Nov. 26, four of Nash's team members were kidnapped by people calling themselves the Swords of Righteousness Brigade. In the days following the kidnapping, the group released videos of Tom Fox, 54, Norman Kember, 74, James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Sooden, 32, to al Jazeera threatening to kill the four men by Dec. 8 if detainees in U.S. and Iraqi prisons were not freed. The deadline was extended to Dec. 10; the date passed and there has been no further news. These four join hundreds of Iraqis who are currently held by kidnappers.

On Friday, Dec. 16, I called the CPT apartment in Baghdad and spoke with Maxine Nash about the four men, the Iraqi elections, and Advent. - RMB

Read the interview @ http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=sojomail.current_issue

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1. kick... for the hostages

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[GreenPartyVoter]

2. K & R

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3. sigh. hoping for good news. thank you for giving us word of CPT, SB! eom

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4. kick for the peaceloving brave hostages. eom

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5. kick of HOPE!! eom

[AirmensMom]

6. K&R

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7. kick

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[AirmensMom]

8. kick

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[bigtree]

9. .

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10. kick. i keep waiting for news. thank you for more on them, Sapphire Blue.

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11. kick for others waiting for news. eom

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12. kick

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13. kick

[banana republican]

14. My God they are Quakers..... n/t

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15. Families of Western hostages take out ads in Iraqi papers

Families of Western hostages take out ads in Iraqi papers

Last Updated Fri, 23 Dec 2005 17:58:30 EST
CBC News

The families of four Western peace activists kidnapped in Iraq are taking out a series of radio and newspaper advertisements in Arabic appealing for their release.

Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Sooden, 32, were kidnapped at gunpoint on Nov. 26 in Baghdad, along with Briton Norman Kember, 74, and American Tom Fox, 54.

Their captors have threatened to kill them unless all Iraqi prisoners being held by coalition forces were freed. There's been no word of their condition since the kidnappers' deadline came and went on Dec. 10.

The ads, which will appear in various Iraqi newspapers, point out that many figures from the Arab and Muslim world have called for the release of the hostages.

Continued @ http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/12/23/hostages051223.html

[AirmensMom]

16. kick

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