Hostages Freed

Terrorism 127 Comments

The surviving Christian Peacemaker hostages have been freed;

Two Canadian hostages held in Iraq for nearly four months have been freed in a carefully planned military operation involving Canadian, British, American and Iraqi forces.
Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, were freed along with Briton Norman Kember, 74. All three were members of the Chicago-based Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), an international peace activist group.

When the four members of CPT were first abducted, I recall a Canadian spokesperson from the group declaring (on behalf of the CPT and the hostages) that the use of military force to secure their release was unacceptable.

Members of Canada’s top secret commando unit, Joint Task Force 2, had been in Iraq working in tandem with British troops, said officials. It’s not clear how many were in Iraq, but they have been in the country for some time.

One presumes CPT will be issuing a press release any moment demanding they be “put back where they were found” – right after the news conference by NDP leader Jack Layton denouncing the involvement of Canadian troops in the rescue.
update – The CPT news release doesn’t quite call for that, but it does take time out to blame the rescuers (in so many words) for the abduction. For all of the lip-service paid to the phrase “love our enemies”, one might have thought there would be a little of that Christian generosity extended to the “occupiers” who put their asses on the line to free them.
More – Kathy Shaidle has this find;

“In reaction Kember’s friend, Bruce Kent (…) said the miltants holding the hostages ‘must have been people of great faith.'”
Not the rescuers, mind — the kidnappers! You can’t make this crap up! This is yer morally unmoored “progressive” Christianity, folks.

Update – the original quote has been changed, and the Shaidle post updated to reflect that it now “says the kidnappers must have realized that their hostages were people of great faith. Which makes infinitely more sense, naive or not”
Michelle Malkin has more.

127 Replies to “Hostages Freed”

  1. The carefully planned part is bullshit. It is already clear that the kidnappers were long gone before any of the “rescuers” showed up. The effort to spin this into a great Victory for the glorious Conquerer is already starting to come undone. We’ll find out in a day or two that the kidnappers phoned somebody telling them where to pick up the CPTers and split.
    Pretty gutsy news release by CPT, by the way. They know the militant righties will be firing their guns into the roof over it, and did it anyway.

  4. Hmmmm…bgcitylib sound like a…CHICKENHAWK!
    Go fight in Iraq YOURSELF if you’re such a tough guy!
    What’s the matter? CHICKENHAWK?

  5. BCL – you must love it over here at Kate’s site – you get your blood pressure riled up and you get to promote your own blogsite which obviously you don’t get alot of traffic on because you feel the need to advertise in almost every post!!
    However – how the hell do you know what has happened – I can’t believe how the left has turned around a great thing done by troops who put themselves at personal risk to save people who should not have been there in the first place, into an anti- american slag!
    Gord is right – show some proof that what you are saying is right and even if it is and the kidnappers were gone – so bloody what!!!! Those “hostages” should not have been there in the first place and thank god they didn’t die, but don’t denigrate what happened behind the scenes with regards to planning and carrying out a rescue – its pretty easy for you to sit in your big comfy couch in Toronto or Vancouver or wherever you live in this free country and pronounce what you did.
    Sorry Kate for feeding this Troll but his holier than thou attitude PISSED me off!!

  6. Hypocrites rescued. The ‘Peacemakers’ made peace with Saddam Hussein while he was having humans stuffed into woodchippers feet first. They got the media coverage they wanted from these kidnappers, one of them was even martyred in order to prove their credentials. It’s unfortunate that troops had to waste time and energy on that evil group while trying to re-build a country.

  8. Gord, its a prediction. You will see it come true in a day or two.
    As a matter of fact, the kidnappers had made for the hills a long time before anyone showed up to “rescue” anyone. You can get that from any of the news reports.

  9. You don’t leave hostages alone in a building unless you want them to get away or be “rescued”. Jesus, kids, don’t be naive! The kidnappers decided to release

  10. BCL – You can get that from any of the news reports.
    Really – well I guess you know what you are talking about. haha
    Please – look at all the “news” our MSM puts out! – The MSM has crafted the art of using carefully selected wording to put their partisan spin on things! Keep that in mind as you sip your latte this afternoon.

  11. Back in December a friend of mine emailed me a request to sign a petition to release these jokers. After going to the petition site and reading a bit about their group and what they stood for, I sent him back this response:
    From: Sooz
    Sent: Monday, December 05, 2005 10:27 AM
    To: Mark
    Subject: An Urgent Appeal: Please Release Our Friends in Iraq
    Mark with all due respect, I cannot sign a petition in support of any group who has “spent countless hours interviewing Iraqis about abuse and torture suffered at the hands of US forces and have disseminated this information internationally” yet were not in the least bit interested in helping Iraqis who were being oppressed, abused and tortured at the hands of Saddam Hussein and his Baathist thugs.
    I feel great sympathy for these folks, and their families, and certainly wish them a safe return home; however it is my view they are extremely misguided. I will not sign my name to anything that purports that America is the problem here.
    Sorry,
    Sooz

  12. “We rejoice in the return of Harmeet Sooden. He has been willing to put his life on the line to promote justice in Iraq and Palestine as a young man newly committed to active peacemaking.”
    What is active peacemaking?

  14. These people traveled to a country their governments advise against visiting. They cost time and money. Send them the bill.

  15. “Released” doc’s include:
    ” the Oil for Food program,…”
    Maurice Strong, Jean Chretien, Paul Who?, must be “released” from their silence; Kofi UN is in hiding.
    Someone translate this doc re Oil for Food program .The Canadian connection must be exposed. +
    More Captured Iraqi Docs Released
    Weekly Standard ^ | 3-22-06 | Daniel McKivergan
    Posted on 03/23/2006 7:02:56 AM PST by eyespysomething
    More Captured Iraqi Docs Released
    Additional material (text, audio and video) has just been released by the US Army Foreign Military Studies Office. If you can translate any of it, please send it along. Here’s a sample of the material with its accompanying synopsis:
    IISP-2003-00038100
    Synopsis: Intelligence coded memo by two IIS Officers: O’mer Ghanim Muhammad and Manzar Ibrahim Al Mashhadani containing intelligence information on various topics: Weapon Boat (Ship); Palestinian Muneer Fathi Basiis, Palestinians trained in Iraq, sources, codeetc.
    ISGP-2003-00014647
    Synopsis: An order from Saddam Hussein to present $25,000 for the suicide bomber families in Palestine.
    ISGP-2003-10150276
    Synopsis: Saddam Hussein’s speech urging the Arab people to get rid of their regimes.
    ISGP-2003-10151538
    Synopsis: Discussions between Saddam Hussein and Iraqi officials regarding the Iraqi and Arabian Islamic belief awareness.
    ISGQ-2003-M0003871
    Synopsis: Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi Revolutionary council discussing cooperation and unity with the Syrians.
    ISGQ-2003-M0001292
    Synopsis: Saddam Hussein addressing high ranking officers and talking about the treason of Hussein Kamil.
    ISGQ-2003-M0004444
    Synopsis: This audio file contains a meeting between Saddam Hussein and the Revolutionary Command Council about the inspection operations which are to be conducted by the United Nations (UN).
    ISGQ-2003-M0004667
    Synopsis: This undated media file contains 62 minutes and 36 seconds of audio recorded tape, of President Saddam Hussein’s meeting with high ranking Iraqi officials, discussing Ikius Report in the Security Council regarding the Iraqi Biological File.
    ISGQ-2003-M0005544
    Synopsis: Saddam Hussein meeting with the Ba’ath Party National Command and the State Command, on the Oil for Food program, good-neighbor policies, and possibly Iraqi oil export through a Turkish pipeline.
    ISGZ-2004-009247
    Synopsis: Iraqi effort to cooperate with Saudi opposition groups and individuals in an effort by Iraq to work against Saudi Arabia
    ISGZ-2004-028947
    Synopsis: A memo from the IIS to hide info from UN inspection team.
    ISGZ-2004-031613
    Synopsis: IIS report on Kurdish activities, mention of Kurdish reporting on Al Qaida, reference to Al Qaida presence in Salman Pak.
    IZSP-2003-00300856
    Synopsis: Iraqi Minister of Defense calls for an investigation into why documents of a WMD nature were found by an inspection team.+
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1601612/posts

  16. Small Minded Liberal: Doing the predictable leftist crap. Pulling a feeling out or your ass and presenting it as fact. Big city? What’s that suppose to mean? That somehow you’ve got more info than your small town fellow travellers? And if you mean Toronto by ‘big city’ – there are plenty of us Conservatives who were born here to call you out. Pathetic little slug.

  17. Alberta Girl,
    Don’t blame the MSM for the fact that the Iraq War has gone down the shitter. Everyone not associated wiuth the far Right knew it was going to go South a long time ago. Instead look at your own Conservative philosophy and see if you can figure out why it steered you wrong.
    By the way, you might find the posts on Western Seperatism at my Blog especially interesting. One is entitled “is Western Seperatism an Ethnic Issue?”

  18. Isn’t it interesting how the leftist trolls only want to politically feed on the hostage’s misfortune but when they have a stroke of grace/good luck not a word of elation or empathy….just more hollow partisan venom….you guys need a serious personal catharsis.

  19. BCL:
    If they were not released, merely left behind when their captors left, is it no less risky for troops to walk in and expect there to be no traps left? They could have left 3 bodies and a number of explosives rigged to wait for a rescue mission, and it wouldn’t have been known until after the loss. It would have to have been “a carefully planned military operation”, whether or not they knew the militants had pulled out. In a place like Iraq, it is the naive ones who die needlessly

  20. This is quite funny.
    From the CPT news release;
    “We believe that the illegal occupation of Iraq by Multinational Forces is the root cause of the insecurity which led to this kidnapping…”
    It couldn’t be because they put themselves in a position to be kidnapped?
    Typical leftist disavowal of any responsibility. They act like children.

  24. On ethe mytelus.com webpage, in their news sysnopsis, they report that the RCMP might have been involved. HUH? I’m confused. What the hell are the RCMP doing in Iraq?

  26. Andy Barrie on the CBC Toronto mornig show said something like: “The kidnappers were nowhere to be found. Perhaps the rescuers just decided to let them go…good riddance, no need to inflame the situation and *cause more bloodshed*!!!” (paraphrasing) Unbelievable. These are murderers that Barrie is talking about, yet he advocates for letting them go in order to *avoid more bloodshed*

  29. It is the soldier who gives you freedom
    It is the soldier who gives you free speach
    It is the soldier who is the peacekeeper/peacemaker
    It is the soldier who represents his/her country with dignity
    It is the soldier who receives criticism from his/her citizens
    It is the soldier who carries on regaldless of the lack of support from his/her citizens
    Freedom is not free
    Soldiers work on and sometimes they pay with their lives to give you freedom.

  30. Maybe the FREED hostages will be willing to take Abjul Rahman’s place in Afghanistan?

  31. The Hostage Rescue: “Only the Farmers Have Won”

    Several of my fellow Blogging Tories are upset this morning over last night’s re-capture of three Western peacekeeping hostages in Iraq. Oh, not over the rescue itself, but over the hostage’s employers’ response, which is available h…

  32. However it was that they are free again, I’m just glad that they are. Watching Canada AM this morning I damn near threw my coffee cup at the TV! That CTV idiot, bob fife, was just going on and on and strongly emphasizing the fact that NO ONE from the PMO had issued a statement about the incident until “hours and hours” after the freedom! My understanding is that they were freed at about 5:00 AM, Ottawa time. Does that idiot fife expect someone to be there at that hour and have all the facts???!! About something that JUST happened??! I always knew that cbc was a LIEberal hack job but now I see that ctv is as well! Global’s kevin newman proved himself to be a weasel so we have no MSM to get honest reporting from! Why don’t these idiots just stick to REPORTING the news rather than trying to CREATE it?? Like their “opinion” counts for anything or is worth something! They’ve never been right yet and have proved over and over that collectively they can’t come up with the mind of a three year old. Why do MSM keep “reporters”{?} whose opinions don’t amount to a pinch of coon shit?!
    Glad the remaining three, former hostages, are free and OK.

  33. The truly ironic thing is that the rescuers are more righteous than those that claim to be doing G-ds work. To do good for goods sake without bragging or even hope for reward is a truly righteous act. That describes the rescuers.
    To lie about how things happen is to bear false witness. That’s CPT.

  34. BTW – bigciylib is once again full of it. Time and time again we have seen that the hostage takers do not stay with their hostages.
    The rescuers found out about the location from a captured hostage taker who told them where the hostages were.
    It will take anyone who wants to know the truth mere minutes to google both my assertations and know they are true.

  35. �We pray that Christians throughout the world will, in the same spirit, call for justice and for respect for the human rights of the thousands of Iraqis who are being detained illegally by the U.S. and British forces occupying Iraq.”
    And what spirit would that be? I don’t feel a whole lotta Christian love here, rather disdain for those who are laying down their lives over there, as in…”We believe that the illegal occupation of Iraq by Multinational Forces is the root cause of the insecurity which led to this kidnapping and so much pain and suffering in Iraq. The occupation must end.”
    Further, “detained illegally”? That’s your opinion…your misguided opinion.
    “We renew our commitment to work for an end to the war and the occupation of Iraq as a way to continue the witness of Tom Fox. We trust in God�s compassionate love to show us the way.
    �Living through the many emotions of this day, we remain committed to the words of Jim Loney, who wrote:
    “With God�s abiding kindness, we will love even our enemies.
    With the love of Christ, we will resist all evil.
    With God�s unending faithfulness, we will work to build the beloved community.”
    Christianese for death to the Americans and their allies.
    God bless & help us all.

  36. With no kidnappers to be found one may wonder if there was really any kidnapping done. When Kidnappers and the kidnapped are striving for the same thing one has to wonder.
    ……When the kidnappers demanded the release of Iraqi insurgents the Iraqi government should have said that if the kidnapped were not released by such and such a date the people the kidnappers wanted released would be executed and fed to sows.

  37. Thats the story for now, dear Defense Guy. Will see what comes out in a couple of days. I suspect the Coalition is doing a Jessica lynch thing here. We shall see. Why else would the kidnappers be gone?

  38. With the lack of respect given the US and others for their release, the next time their stupid actions get them kidnapped, forget them and leave them there. I think the kidnappers finally realized that these cdns were so stupid they were not worth keeping. I am very surprised that the victims allowed themselves to be seen by the US and other troops. Makes me wonder if they were ever really kidnapped, and didn’t plan this escapade all by themselves and paid the kidnappers to take care of them for a few months. When they ran out of money, the kidnappers said, so long, it’s been fun to know you. If BCL can conjur up a conspiracy, why can’t I.

  39. I wouldn’t give this troll the time of day.
    Don’t forget, there are no individuals in their world. Just the names (and skin color and gender) change. He could be Jose for all we know.

  40. Why else would the kidnappers be gone?
    This is not the first time this has happened. In fact this is right out of the ME handbook for kidnapping. If you don’t stay with your hostages, you can’t be caught should those that are looking for them find them.
    Others have actually escaped because they were not being guarded.
    Tie em up, leave em, and return every once in a while to feed and water em. Standard stuff in the kidnap biz.
    Also, would it kill you to realize that the folks who are in the military are not the monsters you seem to want to paint them as? That in this instance it is a certainty that they are the white hats and the kidnappers are the bad guys.

  41. Don’t know how they came up with the Christaim Peacemaker team name . . . not very accurate.
    Should be “sociliast crybaby pantywaist’s with excessive levels of moral indignation and self importance.
    Haven’t lost or wasted a minute of sleep over these whackjobs. They probably get their their media glad handing coaching froma a mega limelight lover like Svend Robinson. They do love to see themselves on TV, hear themselves talk a lot say a little.

  42. BCL is a loser. He makes Robert Mclelland look important!
    Went over to his blog and he seems to put a lot of time into his postings (based only on a visual appraisal because I would not waste my time reading them). He struck it rich with one post when it generated 5 comments (at least two of which were probably responses from him). Most postings receive no comments.
    It is highly likely that the captors had fled, leaving their captives behind. It still took brave men and women to go in there with the threat of a trap to bring them back out. Do you think that the Forces even considered passing the location onto CPT personnel as they are the ones that should have taken on the deserved rescue-risk…not bloody likely. The Forces sucked it up and took that risk so that the captives could live to whine and complain another day.
    BCL…go back into your hole!!

  43. Didn’t say they were monsters, Defense guy. They are mostly idealistic young men being dragged through the muck by the dirty old men running the war.
    Again, we shall see in a couple of days.

  44. And not a word of thanks to those who rescued them…
    Also, the BS about the ‘illegal occupation’: I guess it’s more Christian to sit back and watch a nation be destroyed by the likes of Saddam and his gang…absolute rubbish! These weirdos are fifth columnists, without a doubt!
    No more money time or risk put into rescuing suckers like these!

  45. “They went, motivated by a passion for justice and peace to live out a nonviolent alternative in a nation wracked by armed conflict.”
    Then of course, our nonviolent fantasy world collapsed when violent pyscopaths offed our American buddy for being American, so we naturally are forced to shit on America and embrace the headhackers.
    There is a huge flood and a CPT member climbs up on his roof to evade the rising flood waters .
    Soon a giant amphibious truck appears with the local rescue forces.
    The CPT member calls out “I’ll put my faith in the Lord and pass on your rescue”
    The truck drives off.
    The waters rise and the CPT member climbs higher on the roof.
    A boat comes motoring up and the volunteer rescue brigade places a ladder for the stranded.
    “No Thanks I’ll put my trust in the Lord to protect and save me.
    The boat leaves to rescue the willing.
    The waters rise and strand the CPT member on only his chimney top.
    Just then a helicopter appears out of nowhere and lowers a rope ladder.
    The CPT member yells up “No thank you, I’ll place my trust in the Lord to watch over me.
    The helicopter flies off to continue rescueing others.
    The waters rise and kill the CPT member.
    At the gates of St Peter the stunned CPT member can hardly believe he is there.
    “I trusted the Lord to rescue me and keep me out of harms way.
    “Why did he abandon me ?” he asked St. Peter.
    “What,… he sent a big truck, and then a boat…”

  46. Let us pray for Osama Who?
    Psst: Ex-ArchBishop Tutu is spraying. Say, Amen, Desi.
    BTW, was it Archbishop, er ex, Tutu who said that the only crook on his staff was Canon Black? +
    Osama a child of God: Desmond Tutu
    Canada Free Press ^ | March 23, 2006 | Judi McLeod
    Posted on 03/23/2006 6:28:31 AM PST by veronica
    The former Archbishop of Cape Town and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Desmond Tutu sees Osama bin Laden as just another member of �God’s family�.
    That’s what Archbishop Tutu told the World Council of Churches (WCC) recently, but only after he called for the closure of the detention centre at Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay.
    Wide sweeping in naming family members on God’s behalf, he threw President George W. Bush into the familial mix.
    �God’s family,� according to Archbishop Desmond Tutu includes, �Bush, bin Laden, all belong, gay, lesbian, so-called straight-all belong and are loved, are precious.�
    �Thou shall not kill,� seems to have flown out the window as far as this Anglican leader is concerned.
    �A united church is no optional extra,� Archbishop Tutu said in a barn-burning speech to the WCC 9th Assembly in Porto Alegre. �It is indispensable for the salvation of God’s world.�
    All belong to one family, he said: �Jesus was quite serious when he said that God was our father, that we belonged to one family, because in this family all, not some, are insiders.�
    Expanding on his beliefs to journalists after the speech, he said that Christians �did not have to feel insecure in the face of people from other faiths�. He had brought up gay and lesbian people, he said, because �I would not be able to keep quiet and see people penalized for something about which they could do nothing.�
    Much of the blame for the suffering of the Zimbabwe people belongs to Tutu, for he strongly promoted Robert Mugabe. +
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1601587/posts

  48. I am thankful that the hostages were “retrieved” and thankful to the various military personnel who “released” them. In Arizona, they have a “Stupid Law” where, when someone does something stupid, they have to pay for the rescue. As someone said here, they should pay for their rescue.

  49. Ian H, re: “What is active peacemaking?”
    It’s sort of like painting a big bright bullseye on your bare bottom, and then mooning everybody on the streets of Baghdad. :))

  50. Sorry for changing the subject, but according to ABC news, via the recently released Saddam documents, it is appears that Saddam and OBL had a relationship:
    “A newly released pre-war Iraqi document indicates that an official representative of Saddam Hussein’s government met with Osama bin Laden in Sudan on February 19, 1995 after approval by Saddam Hussein. Bin Laden asked that Iraq broadcast the lectures of Suleiman al Ouda, a radical Saudi preacher, and suggested “carrying out joint operations against foreign forces” in Saudi Arabia. According to the document, Saddam’s presidency was informed of the details of the meeting on March 4, 1995 and Saddam agreed to dedicate a program for them on the radio. The document states that further “development of the relationship and cooperation between the two parties to be left according to what’s open (in the future) based on dialogue and agreement on other ways of cooperation.” The Sudanese were informed about the agreement to dedicate the program on the radio.”
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/IraqCoverage/story?id=1734490&page=1
    The documents can be found here:
    http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/products-docex.htm
    How long did will it take for the Bush bashers to internalize this developement?

Proudly powered by WordPress & Skyrocket Themes

MENU

Navigation