The widow's mite

All the remaining members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams held hostage in Iraq were rescued by multinational forces. In a statement describing their release the organization said:

Our hearts are filled with joy today as we heard that Harmeet Singh Sooden, Jim Loney and Norman Kember have been freed safely in Baghdad. ... They went, motivated by a passion for justice and peace to live out a nonviolent alternative in a nation wracked by armed conflict. They knew that their only protection was in the power of the love of God and of their Iraqi and international co-workers. 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. [emphasis mine]

According to the BBC the three were rescued by

acting on information provided by a detainee, the US military says ... the crucial bit of intelligence that enabled the rescue came only after two men were captured by US forces on Wednesday night. One of the suspects had the information which led officials to the Baghdad house where the hostages were four months into their ordeal. ... Hostage James Loney reportedly confirmed that one person had led the forces to where they were held. In a telephone conversation with a friend, Mr Loney is said to have described the kidnappers as a criminal gang. Gen Lynch described the men thought to be responsible as "a kidnapping cell that has been robust over the last several months in conducting these kind of kidnappings."  [emphasis mine]

Comments

We judge figures by their actions under stress; note their choices; form some estimate of their capacity for truth; their ability to recognize quality even in their enemies. In the statement following their release Christian Peacemaker Teams have shown their quality by completely airbrushing out of the account of their rescue the fact it was performed by multinational forces. In terms of truthfulness, the statement of the CPT is in a class with that of Maurice Thorez, head of the French Communist Party, who described the Liberation of Paris  without once naming LeClerc, Patton, Eisenhower or even de Gaulle.

Paris is free. The people of Paris have chased out the Germans. The people of Paris have put a term to the activities of the traitors. Paris, ardent and tremulous rose up against the occupiers at the call of the Conseil National de la Résistance and the Comité Parisien de la Libération. Paris has liberated Paris. ... The Allied armies are striking redoubled blows against the enemy. While the battle of France is unfurling with growing success, the Red Army, joined in battle with the main forces of the German army, pursues its victorious offensive. It is smashing the furious and desperate counter-attacks of the Germans. It is destroying as many as 300 tanks in one day. And it irresistibly advances. Twice the day before yesterday, and three times yesterday, the cannons rang out in Moscow to salute the great victories carried off by the Red Army against the Germans and their Romanian satellites.

No mention of 2nd French Armored or the Third Army but the victories of the Red Army against Romania figure prominently. Yet Thorez was arguably more truthful an historian than the Christian Peacemaker Teams who do not mention their rescuers at all.

Now I can see that the Christian Peacemaker Teams were right to admire such as those who even one of their own described as criminal gangs. For I would much rather throw in with ruffians who still had a perverse sense of criminal honor and were willing to come to the aid of their fellows than entrust myself to people paralyzed with their own sense of sanctity, full of their own sense of righteousness. They have forbidden any attempts to visit retribution and justice upon their captors. And if they know anything more about this criminal gang they are unlikely to share it with the Coalition. The Washington Post reported shortly after CPT hostage Tom Fox was killed:

Members of the Langley Hill Friends Meeting, a peace group in northern Virginia to which Fox belonged, read a statement he co-wrote in October 2004 in which he shunned violence, even to rescue him should he ever be kidnapped. Members of the Langley Hill Friends Meeting, a peace group in northern Virginia to which Fox belonged, read a statement he co-wrote in October 2004 in which he shunned violence, even to rescue him should he ever be kidnapped. "We reject violence to punish anyone who harms us," said Doug Smith, quoting Fox, in a statement read to reporters at the group's headquarters in McLean, Virginia.

If I have it aright, the CPT would not on principle -- if the word can be perverted thus -- have placed a call, if they could, to save Tom Fox as he was being tortured to death because it might bring Multinational Forces rushing to violent rescue, an act they would have no part of. Yet they saw no contradiction in precipitating this absurd situation by their intentional presence in Iraq and by trailing their coat in the most dangerous neighborhoods; nor did they think it ethically consistent to refrain from telling the Press of the kidnapping though they must have known efforts to rescue them would be made, despite their well-publicized refusals. There is nothing more suspicious than false modesty performed conspicuously upon a stage.

As for myself, the Christian Peacemaker Teams remind me of nothing so much as Fred Phelps. I think that if ever there were an instance of latter-day blasphemy it must be in the CPT's hideous claim that their "only protection was in the power of the love of God and of their Iraqi and international co-workers". Nothing seems further than the truth. They've endangered themselves, the lives of innocent Iraqis and those who hazarded themselves to find and rescue them for the sake of their own self-righteous theater. Vanity, not love is their watchword. Fortune and men's eyes and not God is who they worship.


posted by wretchard at 3:04 PM | 57 comments links to this post  

Ship 'em back!  

Friday, March 24, 2006
Neither Holy, nor Roman, nor Empire

The Christian Peacemaker Teams are refusing to cooperate with authorities seeking information about their kidnappers. According to the Daily Telegraph:

The three peace activists freed by an SAS-led coalition force after being held hostage in Iraq for four months refused to co-operate fully with an intelligence unit sent to debrief them, a security source claimed yesterday. The claim has infuriated those searching for other hostages.

However, one of the former CPT hostages, Briton Norman Kemper "is understood to have given some helpful information. He provided details of the semi-rural area north-west of Baghdad where he was held and confirmed that his captors were criminals, rather than insurgents. Their motive was believed to be money."

The refusal was anticipated in a Belmont Club post called The Widows Mite. "They have forbidden any attempts to visit retribution and justice upon their captors. And if they know anything more about this criminal gang they are unlikely to share it with the Coalition" though Mr. Kemper has apparently cooperated to some extent. One of the hostages refusing to cooperate, Mr. James Loney, had characterized his captors as "criminals" according to the BBC. Those criminals had previously tortured and murdered their co-hostage Tom Fox.

Update
ABC News -- Details Released on Iraq Hostages' Ordeal

Peggy Gish, a member of the Chicago-based group for which the former hostages worked in Baghdad, said the men were bound and their captors left the building "right before the intervention."

However, prior to the "the intervention" things were not quite so bad.

Gish said the captives were not always bound during their captivity and were allowed to exercise regularly. The kidnappers provided medication for Kember, who had an undisclosed health problem. She said the three appeared physically fit despite their long captivity. "We do not know of any specific maladies, any particular illnesses, as a result," she said. "Even Norman (Kember) seemed fairly strong for what he had gone through." Gish said the captives never learned why they were kidnapped or who their captors were. "Our team has never received any direct communication with them," she said of the captors, adding that no ransom was demanded or paid. Gish also said she did not know why Fox was killed. "He was the only American," Gish said. "I don't know if that's the reason."

[Why did James Loney characterize his captors as "criminals" or Norman Kemper call them "criminals rather than insurgents" whose "motive was believed to be money" if "the captives never learned why they were kidnapped or who their captors were"? Although the captives were "not always bound during their captivity and were allowed to exercise regularly" they never learned a thing about why Tom Fox was killed. Did they bother to ask? Why would Fox be singled out as "the only American" if the captors were criminals interested only in money? Or are they now not sure?]

Commentary

This is an interesting illustration of how far uncritical antiwar sentiment will bend even the most basic ethical standards. The Christian Peacemaker Teams said in a statement issued after the hostages' rescue that:

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.

Illegal. Does this include the "illegal" occupation of Iraq by the Iraqi Transitional Government? Has the CPT unilaterally repealed unanimously adopted UN Security Council Resolution 1546 providing for an temporary Iraqi government until a full one should be formed, but which in the meantime is regarded as having sovereign attributes? Will the CPT cooperate with police authorities from the full Iraqi government after it is constituted in the coming weeks? Or is their concept of legality superior to all of these? And in any case, if the kidnappers were according to the CPT itself composed of "criminals, rather than insurgents", whose "motive was believed to be money", and who for that money tortured and killed Tom Fox, how does the CPT's 'principled' refusal to cooperate differ in any way from a conscious decision to shield an ordinary murderer from the police? How is that different from being an accomplice after the fact? How different from covering up for the Mafia or the Crips?

Though CPT liberally uses the words "illegal" and "Christian" to justify its actions one wonders whether they have the slightest conception of the words. Or the slightest regard for Tom Fox.


posted by wretchard at 5:57 PM | 62 comments links to this post  

The bridge at San Luis Rey

Three men currently in the blogs are loosely connected by a single theme. The first is Abdul Rahman, a Muslim who has been sentenced to death for converting to Christianity. Michelle Malkin has been featuring him prominently. Wikipedia has a short account of his life.

Abdul Rahman (probably born 1965) is an Afghan citizen who was arrested and charged with apostasy in Afghanistan in March 2006. His conversion from Islam to Christianity is punishable by death under most interpretations of the shariat, Islamic law (see apostasy in Islam). Abdul Rahman's arrest and trial has brought international attention to an apparent contradiction in the Constitution of Afghanistan, which recognizes both freedom of religion and the Hanafi school of sharia law. Abdul Rahman was probably born in 1965 in Panjshir Valley in Afghanistan. He converted to Christianity in 1990, while providing medical assistance to Afghan refugees in Peshawar, Pakistan, as a staff member of a Christian non-governmental aid group. In 1993, he moved to Germany, and he later unsuccessfully sought asylum in Belgium before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 after the fall of the Taliban government. Abdul Rahman was divorced by his wife over his conversion to Christianity, and in the ensuing custody battle over the couple's two daughters, she and her family raised the issue of his religion as grounds for denying him custody. Though facing a possible death sentence, Rahman holds firm to his convictions: "They want to sentence me to death and I accept it… I am a Christian, which means I believe in the Trinity… I believe in Jesus Christ."

The second is Fabrizio Quattrocchi, who the President of Italy has just awarded "Medaglia d'Oro al Valor Civile". His story is at Winds of Change and at the National Review Online. James Robbins at the National Review tells his story.

Witness Fabrizio Quattrocchi, 36, a baker from Italy who went to Iraq to work as a security guard for a contracting firm. He and three other Italians were taken hostage by al-Katibat al-Khadra, the Green Battalion, who demanded that Italy release some of the Muslim extremists they are holding, and that Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi apologize for statements he made that allegedly insulted Islam. They showed the hostages on video, and threatened to kill them if their demands were not met. To demonstrate they were serious, they took Quattrocchi to a field, and had him dig a large hole. They then put a hood over his head and forced him to kneel by the grave, preparing to murder him. But Fabrizio did not cooperate. He stood and tried to pull off the hood, shouting, "Now I'll show you how an Italian dies!" The terrorists shot him in the back of the neck.

Lastly, there is Desmond Doss, Second World War Medal of Honor Winner, who died at 87 in his home in Alabama.

“Raised a Seventh-day Adventist … instead of accepting a deferment, Doss voluntarily joined the Army as a conscientious objector … as a company medic … in Okinawa, Japan, he refused to take cover from enemy fire as he rescued approximately 75 wounded soldiers, carrying them one by one and lowering them over the edge of the 400-foot Maeda Escarpment. He did not stop until nearly 12 hours, later when he had brought everyone to safety”

 
Rahman

Quattrocchi

Doss

In other news:

Iraq's embassy to Canada lashed out at the Christian Peacemaker Teams Friday, calling them "phony pacifists" and "dupes" after the anti-war group responded to the rescue of three of its kidnapped activists by condemning the U.S.-led military intervention in Iraq. In a statement obtained by the National Post, the Iraqi embassy called CPT "willfully ignorant" and "outrageous," and accused the Chicago-based group of being on the side of anti-democratic forces in Iraq. "The Christian Peacemaker Teams practises the kind of politics that automatically nominate them as dupes for jihadism and fascism," the embassy's statement said. ... New details also emerged about the men's treatment during their confinement. Nash [Maxine Nash, a CPT worker in Baghdad] said the men struggled to communicate with their captors. Only Fox spoke a small amount of Arabic, so they mostly used hand signals. The men also said they had not been physically abused: They were given food and kept somewhat warm during the long winter. The main problem they encountered during 118 days of captivity, Nash said, was boredom. "If you're sitting there day after day with nothing to do, that must be a pretty boring thing," Nash said. "They didn't mention that they had a lot of fear on a daily basis. There were certainly times when they were fearful, mostly because of the unknown -- for example, when Tom [Fox] was taken and not returned." Fox, the American hostage, disappeared from the group on Feb. 12, Nash said. The hostages were initially under the impression he had been freed, but realized he may have met another fate after catching a glimpse of his face on television. The hostages did not learn for certain Fox was dead until after their release. The CPT workers in Iraq are also counteracting rumours Fox was tortured before he was killed. Nash cited two unidentified "independent sources" who said the American had been shot in the head and chest, but had not been tortured.

posted by wretchard at 2:18 PM | 75 comments links to this post  

We should encourage all those that want to go, to go.  Fuck it.  Darwin needs a major kickstart in this day and age.

Let them go, let them be captured, let their own words be their death sentence.

Sorry, don't have on scintilla of sympathy for these fucktards.

Some on this board claim they are not working against us.

Shoot them in the head so they don't have to witness anymore senseless violence like rescuing their dumb asses.

I wished they would've just left there sorry @$$es captive, and the next time we see them was their body and head would be seperated.  What a waste of time and effort, a bunch of ingrates if I've ever seen any.  What a bunch of dump $hits.

Someone call Jack Bauer, and give him a cigar cutter.

Kharn

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.



Perfect Example of sheeple mentality...

-If YOU weren't there in the FIRST place you wouldn't have been a hostage!!! It had NOTHING to do with the presence of US troops

Quit rescuing wanna be suicide victims. Just let them go.

Nothing seems more true than the last line of the posted story. Wish more would look at it that way(IMHO).



“ Vanity, not love is their watchword. Fortune and men's eyes and not God is who they worship. “