Doing themselves no favours.

international | anti-war / imperialism | opinion/analysis

Tuesday December 06, 2005 13:00

by Fred

Imagine if the North Vietnamese had shot Hanoi Jane with a gun rather than a camera?

A group calling itself the Swords of Truth Brigades has kidnapped four members of the pacifist group Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), accusing them of being "spies working for the occupying forces.” They have threatened to kill the four hostages unless all detainees held by the Coalition and the Iraqi government are released by December 8.

The charge of spying has no clear foundation. The four men — British citizen Norman Kember, 74, American Tom Fox, 54, and Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32 — have track records as peace activists, most notably in the Palestinian area. CPT had been active in Iraq since before the war started, and supplied some of the “human shields” as symbolic protest against the impending liberation. Their mission had not changed. The day before he was kidnapped CPT team leader Tom Fox wrote: “We are here to stand with those being dehumanized by oppressors and stand firm against that dehumanization. We are here to stop people, including ourselves, from dehumanizing any of God's children, no matter how much they dehumanize their own souls.” By “oppressors” he, of course, meant the Coalition forces in Iraq.

The Iraqi CPT mission statement notes that “the primary focus of the team for eighteen months following the invasion was documenting and focusing attention on the issue of detainee abuses and basic legal and human rights being denied them.” This is ironic of course because any abuses suffered by people detained by the Coalition are investigated and the perpetrators punished, while those “detained” by the terrorists are simply hostages, without rights, without due process, without options. Abuse — which is a tame word to describe actions up to and including execution by such vile means as slow beheading with a knife — is part of the standard tool kit in the terrorist arsenal. Whether CPT felt it important to document these forms of abuse is unclear, but I’m guessing not.

Of course, CPT does not blame the terrorists for abducting their team members. A statement on their website notes, “we are distressed that those who have taken our friends, Harmeet, Tom, Norman and Jim, could try and bargain with their lives and we want to understand why they would do such a thing.” See, it’s all a matter of understanding it. It cannot be that the terrorists are sociopaths who foment violence against innocents as a means of pursuing their program for power; that would be too easy. In any case, CPT knows where the blame lies: “We are angry because what has happened to our teammates is the result of the actions of the U.S. and U.K. governments due to the illegal attack on Iraq and the continuing occupation and oppression of its people.” The terrorists are behaving as anyone else would under foreign military occupation. If they are forced to behead them, the blood is on the Coalition’s hands.

Meanwhile, on November 25, German archaeologist and Muslim convert Susanne Osthoff and her driver were taken captive by another militant group. They are demanding that Germany cease all business dealings with Iraq. Yes, that’s Germany, a country that opposed the war, and will not send troops there. True, Germany is helping train some Iraqi security forces outside the country — but why kidnap a Muslim woman, whose husband is an Iraqi, who did volunteer work in Iraqi hospitals, and who was a consistent critic of the war effort? In this respect, Ms. Osthoff fits the same profile as British aide worker Margaret Hassan, who was slain in November 2004.

CPT friends and fellow travelers have rallied around the effort to get the hostages released. And what a list. A letter in the Mennonite Weekly Review featured a letter signed by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), the Palestine People’s Party, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Democratic Union of Palestine, Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Palestinian Liberation Front, and the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front. “We appeal to our brothers in the resistance and all those with alert consciences in Iraq,” the letter said, “with whom we consider ourselves to be in the same trench confronting American aggression and occupation, to instantly and quickly release the four kidnapped persons from CPT, in appreciation for their role in standing beside and supporting our Palestinian people and all the Arab and Islamic peoples.” The Council on American Islamic Relations has called for their release as well. The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq seeks freedom for all five hostages.

Maybe the abductors will see reason; but there is no reason to believe they would recognize reason if they saw it. I do not even think they are good at what they do. These kidnappings are simply bad terrorism. The targets are all wrong. The point of taking hostages is to gain publicity, to bring issues and demands to the public eye whether they are realistic or not. If you can also raise money, so much the better. And if you execute people who are working on rebuilding projects or aiding Coalition forces, you might scare others away. However, you do not abduct the “useful idiots” on the other side who support you. This serves no purpose whatsoever.

A sensible terrorist political warfare strategy tries to drive wedges into the enemy society by isolating the groups you will never be able to win over and appealing to as wide a base as possible. The Swords of Truth Brigades should not be threatening the CPT team; they should be holding a joint press conference to denounce the Coalition. The way they are behaving is comparable to the North Vietnamese shooting Jane Fonda with a firing squad instead of a camera in 1972. The terrorists really do not know who their friends are. They kidnap humanitarian workers. They target journalists. They bomb the U.N. Lenin must be spinning in his tomb.

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Comments (10 of 10)

Whats the Message? & Who is the Message for?

by redjade

Tue Dec 06, 2005 14:05

There are hundreds of people that are currently kidnapped in Iraq that you never hear about - mostly because they are not Westerners and are not 'important' - such as Journalists, Archeos and so on - and most of the kidnapped are Iraqis themselves.

The number one reason for the kidnappings are making money from the families, governments and employers of those captured.

Its mostly about money making - and in the chaos of Iraq today it is possible to get away with this.

So, don't assume its all politics that is behind these kidnappings, and do not assume these kidnappings are any different from the hundreds of others that we never hear about.

And if they are 'political' kidnappings, do not assume that the kidnappers - which may be former Saddamists, Al-Q wannabes, Iranian backed Shia thugs, maybe even CIA backed thugs - want to have anything to do with 'winning the hearts and minds' of the West. 'The West' may not be the audience they are speaking to when then they kidnap Westerners.

There is no assumption here

Tue Dec 06, 2005 14:42

The group holding the four members of CPT are not demanding money. They are demanding that unless all detainees are released by coalition forces they will kill their hostages. They also video taped the hostages and have it posted on Islamic terrorist websites and on Al-Jazerra - so that it is in turn transmitted by Sky, BBC, NBC, CBS, Fox and printed in USAToday, The Telegraph, Guardian, Times, New York Times, Washington Post, Sydney Herald etc. etc. the global media
This is not about winning hearts and minds in the West- it is about putting terror into hearts and minds in the West.

It's obviously working on you - you are in complete denial.

a river in Egypt

Tue Dec 06, 2005 18:01

'It's obviously working on you - you are in complete denial.'

Whew! Hardly - just saying there may be more than meets the eye, that's all.

Another possibility is that the hostage taker group may have been clueless about the nature of the CPT - pacifist/anti-war etc - and just saw them as more infidel christians invading to convert the natives. Considering the Bush Team has given permission to American Evangelicals to operate in Iraq to do just that, its not hard to believe that they were confused.

I think the simplist answer to why the CPT is that they have been the easiest Westerners to grab - they operated in the open and were left unprotected by the occupation armies.

'The group holding the four members of CPT are not demanding money'

We don't know what's happening behind the scenes, so I wouldn't be so sure. Not the the CPT has any money or would give it either - but the hostage takers may have assumed otherwise.

'it is about putting terror into hearts and minds in the West'

Agreed. That is the strategy.

I hope they are freed soon.

I don't think so

Tue Dec 06, 2005 20:53

"Another possibility is that the hostage taker group may have been clueless about the nature of the CPT - pacifist/anti-war etc - and just saw them as more infidel christians invading to convert the natives. Considering the Bush Team has given permission to American Evangelicals to operate in Iraq to do just that, its not hard to believe that they were confused."

The hostage takers are Islamic fundementalists - it doesn't matter to them if the CPT are pacifist/anti-war did not come to Iraq to convert the natives - because they non-Muslims they are infidels.

I presume that like myself you would like to see a just society worldwide that protects promotes and protects personal liberty and enshrines the right to religious differences, sexual orientation and freedom of expression. I presume that like myself you like to drink alcohol dance listen to music watch movies and meeting members of the opposite sex. Perhaps you celebrate Christmas or occasionally wonder is there a god or gods or an afterlife but have no strong religious beliefs or perhaps none at all?

In the eyes of Al-Qaeda you are an infidel.
Either you convert to Islam and submit to Sharia Law or die.

Infidels in the US, EU, Japan,China and India dominate the world with technology and innovation in computers, shipping, aircraft, telecommunications, space travel and living standards in China and India newscomers to capitalism are begining to approach the standards of the living in the West.
If Western states were to cease using fossil fuels (liquid hydrogen, solar, wind, hydro, bio, geothermic and thermonuclear power look promising) Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq would return to desert nomads and camel herders as soon as the Sheiks ran out of money.

The most devout of the Islamic radicals are frustrated that their austere faith in Allah and the Prophet have not borne the same fruits as the infidels who worship money and sex.

Therefore they want to destroy us all and drag us all down to their level.

Wow,

by Jason

Wed Dec 07, 2005 16:04

What a load of hatemongering narrowminded rubbish you have written here. Do you really believe this? or is it a habit, like taking perverse opinions in college debates just for fun and a challenge?

The last comment seems totally unsupported.
while it's true the 'west has more money and technology' it also has more pollution, and declining standards of hospitality and community. The people of Iraq, were very welcoming to people trying to help.
The hostage takers, whether fundamentalists, CIA front groups or just plain nuts, don't represent most Iraqis. If they open their eyes, they will see their mistake - unless they are working for the CIA, in which case they deliberately target peace activists, in order to show how blood-thirsty and intractible the enemy is, and why they must be defeated.

thoughts and prayers with the hostages, and the Iraqi people that they are trying to help, May the 4 men make it home alive and well to their families, as hopefully, someday soon, so will the last US soldier out of Iraq...
salaam.

"Uh, gee Fred?"

by james

Wed Dec 07, 2005 16:24

who died and made you al qaeda chief policy writer.I think you will find that al qaeda policy is to eliminate infidel interference in there own part of the world and that they couldnt give a flying fig what we worship/eat/drink/smoke/sodomise over here once we leave them alone.Perhaps i am wrong but i dont remember any pre-emptive strikes or ethnic cleansing missions coming this way from the muslim world in the name of spreading there perception of how a society should be run.

Really?

Wed Dec 07, 2005 19:37

"Perhaps i am wrong but i dont remember any pre-emptive strikes or ethnic cleansing missions coming this way from the muslim world in the name of spreading there perception of how a society should be run."

Do you watch the news?
I happen to remember seeing planes crashing into the New York skyscrapers, bombs going off in Madrid London Istanbul and Bali and naked Russian schoolchildren gunned down by terrorists in Beslan.

Al Choudary, a well known Islamic extremist said that Ireland is a legitimate target for terrorists.

I suppose if bombs blow up people on Grafton Street you will forget that too and live in whatever cloud cuckoo land you inhabit as it nothing happened or just blame Bush for disrupting your slumbers.

Kathy Kelly writes...

Fri Dec 09, 2005 14:26

Blessed Are the Merciful in Baghdad
by Kathy Kelly
December 8, 2005

Our friends in the CPT are learning first hand the agonizing experience of over 5,000 Iraqi families whose loved ones have been abducted over the past year. The lives of other westerners who’ve been abducted, a German archaeologist, a French engineer, and an American security contractor are also in jeopardy.

Throughout the past week, CPT made clear that their prayers include loving care and concern not only for their own team members but also for all of the people in Iraq afflicted by the sad and tragic realities of warfare, including those who call themselves Swords of Righteousness.

By living outside the Green Zone and traveling without armed guards, CPT has risked a great deal to educate us about the plight of people living through the strains of war and occupation. Now they are helping us learn at deep and challenging levels about embracing the teachings of Jesus, who urged his followers, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Their courage helps liberate the essential Christian call to take serious risks on behalf of bringing liberty to the captive, relief to the oppressed and good news to the poor. With CPT members in the public eye, and as we enter the season when people will ostensibly celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, who was crucified under Roman Occupation, I hope we can still hear that call, above all, to pursue the works of mercy and end the works of war.

read the rest at
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1208-30.htm

please dont bomb us - AGAIN !!

by Barry

Fri Dec 09, 2005 20:20

Fred said ,

" I suppose if bombs blow up people on Grafton Street you will forget that too and live in whatever cloud cuckoo land you inhabit as it nothing happened or just blame Bush for disrupting your slumbers."

Thus far the only people that have indiscriminately bombed civilans on the streets of Dublin have been the British intelligence services . Your partner in the occupation of Iraq , Tony Blair ,refuses even today to offfer any assistance in an investigation to find out just who did commit the biggest mass murder in the Irish states history . As well as that even the other no warning bombs their intelligence services were behind that killed smaller numbers of people in Dublin and elsewhere remain a British state secret . As this is the case the biggest threat of indiscriminate bombing of Irish towns remains those who did it the last time - the British government .

The group behind this kidnapping is previously unheard of by anyone . People you would regard as muslim extremists have called for the immediate release of these hostages , ie Palestinians and the leadership of the Association of Muslim scholars in Iraq . So your raving about muslims in general borders on the racist .

Whether this is a bona fide resistance group , a criminal gang or a CIA/MI5 black operation has yet to be determined . However as the occupation forces "dont do numbers" of Iraqi civilians which die at their hands its quite possible that these people have copped on to the fact that Iraqi civilians are basically non-persons in the western media . Even when they are being slaughtered by the 100s with chemical weapons , cluster bombs and depleted uranium shells, such as in Fallujah , Ramadi and elsewhere . Under these circumstances they may feel that any white western face will make the world take notice as they obviously dont care when Iraqi non combatants are slaughtered .

If white phosphorous was being dropped on your neighbours its possible you may become equally as desperate .

The truth can silence.

by Irishman

Mon Jan 01, 2007 12:08

Barry put the situation in a nutshell. Wonder where Fred went?

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Doing themselves no favours.

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