Free the Captives

CPT Kidnappers in Iraqi Custody

2006-11-08T02:24:00.000-05:00

Christian Peacemaker Norman Kember says he has received information that Iraqi police have arrested his kidnappers, according to reports that emerged seven hours ago.

from Reuters

"(The police) told me that the people who kidnapped us were in custody in Iraq, and that a due process of law was going on. And they hoped that there would be a trial in early 2007," Kember said, according to a transcript of the interview.

The Foreign Office was unable to confirm the arrests, while London's Metropolitan Police declined to comment.

The retired professor of medical ethics indicated he might be called on to testify against his captors, but said he would be reluctant to do so and would prefer to see them released.

"I feel that forgiveness is the most positive thing that we can do in this situation," he said.

"I don't wish them any ill. I think that some of them had reasons for regarding us as their enemies," he said.

At the same time, the peace campaigner said he would testify if it would help his kidnappers receive clemency.

My perspective of this is inflamed by my friendship with Tom Fox, Kember's companion in captivity who was murdered two weeks before Kember, Loney, and Sooden were rescued by Coalition forces. I find myself looking back to the CPT in Iraq Statement of Conviction signed by Tom in March of 2005:

We ask for equal justice in the arrest and trial of anyone, soldier or civilian, who commits an act of violence, and we ask that there be no retaliation on their relatives or property. We forgive those who consider us their enemies. Therefore, any penalty should be in the spirit of restorative justice, rather than in the form of violent retribution.

When news of Tom's death reached us in the United States, members of his Quaker meeting read the full text of this statement to CNN's cameras. What does it mean? How can we faithfully pursue not forgiveness only, but justice that is truely restorative?

The language of the Statement of Conviction suggests that Tom was alluding to his experience at the Center for Justice & Peacebuilding (CJP), where he studied before joining CPT. The basis of restorative justice, according to CJP co-director Howard Zehr, is seeking to heal and right wrongs: crime is a violation of human relationships, and violations create obligations; restorative justice seeks to meet the real needs that arise when people have been harmed.

This horrifying ordeal of kidnapping and murder has created such significant trauma. I don't claim to speak for the former hostages, but I experience that grief ramified in my own life and community. Clearly there is much need for recognition and healing. Applying "the spirit of restorative justice" to this painful reality is rife with difficult questions. As Quakers, we don't have a catechism with all the answers; instead we rely on an inner guidance called leadings. We ponder considerations and wrestle with quandaries.

While these are meaningful questions to consider, I also wonder what choices lie before us. If this trial is held over 6,000 miles away in Iraq, again we are faced with circumstances that are well beyond our influence. Under these circumstances what chance is there that any justice might help to heal our grief and trauma?

Jill Carroll Set Free Many More Left Behind

2006-03-30T23:36:00.000-05:00

Sorry we've been remiss in updating the site over the past few days. We imagined that the rescue of Christian Peacemakers Harmeet Sooden, James Loney, and Norman Kember would lead to some conclusion to our work here, but that does not seem to be the case. Chuck and I are now assessing the work that lies ahead. Can we make a practical contribution to the big picture of continuing witness on behalf of our friend Tom Fox, slain in captivity, and countless thousands of others in Iraq being detained without due process by various armed groups?

It is with great joy that we welcome journalist Jill Carroll home from her own captivity in Iraq, which overlapped that of the CPT members.

Langley Hill Friends Meeting, the community where Tom Fox was most grounded (though he had ties throughout the Quaker network), has posted an epistle calling on US Quakers and others who support Tom's work in Iraq to visit with Congressional delegates:

One piece of Tom's important work in Iraq was to try to help Iraqi families learn the whereabouts and safety of loved ones who they believed were being detained by the Iraq government or U.S./Coalition forces. Having one of our own held captive has helped us have a deep appreciation for the suffering of those Iraqi families who have missing loved ones.

We have decided on one important thing we can do to further Tom Fox's work and to advance the cause of human rights. We are meeting with our U.S. Senators and Representatives to ask them to abandon current US/Coalition practices, and to begin publishing routinely the names and locations of all detainees in their custody and to information those in detention of the charges against them. We passed a minute to this effect (printed on the back of this letter), and have already begun our visits.

In our meetings with our own congressional representatives we are emphasizing the spiritual basis of our concern, and communicating our empathy for families who do not know the whereabouts or safety of their loved ones.

While this outreach is important, I would add one thing. Knowing Tom in the workplace, I have seen that peacemaking for him was an everyday-life commitment based on servanthood and communion. Before he was elevated into management, he was a baker, and throughout my work with him, he seldom laid demands on his subordinates, whom he regarded with "mutual learning and respect." He was adept at diffusing tension and building fellowship through sharing meals and serving others.

In order to be faithful to Tom's example, I hope that those who are moved to make contact with Congressional delegates can be moved by the same spirit of fellowship that guided Tom's work at home and abroad. Perhaps friends of Tom can bring fresh-baked bread from their own ovens to share in their visits with Senators, Representatives, and Congressional staff.

Peacemaking on the foundation of faithful community demands significant discipline and humility; "the disciple is not above his teacher," and our Teacher went to the Cross. Few are ready to follow in those footsteps, and the way is both disreputable and difficult.

3/4: a stamement from Jim Loney

2006-03-27T11:00:00.000-05:00

Christian Peacemaker captive Jim Loney spoke today as he arrived home after 118 days of captivity in Iraq:

My friend and fellow Canadian in captivity, Harmeet Sooden, showed me something yesterday. Our captors gave us notebooks, and Harmeet opened his notebook to show me two fractions --3/4 and 4/4--that Tom had written. "It was the only thing he wrote in my book," he said. Tom, who had been a professional musician, wrote them as part of a lesson in music theory he
gave Harmeet --3/4 time, 4/4 time. Harmeet put his finger over the 3/4 and said, "In the beginning we were 4/4." Then he put his finger over the 4/4 and said, "Now we're this --3/4." We are only 3/4. Tom is not coming home with us. I am so sorry, Kassie and Andrew.

The UK Observer's report includes further details about Tom's role as a caregiver in captivity:

In the darkest moments of their kidnap ordeal, it was American Tom Fox, who had proved the strongest, consoling his other CPT hostages. It was Fox, who had spent two years in Baghdad and spoke some Arabic, who led the group when 'they were numb and down', said his friends at the city's Christian Peacemaker office. Ultimately his role as 'leader' of the group may have led to his death. Five weeks ago, the 54-year-old from Virginia was taken from the group and later found shot dead in Baghdad.

As Jim Loney sat recovering in the Green Zone last Friday, he recalled the moment when he was bundled at gunpoint into the kidnappers' car. It was a memory of the concern that showed on the face of his on his translator as they were led away, said Anita David, a member of the CPT team in Baghdad. And it was a memory that has been superseded in the past two days only by the knowledge that Fox was dead.

'He had been caretaking them. They were emotionally done in. He was the one who was supporting the rest,' said Anita David on Friday evening after visiting the men for a second time. News of his death, however, was confirmation of an awful intimation. Although they had been deprived of any access to news of what was going on in the outside world, at some stage in the last weeks of their captivity the men had briefly seen a television image of Fox's face and feared the worst.

Earlier in his statement, Loney talked about the the people who united to work for their release (emphasis added):

A great hand of solidarity reached out for us, a hand that included the hands of Palestinian children holding pictures of us, and the hands of the British soldier who cut our chains with a bolt cutter. That great hand was able to deliver three of us from the shadow of death. I am grateful in a way that can never be adequately expressed in words.

There are so many people that need this hand of solidarity, right now, today, and I'm thinking specifically of prisoners held all over the world, people who have disappeared into an abyss of detention without charge, due process, hope of release-- some victims of physical and psychological torture--people unknown and forgotten. It is my deepest wish that every forsaken human being should have a hand of solidarity reaching out to them.

May we be faithful the this great hand of solidarity, the servant church revealed by Tom's sacrifice.

Freedom in Peace and Quiet

2006-03-25T23:42:00.000-05:00

Christian Peacemaker Norman Kember arrived home today, giving his first public statement after over 16 weeks in captivity. After a day of rest, his colleagues Jim Loney and Harmeet Sooden began planning their trips back to Canada and New Zealand, respectively. Meanwhile media speculation abounds again regarding the circumstances of Tom Fox's death, who was held with them since November 26, 2005. Fox's life and work were commemorated today at a memorial in Baghdad.

"There is a real sense in which you are interviewing the wrong person," said Norman Kember today.

It is the ordinary people of Iraq that you should be talking to – the people who have suffered so much over many years and still await the stable and just society that they deserve.

Another group that I hope you do not forget are the relatives of British soldiers killed or wounded in Iraq.

I do not believe that a lasting peace is achieved by armed force, but I pay tribute to their courage and thank those who played a part in my release.

As Jim Loney prepares for his own trip home, a friend said Jim is worried about coping with the demanding media coverage, even though he "wants to tell the story... this is now a burden for him coming home."

Two British papers report today that the killing of Tom Fox may have been related to an escape attempt. While these details may prove out, we do not want to fuel excessive speculation on this, and stand by Tom's family in asking for restraint until the results of Tom's autopsy are available.

Christian Peacemaker Teams commemorated Tom in Baghdad today by erecting funeral banners at the site where his body was found, according to an Iraqi tradition:

After careful consultation with Iraqis, they have painted the following words on the large black banners, in Arabic:

"In memory of Tom Fox in this place. Christian Peacemaker Teams declares, 'We are for God and we are from God.'To those who held him we declare God has forgiven you."

The first sentence notes the place of his body. The second sentence is a traditional condolence from the Quran. The third sentence echoes of Jesus' cry from the Cross, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34). It is also in keeping with the local understanding that people do not forgive, only God can forgive. [...]

After the service, the team was sharing with an Iraqi friend their concern for Tom's children and their regrets that any children that they might have will never know their grandfather. The friend replied, "Tom is a hero. It will be an honour for those children to have a grandfather who died in this way and to tell their children about him. I never met anyone like you people who would come here, at this time, to people whom you don't know. You are angels."

"I now need to reflect on my experience," said Norman Kember at the end of his statement today, "...and also to enjoy freedom in peace and quiet." There is much for us all to reflect on; may we join Norman for some "freedom in peace and quiet," mindful of the communities torn apart by war.

Status of the CPT Captives

2006-03-25T03:25:00.000-05:00

A letter from Christian Peacemaker Teams today gave some details about their colleagues recently rescued from almost seventeen weeks of captivity, including Harmeet Sooden, Jim Loney, and Norman Kember:

The team found the men to be well, alert and in good spirits. The men asked many questions about their families, friends and colleagues at home and in Iraq. They have also begun to tell some parts of the story of their captivity--of efforts to stay physically fit, of periodic separations and reunions, of receiving a Christmas cake.

The news of Tom Fox's death--which they learned about only after their release--has been a particular burden. They said that Tom had taken leadership in encouraging the group right from the beginning of their captivity. They have not yet shared with CPT details about their captors or the events which led to their freedom.

In a statement released to the Baghdad media on 24 March, they wrote, "We are deeply grateful to all those who worked and prayed for our release. We have no words to describe our feelings of great joy at being free again. Our heads are swirling and when we are ready we will talk to the media."

CPT's co-directors Carol Rose and Doug Prithcard added another expression of gratitude, thanking "religious leaders and soldiers, teammates and government officials, partner organizations, friends, family, children, women and men all over the world."

But they also announced a new plea:

In order not to cause Tom Fox's family further pain, and for the sake of accuracy, CPT urges that the media and everyone concerned refrain from repeating the rumour that Tom Fox was tortured. Two CPTers, Rev. Carol Rose and Rich Meyer, viewed Tom's body and did not see signs of torture. We also have reports from two additional independent sources who examined the body more thoroughly. They also did not find evidence of torture. Until the final
autopsy report is released, we ask everyone to withhold their judgment.

Canadian and British news sources posted further details about the ordeal, looking forward to the imminent return of Jim, Norman, and Harmeet to their homes.

Giving Thanks

2006-03-24T00:00:00.000-05:00

Today we were overwhelmed with bittersweet joy: the Christian Peacemaker captives were freed without shots being fired, rescued according to reports by British-led special forces. While we give thanks for this turn of events, the absence of our friend Tom Fox from the group has been tough.

Our immediate impulse was thanksgiving: giving thanks to God that these men are safe, giving thanks to all of those at home and abroad who worked and prayed for their release, giving thanks to everyone who has supported their work and its continuation, and giving thanks for the rescue effort, in which no one was killed or injured. For armed strangers facing down threat after threat in a country torn apart by daily violence and strife, it is remarkable that this operation was carried out without further casualties. We do not support the ongoing occupation of Iraq, but we know that the soldiers serving there are human beings endowed with the same qualities we cherish in our friends and neighbors.

Our site traffic spiked at 1,300 page views, and many readers left comments, mostly on our memorial page for Tom Fox. Readers expressed anger and outrage about CPT's lack of gratitude. What was this about? The source of contention seems to be a statement released today by Christian Peacemaker Teams in which the team did not mention the military intervention. Was this oversight a sign of disrespect for those who serve in the armed forces?

Not acordiong to Ekklesia, a religious think tank associated with Christian Peacemaker Teams in the UK (emphasis added):

The pacifist group made it clear that they were not asking for military intervention on behalf of their members, and today they expressed relief that no-one appears to have been killed in the armed operation.

Said Simon Barrow ...: "Christian peace makers have great respect for those who carried out the operation to free the captives, but they nevertheless remain firmly committed to nonviolence as the only effective, long-term way to break the cycles of hatred, revenge, terror and killing which are destroying Iraq and threatening the world."

Said Barrow: "Many people will continue to question the propriety of unarmed interventions in places of great danger and conflict. But Christian Peacemaker Teams have made it clear that they will not be deterred by threats or opposition. They are tough-minded people who know the situation and know what they were doing. When Jesus called on his followers to make peace, he never said it was going to be anything other than risky – and he paid with his life."

Because this sentiment seems to have been lost in transmission, I feel compelled to make a more explicit statement. This site is not affiliated with Christian Peacemaker Teams, and I can't speak on their behalf, but this comes from a friend of Tom Fox, slain before the rescue:

I give thanks to all those who endure sacrifice to serve others, including those who rescued Tom's team members, and including the families of military personnel. Thank God that no shots were fired, and that the captives are safe!

Today I thought a lot about Robert Smith, a Quaker and former headmaster of Sidwell Friends School who served in the armed forces during World War II. Sometimes, to live humanly and with integrity, we have to take decisive action, even in defiance of our understanding of God's will. After the war, he went back to Europe as a civilian volunteer with American Friends Service Committee to help rebuild many of the same villages that he helped destroy. How could any of us condemn either commitment emerging from his desire to serve others? This wrestling to me seems much more faithful to the ancient Christian peace witness than the attitude that we already have all the answers.

While I remain committed to the example of redemptive love and suffering borne by my friend Tom Fox, I also understand that his leading to serve in Iraq is not for everyone. I know Tom Fox as a human being, a baker, a musician, a dad, a friend, and a mentor. Seeing the human isolation and suffering he had to endure reminds me that the way of the Cross is a way of radical servanthood that we cannot lay on others. Condemning others for not choosing the way of the Lamb seems preposterous. I am condemned by own reluctance to follow in the Lamb's footsteps.

For our family, friends, and neighbors who serve in the armed forces are not the ones making war and terror, although they kill and die on the front lines. War and terror emerge from our culture of valuing ourselves over others, valuing convenience and complacency over human life. We all participate in the forces that drive war and terror to the extent that we fill a productive role in society. This is not a message of spite, but a message of hope. Any of us can help to enact the Peaceable Kingdom by serving others and building civility on the frontiers between friend and enemy that exist wherever we are.

Gene Stoltzfus asks:

How should Christian peacemakers place themselves into difficult situations where terrorism is rampant? Is there a more disciplined way in which peacemaker work might function more effectively in our congregation to overcome terrorism and war?

While the messages of blame, shame, and condemnation are diversions that can only dehumanize ourselves and others, honest wrestling with these tough queries and others may help us find a way forward, a way that builds fellowship across the borders in a world ensnared by terror.

Simon Barrow pointed this out after the article above went online:

CPT released this statement last night - "We have been so overwhelmed and overjoyed to have Jim, Harmeet and Norman freed, that we have not adequately thanked the people involved with freeing them, nor remembered those still in captivity. So we offer these paragraphs as the first of several addenda: We are grateful to the soldiers who risked their lives to free Jim, Norman and Harmeet. As peacemakers who hold firm to our commitment to nonviolence, we are also deeply grateful that they fired no shots to free our colleagues. We are thankful to all the people who gave of themselves sacrificially to free Jim, Norman, Harmeet and Tom over the last four months, and those supporters who prayed and wept for our brothers in captivity, for their loved ones and for us, their co-workers. We will continue to lift Jill Carroll up in our prayers for her safe return. In addition, we will continue to advocate for the human rights of Iraqi detainees and assert their right to due process in a just legal system."

Christian Peacemakers Freed without a Shot Fired

2006-03-23T10:31:00.000-05:00

Multiple reports today detail the rescue of James Loney, Harmeet Sooden, and Norman Kember. Here is one detailed article, more details will be posted as they become available.

Thank God they're safe!

We're relieved by reports that no shots were fired, and we give thanks to everyone who endures sacrifice to serve others.

Doug Pritchard of Christian Peacemaker Teams writes:

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.

We rejoice in the return of Jim Loney. He has cared for the marginalized and oppressed since childhood, and his gentle, passionate spirit has been an inspiration to people near and far.

We rejoice in the return of Norman Kember. He is a faithful man, an elder and mentor to many in his 50 years of peacemaking, a man prepared to pay the cost.

We remember with tears Tom Fox, whose body was found in Baghdad on March 9, 2006, after three months of captivity with his fellow peacemakers. We had longed for the day when all four men would be released together. Our gladness today is made bittersweet by the fact that Tom is not alive to join in the celebration. However, we are confident that his spirit is very much present in each reunion. [...]

Today, in the face of this joyful news, our faith compels us to love our enemies even when they have committed acts which caused great hardship to our friends and sorrow to their families. In the spirit of the prophetic nonviolence that motivated Jim, Norman, Harmeet and Tom to go to Iraq, we refuse to yield to a spirit of vengeance. We give thanks for the compassionate God who granted our friends courage and who sustained their spirits over the past months. We pray for strength and courage for ourselves so that, together, we can continue the nonviolent struggle for justice and peace.

The Noise of Empire: Bombs, Bullets & Bodies

2006-03-23T01:56:00.000-05:00

Scholar Chalmers Johnson presents crucial, revealing insights into the nature and impact of imperial militarism on the American economy and culture in a must-read interview. The humanitarian disaster is further illustrated in a report from Caritas Internationalis, below.

However, there was no news on Wednesday of the three Christian Peacemakers still held captive in Iraq.

Civil war Report: Developments in Iraq include multiple attacks against police, pilgrims, and even more bodies were found with hands bound.

Caritas Still at Work in Iraq: Along with Christian Peacemaker Teams "Caritas Iraq is one of the few NGOs still operative in Iraq, bringing assistance to an ever-expanding number of people in need."

In an interview Friday given to ADNKronos International news agency, Nabil Nissan of Caritas Iraq explained that the problems they are facing now are even more difficult than when Saddam Hussein was in power.

"[Then] there were health centres, but we lacked medicines and equipment," said Nissan, who is the manager of the "Well Baby Programme," one of Caritas Iraq’s most important projects.

"Today people are less able to access health care because of the daily violence, and while the supplies are available growing corruption means they are often diverted away from those most in need," Nissan added. [...]

Caritas Internationalis is a confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development, and social service organisations present in over 200 countries and territories.

Sectarian Violence Creating Iraq Exiles:

Thousands of Shiite and Sunni families who once lived side by side have been forced from their homes and into a desperate exile, victims of the beginnings of ethnic cleansing a month after the bombing of an important Shiite shrine.

Tom Fox Not Tortured?

2006-03-22T00:53:00.000-05:00

More Civil War:

Guerrillas ... attacked the police headquarters and courthouse in Miqdadiya, about 100 km (60 miles) northeast of Baghdad, killing at least 22 policemen, police said. The gunmen released 33 prisoners in the attack on the police headquarters, police said.
BAGHDAD - Four bodies with bullet wounds were found in the Hay al-Jamaa district of Baghdad, police said.
BAQUBA - Two policemen were killed and one was wounded when a roadside bomb struck their patrol in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
BAGHDAD - A U.S. soldier was killed by small arms fire while on patrol in western Baghdad, the military said.

Also from Reuters:

The United Nations expressed concern on Tuesday about the fate of 89 Palestinians, nearly half of them children, who fled Baghdad and have been stuck in no man's land since Sunday after Jordan closed its border. [...]

Hundreds of Iranian Kurds and Palestinians lived in no man's land for more than two years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The camp was closed in May 2005, but UNHCR said Tuesday that some 200 Iranian Kurds remain on the Iraqi side of the no man's land, but were difficult to reach.

The latest tally of military and civilian deaths in Iraq includes 2,516 slain in the U.S.-led Coalition, and up to 37,832 Iraqi civilians with other estimates in excess of 100,000.

A Mennonite news service refuted earlier reports, reporting that Tom Fox's body showed no signs of torture when viewed by relatives and friends after arrival in the US and before his cremation. It should be noted, however, that like all media coverage of these events, this report could contain possible inaccuracies, and we await more definitive evidence.

There was no news on Tuesday of the three CPT peaceworkers held captive in Iraq since lat November.

The Power Of Truth, The Lies Of Power

2006-03-21T02:02:00.000-05:00

Speaking the Sad Truth to power: former interim prime minister Iyad Allawi told the BBC on Sunday:

"It is unfortunate that we are in civil war. We are losing each day as an average 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more. If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is."

A police headquarters north of Baghdad was attacked by rebels Monday killing 18. Throughout Iraq, according to AP, the day's death toll was at least 39.

If that's not dismaying enough, Iraq scholar Juan Cole lists the "Top ten Catatstrophes of the Third year of American Iraq." It is a sobering list.

In Washington, dozens of anti-war protesters were arrested near the Pentagon.

Meantime, official baloney and bafflegab continued.

In London, UK Defense Minister John Reid said, "The situation in Iraq is serious but it is not terminal. ... There is certainly nothing inevitable about a slide towards civil war."

In Cleveland Ohio, the man in the White House praised "the progress made in bringing more Iraqi security forces online is helping to bring peace and stability to Iraqi cities."

And there was no news on Monday of the three CPT peace workers still held captive in Iraq.

Memorial Updates

2006-03-20T09:46:00.001-05:00

There are yet no concrete plans for the memorial of Tom Fox. Events of remembrance have been hosted by Eastern Mennonite University and Fredereck Friends Meeting. Over the weekend, our memorial page for Tom was updated to include tributes from all over the internet. Contact Martin Kelley if you know of other tributes that do not appear here. You may also share your own reflections here.

We unite with this statement, posted anonymously, under the title The Death of Tom Fox and the Life of Christianity [emphasis mine]:

The tools of war are bombs, bullets and lies. If the objective of this war were really to free Iraqis, rebuild their country, improve their future, we would have to lay aside the tools of war because the first act of love is show trust and trust implies vulnerability. The invulnerable cannot love any more than the uncrucified can save.

In Iraq our soldiers live in fear and want more armor, often shooting anyone who approaches them. At home our American people live in fear and seek anxiously for security; unwilling to accept any risk ,we seem to crave invulnerability, reluctant to make any sacrifice. In short we are become a nation of Anti-Christs. [...]

Thanks to Tom Fox, I am no longer ashamed to call myself a American and a Christian, but I am ashamed I have risked so little for God and my fellow man.

Double-Talk Sunday

2006-03-19T23:43:00.000-05:00

Aljazeera:

Three years after the invasion of Iraq, US leaders have rejected claims that the country is sliding into civil war and said they remain optimistic that a stable democratic society can emerge.

The remarks followed widely publicised comments on Sunday by former Iraqi premier Iyad Allawi that the country had already plunged into civil war.

General George Casey, commander of US military forces in Iraq, argued on Sunday that an Iraq civil war was neither "imminent" nor "inevitable".

"I personally don't believe ... that we're there now," he said, referring to civil war.

Reuters: Leaving Iraq now would be the same as "handing postwar Germany back to the Nazis," U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in a column published on Sunday, as retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton called Rumsfeld incompetent and urged him to resign.

"The terrorists seem to recognize that they are losing in Iraq. I believe that history will show that to be the case," Rumsfeld said. [...]

But in an opinion piece published on Sunday in the New York Times, Eaton said Rumsfeld had proven himself "not competent to lead our armed forces" and therefore "must step down."

The Associated Press:

President Bush marked the anniversary of the Iraq war Sunday by touting the efforts to build democracy there and avoiding any mention of the daily violence that rages three years after he ordered an invasion.

The president didn't utter the word "war."

Meanwhile in Iraq,

As the Iraq war entered its fourth year, nearly 1,500 U.S. and Iraqi soldiers on Sunday sought to root out insurgents from farming villages an hour's drive north of the capital, and at least 35 people died in insurgent and sectarian violence nationwide.

And there was no news on Sunday March 19 of the three CPT peaceworkers still held captive in Iraq. We repeat our call to their captors – let them go, safely and immediately!

"When Evil is Vanquished"

2006-03-18T22:33:00.000-05:00

In Baghdad, according to Reuters, the bodies of 16 shooting victims were found in different areas of the capital, amid waves of sectarian violence. 2315 US soldiers have now been killed in Iraq, according to official figures. Iraqi casualties, especially civilians, have been plausibly estimated as in excess of 100,000.

Centre Daily Times published today Christian Peacemaker David Miller's response to an editorial by Cal Thomas:

Thomas wrote, "Peace happens when evil is vanquished."

Many Christian Peacemaker Team members might agree with this statement on the surface. They categorically reject, however, the means Thomas would employ to this end.

Evil is not vanquished by violence. The vision and mission of CPT is grounded in the life and teachings of Jesus. He taught that evil is not overcome with evil, but with good. Those who would follow him in the world are called upon to "love their enemies and pray for those who persecute them." These were not abstractions but a clear, embodied example.

Roots of today's conflict can be traced, in part, to a Christian church that, in the Middle Ages, explained away the clear instructions of its Lord, embraced the sword as a means to end, and embarked on a lethal campaign of crusades that slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Muslims and Jews.

Chuck Fager's response to the same text was posted here previously.

Amid global demonstrations against the present war in Iraq, CPT members in Toronto vigiled in remembrance of preacemakers and the victims of war.

There was no news on Saturday of the fate of the three remaining CPT peaceworkers held captive in Iraq since November 26, 2005.

Global Protests Initiated Amid Civil War

2006-03-18T00:55:00.000-05:00

Civl war, continued: At least five US soldiers were killed Friday. At least twelve Iraqis were killed (or their bodies found) in Baghdad and nearby cities. On a pilgrim road to Karbala, at least 19 more Muslim pilgrims and others were killed by gunfire and bombs.

The Associated Press reports from Sydney, Australia:

An anti-war rally in Australia kicked off what was expected to be a wave of global protests on Saturday, as campaigners marked the third anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq with a demand that coalition troops pull out.

Newsweek Follow-up:

A faulty report by Newsweek has been updated, correcting all errors revealed here in an earlier message. From the Editor's note:

The updated report also removed a headline describing executed hostage Fox as a missionary. Spokesmen from the Christian Peacemaker Teams have contacted NEWSWEEK to say that group members are not missionaries but rather human rights workers inspired by their Christian faith. "CPT is not a missionary group, and we do not proselytize, nor do we 'spread the gospel' or any such other typical missionary activity," said a spokesman. "We place violence-reduction teams in crisis situations at the invitation of local peace and human rights workers."

At the time of this writing, we have found no new reports of the three CPT peaceworkers still held captive in Iraq.

Off-Target, Yet Again

2006-03-16T22:43:00.000-05:00

"U.S. forces staged airborne raids on Sunni insurgents Thursday as a first session of the new Iraqi parliament was reduced to an empty gesture..." To avert civil war, forming a unity government was seen as vital, but remains in deadlock. According to media reports, the assault north of Baghdad was the biggest US air offensive since the 2003 invasion.

As the US airborne raids continued, Human Rights Watch issued a new report, "Off Target: The conduct of the War and Civilian Casualties in Iraq, asserting that US airborne tactics led to many unnecessary casualties.

"All too often civilians pay with their lives when American bombs fall in Iraq," said Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch. "The U.S. military has in the past launched 'decapitation' strikes aimed at top leaders but based on bad intelligence, and also used cluster munitions in populated areas of Iraq." [...]

Human Rights Watch found that U.S. forces could have prevented hundreds of civilian casualties by abandoning two faulty military tactics – the use of cluster munitions and heavy reliance on "decapitation" strikes designed to kill Iraqi military and political leaders.

On the eve of the third anniversary of the US invasion, Reuters reporters ventured out to interview Iraqis on the question: "Better or worse? Iraqis ponder life after Saddam." Of nineteen Iraqis quoted in the article, only two clearly preferred the current post-Saddam conditions. Two typical comments were:

"If the percentage of the good life was one percent before, it is zero percent now," Salim Mahmood, 46, said gloomily as he sold tea and coffee near a Baghdad restaurant.

"Before, people feared prison. Now people fear everything. Even in your own house you can't feel safe or trust your neighbour," said Basra housewife Um Ahmed, 35.

US Secretary of state Rice was met in Australia with "protesters' cries of 'war criminal' and 'murderer'," as she "defended her government's role in Iraq ... and said patience and sacrifice were needed to finish the job."

Speaking to students at the University of Sydney's Conservatorium of Music, Rice said she understood why people found it hard to be positive about Iraq when all they saw on their television screens was violence.

"I am confident that the Iraqis will triumph, that we will win in Iraq but we must be patient with these people," said Rice, who repeatedly thanked Australia for being among the first allies to send troops to Iraq.

And there was no news on Thursday of the three CPT peaceworkers held captive in Iraq since November. We repeat our urgent call for them to be set free, safely and at once!

Victims Piling Up, Blaming the Victim

2006-03-16T02:02:00.000-05:00

US troops were accused of killing 11 family members, including several children, in a raid on a house where suspected Al Queda member was captured. Reuters reported that "community leaders said they were outraged" by the killings.

On Wednesday, many more Iraqis fell victim to the sectarian civil war. This phrase will be used here henceforth, without apology. The political debate about it iseems to us fraudulent and diversionary. At least 22 bodies were found in Baghdad; several more were killed by bombs and shootings; and three US soldiers died as well. Leading clerics also acknowledged that they are losing their restraining influence over sectarian militias and other insurgent groups.

Meantime, there was no news Wednesday of the three CPT peaeceworkers held captive in Iraq.

In Washington, a new "blue-ribbon "task force" of ten former top government officials has been created to advise Congress on how to produe an "honest assessment" of the US involvement in Iraq and find ways to "go forward" there.

One of its co-chairmen, former secretary of state James Baker, added that one purpose of the group was to "take this out of politics."

From here, however, this remark seems patently false. Far from being outside of politics, such a group's main goal is entirely political, namely to gain the attention of a one-person audience in Washington DC, the man in the White House specifically.

In this, the group is highly reminiscent of the informal group of "Wise men" who told President Lyndon Johnson in early 1968 that the Vietnam war was a lost cause. Johnson, greatly to his credit, listened to them, stopped increasing the troop level in Vietnam, and did not run for re-election.

Can this new gaggle of "wise men" bring about some equivalent? Quakers are not supposed to wager – but I wouldn't bet the ranch on it. They are faced with an audience that has cultivated the habit of not listening into a high art.

Finally, on Wednesday columnist Cal Thomas, a longtime mouthpiece of the religious right, published an article trashing Tom Fox and CPT as phony Christians and fake peacemakers. View the column here with Chuck Fager's has response.

A Day's Ghastly Tally

2006-03-14T22:38:00.000-05:00

The Associated Press headline is likely nearest the truth: Iraq Edges Closer to Open Civil Warfare. Though this may in fact be an understatement:

Iraqi authorities discovered at least 87 corpses - men shot to death execution-style - as Iraq edged closer to open civil warfare. Twenty-nine of the bodies, dressed only in underwear, were dug out of a single grave Tuesday in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad. [...]

...the bloodshed appeared to be retaliation for a bomb and mortar attack in the Sadr City slum that killed at least 58 people and wounded more than 200 two days earlier. [...]

Underlining the unease in the capital, Interior Ministry officials announced another driving ban, from 8 p.m. Wednesday to 4 p.m. Thursday to protect against car and suicide bombs while the Iraqi parliament meets for the first session since the Dec. 15 election.

Reuters added that while radical Shi'ite cleric and militia leader, Moqtada al-Sadr "called publicly for restraint" on Monday, nevertheless, "in Sadr City, the bodies of men labelled 'traitors' were hung from telegraph poles and officials say privately that Shi'ite militia commanders are no longer all heeding clerical appeals for calm."

There's more. Juan Cole cites an Arabic-language report on a study examining the negative effect of the current situation on Iraqi women. "They are 62% of the population, and face the practical effects of the unemployment and poverty... which contributes to higher rates of divorce and abandonment, as well as prostitution."

Says Cole, this "administration keeps crowing about having liberated Iraqi women. It is to weep."

We found no new reports on Tuesday of the three remaining CPT peaceworkers, held captive in Iraq since late November. Given the day's ghastly tally, no news can only be considered – well, not bad news.

And one more item: "Defense Secretary Rumsfeld hinted Tuesday that US troop levels may increase slightly in Iraq in the coming days," as commanders "bulk up slightly" because of upcoming religious pilgrimages.

Remembering Tom Fox

2006-03-14T11:49:00.000-05:00

Fayetteville NC - Last Thursday, we had a meeting at Quaker House to finalize the subjects and speakers for our annual peace march and rally here on March 18. That night, Tom Fox was not on the list.

Twenty-four hours later, he was.

Much of the peace rally's program will recall the many who have fallen in the Iraq war – US troops, civilians, and innocent Iraqis. Tom Fox is not the only civilian on that brutally long roster. But he is the first fallen American who went to Baghdad as an unarmed peacemaker.

Tom's path to Iraq and an ignominious death was straightforward. He and I talked about it last August, when I saw him for the final time.

It was at our Quaker yearly meeting in Virginia. Tom was between tours in Iraq, and we shared a meal and did some catching up.

We talked first about kids, as older dads will do. We both have a daughter and son the same age, and all four grew up in Langley Hill Friends Meeting, near Washington DC. They're in their twenties now, scattered across the continent, but still in touch. A few years back, our sons started a Quaker Hip Hop group called the Friendly Gangstaz Committee. The band caused quite a stir in our small Quaker world with startling, shouted renditions of well-worn hymns like "Simple Gifts." Tom and I chuckled ruefully about that.

We also talked about work. From that same faith community, Tom and I had traveled somewhat parallel paths, trying to be true to the meaning of texts like, "Blessed are the peacemakers," (Matthew 5:9) and "seek peace and pursue it." (Proverbs 34:14)

How do you "pursue peace" in a violent world? My own seeking led, after a series of conventional jobs, to Fayetteville and Quaker House. Tom did twenty years in the Marine band, then was a baker at a growing health food supermarket. He was good at it, and his bosses wanted him to join management.

But Tom heard a "different drummer," especially after September 11, 2001. With a war on, he felt called to "pursue peace" in a concrete way. After much prayer and reflection, he joined the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT).

CPT sets out to bring the "weapons of the spirit" into the front lines of conflict, places where death and life are but a hair's breadth apart. Tom's first assignment took him to the Occupied Territories of Palestine. [Ed: Tom's visit to Palestine actually came at the end of his first tour in Iraq.]

This was dangerous work, amid a conflict which seems hopelessly intractable. Tom stuck with it. Then, when the Iraq occupation shifted from the foolish illusion of "mission accomplished" to the grinding facts of guerilla and civil war, he headed there.

After Tom was kidnapped, Rush Limbaugh sneered that "part of me likes this," because, "I like any time a bunch of leftist feel-good hand-wringers are shown reality."

What's striking in this comment is not only the mean-spiritedness, but also the ignorance. Tom knew the reality of Baghdad's dangers firsthand. He talked frankly about them over that last August supper. Tom was calm but clear about it: kidnapping, torture, murder were on all sides there.

It was a CPT team, after all, that brought the first reports about the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison to reporter Seymour Hersh. They had seen other humanitarian workers kidnapped and some killed.

But there's more to it than that. The Christian Peacemaker Teams take their identity seriously. Their namesake, after all, was another unarmed troublemaker in an occupied country, who was also tortured and then suffered an ignominious public execution. One other phrase that comes to mind is Matthew 10:24: "The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord."

So Tom has met his fate, and we mourn the loss. But at the peace rally this Saturday we will remember his witness. We will also remember that in the founding saga from which his team took its marching orders, death was a tragedy, but not the end of the story.

Quaker House will be hosting a public memorial for Tom Fox on Saturday March, 18 in Fayetteville. Another memorial has been planned for Wednesday, March 15 in Harrisonburg, Virginia by Eastern Mennonite University. Friends and supporters of Tom's work can share their memories and reflections here.

Tom's Last Journey

2006-03-14T10:50:00.000-05:00

CPT's Doug Pritchard writes in:

The U.S. Embassy arranged for Beth Pyles, a member of the CPT Iraq team, to travel to Anaconda, and she was able to keep vigil with Tom for the next 36 hrs. until his departure. [...]

Pyles was present on the tarmac at Anaconda as Tom's coffin was loaded onto the plane for Dover. She reported that his coffin was draped in a U.S. flag. This is unusual for a civilian, but Tom may not have been uncomfortable with this since he had always called his nation to live out the high ideals which it professed. Iraqi detainees who die in U.S, custody are also transported to Dover for autopsies and forensics. On this plane, right beside Tom's coffin, was the coffin of an Iraqi detainee. So Tom accompanied an Iraqi detainee in death, just as he had done so often in life.

Monday the Short Version

2006-03-14T00:47:00.001-05:00

17 or more killed in ongoing violence in Iraq. More wounded. Two US soldiers killed. The US toll is now 2309.

But the AP asserted that it was a relatively quiet day, without a wave of revenge violence for the huge bombings in a Shia area of Baghdad on Sunday. The British government announced plans for withdrawing 800 of its troops, aboout ten per cent of its force there.

Memorials for Tom Fox continued. And there was no news of the three remaining CPT captives on Monday march 13. We say again: Let Them Go!

Tom Fox Memorial Page

2006-03-13T10:26:00.000-05:00

We Give Thanks for the rescue of Tom's colleagues and wish that he could have shared their fate. If you wish to comment on the rescue, you may do so here. This page is dedicated to the memory of Tom Fox, and all unrelated messages will be removed.

We have received many prayers, condolences, and messages of loving support on behalf of Tom Fox.

No one else ever met Tom Fox in the way you did.

Each of us met Tom's presence in a specific time and place, sharing communion with him in different ways.

Please feel free to add a link to your own tribute, or share your messages and memories here. Other reflections, writings, and remembrances are being archived by ElectronicIraq.

Find more tributes to Tom Fox.

Not a "Good Day in Baghdad"& Dangerous Reporting about Tom Fox

2006-03-13T00:27:00.000-05:00

At least 66 people were killed and more than 300 wounded in a series of attacks in Iraq, including 50 dead and 290 injured in a triple car bombing of a Baghdad Shia neighbourhood. Described by US Ambassador Zalmay Khalizad as "a good day in Baghdad", Aljazeera said it was one of the worst days of violence there in recent months.

Sunday's attacks coincided with the announcement that Iraq's parliament would meet on Thursday for the first time since the December elections.

Elsewhere in Baghdad, US forces were fighting a fierce battle with Iraqi fighters in a western neighbourhood. Police said the fighting erupted about 3pm in Khadra.

An AP Television News cameraman reported that a US helicopter landed nearby to evacuate casualties.

It was not known what prompted the fighting or if there were any dead. There was no immediate comment from the US military.

And these blasts came after a night of fierce violence in Baghdad. Officials at Yarmouk Hospital, one of Baghdad's biggest, said they had received at least 20 bodies overnight, all victims of violence. Most had been shot.

Amid the carnage and chaos, there was no news Sunday of the three remaining Christian Peacemaker Team captives.

Among the memorial tributes to our friend Tom Fox, the Christian Peacemaker slain in captivity, some truly sloppy, embarrassingly bad online journalism appeared at Newsweek Online. Rod Norland's lead story, "The Missing," piled error upon error.

We do not normally spend time on press criticism here. But when Norland starts his piece by describing Fox as a "missionary," this is a serious problem.

"Missionary" is a "fighting word" in a mainly Muslim society like Iraq, and the CPT workers have scrupulously avoided any hint of such. To be sure, they are people of deep faith, as was Tom Fox. But this is manifested in their actions, not by "missionary" efforts to make converts. This is not only sound theology; in Iraq, it is also wise security practice.

Describing Fox as a "missionary" endangers the remaining 3 captives, AND the other CPT team members still working in Baghdad. We appeal to Newsweek to correct its story quickly. Newsweek can be reached at WebEditors@newsweek.com.

Further on, Norland inaccurately calls Fox's group the Christian Peacekeeper Team, and then compounds the inaccuracy by calling CPT a "Quaker pacifist group." CPT is actually an ecumenical group, which includes Quakers, but was founded by Anabaptists out of the Mennonite and Brethren churches.

Further, Norland goes beyond the available news reports when he asserts, without citing a source, that Fox was found with his throat "savagely cut" and a gunshot wound to the head. However, the most detailed reports publicly available do not mention throat slitting, and include marks of beating, and gunshot wounds to both head and chest. These gruesome details may seem irrelevant, but they are not. It is unhelpful to make Fox's suffering seem more brutal than we currently know it to have been.

The Day After

2006-03-11T22:32:00.000-05:00

Even while we still reel from the news of Tom Fox's death, we are reminded that there are three other CPT peaceworkers still captive in Iraq, and their fate, as of Saturday March 11, remains unknown. We call for the immediate safe release of Harmeet Sooden, James Loney and Norman Kember.

Meanwhile, violence continued in Iraq. A US soldier was
killed near Falluja Friday, bringing the US military death toll to 2307. Iraqi civilian deaths have been plausibly estimated as exceeding 100,000.

In Washington, the White House announced yet another series of presidential speeches aimed at persuading the American public that the Iraq war is succeeding.

The Update We Never Wanted To Post

2006-03-10T21:49:00.000-05:00

Update: we added another report with further details that came out Saturday morning.

U.S. Captive Tom Fox Killed in Iraq

An American who was among four Christian peace activists kidnapped last year in Iraq has been killed, a State Department spokesman said Friday.

Fox's family has been notified, Clay said, and "our heartfelt condolences go out to them."

"The State Department continues to call for the unconditional release of all other hostages" in Iraq, the spokesman said.

The FBI verified that a body found in Iraq Friday morning was that of Tom Fox, 54, of Clear Brook, Va., spokesman Noel Clay said. He said he had no information on the other three captives.

Edit: Agence France Press reports:

The body was found in a plastic bag on a garbage dump in west Baghdad, a witness and an interior ministry official said.

He had been handcuffed and shot. His tracksuited body had then been wrapped in a blanket and stuffed in a plastic bag.

His back showed signs of beatings and he appeared to have been killed recently, the official said.

Iraqi police found him in a vacant lot in the upscale Al-Mansur district at around 5 pm (1400 GMT) on Thursday. Seeing he was a Westerner, the patrol immediately contacted US forces who took charge of the body.

From the Quran:

Who is better in speech than one who calls others to God, works righteousness, and says: "I am one of those who bow in Islam." Nor can goodness and evil be equal. Repel evil with what is best. Then the one between whom and you there was hatred will become as it were your friend and intimate!

Sura 41:33-34

From the Gospels:

He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

Matthew 10:39

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

These things I command you, that ye love one another.

John 15:13-17

The Constant Drumbeat of Hatred

2006-03-10T00:32:00.000-05:00

We have found no new reports about the fate of Tom Fox, an American peaceworker held captive in Iraq for more than 100 days. Nor was there any update on the condition of Tom's three CPT companions. All of them but Tom Fox were seen in a video dated February 28 and released by their captors on March 7.

There was, however, much more to report in that war-torn country today.

A US occupation spokesperson in Iraq said Thursday that the American military would soon shut down the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, move its 4537 inmates elsewhere, and turn over the facility to Iraqi authorities. The spokesman added that "we do not anticipate the Iraqi government to use it as a prison or a detention facility."

Iraqi officials also called a US report detailing human rights abuses in Iraq "an unfair assessment." Reuters reports:

"The US government accused our security forces of mistreatment, torture and aggression against the Iraqi population," said Hussam Abdul-Kader, a senior official in the Ministry of Interior. "But it forgot to mention in its report the ongoing violence that they have promoted in Iraq since their invasion, including the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison."

The Iraqi government executed 13 confessed insurgents by hanging Thursday, ignoring appeals from the UN and human rights groups to forego capital punishment. However, according to Reuters, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani "has said he opposes capital punishment, not even against Saddam Hussein himself, and has delegated responsibility to one of his vice-presidents."

Does delegating state-sanctioned homicide absolve Talabani of the responsibility?

Despite the executions, insurgent violence continued, killing at least 16 people in and around Baghdad during the day. Later a bomb blast killed 11 more. Also, a US Marine was killed in fighting in Anbar province, bringing the US military death toll to 2306.

Meanwhile, next door in Iran, police and plainclothes agents attacked a peaceful assembly of hundreds of women and men who had gathered in a park to observe International Womens Day.

Baloney watch, continued:

U.S. force levels in Iraq could be reduced if that country's security forces "continue to do the kind of job they're doing," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Thursday.

But Rumsfeld declined to say whether a significant reduction would be possible. "I wouldn't want to use your phrase of significant," he told Illinois Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin, saying that would prompt a debate on the meaning of that word.

By contrast, blogger Juan Cole offered a bracing dose plain truth and wisdom: "The constant drumbeat of hatred toward Muslims and Arabs on the American Right, on television and radio and in the press, has gradually had its effect," as measured by recent US polls.

Cole denounces the US rulers effort "to continually insinuate that the Muslim world is the new Soviet Union and full of sinister forces that require the US to go to war against them. But at the same time, America has warm relations with numerous Islamic nations.

"This two-faced policy and self-contradictory rhetoric," Cole wrItes, "has contributed to growing hatred and bigotry toward Muslims in the US, which is no less worrisome than the hatred Jews faced in Europe in the 1920s. It is dangerous because of what it can become."