NEWS: Christian Peace activists Held Hostages Freed In Iraq

U.S. and Iraqi forces early Thursday morning freed two Canadians, James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32 and one Briton, Norman Kember, 74. This put an end to a 4 month hostage drama in which their American colleague, Tom Fox, was shot to death and dumped on a Baghdad street earlier this month.



The kidnapped Christian Peace activists were shown as prisoners in several videos.
One clip dated Feb. 28 showed them without the American hostage Tom Fox. Fox's body was found March 10 near a west Baghdad railway line with gunshot wounds to his head and chest.


Related News Links:
today.reuters.co. uk
www.cnn.com

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Aid Workers Kidnapped in Iraq
American Tom Fox Killed in Iraq


[edit on 23-3-2006 by Riwka]

Good to hear. Pretty fast reaction by American and British forces after getting the information from capturing a person 3 hours earlier and interrogating him.. Hope next time the peace activists don't try to return back to Iraq after just being rescued.

Great news. Sad to hear about Tom Fox though. I remember on Christmas Day, me and mum were worried about the hostages so we constantly had the news on thinking something bad would have happened to them considering it was Christmas day...

It is great news, especially that a combined forces unit freed them. On a sadder note, Tom Fox's death hardly raised an eyebrow at ATS.

www.abovetopsecret.com

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
It is great news, especially that a combined forces unit freed them. On a sadder note, Tom Fox's death hardly raised an eyebrow at ATS.

Kind of ironic that these men were rescued by the very people that they were in Iraq to find fault with. The LA Times article states that the Christian Peace group was in Iraq to investigate incidents of abuse to Iraqi detainees. The very people who they were there to help are the ones who kidnapped them and killed one of them.

Tom Fox's death didn't raise an eyebrow because he wasn't Muslim or Iraqi.

This is excellent news. Good response by the combined forces rescuing them. Shows what teamwork can do. Hopefully these men won't return and put themselves in harms' way again they might not be so lucky next time.

If Tom Fox's death should be widely reported anywhere, it should be in "The Darwin Awards."

www.darwinawards.com...

This group did not deserve to be rescued in my opinion. I guess the United States Military thought different. Too bad the military will never get a thank you for their efforts from this group.

lol so misleading title. i thought it meant christian activists were holding hostages i was like "HOLY HELL" then i came in and was like wait this isnt right. take the S off of hostages, sounds better like "Christian Peace Activists Held Hostage Freed In Iraq" just a suggestion.

He wasn't there too sound almighty and holy, just help. Trust me. Rachel corrie's parents on the other hand deserve that Darwin award.

While I am pleased that the remaining, surviving hostages have been brought to safety, I personally feel a mite angry about this tragic episode. No doubt Professor Kember will be met at Heathrow Airport by a phalanx of press and TV/Radio reporters applauding him for his courage and fortitude; I think he should be heavily criticised and blasted by the media as a reckless, stupid fool. I’m sure his motives for going to Iraq were philanthropic but did he stop to think that he was travelling to the most dangerous place on earth and that by placing himself at risk he was endangering the lives of others, never mind the cost of any exercise to rescue him should he fall foul of kidnappers. I don’t think he did. His catastrophic escapade might have ended in disaster. He was lucky. I hope he has learned from his experience and that in future he will think twice before endangering himself and others. Maybe he will stick to pottering about the garden, for his poor judgement has done nothing but prove that “there’s no fool like an old fool”.