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Released hostages 'refuse to help their rescuers'
By Oliver Poole in Baghdad
(Filed: 25/03/2006)
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.
Harmeet Sooden and Jim Loney
The Canadians: Harmeet Sooden and Jim Loney
Neither the men nor the Canadian group that sent them to Iraq have thanked the people who saved them in any of their public statements.
One of them, Norman Kember, 74, a retired physics professor, of Pinner, north-west London, was in Kuwait last night and was expected to return to Britain today. He 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 two Canadians kidnapped with Mr Kember - Harmeet Sooden, 32, and Jim Loney, 41 - were said to have been co-operative at first but less so on arriving at the British embassy in Baghdad after being given the opportunity to wash, eat and rest.
Previous hostages have been questioned on everything from what shoes their kidnappers wore to the number of mobile phones they had. The pacifist Christian Peacemaker Teams with which the men were visiting Iraq is opposed to the coalition's presence and has accused it of illegally detaining thousands of Iraqis.
Jan Benvie, 51, an Edinburgh teacher who is due to go to Iraq with the organisation this summer, said: "We make clear that if we are kidnapped we do not want there to be force or any form of violence used to release us."
Although the CPTs has welcomed the men's release, it has not thanked the rescuers in any of its statements. It blamed the kidnapping on the presence of foreign troops in the country, which was "responsible for so much pain and suffering in Iraq today".
When told how angry the coalition was feeling, Claire Evans, a spokesman for the CPTs in America, said: "We are extremely grateful to everybody who had a role leading to the men's release."
Iraq factfile
Mr Kember, in a statement through the embassy, said: "I have had the opportunity to have a shave, relax in the bath and a good English breakfast. I am very much looking forward to getting home to British soil and to being reunited with my family." He did not publicly thank his rescuers.
Tony Blair, in Brussels for an EU summit, said: "I'd like to say how pleased I am that he was released and pay tribute to the extraordinary courage, dedication and commitment of the British, American, Iraqi, Canadian and other forces that were involved."
Gen Sir Mike Jackson, the chief of the defence staff, told Channel 4 News: "I am slightly saddened that there does not seem to have been a note of gratitude for the soldiers who risked their lives to save those lives."
Asked if he meant that Mr Kember had not said thank you, he said: "I hope he has and I have missed it."
It emerged that about 50 soldiers, led by the SAS, including men from 1 Bn the Parachute Regiment and the Royal Marines, as well as American and Canadian special forces, entered the kidnap building at dawn.
A deal had been struck with a man detained the previous night who was one of the leaders of the kidnappers. He was allowed a telephone call to warn his henchmen to leave the kidnap house. When the troops moved in and found the prisoners alive, they also let him go as promised.
Well i won't say I wish they were dead.trobinett said:I`m just glad that NO ONE was injured or killed in rescuing these a-holes.
Its the old, "no harm no foul" bull pucky........
Just amazing to me, that these people can function in the "real world".
Yep, the United States is the "bad guys", no doubt.
If I could get my hands around these people necks, well, lets just say, it wouldn`t be pretty.
Will they EVER understand, its nations like us, that allow for them to be who its is they are. Whatever in the fuck that might be.
Kathianne said:Well i won't say I wish they were dead.
Peacemaker rescue should be optional
National Post
Published: Saturday, April 01, 2006
The Christian Peacemaker Teams are up to their usual ungrateful tricks. Not only do some CPT activists still refuse to show any gratitude toward the coalition soldiers and spies who helped rescue three of their members in Iraq last week, one of the hostages -- Canadian Harmeet Sooden -- is now even insisting the entire rescue mission was "contrived," presumably to give the coalition a public relations boost amid continued bad news about the insurgency in that country.
Speaking in Auckland, New Zealand, yesterday, Mr. Sooden insisted it was "highly likely, highly probable" that a ransom had been paid for his release and that of two fellow CPT prisoners, Canadian Jim Loney and Briton Norman Kember. Both the Canadian and New Zealand governments seemed genuinely shocked by his contention and emphatically denied his claim.
When pressed by reporters, Mr. Sooden admitted he had no proof his captors had been paid off. Rather his "instincts" were telling him ransom must have been made. When British and other special forces raided the house in which he was being kept, Mr. Sooden explained, his captors were "nowhere to be seen," which was "highly unusual." He assumed his captors had been bribed by the coalition in hopes they would flee, and the British and American forces could "contrive" a rescue, presumably to generate a glowing propaganda victory.
What rubbish. The break in the hostage taking came the evening before the rescue mission, when a member of the kidnappers' organization had been captured by coalition forces and was convinced both to give up the location where the CPT members were held and to call his comrades and warn them to flee the scene before the commandos arrived.
Mr. Sooden's rescue, and that of his colleagues, was the result of a dangerous mission that was months in the planning. It was no publicity stunt. Several times intelligence operatives put their lives at risk to obtain scraps of information about where the victims were being held, not to mention the risk the soldiers took entering the building where the trio of "peacemakers" were. They could not be sure until they were inside that the kidnappers had fled.
Still, such is Mr. Sooden's conviction that the coalition's "illegal occupation" is all evil, he has no trouble pretending headline-hungry coalition forces staged the whole thing.
Only Jim Loney, the other freed Canadian, has admitted he is "forever and truly grateful" to his rescuers. The CPT at first, of course, could not bring itself to thank the military saviours and later added a grudging thank you only under public pressure. And the freed Briton, Mr. Kember, could barely muster a half-hearted and heavily qualified thanks. He said that while he still blamed coalition forces for the conditions that led to his capture, he could "pay tribute to their courage."
Here's a suggestion: The next time peaceniks are taken hostage in a war zone while attempting to thwart the efforts of Western coalition forces, when those same forces come to save them and before the helicopters lift off to safety with the hostages aboard, the soldiers should ask the former detainees how they feel about being saved. And if there is a moment's hesitation for philosophic reflection or any hint of ingratitude, the soldiers should be free to return their passengers to the desert with all good wishes for fair treatment by the first jihadis who pass by.
Said1 said:Canadians have been in Iraq for some time, although the extent of which is not something I'm up to date on. I wouldn't go so far as to say they are there in any number, but there nonetheless.
In any case, I think the entire thing is really bizzare. If one of them hadn't been killed in the very beginning, I would say the entire thing was staged. No one gave a crap about what they were up to in the beginning, which is even funnier in light of all the prison toruture allegations.
Kathianne said:Thanks, it took me by surprise. I know Canada was seriously against Iraq invasion.
I agree. As someone else pointed out, if not for the one body, I'd be even more suspicious. No doubt, they were there only to cause problems for the troops.Said1 said:Everything about those hostages is fishy. There was no word from them (at least publiclly, in the media) for months, then all of a sudden they've been rescued. All kinds of rumours, mainly to do with them saying things like if they were kidnapped, they didn't want to be resuced by coalition forces. None of it may be true, but, when looking at the situation, without all the speculation, it's still a bit off, IMHO.
