Troops Risk Lives to Save Anti-war Protestors

Canadian, British Aid Workers Freed in Iraq

By John Ward Anderson and Debbi Wilgoren
Washington Post Staff WritersThursday
March 23, 2006; 6:15 AM

BAGHDAD, March 23 -- Three Christian peace activists kidnapped last year in Iraq were freed Thursday in an early morning military operation, the British Embassy in Iraq announced.

The announcement came two weeks after their colleague and fellow hostage, Tom Fox of Virginia, was shot to death and left on a Baghdad street.

The three men rescued Thursday -- two Canadians and a Briton -- were freed in a planned rescue operation by multi-national forces, a British Embassy spokesman said.

The spokesman said there were no immediate indications that any of the hostages had been injured during their liberation. All underwent a medical check-up afterwards "only as a precaution," he said.

The three men -- Norman Kember, 74, of London; and James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, both of Canada -- were kidnapped along with Fox on Nov. 26. They were members of the Christian Peacemakers Teams, a group that is opposed to the war in Iraq and which has criticized the treatment of detainees in U.S. and Iraqi jails.

The hostages were last seen in a silent, 25-second video that aired March 7 on the al-Jazeera satellite network. A message delivered with the video, from the group that claimed to have kidnapped them -- the previously unknown Swords of Righteousness Brigades -- threatened that they would be killed unless all Iraqi prisoners were released from Iraqi and U.S. prisons.

Fox, 54, of Clear Brook Virginia, was not pictured in the video, raising an alarm about his well-being. His body, shot several times and bound at the hands, was found two days later on a trash-strewn Baghdad street.

Few details were immediately available about how the men were released, or whether anyone, including the captors, was injured during the raid. The Associated Press quoted Iraqi police Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi saying it was believed the operation took place in Mishahda, 20 miles north of Baghdad. Other news reports claimed the operation occurred in Baghdad.

The trio "have been released as a result of a multinational force operation which took place earlier today," British foreign secretary Jack Straw said in a televised statement. "It followed weeks and weeks of very careful work by our military and coalition personnel in Iraq, and many civilians as well.

Imagine that, soldiers willing to risk their lives to rescue people who were in Iraq to protest what those soldier were doing. What is really bad is that these people were in Iraq, uninvited, working against our military and the efforts of coalition forces and instead of allowing them to pay the price for their actions, actions which they took with full knowledge of the risk, our troop were forced to risk their lives attempting to rescue these idiots.

This is typical of Liberals. They are not willing to pay the price for their actions. They do not believe in people being responsible for their own actions. So the military was forced to risk soldier's lives to save these jerks. I am really tired of these whiney Liberals expecting other people to carry their water. It's time for these people to suffer the consequences of their action, up to and including death.

It is not the proper use of the military to save the bacon of a group of irresponsible morons who have arrogated the right to work against Western Interest and the interests of the Iraqi people to themselves. Let 'em burn next time.

Full Story: Irresponsible Protestors Rescued by Protested

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