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.
Throughout these difficult months, we have been heartened by messages of concern for our four colleagues from all over the world. We have been especially moved by the gracious outpouring of support from Muslim brothers and sisters in the Middle East, Europe, and North America. That support continues to come to us day after day. We pray that Christians throughout the world will, in the same spirit, call for justice and for respect for the human rights of the thousands of Iraqis who are being detained illegally by the U.S. and British forces occupying Iraq.
During these past months, we have tasted of the pain that has been the daily bread of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Why have our loved ones been taken? Where are they being held? Under what conditions? How are they? Will they be released? When?
With Tom’s death, we felt the grief of losing a beloved friend. Today, we rejoice in the release of our friends Harmeet, Jim and Norman. We continue to pray for a swift and joyful homecoming for the many Iraqis and internationals who long to be reunited with their families. We renew our commitment to work for an end to the war and the occupation of Iraq as a way to continue the witness of Tom Fox. We trust in God’s compassionate love to show us the way.
CPTers Released
Gutsy words. The conservative blogosphere will likely go nuts over this. No mention of allied troops involved in the "rescue"; reference to detainees held illegally by the Coalition. Come fellow Liberals, there is much smiting to be done!
Update: 9:10 am. And its already started. Drudge is reporting the "snub" of Coalition forces by "peace activist group".
Update: 10:57 am. My best guess is that the kidnappers planned the release and made a phone-call giving the location. According to reports, they were long gone when the "rescue team" showed up. Watch the pro-war camp try to spin this "rescue" into a great triumph over the insurgents. Don't be fooled.
Update: 6:37 pm. My conspiracy theory is till in play. Some discrepancy between the words of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who claimed the "rescue" involved "weeks and weeks of very careful work by military and coalition personnel in Iraq and many civilians as well", and U.S. military spokesman Rick Lynch, who said the whole job was done up in three hours.
1 comment:
Nice job on this blog! I just found it through randomly clicking the "next blog" button and like what I see. Also appreciate the perspective on the CPT rescue - I had wondered about this sequence of events myself but hadn't seen it articulated or followed up as you have.
Even though we appear to live on opposite sides of the US/Canada border, I often feel closer to the Canadian perspective than the "American" one that I'm forced to share with my buffoonish conservative neighbors to the South...
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