Canon Andrew White was then interviewed by telephone from Baghdad. He said all his missions work had stopped and they were now focussed on releasing the hostages. He also mentioned that these kidnapped men also provided the security for the mission where he and they live. It seemed a bit odd to house mercenaries in a church, so I searched a bit on Cannon White. He works for the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East (FRRME). He used to work for the Archbishop of Canterbury - much like Terry Waite did when he was kidnapped for being used by the CIA to spy in Lebanon.

"BUT though the book argues that Mr. Waite was a well-meaning victim, it also depicts him as a conceited Henry Kissinger wannabe who single-handedly sought to make his church a major actor on the world political stage. He believed his own press notices, the author says. Enjoying his celebrity status to an excessive degree, Mr. Hewitt writes, Mr. Waite made an unsuccessful bid to become the host of a television talk show. Then, says Mr. Hewitt, he played fast and loose in the intelligence world against the advice of his church by participating in briefings at which C.I.A. agents were present, permitting Mr. North to plan his trips and once even allowing a C.I.A. official to buy him a suit when his suitcase was mislaid on a flight to Cyprus. In the end, Mr. Hewitt concludes, Mr. Waite became little more than a disposable pawn. " [1]

The parallels between Waite and White seem uncanny, as if the Church has learned nothing. "The hat that has attracted most attention in the UK is his role as Anglican vicar of Baghdad (strictly limited at present to the international zone - his church, St George's, just a mile away from the high-security area, is out of bounds). But it is his other job that accounts for the contact with the Pentagon and State Department - as head of the Foundation for Reconciliation in the Middle East, a free-ranging role that allows him to act as the link between US power-brokers and the region's indigenous movers and shakers." [2]

"As Vicar of Baghdad, Canon Andrew White oversees the spiritual and physical needs of the entire Anglican Communion in Iraq including St. George's and the various Coalition chapels within the International Zone." [3]

FRRME also award a peace prize. So far they have only awarded it once - to Garda World, their bodyguards. So the only people a British Christian organisation can find in Iraq to honour with a peaceprize are their British bodyguards ? It has certainly been used as corporate PR to boost their stockmarket value. [4] I wonder if the Anglicans invest in that corporation.

Until recently the Anglicans certainly invested in Caterpillar, the corporation that makes the killdozers that were used to flatten Jenin and Fallujah, and which were used to murder Rachel Corrie among many hundreds of others. They disinvested in Caterpillar in 2005 after an Anglican Peace and Justice Network (APJN) report into the daily brutality that the Palestinians face. [5]

You'd expect a 'peacemaker' like Cannon White to welcome such a report and disinvestment from an arms manufacturer wouldn't you ? After all he has been praised by the Dalai Lama.

But, no seemingly he was opposed to any criticism of Israel and worked behind the scenes to oppose any church disinvestment from Caterpillar. I can see his reasoning - after all, how much more money he could have to rebuild his church in Baghdad once the Americans had boought Caterpillars to bulldoze the mosques in Fallujah.

"And then a journalist friend gave me Andrew White's details again last year and we have never looked back. Much of his work is secret, so I can't divulge it here. But I can say that he came up to Manchester to try and persuade the Bishops here to work with me on interfaith matters, and especially on Israel. And he also told the rabbis he met at my house that it is imperative to work with both sides and that they should beware Christians who say they love us, but out of selfish motives. He thought the ACC decision to 'welcome' the APJN report on Jerusalem dire. But when the Archbishop of Canterbury actually voted for divestment from Caterpillar in February, Andrew rang me six times in all from Iraq and begged me not to give up on the Church. And quoted what every previous Archbishop had said about the Jews, which had been positive. Because he knew that I was to give a talk the next day in Manchester's Anglican Cathedral in celebration of the 350th anniversary of our return to England, so what an irony. He called the Synod vote 'sanctimonious claptrap' and said he was 'ashamed to be an Anglican' and that he wouldn't work with the Church in England if it carried on like this. He also wrote to the Ehtical Investments Advisory Group and had meetings with Canon Guy Wilkinson, the ABC's Interfaith Advisor (also to feature on this blog in the future)." [6]


[1] From Knight to Pawn  http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE1D81539F935A25751C0A964958260

[2] 'I don't just work with nice people'  http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1822288,00.html

[3] FRRME Iraq  http://frrme.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=iraq

[4] GardaWorld Awarded First "Peace Prize" from the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East for its Work in Iraq  http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=252400

[5] 2005 - Report of APJN Deliberations in Jerusalem  http://www.aco.org/apjn/  http://www.aco.org/apjn/APJN_Jersualem.pdf

[6] Tsaddik no. 18: Canon Andrew White, vicar in Iraq  http://irenelancaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/07/tsaddik_no_18_c.html