Kember Free

From the last post of Tom Fox

 http://waitinginthelight.blogspot.com/

What words or deeds could undo the massive trauma faced by the people of Fallujah every day? Everywhere we went during the afternoon young boys listened to our words and the words of those with whom we were meeting. I kept wondering what was going on in their minds as they relived the events of a year ago and the ensuing trauma. What effect will these events have on their lives as they grow up?

There are no words.

Am I alone in thinking its a bit ironic that Kember was freed by those whom he went to Iraq to call murders and decry, while the "revolutionary hero’s of the resistance” he went to support were the ones who kept him chained to a radiator, abused him and tortured his American colleague to death?

I wonder if he was glad to see the Special Forces folks coming through the door, or if he stuck to his anti militarist principles and carried out some non violent direct action against their overly aggressive and militaristic rescue mission?

The simple, undeniable fact is that like most people of his persuasion, he and his friends went to Iraq with no clear idea of the country, its people and the situation, but believed that by “making a stand” (again ironic since he’s been sitting in the dark almost since he got there), he was “doing the right thing|. This sort of idealistic, unrealistic and self righteous attitude is why people of his ilk always miss the wood for the trees.

Simple fact was he was a white face in the wrong neighborhood, and owes his life to the brave men and women of the coalition Special Forces and intelligence services who done what you pay your taxes for them to do, and located him, extracted him (alive) and got him to safety.

When he’s sitting safely on a plane back to the UK, I wonder if he will have the moral courage to thank those who saved him, without trying to make some sort of pointless political statement in the process. These people risked their own lives and liberty and put themselves in the line of fire for someone who would have been happy to see them killed before this incident as “militaristic robots of the state oppressing the poor Iraqis” and the intelligence services who found him as “dark, shady and evil puppet masters”.

A salutary message to all, don’t you think?

"the "revolutionary hero’s of the resistance” he went to support were the ones who kept him chained to a radiator, abused him and tortured his American colleague to death? "

well, he's a pacifist so he didn't go to support armed struggle did he? And since you know who kidnapped him maybe you should let somebody know - after all no-one else was present and no shots were fired during the 'rescue'.

Probably islamist nutjobs did it, but that could mean the 'salvador option' death squads operating out of the interior ministry (remember the US nuns killed in El Salvador by a CIA-backed death squad?) OR some previously unknown nutcase faction of 'the resistance', which is hardly homogenous enough to merit the word 'the'.

Either way, I'm glad he's free and his family and friends must be feeling a great sense of relief.

God I love it!

The guy was held hostage by an Iraqi insurgent group, and still, still you cant find it in your hearts to thank the coallition forces for going in and affecting his release. How do you know no shots were fired? Were you there? Or are you relying on the "corporate media" you mistrust so much to relay the information? Oh, sorry I forgot, its believe what you want (or fits in with your belief system) to believe and class the rest as an "american plot to distort the truth" haha. Back here on planet earth, life is more complicated than that. I do however find it interesting that these "peacemaker" teams always seem to be picking on western or Isreali military forces, never on Palestinian terrorists or Iraqi insurgents. I hope one day some of you will wake up and realise whats going on, but unfortunately I doubt it. I have noted from the media coverage that not one of Kimbers group or Kimber himself has had the common decency to thank the service personel who risked thier lives affecting his release, but hey, I suppose thats what he pays his taxes for eh! Those men and women who went into a potentially lethal situation risking thier lives dont have partners, kids, mothers and fathers etc, just faceless tools of oppression? Whats even more gaulling, is that these activists have even tried to defend the insurgents who held them and murdered thier colleage, I'll bet Toms family are impressed at that! But I suppose thats ok in your book because he was an american and deserved it. Personally, I think they need to be sectioned for thier own protection, and so that they dont pu themselves in a situation where they risk others lives in identifying where they are or going in to get them out, they dont deserve for the men and women of the armed forces to put themselves in the line of fire to satify thier selfish, egotistical and unrealistic urges.

>How do you know no shots were fired?

Luckily there was a Christian Peacemaker team right on the spot to report for us - what's the odds of that eh ? CPT in Canada reported it this morning when the Straw was being all hush-hush and then it was confirmed by the military on Channel Four news. The captors tied the men up - unusually so seemingly - and then left the men alone just before the 'raid'. I wonder if a ransom was paid and the raid was less a military action and more a media event, like the recent massive 'US offensive' near Samarra certainly is. I bet Blair would sell the whole house of lords for a single 'good-news' story out of Iraq just now.

>that not one of Kimbers group or Kimber himself has had the common decency to thank the service personel who risked thier lives affecting his release

Seemingly the hostages and group did express thanks though the army are complaining they weren't greatful enough. Maybe they expected flowers and chocolates but I doubt it, I expect the CPT team have refused to help identify their captors or something similar.
The Christian Peacemakers specify no force is to be used to rescue them if they end up in situations like this, they go out their way to try to prevent anyone risking their lives on their behalf, so you can't blame them for that. You seem to see the soldiers as brave for being in Iraq - they obviously are - but you must admit it takes even more bravery to walk into a war unarmed and unprotected. Especially when most of the locals blame your countrymen for the loss of a loved one, and see you as a possible spy. Terry Waite working with the CIA, albeit somewhat unwittingly as he is genuinely thick, put all such future hostages at risk. In fact, I bet a lot of Iraqis are want to flee the place just now.

If I was a hostage I wouldn't want anyone coming after me, especially not Americans, just for my own protection. I bet most of the western civilians killed in Iraq were killed by our own forces, accidentally or not. Jo Wilding came back from Iraq safe, though she was shot at by US troops while she was in a marked ambulance near Falluja if my memory serves me right, she just posted here.
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/03/336353.html

Other folk too, go and come back safe - if folk stop going completely then things will get worse. Part of the reason that people in Britain do nothing about the war - mass direct action or general strike - is not because some of us profit from it, it is because the mass of us are isolated from its effects. There aren't enough direct channels of communication to make up for all the journalists cowering in the Green Zone. Decent people here shut out what is must be like to live each day there

If you'd been in Iraq recentlyyourself, you wouldn't want to live their as an Iraqi, to watch your child leave for school knowing they might not be back. If the ordeal of the CPT had no other worth, it finally got the issue of the vast number of Iraqis getting kidnapped in Iraq raised in our media. Noone is safe there. The US and the UK governments were proud to get retrospective recognition of their occupation by the UN. They have a clear legal duty to provide security, and they cannot. They should withdraw at once, asking for a truce on their retreat, to be replaced with temporary peacekeeping troops from other countries more acceptable to the mass of Iraqis.

Perhaps you wouldn't understand the reasoning of the CPT but you have to admit the following claims are totally over the top and unfair.
>these activists have even tried to defend the insurgents who held them and murdered thier colleage, I'll bet Toms family are impressed at that!

I don't think Tom Fox's daughter Katherine has made any public pronouncements since his death. I know what Rose Gentle and Reg Keys say about why their kids died.

>selfish, egotistical and unrealistic urges

They are selfless and unegotistical, whether their urges are realistic or not seem irrelevant since they are acting on faith. I can see the need true Christians have to differentiate their faith from the cynical prophet-profiteer in 10 Downing Street or his murderous Holy Emperor in the White House. You might think the CPT team are stupid for going into the war, but you have to admit the war itself is far stupider.

Hello Mr Bunny,

You seem to be missing the point in a truly spectacular way. Of course this seems to have been a well-executed operation, of course it is better that Kember is free, and of course this is thanks to the Special Forces who carried out the rescue. But you appear to be blinkeredly focusing on the events of the last two days as some justification for redemption of the Coalition forces. Has it not struck you that, had they not invaded in the first place, Kember would not have been kidnapped and the rescue would never had had to have taken place?

People who criticise others for taking principled action such as Kember's make me sick to my core. If you had an ounce of moral fibre you would be standing in total solidarity with his actions, and his right to carry those out.

- I expect the CPT team have refused to help identify their captors or something similar

This is what the papers have been briefed.

"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."
 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/03/25/wkemb25.xml&sSheet=/portal/2006/03/25/ixportaltop.html

"The death of Fox changed the whole thing. Someone higher up the chain took him away. Because the ante had gone up and it had become more serious, it's quite possible that the operation began to open up and they got nervous about the repercussion." He said the "higher-ups" who took Mr Fox did not initially intend to kill him. Examination of his body found dumped by a road two weeks ago did not show signs of torture, as first reported, the source insisted. Nor did he seem to have been killed execution-style. It was more likely that there was a scuffle or an attempt to run away which led to his death.
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1739343,00.html

"NORMAN KEMBER, the freed peace activist, will arrive back in Britain today amid growing controversy over his failure publicly to thank the military forces who rescued him."
 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2102543,00.html

This story that was fed to the Times two hours ago had already been fed to Indymedia by Bugs Bunny much earlier, and has probably been repeated in many online forums before they started in on the newspapers, I guess it takes a journalist some time to rewrite stuff. It is a public-relations trick and should be opposed.

If the soldiers who 'rescued' him weren't in Iraq in the first place, he would never have been their either. So, a big round of applause to all the soldiers involved. You think you are heroes for risking your lives - but you are too scared to face life as a Concientious Objector while other soldiers have. Just now you have no right to feel let down by lack of cooperation from the anti-war movement, the majority of your counrymen, not when you know it is your duty to refuse illegal orders, and this war is worse than illegal, it is genocide. You might be a perfect soldier, never committing war-crimes, just doing your job and sticking up for your mates, but if you really liked your mates you'd get them to go awol. Tony Blair's war in Iraq is illegal, and once he is locked up for it so might you be especially if you are an officer. The applause by even the top brass for the SAS officer who was for refused to serve in Iraq should serve as beacon to all soldiers who oppose this war, but also as a warning for those who support it. Come home en masse now, don't wait for orders. Resign your commisions at least temporarily, and rejoin civilisation while it still exists. You will be supported. Fear of possible punishment for refusing to serve will not be a reasonable legal defence from now on. You could desert and be welcome in any street in Britain, this is not a popular war, this is the least popular war in British history.

I would not oppose a short term military or security services coup against Blair if it ended this war one day earlier. I'd rather live in a peaceful dictatorship than a murderous sham-democracy like this. If you are truly worried about terror, put our soldiers on our streets for a while, everyone is safer that way. Does Iraq need foriegn troops on it's soil ? I doubt that, but if it does then it would be better off with Indonesians, Ugandans, Pakistani or anyone except the initial crusaders.

In retrun, if you have a clear shot at Blair or any of his cohorts, please take it. This isn't the right forum for this is it ? Okay, I'll rewrite it and post it elsewhere.

-I wonder if a ransom was paid and the raid was less a military action and more a media event

Not a ransom, a prisoner exchange, but still as much a media event as suggested by the BBC helicopter following Kember down the end of his garden yesterday. So I guess the 350 special forces were there to protect the freed hostages from US marines on the drive home, bearing in mind Giuliana Sgrenas release and subsequent ambush.

"What had actually happened in that dusty Baghdad suburb was one part of a risky but successful prisoner exchange that ended a four-month ordeal for Kember and his fellow peace campaigners.
The deal to free the hostages had been struck hastily with a man detained on Wednesday night who, the British were convinced, was one of the leaders of the kidnappers. Faced with a 30-year jail term, the man revealed the location of the hostages and was allowed one phonecall, instructing his henchmen to tie the hostages up in a downstairs room and to leave the house. When the Canadians and the Britons were found alive, the deal held and the man was also released by the coalition forces."  http://www.sundayherald.com/54856