Act to free the CPT prisoners in Iraq : IMC Maritimes

Please if you have a chance, sign the petition regarding the release of
the CPT volunteers who were kidnapped in Iraq. James Looney is a long
term Peace and community activist who has many ties to folks here in the
Maritimes and around the world.

James, along with the other 3 captives are loved and respected very much
around the world . James is a man who lives what he believes. He and the
other Peacemakers are dedicated advocates for justice and peace. At
great risk to themselves, they have opposed the American occupation of
Iraq and were the among first to expose the American torture of Iraqi
prisoners. James has also worked in many other conflict areas around the
world including Israel/Palestine.

Please take the time to do what you can do to help gain the safe release
of James and the other three Peacemakers.

Please pass this message on. Please tell your family, friends and
associates about the petition website.

With your email help, we can quickly reach supporters of peace and
justice throughout the world. Together we can make a powerful chorus for
freeing the captives. In addition to passing this message on, you can:

1. Go to this website and sign the petition:
http://freethecaptivesnow.org/

2. Send emails to the feedback pages of major international media,
especially in the Gulf region, repeating the call to free the captives.
Here are two:

Aljazeera: http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage
Click on 'feedback' at the bottom of the homepage.

Al Arabiya: http://www.alarabiya.net/english.htm
contactus@alarabiya.net

3. If you are part of a group or faith community with a peace and
justice emphasis, please ask them to join in this effort in whatever
public way is appropriate to their policy.

4. Write to newspapers, or call in to radio shows, and tell them of the
innocence of these men and your support for their immediate
release. Please mention the petition website noted above:
http://freethecaptivesnow.org/

Where was your concern and compassion when others were being held and then be-headed on Al Jazeera TV?

A year ago, Iraqi terrorists kidnapped Margaret Hassan, the head of CARE International in Iraq(). Ms. Hassan, who held British and Irish citizenship, had spent three decades working with the people of Iraq. She had an Iraqi husband, spoke fluent Arabic, and was an outspoken critic of the United Nations-imposed sanctions against Iraq. She was one of the best friends the Iraqi people ever had.

But none of that mattered. Despite international appeals for mercy, the terrorists killed her anyway. That's what terrorists do.

Now four other foreigners, including two Canadians, have been taken hostage. Their captors have threatened to execute them this week unless all Iraqis imprisoned in Iraq are released.

The hostages belong to a small activist outfit called Christian Peacemaker Teams, which is described as being engaged in a "humanitarian mission" in Iraq. In fact, the group does not spread the gospel, and its mission is political. It's there to press the U.S. to get out. It also opposed the 1991 Persian Gulf war, the invasion of Afghanistan, and the West's intervention to stop ethnic cleansing in Bosnia.

The Christian Peacemakers maintain that using force is always wrong -- but even more wrong if the U.S. does it. They have raised no protest against the bloody war waged by Iraq's insurgents, who have killed hundreds of Iraqi civilians in recent months. They don't even blame the terrorists for these kidnappings. They blame George W. Bush() and Tony Blair.

"We are angry because what has happened to our teammates is the result of the actions of the U.S. and U.K. governments due to the illegal attack on Iraq and the continuing occupation and oppression of its people," the Peacemakers said.

One of the Canadian hostages, James Loney, was on his third trip to Iraq. According to a friend, he had felt a call from God to act as a human shield for peace. He made his first trip at the end of 2002, when he led a team prepared to act as human shields. They were welcomed by Saddam Hussein as a useful propaganda tool, but they never did carry out their mission. Instead, their vehicle rolled over in a freak road accident that killed one elderly Canadian. A Peacemakers spokesman knows who to blame. "The tires were faulty. They were made in the U.S.," he told me. "So was the car."

Mr. Loney has also worked in the West Bank, where the Peacemakers are allied with the International Solidarity Movement, a pro-Palestinian group. Its volunteers often act as human shields between Palestinians and Israeli troops. Although it calls itself a peace group, the ISM describes suicide bombers as "martyrs," and its officials are on the record as saying that Israel has no right to exist.

The ISM is a magnet for young, idealistic Westerners. One of them is Harmeet Singh Sooden, another Canadian hostage. He volunteered with the ISM earlier this year before getting involved with the Peacemakers. This alliance explains why you saw Palestinian clerics in Ramallah calling for the release of the hostages. Both men were planning to go back to Palestine. Mr. Loney had intended to spend Christmas in Bethlehem -- perhaps indifferent to the irony that almost all the Christians who once lived there have felt compelled to leave.

Although the hostages said they were aware of the risks they would be taking in Iraq, they thought their anti-American politics would act as an insurance policy. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. Last week, a German aid worker was also kidnapped and threatened with death. The fact that Germany opposed the Iraq war didn't seem to mean anything. Germany's new Chancellor, Angela Merkel, declared: "This government, this parliament, will not let themselves be blackmailed." Our own Prime Minister couldn't muster up such moral ferocity. Instead, he repeated the piety that "these people are in the country on a humanitarian mission."

The Peacemakers may believe in a culture of peace, but the insurgents don't. Peace is the last thing they want in Iraq. And as we wait and hope that they release their hostages, we should pray that the Peacemakers will be luckier than Margaret Hassan.

Where was your concern and compassion when others were being held and then be-headed on Al Jazeera TV?

Look we all know that was faked tv. Made by Zionists to promote more hate in the world.