Army's Top General Attacks Kember For Failing To Thank SAS Rescue Team

London Times ^ | Nick Meo, Michael Evans & Daniel McGrory

[ConservativeStLouisGuy]

Freed hostage will arrive home today amid growing concern, report our correspondents
 
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.

 

Neither Professor Kember nor the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) organisation for whom he worked have acknowledged the work of the soldiers who rescued him and two Canadian hostages on Thursday, or of the teams of military and intelligence officials who spent months trying to track them down.

 

General Sir Mike Jackson, the head of the British Army, expressed the unhappiness of the military last night when he told Channel 4 News that he was “saddened that there doesn’t seem to have been a note of gratitude for the soldiers who risked their lives to save those lives”.

 

Before flying out of Baghdad on an RAF aircraft yesterday, Professor Kember and his two fellow hostages released a brief statement that said nothing about the rescue force. It read simply: “We are deeply grateful for all those who prayed for our release. We don’t have words to describe our feelings, our joy and gratitude. Our heads are swirling; when we are ready, we will speak to the media.”

 

It was the third set of comments Professor Kember had relayed to the media that failed to mention his rescuers. A lengthy statement released by CPT after the hostages’ rescue on Thursday not only failed to thank their rescuers, but called on coalition forces to withdraw from Iraq.

 

The only oblique acknowledgement came from Professor Kember’s wife, Pat. In a statement released through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office last night, she thanked “all those who have helped secure his release”. But she, too, made no mention of the British-led unit that freed her husband in western Baghdad. She praised “government agencies and my family liaison officers”, but did not directly refer to the soldiers who stormed the kidnappers’ hideout in darkness.

 

CPT has always made it clear that its members did not want force to be used to rescue them if they were kidnapped or held hostage.

 

But, in the event, the coalition devoted huge resources to securing their release. The SAS, special forces from the US and Canada and military intelligence officers spent months trying to locate them.

 

A force consisting of SAS troopers backed up by about 50 paratroops and Marines spearheaded the task force that rescued them. US and Iraqi troops were also involved in the mission. Relaxed and rested after his 36-hour stay at the fortified British Embassy in Baghdad, Professor Kember was flown out of the green zone by military helicopter yesterday to begin his journey home. He then boarded an RAF military transport at Baghdad airport for the short flight to neighbouring Kuwait. From there he was being flown home.

 

Maxine Nash, of CPT in Baghdad, said that the organisation had not paid for his flight back to Britain. She said: “He elected to go through the Embassy, they arranged it. We did offer to pay for commercial flights for everyone but that can be difficult because it means driving through dangerous areas.”

 

She admitted that the pacifist hostages had mixed feelings about being rescued by the military. She said: “Our mandate is violence reduction so this was a tough call. Before they were kidnapped both Tom and Jim had said they didn’t want to be rescued.” Ms Nash said that the group was now considering leaving Baghdad. “After what has happened we’re going to spend some time thinking about what to do.”

 

Last night British diplomats in Iraq tried to sidestep the row over the apparently ungracious behaviour of the peace activists. Diplomatic sources let it be known that the three men did agree to face further questioning yesterday from intelligence agents trying to hunt down the group who held them for 118 days.

 

An intelligence source said: “They gave what help they could. They recognise that there are other hostages, including Westerners, still in captivity who we believe were taken by the same group.”

 

The source added that Professor Kember had “privately expressed his thanks to his rescuers” though he did not meet them. The activists explained that they could not be of much help with descriptions of their captors as the group kept their faces covered.

 

The three men revealed how, shortly before the SAS burst their way into their prison before dawn on Wednesday, their captors suddenly moved them to a downstairs room.

 

They were tied up and bound together. The hostages heard their captives leaving. British officials insisted that there had been no deal to free the trio.

 

They said that interrogators told the gang member they arrested this week that he must reveal the location of the hostages or face 30 years in jail.

 

RESCUE FIGURES

 

The hunt for Norman Kember and his fellow hostages involved

 

250 men from the Task Force Black US/British/Australian counter-kidnap unit

 

100 men from Task Force Maroon, the Paras and Royal Marines backing special forces

 

15 men in helicopter crews

 

AND tens of thousands of pounds spent on helicopter and transport aircraft flights
 
 
 
 
 

[foldspace]

My deepest prayer and desire is that THEY EACH RECEIVE transport quickly to the nearest Islamic country with ZERO tolerance for dialogue and/or any freedoms and/or any learning and/or any possiblity of openly expressing their ideas, faith, politics (and here's one especially for the gals), their God-given beauty. Yet may God protect them.

[pankot]

Better idea: Drop them off in downtown Tehran. Lets see em peace those loving Iranians.

[hershey]

Really stupid p.r. by hypocrite peace activists. Meanwhile, Rachel Corrie's parents are still trying to sue the manufacturer of the bulldozer.

[ccmay]

CPT has always made it clear that its members did not want force to be used to rescue them if they were kidnapped or held hostage.

I don't know why we didn't honor this request. The whole CPT organization is worth less than a scratch on an American soldier's ass.

Better yet, let's round up all the marxist peace creeps and drop them off in a convenient neighborhood in Fallujah. We'll be happy, the head chopping Mahometan filth will be happy, and the peace creeps should be happy to get the martyrdom they seem to crave. Everyone's a winner.

-ccm

[GAB-1955]

No, if they go back to Iraq, send them a bill for the rescue.

[Migraine]

I wonder what happened to Roman citizens who actively worked to assist any and all of Rome's enemies? Rome must have had its own bleeding-heart libs, what did they do with them?

Well, there were always catapults to test...

[wazoo1031]

Apparently he has thanked the Muslim Council of Britain, however. What an ass...

[Patriot from Philly]

Do we know what happened to Jill Carroll, nothing from her for weeks. I pray she's not dead.

[wazoo1031]

I do as well. It is a scary thought since she has seemingly fallen off the radar.

[KneelBeforeZod]

[AD from SpringBay]

Take them to the exact spot where they were found, blindfold and then tie them up, leave them on the side of the road.

[AD from SpringBay]

As with Christ's admonition "Blessed are the Peaceniks, for they shall act like spoiled bitches" [/sarc]

Isn't that from Hillary's Authorized Version?

[mewzilla]

From the British tab, The Sun: Norman snubs SAS heroes

[mewzilla]

BTW, get a load of the last 4 paragraphs from the above link.

Bad language, bad language, bad language...