Posted on 03/11/2006 4:23:30 PM PST by Daralundy
An aid worker from Virginia taken hostage with three other peace activists was found dead near a railroad line in Baghdad with gunshots to his head and chest and signs of torture on his body, Iraqi police said Saturday.
Tom Fox, a 54-year-old member of Christian Peacemaker Teams from Clear Brook, Va., was the fifth American hostage killed in Iraq. There was no immediate word on his fellow captives, a Briton and two Canadians.
The U.S. command in Baghdad confirmed that Fox's body was picked up by American forces on Thursday evening, although it provided no information on the condition.
Interior Ministry Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi said Fox was found with his hands tied and gunshot wounds to his head and chest. There were cuts on his body and bruises on his head, indicating torture, he said. The corpse was dressed in Iraqi-made clothing.
Fox's body was found near a railway line in Dawoudi, a mixed Sunni-Shiite area that has been largely shielded from violence. Shocked local residents on Saturday condemned Fox's abduction and killing.
"These acts are terrorist ones and will hinder the political process and distort the reputation of Iraq," said Dhamir al-Samaraie, who had come to see where Fox was found.
The previously unknown Swords of Righteousness Brigades claimed responsibility for kidnapping the four Christian Peacemaker Teams members, who disappeared Nov. 26.
Three of them — Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32; and Briton Norman Kember, 74 — were seen in a video dated Feb. 28 that was broadcast Tuesday on Al-Jazeera television. Fox did not appear in the brief, silent videotape.
"We mourn the loss of Tom Fox, who combined a lightness of spirit, a firm opposition to all oppression, and the recognition of God in everyone," Doug Pritchard and Carol Rose, co-directors of Chicago-based Christian Peacemaker Teams, said in a statement.
At least 250 foreigners have been kidnapped in the nearly three years since U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq, and at least 40 have been killed.
Americans killed were Ronald Schulz, 40, an industrial electrician from Anchorage, Alaska; Jack Hensley, 48, a civil engineer from Marietta, Ga.; Eugene "Jack" Armstrong, 52, formerly of Hillsdale, Mich.; and Nicholas Berg, 26, a businessman from West Chester, Pa.
Still missing is Jill Carroll, a freelance writer for The Christian Science Monitor who was kidnapped Jan. 7 in Baghdad. She has appeared in three videotapes delivered by her kidnappers to Arab satellite television stations.
Carroll's kidnappers initially threatened to kill her unless all female detainees in Iraq are released. They later amended their demands, which have not been made public. The Monitor launched a campaign on Iraqi television stations Wednesday asking Iraqis to "please help with the release of journalist Jill Carroll."
An Iraqi journalist, meanwhile, was gunned down on his way to work Saturday, becoming at least the fifth media figure killed since an outbreak of sectarian violence after the bombing late last month of a Shiite shrine north of Baghdad.
Amjad Hameed, a journalist for Iraqiya television, was attacked by gunmen who shot him in the head and chest while he was being driven to his job. His driver, Anwar Turki, died later in the hospital.
Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said Hameed, who was married and the father of three, was the 11th Iraqiya journalist killed since the channel opened shortly after Saddam Hussein was ousted in the U.S.-led invasion nearly three years ago.
Iraqiya is run by Iraq's Shiite-dominated government and seen by minority Sunni Muslims as biased against them.
Two days ago, Munsuf Abdallah al-Khaldi, 35, an anchorman for the Sunni-affiliated Baghdad TV, was shot dead while driving from Baghdad to Mosul, in the north, to interview poets. Baghdad TV is owned by the Iraqi Islamic Party, the biggest Sunni political group.
On Feb. 22, the day bombers destroyed the golden dome atop the Askariya Shiite shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad, Al-Arabiya journalist Atwar Bahjat, a Sunni, and two colleagues from a local media company went missing. Their bullet-riddled bodies were found a day later near Samarra.
In addition to Hameed and his driver, at least four other people were killed in drive-by shootings in Baghdad and north of the capital on Saturday, police said.
They included a human rights activist and his bodyguard, a lieutenant colonel in the Interior Ministry commando force, and a retired government employee gunned down near a Sunni mosque in south Baghdad.
I sympathize with this man's demise in the same way I would sympathize with a person who saw a train coming and intentionally stepped onto the track to face it.
I sympathize with this man's demise in the same way I will sympathize with the demise of anyone else who leaves this onderful, free country to encourage those who would murder my country's troops, me and my family, and you and your family.
I sympathize none. I make no apologies.
onderful = wonderful.
Stupid haste!
A pacifist non-combatant is tortured by terrorists. Will this garner the coverage of the non-torture of captured terrorists by the American military? I'm a bit taken aback by the fact that the word "torture" was used at all here. Perhaps this man's death will at least result in some education for the recalcitrant kumbaya crowd.
A prayer for his family, and for him. But I guess he had to learn for himself: these people we are fighting don't care if he supports them. He was an infidel, good for a few P.R. shots to their supporters, and then of no use to them.
Ditto. I find it hard to sympathize with someone who supported Palestinian suicide bombers, Iraqi facists and those killing our fellow americans. He is the victim of his own stupidity.
This is a textbok example of how many of those on the Left totally underestimate and miscalculate the Islamic savages they insist we 'open a dialogue' with.
But, in the end, you can be 1,000,000 percent certain that this group (Christian Peacemaker Teams) will learn absolutely nothing from this experience, even if the remaining 3 hostages are beheaded on live TV.
The moral of the story is. When you are going to pick your friends and chose the side you intend to be on, DO A LITTLE RESEARCH!
I agree with you. Well put. It is frightening to realize that the dummies just don't get it, never will get it.
If they would just get out of the way!
As I survey the landscape here in Iraq, dehumanization seems to be the operative means of relating to each other. U.S. forces in their quest to hunt down and kill "terrorists" are, as a result of this dehumanizing word, not only killing "terrorists," but also killing innocent Iraqis: men, women and children in the various towns and villages. It seems as if the first step down the road to violence is taken when I dehumanize a person. That violence might stay within my thoughts or find its way into the outer world and become expressed verbally, psychologically, structurally or physically. As soon as I rob a fellow human being of his or her humanity by sticking a dehumanizing label on them, I begin the process that can have, as an end result, torture, injury and death. "Why are we here?" We are here to root out all aspects of dehumanization that exist within us. We are here to stand with those being dehumanized by oppressors and stand firm against that dehumanization. We are here to stop people, including ourselves, from dehumanizing any of God's children, no matter how much they dehumanize their own souls.
It is indeed ironic that Mr. Fox accuses our military of 'dehumanizing' the Iraqis yet it is the Islamofascists that brought about his final dehumanizing and untimely demise. These Peacemaking folks are clearly misguided and he paid a tragic price. I wonder who he would call the 'oppressors' now. I pray that God would comfort his family.
Agreed. They will NEVER get it. They are hardwired, usually through the university system, to be pathologically pacifist and anti-American.
The new American Left IS a cult.
Leave the war zone to the warriors to deal with. If you are a pacifist and a non combatant, volunteer at the day care center.
Sleep with dogs, wake up with fleas. Prayers for his family.
Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters
And yet his buddies will STILL continue to blame Bush or our military for Fox's death.
First off, my prayers and sympathy to his family. Regardless of his livelihood and opinions, he was a human being with people who loved him. My condolences to his family.
However, when I read his quote, above, the first thing I thought of was abortion. What is the word "fetus," if not a denumanizing label; and how are they treated during abortions?
(I have no idea where Mr. Fox stood on abortion.)
Oh shiet! Remember that guy? lol! Giving them all cuddly names like they were kittens or something, freggin` nuts.
The fate of Tom Fox is terrible and nothing of which to make light. However, it reminds the wise of the foolishness of the Left and the extremely good reasons why the Left is not to be trusted.
The fate of Tom Fox is terrible and nothing of which to make light. However, it reminds the wise of the foolishness of the Left and the extremely good reasons why the Left is not to be trusted.
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