119 days, one flight, Norman comes home

119 days, one flight, Norman comes home In the end he paid tribute to the troops who rescued him. But Norman Kember is still the target of criticism that he took too many risks in Iraq. And now details are also emerging of the huge dangers that his saviours had to face

At 12:22pm came the moment Pat Kember was convinced would never happen. Under a solemn grey sky, yesterday's only BA flight from Kuwait touched down on time at Heathrow. On board, staring outside at a familiar world, sat Pat's husband, Norman. They would shortly be reunited, a moment that seemed visibly to lift Kember's gaunt features. Then the world waited for the 74-year-old's statement. In the end, it was just 285 words, less than three for every night he had been locked up in an shed in western Baghdad.

His statement touched on his wife's suffering, the heartache of the Iraqi people and the relatives of British soldiers killed there. As significant, though, was his gratitude to the men who had freed him at daybreak last Thursday, after 119 days in captivity.

'I do not believe that a lasting peace is achieved by armed force, but I pay tribute to their courage and thank those who played a part in my rescue,' Kember's statement read. With that, he left with his wife, and headed back to his old life in Pinner, north London.

Yet even before Kember arrived at his detached, pebble-dashed home, the row over whether the veteran peace activist had taken one risk too many had escalated.

The Observer can reveal that many of the Iraqis involved in helping the coalition forces rescue Kember had taken huge risks. One Baghdad local nearly lost his daughter after a bomb was left outside her city school. Another survived three car bombs after coming under suspicion for helping western forces.

Anas Altikriti, a representative of the Muslim Association of Britain,who went to Baghdad last year to try to free Kember, has also revealed that he was the target of a bomb that killed two people moments after he gave a live TV appeal in Iraq pleading for the hostages' release. ~~~

'There is a real sense in which you are interviewing the wrong person. It is the ordinary people of Iraq that you should be talking to - the people who have suffered so much over many years and still await the stable and just society that they deserve. Yes, I'd love to hear from the Iraqis that AT GREAT PERSONAL RISK who work WITH the troops to build a stable and just society that they have suffered and awaited for so many years, that helped free this SOB. ~~~~~~~

I now need to reflect on my experience - was I foolhardy or rational? - and also to enjoy freedom in peace and quiet.' Does he want an answer to this question? If so, he forgot to ask, am I a 'boob'.

The article goes on to state (in quotation marks) that Kemper and the other hostages were confined to the house but had free movenent inside of it, doing exercises etc.

I heard it reported (Brian Suits, KVI 570, Seattle area) that the hostages were actually found blind folded, handcuffed and literally chained to the floor.

He said this info came from personnel who were involved in the RESCUE.

Also the Guardian article says that Tom Fox was not tortured. He probably just got in a scuffle as they were going to shoot him...............

The Guardian and its muzzie lovin' subscribers are idiots.

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