Posted on 03/05/2003 9:21:48 AM PST by areafiftyone
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Two red double decker buses and a white London taxi that ferried anti-war activists to Baghdad to serve as "human shields" are stranded in Beirut with their owner short of the $5,500 it costs to ship them home.
The buses and taxi, dusty after a six-week overland journey that began at London's Tower Bridge, were plastered with signs saying "No to a war on Iraq" and "No to war, Yes to peace."
"The buses have to be shipped back. It's just not practical to drive them...I am not even really sure how much money I've got, but I'm sure it's not enough," said owner Joe Letts, adding that he would fly to London on Thursday to try to raise cash.
"I thought I would let people know it's a problem," he added, sitting in a makeshift kitchen on his bus in central Beirut.
Letts said he left London with 45 human shields of 10-12 nationalities, and picked up a dozen or so more in Turkey before arriving in Baghdad, where he spent a week sleeping in a power station hoping to prevent a possible U.S.-led attack.
"We were taken to see some of the installations that the Iraqis thought were suitable for protection," he said, adding that he had feared a bombing campaign could start at any time.
"We painted a huge sign on the roof saying human shields, so when any planes bombed the target, they'd see they were killing us -- Englishmen and Finns and Turks."
Some 50 other Swedish anti-war human shield activists who had traveled to Iraq began to leave on Monday, saying they had wanted to protect hospitals and schools but had been forced out to refineries, power plants and water works.
Letts said about 200 human shields, including many who traveled on his bus, remained in Baghdad when he left. But he said that although he stayed on as a shield for a week, he had no intention of staying in Baghdad for the duration of a war.
"I own these buses and they are my livelihood and my family's livelihood. And all along I was there really to take the people down and then come back," he said.
When he left London, he thought he had enough money to pay to ship the buses home, but ended up spending his personal finances to help pay for the trip.
"I had promised my wife I would get the buses home," he said. "If I don't get them home, we're absolutely stuck."
I've long been looking for the perfect example of extreme "dumbass".
Think I just found it.
If he got her immediate permission, that is not good. Maybe divorce papers will be waiting for him when he gets back.
And he's the guy under the bus.
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