Human Shield Buses Stuck in Beirut, Seek Fare Home

Reuters ^ | 3/5/03

[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."

[Wolfie]

"Will Shield For Food"

[annyokie]

Sometimes the jokes just write themselves!

[Only1choice____Freedom]

>>"I had promised my wife I would get the buses home," he said. "If I don't get them home, we're absolutely stuck."

Did he get his wife's permission to be a human sheild?

[doug from upland]

This is a National Lampoon movie project. The script has written itself.

[trebb]

Heck, if the "human shields" had any sense of honor and responsibility they would have chipped in to help. Looks like true friendship doesn't exist in the left-wing camps...

[Centurion2000]

oops .... maybe he should call Martin Sheen or Sheryl Crowdad ...

[TontoKowalski]

"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."

I wonder if our troops have been given any instructions pertaining to calling off bombing raids if Human Shields are present at the site...I'd be willing to bet that they don't enter the equation at all. If they're bombed, so be it.

Also, note the undercurrent of racism in the quote...thinking that the pilots won't bomb them...after all, they are the "whities" not the "darkies". Do Turks qualify as "whities"?

[Spottys Spurs]

he, he, he, he!

[Huck]

Life is hard... it's harder if you're stupid.

LOL

[Alouette]

Why don't these courageous "human shields" volunteer to ride the buses in Haifa?

[cynicom]

Call Asner, Sheen and whoever, I am sure they will bail them out.

[Mark Felton]

I'd love to auction those buses on eBay. Send him money to fly home, and send the rest of the cash to the US Military for their families and children.

[Liberals are Evil Socialists!]

The ESSENCE of LIBERAL STUPIDITY! All wrapped in one little stupid decision. Amazing. Too bad they weren't killed, then at least they would have been candidates for Darwin Awards.

[Mortimer Snavely]

Let 'em teach English over there. That'll be punishment, alright.

[JIM O]

The wheels on the bus go round and round.....

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Oh, wow! If Momma ain't happy, ain't NOBODY happy! To think, he is more worried about upsetting his wife by leaving the buses behind, than he was worried about dying a moron's death in Iraq! How would Momma make a living without him, when he and his bus were bombed? The coward runs home, with his way-of-living, capitalism outweighed his sense of duty to his family? Now, how is Momma going to feed the babies, with the buses left stranded in Beirut? Momma is going to give him an earful! (If she was smart, she'd leave him!)

[sheik yerbouty]

Let them rot. Perhaps they could stay in East beirut, or Ein el Helwah!

[2Jedismom]

Why doesn't he just donate the trucks, to the poor people who live in Beirut and are starving?

Because he promised his wife he'd get them home!! ROFLOL!!

What a maroon!

[TADSLOS]

"If this is Wednesday, this must be Beirut"

[goorala]

Look at the exhaust fumes puffing out of that thing! How do the human shields justify the pollution they are spewing for their cause!?