Posted on 03/13/2003 12:00:31 AM PST by kattracks
AMMAN, Jordan March 12 Five volunteers who went to Iraq to serve as "human shields," including two Americans, were forced out of the country because they were critical of the government's choice of sites to protect, the head of the group said Wednesday.
They had chosen locations "essential to the civilian population," such as food storage warehouses and water and electricity facilities, said Ken O'Keefe, of Haleiwa, Hawaii.
But the Iraqi government wanted the shields in more sensitive locations, he said. He did not elaborate, but some earlier activists have also left Iraq, reportedly after being told they would be posted at potentially strategic targets, such as oil refineries and power plants.
"They removed us from the sites we had chosen because we were critical of the integrity and the autonomy of the Iraqi authorities," said O'Keefe, 33. "I was escorted by Iraqi intelligence officers to the border, because I say what I believe and the Iraqi government wants submissive easy robots."
The other four deported with O'Keefe were American John Ross, Eva Mern from Slovenia, Gordan Sloan from Australia, and Tolga Temugi from Turkey.
"The Iraqi government was acting absolutely very stupid," O'Keefe said, dressed in a long Arabic dishdasha robes while talking to The Associated Press at a small hotel in downtown Amman. "If they had only cooperated and let us do part of what we wanted to do, we could have worked with them also to protect these sites and we would have brought in more people to stay."
"I certainly have no great admiration for Saddam Hussein, I was only going to help the people," he said, blaming the plight of the Iraqis on the previous American governments that supported Saddam.
Over 100 people from around the world have gone to Iraq as human shields and the Iraqi government has made visa issuance and extensions more convenient to accommodate them.
Seven more peace activists from the Iraq Peace Team, a project of the activist group Voices in the Wilderness are set to leave Amman for Baghdad on Thursday to join other IPT members.
"This delegation may be the last IPT team to get into Baghdad prior to full-scale war," said the head of the delegation, Shane Claiborne, 27, from Philadelphia.
About 17 Egyptian doctors, pharmacists and lawyers who arrived in Amman on Wednesday will be leaving in few days to Baghdad to serve as human shields, visit hospitals to assess their medicine storage and offer other support.
A group of 14 Jordanian unionists of different professions will also join the mission.
Oh, OK ... I'll begin here.
"The Iraqi government was acting absolutely very stupid," O'Keefe said, dressed in a long Arabic dishdasha robes
Perhaps it's just as well that after the bombing starts, the world will be plagued with a few less idiots.
these bombs are so smart, they knock on the door...
and ask who's home!!!
Oh poor thangs .. Saddam won't cooperate
BTW .. they weren't forced out .. they could have stayed
Just not were it was safe ...
I'm staying in a double room at the two-star Hotel Andalus in the middle of Baghdad. By Western standards it's below par--the carpets are really dirty--but as far as I'm concerned it's pretty comfortable, especially after sleeping on the floor of a freezing bus. The Iraqi government has supplied us all with accommodation at one of three city-centre hotels: even though some people had brought tents, the government wouldn't allow us to use them. It costs those of us who are paying our way about $30 a night, an expense none of us wanted to incur; we didn't come to Iraq to stay in hotels
More...Live from Bagdad
Ken O'Keefe, an ex US Marine who fought in the Gulf War speaks to media in downtown Milan, Italy, Friday, Jan. 31, 2003 before boarding one of the three double-decker buses with volounteers that are to travel to Iraq where they are determined to act as human shields. Some 100 volounteers are travelling overland via various European cities to Baghdad, where they are expected to arrive on Feb. 7. Tattoo on his hand reads: "USA ex patriot". Members of the Truth Justice Peace Human Shield Action Group areprotesting against a possible war with Iraq. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Haven't you heard .. he lives in the Nation of Hawaii
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