Sad Sad News
From the Hartford Friends Listserve,
Please hold in the Light the family and friends of Tom Fox, the Quaker Christian Peacemaker from Virginia whose body was just found in Iraq. Tom had been in Iraq since 2002, working on the issue of the abuse of Iraqi detainees by the US and Iraqis. He had been taken hostage in November, with three other Christian Peacemakers, who appear to still be alive.From the Free the Captives site,
An American who was among four Christian peace activists kidnapped last year in Iraq has been killed, a State Department spokesman said Friday.
[Agence France Press-The body was found in a plastic bag on a garbage dump in west Baghdad, a witness and an interior ministry official said.
He had been handcuffed and shot. His tracksuited body had then been wrapped in a blanket and stuffed in a plastic bag.
His back showed signs of beatings and he appeared to have been killed recently, the official said.
Iraqi police found him in a vacant lot in the upscale Al-Mansur district at around 5 pm (1400 GMT) on Thursday. Seeing he was a Westerner, the patrol immediately contacted US forces who took charge of the body.]
The FBI verified that a body found in Iraq Friday morning was that of Tom Fox, 54, of Clear Brook, Va., spokesman Noel Clay said. He said he had no information on the other three captives.
Clay said additional forensics will be done in the United States. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad is investigating, he said.
Fox's family has been notified, Clay said, and "our heartfelt condolences go out to them."
"The State Department continues to call for the unconditional release of all other hostages" in Iraq, the spokesman said.
posted by Peterson Toscano @ 9:50 AM
6 Comments:
What terrible news - my thoughts are with Tom Fox's family & friends. It is so humbling to consider his dedication to peace and the terrible cost he and those close to him have paid.
We should hold the other three hostages (Norman Kember, Harmeet Sooden & James Loney) and their families in the light also. This must be an unimaginably tense time for them as well.
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Reading Tom Fox's writings from Iraq sheds so much light on the guy's love.
Now, in addition to Tom's family, I join you in lifting up Norman Kember (U.K.), Harmeet Sooden and James Loney (both from Canada) as well as another CPT Canadian, Allan Slater, who has recently returned to Iraq.
Peace & light
Our vigils at Woodlawn Friends Meeting, where Tom and his family came into the Quaker faith, will continue. Not only are there three Christian Peacemakers still missing, but Tom's witness calls us to remember the countless thousands of Iraqis who are also missing, disappeared and held captive by various militias, armed groups, multinational forces, and Iraqi detention facilities.
We continue our vigil also at Free the Captives. Tom's profound courage and commitment and his profound human struggle with isolation and suffering is a heritable legacy, but only if the faithful community is willing to wrestle with and endure those realities that reveal the Peaceable Realm.
We have a memorial page where friends and supporters of Tom and his work can share their memories, prayers, and condolences.
Hey Peterson, and interested others!
I'm not sure if you've picked up on this yet, since I haven't seen it in any of the American news sites I've been to, but when CPT former-hostage James Loney arrived home in Toronto yesterday, in his official statement to the press he outed himself by making reference to his intent to get reacquainted with his partner, Dan Hunt, who is shown in the photo with him that was on the front page of the Toronto Star newspaper today.
(They couldn't acknowledge Dan as his partner until James got home safely, afraid of what the Iraqis would do to James if they found out.)
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