T

he embassy of Iraq in Ottawa seems to have a good grasp of who are the friends of Iraq, and who are the phonies:

Iraq's embassy to Canada lashed out at the Christian Peacemaker Teams Friday, calling them "phoney pacifists" and "dupes" after the antiwar group responded to the rescue of three of its kidnapped activists by condemning the U.S.-led military intervention in Iraq.

The Iraqi embassy called CPT "willfully ignorant" and "outrageous," and accused the Chicago-based group of being on the side of anti-democratic forces in Iraq.

"The Christian Peacemaker Teams practises the kind of politics that automatically nominate them as dupes for jihadism and fascism," the embassy's statement said.

When CPT activist Jim Loney got back safely to Canada, his organisation revealed something which had been kept secret while he and his comrades were in captivity. Jim is gay, and involved in a long term relationship with his partner. Good for you, Jim, and all the best to both of you. Surely it must have weighed heavily on your mind while in the hands of the jihadis, lest they ever got wind of it. It must be a great relief to be back in a country where this isn't a major issue any more. Those who are battling to prevent democracy taking root in Iraq, struggling to ignite sectarian violence toward a goal of all out civil war and eventually to phase one of the New Caliphate in Mesopotamia, do not see your lifestyle with the same benevolent perspective as our people of the True North Strong and Free. Under the Islamic Sharia law of your captors, your very being is an abomination, to be eliminated without reservation.

This makes it extremely difficult to understand the objectively pro-"insurgency" perspective of you and your CPT comrades. Like the fake pacifists on display at recent "direct actions" across the world, you guys are simply on the other side -- to the point of not even cooperating with your rescuers following your own rescue. Had your secret slipped out before the British, Canadian, Iraqi and US forces saved your ass, and had your captors found out the truth, I wouldn't have held out much hope for you to return to your loved one in a single piece. Yet these are the ones that you and your comrades have aligned yourselves with, against the "illegal occupation" of more than 30 nations of the coalition -- a coalition, by the way, that includes Iraq itself and serves to secure the country at the behest of Iraq's elected government. (When the new government is finally formed, it will likely also want the coalition to stay for a while yet, as do the majority of Iraq's citizens -- but if it asks the coalition to leave, it will leave. Some occupation.)

Has Jim Loney ever wondered how life will be for gay Iraqis, should his noble resistance eventually get its way in that country? Doubtful. But perhaps now, safe and sound in Canada's tolerant bosom, he might think about considering to give it some thought.

Somewhat related is the wonderful news of last night (Bangkok time) that Christian Science Monitor journalist Jill Carroll was released by her captors. In Jill's case, it is correct to say that she was released -- something the CPT creeps tried to spin out of their people's rescue by international forces. Jill was dropped off, after 82 days of "good treatment," into the care of an Islamist political party in Baghdad. She should be on her way home by now. I saw a clip of her speaking in the party's offices last night via AP satellite, telling how her life had been since being captured in the first week of January. She was well treated, never harmed or threatened with harm, she said. They gave her plenty of good food, she was provided with clothing, and they even let her go to the bathroom without hindrance. That's great, I'm glad that her ordeal was at least tolerable for her. It sounded like she was always in the company of her captors, so in those twelve weeks she must have got to know them fairly well. I understand she is a fluent Arabic speaker.

But I distinctly remember seeing Jill in a jihadi/terrorist video a while back, where she was clearly distressed and crying, begging for her life. This image seems at odds with what she said last night, which was that the kidnappers had never struck her, or even threatened to hit her. Maybe threatening to kill her is something very different for whatever reason (which they certainly did do), and her demeanor in their video communiques certainly showed that she believed them at the time. But now that she is free (or as free as one can be in an Islamist political party's offices), the story becomes one of being treated like an Arabian princess.

I'll surely withold my judgement of Jill's contradictory statements until she is also safely back home with her loved ones, and until such time as she elaborates on her experiences more freely. But the final video communique from her captors, released following her release, is a bit disturbing. It might be the case that she knew her release was imminent when she recorded the video, and this may explain her enthusiasm -- in such contrast with the evident despair and mental torment she exhibited in the earlier videos. What she says here seems to be directly from the mujahideen script. She praises the mujahideen for being smarter, better, more honourable and generally just more excellent in every way as compared to those trying to defend Iraqi democracy. Because of these qualities, she says the mujahideen will certainly be victorious against their opponents. She laments the many Iraqis currently being killed every day, loosely blaming it on "armies" and their "bombings and shootings." I suppose she's missed the news of the past few months (she said last night that she'd been given a newspaper, once). So she may not understand that the relentless "insurgent" bombings (and now the Mahdi death squads) are not being carried out by Americans.

The thing about this video, is that she speaks from the mujahideen script, and at the same time appears to be speaking her own heart. It doesn't appear to be a recitation of the points they want her to make, she seems quite enthusiastic in making them. She castigates the "lies" of the American government, for their audacity to identify the noble mujahideen as "terrorists". She says that the suffering Iraqi people "have no electricity and no water." She says that President Bush "doesn't care at all about his own people, or Iraqis." She felt guilty of her excellent treatment by the mujahideen, because US soldiers are routinely torturing Iraqis every day. And so on.

I really hope to see a more nuanced perspective of the conflict, once Jill gets to speak openly and without intimidation, which of course she will be when she gets back safely to Bu$hitler's Amerikkka.

Jill's own translator / assistant, who was murdered by the people she praises in this video, could not be immediately reached for comment. View the video here.