Download or read book Abducted in Iraq written by Saad Sirop Hanna and published by University of Notre Dame Pess. This book was released on 2017-09-30 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do we respond in the face of evil, especially to those who inflict grave evil upon us? Abducted in Iraq is Bishop Saad Sirop Hanna’s firsthand account of his abduction in 2006 by a militant group associated with al-Qaeda. As a young parish priest and visiting lecturer on philosophy at Babel College near Baghdad, Fr. Hanna was kidnapped after celebrating Mass on August 15 and released on September 11. Hanna’s plight attracted international attention after Pope Benedict XVI requested prayers for the safe return of the young priest. The book charts Hanna’s twenty-eight days in captivity as he struggles through threats, torture, and the unknown to piece together what little information he has in a bid for survival. Throughout this time, he questions what a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq means for the future, as well as the events that lead the country on that path. Through extreme hardship, the young priest gains a greater knowledge both of his faith and of remaining true to himself. This riveting narrative reflects the experience of persecuted Christians all over the world today, especially the plight of Iraqi Christians who continue to live and hold their faith against tremendous odds, and it sheds light on the complex political and spiritual situation that Catholics face in predominantly non-Christian nations. More than just a personal story, Abducted in Iraq is also Hanna’s portrayal of what has happened to the ancient churches of one of the oldest Christian communities and how the West’s reaction and inaction have affected Iraqi Christians. More than just a story of one man, it is also the story of a suffering and persecuted people. As such, this book will be of great interest to those wanting to learn more about the violence in the Middle East and the threats facing Christians there, as well all those seeking to strengthen their own faith.
Download or read book American Hostage written by Micah Garen and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2005-10-11 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A rare and powerful story of hope, love, survival,and the struggle to bring back alive a hostage in Iraq Micah Garen and Marie-Hélène Carleton were journalists and filmmakers working in Iraq on a documentary about the looting of the country's legendary archaeological sites, with their Iraqi translator Amir Doshi. In the late summer of 2004, they began to wrap up their work, and Marie-Hélène returned home while Micah remained for a final two weeks of filming. As Micah and Amir were filming in a Nasiriyah market, something went horribly wrong: Micah, who wore a bushy mustache and was dressed in Iraqi clothing, was unmasked as a foreigner and kidnapped by militants in southern Iraq. Home in New York, Marie-Hélène awoke to a gut-wrenching phone call from Micah's mother with word of his abduction. She promised Micah's mother the impossible--that together they would bring Micah back alive. American Hostage is the remarkable memoir of Micah Garen's harrowing abduction and survival in captivity, as well as the heroic and successful struggle of Marie-Hélène; Micah's sister, Eva; along with family and friends to win Micah's and Amir's release from their captors. The world watched and waited as Micah's drama unfolded, but the authors, now safely home and engaged to be married, detail the dramatic untold story. After learning of Micah's abduction, Marie-Hélène took a risky and unusual step: instead of relying on the authorities to rescue Micah, she used her recent experience in Iraq to construct a massive grassroots effort to reach out to Micah's captors and plead for his release. As fighting between Coalition forces and the Mahdi Army raged in Najaf, Micah and Amir became pawns in a terrible political game. The kidnappers released a video threatening to kill Micah unless the United States withdrew from Najaf within forty-eight hours. In response, Marie-Hélène's and Micah's families redoubled their efforts, eventually sending a representative to Nasiriyah to lobby for Micah. While Marie-Hélène worked on his release, Micah, imprisoned alongside Amir under armed guard deep in the marshes of southern Iraq, lived the nightmare of a hostagehaunted by the alternating impulses of hope and despair, his desire for survival and plans of escape. His experience reveals a great deal about the lives and minds of militants in southern Iraq. American Hostage is an engrossing and rare story of how hope, love, and communal effort can overcome war, distance, and cultural differences in Iraq.
Download or read book Anatomy of an Abduction written by V Sudarshan and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2008-01-16 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘It was a bizarre situation. The negotiators were in position in Iraq. The kidnappers and the kidnapped were in Iraq. At the crucial moment, the transport company in Kuwait expressed reservations about the ransom.’ In July 2004, a convoy of KGL trucks drove into Iraq from Kuwait carrying eledronic equipment for the American occupiers, when the worst happened-three Indian drivers, three Kenyans and an Egyptian were ambushed, detained by unknown Iraqi dissidents and accused of collaborating with the Americans. A deadline was set for their execution. The countdown had begun. The abdudion drama that ensued had all the ingredients of a thriller: nail-biting suspense, high profile media coverage, intemational outrage at the plight of these humble workers, and political tightrope-walking. This gripping behind-the-scenes narration recounts what really happened in Baghdad when a team of negotiators was sent there and entered into secret talks through an intermediary whose very existence was not in public domain. Anatomy of an Abduction reveals for the first time the Indian crisis management team's handling of the situation over forty-four days in occupied, lawless Iraq. The book gives an insight into the pressures that governments have to face as more and more innocent people become pawns in global chess games.
Download or read book Captivity written by James Loney and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2012-04-24 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The powerful account of the remarkable peace activist kidnapped while leading a peace delegation and held for ransom by Iraqi insurgents until his paradoxical release by a crack unit of special forces commandos. In November 2005, James Loney and three other men — Canadian Harmeet Singh Sooden, British citizen Norman Kember and American Tom Fox — were taken hostage at gunpoint. The men were with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), an organization that places teams trained in non-violent intervention into lethal conflict zones. The then unknown Swords of Righteousness Brigade released videos of the men, resulting in what is likely the most publicized kidnapping of the Iraq War. Tom Fox was murdered and dumped on a Baghdad street. The surviving men were held for 118 days before being rescued by Task Force Black, an elite counter-kidnap unit led by the British SAS. Captivity is the story of what Jim described upon his return to Toronto and reunion with his partner Dan Hunt as "a terrifying, profound, transformative and excruciatingly boring experience." It presents an affecting portrait of how Jim came to be a pacifist and chronicles his work in Iraq before the kidnapping. It brings the reader immediately into the terror and banality, the frictions, the moral dilemmas of their captivity, their search to find their captors' humanity, and the imperative need to conceal Jim's sexual identity. It examines the paradoxes we face when our most cherished principles are tested in extraordinary circumstances and explores the universal truths contained in every captivity experience. At its heart, the book is a hope-filled plea for peace, human solidarity and forgiveness. From James Loney: Why I Wrote This Book I often wondered, during those excruciating days of handcuffs and chains, fear and boredom without end, would I ever get to tell anyone about the strange and bizarre things that happened during our captivity? Being transported in the trunk of a car. Sleeping with my left and right hands handcuffed to the person beside me. Explaining to the captors how to use “men’s gel.” Picking open our handcuffs after watching a Hollywood movie. It is a paradox. I went to Iraq as a pacifi st on a mission of peace and was kidnapped, threatened with death and held hostage with three other men until we were rescued in a military operation. It is an extraordinary privilege to be able to tell the story of this paradox, to explain why I remain committed to the principles of nonviolence despite the fact a member of our group was murdered and our freedom was secured by armed force. The crucible of captivity was a kind of school in which I was able to see the innermost workings of the universe, how we are all connected, how our liberation is inextricably tied together. I want to share this story in the hope of contributing to the emergence of a world without war, the single greatest challenge of the 21st century. Everything depends on this, for without peace nothing else is possible.
Download or read book Buried Alive written by Roy Hallums and published by HarperChristian + ORM. This book was released on 2012-10-08 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “vivid, absorbing, and chilling” true-life account of surviving nearly a year of captivity in Iraq (Lesley Stahl, 60 Minutes correspondent). AK47s, masked thugs, and brutal urgency erupt from Roy Hallums’ account of his abduction in Iraq, shredding through those frequently sterile cable news reports revealing that another American contractor is being held hostage. Hallums was the everyman behind that report—a fifty-six-year-old retired Naval commander working as a food supply contractor in Baghdad’s high-end Mansour District. His abduction was transacted in a matter of minutes, amidst a hail of gunfire and a handful of casualties. For the first few months of his captivity, Hallums endured beatings and psychological torture while being shuffled from one ramshackle safe house to another. From the four-foot-tall crawlspace where he carried out the bulk of his nearly year-long abduction, Hallums established a surprising degree of normalcy—a system of routines and timekeeping, along with an attention to the particulars that defined his horrific ordeal. His experience is recreated here, rich with harrowing specifics and surprising observations.
Download or read book Kidnapped in Iraq A Christian Humanitarian Tells His Story written by Alexandre Goodarzy and published by Crisis. This book was released on 2022-05-24 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Blindfolded, tied, prodded by guns, Alexandre faced intense interrogations, fearing all the while that torture and death were imminent. In Kidnapped in Iraq, Alexandre Goodarzy describes in gripping detail his abduction by Islamic terrorists in January 2020, how prayer and his Catholic Faith sustained him, and why he now views the entire ordeal as a blessing from God. After learning of the fate of untold Christians in the Middle East, Alexandre was among a cadre of young men who agreed to assist Christians in danger. As the war in Syria quickly turned into a religious war, Alexandre provided aid to Christians there who were caught between a hardening regime and increasingly bloodthirsty Islamist groups. The brutalization of Syrian Christians was only recently exposed, since the real story was often distorted by the media. In recent years, Syrian Christians faced the grim choice of fleeing from ISIS and abandoning their homeland or enduring barbaric martyrdom. Their cities were leveled and their churches destroyed. Goodarzy describes how these Christians, loyal to their country, were sporadically kidnapped by Kurds and held for ransom or forced into military service. In Syria, priests provide both spiritual and temporal care, assisting with basic necessities in the community and working to preserve their culture while mediating with secular authorities. In what reads like a dystopian thriller, Alexandre describes the dangerous episodes he experienced assisting Christians, including the perilous twelve-hour bus ride from Damascus to Aleppo and the numerous face-to-face encounters with Islamic rebels - the last of which resulted in his abduction and sixty-six-day captivity by Iraqi terrorists. "What is affecting us here today will strike you tomorrow!" people in Iraq and Syria told Goodarzy, predicting that the radical Islamic atrocities in their countries would soon assail France and other Western countries. Kidnapped in Iraq is a riveting story of bravery and courage and one man's extraordinary efforts to aid Christians in need. It is also a chilling guidebook on how to fight for justice and proclaim the hope that comes in the triumph of the Cross. Book jacket.
Download or read book 118 Days Canadian Edition written by Tricia Gates Brown and published by Christian Peacemaker Teams. This book was released on 2008-05-19 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On November 26, 2005 Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) members Tom Fox and Jim Loney along with delegation members Norman Kember and Harmeet Sooden were kidnapped in Iraq. Tom Fox was killed on March 9, 2006. Jim, Norman and Harmeet were freed two weeks later on March 23 after 118 days of captivity. The kidnapping of these four men was like a rock thrown into a pond. This book describes the ripples on the water, the impact and results of that rock. Ripples in the lives of CPT teams and the communities in which they work. Ripples among families and friends of those taken. Ripples across the world in faith communities, prisons, in the media and among their audiences, and in the lives of the four men. Dozens of Muslim leaders who knew CPT's peacemaking work courageously called for the release of the CPT delegation. Christian leaders in turn called for justice for the 14,000 Iraqis held by Multinational Forces in Iraq without charges or access to their families.
Download or read book A Homeland Kidnapped written by Niran Al-Samarai and published by . This book was released on 2013-08 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kidnapping a homeland does not come only through occupying it by invading forces...The homeland gets kidnapped when the citizens' identity is crushed and their sons are displaced. The aim of this book is to address some facts and incidents that my country witnessed during quite a painful period, the price of which was paid by some of the best and most honourable sons of the homeland, and which was the result of deadly hostility between the different sects and religions. I want, through my words here, to warn others about what can result from a lack of justice and the rule of law. This book does not tell the tale of a single crime that my family in Baghdad was subjected to, or just a personal matter that has been drawing attention on the international stage for six years to this date. Rather, it is an account of events in Baghdad in the period 2004-2007 during which I witnessed the difficult living conditions which Iraqi women were experiencing.They did not Merely Kidnap Ahmed Al-Samarai, the President of the National Olympic Committee of Iraq, and his Colleagues: They Kidnapped a Homeland What happened to Ahmed happened to hundreds of patriotic Iraqis who believed in the new Iraq lie - the Iraq of freedom, justice and equality. Until now, their fate is unknown. Ahmed was not kidnapped simply as a result of spite or dishonourable competition, but because an international position like this - the President of the National Olympic Committee - should not - according to them - be occupied by a free, independent person who is not affiliated to anyone and who does not submit to anyone regardless to how qualified he is, but it must be someone who belongs to those in control in Baghdad, or a follower who serves them.I offer my warnings of a horrible sectarian epidemic and a new dictatorship unlike anything we have known, an epidemic that is governed by hate and spite for anyone who belongs to the other sect, achieving at the same time the occupation plan of a fragmented Iraq and the displacement of its citizens, in accordance with the language of our age that America is fluent in and that it wants to spread everywhere, supposedly to protect human rights and promote democracy. Some of those who took the kidnapping decision and executed it are now in high positions, but they are exposed and their fate is certain.They could have brought Ahmed Al-Samarai to Parliament for questioning over the legitimacy of the NOCI and its links with the International Olympic community, had the spiteful group been brave enough to submit a request to invalidate his Presidency of the NOCI and the positions of his colleagues, but - and since everyone agrees on how he was loyal and hardworking for his country and distant from any sectarian or political conflicts - his kidnapping meant a decision to kill and annihilate not to achieve justice or change, for change does not come by force in a democratic country and in independent government as they claim. I am not weeping only for a husband who went absent without a trace, or for a father whose son - who found in him a role model for patriotic feelings - still awaits his return, or for two very young grandsons who ask about the absence of their grandfather...Nor am I weeping for the dozens of orphans for whom Ahmed Al-Samarai was providing care out of his own private money...But I weep for the dozens of innocent men who were arrested with Ahmed Al-Samarai...and I weep for the absence of the thousands of innocent people who have been taken by force from their homes and families in my country...I weep for the values of honour and purity, the values of justice and humanity, for the burial of which a frenetic group, who work for private interests that lack the least of any patriotic feelings, has conspired. I weep for the fate of the nation and the homeland...ISBN: 978-1-908871-49-7
Download or read book Hostage in Iraq written by N. F. Kember and published by Darton Longman and Todd. This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Norman Kember, Christian pacifist, kidnapped in Iraq until set free by a Special Forces raid, gives for the first time his own account of his ordeal.
Download or read book Foreign Hostages in Iraq written by Source Wikipedia and published by University-Press.org. This book was released on 2013-09 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 32. Chapters: Kim Sun-il, Nick Berg, Jill Carroll, Margaret Hassan, Kenneth Bigley, Norman Kember, James Loney, Giuliana Sgrena, Douglas Wood, Ahmed Kousay Altaie, Susanne Osthoff, Tom Fox, Stephen Farrell, Fabrizio Quattrocchi, James Brandon, Shosei Koda, Harmeet Singh Sooden, Roy Hallums, Akihiko Saito, Enzo Baldoni, Ronald Alan Schulz, Ihab el-Sherif, Hostage Working Group, Jack Hensley, Sinan Krause, Kirk von Ackermann, Paul Taggart, Rory Carroll, Fairuz Yamulky, Rifat Mohammed Rifat, Marie Jeanne Ion, Florence Aubenas, Christian Chesnot, Issa Salomi, Georges Malbrunot, Fadi Ihsan Fadel, Murat Yuce, Ulf Hjertstrom. Excerpt: Beginning in April 2004, members of the Iraqi insurgency began taking foreign civilian hostages in Iraq. Since then, they have kidnapped more than 200 foreigners and thousands of Iraqis; among them, dozens of foreign hostages have been killed. Nepal (with 12) and the United States (with 11) rank the highest of hostages killed in Iraq. China ranks the highest (with 15) of hostages freed in Iraq followed by Pakistan (with 13) and Egypt (with 10). There are many motives behind these kidnappings. They include: In 2004, executions of captives were often filmed, and many were beheaded. However, the number of the recorded killings decreased significantly. Many hostages remain missing with no clue as to their whereabouts. The United States Department of State Hostage Working Group was organized by the U.S. Embassy, Baghdad, in the summer of 2004 to monitor foreign hostages in Iraq. The following is a list of known civilian foreign hostages in Iraq. Jill Carroll (born October 6, 1977) is an American former journalist (now working as a firefighter) who was kidnapped and ultimately released in Iraq. Carroll was a reporter for the Christian Science Monitor at the time of her kidnapping. After finishing a...
Download or read book Escape in Iraq written by Thomas Hamill and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2005 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Girl Who Escaped ISIS written by Farida Khalaf and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-07-19 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A rare and riveting first-hand account of the terror and torture inflicted by ISIS on young Iraqi Yazidi women. Devastating and inspiring, this is an astonishing, intimate account of courage and hope in the face of appalling violence, and resilience in the face of unspeakable horrors.
Download or read book The Last Girl written by Nadia Murad and published by Crown. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE • In this “courageous” (The Washington Post) memoir of survival, a former captive of the Islamic State tells her harrowing and ultimately inspiring story. Nadia Murad was born and raised in Kocho, a small village of farmers and shepherds in northern Iraq. A member of the Yazidi community, she and her brothers and sisters lived a quiet life. Nadia had dreams of becoming a history teacher or opening her own beauty salon. On August 15th, 2014, when Nadia was just twenty-one years old, this life ended. Islamic State militants massacred the people of her village, executing men who refused to convert to Islam and women too old to become sex slaves. Six of Nadia’s brothers were killed, and her mother soon after, their bodies swept into mass graves. Nadia was taken to Mosul and forced, along with thousands of other Yazidi girls, into the ISIS slave trade. Nadia would be held captive by several militants and repeatedly raped and beaten. Finally, she managed a narrow escape through the streets of Mosul, finding shelter in the home of a Sunni Muslim family whose eldest son risked his life to smuggle her to safety. Today, Nadia's story—as a witness to the Islamic State's brutality, a survivor of rape, a refugee, a Yazidi—has forced the world to pay attention to an ongoing genocide. It is a call to action, a testament to the human will to survive, and a love letter to a lost country, a fragile community, and a family torn apart by war.
Download or read book Criminals Militias and Insurgents written by Phil Williams and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author identifies the roots of organized crime in Ba'athist Iraq and reports on major criminal activities including the theft, diversion, and smuggling of oil, the kidnapping of both Iraqis and foreigners, extortion, car theft, and the theft and smuggling of antiquities. The author also reports on how al-Qaeda in Iraq, Jaish-al-Mahdi, and the Sunni tribes used criminal activities to fund their campaigns of political violence.
Download or read book No One Takes My Children written by Donya Al-Nahi and published by Mainstream. This book was released on 2005 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In March 2003, Donya al-Nahi's worst nightmare came true when her Iraqi husband took their daughter and youngest son and fled to the Middle East. Donya immediately begged and borrowed whatever funds she could and flew there to begin the hunt. But the search came to nothing, and she was forced to return home without her two missing children. A further trip with a private detective also proved fruitless, and Donya's hopes began to fade. As the fighting in Iraq continued and Saddam Hussein's regime was overthrown, she received news that her husband had returned to his home town of Najaf with the children. She knew she had no choice but to follow--and nothing would stand in her way this time. No One Takes My Children is the gripping account of Donya's heroic quest. It is a dramatic, emotional, and ultimately inspiring story of how one woman's determination and courage in the face of extremely daunting odds brought about the reunion of her family.
Download or read book Into the Lions Den written by Daniel Patrick O'Shea and published by Vindicta Publishing. This book was released on 2023-10-17 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An insider's look into nefarious world of hostage taking, where the traditional criminal industry of kidnap and ransom became kidnap and kill. Beheadings replaced proof of life videos as terrorism's latest tactic embodied the new face of post 9/11 Al Qaeda horror. When two Bulgarian truck drivers were kidnapped in June 2004, President Bush assured the President of Bulgaria that he would bring the full might of the United States to bear to secure their release. This "full might" manifested itself in the form of an intense, highly trained Navy SEAL, recently assigned to the U.S. Ambassador's staff. Into the Lion's Den is his story of frustration and fear, terror and triumph in the murky world of kidnapping, ransom and murder. No one understood the problem, the operating environment or obstacles to overcome when a kidnapping occurred in the most dangerous kidnapping environment in the world better than Dan O'Shea. Widespread hostage-taking incidents undermined every goal the US strived to complete in the post-Saddam era, becoming a metaphor for our failure to bring security, stability and governance to Iraq.
Download or read book The Business of War written by James A. Tyner and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-11-30 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the cessation of major combat operations in Iraq, approximately 120 people - either contract workers or private soldiers - have been abducted, with one-third being executed. The largest contingent of these workers has been provided by the Philippines. Through a specific, though not exclusive, focus on the Philippines connection, this book considers the myriad ways in which transnational labour migration intersects with the occupation of Iraq. Also examining the role of the USA in the Middle East, the book places the war on terror within the practices of neoliberalism, but also links this with migration issues and argues that it is all part of a larger 'business' of conflict.
