Free the Captives: Witness Against Illegal Detention and Torture

The new Canadian foreign minister backtracked from his earlier optimistic remarks about the fate of the CPT captives, reported here in a previous update. There was no news on Tuesday Feb. 21 of the fate of Tom Fox and the other CPT captives. But there was renewed violence in Baghdad and a very sacred Shi'ite shrine was destroyed.

from Reuters: Canada tones down optimism on Iraq hostages

"[The video dated January 21] is unfortunately the last information that we have," he told reporters. "Sadly, we do not have any more recent information but that is what leads us to remain optimistic about their eventual release."

from CBC: No new information on Canadian hostages: MacKay

When asked if he had gone too far with those comments, MacKay said Tuesday: "I stated what was accurate and what is the position of the government, and that we are hopeful."

Edit This report includes information that has not come up before:

MacKay had told the Canadian Press on Monday that he was "very optimistic" about the four and that "the most recent information leads us to believe they have, on a number of occasions, been moved from one location to another."