Free the Captives: Witness Against Illegal Detention and Torture

There was no news on Monday February 13 of the condition of Tom Fox and three other CPT peaceworkers held captive in Iraq. As described below, plans were announced for Baghdad protests calling for their release; threats of death were made against two Germans also held captive, and a newly-released study forecast high casualties if an attack is made on Iran.

from Canada Press: Iraqi rights group plans Baghdad protest for release of Christian Peacemakers

A local Iraqi human-rights group is planning a demonstration in Baghdad this week to press for the release of four members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams taken hostage in the fall, a Canadian colleague of the captives said Monday.

The protest will take place Friday in the same square where the statue of ousted president Saddam Hussein was toppled almost three years ago following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, fellow team member Allan Slater said from Baghdad. [...]

The group staging Friday's event has asked the Christian Peacemakers in Baghdad to stay away from the protest for security reasons. [...]

Despite security concerns, the group is still moving around Baghdad, although in a significantly restricted fashion, he added.

"One of the best things we can do for ourselves and for our detained friends is to keep doing our work," Slater said.

from Aljazeera: Hostages in Iraq threatened with death

Al-Arabiya TV has aired footage of two German hostages surrounded by their kidnappers, threatening to kill them unless the German government meets their demands.

No deadline was set, but the station said the kidnappers warned this was the last chance to save the hostages.

The previously unknown Tawhid and Sunnah Brigade abducted Thomas Nitschke and Rene Braeunlich on 24 January in Beiji, north of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

Al-Arabiya cited the kidnappers as saying: "This is the last warning to fulfill the demands of the group."

In January, Aljazeera aired the last tape showing the hostages, where the group called on Germany to close its embassy in Baghdad and stop co-operating with the Iraqi government or it would kill the hostages within 72 hours.

from Reuters: Blast outside Baghdad bank kills 15

Fifteen people were killed and more than 30 wounded in Baghdad on Monday when a blast ripped through a crowd of people queuing up outside a bank, the Iraqi police and U.S. military said.

The police said Iraqis were waiting to collect compensation for food rations the government had failed to distribute last year when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt.

The U.S. military said the blast was caused by a roadside bomb planted near the busy bank.

Thousands would die if U.S. attacked Iran

The report by the independent Oxford Research Group said any bombing of Iran by U.S. forces, or by their Israeli allies, would have to be part of a surprise attack on a range of facilities including urban areas that would catch many Iranians unprotected.

"I think there is at least a 50:50 risk of some sort of real crisis, probably with military action, before the end of next year," said the report's author, Professor Paul Rogers of the University of Bradford. [...]

An attack could eventually lead to a lengthy confrontation involving many other countries in the region, could mean the closure of the Gulf, and would probably have a "formidable" impact on oil prices, as well as spurring new attacks by Muslim radicals on Western interests, the report said. [...]

"Civilian deaths would be in the many hundreds at least," it added. "If the war evolved into a wider conflict, primarily to pre-empt or counter Iranian responses, the casualties would eventually be much higher."