Free the Captives: Witness Against Illegal Detention and Torture

Scholar Chalmers Johnson presents crucial, revealing insights into the nature and impact of imperial militarism on the American economy and culture in a must-read interview. The humanitarian disaster is further illustrated in a report from Caritas Internationalis, below.

However, there was no news on Wednesday of the three Christian Peacemakers still held captive in Iraq.

Civil war Report: Developments in Iraq include multiple attacks against police, pilgrims, and even more bodies were found with hands bound.

Caritas Still at Work in Iraq: Along with Christian Peacemaker Teams "Caritas Iraq is one of the few NGOs still operative in Iraq, bringing assistance to an ever-expanding number of people in need."

In an interview Friday given to ADNKronos International news agency, Nabil Nissan of Caritas Iraq explained that the problems they are facing now are even more difficult than when Saddam Hussein was in power.

"[Then] there were health centres, but we lacked medicines and equipment," said Nissan, who is the manager of the "Well Baby Programme," one of Caritas Iraq’s most important projects.

"Today people are less able to access health care because of the daily violence, and while the supplies are available growing corruption means they are often diverted away from those most in need," Nissan added. [...]

Caritas Internationalis is a confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development, and social service organisations present in over 200 countries and territories.

Sectarian Violence Creating Iraq Exiles:

Thousands of Shiite and Sunni families who once lived side by side have been forced from their homes and into a desperate exile, victims of the beginnings of ethnic cleansing a month after the bombing of an important Shiite shrine.