Free the
Captives Now
Online
Vigil for the Release of Tom Fox
Since
early December, John Stephens of Alexandria meeting, and Chuck Fager of State
College, have joined together to keep an ongoing online vigil for the release
of Tom Fox and the other CPT captives in Iraq.
"We
originally started our website, www.freethecaptivesnow.org as one way to join
with the international mobilization of support for Tom's release," Chuck
said. "The net is a remarkable tool - from the time we came up with the
idea, talking on
the phone, it only took about an hour to get a domain name, work up a simple
design, and get the site up and running."
The
site first began a petition, and urged interested persons to send letters and
emails to Al-Jazeera and other outlets visible in the Gulf region. Along with
a CPT site that went up a bit later, the petitions soon gathered 50,000
signatures. Al-Jazeera reported that it was swamped with emails appealing for
the captives release. Many Muslim groups, including some of the most militant,
called upon the mysterious captors to release the prisoners.
As
the second stated "deadline" for their execution passed on December
8, we all held our breath. But as the days passed with no news, the
mobilization slowly morphed into a continuing vigil. The website is now updated
daily, with the refrain that there is no news, filled out by headlines about
the ongoing turmoil in the region.
Our
hope is that by the time this report is in print, Tom and the others will be
released, and the site will be obsolete. But we have learned from combing
through press reports that there are many captives in Iraq, hundreds held by
insurgents and thousands held by US forces. The fate of those in each kind of
confinement is uncertain, and many are held for long periods.
So
the vigil continues.
