Unease Following Harmeet Sooden's Rescue

I must say while the family are joyous and rightly so there are many aspects of this case that leave me very uneasy.

1. In the wake of the rescue - colleagues of Sooden are quoted as saying it was the US and Bush that got Harmeet 'into this mess'. Well hello - Sooden went to Iraq under his own steam with his own agenda months AFTER Saddam was toppled. To blame Bush is hypocrisy and misguided.
   
2. Not one word of thanks to his rescuers - risking their own lives. Remember Sooden and his mates put themselves at risk travelling to Iraq - on their 'peace' mission. This story now picked up by the UK press - see here.
   
3. I see today TVNZ are coughing up for the travel and accommodation of Sooden's father and brother-in-law. These people who have used the media widely to keep Sooden's incarceration in the public eye have now blocked access by TV3 - given their lucrative arrangements with TVNZ. Not exactly New Testament behaviour or thinking by the travellers.
4. Worse - Sooden and his mates are refusing to assist the rescue group with intelligence on the hostage takers - intelligence that might prevent a similar incarceration and could lead to the rescue of others.
   
5. The impression is this refusal is not some form of Stockholm Syndrome - it is Sooden's group's policy to not cooperate with foreign soldiers in Iraq. Of course Sooden was not a foreign soldier...Onward Christian Soldiers and all that...
6. Usefully the international Press describe Sooden as a Canadian. Good - make sure he stops there on the way out of Iraq. Call it home Harmeet. Call on the troops that risked their lives to save you.