Harmeet Singh Sooden (born 1973) is a Canadian-New Zealand anti-war activist who volunteered for the international NGO Christian Peacemaker Teams in Iraq.
[4] He says he was also motivated by the experiences of a friend who survived the World Trade Center attack on 11 September 2001, and the ordeal of Maher Arar, a university classmate who was subjected to extraordinary rendition and torture.
On 23 July 2006, Sooden did an extensive interview with journalist Sahar Ghumkhor, in which he discussed his reflections on his visits in Iraq before the kidnapping, his captivity, his release and the response of the media.
Investigative journalist, Seymour Hersh of The New Yorker magazine, who helped to expose the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal in 2004, cited the organisation in his articles.
[7]The Christian Peacemaker Teams hostage crisis precipitated when four human rights workers of CPT, James Loney, Norman Kember, Tom Fox and Sooden, were abducted in Baghdad, Iraq on 26 November 2005 by a previously unknown group, the Swords of Righteousness Brigade.
Task Force Black have since been implicated in human rights abuses at secret detention facilities, including Camp Nama and H1.
[21][22] There were unconfirmed reports and speculation that elements of the Canadian special-operations unit Joint Task Force 2 also took part in the release operation.
[29] In October 2006, the Multi-National Force - Iraq (MNF-I) informed the ex-hostages that an unspecified number of men, alleged to be their kidnappers, had been captured.
On 8 December 2006, the three survivors publicly forgave their captors at a press conference held at St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace in London, England.
We have no desire to punish them.... Should those who have been charged with holding us hostage be brought to trial and convicted, we ask that they be granted all possible leniency.
"[32] There have been media reports suggesting the Christian Peacemaker Teams kidnapping is linked to the abductions of British aid worker Margaret Hassan in 2004 and United States journalist Jill Carroll in 2006, and to extrajudicial killings (for example, the death of Muharib Abdul-Latif al-Jubouri in 2007).
"[46] Officers from the SIG were also involved in debriefing him after his kidnapping, and later facilitating the attempts of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to persuade him to participate in the trial of his kidnappers.
On 14 August 2006, Fox News Channel journalists Olaf Wiig (a New Zealander) and Steve Centanni in the Gaza Strip were abducted by a previously unknown Palestinian group.
[50] Former hostages Sooden and James Loney were among the 250 Canadians[51] who risked charges under Canada's anti-terrorism legislation in the spring of 2009 for contributing funds towards a plane ticket for Abousfian Abdelrazik.
[53] In 2011, Sooden joined Freedom Flotilla II aboard the Canadian vessel MV Tahrir[54] to highlight the West's support for Israel's closure of Gaza.