“A tape broadcast Saturday threatened to kill four Christian peace activists unless all Iraqi prisoners are released from prisons in Iraq and the United States. The four (from left) are Canadians James Loney of Tronto and Harmeet Siingh Sooden, Tom Fox of Clear Brook, Va., and Briton Norman Kember. This image aired Saturday on Al Jazeera TV.Photo by Associated Press / Al Jazeera
By Rob Longley, Daily News-Record
Friends of Tom Fox, the former Eastern Mennonite University student held captive in Iraq since Nov. 26, made a renewed call for his release on Saturday, the same day Al-Jazeera aired new video of the kidnapped peace activist.
Fox, 54, of Clear Brook, and three other peace activists were kidnapped in the fall while protesting human rights abuses in Iraq.
The men were in Iraq as part of a group from Chicago-based Christian Peacemaker Teams.
The previously unknown Swords of Righteous Bridges has claimed responsibility for kidnapping them.
“Tom Fox and the other Christian Peacemaker Team members are the friends and guests of the Iraqi people,” EMU professor Lisa Schirch, a friend and former teacher of Fox, said in a statement Saturday. “I plead with those holding Tom, the other Christian Peacemaker