The Associated Press continues to carry water for the “anti-war” movement, with an article about the four members of Christian Peacemaker Teams kidnapped by the mujahideen in Iraq: Pacifist Group Experienced in War Zones.

CHICAGO - Four Christian peace activists taken hostage in Iraq belong to a group that has spent more than 15 years walking into some of world’s hottest war zones, usually armed only with notes explaining that they aren’t there to convert anyone. Such a declaration, written in Arabic, was likely what the Christian Peacemaker Teams activists were carrying when they were abducted in Iraq, spokeswoman Jessica Phillips said.

Blurry television footage broadcast Tuesday showed the frightened men, taken by a previously unknown group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness Brigade.

“Because of our stance on pacifism, we walk into situations quite vulnerable,” Phillips said. “In our training, we explain that what we do is high risk. You need to have a sober reality of that going in.”

The Chicago-based organization _ supported by several Protestant denominations that believe Christianity forbids all war-making and violence _ has sent activists into war zones, including Bosnia and Haiti, since the late 1980s. It has about 160 members around the world and about a dozen in Iraq.

The kidnapped men had been witnessing the conditions of civilians and detainees, intending to go home and speak to church and other groups to call for an end to the fighting, Phillips said.

Yes, they are experienced in making nuisances of themselves in war zones. But oddly enough, the AP doesn’t seem to want to mention one particular war zone; Christian Peacemaker Teams is one of the groups, along with the International Solidarity Movement, who openly support Palestinian terror gangs: CPT in Palestine. (Hat tip: Joshua Sharf.)

On 30 November 2005 the National and Islamic Forces in Hebron held a press conference to ask for the release of four CPTers being held by an Iraqi armed group. They released a joint statement expressing their “sorrow at the kidnapping of four of the peace advocates from the CPT in Iraq.”

The first speaker was Sheikh Najib Al Ja’abri, who hosted the press conference at the Ali Baka’a Mosque in the Haret e-Sheikh neighborhood of Hebron. He spoke of his warm sense of working together with CPTers over the years. The second speaker was Abdul ‘Alim Dana of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, followed by Fahmi Shahin, Coordinator of the National and Islamic Forces in Hebron, representing the Palestine People’s Party.