Googling the news (2)

The BBC carries an interview with an American lady who has been taking detainee testimony in Iraq. She has some eye-opening tales to tell.

We heard about very violent house raids in the middle of the night, in which US soldiers would storm in, and if the men did not get down immediately, they would knock them down and beat them.

Then their house would be ransacked, often with property damage. Many would report that at the end of that time jewellery and money would be missing. Then the men of the household would be taken away

So who is this lady? The interviewer, Becky Branford, helpfully includes an introductory paragraph.

Peggy Gish, 62, is an American woman who has spent 13 months over the past two years logging the cases of Iraqi detainees with the ecumenical humanitarian group Christian Peacemaker Teams.

Well I wasn't quite sure what an ecumenical humanitarian group did. So I googled "Peggy Gish".

Amongst other things, I came up with this.(all bold is mine)

Christian Peacemaker Teams, a program of Brethren, Quaker and Mennonite Churches, has posted volunteers in Iraq since Oct 25, 2002. More recently, additional delegations have gone to Iraq to educate the public and "get in the way" of potential military attacks.

[...]

Seven members of Christian Peacemaker Teams; two members of the Iraq Peace Team, a related group; and three other internationals were expelled by the Iraqi government today.

The expelled CPT members include Peggy Gish; Cliff Kindy; Weldon Nisly, 57, of Seattle, Wash.; Betty Scholten, 69, of Mt. Rainier, Md.; Kara Speltz, 65, of Oakland, Calif.; Jonathon and Leah Wilson-Hartgrove, both 22, of Devon, Pa.

So it appears that our Peggy is in fact one of the human shields who struggled to keep Saddam in power. Let's read some more from the interview:

But in many ways things have got worse - there is less electricity and water, unemployment is at 50% or 60%, there is much more danger. People are feeling very discouraged and fearful.

I don't know about you but my estimation of the truthfulness of what she says is rather different knowing who she is and why she went to Iraq.