posted 09-14-2001 01:13 PM            

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Date: 14 Sep 2001 15:58:56 -0000
From: "Unknowncountry.com"
Subject: Remember the Kabul Eight

Eight aid workers from Shelter Now International who were imprisoned by the Taliban for allegedly spreading Christian ideas have been left behind in Afghanistan as diplomats and grieving family members who had been supporting them have had to leave. They face the death penalty for their supposed crime.

They have also been forgotten by the media, but they must not be forgotten by us. Please remember them in your prayers on this national day of mourning, and if you get the opportunity in church, stand up and speak their names.

They are: SNI country director Georg Taubmann, Katrin Jelinek, Margrit Stebner and Silke Durrkopf, all Germans; Australians Peter Bunch and Diana Thomas; and Americans Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer.

For more information on this story, go to http://www.unknowncountry.com. The story is on the front page.

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posted 09-17-2001 05:04 PM            

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All foreign aid workers have left Afghanistan except for the eight who are jailed on charges of preaching Christianity.

In Islamabad, John Mercer, whose 24-year-old daughter, Heather, is one of two Americans in the group, said he pleaded with Taliban officials at the Afghan Embassy on Monday to let him take her place in jail. He said they did not respond to his request.

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posted 11-13-2001 11:03 AM            

In this case, and maybe even in their not mentioning probable use of Stinger-type SAMs here in the U.S. on American airliners... I can understand their reasoning. Maybe they're right? Why let the enemy use our own media against us?

Though that doesn't necessarily explain or excuse the media from other blackouts re: assassinations etc. during the past 30 or more years!

posted 11-14-2001 07:10 PM            

Early reports that the 8 aid workers may have been freed...

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The State Department said Wednesday it has no firm information about the eight Western aid workers being held by the Taliban. "We have heard reports that they may have been freed by the Taliban and are on the way to Pakistan," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. "We certainly hope that is true." Tuesday, the father of one of the workers said he was told the Taliban took them to Kandahar when the Taliban abandoned Kabul.

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posted 11-14-2001 07:12 PM            

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They were taken out of Afghanistan around 4:40 p.m. ET (2:40 a.m. Thursday in Afghanistan) by three U.S. Special Operations helicopters, the sources said.

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