http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660196185,00.html
Utahn recalls terror of Iraq kidnapping By <http://deseretnews.com/dn/staff/card/1,1228,1595,00.html> Tad Walch Deseret Morning News OREM - Random checkpoints are part of life in Iraq, so Provo's Will Van Wagenen didn't look up from the back seat of the car until it stopped in front of the gunmen and their rickety old Volkswagen sedan. Will Van Wagenen, a former BYU soccer player, was working with a human-rights group in Iraq when he was kidnapped. (Stuart Johnson, Deseret Morning News) Stuart Johnson, Deseret Morning News Will Van Wagenen, a former BYU soccer player, was working with a human-rights group in Iraq when he was kidnapped. The former Brigham Young University soccer player was curious but not too worried even after one of the gunmen climbed into the passenger seat. The man said he was conducting a border patrol investigation and ordered the driver to follow the Volkswagen, which looked to Van Wagenen like it had been on its last leg for 20 years. Then the Volkswagen pulled off the highway and into the desert. "That's when I started to get really scared," Van Wagenen said. "I realized we were either being kidnapped or taken to a remote spot to be shot and killed." The kidnappers took Van Wagenen, a graduate of Cottonwood High School and Harvard Divinity School, and three of his friends - Peggy Gish of Athens, Ohio, and two Iraqis - to a safe house either in northwest Iraq or across the border into Syria on Jan. 27. Two days later, the captors released Gish and one Iraqi man, but they held Van Wagenen and another Iraqi man until Feb. 4. The chilling capture left Van Wagenen, 29, feeling guilty and ultimately grateful to be safe back in Utah. Van Wagenen had been in Iraq before, working with the Christian Peacemaker Teams, a human-rights organization founded by pacifists to protect civilians in violence-torn areas around the world. Soon after he returned from that four-month stay in 2005, four CPT members were kidnapped, and one, 54-year-old Tom Fox of McLean, Va., was killed. So why on earth did Van Wagenen go back? "I decided to go back because we wouldn't be in Baghdad," he said. "We were going to the north, where a Kurdish government has created a really secure area. It's almost like a completely different country. "I really didn't anticipate any safety issues." In fact, Van Wagenen recalled feeling sick to his stomach as he sat in a hotel in Amman, Jordan, on the night before he first went into Iraq in 2005. As he returned to Iraq last November, he felt calm and safe. "That's obviously ironic," he said. The abduction For two months, Van Wagenen did work safely in Kurdish Iraq. Then he decided to leave. An Iraqi man persuaded him to visit his village in northwest Iraq, still predominantly Kurdish but outside the security of the Kurdish government. The man hoped Van Wagenen would visit impoverished Khanasour, near Sinjar Mountain, and then encourage larger human-rights organizations to help. "One of the worst things about (the kidnapping) was the constant fear that a bad decision I made about traveling somewhere might get one of my friends killed," he said. His first thought the Saturday afternoon he realized his traveling party was being abducted: They would be shot in the head. "Those first few minutes, I thought we were dead for sure." After a half hour, the kidnappers made their captives switch to the Volkswagen and ride for another 15 minutes with their heads down between their knees. The driver kept telling them not to be afraid. "We didn't believe him at that point," Van Wagenen said. It turned out the man could be trusted. The safe house was on the edge of a village at the edge of the desert. The captors said they were in Syria and claimed to be members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party who were fighting the U.S. military and Iranian militia. Van Wagenen thinks they were lying to cover their tracks. He never saw their faces because they wore headscarves over them to go with long robes common to Bedouins. The four captives were kept in a single room, where one captor stayed with them, even sleeping with them. He provided them with food, blankets and a kerosene heater and escorted them to an outhouse. No one ever struck him. "They didn't take my money or my passport. For being kidnapped, I was treated very well. My experience was a walk in the park compared to what is normal." The release At dawn on Monday, Jan. 29, the kidnappers released Gish and one Iraqi. Van Wagenen said he couldn't talk about why the kidnappers may have released him, Gish or the Iraqis. "That was definitely a good sign, a positive sign that their intent might not be to just murder us," Van Wagenen said. The rest of the week dragged by. Van Wagenen entertained thoughts of escape but decided not to risk the potential retaliation. Soon, he said, "the situation normalized in your head." He read the Book of Mormon, an Arabic dictionary and an Arabic children's book about Jesus Christ and talked about politics, Arabic and America and joked with his Iraqi friend and their constant escort, who initially complained about being unable to sleep for fear Van Wagenen or his companion would attack him in the night. "Man, we're peaceful guys," Van Wagenen said he told his captor. "We're not going to do anything to you." Sunday morning, Feb. 4, the kidnappers told Van Wagenen he would be released at dark. At the end of the long day, the kidnappers bound their captives' hands, blindfolded them and made them get into the trunk of a car. After driving for 15 to 25 minutes, the kidnappers released them, giving them back their car. " It almost seemed too good to be true," Van Wagenen said. Van Wagenen and his Iraqi friend drove to the friend's house to spend the night. "When we got there I started to shake," Van Wagenen said. "It was a weird sensation." He called his father, Sterling Van Wagenen, co-founder of the Sundance Film Festival and director of the second and third films in the "Work and the Glory" series. "I felt terrible about what I put my parents through," he said. "I was almost scared to talk to my mom because I felt guilty for what I put her trough." The next day he returned to northeastern Iraq, where he was debriefed by Kurdish police and spent another paranoid night before flying to Jordan on Feb. 7. Returning home He flew to Chicago on Feb. 8, where he was debriefed by the FBI, and then arrived in Utah on Feb. 9. "That's when I felt really settled, when I set foot in Salt Lake and saw the mountains," he said. After a tearful, happy reunion with his family, he decided he won't return to Iraq. "I feel really good about CPT and the work they're doing in Iraq and other places, but after what my mom went through, I don't think I'll be going anyplace remotely dangerous anytime soon. "I'm going to do my best to stay out of trouble." Van Wagenen interviewed for a job in Provo, where he lives, on Thursday morning. His parents recently moved to Utah Valley, where their LDS Church ward held a prayer service while he was still a captive. Van Wagenen speaks softly and remains conflicted about his experience. He graduated last spring with a master's degree from Harvard Divinity School and said his prayers while in captivity were confusing. "To pray to God to save me, when I know all these other people aren't getting out and don't have a happy ending, was weird and uncomfortable," he said. "I definitely had a feeling everything would be OK and I'd get out of there. I'm certainly grateful to God I got out." So is Christian Peacemaker Teams. "We're very grateful for Will's safe release, that there was no loss of life with anyone involved," said Michele Naar-Obed, who has done four stints in Iraq with CPT. "Kidnapping is a daily occurrence for Iraqis. It's a risk day in and day out, as are the suicide bombings, the car bombings and the risk of being caught in a coalition raid or bombing." Van Wagenen, who served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Frankfurt, Germany, is the first and only Mormon to join CPT, which was founded by three pacifist faiths - the Quakers, the Mennonites and the Church of the Brethren. Naar-Obed said CPT is re-evaluating the security of its members in Iraq, where a small CPT team is still on the ground, as it has done continuously since before the war started. The CPT also has teams in Hebron, Colombia and on the Mexico-Arizona border. "The work varies from place to place, depending on the needs of our partnering organizations and what the violence reduction and intervention can do," Naar-Obed said. "Our team members are committed to nonviolence. Just as seriously as soldiers take their responsibility to go to war, we take our responsibility to promote nonviolence as Christians." Photo (Deseret Morning News graphic) Deseret Morning News graphic Photo (Deseret Morning News graphic) Deseret Morning News graphic [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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