Democracy for Vancouver

From McClatchy today:

BAGHDAD — U.S. authorities in Baghdad have received five severed fingers belonging to four Americans and an Austrian who were taken hostage more than a year ago in Iraq, officials here said today.

The FBI is investigating the grisly development, and the families of the five kidnapped contractors have been notified, American officials said on condition of anonymity because only Washington officials are permitted to publicly discuss the matter.

Authorities have confirmed that the fingers belonged to hostages Jonathan Cote, of Gainesville, Fla., Joshua Munns, of Redding, Calif., Paul Reuben, of Buffalo, Minn., Bert Nussbaumer of Vienna, Austria, and Ronald J. Withrow, of Lubbock, Texas.

Munns’ mother lives in Ridgefield. From The Columbian last month:

RIDGEFIELD - After 14 months of waiting for the rescue of her son, a civilian who was kidnapped in Iraq, Jackie Stewart feels like a hostage too.

She and several other hostage families are about to break free of the government and try to find their sons themselves, she said. They are frustrated that the government won’t tell them where their missing men are or what is being done to free them.

“I wish there was a breakthrough that we could report,” a State Department spokesman told The Columbian on condition that he not be named in print. “There is no new information on the case. The person in Overseas Citizen Services continues to maintain weekly contact with the families for moral support, but there is no new information to report.”

The government spokesman would not say whether the government has been in touch with the kidnappers or whether any ransom was demanded.

My thoughts are with Ms. Stewart and her family. This news has to be wrenching, even if it is proof that her son still lives.

This will not stop until we stop it.

And how can we condemn torture when we do it, too?