# What happened to those human shields in Iraq? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 4, 2004, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-those-human-shields-in-iraq/227530 "2004-02-04T19:48:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@cards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cards)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2004, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-those-human-shields-in-iraq/227530/1 "2004-02-04T19:48:58Z")
Were any of them killed? Did the US prosecute them for any crimes, real or made up? Did they come back to the US and get shunned or did they mearly slink off into anonymity? The last I read about them, is that some of them were surprized the Iraqis didn’t take them to shield hospitals and schools, but were put in front of military targets. They fell of the media map pretty quickly. ---
**Author:** ![Bob55](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Bob55](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob55)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-those-human-shields-in-iraq/227530/2 "2004-02-05T03:55:09Z")
[Fox](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,80019,00.html) says that most of the British ones (9 of 11) fleed early on before the war. I remember a story about an American human shield (I think) that was being used by Saddam in places like army barracks and other targets, so they decided to leave as well. ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-those-human-shields-in-iraq/227530/3 "2004-02-05T04:40:16Z")
“You mean you want us to stand in front of army barracks and military instillations? Screw that, I thought we were going to protect orphanages for retarded bear cubs!” I have opinions for and against the war, but those people were retarded. They were surprised when they found out we weren’t trying to bomb civilians and kill people. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-those-human-shields-in-iraq/227530/4 "2004-02-05T07:37:22Z")
## We all have opinions, but perhaps they are better expressed in other forums. IMHO 🙂 A google search turned up one [Faith Fippinger](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3126220.stm) of Florida who during her travels spent 3 months in Iraq as a human shield. ## When she returned to the US, she found a letter from the US Treasury Department waiting for her. Apparently they intend to prosecute: penalties for visiting Iraq could be as high as $1 million and 12 years in jail. ## [http://www.plastic.com/article.html;sid=03/08/13/13503949](http://www.plastic.com/article.html;sid=03/08/13/13503949) ## According to [one documentary](http://www.humanshieldaction.org/) : CAMDEN STOP THE WAR FILM NIGHT Human Shields in Iraq A film by Chris Reeves This is a documentary film about the 300 people who went to Iraq as Human Shields in an attempt to prevent the war. Although our media claimed that the Human Shields left the country before the attack, 140 stayed throughout the assault. Whilst the human Shields did not prevent the war, they managed to save key sites, such as water treatment sites, oil refineries, food storage buildings, upon which human life depended. Chris Reeves is also the Filmmaker of ‘Not In My Name’ ---
**Author:** ![UncleBill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d26b3c/32.png) [@UncleBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBill)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-those-human-shields-in-iraq/227530/5 "2004-02-05T12:12:25Z")
I think the statement that “they saved” those facilities is analagous to that Elephant Repellant Device on my front lawn. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2004, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-those-human-shields-in-iraq/227530/6 "2004-02-05T22:18:21Z")
…or the “thousands of tons” of Iraqi WMD that prompted the war to begin with. 😉