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Thomas Hamill Free from Captors in Iraq!!!!

Posted on 05/02/2004 4:00:40 AM PDT by Timeout

Press conference right now announcing Hamill escaped from his captors. That's all right now.

Thanks be to God!


TOPICS: Breaking News; News/Current Events; US: Mississippi
KEYWORDS: breaking; escape; iraq; rescue; theguild; thomashamill
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Comment #201 Removed by Moderator

To: Timeout
Thanks be to God says it all! Some of my prayers have been answered. This is a GREAT news Sunday!
202 posted on 05/02/2004 7:58:05 AM PDT by arasina (So there.)
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Comment #203 Removed by Moderator

To: Liberal Me
Obviously CENTCOM should have solicited your input prior to beginning any military operation of this size, given your overall expertise in a matters related to the conduct of military operations in Iraq.

Oh well, I guess it's our loss that our military chooses to ignore the drips of wisdom from all the Keyboard Commandos across the country.

204 posted on 05/02/2004 8:03:18 AM PDT by been_lurking
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Comment #205 Removed by Moderator

To: liz44040
What, another inaccurate story from Fallujah? I am so surprised.

It comes, no doubt, from that same LA Times guy who should be sent to cool his heels in Kuwait, as far as I am concerned.

Well, the armchair general/disruptor group will have to find something else to carp about. I am certain they will find something, soon.

206 posted on 05/02/2004 8:05:53 AM PDT by Miss Marple
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To: RedBloodedAmerican
LOL!!! From your lips to God's ears.
207 posted on 05/02/2004 8:09:11 AM PDT by mathluv (Protect my grandchildren's future. Vote for Bush/Cheney '04.)
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Comment #208 Removed by Moderator

To: liz44040
I'm not surprised - I never had the impression that the Marines weren't, basically, in charge there, but simply that the part of the city from which they were withdrawing was as pacified as it was ever going to be and that it was not strategically important. Hence, it could be turned over to the Iraqis, and since the police force and Iraqi Civil Defense had proven to be not exactly stalwarts, some other approach was being taken.

It will be interesting to see how this works out. It's unfortunate that the media got hold of it and made it look like a defeat, but I guess that should have been expected.

209 posted on 05/02/2004 8:11:51 AM PDT by livius
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Comment #210 Removed by Moderator

To: Allegra
The media mentioned Halliburton
quite a bit when the attack and
kidnapping suddenly happened.

Now it's B&R, over and over,
not a peep about Halliburton.

I won't debate it beyond this. I
just have my view of why it's so.

God keep you, Allegra...
211 posted on 05/02/2004 8:14:19 AM PDT by txrangerette
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To: Timeout
Just can't keep a Mississippi boy down. Good job and great news!
212 posted on 05/02/2004 8:14:32 AM PDT by gatorbait (Yesterday, today and tomorrow......The United States Army)
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To: Miss Marple
I hope his family is still hanging onto the farm...
A book contract would help.

213 posted on 05/02/2004 8:16:28 AM PDT by traumer
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To: Liberal Me
Nice try. I'm sure you know all about DU. Why don't you go on back and boast of your accomplishments here?
214 posted on 05/02/2004 8:16:52 AM PDT by watchin
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To: watchin
Hostage Thomas Hamill Escapes From Iraqis MyWay News ^

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - American hostage Thomas Hamill, kidnapped three weeks ago in an insurgent attack on his convoy, was found by U.S. forces Sunday south of Tikrit after he apparently escaped from his captors, the U.S. military said. An official said he was in "good health."

Hamill, 43, of Macon, Miss., was discovered when he approached a U.S. patrol from the 2nd Battalion 108th Infantry, part of the New York National Guard, in the town of Balad, 35 miles south of Tikrit, a spokesman for U.S. troops in Tikrit said.

He identified himself, then led the patrol to the house where he had been held captive. The unit surrounded the house and captured two Iraqis with an automatic weapon, said the spokesman, Maj. Neal O'Brien.

Hamill, a truck driver working for a subsidiary of the contractor Halliburton, had a gunshot wound to his left arm that appeared to be infected, and was flown by helicopter to Bagdad, O'Brien said. Video images of Hamill released by his captors a day after his abduction showed his left arm in a sling, suggesting he was wounded during the attack on his convoy.

"Mr. Hamill apparently escaped from a building," Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told reporters in Baghdad, saying Hamill was in "good health."

"He has spoken to his family. He is now ready to get back to work."

In Macon, Hamill's wife, Kellie, said she received a call about 5:50 a.m. telling her that her husband had been found alive. She said it was "the best wakeup call I've ever had."

Kellie said one of the first things she did was to wake up their children.

"There has been a lot of praying and I am so grateful to everybody," she said. "We're all so relieved, so excited."

She said she had no idea when her husband would be returning home or when she would be able to see him.

"I want everybody know he's been found," she added. "I'm going to be shouting it from the rooftops."

There had been no word on his fate since the video released on April 10, which showed Hamill standing in front of an Iraqi flag. A spokesman heard on the video threatened to kill him within 12 hours unless the United States lifted the Marine siege of the city of Fallujah.

Hamill re-appeared about 50 miles north of the Abu Ghraib region, west of Baghdad, where he was snatched on April 9 during an attack on a supply convoy he was driving in.

His abduction came amid a flare-up of kidnappings of foreigners during the intense violence that began in early April. Up to 40 people from a wide range of nationalities were abducted, though most were later freed. One hostage, an Italian, was executed by his captors, who filmed the slaying and sent a video to Arab television stations.

An American soldier, Pfc. Keith M. Maupin, remains in the hands of kidnappers, as do three other Italian security guards.

Maupin and Hamill were in the same convoy that came under attack on the western outskirts of Baghdad, one of many amid an insurgent campaign against supply routes around the capital.

The April 9 attack had a particularly heavy toll: besides Hamill and Maupin, six other employees of the Halliburton subsidary KBR - formerly known as Kellogg, Brown & Root - and another U.S. solder were missing.

The bodies of four of the KBR employees were later found in a shallow grave near the attack. The body of the soldier, Sgt. Elmer Krause of Greensboro, N.C., was also found and identified on April 23.

Two days after the attack, video footage given by insurgents to Arab television showed the bloodied bodies of two other Western civilians who had been seen being dragged out of a car during the same attack.

Hamill - a dairy farmer who signed on with KBR in Iraq to pay off debts - was also filmed as he was being abducted. The insurgents allowed an Australian camera crew to film him in the back seat of the gunmen's car. Hamill identified himself before the car sped off, wisking him away.

The next day, the Arab television station al-Jazeera showed the video of Hamill standing in front of an Iraqi flag.

"Our only demand is to remove the siege from the city of mosques," a spokesman said in the tape. "If you don't respond within 12 hours ... he will be treated worse than those who were killed and burned in Fallujah."

215 posted on 05/02/2004 8:19:22 AM PDT by ChadGore (Vote Bush. He's Earned It.)
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To: Timeout
"OMAR! You are a very, very poor Terrorist! You let hostage Hamill escape! You must be punished!"


216 posted on 05/02/2004 8:19:32 AM PDT by Lockbar
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To: Allegra
Isn't (or wasn't) Lady Bird a big stockholder in Brown & Root?
217 posted on 05/02/2004 8:23:00 AM PDT by mathluv (Protect my grandchildren's future. Vote for Bush/Cheney '04.)
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To: Liberal Me
If they ask, I just might.

So they haven't bothered to ask!

I'm glad to hear that, it's just further evidence that CENTCOM hasn't gone off the deep end.

218 posted on 05/02/2004 8:23:57 AM PDT by been_lurking
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Comment #219 Removed by Moderator

To: Liberal Me
>>... jarheads proved to be unable to take Fallujah...<<

Fallujah is a big city. It would a heck of a lot of troops to take it.

220 posted on 05/02/2004 8:27:06 AM PDT by FReepaholic (War On Terror: If not us, who? If not now, when?)
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