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U.S. Hostage in Iraq Appeals for Life on Video-TV
Reuters ^ | 4/13/05 | Reuters

Posted on 04/13/2005 7:58:09 AM PDT by Sax

U.S. Hostage in Iraq Appeals for Life on Video-TV

15 minutes ago Top Stories - Reuters

DUBAI (Reuters) - An American contractor taken hostage in Iraq has urged the U.S. government to negotiate with his captors to save his life, according to a video broadcast by Al Jazeera television on Wednesday.

Latest headlines: · U.S. Hostage in Iraq Appeals for Life on Video-TV Reuters - 13 minutes ago · US hostage urges Washington to quit Iraq: Al-Jazeera AFP - 21 minutes ago · Iraq Violence Flares as U.S.'s Zoellick Visits Reuters - 30 minutes ago Special Coverage

The video showed the man, named by the U.S. embassy in Baghdad as Jeffrey Ake from Indiana, holding up his passport as armed and masked insurgents stood at his side.

Ake was seized from the site of a reconstruction project near Baghdad on Monday. It is not known who he was working for.

Al Jazeera said the hostage "urged the U.S. administration to open a dialogue with the Iraqi resistance ... to save his life."

He also called on U.S. forces to swiftly withdraw from Iraq, the Arabic television channel said.

Dressed in a light shirt, Ake looked nervous on the video, which showed him behind a desk and reading from a statement.

The group behind the kidnapping was not named and no flag or identifying banner was shown, as has been common in several previous tapes of hostages.

More than 150 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq in the past year, either by Muslim militant groups seeking to drive out foreign troops or criminal gangs demanding ransom. About a third of those kidnapped have been killed.

A French journalist, Florence Aubenas, who was kidnapped in January, is still being held by militants, as are three Romanian journalists abducted last month.

Over the past year, Iraqi officials estimate that around 5,000 Iraqis have been kidnapped, most of them by criminal gangs looking to profit from ransoms.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Indiana
KEYWORDS: hostage; hostages; insurgents; iraq; jeffreyake
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To: OXENinFLA

Hang in there, Jeffrey. I don't think the government is going to negotiate with the criminals, but private concerns might. Executives get kidnapped and ransomed all the time in parts of South America. I hope his company can get him out, but I hope even more that he gets rescued, and his kidnappers get gunned down to a man in the process.


21 posted on 04/13/2005 8:31:17 AM PDT by Cecily
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To: All

I was surprised at how so many actually support these hoodlums...call them "freedom fighters." Yeah...right.

The coalition is accused of torturing prisoners by making them wear underwear on their heads. But it's ok for these thugs to behead our citizens.


22 posted on 04/13/2005 8:33:05 AM PDT by fatnotlazy
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To: Cecily

Wouldn't it make sense for everyone working over there to have some sort of gps thing somewhere (I would say implanted but that will invoke the ire of the mark of the beast people) on themselves that would make them trackable?
susie


23 posted on 04/13/2005 8:33:58 AM PDT by brytlea (Yes, there are Republican teachers...)
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To: Sax

The man on the right has a Dragunov SVD sniper rifle, and the man on the left has a PK Machinegun. Both weapons have been used by various groups fighting the coalition force in Iraq.


24 posted on 04/13/2005 8:36:46 AM PDT by Wiz
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To: Sax

If he is the hostage of Islamic terrorists, he is (regettably) as good as dead already. If kidnappers seeking money have him, there is hope.

Prayers for him and his family.


25 posted on 04/13/2005 8:41:40 AM PDT by JimRed ("Hey, hey, Teddy K., how many girls did you drown today?")
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To: JimRed

And, I forgot to mention, the bomb factory in Al-Jazeera's basement needs to have an "accident".


26 posted on 04/13/2005 8:43:20 AM PDT by JimRed ("Hey, hey, Teddy K., how many girls did you drown today?")
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To: OXENinFLA

This guy's company is 10 minutes away from me. Hopefully, they will release him.


27 posted on 04/13/2005 8:47:55 AM PDT by jaydubya2
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To: Sax
An American contractor taken hostage in Iraq has urged the U.S. government to negotiate with his captors to save his life, according to a video broadcast by Al Jazeera television on Wednesday.

We should put Al Jazeera on notice that the next time they serve as the publicity channel for their terrorist masters, there will be HARM missiles headed for the offending transmitter(s). If they persist, we should target their studio(s) with JDAMs.

IOW, I consider their broadcasts in support of terrorisn to be terrorist acts, and I wish our President viewed them the same way -- and acted accordingly.

28 posted on 04/13/2005 8:51:03 AM PDT by TXnMA
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To: brytlea

GPS is one-way (down)...you need cellular technology to make a "GPS Tracker". And I think the cell coverage in Iraq is pretty poor.


29 posted on 04/13/2005 8:52:33 AM PDT by Drago
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To: OXENinFLA
"Ake’s company, Equipment Express, is a leading manufacturer of liquid packaging machinery and has been doing business in Iraq.
In an interview last year with Tribune Business Weekly, Ake said the company has been successful because instead of selling the individual machinery to bottle liquids, as other companies do, it sells complete packaging lines.
Equipment Express constructed “an integrated system that provided water bottles to be sold in Baghdad ... they have also constructed a machine that fills edible oil into containers to be used by Iraqi residents,” according to information on the company’s Web site last year.
“We are a very entrepreneurial company,” Ake told Tribune Business Weekly. “We do a lot of exporting, a lot of our business is in overseas markets. We serve a lot of different industries.”
Ake and his wife, Liliana, started the business in 1998 in their garage. That was two years after his father sold Electronic Liquid Fillers, a liquid packaging company that had been in business since 1978. Ake had worked for his father’s company and decided to use that knowledge and experience to start his own company.
The Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship in the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University awarded the company a Growth 100 Award in November 2003."

This hits very close to home. Please pray for him.
30 posted on 04/13/2005 9:09:13 AM PDT by jaydubya2
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To: jaydubya2
Hopefully, they will release him.

I hope and pray they do too, but I wouldn't count on it. With the Iraqi people turning in some of these terrorists, there might be a chance that some of them might know where these bastards are, free him, and then take care of the terrorists holding him on their own.

31 posted on 04/13/2005 9:31:57 AM PDT by b4its2late (I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.)
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To: brytlea

I suppose the technology to do such a thing doesn't exist or isn't very good, because otherwise I think people would do it. It would be good for soldiers in combat zones too. Presumably anything implanted could be removed once a person left a danger zone.

These jerks kidnap Iraqis with money too. The new Iraqi government and police forces are going to have to work hard to lower the boom on the lucrative practice of kidnapping.


32 posted on 04/13/2005 10:00:54 AM PDT by Cecily
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To: bandleader

"Why (if he is a CEO) didn´t he have proper security?

Because he did not want to pay for it. A lot of these people think the Iraqi people love them and they can go where they want to without a problem. There have been plenty of prior incidents that shows them this is not true but they just will not believe it.


33 posted on 04/13/2005 10:10:58 AM PDT by Americanexpat (A strong democracy through citizen oversight.)
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To: Cecily

I hope you are right, but if it is hard core extremist they may not be interested in money, they want to make a statement.


34 posted on 04/13/2005 10:14:14 AM PDT by Americanexpat (A strong democracy through citizen oversight.)
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To: brytlea

That is why they need to use professional security teams, they do have GPS and they are heavily armed. Spent 14 months there and never lost a client.


35 posted on 04/13/2005 10:16:26 AM PDT by Americanexpat (A strong democracy through citizen oversight.)
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To: Americanexpat

Gosh, it seems to make so much sense!
susie


36 posted on 04/13/2005 11:28:33 AM PDT by brytlea (Yes, there are Republican teachers...)
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To: BrooklynGOP

Why in God's name aren't our people, esp CEO and the like, and service men for sure not wearing GPS devices. These are small enough that you can hide them in your shoes or probably have them surgically implanted.

Nick


37 posted on 04/13/2005 11:39:22 AM PDT by nikos1121
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To: nikos1121

What is the cost of a GPS device? Multiply that by 125,000 - 150,000 troops plus thousands, tens of thousands maybe, of contractors...

How many Americans have been taken hostage? In the single digits. So whoever makes these decisons have decided that the cost is not worth the few lives. Other dangers such as IEDs are taking a much higher toll and probably more armor is the top priority for those deciding.

Just speculating, but dollars are usually the reason behind everything that happens or doesn't happen.


38 posted on 04/14/2005 2:59:47 AM PDT by jaykay (Those who live in glass houses have the best view.)
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To: yellowdoghunter
I know much about this family. I can't believe this nightmare. Please pray for these people. Jeff has four children. I think the age range about 14 to 3.

Please, they are just and good people. At least think about them in your prayers.

39 posted on 04/14/2005 5:35:35 PM PDT by lizma
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