U.S. Kidnapped Businessman Urged Travel

[emad]

Thursday April 14, 2005 4:01 PM

By TOM COYNE

Associated Press Writer

LAPORTE, Ind. (AP) - Businessman Jeffrey Ake routinely urged entrepreneurs to travel to other countries to pitch their products, once telling a group to think of foreign nations as ``U.S. states with cultural nuances thrown in.''

But Ake's frequent travels also made him a target. He was apparently kidnapped by Iraqi insurgents during his second business trip to Iraq in two years.

Ake, 47, was snatched Monday from a water treatment plant near Baghdad, according to officials at the American Embassy.

A videotape aired Wednesday by Al-Jazeera television showed Ake being held at gunpoint by at least three assailants as the Indiana man clutched what appeared to be a photo and a passport. In the video, Al-Jazeera said, Ake asked the U.S. government to withdraw from Iraq and save his life.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4937113,00.html

[Roland99]

1. He'd been Iraq for a week

[chicagojoe]

2. Why are US citizens unprotected over there?

More failure to make the Bush cabal PAY for.
And they MUST PAY.

[AlCzervik]

7. The army is already protecting Halliburton truck drivers over there

i say enough, they know the deal when they go over to do business.

[daleo]

3. It was probably just a random kidnapping

But, a U.S. businessman getting involved in water distribution in a desert country, by way of a military invasion, may well raise a few hackles with the local people. Control of water is both practically important and highly symbolic in a desert nation. You always wonder if he had other purposes for being there (e.g. CIA asset), just due to the nature of military invasions.

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. Hard to feel sorry for that guy

He made a pathetic appeal for the US to leave Iraq. He might as well have tried to move a mountain.

[Must_B_Free]

5. and if he got knifed in NYC no one would give a damn

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. Two bad ideas, following one right after the other...

At least, that's what I gander from this experience. First, they outsource our jobs. Second, they make us travel to foreign destinations to reclaim them.

Remember when the worst thing you had to worry about was being mugged in the parking lot? Oh, the good ole days.