U.S. Contractor Kidnapped in Iraq

[maddezmom]

BAGHDAD, April 11 -- An American civilian working for a contractor on a foreign aid project in Iraq reportedly has been kidnapped, officials at the U.S. Embassy here said Monday.

The embassy officials said they were notified of the kidnapping by U.S. military authorities. But they gave no details about the American’s identity or how the kidnapping occurred. The American was working on a project in the Baghdad area, they said.



Kidnappings have been a common weapon of Iraqi insurgents with more than 100 foreigners and perhaps as many as 5,000 Iraqis believed to have been taken during the past 12 months. Sometimes the abductions are intended to pressure Iraqi and foreign governments and sometimes they are a method to obtain ransom.

An official at the Pakistani Embassy, Malik Mohammed Javed, was kidnapped over the weekend, and Pakistani officials said it appears his captors want money for his release.

~snip~
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43621-2005Apr11.html

[tives12]

1. thank you

thank paul wolfowitz for all these unnecessary deaths.

[ECH1969]

2. Why would anyone

Go to Iraq on a foreign aid project? You might as well decide to go to the Sudan and build huts. If you really want to help people and you have no family thats fine, but doing it to get a couple extra thousand is just stupid.

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. Because it's more that a couple of $1000

Someone I knew was offered 180,000 after the invasion. We were joking with his wife how she could pay off all the bills and could take out a big insurance policy just in case.

[ECH1969]

4. That is still penny change

compaired to the cost of ones life.

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. Obviously

that are plenty of people going over who think it's worth the risk, whether it be for money or adventure or both.

[LuckyTheDog]

5. American contractor kidnapped in Iraq

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/04/11/iraq.main/index.html

[wookie294]

6. What a GLORIOUS war !!!

[Voltaire99]

10. Great post.

Pay attention, pro-war Democrats. That's your doing, too.

[NNN0LHI]

8. I hope he/she is treated better than the US treats Iraqi prisoners n/t

[daleo]

9. I wonder what the foreign aid project was.

And, I wonder what the person's job duties were. The vague expression "a contractor on a foreign aid project in Iraq" could mean anything from a doctor setting up a clinic to a mercenary setting up an interrogation center.