As a distressed and helpless American businessman taken hostage by Iraqis showed up on television on Wednesday with weapons directed at his head, murky episodes of the rebellion in Iraq sprang back to life all over again.
Jeffrey J. Ake, 47 years old, from La Porte, Indiana, appeared on Al-Jazeera television, beseeching the US government to withdraw troops from Iraq and save his life. Ake was abducted while working on a water treatment plant in Baghdad, by eight masked men.
Ake seemed to be quite liked by his community, both for his business skills as well as his personal traits. Having started out of his home garage, Ake had remarkably taken his small bottle-machinery garage business into becoming a global export company with a sales figure of about $US5 million ($A6.4 million) annually. His company now manufactured and labelled water and other liquid containers for rebuilding Iraq. Ake was seen in the videotape pressing his passport against his chest and holding his family photograph. The terrifying video sent shivers down Ake’s family and friends from his society in Indiana.
Ake’s kidnapping followed a series of other attacks in Baghdad and northern Iraq which killed about 14 Iraqis and included bombings of a fuel tanker and a US convoy. No terrorist group has so far taken any responsibility of the abduction.
While Ake’s family is just hoping and praying for his return and have tied a yellow ribbon on the tree outside their lakeside house, the US government said that they were examining the situation but were clear on the fact that no negotiations would take place with the kidnappers for Ake’s release as it would only ‘encourage them’. US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice said, "Obviously, the United States continues to hold to a policy that we do not negotiate with terrorists. It only encourages them."
