Question

Editors Note: This post is a reprint of the one that originally appeared at my old blog.

Why do we get so many hits from google and other sources* on Ryan Manelick? Manelick was a contractor working for Ultra Services/Irex Corp killed in Iraq. We're just curious.

*One of the sites is Lunaville who is maintaing a list of contractors who have been killed in Iraq.

PS The astrology links? Most of those are to astrologers who follow politics. We like to keep an open mind.

Kirk von Ackermann

Editors Note: This post is a reprint of the one that originally appeared at my old blog.

We are still receiving google hits related to the man missing in Iraq, Kirk Von Ackermann. We only know what we have read about available on the web. But as our goal is to share information, here is everything we have read to date:

A subcontractor to a larger unknown company, Ultra Services of Istanbul Turkey, was reported to have employed Von Ackermann. A reader, Melissa, emailed bpost an article with a reference to Ultra Services. Unfortunately the article was because of the death of another employee, Ryan Manelick. Family mourns CV grad killed in Iraq ambush by Cindy Stauffer

Mrs. Manelick said her family found out about her son's death via a telephone call from the State Department.

She said a representative from her son's company, Ultra Services/Irex Corp., plans to attend her son's funeral Monday. She does not know if that person will be able to tell them more about the attack.

Manelick had gone to Baghdad in August and was living in company-supplied housing, his mother said. He was chief operations officer and logistics and services manager for the company.

We found no information online about Ultra Services. However, we did find two Irex companies online. The first is a non-profit, the International Research & Exchanges Board, online at http://www.irex.org/

The second, Irex Corp, is in construction and is also known as Irex Construction Group. Irex Corp has a subsidiary, AC&S, who is currently going thru bankruptcy due to asbestos litigation--a situation that Halliburton has also found it self in. They have a defunct website at http://www.irexcontracting.com/index1.htm The Wayback Machine has some of their pages cached but not enough to be too helpful.

There have been several follow up stories on Kirk Von Ackermann. The original story was broken by the UK Telegraph, Mystery surrounds US businessman missing in Iraq's 'Sunni triangle' by Colin Freeman in Baghdad on November 9, 2003. Another version by the same author appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Bay Area civilian vanishes in Iraq, also on November 9.

The San Mateo County Times carried a more in depth article, Moss Beach man missing in Iraq, on November 12, 2003. ($ required to view article thru advanced search using "last 6 months" and "Von Ackermann" at www.sanmateocountytimes.com)

A blogger, The Insomnia of Mark Kraft (see post on Wed. Nov. 12th, 2003 - 2:41 am), did a little digging around. What he found is available online thru google.

The Half Moon Bay Review speculates he is a spy in Von Ackermann: 'a regular guy?' by Jeanine Gore on November 19, 2003. Area residents reacted angrily to this article in Letters to the Editor.