Reading through some of my old blog posts here at the Missing Man, I came across this one from back in 2006, Counter Terrorism and Kirk von Ackermann. It's a stunning reminder of just how much has been assumed to date - that Kirk von Ackermann drove his suv knowing it had a bad tire over 180 miles of isolated road in Iraq. That von Ackermann was capable of making a dozen bad decisions on the day he disappeared, it's just not possible.
This man did not drive alone through an isolated mountain range in Iraq:
dual lives
By Megan von Ackermann, Missing in Iraq, September 05, 2006
One afternoon we were driving up the highway outside of Langley. I was reading a magazine - the Smithsonian I think - and I was chatting to Kirk about an article discussing the greatest achievement of modern medicine: the successful campaign against smallpox. Wasn't it amazing, I said, the way the WHO had managed it, wasn't it wonderful that the world was safe now from a disease that had been a deadly threat for thousands of years. Very quietly, his hands stiff on the wheel, he said 'it's not gone.'I continue to maintain that the person who drove the Nissan Patrol and abandoned it by the side of the road in Iraq, the person who used the satellite phone to call an Iraqi employee for help, is the same person who murdered Kirk von Ackermann.
Just that. But I knew - I knew that not only did he know that more than one country had kept live samples of the virus, he knew intimately the infection rate, the symptoms, the horrific scarring that those lucky enough to survive would suffer. He knew how it could be weaponized, had thought about delivery systems, had worked through countless scenarios in which various populations were targeted and infected.
And gradually I realized that he was living like that constantly. Everywhere we went, there was part of him looking around and evaluating targets, thinking about blast zones, considering mortality rates, political value, public reaction.
You can read why in a re-print of an article I wrote:
Missing Contractor: Military Mechanics May Hold the Keys, April 21, 2008.
Now here's the thing. I've spent the last three years trying to get someone to listen. And honestly, nobody cares.
So I'm rethinking my approach because it would be irresponsible on my part to just walk away.
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