Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl and WikiLeaks

Documents detail search for captive soldier
By John Miller, The Associated Press, July 29, 2010

[Pfc. Bowe] Bergdahl, a 24-year-old from Hailey in central Idaho, has been a captive since June 30, 2009.

Documents posted on the whistle-blower group WikiLeaks' website include transcripts of Afghan radio transmissions intercepted after Bergdahl went missing from his base in southern Afghanistan — as well as reports from U.S. soldiers about talks with village elders about a possible prisoner swap.

The documents show Afghan tribal leaders assured U.S. officials Bergdahl was unharmed. [...]

According to a transcript of what appears to be a radio transmission intercepted July 1, 2009 — the day after Bergdahl's capture — people aware he was being held hostage discussed what to do with him.

Reference material posted at WikiLeaks:

(CRIMINAL EVENT) KIDNAPPING RPT B CO 1-501 PIR : 0 INJ/DAM

WikiLeaks, Afghan War Diary, July 26, 2010

At 0430Z, TF 1 Geronimo reported a B Co missing soldier after he did not show up for the 0900L morning roll call at Mest OP, grid 42SVB 59236 47877 Yahya Khail District, Paktika. A full search was ordered. At 0535Z, TF 1 Geronimo initiated DUSTWUN procedures for the missing soldier. At 0645Z, all remaining units had reported in 100% accountability. Geronimo TOC ordered blocking positions set in and around Mest OP. At 0707Z, Predator (VooDoo) was on station in support. At 0940Z, a Pathfinder and tracking dog team arrived at Mest OP in support. At 0945Z, Predator (Pfingston) arrived on station in support. At 1012Z, LLVI receives traffic that an American Soldier with a camera is looking for someone who speaks English. At 1303Z, Graphic 33(2x F-18) arrived on station in support. At 1309Z, FF receive intelligence that a U.S. soldier has been captured. At 1351Z, VooDoo and Pfingston RIP with Predator (Sijan). At 1520Z, Sijan RIPs with Predator (Kisling) and DUDE-21 (2x F-15) arrives on station to support. Between 1725Z and 1800Z, B Co conducted 2 breaches of suspected enemy locations with NSTR. Additional forces were moving into the area to place blocking positions and conduct searches based on all of the aerial and ground based intelligence sources available throughout the day and through the night.

There's much more including updates.

My question, does a similar report exist for the disappearance of Kirk von Ackermann on October 9, 2003? Did the US Army in Iraq launch drones and intercept radio transmissions? I'd like to think they left no stone unturned, but I've been told the answer to that question is a big NO. That in fact, CID never requested assistance from any of the various agencies who were conducting surveillance in Iraq.

Missing in Afghanistan

To date, this blog has focused on Americans known to be missing in Iraq.

On Friday, two American Navy servicemen were captured by a Taliban 'faction' in the Logar province south of the Afghanistan's capital, Kabul. Also missing for over one year in Afghanistan is a US Army Private, Bowe Bergdahl of Idaho.

CNN is now reporting the body of one of the US Navy service members - reported as killed during a firefight - has been recovered with their vehicle.

Taliban negotiating over captured Navy personnel in Afghanistan
By Laura King, Los Angeles Times, July 25, 2010

A Taliban faction that said it had killed one U.S. serviceman and captured another offered to exchange the slain man's body for an unspecified number of insurgent prisoners, an Afghan official said Sunday.

The two Americans, identified by Western officials as U.S. Navy personnel, were last seen Friday in a dangerous part of Logar province, south of the Afghan capital. A massive ground and air search by NATO and Afghan forces was underway, with the men's photos plastered at military checkpoints and a reward offered for information about them.

Local officials: 1 of 2 abducted U.S. service members killed
By Matiullah Mati, CNN, July 25, 2010

Den Mohammad Darwish, the spokesman for the governor of Logar province, said he learned from locals that the service member was killed. Hesaid the body was found in the Patanak Mountains of Charkh district. He also said the vehicle the men were driving was located Sunday.

A Taliban spokesman confirmed that the killed American died in a firefight and the other is being held by the group.

UPDATE: Remains of both men have now been recovered. The identities of the US military personnel are Petty Officer 2nd Class Justin McNeley of Wheatridge, Colorado and Culinary Specialist 3rd Class Jerod Newlove of Renton, Washington.

Sincere condolences to the friends and families of both men.

Local sailor's body recovered in Afghanistan
AP, with Hal Bernton, Susan Gilmore and Maureen O'Hagan, Seattle Times, July 29, 2010

Books - Iraq Hostages

By no means definitive, this is a list of books available in English of accounts of hostages held in Iraq. At this time, I have not included Rick Bragg's book, I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story. It didn't quite seem to fit.

This list will be updated as new material appears.

Escape In Iraq: The Thomas Hamill Story
By Thomas Hamill, Paul T. Brown, and Jay Langston, Stoeger Publishing Company, October 31, 2004
ISBN-13: 978-0883173145

Hostage: The Jill Carroll Story (Audio Book)
By Jill Carroll, The Christian Science Monitor, September 1, 2006

Friendly Fire: The Remarkable Story of a Journalist Kidnapped in Iraq, Rescued by an Italian Secret Service Agent, and Shot by U.S. Forces
By Giuliana Sgrena and Amy Goodman, Haymarket Books, October 1, 2006
ISBN-13: 978-1931859394

The Business of War: Workers, Warriors And Hostages in Occupied Iraq
By James A. Tyner, Ashgate Publishing, November 2006
ISBN-13: 978-0754647911

Hostage in Iraq
By Norman F. Kember, Lorimer Publisher, October 31, 2007
ISBN-13: 978-1550289992

American Hostage: A Memoir of a Journalist Kidnapped in Iraq and the Remarkable Battle to Win His Release
By Micah Garen and Marie-Helene Carleton, Simon & Schuster, November 9, 2007
ISBN-13: 978-1416586319

118 Days: Christian Peacemaker Teams Held Hostage in Iraq
By Tricia Gates Brown, DreamSeeker Books of Cascadia Publishing House, February 15, 2009
ISBN-13: 978-1931038614

Big Boy Rules: America's Mercenaries Fighting in Iraq
By Steve Fainaru, Da Capo Press, October 13, 2009
ISBN-13: 978-0306818387

Buried Alive: The True Story of Kidnapping, Captivity, and a Dramatic Rescue
By Roy Hallums, Thomas Nelson Publishers, January 12, 2010
ISBN-13: 978-1595551702

Captivity
118 Days in Iraq and the Struggle for a World Without War
By James Loney, Knopf Canada, April 2011
ISBN: 978-0-307-39927-4 (0-307-39927-3)

PTSD

This is so looooong overdue. Hopefully this also means the VA will actually receive whatever funding it needs for PTSD treatment. Otherwise, disability payments will just lead to warehousing sick veterans without the medical treatment they need too.

V.A. Is Easing Rules to Cover Stress Disorder
By James Dao, New York Times, July 7, 2010

The government is preparing to issue new rules that will make it substantially easier for veterans who have been found to have post-traumatic stress disorder to receive disability benefits, a change that could affect hundreds of thousands of veterans from the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam.

The ratio of contractors to military personnel in Iraq was 1:1 - so I gotta ask, who is watching out for the contractors?

On Thwarted FOIA Requests

Come on universe, help me out here.

Recently, I found out that the mailing address for ePluribus Media changed. Unfortunately, no one alerted me and that change may have botched my outstanding FOIA requests. As a result, it looks like I now have to re-file everything. Literally, years of effort just washed down the drain.

One of the requests I was waiting on (already several years old) was an administrative appeal with the National Security Agency. The request sought two audio recordings of satellite phone calls made by Kirk von Ackermann shortly before he disappeared: the first, a call home to his family the day before he disappeared; the second, the satellite phone call to an Iraqi employee for assistance with a bad tire on the day.

The second significant FOIA request to re-file is for base access records showing exit and entrance on and off American bases in the Balad-Tikrit region in the fall of 2003. The base access records were an attempt to disprove my own theory that Kirk von Ackermann sought to fix his bad tire and visited another base after he left FOB Pacesetter. It was also an attempt to construct a timeline of the days just prior to the murder of Ryan Manelick and the disappearance of Kirk von Ackermann.

I'm hoping that the FOIA case numbers assigned to the original requests might expedite matters. But, it's government bureaucracy we're talking about here and I am not optimistic.

I believe one month from tomorrow is Kirk von Ackermann's birthday. While I never had the opportunity to meet him, I feel an enormous amount of responsiblity to continue to press forward with the FOIA requests no matter how futile those attempts may be.

So, in honor of Kirk von Ackermann, here's an early birthday wish: please find those still missing in Iraq and bring them home.

Recent DBA Ruling in Texas

The following case centers on the undefined term of 'accident' within the Defense Base Act. I've read it through several times. There are some very fine points of law that I haven't quite grasped yet.

United States District Court For The Southern District Of Texas Deprives Battlefield Contractors Of The Protections Of The Defense Base Act
By Sheppard Mullin, Defense Contractor Blog, June 14, 2010

A recent decision by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas may have caused grave damage to protections long available to overseas government contractors and their employees under the Defense Base Act (“DBA”), 42 U.S.C. § 1651 et seq.

In Fisher v. Halliburton, 2010 WL 1268097 (S.D. Tex., Mar. 25, 2010), the court ruled the deaths and injuries sustained by a group of civilian convoy drivers in Iraq during insurgent attacks were not “accidents” and, therefore, that they were outside the scope of the protections afforded by the DBA. Absent the DBA’s protections, the Defendant employers are now in the legal “line of fire” – for the hefty compensable tort and negligence damages being alleged. The court, through its own motion, submitted its decision for immediate interlocutory appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. If upheld, the decision could mean an end to the substantial protection from tort liability that the seventy-year old act has afforded contractors deploying personnel to support combat operations.

More...

If I understand correctly - and I most definitely am not a lawyer - at the heart of the suit is whether or not Halliburton was willfully negligent in the deaths of the truck drivers. If yes, it would allow a liability suit to go forward outside of the Defense Base Act.

I guess what I would want to know is: what legal obligation did Halliburton have for the safety of those workers? Because workers would probably want to know before they accept a job if the answer is 'none.'

Addendum:

In related news, the Commission on Wartime Contracting (CWC), 'a body created in early 2008 to investigate waste, fraud and abuse in military contracting services in Afghanistan and Iraq', held hearings in Washington DC. Members of the major security companies were invited to attend.

Hearings Reveal Lapses in Private Security in War Zones
By Pratap Chatterjee, Inter Press Service, June 21, 2010

Excerpt:

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) also came in for extended criticism when David Blackshaw, the division chief for overseas security, told the commission that his agency was not legally responsible for the actions of armed guards that accompanied their grantees. "The role of the USAID's SEC's International Security Programmes Division is limited to advice and counsel," Blackshaw told the commissioners.

The commissioners were incensed. Several of them pulled out copies of a USAID Office of Inspector General report on private contracting that was issued last month that stated a third of USAID private security contracts in Afghanistan have no standard security requirements.

Wow. It pretty much sounds like absolutely no one accepts responsibility for security. I find that creepy.

Update II: Good Lord. Talk about a conflict of interest. General Sanchez served as V Corps commander of coalition forces in Iraq from June 2003 to June 2004.

Side note: V Corps issued an identification badge to Kirk von Ackermann that later appeared in the Rolling Stone article, Death of a Contractor: Greed and Murder in Iraq's Lawless Desert by Daniel Halpern, March 8, 2007.

KBR Gives Uncle Sam the One Finger Salute
By David Isenberg, Huffington Post, July 3, 2010

In February it was reported that the U.S. Army [was] trying to stop [retired US Army Gen. Sanchez] from continuing to be an expert for KBR in a lawsuit against it over civilian truck driver deaths and injuries.

Sanchez is being paid $650 an hour and has reviewed documents and written a report that support's KBR's contention it should not be held legally responsible for the deaths of six civilian truck drivers and the injuries of others in a 2004 ambush in Iraq.

The suing drivers and family members contend that KBR should have stopped the convoys when it was warned that attacks would increase on April 9, 2004, the first anniversary of the day allies in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq reached Baghdad.

KBR argues that the military approved sending the convoys out and several laws protect KBR from responsibility in a wartime situation. The Army contracts with KBR to provide transportation, food services and other logistical support.

....as the Army's own AR 15-6 Report clearly admits, but for the Army's failures in its own processes and procedures on April 9, 2004, the attack, injuries, and deaths associated with the Fisher case would never even have occurred.

Why does the US Treasury feel like it's turned into just one big ATM machine.

Related Reading

Commission on Wartime Contracting
Commissioners:
Michael J. Thibault
Christopher Shays
Clark Kent Ervin
Grant S. Green
Robert J. Henke
Katherine Schinasi
Charles Tiefer
Dov S. Zakheim

Iraq Personnel Recovery Division June 2010

Americans Missing in Iraq as of June 2010

There are two versions of the same article with slight variations, the first at Army.mil the second at usf-iraq.com.

Liberator II continues effort to find missing
By Sgt. 1st Class Roger Dey, April 20, 2010

US operation aims to find missing
By Sgt. 1st Class Roger Dey, 103rd Public Affairs Detachment, April 21, 2010

Operation Liberator II, the latest undertaking in the U.S. military's ongoing effort to find and recover the 16 American and Coalition service members and civilians missing here, is underway.

"We never have, and we never will stop looking," said Navy Lt. Cmdr. K.C. Chhipwadia, the senior intelligence officer with United States Forces -- Iraq's Personnel Recovery Division.

This current operation began April 15, and continues the work started last summer during Operation Liberator, a two-month-long effort that improved the collection of actionable intelligence relating to missing personnel, said Lt. Col. Kevin Dennehy, director of the USF-I PRD. That operation laid the groundwork for the development of this phase of the search. [...]

Although USF-I is spearheading the operation, a wide spectrum of agencies are involved, Dennehy said, including U.S. Central Command and the U.S. Embassy's Office of Hostage Affairs; as well as the FBI, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Geospatial Agency.

I am confused. The article lists an Air Force pilot as the second American military service member missing in Iraq. Air Force Maj. Troy Lee Gilbert is reported to have disappeared after his F-16 crashed in November 2006. But, according to an article at the Air Force website, remains found at the crash site were positively identified with DNA testing back in December 2006. In addition, Gilbert's remains were buried in a ceremony at the Arlington National Cemetery, Grave 8520, Section 60. (See Troy L Gilbert at the Arlington website)

[Ed. note: from the comments section, insurgents took Major Gilbert's body before it could be recovered by American personnel.]

Back to the article:

According to Chhipwadia, 11 of the 16 individuals still missing in Iraq are American citizens, four are South Africans and one is British. Two of the Americans are members of the military who have been missing since 2006.

The number 16 is close to the 17 reported missing by the Defense Intelligence Agency in another article earlier this year. But the Iraq Personnel Recovery Division reports it is looking for only 11 Missing Americans of which 2 are military, 9 are civilian. That seems to correspond with:

Kirk von Ackermann (2003)
Timothy E. Bell (2004)
Aban Elias (2004)
Dean Sadek (2004)
Jeffrey Ake (2005)
Maj Troy Lee Gilbert (2006)
Sgt. Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie (2006)
Unknown (2008)
+3 additional persons

For now, I've added Gilbert to an updated list of Missing Americans above, but still retaining the previous 'unknown' persons on the chart. I just find it unsettling that there aren't cold hard numbers on how many Americans are missing in Iraq.

Searching for one white Nissan Patrol in Iraq

To recap: on October 9, 2003, Kirk von Ackermann's white Nissan Patrol suv was discovered abandoned on a remote road in the Jabal Hamrin mountains between Tikrit and Kirkuk just minutes after he was said to have called an employee for help with a flat tire. Where did the vehicle come from? Was he all alone on the road that day or were there other vehicles in close proximity? Did anyone from the Defense Intelligence Agency ever look through the satellite footage to track the journey of his vehicle from FOB Pacesetter to that remote road on a mountain pass?

U.S. military turns to TV for surveillance technology
By Julian E. Barnes, Los Angeles Times, June 7, 2010

The military once stored Predator video in much the same way it handled photos from a U-2 spy plane or a satellite: It chopped the video into short clips and filed it by date and location.

But new technologies developed by firms such as Harris Corp. and Lockheed Martin record the observations of analysts who monitor the video feeds, creating a database of terms and footage that can later be searched.

For instance, every time a white truck appears on video, an analyst will type "white truck." The observation automatically tags that portion of the video. Later, if someone wants to find all the white trucks that passed by a particular building, all they need to do is designate the area of interest and the time frame and search for "white truck."

The Air Force hopes that eventually, such emerging technology will automatically give people, places and vehicles more unique identifiers. Then, the database will be able to search for specific white trucks, such as one with a dented fender or any other unique mark.

Better late than never.

News on the South African Hostages

A phone call has revealed that the four South African men being held hostage in Iraq since 2006 are alive.

Joy for Iraqi hostage family
By Hanti Otto, Pretoria News, May 07 2010

Andre's wife, Lourika, said: "I nearly jumped out of my skin from joy when I heard about the call. My husband is really alive."

Andre [Durant], Hardus Greeff, Callie Scheepers and Johann Enslin were working as security guards for Safenet Security Services in Iraq when they were stopped by men in police uniforms on December 10, 2006.

Some information on the South African men missing in Iraq since 2006 can be found here at this blog:
Missing in Baghdad written by Marie Enslin, wife of one of the missing men.

Miles Per Gallon

Thinking a lot about fuel these days.

How much gas was in Kirk von Ackermann's Nissan Patrol when it was found?

Mileage for a Nissan Patrol (diesel fuel) averaged about 21 - 23 mpg back in 2003. A full tank held 125 liters of fuel (about 33 gallons). Under good conditions, it's reasonable to expect a full tank of gas should last about 759 miles. And logic says anyone setting out on a journey from Tikrit to Kirkuk would want to start with a full tank.

So, how much was left in the tank when the vehicle was found and what does that say about where the Nissan Patrol last fueled up?

References

Road test: Nissan Patrol ST 3.0
By Feann Torr, Web Wombat

Jeffrey Ake - missing since April 11, 2005

Article at CNN on two Americans missing in Iraq - Jeffrey Ake and Sgt. Ahmed Altaie (alternative spellings: Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie, Ahmed K. Altaie, Ahmed Kousay al-Taie, Ahmad Qusay al-Ta’ae). Jeffrey Ake was abducted on April 11, 2005 and has now been missing for 5 years.

Five years after Iraq abduction, family tries making own closure
By Jason Hanna, CNN, April 11, 2010

[Jeffrey] Ake is one of 11 Americans still missing in Iraq, 21 months before the United States is scheduled to withdraw all its troops from the country. The 10 civilians and one soldier disappeared after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of the country, and each has been missing for at least two years, according to the U.S. State Department. [...]

U.S. officials are working for the safe return of all 11 missing Americans and continuing to call for their immediate release and any information about them, State Department spokesman John Fleming said. The government also is trying to help with the recovery of other nations' citizens who are missing in Iraq, including four from South Africa and one each from the United Kingdom, Russia and Japan, Fleming said.

In Ake's case, the director of the Office of Hostage Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad recently conducted a review of the kidnapping "to reinvigorate source development," Fleming said.

Some conflicting information - the CNN article states there are 11 Americans missing in Iraq but a February 8 article in the News Tribune cited 18 missing including a second unknown member of the US military. It should be noted that #18 was Issa Salomi - now safely returned to his family in California - leaving 17 believed still missing.

I'm attaching an updated chart.



Additional Reading

JeffAke.com - website for donations

US Army Sergeant Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie - facebook page

18 Americans Missing in Iraq - February 2010
February 8, 2010

They search if someone’s missing in Iraq
By Scott Fontaine, The News Tribune, February 8, 2010

Op-Ed on Hostage Reporting

I almost titled this post, the Goose, the Gander and the missing Gosslings.

The Goose and the Gander - PDF
By Cori E. Dauber, Strategic Studies Institute, April 1, 2010

The willingness to release information on one class of hostages—American military personnel—while withholding the same information regarding another class of hostages—fellow members of the press corps—is, if nothing else, a somewhat obvious double standard. Either publicizing a kidnapping puts the victim at risk or it does not, and it is hard to imagine a reason why Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, or Marines should not be granted the same respect in such a situation as is given to a reporter. It is common for members of the press to argue that they are not representatives of any particular country, and that they must observe a level of studied neutrality. The wisdom of such a position aside, these service members are not being taken by another state, but by stateless, brutal, terrorist groups, which use the taking of hostages as a tool of terror and of intimidation, and the desire to temporarily withhold information to protect the life of an individual service member hardly seems to violate objectivity. After all, these same news media organizations regularly tout the fact that when they are convinced by the government that national security interests are legitimately involved, they willingly withhold stories (for example, not reporting that particular Taliban leaders were captured until there is a chance to exploit intelligence gained subsequent to their capture), sometimes, indeed, details of a story are not reported for years—or at all.

Absolutely no mention of contractors. Funny, that.

For what it's worth - my own opinion on releasing information to the press: each kidnapping should be assessed on a case by case basis and should include input of affected family members.

Aerial Surveillance Footage - pt 2

Wikileaks recently released classified audio/video from Apache helicopters in Iraq. The footage shows the July 2007 attack by U.S. forces that killed a Reuters journalist and several bystanders. The controversial subject of the video is not relevant to this blog but the quality of that classified video is. The amount of detail the cameras captured is incredible.

I sound like a broken record here...

Did the U.S. military record similar images in the Fall of 2003? Specifically, is there aerial footage of Kirk von Ackermann's Nissan Patrol on the day he disappeared and of Ryan Manelick's Hyundai Galloper when he was killed in a drive by shooting? Did anyone pick up the Patrol as it left FOB Pacesetter? Anyone pick up the Galloper as it left Anaconda?

In the fall of 2003, Saddam Hussein was still at large. Who was watching the roads?

Related

Aerial Surveillance Footage - pt 1

January 27, 2010

Wikileaks leaked video of Civilians killed in Baghdad - Full video

YouTube, April 5, 2010

Reintegration Program for Hostages

Good to know - there is a voluntary reintegration program for former hostages. I'm curious as to how family members participate in the reintegration process.

Abducted Army linguist glad to be back in US
By Michelle Roberts, Associated Press, Army Times, April 1, 2010

A civilian Army employee kidnapped while working as a linguist in Iraq released a statement Wednesday saying he is delighted to be back in the United States and is focused being able to reintegrate back into his normal life.

Issa Salomi, a 60-year-old Iraqi-American kidnapped in January, returned to the U.S. late Tuesday night and is undergoing medical tests and debriefings with Army officials at Fort Sam Houston, where a voluntary reintegration program for former hostages is housed.

Issa Salomi may be voluntarily participating in a program much like those trying to address PTSD:

The Post-Deployment Health Re-Assessment (PDHRA) is a new program to address both physical and psychological needs of Soldiers after demobilization.

The following pamphlet provides a broad overview of a variety of programs and links to the various branches involved:

Active Army Family Action Plan - PDF - specifically see Issue #603
Issue Update Book
April 2009

Information about Fort Sam:

Fort Sam Houston Soldier and Family Assistance Center

The Fort Sam Houston Soldier and Family Assistance Center (SFAC) partners with the Warrior & Family Support Center (WFSC) to provide all SFAC services. The SFAC is a one-stop administrative resource center hosting 14 different services supporting Warriors in Transition, their Family members and Surviving Spouses.

Lawsuit Filed Against US State Department

The families of three private security contractors - Joshua Munns, Jonathon Cote and John Young of Crescent Security Group, kidnapped in Iraq on November 16, 2006 and later beheaded - are suing the US State Department.

State Department sued in death of Anderson man, other contractors in Iraq
By Ryan Sabalow, The Record Searchlight, March 25, 2010
PDF of the suit accompanying the article Munns et al v. Clinton et al

Mark Munns of Anderson said in an interview Wednesday that the suit was filed in hopes of learning what U.S. officials know about the abduction and what steps they took to find his son, Joshua Munns, and the other men abducted with him. [...]

The suit demands the State Department pay the families their children's life insurance benefits because the contractors were working by proxy for the government at the time.

Crescent Security, the firm for which Munns and the other contractors worked, hasn't paid any death benefits owed to the contractors' surviving family members, the suit says.

The State Department also has been uncooperative in trying to help the family recover the money, the suit alleges.

Be sure to read the PDF of the actual court filing that accompanies the original article.

Looking over the suit, at the very least, it certainly sounds like Crescent Security held 'dead peasant' life insurance policies for its employees.

But what about injury and/or detention? If the Crescent Security insurance policy included Kidnap & Ransom (K&R), what kind of access did the insurance carrier provide to a hostage negotiator? If the company didn't carry injury and/or detention, then the families should qualify for benefits under the Defense Base Act regardless of whether or not Crescent Security carried DBA coverage.

Assuming precedent was set, William Palmer, Munns' attorney, may not be aware of a recent ruling from the Department of Labor in the case of Kirk von Ackermann who disappeared in Iraq on October 9, 2003.

An investigation by the Department of Defense determined von Ackermann was killed during a botched kidnapping by hostile forces. But because Kirk von Ackermann's employer failed to secure DBA insurance, there were substantial delays in awarding the survivor benefits due under the War Hazards Compensation Act. In late 2009, the Department of Labor finally issued a ruling finding in the von Ackermann family's favor and benefits awarded.

It all comes down to the question of just what kind and how broad was the war-risk hazard coverage Crescent Security carried on its employees.

One last thought on the suit...was Jennifer Foo the Casualty Assistance Officer assigned to the case as per the Missing Persons Act? Was Counsel appointed to represent the abducted men?

I've written about this before but just to recap: as American civilian contractors working in support of US operations in Iraq, the abducted employees should have been covered under legislation commonly known as the Missing Persons Act. Family should have received notification that counsel was appointed to represent the abducted men's interests within 45 days of detention. By Day 100, an unclassified summary report should have been provided to the men's family. At the one year anniversary, Day 365, they should have received notification of the meeting of a Board of Inquiry. If that board reached no definitive conclusion as to their whereabouts, additional inquiries should have been held which the family would have had the right to attend. Family could have passed concerns to the counsel as well as provide information and/or objections to any recommendations by the Board of Inquiry.

Additional Reading

The Business of Kidnapping - war-risk hazard premiums and hostage negotiators
February 16, 2010

Book - Big Boy Rules by Steve Fainaru
November 23, 2008

Munns et al v. Clinton et al in filings and dockets at Justia.com
Plaintiffs: Mark Munns, Crista Munns, Dennis Debrabander, Sharon Debrabander and Lori Silveri
Defendants: Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton and Jennifer Foo
Case Number: 2:2010cv00681
Filed: March 22, 2010
Court: California Eastern District Court
Office: Sacramento Office
Presiding Judge: Lawrence K. Karlton
Presiding Judge: Senior Judge Lawrence K. Karlton
Referring Judge: Kimberly J. Mueller
Referring Judge: Magistrate Judge Kimberly J. Mueller
Nature of Suit: Contract - Other Contract
Cause: 42:1983 Civil Rights Act

Previous related posts

A Sliver of Justice - finding by the Department of Labor in favor of the von Ackermann family
Janaury 10, 2010

Defense Base Act vs War Hazards Compensation Act- non-hostile vs hostile Type of Casualty
December 23, 2008

Iraq Contractors and The Missing Persons Act - legal obligations of the US Government
July 24, 2008

The Defense Base Act/War Hazards Compensation Act Handbook is on sale through Loyola College of Law for $60. Call (504) 861-5441 or Toll Free at (866) 250-8617 to order. For more information, email: clelaw@loyno.edu

Issa Salomi - Released

Great news this morning via the Defense Base Act Compensation blog (thank you, Marcie!), Issa Salomi has returned home - very much alive - to his family:

Militant Iraqi group releases American hostage
By Leila Fadel, Washington Post, March 28, 2010

The Pentagon said the circumstances surrounding the disappearance in January of Issa T. Salomi, 60, of El Cajon, Calif., were under investigation. But the militant group Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or the League of the Righteous, suggested on a Web site the group uses that Salomi was released in exchange for four detainees in U.S. custody.

The U.S. military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Salomi's kidnapping followed the breakdown of talks between the Iraqi government and the group that U.S. and Iraqi officials had hoped would lead to reconciliation. The U.S. military has released hundreds of the group's members in a failed attempt to neutralize it.

No news on Alan McMenemy or Ahmed Qusai al-Taie. At one point, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or the League of the Righteous suggested they were working on 'returning' him.

Alan McMenemy of Scotland

IT consultant, Peter Moore, and his four security guards were abducted by insurgents dressed as Iraqi policemen from the Ministry of Finance in Baghdad in May of 2007. Remains of three body guards were returned to the UK. The last is still missing, Alan McMenemy of Glasgow, Scotland.

Baghdad hostage Peter Moore: kidnappers shot Britons as they tried to escape
By Colin Freeman, UK Telegraph, March 14, 2010

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Moore cast doubt on the widely-held theory that the Shia militant group which abducted the men had deliberately murdered them in order to step up pressure for a prisoner exchange.

Instead, he said he had been told that two of the guards - Jason Creswell and Jason Swindlehurst - were gunned down as they tried to flee a militant safe house where they were being held. A third, Alec MacLachlan, was killed after he tried to grab a gun that his captors left lying on a table, while the fourth, Alan McMenemy, died when his captors thought that security forces were preparing to raid their hide-out. They are thought to have shot Mr McMenemy in panic as they were about to flee, only to discover afterwards that the raid was a false alarm. Mr McMenemy is the only one of the four guards whose body has not been recovered, although the Foreign Office believes he too is dead.

For those unaware of the writer's significance to this blog, Colin Freeman was the journalist who first broke the story of the disappearance of contractor Kirk von Ackermann.

Evidence - physical and other

Thinking out loud about what, if any, physical evidence might still be available to investigators looking into the disappearance of Kirk von Ackermann and the murder of Ryan Manelick.

For what it's worth....

Aerial footage - recorded by any of the more than 500 unmanned aerial vehicles operating in Iraq in 2003

Base Access Records - showing entrance and exit to/from bases under US control in Iraq

Audio recordings - of satellite and cell phone calls, incoming and outgoing (from intercepts of the National Security Agency)

Inventory - review of Kirk von Ackermann's personal belongings - including his notebook as well as determining what was missing

Background check - of passing patrol and/or check point personnel who first arrived on the scene

Ultra Services communications - from the ultra-services.com web server including emails and records, also who had superuser access to server

Mechanics - interviews with area mechanics, especially at FOB Pacesetter and Camp Anaconda, to see if anyone remembers von Ackermann was seeking to get his tire fixed

Additional Reading

Army Regulation 195–5 (PDF)
Criminal Investigation
Evidence Procedures
Department of the Army
Washington, DC
June 25, 2007

Foreign Affairs Manual - hostage and missing

The US Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual (FAM) includes sections on hostages and missing persons that I thought were worth including here.

U.S. Department of State

Foreign Affairs Manual

Volume 7 - Consular Affairs:
7 FAM 1820 Hostage Taking and Kidnappings (PDF)
7 FAM 150 Missing Persons (PDF)

I'm of the opinion that the US government should have a dedicated office for hostage affairs/missing persons of US citizens abroad. It would have a core of permanent staff in addition to representatives from US government agencies such as the FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense (POW-MIA, Casualty Affairs, Criminal Investigation Division, etc). One of the things the office should be responsible for is coordinating regulations and reporting requirements by publishing an annual manual.

Just a thought.

1457 Civilian Contractors Have Died in Iraq

AP reporting 1,457 civilian employees have died in Iraq as of December 31, 2010. The article doesn't include information on kidnappings and/or missing Americans.

It's worth pointing out something peculiar about that particular figure of 1,457: it's apparently been revised down from 1,459 reported in February. (Not sure what that means in terms of where the discrepancy originated.)

Iraq: Key figures since the war began
By The Associated Press, March 1, 2010

Deaths of civilian employees of US government contractors as of December 31, 2009: 1,457.

Also see:

Iraq: Key figures since the war began (link expired)
By The Associated Press, Washington Post, February 1, 2010

Deaths of civilian employees of U.S. government contractors as of December 31, 2009: 1,459