US soldier missing 2 years after Iraq capture

AP ^ | Thu Oct 23, 2008 | BEN LEUBSDORF

[pasr]

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – An Army translator kidnapped two years ago Thursday is still unaccounted for, the only U.S. servicemember who remains missing in the current Iraq war.

Ahmed Kousay al-Taie was visiting his wife's family in central Baghdad Oct. 23, 2006, when a group of armed, masked men dragged him to a waiting car.

Al-Taie, a 41-year-old specialist when he was captured, is now 43 and a sergeant. The last public news of him came in February 2007, when a Shiite militant group called Ahl al-Bayt Brigades released a 10-second video of him on the Internet.

The military is committed to bringing al-Taie home, said U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. David Russell, a spokesman for the Multi-National Force-Iraq.

"The universal expectation that no one will be left behind is a fundamental article of faith that underpins the motivation and confidence of every U.S. service member deploying to a foreign duty location," Russell wrote in an e-mail.

Russell declined to release any details of the search for al-Taie, citing policy.

Al-Taie's parents, who live in the Michigan college town of Ann Arbor, declined to be interviewed.

Al-Taie was born in Iraq and moved to the United States when he was a teenager. In December 2004, he joined an Army reserve program for native speakers of Arabic, Dari and other strategic languages. He was deployed to his native country as a translator in November 2005.

He had met and married an Iraqi woman before he was deployed, according to the military, and al-Taie was visiting her family's home when he was kidnapped. She now lives in Michigan.

[pasr]

John McCain is the only one in the Presidential race who wouldn't rest until he was found dead or alive.............

[McCloud-Strife]

Except for for when he had the chance to not rest until everyone from Vietnam was found. He voted to normalize relations with Vietnam rather than get a full accounting. It was his committee and he let Vietnam get away will all their myriad of war crimes.
I am voting for him, but the only that matters to John McCain is John McCain. He was like that in the Navy, he was like that in the Senate, I see nothing that is going to change that. So let us not assign super human compassion towards people, by him, that's the other guys shtick. With any luck whoever gets elected will be one term and gone, I do not care for either one.

[equaviator]

Any chance that this guy’s kidnapping was staged and that the truth of the matter could be that he’s an AWOL deserter?

[riverrunner]

I was wondering the same thing from the first time I heard about it. We’ll will most likely never know. Unless he is found alive ect.

[equaviator]

My flag is still flying at full-staff, whether or not Michigan’s Governor Jennifer Granholm (D) orders it to be flown at half-staff.

[cookcounty]

God bless Ahmed, may he be found and soon. Is there a way to encourage his family???