The longest missing American in Iraq is a contractor by the name of Kirk von Ackermann. Von Ackermann was a former intelligence officer, who served in the Asymmetric Threat Division, or DO5, at Joint Forces Command while in the US Air Force. While questions surround his disappearance, its his former work in counter terrorism that provides a sharp contrast to what can only be described as bizarre behavior on the day he disappeared.
In August of 2003, von Ackermann went to Turkey to work for a logistics company serving US military bases in the Tikrit region of Iraq. Several hours after a meeting at Camp Anaconda just outside of Balad, Iraq, von Ackermann's vehicle was found abandoned on an isolated road between Tikrit and Kirkuk. He was never heard from again. Today, he remains the longest missing American in Iraq.
CID likes to believe Kirk von Ackermann deliberately chose to drive alone over 160 miles, without a translator, on a bad tire through Saddam Hussein's tribal territory with $40,000 in cash. But that neat and tidy scenario gets utterly shattered by his prior experience with DO5: Kirk von Ackermann analyzed and conceived of threats. Something far worse had to have happened to catch Kirk von Ackermann not on guard.
The eight year anniversary of his disappearance is next month, on October 9. He left behind a wife and three young children. At the time, they were preparing to move to Turkey.
As the tenth anniversary of 9/11 rapidly approaches, Kirk von Ackermann's former intelligence unit, DO5, is in the news.
New Documents Suggest DoD Watchdog Covered Up Intelligence Unit's Work Tracking 9/11 Terrorists
By Jeffrey Kaye and Jason Leopold
Truthout, September 9, 2011
Senior Pentagon officials scrubbed key details about a top-secret military intelligence unit's efforts in tracking Osama bin Laden and suspected al-Qaeda terrorists from official reports they prepared for a Congressional committee probing the 9/11 terrorist attacks, new documents obtained by Truthout reveal.
Moreover, in what appears to be an attempt to cover up the military unit's intelligence work, a September 2008 Defense Department (DoD) Inspector General's (IG) report that probed complaints lodged by the former deputy chief of the military unit in question, the Asymmetrical Threats Division of Joint Forces Intelligence Command (JFIC), also known as DO5, about the crucial information withheld from Congress, claimed "the tracking of Usama Bin Ladin did not fall within JFIC's mission."
But the IG's assertion is untrue, according to the documents obtained by Truthout, undercutting the official narrative about who knew what and when in the months leading up to 9/11.
Based on information provided by a former intelligence officer known only as IRON MAN, Jeffrey Kaye and Jason Leopold of Truthout have released a new article about DoD efforts to withhold information about DO5's activities from Congress. You see, DO5 actively tracked Osama bin Laden, predicted that commercial airlines would be hijacked by Al Qaeda and used as weapons to hit identified targets. And that information was briefed to senior levels of the defense intelligence community.
As author Jeffrey Kaye points out in a recent interview with theRealNews.com - no one seems interested in learning what the defense intelligence community has to say about 9/11. All attention to date remains sharply focused on the CIA and FBI even though 80% of all intelligence spending is for the Department of Defense.
There's much more at Truthout about the DoD whistelbower, IRON MAN, DO5, the Joint Forces Intelligence Command and how it ties into the itnelligence failures surrounding 9/11.
Meanwhile, Kirk von Ackermann is not the only American who remains missing in Iraq.
Americans Missing in Iraq
Attached is a chart showing the incident date, name, link to incident report (SIGACT) when available, and status of those Americans known to be missing and/or held hostage in Iraq in table format.Text of available SIGACT reports are now posted at the Missing Man, SIGACT Reports of Americans Missing in Iraq.
REVISIONS
August 13, 2011 - Added Neenus Y. Khoshaba of Skokie, Illinois to table, kidnapped on May 17, 2005.
August 8, 2011 - two additional names of the missing revealed and an alternative spelling for Bob Hamza but incident dates remain unknown: Neenus Khoshaba, Hussain al-Zurufi, Bob Hamze. See Missing Men
January 23, 2011 - in all likelihood, the name 'Bob Hamza' should be included in the chart below but the date of his abduction remains unknown. See Bob Hamza - missing
December 19, 2010 - corrected date of the abduction of Tom Fox to November 26, 2005
October 23, 2010 - (ongoing) adding links to the initial incident reports as I find them at WikiLeaks Iraq War Logs October 14, 2010 - addition of the name of Abbas Kareem Naama (Tim Naama) who was kidnapped on the morning of September 27, 2005 in Baghdad, Iraq.
August 9, 2010 - based on National Counterterrorism Center data and statistics included in the annual Country Reports on Terrorism from the US Department of State
Americans Missing in Iraq - as of August 13, 2011
(Note: reference links in the chart are currently broken. For active links, see SIGACT Reports of Americans Missing in Iraq.)
Names missing from the chart below: Hussain al-Zurufi, Bob Hamze
|
Date |
Name - incident report |
Status |
|
1 |
Oct 9, 2003 |
Kirk von Ackermann |
missing |
1 |
2 |
Apr 9, 2004 |
Thomas Hamill (see note above) |
escaped |
|
3 |
Apr 9, 2004 |
Nicholas Evan Berg |
deceased |
|
4 |
Apr 9, 2004 |
William Bradley |
deceased |
|
5 |
Apr 9, 2004 |
Pfc Keith Matthew Maupin |
deceased |
|
6 |
Apr 9, 2004 |
Timothy E Bell |
missing |
2 |
7 |
May 3, 2004 |
Aban Elias |
missing |
3 |
8 |
Aug 13, 2004 |
Micah Garen |
released |
|
9 |
Sept 16, 2004 |
Jack Henlsey |
deceased |
|
10 |
Sept 16, 2004 |
Olin Eugene Armstrong Jr |
deceased |
|
11 |
Oct 10, 2004 |
Paul Taggart |
released |
|
12 |
Nov 1, 2004 |
Roy Hallums |
released |
|
13 |
Nov 2, 2004 |
Dean Sadek |
missing |
4 |
14 |
Apr 11, 2005 |
Jeffrey Ake |
missing |
5 |
15 |
May 17, 2005 |
Neenus Y. Khoshaba - incident? |
missing |
6 |
16 |
Aug 2, 2005 |
Steven Charles Vincent |
deceased |
|
17 |
Sept 27, 2005 |
Abbas Kareem Naama (Tim) |
missing |
7 |
18 |
Nov 25, 2005 |
Ronald Alan Schulz |
deceased |
|
19 |
Nov 26, 2005 |
Thomas William Fox |
deceased |
|
20 |
Dec 2, 2005 |
unknown #1 |
missing |
8 |
21 |
Jan 7, 2006 |
Jill Carroll |
released |
|
22 |
Jun 16, 2006 |
Pfc Kristian Menchaca |
deceased |
|
23 |
Jun 16, 2006 |
Pfc Thomas Tucker |
deceased |
|
24 |
Oct 23, 2006 |
Sgt Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie |
missing |
9 |
25 |
Nov 16, 2006 |
Jonathon Michael Cote |
deceased |
|
26 |
Nov 16, 2006 |
Paul Christopher Johnson-Reuben |
deceased |
|
27 |
Nov 16, 2006 |
Joshua Mark Munns |
deceased |
|
28 |
Nov 16, 2006 |
John Roy Young |
deceased |
|
29 |
Nov 27, 2006 |
Maj Troy Lee Gilbert (deceased) |
missing |
10 |
30 |
Jan 5, 2007 |
Ronald J Withrow |
deceased |
|
31 |
Jan 27, 2007 |
unknown #2 - incident? |
missing |
11 |
32 |
Jan 27, 2007 |
unknown #3 - incident? |
missing |
12 |
33 |
Feb 1, 2007 |
unknown #4 Iraqi-American |
missing |
13 |
34 |
Mar 3, 2007 |
unknown #5 American-Iraqi |
missing |
14 |
35 |
Apr 25, 2007 |
unknown #6 |
missing |
15 |
36 |
May 12, 2007 |
Sgt Alex Ramon Jimenez |
deceased |
|
37 |
May 12, 2007 |
Pfc Byron W Fouty |
deceased |
|
38 |
May 25, 2007 |
unknown #7 |
missing |
16 |
39 |
Aug 17, 2007 |
unknown #8 |
missing |
17 |
40 |
summer 2008 |
unknown #9 |
missing |
18 |
41 |
May 21, 2009 |
Jim Kitterman |
deceased |
|
42 |
Jan 23, 2010 |
Issa T Salomi |
released |
|
Not included in the chart (at this time) are the troops taken POW (status: missing) during the invasion of March 2003. All were Returned to Military Control:
Spc. Edgar Hernandez
Spc. Joseph Hudson
Spc. Shoshana Johnson
Pfc. Patrick Miller
Sgt. James Riley
Pfc. Jessica Lynch
Chief warrant officer David Williams
Chief warrant officer Ronald Young Jr.
US Navy pilot Capt. Michael Scott Speicher, shot down during Gulf War I, is also not included. Speicher's remains were recovered in August of 2009.
US Marine Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun, accused by the US military of having deserted in Iraq on June 19, 2004, is also not included. Hassoun is believed to be currently in hiding in Lebanon.
Additions/corrections are welcome, please email me at susie.dow at gmail.com
About the Data
Links to the initial incident reports have been culled from the WikiLeaks Iraq War Logs. Incident reports should more properly be referred to as 'SIGACT,' short for 'Significant Activity' or 'Significant Action.'
- the data is based on news reports which often contradict each other
- an article from April 2010 (US Operation aims to find missing) cites 11 missing Americans
- a February 2010 article cites 17 missing (They search if someone's missing in Iraq) which conflicts with the current count of 18. Think positive, let's assume someone was released.
- an article from October 2008 cites a total of 39 kidnapped Americans of which 22 are known to have been executed (Iraq calmer but copycat kidnappings spread). The chart above was started with 39 kidnapped Americans as a base line.
- the data represents the minimum number of missing Americans. Companies and/or families may deliberately choose not report a hostage or kidnap victim to US government agencies. I was told by one representative of the Department of Labor that they were aware of unreported contractors missing in Iraq.
- not all names of those missing - both past and present - are known and/or publicized for a number of reasons
- Technically, the status of 'released' should more properly be referred to as 'Returned to Military Control' (RMC)
References
With Withdrawal Looming, Trails Grow Cold for Americans Missing in Iraq
By Jack Healy, New York Times, May 21, 2011
Iraq War Logs Alternative WikiLeaks mirror site
WikiLeaks, October 22, 2010
Data on Kidnappings from the State Department
Summary of the findings of the reports for 2005 - 2009
August 8, 2010
Terrorism Deaths, Injuries, Kidnappings of Private U.S. Citizens, 2009
Country Reports on Terrorism 2009
US Department of State
Terrorism Deaths, Injuries, Kidnappings of Private U.S. Citizens
Country Reports on Terrorism 2007
US Department of State
Terrorism Deaths, Injuries, Kidnappings of Private U.S. Citizens
Country Reports on Terrorism 2006
US Department of State
Terrorism Deaths, Injuries, Kidnappings of Private U.S. Citizens
Country Reports on Terrorism 2005
US Department of State
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
They search if someone’s missing in Iraq
By Scott Fontaine, The News Tribune, February 8, 2010
Officials confirm kidnapping of U.S. contractor in Iraq
By Ernesto Londoño and Leila Fadel, Washington Post, February 6, 2010
Iraq calmer but copycat kidnappings spread
By Pamela Hess, Associated Press, October 13, 2008