Mystery surrounds US businessman missing in Iraq's 'Sunni triangle'

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/11/09/wirq209.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/11/09/ixnewstop.html


An American businessman working for the United States Army in Iraq has mysteriously disappeared while driving his car along an isolated road in the country's "Sunni Triangle".

Fears are growing that Kirk von Akermann, 37, a contractor, may have been abducted and murdered after his car was found abandoned between the towns of Tikrit and Kirkuk.

His satellite mobile telephone, laptop, and a briefcase containing about $40,000 (£24,000) were found inside his vehicle, suggesting that he had not been the victim of a robbery. There was no sign of a struggle at the scene.

Since his disappearance on October 9, the US army - assisted by Iraqi police - has conducted an "aggressive" investigation but has yet to find out anything of note.

<snip>

Mr von Akermann lived in San Mateo, California, with his wife and three children, and worked for an Istanbul-based company, Ultra Services, which provides domestic supplies and logistics for US army bases in Iraq.

A spokesman for the company said: "We can confirm that Mr von Akermann was working for us, but we do not wish to make any comment on this matter."

<snip>

Businessman my hind foot. Sheesh, every businessman I know carries a briefcase filled with $40,000.00.

[Barrett808]

1. Yes, likely a spy of some stripe

It looks like the insurgency has very good intelligence indeed. Meanwhile, our intel guys wander the desert looking for Captain Queeg's WMD...

[dobak]

2. huh?

$40,000 in the briefcase??

What was he up to?

[alcuno]

3. He was driving by himself?

Weird.

[BlueCollar]

4. Actually

the use of cash to grease the wheels of economies is an established practice throughout the world...

In South America it's known as "La Mordida" or "The Bite"

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

5. in the US it's called

a campaign contribution.

[R Hickey]

6. Really weird about the money

Sounds like it could be a pre-meditated kidnapping, where the money was not important, or on the other hand, it could be a ramdom kidnapping where the money was not known about.

[Bozola]

7. Search the directories....

No listing for a Von Akermann in the Bay Area.
No listing for an "Ultra Services" in Istanbul (admittedly it could be something different in Turkish).


Ultra, as you may recall, was the Allied code name for the project to decrypt the Nazi's Enigma intercepts. Since then the word "Ultra" was always associated with the western intelligence agencies.

Though, these days, the official intelligences aren't supposed to use obvious names, but as of late they seem have been getting sloppy.

However, it could be something purely innocent, such as DynCorp looking to acquire a new source of sex slaves since the Yugoslavia is no longing a going concern.

[nbsmom]

8. I don't know what directory you referenced.

He's definitely listed in the San Mateo County phone directory (which is actually pretty unusual, since a lot of people are unlisted in the area).

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

9. I had noticed the prefix "Ultra" as well. It would be kind of obvious,

but with the hubris of the people/agencies involved in this fiasce, there's no telling.

[truthisfreedom]

10. american businessman working for the us army with 40k in cash and a mobile

phone and laptop... sounds more like a drug dealer for some reason. what's on his laptop?

[dArKeR]

12. Just think of all the weapons the 'guerillas' could buy with that cash!

But better not think, just be a Sheeple!

[Dover]

11. I wonder if Ultra Services is a subsidiary of Halliburton or Bechtel

or some other big corp. I just read somewhere (maybe it was in one of the purported recent al qaeda warning tapes) that they were going after U.S. interests and that some companies had changed their names or used different names in the Middle East.

Anybody remember seeing this anywhere?

[mouse7]

13. "Mystery" and "missing" in same UK headline???

Gawd, even the Queen subjects are forgetting proper use of the Queen's English. How disappointing.

What's clearly missing is the use of a thesaurus.

I'm not normally such an editorial prude. However, seeing a headline that bad in a UK newspaper just ached.

[pinniped]

14. Maybe he was there to pay the mercs.

Mercs gotta eat too.