Bodies of two kidnapped US contractors found in Iraq
Terrible news. Please keep the families of Ronald J. Withrow of Roaring Springs, Tex., and John Roy Young of Kansas City, Mo., in your thoughts and prayers tonight:
The bodies of two American contractors kidnapped in Iraq more than a year ago have been found, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said Monday, days after the severed finger of one of them was sent to American military authorities.
The F.B.I. said that the remains of Ronald J. Withrow of Roaring Springs, Tex., and John Roy Young of Kansas City, Mo., had been found, and that relatives of the victims had been notified. The bureau did not say when and where the bodies were found, or anything about their condition.
Mr. Withrow was one of five kidnapping victims — Mr. Young not among them — whose fingers were sent recently to the military in Iraq. DNA analysis confirmed that the fingers were from the missing men.
Mr. Withrow was working in Iraq for the information technology company JPI Worldwide when he disappeared Jan. 5, 2007. Mr. Young worked for the Crescent Security Group under contract to Italy. He was seized in an ambush on Nov. 16, 2006.
Please also remember the other civilian contractors still missing who were seized with Young and whose fingers were also sent to military officials:
Paul Reuben of Minneapolis
Jonathon Cote of Getzville, N.Y.
Joshua Munns of Redding, Calif.
Bert Nussbaumer of Vienna, Austria.
I pray we find the animals who did this.
***
Ronald Withrow’s mother wrote in her diary: “I know God has taken you home. I’m just someone that’s taken care of you. It’s hard to believe that you are gone. My baby take care. Wait for me at the gates of heaven.”
The Kansas City Star has a brief article about John Roy Young here.
The Cote family has a blog here. Jon Cote’s father, Francis, writes:
Colleagues, Friends and Family,
As some of you know, there have been some recent updates regarding Jonathon and the other hostages.
Approximately one month ago the U.S. Military-Government received DNA and prints. The FBI confirmed this information on Frebruary16, 2008 with us. On March 13, 2008 the FBI provided additional information that the DNA was from 5 severed fingers which one belonging to Jon, one to Josh Munns, one to Paul Reuben and one to Bert Nussbaumer, (Austrian) all co-workers of Jon. The fifth did not belong to John Young, the other Crescent Security employee hostage but instead belongs to Ronald Withrow, an American kidnapped two months after the others. We’re hoping that this act was “their” sick way of showing “proof of life”. We don’t know. We know of no ransom demands.
In the afternoon on Friday, March 21, 2008 the FBI visited us to inform us that the US Military-Government has recovered 2 bodies in the Basra area, the area where the hostages are believed to be held. Their identity was unknown at that time. The bodies were flown to the US Air Base in Dover, Delaware where they performed identification and autopsies. Late Sunday night March 23, 2008, we received confirmation from the FBI that the 2 bodies belong to John Young and Ronald Withrow. The parents and family have been notified. Our hearts go out to the families that have lost their loved one and have contacted them to express our condolence. Other families are now uncomfortably awaiting word on any new development.
We have no idea how long it will be before we hear something but we’ll let you know as soon as we do.
Remember to check this web site www.freecote.com. The site now contains most of the media articles and stories going back to the date of the kidnapping, November 16, 2006.
We’re sorry to spoil your Easter with this news but we really feel the need to ask for extra prayers. Please be so kind this holiday to remember to pray for Jon’s safety and the safety of the other hostages. We could also use prayer too to help keep us strong. At least WE have our FAITH to keep us strong and hoping for the best.
Happy Easter!
He is Risen, He is Risen indeed!
***
More than 1,000 civilian contractors have died in Iraq as of last June, according to this site.
Don’t bother checking the Daily Kos for reaction.
We already know: “Screw them.”
And I’m sure the Huffington Post is working up an exploitative photo mosaic as we speak…
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Confederate Yankee
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I’m praying all of the families who have lost a loved one during this War.
Souls await us all on the other side where we become one. There they have eternal peace, something we mortals can’t seem to figure out. Bless them all.
I saw President Bush commented on the 4000 deaths yesterday.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/24/iraq.4000.deaths/index.html
Ms. Malkin, I was wondering if you were going to make a statement on your blog as LGF did yesterday.
Thanks.
May a well-placed explosive one day soon find the cockroaches who did this and ship them off to hell.
Well put.
These criminals will get their “due”. The Lord doesn’t accept murderers and butchers, regardless of what their corrupt clerics say. They will soon join the others who found out exactly what “paradise” is for them. Maybe they will encounter those “virgins”. And, maybe, they weren’t told that these “virgins” are violent, men-hating former wrestling Amazons who love to beat up on them on a continual basis through eternity.
I concur! Cite the 4,000 and more…
I hope Michelle mentions that not one life lost in the Iraq-Afghanistan campaign was lost in vain. The U.S. liberated two nations — vast parts of a stormy region — with the price of 4,000 noble lives. If anyone told General Eisenhower or Churchill that you could’ve done such just taking Belgium alone at that cost they would’ve thought you were insane and would’ve given both arms to do it. We turned around hideously warped conceptions of ourselves in those countries which is like money in the bank. And the reason the (non-accident) body count is rising is because we are extremely and mercifully discriminate about our targets in that population and didn’t use our might to steamroller over whole villages and towns like the Soviets did in Afghanistan. And it was the most street-wise move of all to take down Sadaam, WMDs notwithstanding; How long do you think a newly liberated Afghanistan would’ve lasted all alone as a lamb surrounded by lions in that region? Taking out one of the most vicious ones in the neighborhood was a good call to check this situation and offer us another potentially friendly nation whose populace now know Americans aren’t the devils the radicals and tyrants made us out to be.
God Bless Our Troops
James Greenidge
Queens NY
My heart aches for the families of the missing contractors and for the families who have now learned of their loved ones demise. I pray that God grant them peace and comfort.
As for the lowlifes who committed these atrocities - Hades and the Lake of Fire await you.
May they rest in the peace they have earned and deserve. God bless them!
Contractors are the unsung heroes in every war. They do the jobs that support the Soldiers. Supply, transport, food preparation, etc. Thus, freeing the combat Soldiers to do their jobs.
Give these guys and gals your support and include them in your prayers when you pray for our valiant troops. Without the contractors, the military effort would be much more difficult.
They get no medals, or VA benefits to compensate them for physical and mental wounds. No military burials in Arlington. Seldom do they even get a thank you. Yet, their contribution is every bit as important. I was a contractor during the Vietnam war (after my service in Vietnam, as a Marine). So, I know something about it.
The discovery of the remains is buried on page A10 of the Washington Post today.
Tantor,
The troops weren’t the ones who killed them… otherwise it would be front page news.
It certainly sounds like the kidnappers did not stop their torture at severing fingers. The bodies of the two men apparently were in such a condition that their identity could not be established until the autopsy was completed.
The hell these two men endured prior to their deaths will probably never be revealed to the public. It will certainly never appear in the MSM, as such disclosure may cause people to rethink their opposition to the war.
Jim M. -
And meanwhile, McCain is worried about ‘torturing’ these animals by waterboarding them!
And if we leave Iraq as the democrats such as Obama and Clinton promise if they are elected - these people who did this will have won. We will have left Iraq to them. While these same democrats supporters are horribly upset over our practice of ’simulated drowning,’ that occurred a few times on high value terrorists … this is the norm from the other side. They don’t ’simulate’ chopping off of fingers, and more.
I cannot fathom what they endured before their deaths. I pray that God will provide some peace and comfort to their families and the families of the missing contractors and Soldiers as well.
The fact that the libs and McCain are hoping that when our people are captured they’ll be treated well shows what a fantasy land they all live in. We are coming up on another deployment and my nightmares of my husband being captured have started again.
When they’re slitting you’re throat or the throat of your loved one, you can think to yourself how wonderful you are by not having waterboarded these (insert expletive here). I’m sure it will put a smile on your face to know that maybe this could have been stopped.
30 pcs you’re absolutely right. Anytime one rogue military member does something it’s front page news for weeks and months. In fact in the Army Stinko Times that came yesterday they were yapping about that stupid Lyndie England again. When will it ever stop because it’s obvious not one of these tools gives a d@m# about what happened ot these guys or to the Soldiers who were captured, still missing and killed.
I hope our guys (or gals) over in Iraq find the scumbags who killed these contractors and show them the kind of “mercy” these terrorists showed the victims. Yeah, Allah Akbar this, dirtbags!
I can’t either, terrig. I don’t even want to picture it in my worst nightmares.
McCain/the libs are naive if they think that terrorists know anything about “humane treatment” and the Geneva Convention. Don’t ya know, certain “visitors” to Michelle’s blog think McCain is now lying about not supporting waterboarding. Similated drowning is not like cutting off somebody’s fingers or slitting somebody’s throat.
I hope your husband has a successful and safe deployment, Terrig. I’ll keep him in my prayers/thoughts too.
It’s interesting how the MSM (and I include the much vaunted Military Times newspapers in this mix) focuses on the transgressions of a minority of dirtbags that always seem to exist in the miltiary (as in other professions). Unfortunately, the MSM always seeks to convince the American public as well as those around the world that military dirtbag=all military members. It just doesn’t work that way.
I wish the MSM would have this same kind of devotion to honest portrayals of those who’ve sacrificed their lives or are MIA instead of wracking up another “death story” on their belt of blood and gore. Unfortunately, the MSM, like a segment of the American public and political establishment, see the military as a great pawn they can play around with at will. Too bad, people’s lives and the future of our country/the world is at stake too, huh?
During the Vietnam War, the VC were terrorizing villagers along the Laotian border. Some enterprising leaders decided to send in (very covertly) “special teams” to locate and eliminate those identified VC terrorists.
In the dark quiet of moonless nights, our “Boogeymen” silently infiltrated these villages, and silenced some of the worst of the VC, then silently egressed, leaving no trace of their presence.
This type of “mystical intervention” so spooked the superstitious VC, that the atrocities committed against the villagers stopped. Maybe we need to consider “re-instituting” these spectral warriors in parts of Iraq.
Can you imagine, if you’re a bad guy, waking up next to your jihadi brothers, and finding everyone dead but you, and…no indication of how it happened? Now multipy this scenario ten-fold. How well do you think terrorist networks would recruit when news of these “mysterious” happenings spread? Was it Amiriki’s or “the jin?” Hmmmm…
RIP
Tim
I shall remember them in my prayers.
I certainly hope that psychological warfare is being employed. Imagine not only waking up next to your dead jihadi brothers but also that there is no sign of how your jihadi brother died - only that there is an absolute look of horror on their faces. Imagine also that there is a burning image of Muhammad and a sudden angry shout in your Islamic language that Allah is not pleased with your behavior and you will surely go to hell - and then complete silence and no sign of source other than an explosion that leaves you perfectly fine. Imagine a circle of pigs blood surrounding all who are there, and pigs blood on every door and window - the threat being that you could be dead and the one covered in such blood.
In War, and this is a war, there should be no aid and comfort to the enemy. Unfortunately, far too many of our supposedly civilized citizens have no sense of the fact that war is not civilized.