Posted by
Cary Wesberry on Thursday, March 13, 2008 5:08:29 PM
MIAMI — A senior U.S. official confirmed to FOX News that the severed fingers of five Western hostages were delivered to U.S. government officials in Iraq, giving the men's relatives hope that they are still alive.
The Austrian weekly magazine News first reported the delivery of the five fingers in Wednesday's edition, citing unidentified authorities working on the case.
One of the kidnap victims in Iraq was a University of Florida student. The hostages have been missing for more than a year and U.S. authorities in Baghdad recently were sent their severed fingers.
Four of the men had been working as contractors when they were captured in a brazen ambush of their 43-truck supply convoy on Nov. 16, 2006.
The men were working for Crescent Security Group, a Kuwait-based private security company. They were kidnapped by men in Iraqi police uniforms who ambushed the convoy they were escorting near the southern city of Safwan.
Patrick Reuben, a Minneapolis police officer whose twin brother, Paul Reuben, is among the missing, said late Wednesday the FBI told his family that "the fingers were confirmed to be those of the hostages."
Patrick Reuben told The Associated Press the news of the severed fingers was "shocking" but that the initial word the family got was "much more serious than that. Later on we found that it was fingers that were recovered and that the DNA confirmed it was the hostages."
FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said the agency continues to investigate the whereabouts of the five men missing since 2006, as well as a sixth man, Ronald Withrow, an American who was kidnapped separately from the others and whose finger apparently was among those sent to officials.
"The investigation continues into the whereabouts and safety of the five men kidnapped in Iraq," Kolko said. "The FBI has received DNA evidence and is conducting an examination. Additionally, the FBI's Office of Victim Assistance has been working with the U.S. families involved in this matter."
Kolko continued: "They have been kept up to date on information the FBI had available and were notified of the DNA samples in February. We understand this is a very difficult time for the families and discussing this matter further in the media is not appropriate."
The men were abducted in two separate incidents that occurred a month and a half apart more than two years ago, a U.S. government official said Thursday in Washington.
The six missing are Reuben, a former St. Louis Park, Minn., police officer; Joshua Munns of Redding, Calif.; John Young of Kansas City, whose finger was not among those sent to officials; Jonathon Cote of the Buffalo, N.Y., area; Bert Nussbaumer of Austria; and Withrow, 40, of Lubbock, Texas, a contractor working for JPI Worldwide who was abducted on Jan. 5, 2007, near Basra.
Reuben said his family is "certainly hopeful, but there's nothing definite right now."
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack declined Thursday to comment on the matter except to say: "We continue to demand these hostages' immediate release so that they can be returned safely to their families."
Al-Qaeda is hardly the only problem in Iraq. While al-Qaeda operations have been nearly crushed by our military, illegal Shiite militias continue to inflict terror upon Westerners in the country who traveled to Iraq only to help. Follow the link above for the whole story. The families of the victims are low on patience at this point. I would be too when all I got were words instead of action. At least the severed fingers indicate the hostages are still alive. A glimmer of hope through mutiliation. That's Islamo-fascist extremism for you. Pray for the hostages and their families as I do.