Missing U.S. soldier had married Iraqi



By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer 40 minutes ago




A U.S. soldier kidnapped last week in Baghdad was married to an Iraqi college student and was with his wife and her family when hooded gunmen dragged him out of a house, bound his hands and threw him in the back seat of a white Mercedes, a woman who identified herself as his mother-in-law said Monday.


Latifah Isfieh Nasser said several of the soldier's in-laws put up a futile struggle to stop the abduction by men believed to be Mahdi Army militia fighters.


U.S. military regulations forbid soldiers from marrying citizens of a country where American forces are engaged in combat. There was no immediate comment from the military about the account of the soldier's abduction.


The U.S. military has said the soldier, a linguist of Iraqi descent, was visiting family in the central Baghdad's Karadah district when he was abducted. His kidnappers used his cell phone to contact his family, it said.


The military did not identify the soldier or give further details. A massive search for him by U.S. and Iraqi forces has been under way since the Oct. 23 abduction. The in-laws said the soldier's name is Ahmed Qais al-Taayie.


The mother-in-law told The Associated Press in the family's Karadah home that her daughter, 26-year-old physics student Israa Abdul-Satar, met the soldier a year ago. The couple were married in August and spent their honeymoon in Egypt.


She showed an AP reporter photographs of the couple in Cairo, one of them dated Aug. 14.


A photograph of the couple showing the soldier in a gray suit and Abdul-Satar in a red dress was on the wall of the living room in the two-room apartment, where the newlywed couple stayed when the soldier came to visit. The apartment was in a neglected, three-story building on a quiet street.


Nasser, 48, said she has 10 children, several of whom witnessed the abduction. The wife of the U.S. soldier and two of her siblings — a sister and a brother — were later taken by American troops to the heavily fortified Green Zone where they were being kept for their safety. The zone is a large area in central Baghdad that houses the U.S. Embassy, offices of the Iraqi government and parliament, as well as hundreds of American troops.


"She is so upset that she keeps threatening to take her own life when we speak on the telephone every day," Nasser said of al-Taayie's wife, who is in her final year at Baghdad's al-Mustansariyah University.


She said they did not know exactly what al-Taayie did for a living at the beginning, but that he later told his in-laws that he was a translator with the U.S. military in Iraq.


"We asked him many times not to come to visit us often. The day he was kidnapped, my husband told him not to visit too frequently because he was worried about him."


She said al-Taayie was at the apartment once every two or three months when he and her daughter were engaged. He always came at night, she recalled.


According to Nasser, the abduction of al-Taayie was preceded by an incident on the same day when a neighbor she identified as Abu Rami put a gun to the soldier's head as he was making his way on a motorbike to the nearby home of Nasser's brother, where his wife was visiting.


Abu Rami later said he was suspicious of al-Taayie because he had not seen him before in the neighborhood.


"Ahmed was frightened and his wife was crying," said Nasser. "Fifteen minutes later, a car came and stopped outside my brother's house and four armed men jumped out. They wore black pants, black shirts and white masks. They dragged Ahmed out and slapped handcuffs on him before they bundled him into the back seat of the car.


"My daughters struggled with the kidnappers. One of them broke her hand and another had her hand cut in the struggle. They were begging the gunmen not to take him," said Nasser.


One of her sons, 26-year-old Omar Abdul-Satar, and Abu Rami, the neighbor, followed the kidnappers in another car, but turned back before they could learn where the gunmen were headed. They feared that they too may be kidnapped. Abu Rami has since left the neighborhood with his family and went into hiding, said Nasser.



Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.



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Well, now that his captors have the whole story, I'm sure he doesn't have much of a chance. Fucking Media.

Yup.

Unfortunately, he is most likely a dead man. I hope they get what's coming to them for doing this

Sorry about the detour, but this does bring up an interesting constitutional argument.

Is the government's regulation of these kind of marriages constitutional? The supreme court has already held that issues of marriage are fundamental rights and subject to the highest levels of scrutiny. Food for thought, I suppose.

Quoted: Well, now that his captors have the whole story, I'm sure he doesn't have much of a chance. Fucking Media.

I bet they already knew.

It was probably common knowledge in the neighborhood and someone local dropped a dime on him.

Quoted: Sorry about the detour, but this does bring up an interesting constitutional argument. Is the government's regulation of these kind of marriages constitutional? The supreme court has already held that issues of marriage are fundamental rights and subject to the highest levels of scrutiny. Food for thought, I suppose.

 

I think he can be punished by the Military. It may cost him career, but the marriage would still stand.

Quoted: Quoted: Well, now that his captors have the whole story, I'm sure he doesn't have much of a chance. Fucking Media. I bet they already knew. It was probably common knowledge in the neighborhood and someone local dropped a dime on him.

Agreed. He should have never told them what his job was, but the family should have never talked to the media either. Sometimes all they need is that verification from the media.

Quoted: Quoted: Well, now that his captors have the whole story, I'm sure he doesn't have much of a chance. Fucking Media. I bet they already knew. It was probably common knowledge in the neighborhood and someone local dropped a dime on him.

You got it.

This is terrible...they'll kill him to show the woman and the rest of them to not marry infidels.



HH

Quoted: Well, now that his captors have the whole story, I'm sure he doesn't have much of a chance. Fucking Media.

Did you even read the article?

They had the whole story in the first place, thats why they took him.

Quoted: Quoted: Well, now that his captors have the whole story, I'm sure he doesn't have much of a chance. Fucking Media. Did you even read the article? They had the whole story in the first place, thats why they took him.

Did you read my posts? The family knew, the captors suspected, and now the media has confirmed.

Quoted: This is terrible...they'll kill him to show the woman and the rest of them to not marry infidels. HH

He's a not an infidel. I don't even really see any indication that he is American, and even though the media calls him a soldier, was he really a contract translator?  It seems damn weird than a soldier is allowed to wander around the population at will and live on the economy away from his unit..

Quoted: Quoted: This is terrible...they'll kill him to show the woman and the rest of them to not marry infidels. HH He's a not an infidel. I don't even really see any indication that he is American, and even though the media calls him a soldier, was he really a contract translator?  It seems damn weird than a soldier is allowed to wander around the population at will and live on the economy away from his unit..

yeah that was a really bad move, strengh in numbers.

Well, lesee here.......

The guy is an Iraqi national, (or was born one).

The guy was married without command authorization.......(To an "enemy" national)

He was AWOL when "kidnapped"...........

He goes "missing", in his "home country"........

I'll bet there's cops out there feeling a little "twitch".........

Quoted: Quoted: This is terrible...they'll kill him to show the woman and the rest of them to not marry infidels. HH He's a not an infidel. I don't even really see any indication that he is American, and even though the media calls him a soldier, was he really a contract translator?  It seems damn weird than a soldier is allowed to wander around the population at will and live on the economy away from his unit..

He is a soldier in the US Army, an immigrant or American of Iraqi descent.  He didn't "live on the economy" he lived on base.

However, the whole thing is very strange.  The official US Army sources, and quasi-official sources like Stars & Stripes, just throw out the "he was out visiting family".

You don't leave base and go out in town in Iraq other than on a mission, for any reason, even if you are a fluent Iraqi dialect speaker that knows the city.

I think maybe he was sneaking out on his own, but thats just a guess.

....and if he can put on civvies and sneak in and out of BIAP..... (draw your own conclusions)  

Quoted: Sorry about the detour, but this does bring up an interesting constitutional argument. Is the government's regulation of these kind of marriages constitutional? The supreme court has already held that issues of marriage are fundamental rights and subject to the highest levels of scrutiny. Food for thought, I suppose.

when you sign on the dotted line to become a member of the U.S. military you give up some of your rights...plain and simple.....it's all spelled out in the fine print.....

Quoted: Quoted: Sorry about the detour, but this does bring up an interesting constitutional argument. Is the government's regulation of these kind of marriages constitutional? The supreme court has already held that issues of marriage are fundamental rights and subject to the highest levels of scrutiny. Food for thought, I suppose. when you sign on the dotted line to become a member of the U.S. military you give up some of your rights...plain and simple.....it's all spelled out in the fine print.....

I have heard this before, but I would like to know exactly what rights one has waived in this fine print.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Sorry about the detour, but this does bring up an interesting constitutional argument. Is the government's regulation of these kind of marriages constitutional? The supreme court has already held that issues of marriage are fundamental rights and subject to the highest levels of scrutiny. Food for thought, I suppose. when you sign on the dotted line to become a member of the U.S. military you give up some of your rights...plain and simple.....it's all spelled out in the fine print..... I have heard this before, but I would like to know exactly what rights one has waived in this fine print.

basically that you follow the law as spelled out in the "Uniform Code of Military Justice".....not the constitution.

grunts can't sleep with officers......you may not fool around with another service members wife...you may not be gay and come out of the closet....

and.......that you can be ordered into situations in which you may likely die.....whether you like it or not.....

refuse and it's called insubordination.......

just to name a few.....