No New Information on Jeffrey Ake

From LaPorte County's Herald-Argus:

Ake's home up for sale

By DANIEL PRZYBYLA — Staff Writer

LAPORTE — While no news has emerged regarding the abduction of LaPorte’s Jeffrey Ake in Iraq, a new development has occurred here at home.

The Akes’ home, at 400 Closser Ave. in LaPorte, went up for sale over the weekend. A sign in front of the home identifies R&R Construction and Realty as the Realtor.

...Also this morning, FBI Special Agent Wendy Osborne, with the FBI’s Indianapolis field office, said that while the investigation into Ake’s kidnapping on April 11 in Baghdad is ongoing, there is no new information at this time.

Meanwhile, interest in the April 11 abduction of Ake by terrorists remains high in different parts of the U.S. The Russian immigrant newspaper The Russian Advertisement, published in Brooklyn, N.Y., published a story Friday that sought to inform its readers about Ake’s wife, Russian-born Liliana. Freelance reporter Max Samadov told the Herald-Argus Tuesday that he knows the Russian immigrants of New York care about the well being of the Ake family because they are “compassionate people. I believe the story of Jeffrey Ake and his wife touched them.”

The Ake family has made it a point to not talk with the media since Ake was taken hostage.

The city of Rock Hill, S.C., knows something of what LaPorteans are going through right now. Rock Hill resident Ty Hensley is the brother of Jack Hensley, a civilian contractor in Iraq who was kidnapped by terrorists and beheaded a week later in September 2004.

“It just brought it home,” Larry Timbs, Rock Hill-based Winthrop University associate professor of mass communication, told The Herald-Argus. “When something like this happens and as grisly a murder as it was, can you imagine something so horrific?”

...“It gets heavy, heavy coverage when someone gets abducted.” And “For a few days it gets heavy national coverage.”

...But he said in some cases, as in the Ake case, “it disappears off the radar screen. It’s gone. Like it’s a story and (then) it’s not a story.”
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When an American civilian is being held hostage by terrorists in Iraq, the story should not disappear off the radar screen.

Do many Americans even know about Ake's abduction and his family's agony?

They should know. They should care. Most importantly, they should pray for his safe return.