It was one year ago today that Liliana Ake went public with her story on CNN. at that time no one had heard any word from Jeff’s kidnappers in 11 months. Sadly, there is still no word of what happened to him.

We have been following the story from the beginning. I learned many things about him and his family. Jeff owned a company called Equipment Express specialized in bringing safe drinking water to parts of the world where it was needed. His first effort to bring safe bottle water to Iraq in November 2003 was a success. One of his friends has taken Jeff’s methods home to Nigeria.

On Jeff’s second trip to Iraq in April 2005, he was taken hostage. His kidnappers released a couple videos of Jeff. They even called Liliana’s home, but the calls stopped and Jeff’s fate is unknown as of this time.

Being from a small mid-western town, the images of La Porte reminded me so much of my home that I felt a kinship with Mr. Ake and the people of La Porte. It was just like so many of the small friendly towns that dot the mid-west.

We have been hoping that Jeff’s case would turn out similar to Roy Hallums and a reunion would be swift in coming. But the last year has not yielded his release or any new information.

Jeff’s company was liquidated this year and a fund was started to help Liliana and her four children to keep the Ake family’s home. The fund raising so far has been successful despite small number of outlets (about nine) that ran the story. Donations are still being accepted. More information on how and where to make donations can be found below the fold in this post.

We pray for Jeff’s safe and unconditional release As Rusty said in one of his posts, “No political cause can ever justify the taking of civilians hostage. It is a form of barbarity with no excuse.”

Here is a list of hostages still missing and held by terrorists via Vicki at Not Ready for my Burqua. There are many more missing, especially in Iraq, who's storys are unknown.

Eric Damfreville, Salma, and 3 Afghan aid workers
Alan Johnston
Hannelore Marianne Krause and her son Sinan al-Tornachi
8 Ethiopians kidnapped with the Embassy workers
4 South African contractors kidnapped in Baghdad
An American contractor kidnapped in Basra
Jonathan Cote
Paul Reuben
Bert Nussbaumer
John Young
Josh Munns
Dean Sadek
Aban Elias
Jeffrey Ake
Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie --- The missing U.S. soldier in Baghdad
Ron Arad
Gilad Shalit
Ehud Goldwasser
Eldad Regev

LaPorte Missionary Church
LaPorte Missionary Church
Attn: Carl Galloway
104 E. 18th St., LaPorte, IN 46350

We have much more here at our Jeffrey Ake Archive.

A bit more on the Jeff Ake story here and here and here.

Posted by: Howie at 01:01 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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