Kidnapped businessman by Iraqi insurgents

United Stated of American, April 14, 2005-- Businessman Jeffrey Ake who is 47-year-old president and CEO of Equipment Express traveled to other countries to pitch his products, once telling a group to think of foreign nations as "U.S. states with cultural nuances thrown in."
According to videotape was showed by Al-Jazeera television channel, Ake had been kidnapped by Iraqi insurgents during his second business trip to Iraq. Ake was snatched Monday from a water treatment plant near Baghdad, according to officials at the American Embassy.
A videotape aired Wednesday by Al-Jazeera television showed Mr. Ake wearing an open-collar shirt with rolled-up shirt sleeves, was sitting or kneeling behind a wooden desk and holding. Besides, the Al-Jazeera tape showed a man sitting behind a desk with at least three assailants – two hooded and one off-camera – pointing assault rifles at him. In the video, Al-Jazeera said, Mr. Ake asked the U.S. government to withdraw from Iraq and save his life. He is heard pleading for his life and requesting that the American occupation come to an end.
Pointing out of the news, Ake built his business in Indiana, but he took his innovations for bottling drinking water and cooking oil to the people and places that needed them most though he traveled around the world. Regarding the police report, Ake started the company in 1995 out of his garage after working 17 years for a firm once owned by his father. He is an author of a 1996 book about exporting, has long championed doing business outside the United States and touted the power of personal sales calls by American entrepreneurs who travel to foreign countries. Ake also obtains the successful business, he has done business in dozens of countries, including South Korea, Iceland, Indonesia and the Philippines. He also taught American culture and history in Russia. His wife, Liliana, is Russian-born.
By the police report, a yellow ribbon was tied around a tree outside Jeffrey Ake’s house in LaPorte in Indiana. The US Embassy said the man on the video appeared to be Ake, a contract worker who was kidnapped around noon on Monday.
The White House announced that authorities were monitoring the situation but would not negotiate for Ake's release. Most strangest about the US officials had released no details regarding his identity before Al-Jazeera aired the video of Ake.
Mr. Ake is one of at least 14 Americans who have been kidnapped or have gone missing in the past year in Iraq. At least three have been killed. Fighters asserted in a statement that 23 of their men had been killed, including 14 from Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and other foreign countries.