Ake and Family Tortured

From AP:

Feds believe Hoosier hostage is alive

LAPORTE, Ind. — Federal officials have told the family of a LaPorte businessman kidnapped in Iraq two months ago that they believe he is still alive, his father said.

The family of Jeffrey Ake has discussed his kidnapping with both the FBI and CIA, his father Jim Ake of LaPorte said.

“They’re still telling us that Jeff is OK, but they don’t know for sure. They’re still guessing,” the elder Ake said in an interview with freelance journalist Stan Maddux in a story published in northern Indiana newspapers Thursday.

Ake’s family had not spoken to the media since the 47-year-old was taken hostage while working on a water treatment plant near Baghdad on April 11. The FBI influenced the decision to keep quiet, Jim Ake said.

The FBI also persuaded LaPorte officials to cancel a candlelight vigil that was scheduled soon after news broke about the kidnapping in the city 25 miles west of South Bend, Jim Ake said.

The FBI told the family that the vigil will “be on Baghdad TV within an hour, and that’s not what you want to have,” he said. “We’re just following their directions.”

...Jim Ake said it has been a trying time for his family, especially for Jeff Ake’s wife, Lilliana, and their four children.

“There’s nothing we can do. We are helpless, and we’re being held by a bunch of thugs.”

Ake said his family was not prepared for the media onslaught that has followed since his son was taken hostage and have asked for privacy.

“I wish I could tell everybody how appreciative we are,” he said.

...Asked if the federal government is trying to negotiate his son’s release, Ake said, “They just claim they’re working on it. They don’t tell us everything.”

What a nightmare!

In a very real sense, Jeffrey Ake's entire family has been held hostage the past two months by these miscreants. The uncertainty has to be torture for them.

I'd like to hear Dick Durbin speak out against the kidnapping of Jeffrey Ake. Of course, that wouldn't elevate his status among leftist nutjobs and serve him politically the way trashing the personnel of Guantanamo does. I don't expect any Dems to take up Ake's cause. They don't care about human rights. They just play politics.