CNN Breaking: Thomas Hamill found (Halliburton truck driver)...

[Cooley Hurd]

Per killer Kimmitt, he escaped.

Reuters link: American Hostage 'Escapes' from Iraqi Captors

<snip>
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. hostage Thomas Hamill is free three weeks after television pictures showed him being driven away by armed men following an attack on a convoy in Iraq, the U.S. military said Sunday.
</snip>

[leftchick]

1. I hope he is okay...

cripes, I can only imagine how bad it was going to be for him after those toture photos.

[teach1st]

2. Seems OK

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4884602/

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. hostage Thomas Hamill was recovered by U.S. forces south of Tikrit Sunday after he apparently escaped from captors who had been holding him since an attack on a convoy April 9, the U.S. military said.

Hamill, of Macon, Mississippi, was "in good health," said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt.

Kimmitt said U.S. military units were patrolling a petroleum pipeline when Hamill, a truck driver for Halliburton Corp., approached and identified himself.

"Mr. Hamill apparently escaped from a building," Kimmitt said. "He has spoken to his family. He is now ready to get back to work.

[skooooo]

4. Get back to work??

you've got to be kidding...oh I forgot, his wife is in massive debt for lack of health insurance. That's why we went to Iraq, right??

[drfemoe]

10. ironically

the money he makes won't make a dent in the medical expenses she needs.

[RummyTheDummy]

38. Im thrilled he made it out okay

But if he decides to stay and gets captured/killed he asked for it. I remember the first time I stuck my finger in a lit candle's flame. Must have been about three or four. I never did it again. If he stays, he's a complete dumbass.

[Samurai_Writer]

6. He is now ready to get back to work?!?

And Kimmit knows this... how? Not all the money in the world would entice me to go back to driving trucks in Iraq after I had been through what Mr. Hamill went through. Halliburton should cut him a big, fat check as a 'bonus' for not getting killed so he doesn't HAVE to choose between working for an evil corp. that profits off the deaths of US soldiers and Iraqi civilians, and his family starving. *explitive deletive inserted here*

[annagull]

12. YAY, but huhhh???

"Get back to work!" ??? Hey Kimmett, asshole, I quit!
Kimmett lies about everything, even something as good as this.

[saigon68]

18. KRAZY KILLER KIMMITT



KRAZY KILLER KIMMITT enforcer for the Viceroy Pontius Bremer I

His quote " if you don’t like watching women and children die, change the channel."

[incapsulated]

3. YaY

The first good news out of Iraq I've heard in...

Well, that I've heard. :)

[Cooley Hurd]

5. That IS good news!

Nice Theda Bara avatar, BTW... :thumbsup:

[incapsulated]

8. Thanks!

I love me some Theda Bara. :)

[maddezmom]

7. very lucky man

:)

[slor]

9. Get back to work!?!

I would already be lining up my appearances and book and movie deals!

[amazona]

35. me too...I hope he gets an agent, this is a great story

No doubt he wants to honor his contract and finish out his job but if some studio can't make a movie out of this one, they're falling down on the job somewhere and I hope Hamill gets a fair cut.

[leQ]

11. just in time

to take the sheeple's minds off abu ghraib.

[northernsoul]

31. imagine the calls for bloody vengenance had he been killed, though

I'm very glad he's alive for several reasons.
First and foremost, because I don't want to see one more human life lost or mutilated in this fiasco. Secondly, had he been found dead I'm sure there would be the inevitable cries for revenge from the archair commando crowd and then Tikrit would turn into as big a clusterf*ck as Fallujah is - resulting in possibly hundreds more dead.

[keithyboy]

13. Did he 'escape' or was he just left alone to go after

the US withdraw from Fallujah? Remember, he is the hostage held because of the Fallujah seige. Will he tell the truth about his ordeal and escape?

I am glad he is safe now. What a hellish war!

[Habibi]

14. Yes, what's with all the hedging?

Quotes around "escape". "Apparently" escaped. What's up with that?

[pinkpops]

17. spspspspspspin

[Junkdrawer]

22. "Escape" on Page 1 for a few days..."Released" on page 6 Wednesday...

Typical.

[Habibi]

25. Ugh, you're probably right.

[hang a left]

28. I am still foggy, just woke up, but my first thoughts were

What is real deal. It is really bad when you have to read between the lines on every effing newsbreak. I don't believe one effing thing they tell us anymore. Not one.

[jobycom]

26. Tremendous question-- Was there a deal, as with Reagan's hostages?

Every time Reagan had hostages released it turned out he had given them the farm, after swearing he didn't negotiate with terrorists. Some (like me) even say that the Iranian hostages under Carter where released when Reagan took office so that Reagan would sell them weapons (Iran/Contra affair).

Hamill--thank god he's alive-- is from Trent Lott's state, and had become a big story for Mississippi. This will turn Hamill into an instant hero there. I'm thrilled to see it, and I feel the emotions many in Mississippi will feel, and no matter how he got free, I'm happy to see it.

But you are right, I wouldn't be surprised if Bush gave them something.

I can't wait to hear his story, but like Lynch, I suspect he will be held in a hospital for a couple of months to help him overcome the "emotional trauma" of the incident.

[susu369]

15. This is great news - happy to know this

eom

[Zynx]

16. Good News.

He didn't deserve what happened to him and it would have been tragic if he had been killed.

[saigon68]

19. I agree with you

I think he was let go. The people who got him realized there was no value in continuing to keep him.

In my opinion they are on a higher plane than CERTAIN TROOPS.

Ok freepers take a shot at me for that comment

"Bring yourselves ON"

LOL

[annagull]

20. I guess the check cleared; two L's H-A-L-L-I-B-U-R-T-O-N

Our tax dollars at work. Paying ransom.

[jdj]

27. That's alot to think about.

Maybe Halliburton agreed to pay his wife's medical bills if he stayed there. I mean, for what other reason would he stay.? That doesn't make any sense at all.

Maybe they don't want him to split, that would be more bad p.r. And the first story I read, on lunaville.org, said that he heard an American Convoy go by and pried open the door. He ran 1/2 mile and caught up with them, and told the Americans where he was held, and when the soldiers got there they arrested 2 Iraqis, one of whom had AN AUTOMATIC WEAPON. Why they did not shoot Hamill when he tried to escape is not explained.
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/8573124.htm

edit:I just re-read the sentence and it 's ambiguous. "The unit surrounded the house and captured two Iraqis with an automatic weapon, said military spokesman, Maj. Neal O'Brien." So they either had one or were caught by Americans using one, I think it is the former.

[hang a left]

30. Let's see here

You are in an incident that 4 of your co-workers are murdered and dragged around the street, they you are taken hostage. The incident causes an American offensive into Falluja and an overall escalation in the war. We bomb the crap out of Falluja, kill a bunch of Iraqi women and chilren. Then you, risking your life, escape. Then you, instead of getting on the first ride out of there, decide to stay.

Ok now.

Something is very smelly. I am beginning to doubt the entire story. Every part of it.

[rocktivity]

21. Escaped, released, or simply abandoned

like those hostages earlier in the invasion? And avowed Bush regime shill CNN broke the story? Of course I'm glad that he's free, alive and well. But I'd be even happier if I could take this at face value.

:headbang:
rocknation

[maddezmom]

23. lots of missing details :U.S. Troops Recover American Contractor Hamill

This headline is very misleading:
U.S. Troops Recover American Contractor Hamill

BAGHDAD, May 2 -- Thomas Hamill, an American contractor held hostage since April 9, was recovered Sunday by U.S. troops after apparently escaping from his captors, U.S. military officials said.

Hamill, a truck driver with the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root, approached U.S. soldiers operating near a pipeline in the northern city of Tikrit around 10:20 a.m. He identified himself after apparently escaping from a building in the city about 90 miles north of Baghdad, which has bristled under the U.S. military occupation.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60444-2004May2.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So he's just walking around? Sounds fishy. Glad he's safe, but the story is just that: a story.

[xchrom]

24. please, somebody fire kimmitt

he is a failure and a disgrace.

[jdj]

29. The Bradenton story quotes his wife.

Kellie Hammill, link is in post 27.

His kids are going to be devastated again if Halliburton makes him stay over there.

[dai]

32. Has anyone noticed

how perpetually calm Mr. Hamill looks? He has the same blank expression on his face both in the pictures of his captivity and release.

I'm very glad he's safe, just an observation.

I think his lack of discernable emotion, while not a negative trait itself, will make him a poor candidate for a pro-war propaganda offensive - unlike the more photogenic Private Lynch.

[okcdem]

33. I'm very very happy he is okay

:bounce:

[rebellious woman]

34. "Escape",

How very weird he was not "staggering, weak, from
no food and water" after all that time of being
held hostage.....OR WAS HE???????????

[AlCzervik]

36. Did he say anyhting about

The soldier Maupin that was taken at the same time he was?

[Fleshdancer]

37. I'm very happy for him and his family

and he better come home before his wife goes up there and kicks his ass. If this were my husband and he chose to stay there and work after all that, I'd be absolutely livid.