Sunday - April 09, 2006

M.I.A.

In keeping with the rules of the Geneva Convention, Al Qaeda today issued a statement on the second anniversary of the capture of Matt Maupin detailing how he is being well treated in captivity with special Western meals provided as well as a Bible to read and access to the P.O.W. prison library and frequent visits by the Red Cross and Amnesty International to deliver packages from home and to check on his well-being ...

Unfortunately, not a damn word of the above is true. Two years later and no one knows what happened to Matt. The insurgents have issued a video tape purporting to show their “execution” of the young man. Only one thing is sure: without a doubt, Matt is not being treated with the same kid gloves that the captured Al Qaeda fighters at Gitmo are being treated. Why? Because our enemy is nothing less than a savage band of barbaric murderers, thieves and cowards. They prefer to capture and torture female reporters and behead civilian workers. They are nothing more than wild animals and should be treated accordingly - shot on sight.

Your assignment today is simple: read the story of Matt Maupin and see if you can do anything to help find out what happened to him ... and while you’re at it, compare and contrast the courage, love and devotion of Carolyn Maupin to the insane venom of Cindy Sheehan. Two mothers with decidedly different attitudes toward their sons and what they stood for ....

Mom Holds Out Hope for Missing Soldier
_{April 9, 2006, 11:48 PM EDT}

BATAVIA, Ohio (AP)—Nearly 30,000 pictures of Matt Maupin are circulating around Iraq, a loving effort by his parents to locate the only U.S. soldier still listed as missing since his capture two years ago. Carolyn Maupin steadfastly hopes that someday, someone will recognize Matt, and he will come home.

She refuses to consider the alternative. “I honestly thought he’d be back by now,” she said. “I didn’t think it would take this long. Pictures of Matt are placed inside the boxes of goodies sent to troops in Iraq by the Maupins’ Yellow Ribbon Support Center—a storefront operation near the Sam’s Club where Matt used to work.

“We put 10 pictures inside each box with a little note asking them to please help us find him, and also thanking them for defending our freedom,” Maupin said. Sgt. Keith Matthew Maupin is known as Matt because Keith is also his father’s name. He was a 20-year-old private first class in the Army Reserves when he was captured April 9, 2004, when his fuel convoy, part of the 724th Transportation Co., was ambushed west of Baghdad.

A week later, Arab television network Al-Jazeera aired a videotape showing Maupin sitting on the floor surrounded by five masked men holding automatic rifles. That June, Al-Jazeera aired another tape purporting to show a U.S. soldier being shot. But the dark, grainy tape showed only the back of the victim’s head and did not show the actual shooting.

The Army ruled it was inconclusive whether the soldier in the second tape was Maupin, and he has been promoted twice since his capture. After a routine review a year ago, the adjutant general approved an Army board’s recommendation to continue Maupin’s status as “missing-captured.” That has not changed, and there are no plans for another review, said Maj. Nathan Banks, an Army spokesman in Washington.

President Bush has met with Keith and Carolyn Maupin on trips to nearby Cincinnati, and they have been briefed at the Pentagon about efforts to find their son. The Maupins have helped get computers to soldiers in Iraq to give them access to e-mail and college courses, and they hope to raise $100,000 at a dinner-dance Sunday to fund scholarships in the name of area soldiers who have died in Iraq.

“They have a great deal of courage,” said Republican Rep. Jean Schmidt, an avid supporter who lives in Loveland near the Maupins’ hometown. “They’ve kept the candle burning for Matt; they’re also keeping it burning for every member of the military.”

- More on this story here ...

More About Matt Maupin On The Web:

The Patriots Inn: Matt Maupin

TIME: On Matt Maupin

WCPO: Matt Maupin News

Enquirer: Matt Maupin News

POW Network: Matt Maupin

Military.com: Matt Maupin

Posted by The Skipper     on 04/09/2006 at 12:28 PM   
Filed Under: • War-Stories •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(1)  Permalink •  

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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