It looks like the “American pilot” that Al-Qaida In Iraq claims to have murdered was an Iraqi-American businessman instead. From HomelandSecurityUS.com, “REPORT: Islamic Terrorist Thugs Murder U.S. Pilot in Iraq,” with thanks to KAOSKTRL.
22 May 2005: al Qaeda in Iraq published a statement on Sunday stating that they killed a U.S. pilot they captured. The alleged victim is reported to be Neenus Y. KHOSHABA of Illinois. Although they posted no photographic evidence to indicate that the victim was murdered, the Islamic terrorists posted many of his personal papers, including his Illinois driver’s license on the website. Countering al Qaeda’s claim was a spokesman for U.S. forces who denied having any report of a plane being downed within the past 24 hours and no pilot had been reported missing.
A high-ranking official with Iraq’s Assyrian Democratic party, however, identified Mr Khoshaba as a US-Iraqi businessman from an Assyrian family who was kidnapped last week. “I can’t confirm his death, but I can identify the hostage,” the official said. “Mr Khoshaba was a US-Iraqi businessman based in Chicago who moved back to Iraq after the war in 2003.
“He was apparently tricked by a group of people posing as representatives from the oil ministry, who told him that they were looking for someone with a dual nationality and had business opportunities to offer him. “There had been no word from him since,” he said.
According to reports, Mr Khoshaba lived near Baghdad Jadida, in eastern Baghdad…