This is Luke Summers, an American journalist kidnapped in Yemen, and is in danger of being killed in three days. Beyond the medias superficial headlines, Luke is a wonderfully polite young American who comes from a modest background. He arrived to Yemen in early 2009/2010 as a freelance photo-journalist in search of ways to expand his skills and resume. Being a native English speaker allowed him to undertake editorial tasks for English based newspapers. The above statement paints an image of a successful young man working tirelessly in a nation in desperate need of his skills, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Luke was underpaid and overworked; He was poor and barely made enough money to pay for rent and food. Despite all that, Luke remained humble and respectful to Yemens traditions, religious customs, culture, and was loved and respected by many of his colleagues. In mid 2013, he was hired by the NDC Secretariat to work as an online editor and photo-journalist to the NDC web portal. All Secretariat employees were contracted by the UNOPS (United Nations), which continues to facilitate recruitment and procurement needs of the political transition process in Yemen to this day. After several months of having a stable paying job, Luke had made enough money to exit Yemen back to the US to visit his family, but that dream was torn to shreds as he was abducted a week early from his departure date. The abduction took place while he was grocery shopping at a supermarket in the capitals busy downtown district, approximately a 100 yards from the Presidential Office, and less than a mile from the Ministry of Defense. Luke was never heard from until this video release by AQAP. There are many questions regarding the whole incident, and how NDC and UNOPS officials reacted to the fact. At the time, the only thing we knew for certain was tribesmen from areas surrounding the capital Sanaa kidnapped and later sold Luke to AQAP for an unknown sum of money. Luke is a genuine descent human being, and does not deserve to die at the hands of these criminals. Please, do what you can to help Luke by spreading this message to all media outlets and broadcast channels, call your local government representatives, and exhort pressure on the US Senate, Congress, and Office of the President to act swiftly before Luke becomes another statistic. #help_save_luke_summers #yemen
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 12:02:30 +0000
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