Re: Jackson Unsure How to Help Hamill

Date: April 20, 2004

"Jackson unsure how to help Hamill

By Ryan Clark

Jackson


The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Monday he wants to help save Thomas Hamill's life — he just doesn't know exactly how to do it.

Jackson, who was traveling Monday to an event in Fort Wayne, Ind., said in a phone interview that he wants to "do all he can" to contact those holding Hamill, the Macon truck driver abducted April 9 in Iraq.

But Jackson said this situation differs from other hostage negotiations in which he has participated.

"I don't know who to talk to," Jackson said. "Or where to go to find them."

Meanwhile, Hamill's wife, Kellie, is still awaiting word on the identification of four bodies found last week in a shallow grave between Fallujah and Abu Ghraib. The bodies could be those of some of the seven missing contractors in Thomas Hamill's group.

Hamill

"We haven't heard anything," Kellie Hamill said in a phone interview Monday. Hamill said she is concerned because it seems to her that her husband's situation has been forgotten.

"That's why we're trying to keep him in everyone's minds," she said. "We need everyone to keep thinking of him."

Hamill said she last spoke with Jackson on Sunday.

In a statement released Saturday to media outlets across the world, Jackson pleaded to religious leaders in Iraq, as well as to Hamill's captors.

"Release (Hamill) as a humanitarian gesture," Jackson said in the statement. "Sparing Mr. Hamill's life and others held in captivity is not a sign of weakness, but a moral responsibility."

Reuters, the British Broadcasting Corp. and Al-Jazeera, the Arabic-language television network, were among media outlets who received the statement.

Jackson said he now hopes Hamill's captors have heard the message and will work to negotiate.

"I would definitely go (to Iraq) if I knew who to talk with," Jackson said Monday. "We're talking with religious leaders now to determine what more we can do."

In 1984, Jackson negotiated with Syria for the freedom of U.S. Navy flier Robert Goodman.

In 1987, he negotiated with Fidel Castro for the release of 48 Cuban and Cuban-American prisoners.

And in 1990, just before the Gulf War began, he helped bring home 47 hostages from Iraq.

"But those times, there was a guy in charge, someone who had power and could do something," Jackson said.

In the days leading to the Gulf War, Jackson spoke with Saddam Hussein, who had seized civilians shortly after invading Kuwait.

"You have to appeal to the humanity in everyone," Jackson said. "If I had the chance, I would ask these people (holding Hamill) to let him go. I would say that he did not bring arms against any person in the Middle East. I would say that I hope they would let him return to his family."

Jackson said he contacted Tommy Hamill's wife, Kellie, at her home in Macon last week.

Thomas Hamill, 43, a fuel tanker driver for Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root, was abducted when gunmen attacked his convoy.

Hamill's family said he took the job because his dairy farm was near bankruptcy and that he could make $80,000 a year, tax-free while in Iraq.

Vigils and prayer meetings have been held in Macon since Hamill was abducted.

Vera Hamill, Thomas Hamill's 92-year-old grandmother, said she hoped Jackson could help.

"If he can do anything, we'd be so appreciative," she said. "But I honestly don't know if anyone can do anything — other than God."

Jackson said he had a message for people across the state and the world.

"All of us should keep this family in our prayers," he said. "We cannot forget what has happened to him."

© 2004, The Clarion-Ledger"