AP is reporting: “The Rev. Jesse Jackson will contact religious leaders in Iraq to seek the release of Thomas Hamill, the American civilian truck driver abducted in Iraq, Hamill’s wife said Saturday. Kellie Hamill, who has been pleading in the media for her husband’s release, said Jackson made the offer last week and she asked him to intervene. ‘We talked with him several days ago,’ she said in a telephone interview from the couple’s home in Macon. U.S. Sen. Trent Lott said Friday at a news conference in Tupelo he had talked with Jackson and helped the longtime civil rights advocate contact the Hamill family.
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Earl Ofari Hutchinson writes for Alternet: Jackson’s effort still raises the troubling question of why he thinks he can do what skilled negotiators, even presidents, heads of state and official diplomats can’t do? This is, of course, hardly the first time that Jackson has barged into a volatile and dangerous international crisis to offer his services. This is in keeping with the role that he has carved out for himself with the media. He can step where others dare not tread or have failed miserably and get results. It has worked just enough to feed the miracle-worker image.http://www.alternet.org/members/story.html?StoryID=18467 It has worked just enough to feed the miracle-worker image.
#85037 | Author: DonnaLadd | Date: Apr 21 2004
