by Susie Dow with Steven Reich
for ePluribus Media
On October 9, 2003, Kirk von Ackermann disappeared from his car on a road in Iraq leaving behind a laptop computer, satellite phone and $40,000 in cash. Two months later, on December 14, 2003, his colleague Ryan Manelick was gunned down shortly after leaving a meeting at a base. Before he died, Manelick said the disppearance of von Ackermann was connected to fraud. Both worked for Ultra Services of Istanbul, Turkey.
Ultra Services fulfilled logistics contracts for the US Army in Iraq.
From a chance meeting in 2001 for a wedding in Kyrgyzstan, to an attempt by employees to steal the business, to a new company in Afghanistan, Dow’s article traces Ultra Services into the the fog surrounding the company in Iraq with One Missing, One Dead.
The full article can be found at the ePluribus Media Journal, One Missing, One Dead: An Iraq Contractor in the Fog of War by Susie Dow with Steven Reich.
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