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| Europe |
| No trace of US embassy staffer missing in Cyprus |
| 2007-07-02 |
| Nicosia - Cypriot police said Monday they had found no trace of a US embassy staff member who had been missing on the island for four days but added that their extensive hunt would continue. 'The search will go on,' a police spokesman said. The missing man, 45-year-old Thomas Mooney, has been described as embassy secretary. Cypriot television however broadcast photos of him in the uniform of a lieutenant colonel and diplomats from other embassies said they know him as a military attache in the US embassy in Nicosia. Mooney is reported to have arrived in Cyprus in June 2006 after periods in various Middle Eastern countries and in Iraq. 'We are ruling nothing out,' Cypriot Justice Minister Sophoklis Sophokleous said. The missing man has not been seen since leaving the embassy building last Thursday. One colleague said he had been going to a fitness centre at a Nicosia hotel while another said he had intended picking up somebody at the international airport in the port city of Larnaka. Media reports said the search had expanded to Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus. |
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |
| #6 Dead US diplomat in Cyprus 'stabbed himself' The US embassy's defence attache in Cyprus was found dead on Monday on a hilltop in a remote part of the Mediterranean island after apparently stabbing himself in the neck, officials said. Thomas Mooney "died as a result of haemorrhaging after the infliction of an injury to the neck," an official involved in the post-mortem told AFP on condition of anonymity. "The injury was compatible with self-infliction. There was no evidence of foul play whatsover," the official said, adding that the wound was caused by a sharp instrument and that the body was in a state of decomposition. Police confirmed he had died as a result of a large wound to the neck, but declined to describe it as suicide, which is illegal in Cyprus. US ambassador Ronald Schlicher had earlier confirmed that the body of a man found in the foothills of the Troodos mountains southwest of Nicosia was Mooney, who was last seen on Thursday. "After notification of next of kin, with deep sadness, I announce that Thomas Mooney, who served his nation with distinction as our defence attache, was found dead by Cypriot authorities on Monday," he said in a statement. "The cause of his death is being investigated." Sounds like that's their story and they're sticking to it.. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-07-02 16:17 |
| #5 Two bits says it is an AQ hit. Just like in Jordan a few years back. |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2007-07-02 12:00 |
| #4 Oh, look. An echo. Smart guys, them diplomats... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-07-02 12:00 |
| #3 Diplomats have described the case as 'mysterious.' |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-07-02 11:59 |
| #2 Diplomats have described the case as 'mysterious.' |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-07-02 11:59 |
| #1 ...Fox News says they found his body this morning. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2007-07-02 11:03 |