International

Gunmen Kidnap 100 From Iraq Higher Ed Office

By Madeleine Brand, JJ Sutherland

Published November 14, 2006 at 10:00 AM PST

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

An Iraqi security guard investigates an Iraqi Higher Education building in Baghdad where about 100 employees and visitors were kidnapped Nov. 14, 2006.

Gunmen in Iraqi police commando uniforms kidnapped about 100 staff members from a government research institute in downtown Baghdad on Tuesday morning, in the largest mass abduction since the start of the U.S. occupation.

The education minister ordered all universities closed until security improvements are made.

Host Madeleine Brand talks to JJ Sutherland about the threat facing Iraq's academics and intellectuals.

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Madeleine Brand

Madeleine Brand is the host of NPRs newest and fastest-growing daily show, Day to Day. She conducts interviews with newsmakers (Iraqi politicians, US senators), entertainment figures (Bernardo Bertolluci, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Ricky Gervais), and the everyday people affected by the news (an autoworker laid off at GM, a mother whose son was killed in Iraq).

JJ Sutherland

JJ Sutherland covers the Pentagon for NPR. Since 2004 he has regularly spent time in Iraq as part of NPR's award-winning team of reporters and producers who have dedicated themselves to covering the conflict.

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