Rifat Mohammed Rifat was an Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

i born Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 citizen who was last seen in Iraq on April 8, 2004, and confirmed by the Canadian government

Government

Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...

 to have been taken hostage

Hostage

A hostage is a person or entity which is held by a captor. The original definition meant that this was handed over by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security for the carrying out of an agreement, or as a preventive measure against certain acts of war...

 there.

Life

Rifat was a construction foreman for a Kellogg Brown & Root subcontractor. 41, he returned to Iraq in February after 24 years in Toronto, was heading home to care for his aging mother. He never made it. Somewhere in the night, his family believes, kidnappers stopped his vehicle and spirited him away. His green Jeep was sold in Baghdad and the buyer was told that they had given him as a present to some religious leaders. Similar to the situation of Fadi Ihsan Fadel

Fadi Ihsan Fadel

Fadi Ihsan Fadel is a Canadian humanitarian worker who was taken hostage in Iraq. He was taken hostage on April 7, 2004 and released April 16, 2004. He was working for New York-based International Rescue Committee, a non-government organization...

, the government tried to emphasize that Rifat is Canadian. Minister of Foreign Affairs

Minister of Foreign Affairs (Canada)

The Minister of Foreign Affairs is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for overseeing the federal government's international relations section of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada....

 Bill Graham appeared on al Jazeera

Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera is an independent broadcaster owned by the state of Qatar through the Qatar Media Corporation and headquartered in Doha, Qatar...

 television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

to make an appeal to his captors. All attempts failed. No group has ever claimed responsibility for kidnapping Rifat. He is presumed dead.