| (CNN) --Tuesday, February 1, 2005 Posted: 5:37 PM EST (2237 GMT)
A photograph posted on an Islamist Web site appears to be that of an action figure and not a U.S. soldier being held hostage. Liam Cusack, the marketing coordinator for Dragon Models USA, said the figure pictured on the Web site is believed to be "Special Ops Cody." "Cody" is an action figure the company made for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, which supplies U.S. military bases worldwide with various items. The doll was meant to look like a U.S. soldier who might be serving in Iraq," Cusack said. The company, based in City of Industry, Calif., produced 4,000 of the figures in December 2003 for the U.S. military in Kuwait for sale in their bases, "so they would have been in region." The figure was never sold in the United States but is also traded on line among collectors, sometimes to use in highly realistic dioramas. "It pretty much looks exactly like the same person," he said.
On the Islamist Web site, a group calling itself the Al Mujahedeen Brigade, posted a photograph of a man it claimed was a captured U.S. soldier named John Adam, and it threatened to behead him if Iraqi prisoners are not released by U.S. forces. "It is our doll ... To me, it looks definitely like it is," Cusack told The Associated Press. "Everything the guy is wearing is exactly what comes with our figure. If you look at the two pictures side by side, it'd be a huge coincidence. To me, the face looks exactly the same."
This is the action figure "Cody" sold on military bases in the Middle East and used in the hostage image.
[/IMG]http://www.lonestartimes.com/content/images/soldier.jpg
http://www.thestoreon44.com/dimages/codysb2.jpg
http://www.thestoreon44.com/dimages/codysb1.jpg | |
