Two of Four American Hostages Identified

Nov. 20, 2006 — -- Coalition forces are searching the area where four American security contractors were kidnapped Thursday as they escorted a convoy in southern Iraq.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Iraq said that officials believed the men were still alive, and that two of the hostages had been identified.

Paul Reuben, a 39-year-old from Minnesota, is a former Marine and police officer.

His anguished mother and sister say Reuben went to Iraq to make enough money to buy a house and a car for his family.

His mother, Johnnie Mae Reuben, is worried sick.

"I'd be willing to give my life for my son," she said. "He may be cold. He may be hungry. He may be injured."

Jonathon Cote, a 23-year-old from upstate New York who served with the Army in Afghanistan and Iraq, is the other hostage authorities have identified.

When he returned from his military tour, Cote signed up to go back to Iraq with a private security firm.

The military says the men were kidnapped while escorting a truck convoy in southern Iraq that was stopped by militiamen at a fake police checkpoint.

The lure of a fat paycheck is what draws many of the 80,000 American civilians to often-perilous contractor jobs in Iraq.

Taxpayers pay billions of dollars to large companies who do many of the jobs the military used to do.

But more than 600 of their American employees have died in Iraq.

Preston Wheeler, who worked as a truck driver in Iraq for Halliburton, shot a video during a raid on his convoy, in which three Americans died.