Man Kidnapped in Afghanistan Reported Freed

HARVEST, Ala. – An Alabama man who reported being kidnapped by a tribal warlord in Afghanistan has been released, a family friend announced Friday.

Karen Allen, who has been a spokeswoman for Clark Bowers' family, said Bowers called them and said he is now "in the care of the FBI." She said it was not clear where he is but he is not in the United States.

She also said she did not know if the $25,000 ransom that he said was demanded for his release had been paid or not.

"He has been rouged up a bit, but he will be fine," Allen said.

In Washington, FBI spokesman Bill Carter said he had no information on Bowers' case.

"I have no information that he's in FBI hands," he said.

Bowers, 37, was on a privately arranged humanitarian mission to Afghanistan when he called his wife Jan. 9 and said he and his Afghan interpreter had been taken hostage by a tribal warlord.

His wife, Amanda Bowers, said he called again Monday and explained how a $25,000 ransom for him was to be paid. In speaking to news reporters this week, she did not disclose whether any ransom would be paid.

Allen said she did not know when he might return home.

In calls on a satellite phone to his wife, Bowers said his flight from Istanbul to Kabul landed safely but that he and the interpreter were abducted, blindfolded and driven for several hours, according to her account.

Bowers was making his second humanitarian mission to Afghanistan since the Sept. 11 attacks. A widely traveled speaker on conservative causes, Bowers had lived in north Alabama about two years but was relocating to Texas at the time of the latest trip.

There was no information about the interpreter who Bowers said was abducted with him.