tyresias | My father called to confirm he's alive and well

In case anyone has heard already, there was indeed 5 people abducted earlier today from the Finance Ministry. What you want to believe after that, largely depends on which news station you get your info from. CNN and CBC have told 2 completely different stories. My father's brief account most closely match CBC's story. He's alive and physically unhurt but emotionally shaken. He was not allowed to inform me of much beyond the fact that he's alive and now in a secure place.

From CBC's headline:

Five Britons, including four bodyguards working for a Canadian security company, were kidnapped Tuesday from an Iraqi Finance Ministry office in Baghdad, the U.K.'s foreign office said. The missing bodyguards reportedly work for the Montreal-based security firm GardaWorld.

Montreal-based security firm GardaWorld later confirmed four of its employees were abducted. All were British, the company said. "GardaWorld confirms that a client and four of its security professionals working in Baghdad were forcibly taken from a work site this morning," the company said in a statement. "GardaWorld is working with local and international authorities to determine the facts of this incident and supporting recovery efforts."

[...] The BBC reported that the gunmen had taken four bodyguards and one finance expert. The finance expert was earlier reported to be a German citizen. There were conflicting reports about the details of how Tuesday's abduction unfolded, with Reuters news agency quoting witnesses who said gunmen dressed as police stormed the ministry, yelling, "Where are the foreigners?" Other reports described a convoy of as many as 40 white sport utility vehicles that pulled up outside the building and seized the Westerners from their cars. The SUVs were described as similar to the model driven by police officers.

note: this entry is edited as I learn more.