I like this kind of exercise. I use news stories quite a lot for "idea farming".
I would do it more like "Proof of Life" meets "The Magnificent Seven".
The "seeker" is hired by the American wife of the super rich Sheik because she refuses to believe her husband is dead. The reward is enormous and the stakes are insanely high because he needs to find a team that can pass as locals in order to locate the sheik and get him safely out of the war ravaged country in which he went down.
Stakes get even higher when after the team is assembled and ready to go, a fundamentalist jihadist group posts on the web the news that the sheik is now captured and being held hostage! The team must now use all the tech it can to locate the group and devise a plan to extract the sheik safely.

Oh, wow... I want this concept.

This is something that needs to be written.

@Nicholas: Every story idea I'm posting this month is 'free'-- that is I'm not interested in writing them. If you resonate with the idea and feel you can write it, then go ahead. Let me know when you sell the spec script!

@Nicholas...Take it...Go where YOU want with it...
I've got my own variation which is not like this one but the point is
AREN'T THESE AWESOME EXERCISES!!!
@Scott...happy spring celebration!!!(passover,easter,resurrection,flowing of nature, your choice)

ohhhh that sounds like a great concept. I'm doing april script frenzy and i might give this a go. except i think i'm going to make the seeker a female. not enough action/thriller-y movies with awesome ladies.

@Violet...that would be awesome. One of the reasons I'm REALLY interested in "Salt" is because it was written for a man but Angelina is doing it as a women.Say what ever you want about her as a person but I think she has a genius sense of character in film. From the trailers, I'm going to see it.
Also...that's a great idea. It would be even better if the P were a woman...ex Iraq vet FEMALE contractor with Knowledge, Contacts, and SKILL in pulling off the mission.
I predict that action/thrillers will have the bar raised with "The Expendables" and " The A-Team" reboot. Saw trailers today and MANNNN it looks good.
In the next few days I will post more thoughts on this "genre" on my blog...http://justamoviewriter.blogspot.com/
As Mike Scherer always says "Keep Writing"!!!

Yeah, this idea has potential... ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK meets BLACK HAWK DOWN as Scott put it.

Another element you might throw in... have a couple of "regular folk' go down with the rich sheik(or whoever), which creates a dilemma for the rescuers: They were paid to bring back the rich guy. Do they risk everything for the reg folk hostages too?

Are their lives worth less b/c they don't have rich relatives to pay for their rescue?