The Released Austrailian Hostage Speaks

[Annie]

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,15669093^661,00.html

Wood backs PM, Bush on Iraq
By staff writers and wires
20jun05

FREED Australian hostage Douglas Wood said today he fully supported the role of the US and Australian governments in Iraq, saying he was "proof positive" that coalition troops were improving the country.

In his first media conference since being freed, Mr Wood said in Melbourne this morning he supported the coalition forces' role in Iraq.

Mr Wood said he supported the mission of the US-led coalition in Iraq, adding he might return on business to the country in which he was held hostage for 47 days.

"Frankly I'd like to apologize to both President (George W.) Bush and Prime Minister (John) Howard for the things I said under duress," said Mr Wood "I actually believe that I am proof positive that the current policy of training the Iraqi army ... works because it was Iraqis that got me out," he added.

Iraqi troops freed Mr Wood during a routine search of a Baghdad neighbourhood as part of an anti-insurgent operation five days ago.

Mr Wood said today he might return to Iraq despite the protests of his family, who he was reunited with this morning.

Mr Wood's brothers have asked him not to return, but the engineer said he was considering going back.

"I will listen very seriously to my brothers," Mr Wood said.

"If I went back, I'd be changing some behaviour."

Mr Wood said it was "bloody good" to be home when he spoke to the media this morning shortly after arriving in Melbourne on a flight from Dubai.

He said he had some physical ailments after the ordeal but was not feeling "especially" fragile.

He said there were times he believed he would be killed by his captors, whom he emphatically described as "a...holes".

His way of getting through it, he said, was to "keep laughing". Gosh I love the Aussies!

Mr Wood avoided speaking in detail about his ordeal during a news conference which he entered humming "Waltzing Matilda" and finished with a salute to his favourite AFL team, Geelong.

He said it was tough adjusting after his hostage ordeal "but we'll get there".

Though he did not describe his rescue in detail, he said the moments before he was discovered by Iraq troops were "a bit tense".

Then, he said, "I fully worked out it was the Iraqi army (who) were my releasers, rather than another pack of captors".

He was held in two different houses throughout his ordeal, and remembers being moved from one to the other about 10 days into his 47-day captivity.

"I love my family, and I knew that they would be doing everything they could," he said, his American wife Yvonne Given and his brothers Vernon and Malcolm and their wives by his side.

The freed hostage's arrival in Australia was closely followed by that of Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly, the Sydney-based Muslim cleric who has claimed he played a "key role" in Mr Wood's release.

Asked today about the sheik, Mr Wood said he "never heard of him".

The sheik claims he struck a deal with Mr Wood's captors to release him on the Wednesday and that the captors were unarmed when troops raided the house in which they and their hostage were found.

The Government is backing away from its claims that intelligence played a crucial part in his recovery, which is at odds with the position of Iraqi and US troops who put it mainly down to good luck.

Malcolm Wood said the family would honour its commitment to make a donation to an Iraqi charity.

Earlier, news footage showed Mr Wood walking down an airport corridor carrying a broad smile and slight limp, responding jovially to a media crew who commented on his mood.

"Thanks very much. It's good to be able to smile," he said.

 

[Annie]

Not in a good way. Must read links at site. We have seen the enemy:

Aussie Muslim Leader: Hostage Rescue "Irresponsible"

Muslim cleric says raid to save Australian hostage ‘irresponsible’.

The Muslim cleric who travelled to Iraq on a mercy mission to save Australian hostage Douglas Wood, has described last week’s rescue raid as irresponsible.

Mr Wood, 63, was rescued during the raid on a Baghdad house after being held for 47 days by Iraqi insurgents.

Speaking on his return to Sydney after six weeks trying to negotiate Mr Wood’s release, Sheik Taj El-Din Al Hilaly says he is happy Mr Wood is free.

However he says the raid endangered the lives of two Iraqis who were kidnapped at the same time.

Sheik El-Hilaly says if Iraqi and Coalition forces had waited 12 hours all three would have been released.

In 2004, this same Australian Islamic leader gave a sermon at the Sidon mosque in Lebanon in which he told believers that one day a muezzin will call out “Allahu Akbar!” from the top of the White House, and that “September 11 is God’s work against oppressors.”
9:38 AM PDT

Aussie Muslim Leader: Hostage Rescue "Irresponsible"

Muslim cleric says raid to save Australian hostage ‘irresponsible’.

The Muslim cleric who travelled to Iraq on a mercy mission to save Australian hostage Douglas Wood, has described last week’s rescue raid as irresponsible.

Mr Wood, 63, was rescued during the raid on a Baghdad house after being held for 47 days by Iraqi insurgents.

Speaking on his return to Sydney after six weeks trying to negotiate Mr Wood’s release, Sheik Taj El-Din Al Hilaly says he is happy Mr Wood is free.

However he says the raid endangered the lives of two Iraqis who were kidnapped at the same time.

Sheik El-Hilaly says if Iraqi and Coalition forces had waited 12 hours all three would have been released.​

In 2004, this same Australian Islamic leader gave a sermon at the Sidon mosque in Lebanon in which he told believers that one day a muezzin will call out “Allahu Akbar!” from the top of the White House, and that “September 11 is God’s work against oppressors.”
9:38 AM PDT