Posted on 06/19/2005 4:12:46 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
DOUGLAS Wood said this morning it was "bloody good" to be home after arriving in Melbourne to be reunited with his family after spending 47 days in captivity as a hostage in Iraq.
The engineer said he had some physical ailments after the ordeal but was not feeling "especially" fragile. There were times he said he believed he would be killed while he was being held by his captors, who he emphatically described as "a...holes".
His way of getting through it, he said, was to "keep laughing".
Mr Wood avoided speaking in detail about his time in captivity during a news conference which he entered humming "Waltzing Matilda".
He said it was tough adjusting after his hostage ordeal "but we'll get there".
He made an apology to Prime Minister John Howard and US President George W. Bush for the comments he made on a tape as a hostage in which he called for the withdrawal of coalition troops from Iraq. He was a firm supporter of the Iraq policy of both nations, he said.
Mr Wood said he was "proof positive" that the policy of having US troops training Iraqi was successful, as he was rescued by the newly-trained troops.
The moments before he was rescued were "a bit tense", he said, until "I fully worked out it was the Iraqi army (who) were my releasers, rather than another pack of captors".
He said 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.
Mr Wood arrived on an Emirates flight from Dubai with his American wife, Yvonne Given, at 5.43am (AEST) today.
The freed hostage's arrival 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 says 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.
Please note the apology to Dubya and John Howard and his comment on his captors...
Sorry, folks. My enthusiasm got the better of me. I didn't realise this had already been posted.
Yeah, I know...I should have checked. Sorry!
Actually I don't think it's the same article - same headline, a lot of the same content at the start - but it's different further down.
A good news story, nonetheless!!!
The gratitude is extremely mutual.
We need more like minded people to keep this world free of tyranny......let's be strong on our watch.
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