Posted on 09/24/2005 6:34:19 AM PDT by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget
MEMPHIS, Tennessee (AP)--Roy Hallums, an American contractor who was kidnapped in Iraq and held for more than 300 days, says during a TV interview that his captives used beatings and a gun to force him to criticize the U.S. President in a video released to the public.
Hallums, 57, describes his experience as a captured civilian contractor with " 60 Minutes" reporter Lesley Stahl on a segment that will air in the U.S. Sunday on CBS.
It is the first interview Hallums has given since he was rescued by coalition troops from a 4-foot-high crawl space under a farmhouse on Sept. 7. His ex-wife, Susan Hallums, said he returned to his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, two days later to a joyous family reunion.
"When I saw him come down off the plane, it was the happiest moment of my life," she said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press earlier this month.
Hallums, who worked for a contractor supplying food to the Iraqi Army, was captured last November and held with several other hostages, but he was blindfolded and bound the entire time, according to a press release from CBS News.
The kidnappers wanted Hallums to cry on tape as he read from a script that called U.S. President George W. Bush selfish and indifferent to hostages so they beat him, the former hostage said.
Hallums said that he believed the captors were related, had "a family business," and were trying to get ransom money out of the hostages' families, according to CBS News spokesman Kevin Tedesco.
The kidnappers tried to force Hallums to give them a phone number for his family so they could ask for money, but Hallums didn't provide it, Tedesco said.
"I knew if I gave them the number, they would call them and ask for money," Hallums said. "I didn't want (my family) to deal with a call like that."
While he was missing, his ex-wife and two daughters, Carrie Anne Cooper and Amanda Hallums, set up a Web site, called world leaders, raised a monetary award for information and held candlelight vigils, hoping for a safe return.
According to Tedesco, the taped interview will show that the unit that rescued him had essential information that led them directly to the entrance of the crawl space, which was hidden by a refrigerator.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been speaking with Hallums since his return to the U.S., according to Cooper.
Leslie will somehow find a way to use this information to support antiwar efforts and debase the administration.
Seems that Iraq has its share of just-plain-criminals along with the terrorists!
Owl_Eagle
(If what I just wrote makes you sad or angry,
BTTT
Will the people making a stink about "Underwear on heads" chip in on this story? Maybe a few protests in the streets demanding the terrorists treat hostages better?
I'm waiting.
ping
"Seems that Iraq has its share of just-plain-criminals along with the terrorists!"
...
There is no difference, they're one in the same.
If Hallum's hadn't been greedily working for an affiliated company of Halliburton, which was mercenarily following the American Imperial Wehrmacht on a blood-for-oil "Crusade" for the Jooos, then none of this would have happened.
What are you, stupid not to know this? /Phil Donahue mode
Democratic Operatives!
I'm pretty sure it's against the Geneva Convention to "rescue a hostage" from Religion of Peace freedom-fighters without 48-hours advance notice, a UN request submitted in triplicate, two bonafide negotiation attempts and a hug for the poor misunderstood captors. What were our boys thinking????
He's home alive. That's all that matters.
No... it's not.
ping
I dunno why people think so much about the undies on head story. Its pretty simple.
1. Underwear on head of innocent guy: Justice gone wrong... it shouldnt have happened, and I can admit it.
2. Underwear on head of terrorist: I hope it had some skidmarks on.
But we should be able to make a distinction in our minds between the average joe iraqi who we really are trying to help, and the terrorist. I mean, if we went there to help em we shouldnt be hurting em. Goes against what the US stands for, for goodness sakes.
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