An Australian freed last week after being held hostage by Iraqi insurgents for 47 days apologized yesterday to US President George W. Bush and Australian Prime Minister John Howard for mouthing the words of his captors and calling on coalition troops to quit Iraq.
Douglas Wood, speaking to reporters after touching down in Melbourne, said his blast at the Iraq war contained in a video released during his confinement was made under duress.
"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," the 63-year-old engineer said. He said he would consider returning to Iraq to continue work as an independent contractor.
Wood, an expatriate for 40 years, lives in Alamo, California, with his US wife, Yvonne Given. He was freed last Wednesday. Iraqi troops on a routine search for weapons found him underneath a grubby blanket in a Baghdad house.
Wood, who was accompanied by Given and brothers Vernon and Malcolm, said certain aspects of his ordeal were still too painful to talk about. He called his captors "arseholes" and said his treatment at their hands had been "a bit intimidating."
He was kicked in the head, given a black eye and had his head shaved in apparent preparation for execution. He was bound and blindfolded most of the time and fed on bread and water. He recalls being moved from one house to another 10 days into his ordeal.
The jovial and still rotund engineer, who had worked in Iraq for a year before being seized, said the identity of his abductors was still a mystery.
"I didn't know whether it was al-Qaeda or who it was," he said. "Obviously, my head is intact, so it wasn't al-Qaeda."
Wood, whose family had offered a "large charitable donation" if his life were spared, was clearly happy to be among family and friends in his hometown. He entered the Melbourne airport press conference singing Waltzing Matilda, the song that serves as the country's alternative national anthem.
"I love my family, and I knew that they'd be doing as much as they could to get me out," he said.
Wood has sold his story to an Australian television station for an undisclosed sum. Filming began even before he left the Middle East.
Given said she never lost faith her globetrotting husband would be rescued.
"I'm so excited and so happy and very, very grateful to the Australian government," she said after flying in with him from their reunion in Dubai.
INVESTIGATION: The case is the latest instance of a DPP figure being implicated in an espionage network accused of allegedly leaking information to Chinese intelligence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was detained and held incommunicado yesterday on suspicion of spying for China during his tenure as assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ho was implicated during its investigation into alleged spying activities by former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨). Prosecutors said there is reason to believe Ho breached the National Security Act (國家安全法) by leaking classified Ministry of Foreign Affairs information to Chinese intelligence. Following interrogation, prosecutors petitioned the Taipei District Court to detain Ho, citing concerns over potential collusion or tampering of evidence. The
Seventy percent of middle and elementary schools now conduct English classes entirely in English, the Ministry of Education said, as it encourages schools nationwide to adopt this practice Minister of Education (MOE) Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) is scheduled to present a report on the government’s bilingual education policy to the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee today. The report would outline strategies aimed at expanding access to education, reducing regional disparities and improving talent cultivation. Implementation of bilingual education policies has varied across local governments, occasionally drawing public criticism. For example, some schools have required teachers of non-English subjects to pass English proficiency
‘FORM OF PROTEST’: The German Institute Taipei said it was ‘shocked’ to see Nazi symbolism used in connection with political aims as it condemned the incident Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 yesterday amid an outcry over a Nazi armband he wore to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case on Tuesday night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and apparently covering the book with a coat. This is a serious international scandal and Chinese
NEGOTIATIONS: The US response to the countermeasures and plans Taiwan presented has been positive, including boosting procurement and investment, the president said Taiwan is included in the first group for trade negotiations with the US, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, as he seeks to shield Taiwanese exporters from a 32 percent tariff. In Washington, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in an interview on Fox News on Thursday that he would speak to his Taiwanese and Israeli counterparts yesterday about tariffs after holding a long discussion with the Vietnamese earlier. US President Donald Trump on Wednesday postponed punishing levies on multiple trade partners, including Taiwan, for three months after trillions of US dollars were wiped off global markets. He has maintained a 10 percent
RSS