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Freed Australian apologizes to Washington, Canberra

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.
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