Freed Australian hostage Douglas Wood has been reunited with his family. And while we all are extremely pleased that he escaped with his head, it is an added bonus that he escaped with his head screwed on the right way.*
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.—-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”.
As for Mr Wood’s self-declared savior, Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly:
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”.
Touche! And speaking of Hilaly, he is claiming that he is not trying to claim credit for Mr Wood’s release..while he tries to claim credit for Mr Wood’s release.
Australian Muslim leader Sheik Taj Aldin Alhilali will return home tomorrow with evidence that he says proves Douglas Wood would now be dead if it had not been for his intervention.Packing his bags for an overnight flight home to Sydney, the mufti said: “I will return with documents to prove that we stopped the execution.—-“I did this work for the pleasure of God and in loyalty to our Australian nation, a nation whose goodness has overwhelmed us, whose water we drank and which gave us the freedom that we missed in our country of origin,” he said.“I wanted to prove my community’s love for Australia. I am not here to take credit nor to claim to be a hero. I was no more than a servant for a community and for my nation, Australia, out of feeling for my detained brother [Mr Wood].”
* As opposed to some people
