the raid that cut the line to wood re: islamic cou http://www.theage.com.au/news/Iraq/The-raid-that-cut-the-line-to-Wood/2005/06/17/1118869095165.html
The raid that cut the line to Wood
Exclusive
By Paul McGeough
June 18, 2005
A secret military operation to snatch Douglas Wood from his Iraqi captors was botched, and left the Australian hostage victim in a dangerous limbo.
The raid was on the compound of Sheikh Hassan Zadaan, an influential Iraqi tribal leader who was searching for Mr Wood - and who authorities wrongly believed was Mr Wood's captor. The raid shut down what at the time was the only known channel of communications to Mr Wood's captors.
With the expatriate engineer now safely on his way home via a secret location in the Middle East, reportedly Dubai, The Age can reveal details of the failed extraction raid on Sheikh Zadaan's Baghdad compound on May 8, one week after a dishevelled and distressed Mr Wood was seen on TV screens around the world pleading for his life.
And yesterday the Australian Government revealed that the raid that saved Mr Wood on Wednesday was not the result of a tip-off - as initially claimed - but happened while Iraqi troops were searching many houses for insurgents' weapons.
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Sheikh Zadaan - formerly a general in Saddam Hussein's army - had vowed earlier in the first week of May to use his contacts to free Mr Wood. "If this man has been kidnapped by the insurgency, I promise to get him released," he declared in The Age on May 4. Two days later he revealed that Mr Wood was alive and well. Another two days later more than 50 soldiers descended from helicopters and used explosives to break their way into his heavily guarded compound.
It is believed the soldiers were a composite group of Americans, Iraqis and Australian special forces.
Soldiers beat some of those present while shouting, "Where's the hostage? Where's the hostage?"
The raid took place on the same day permission was granted by Prime Minister John Howard - after consulting his senior ministers - for the use of force to rescue Mr Wood. The permission was sought in a 2.30am phone call by senior diplomat Nick Warner, who headed the Australian emergency response team sent to Baghdad by the Government to save Mr Wood. The call was to Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who called the Prime Minister.
The raid took place two days before the deadline set by the captors was scheduled to expire.
Sheikh Zadaan claims that, along with his son and members of his guard, he was taken from his home to a detention centre in Baghdad's secure Green Zone - then interrogated for five days by Australians, civilian and military, and by Americans on the whereabouts of the 63-year-old Australian.
That left the engineer and his family dangling for 10 days before contact was re-established by others.
Yesterday the Australian Government declined to comment on the raid. "Due to the sensitivities and risks associated with hostage incidents and to protect our ability to l respond to any future incidents, we will not comment in detail on any operational matters," a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said.
But Mr Downer did reveal one detail, the delivery of medicine to Mr Wood.
That detail confirms one of the claims made by the Zadaan camp.
On May 8, after telephone conversations in the preceding days with the Australian emergency response team, the sheikh dispatched two of his bodyguards to meet the Australians, who handed over a carry bag containing medicine from Mr Wood. It never got delivered - the raid took place that night.
When members of the Zadaan household guard were recently shown pictures of troops from six nations serving in Iraq, five of them singled out the distinctive dark green camouflage of the uniform of some of Australia's special forces as that worn by some in the raid.
Some also said they could be sure that much of the attack party, said to number 50 to 60, were Australians because they had close contact with Australian personnel in their subsequent days in detention.
American and Iraqi forces are also accused of being a part of the attacks, which Sheikh Zadaan's guards and associates claim began with paratroopers landing on the flat roof of his suburban home from two helicopters - the nationality of which confused the guards because they were unlike any of the US helicopters they knew.
Explosive charges were used to break down the front door. Noise grenades were detonated to disorient the household.
The raid, coupled with another the same night on the office compound of the sheikh's Iraqi National Dialogue Council, caused ructions because the sheikh and his council are key players in negotiations on Sunni representation in the new democratic process.
At the time American and Iraqi officials denied any involvement by their forces in the attacks. Iraqi media reported they were involved. The Age reported the raid on May 10. But the reaction of Mr Downer fell short of a categorical denial when he told Melbourne radio: "I think it's better not to get into the details of what's happening on the ground in terms of particular operations".
More than 20 people were arrested in the raid. About a dozen were released by dawn the next day but Zadaan, his son and his guards were held.
Sheikh Zadaan has not spoken publicly since his release from detention. But Iraqis who have sat in on his furious outpourings say he is bitter, particularly because of his claim that his son, 33, had been released from Australian custody with his leg in a plaster-cast - and that $US228,000 (A$296,000) had been confiscated from his home.
Saleh Mutlak, a spokesman for the National Dialogue Council, told The Age: "I know that Hassan Zadaan can never be linked to terrorists and he was in no way connected with the abduction of Douglas Wood."
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