botched wood raid report a furphy Bolts article still not...

botched wood raid report a furphy Bolts article still not online

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http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,15691786%255E2702,00.html

Botched Wood raid report a furphy
Patrick Walters, National security editor
June 22, 2005

SENIOR government and defence sources have denied a report which claimed a Coalition raid on an Iraqi sheik in Baghdad could have jeopardised the life of Douglas Wood.

The sources have directly contradicted weekend reports by The Sydney Morning Herald journalist Paul McGeough, who claimed that Australian raids on the home of Sheik Hassan Zadaan had delayed the effort to free Mr Wood from his captors.

It has also been confirmed by the Government that raids by Australian and US forces against Sheik Zadaan and several other targets in Iraq during the Australian engineer's 47-day ordeal made "no difference" to Mr Wood's fate.

The newspaper report about supposed intermediaries are coming under sharper focus in the wake of Mr Wood's dramatic rescue last week.

It now appears that claims the raid that freed Mr Wood had damaged the rescue hopes for two other Iraqis are also unfounded, as the men were killed several weeks ago.

Senior Australian and US officials have also questioned McGeough's published claim in July last year, in which he claimed the new Iraqi prime minister, Iyad Allawi, had pulled a pistol and executed up to six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station just days before Washington handed over control to his interim government.

Sheik Zadaan and some of his associates were the target of a raid early last month by coalition forces including Australian special forces troops.

At the time, Sheik Zadaan had told the reporter in Baghdad he had begun negotiating with Mr Wood's captors and would rescue him.

However, according to senior government and defence sources, Sheik Zadaan and his associates were detained, interrogated and released after it was established he knew nothing about the Wood case.

"We know a lot about Sheik Zadaan but he had no idea where Wood was," one source told The Australian.

Government sources have also rejected claims by a senior Australian Muslim cleric, Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, that last week's raid, which freed Mr Wood, "had almost certainly cost the lives" of two Iraqis taken hostage with him.

(Hilaly is still claiming this today....despite knowing that these 2 Iraqis have been dead for a month.....He might not have known a month ago......but he certainly knew of it yesterday........everyone in Australia did!......Snooker)

In fact, the two men, Faris Sahkir and Adel Farhawy Najm, were found dead in Baghdad a month ago.

The pair, who were associated with Mr Wood's business activities in Iraq, were identified by their families and buried last week. Both men had been tortured and later killed by the group that kidnapped Mr Wood.

While senior ministers have praised Sheik Hilali's efforts to secure Mr Wood's freedom, there is no evidence he played any role in the Iraqi army raid that rescued him.

"It's not true that there was any direct connection between his activities and Wood's release," observed one government source.

According to the head of Australia's emergency response team, Nick Warner, Mr Wood was most likely held by a Sunni criminal gang who had had previous involvement in kidnappings.

Mr Wood was held in two locations in Baghdad, spending 37 days in the house where he was finally found.

Throughout his captivity coalition military forces, including Australians, mounted numerous surveillance missions around the Iraqi capital in an effort to locate Mr Wood.

The raid on Sheik Zadaan would have resulted from intelligence provided by the US-led coalition forces in Baghdad. Sheik Zadaan is believed to have had links to some Sunni insurgents wanted by the coalition.

"There were reasons to believe these guys were up to no good," one source told The Australian.

"The actual raid (on Zadaan) made no difference whatsoever to Wood's fate."

Defence Minister Robert Hill earlier attacked the Herald report and disputed the portrayal of Sheik Zadaan as a reputable go-between in the efforts to free Mr Wood.

"This sheik, he was a former senior general of Saddam Hussein. He grew very rich under that regime. He was believed to be associated with the massacre of Shia at Karbala, and Najaf, back in about 1991."

McGeough claimed that before the Australian taskforce had arrived in Baghdad Sheik Zadaan had promised to rescue Mr Wood Zadaan told the Herald he had appointed a senior aide to attempt negotiations and was confident of an early release.

On Monday, the Prime Minister firmly rejected claims the emergency response team had bungled an attempt to rescue Mr Wood just days after he was kidnapped.