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CBS' Butler says he isn't sure who kidnapped him in Iraq
2008-04-29
CBS News journalist Richard Butler said he believes he was kidnapped in Iraq by policemen with sympathies toward the Hezbollah but isn't entirely sure who held him captive for two months or why. Butler, a British journalist kidnapped with his interpreter on Feb. 10, was rescued by Iraqi troops on April 14 when he was found with a sack over his head in a house in Basra. He was taken from a hotel room in Basra, where he was on a trip to meet the chief of staff for anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, Butler told CBS News' Allen Pizzey. Portions of the interview were being shown on the "CBS Evening News" on Monday. Men wearing police fatigue uniforms and armed with AK-47's hustled him out of the room and into a car. He was first taken to a police station in Basra and then was held in different places -- including three nights where he was sealed into a small room between two walls, he said. He said he tried not to be belligerent and make a human connection with his captors. "Straight away you assess the situation," he said. "I am standing there, in front of these eight guys with AK-47s, and I am in a pair of underpants and a T-shirt. The odds are not in my favor. so there is no point in trying to do anything heroic or stupid." While he was held, he heard a lot of Hezbollah propaganda video and Hezbollah ringtones on mobile phones, but he can't be sure his captors were affiliated with the organization. As time went on, his captors treated him better, but he was still held with a sack over his head and arm restraints. He eventually got the sense that his captors didn't intend to kill him, and had backed themselves into a corner. There were points that he thought he was going to die, the first when he was taken from the police station, Butler said. "I was aware that we were driving out into a quieter area," he said. "I couldn't tell exactly where we were going, but I was aware that there were no more streetlights, for instance, and there were no more dogs barking. You didn't hear any cars. So I thought we were being taken out into the desert and, you know, we were just being shot in the desert." Butler said he felt it was better to be kidnapped in Iraq then taken into custody by Americans in Afghanistan. "I was pleased I wasn't being mortarboarded in Guantanamo or being held for six and a half years like an Al-Jazeera cameraman, for instance," he said. Butler said he lost about 42 pounds and during the last 12 days of his captivity, ate one tangerine and four boiled eggs. On the day he was found, he heard voices outside where he was staying that escalated into a gunfight. The door to his room was kicked in. A soldier aimed a gun at his head, but when the Iraqi army realized Butler was a Westerner he was taken away to a superior officer. The Iraqi army wasn't out specifically looking for him, Butler said. They were looking for an arms cachet. After continuing to recover at his house in France, Butler said he wants to go back to reporting in the world's danger spots. He doesn't plan to go back to Basra anytime soon, however.
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