The Wire

Today, the danger posed for foreigners working in Iraq have been brought chillingly close to home, with news that an Australian contractor had been abducted. Douglas Wood, 63, has been working in Iraq as an engineer for over a year. In a video message delivered to news agencies today, Mr Wood, who has lived in the United States for more than a decade, pleads for his life and begs the US, Australia and Britain to withdraw from the war-torn country. The videotape has the words “Shura Council of the Mujahedden of Iraq” burned into the top left-hand corner. While the Australian government has announced that an emergency response team is preparing to head for Iraq to do what it could to get Mr Wood freed, Prime Minister has ruled out giving in to the hostage takers demands. The latest abduction has raised questions over whether Australia should be part of the coalition forces in Iraq, which has been labelled in and outside Iraq as an illegitimate occupation, and also the ethics of negotiating with terrorists. This report by Michael Atkin begins with Clive Williams, the director of the Terrorism Studies Centre at the Australian National University in Canberra. He analyses the government’s response to the crisis.