He was a non-Muslim set up by a Muslim."trusted driver" is oxymoronic.
Bruce Growing suspicion Wood set up by trusted driver By Paul McGeough Chief Herald Correspondent in Baghdad May 20, 2005 Sydney Morning Herald Tangled web . six-year-old Sajad holds a picture of his missing father, Adel Farhawi Najim Alzadi. Tangled web . six-year-old Sajad holds a picture of his missing father, Adel Farhawi Najim Alzadi. Photo: Paul McGeough A mysterious black Mercedes- Benz and allegations that Douglas Wood was betrayed by Iraqis he trusted may mean that the Australian engineer's abduction was a sophisticated departure from the cruder snatch-and-grab tactics usually adopted by Iraqi insurgents. It seemed innocent enough when the Mercedes pulled away from the bomb-ravaged Alwachi building in which Mr Wood lived and worked, just off Baghdad's Nasser Square, late on the afternoon of April 29. As a smartly dressed, 30-something Iraqi took the wheel there was nothing to suggest that his three passengers were being forced to go along for the ride. But a Herald investigation has revealed a circle of previously unknown Iraqi relationships around Mr Wood that confirm his friends' suspicions. Setting out with the Australian were Abu Hyder, his driver, and Adel Farhawi Najim Alzadi, an Iraqi engineer who also had a small office in the six-storey Alwachi financial centre. Conceivably, they were embarking on a perfectly innocent business outing that became an abduction nightmare in a subsequent ambush. But some in Baghdad see it as the first step in a carefully planned scam in which Iraqis on whom Mr Wood relied were co-opted to lure the 63-year-old into the hands of his captors. Anxious friends know that on the day he disappeared, Mr Wood was to meet new Iraqi business partners about a big oil venture. He told them that the April 29 appointment was vital - he was to meet Iraq's retiring oil minister to get his signature for a proposal to move 10 million barrels of oil a day through Basra. The friends warned him that the deal seemed suspect - they doubted that the dilapidated facilities in the southern port could handle such a volume of oil and they could not understand why he was being taken to see the minister on the the day the Oil Minister in the new government was taking over. Evidence of previously unknown links between the Man in the Merc, Mr Wood's regular driver and the Iraqi engineer point to an insurgency-orchestrated inside job, says his friend Mohammed al-Alwachi, who owns the Alwachi building. Mr Wood always travelled in his driver's car - a blue Volvo, so Mr Alwachi said it was unusual for the engineer to go off in a strange vehicle, as was the fact that his mobile phone was switched off. On Wednesday, Mr Alwachi summoned a parking attendant, Falah Abu Hussein, to his office, so he could give an eyewitness account of the Mercedes and its anonymous driver. The attendant said that two days before the Wood abduction, the driver tried to park the Mercedes outside the nearby Firdos Hospital. When Mr Hussein tried to move him on the driver claimed to know Mr Wood's driver, Abu Hyder. Later, Abu Hyder had vouched that the man was a friend and told the attendant that he subsequently had a meeting with him. The attendant said he had not previously seen the black car, which had not returned to the area since Mr Wood's disappearance. Mr Hussein was certain that the driver had asked for Abu Hyder - not for Mr Wood's office, as would have been expected if he was making a business call. Suspicion has also fallen on Abu Hyder. He seemed to know he would not be returning to the Alwachi building that night because, as he stepped into the Mercedes, he handed the Volvo keys to the parking attendant, saying he might be late returning. He had never left his vehicle - which is his meal ticket - in the car park overnight. But Douglas Wood's close foreign friends insist he would not have gone away overnight without telling them - if not for security reasons, then because some would be waiting to have an end-of-the-day beer with him at the Alwea Club. Another suspicious circumstance involves Abu Hyder's family. It was two days before anyone checked the driver's whereabouts. A man with papers identifying him as Abu Hyder's brother finally appeared at the Alwachi Centre. A frightened associate of Abu Hyder's has told a friend that he had encountered Abu Hyder near a petrol station after the Wood abduction. When he asked Abu Hyder about the abduction, the driver replied only that he had delivered Mr Wood safely to his office. The Mercedes driver did not dress like a regular Baghdad driver. On his first visit to the Alwachi Centre, he wore a good business suit and tie; on the second he was sharp and casual in slacks and an open-necked shirt. The attendant said: "On the 29th, the Mercedes returned and they all got in. I thought it was very ordinary because Abu Hyder was with him [Wood] and he had told me that the Mercedes' driver was his friend." Abu Hyder, who is in his 30s, about 170 centimetres tall, with a distinctive white spot in his black moustache, spent some of the Saddam Hussein years in Sweden. He is more than Mr Wood's driver - his passable English allows him to act as a translator. The Iraqi relationships circle around Mr Wood was closed yesterday by the wife of the engineer Mr Alzadi. She said she had listened to frequent telephone conversations between her husband and the man he described to her as his "new friend" - Abu Hyder. Speaking in the rundown, two-room house that is home to her family of six, she said her 35-year-old husband's parents and one of the children were sick with worry over his disappearance. Oddly, she had not reported his disappearance to the police and her extended family had not embarked on the customary round of the city's hospitals and morgues undertaken by most Iraqi families in such circumstances. It is not known if the Mercedes driver has been reported missing. After listening to what the parking attendant had to say, Mr Alwachi said: : "I had never doubted Abu Hyder - he's been a faithful friend to Mr Douglas. But now I have to change my mind." Mr Alwachi, an accountant, said that after a chance meeting at Baghdad's Alwea Club late last year, Mr Wood had set up his home and office on the fifth floor of the marble-clad Alwachi building, where the $US500 ($658) rent a month is cheap by Baghdad standards. An insurgency bomb intended for a nearby hotel on March 9 caused substantial damage to the building. Remarkably, Mr Wood escaped injury, despite being in bed on the side of the building that took the blast's full brunt. Yesterday, tradesmen were at work throughout the building, except for Mr Wood's corner of level five, which has been emptied of his possessions and sealed by Australian investigators still trying to build a profile of Mr Wood's Baghdad business activity and contacts. Mr Alwachi said the Australian officials had searched the whole building for clues and had shown great interest in Mr Wood's computer. Other of Mr Wood's friends say they told the Australian taskforce in the early days of the investigation into the Wood abduction about Falah Abu Hussein. But the parking attendant says he has not been interviewed by anyone - Iraqi or Australian. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Give underprivileged students the materials they need to learn. Bring education to life by funding a specific classroom project. http://us.click.yahoo.com/FHLuJD/_WnJAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
