A Hostage's Story: CBS Journalist Speaks

Video Journalist Kidnapped While Working For CBS News Details His Ordeal For The First Time

(CBS)  Butler: No, I was spitting up stuff. I didn't vomit, but I made out that I was retching.

Pizzey: Let me go back a bit. You say that you occupy your mind with trying to figure out what is going on, build a mental picture of what is about you. Do you think about your family at all?

Butler: No. I purposefully knew that that would be a mental area that would be very hard on me, and I couldn't influence that. You know, you want to not be doing this to your family, but you can't change it there and then. So if I couldn't effect a change, if I couldn't be part of doing something positive, for my own protection I had to shut them out completely.

Pizzey: That is very hard to do.

Butler: Yes, it is.

Pizzey: What were they going through? You have now talked to them. Could you compare what you were thinking or trying not to think, if you will, to what was happening to them?

Butler: It is much harder for family and friends and colleagues than it is for the person that has been taken because you know you are still alive. They don't. They are not getting daily updates. There are periods when they don't hear anything for days, weeks, even months in some people's cases, or years. So it's very hard for the family, and my family have been through a tough time. So have my friends and my colleagues, particularly my colleagues at CBS that were part of the team that I was working with because I am out there, off the radar, and they are carrying the responsibility and also degree of guilt for the fact that I am there. So it is pretty tough on them too.

Pizzey: You seem to feel sorrier for the rest of us than you do for yourself, Richard.

Butler: That is because I was there. I knew I was alive and there were only a few moments when I thought, "This is probably the end," and they were very short. So they fade away and you just … human beings are very adaptable to situations. So you adapt the best way you can. As I say, you know you are alive. They don't.

Pizzey: Did you at any point think you were going to die?

Butler: Yes.

Pizzey: At what point was that and in what way?

Butler: When they moved us from the police station, which I am guessing they held us in for about an hour, I was aware that we were driving out into a quieter area. I couldn't tell where exactly 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.

Pizzey: What goes through your head when that is happening to you? It is resignation, defiance? What is it?

Butler: I mean, you are trying to think, "If they are going to take me, I am going a take couple of them with me. How could I do that?" That is just a natural act of defiance that you feel. But you never know when to actually start doing anything because all the time you are alive, you are buying time. So it never actually, as it turned out, we weren't go there anyway. So it didn't arise.

Then on the third … second or the third day, they actually put plastic bags in our mouths and taped us up to move us somewhere, and again it was at night. So again I thought this is probably going to be the end.

Pizzey: Plastic bag in your mouth; how do you keep from gagging?

Butler: With difficulty.

Pizzey: So everything that you are doing here is all geared down to a very narrow level of staying alive?

Butler: Yes, but that is what you have to do. You have to, when these situations arrive, you have to go with it. I mean, you don't have a great deal of choice when you have got a few AK-47s pointed at you and you are handcuffed, hooded and taped up. You are fairly limited in what you can do and it becomes a mental battle. They might have the guns, but they are not going to win on a mental battle.

Pizzey: So how do you fight that mental battle? How did you go about gaining, if not an advantage, ground on them?

Butler: Building relationships. The more you can build a connection to them as a human being, the harder it is for them to actually take the ultimate sanction and shoot you.

Pizzey: How did you make that connection? In what form did the connection come?

Butler: It takes different forms, depending on the situation you are in. But an example is in the house, one of the houses or several of the houses that we were held, they still had their families there. So I could hear a female voice and I could hear children's voices. So you always are interested in children. You can hear their voices. So you ask them how many children they have got, how old they are, and they love talking about their children, and every time you do that, they will go out their way to talk to you about their children. They ask you how many children did I have, and I have a son and a daughter, which they wanted to know all about. So that process is building a relationship. You are no longer just a piece of meat with a hood on your head. You are a father with children, and that is what they are. So it gives them something to relate to.

Pizzey: Were any of them more receptive than others?

Butler: The ones with children. Particularly if it was their children in the house. Every time that that situation arose, and I spoke about their children, every time they told me the names of their children, they lifted the head up and called their children so I could see their children. I shook hands with the sons, a three and a half year-old boy.

Pizzey: So these people have got you in manacles with a hood on your head and they are introducing their children to you?

Butler: Yes.

Pizzey: That's a bizarre concept.

Butler: Not really, I don't think, no. Because any father, the most important thing in his life is his children and it is no different for the people holding me.

Pizzey: But if you and I were doing something as, to us, evil or as cruel as holding someone under those conditions, surely we wouldn't want our children to see what they were doing.

Butler: Yes. I don't think it was for any psychological advantage for them. I don't think it was any form of mental torture that they were trying to inflict on me. They love children. Anyone who spends time in the Middle East knows how much the family means to those people and how strong their bond is with their children.

Pizzey: Did that relationship manifest itself in any way in greater kindnesses?

Butler: Yes, it did. Initially, for instance, the food that I was getting was more than I could eat. It was like a banquet turning up on a tray. They would bring me ice cream in the afternoon, and tea and Arabic coffee.

They always kept me supplied with cigarettes. So yes, it did definitely manifest itself.

Pizzey: But the food ran out, I gather?

Butler: Yes. The moment when Prime Minister Maliki brought his army down to Basra was a bad time. The previous 10 days I had been very ill anyway. I think I got some sort of food poisoning. I was running a high temperature and vomiting and couldn't eat. They brought a doctor in to see me during that time, and he made a diagnosis and went away and came back about an hour later with medicine and gave me some tablets to take and gave me two injections. An antibiotic injection was one of them. I had just started to pick up a bit and, I think it was a Tuesday, all hell broke loose, fire fights and I could hear mortars being launched. I could hear cartouches being launched, lots of small arms fire from what appeared to be on the roof, outside the door, and they shut down the area of Basra that I was in. So they couldn't get food anymore. So that was a pretty tough time.

Pizzey: What did you live on?

Butler: Not a lot.

Pizzey: How much is not a lot?

Butler: An example, the last 12 days of captivity, I had one tangerine and four boiled eggs.

Pizzey: In how many days?

Butler: The last 12 days.

Pizzey: 12 days?

Butler: Yes.

Pizzey: A couple of tangerines and boiled eggs?

Butler: I had two boiled eggs the morning I was rescued.

Pizzey: How much weight did you lose?

Butler: Three stone.

Pizzey: That is about 42 pounds?

Butler: Yes.

Pizzey: What with your captors? Were they suffering the same thing?

Butler: Yes. They went without food. When they brought me the tangerine, there were two tangerines. But I knew the gunman holding me hadn't eaten either. So I insisted he had the tangerine. He didn't want to. I had to force him to take it.

Pizzey: What was his reaction?

[jrbb1]

Quote by brianbwb: "We have been doing worse, at least when someone''''s throat gets cut that person dies. when that person is drowned, revived, and drowned again, that person is repeatedly pushed through death''''s door."

This has got to be the most moronic, ignorant and pathetic type of spin that I have ever read. It is amazing how deep into lunacy the left will plunge. So given the choice, you would rather have your captors slit your throat over opting to have a little water shot up your nose? OK, go for it pal. In the meantime, I''ll choose the waterboarding while you''re gurgling in your blood.

[gitarfan]

Yeah, if we had treated him like we do those at Gitmo, he would have gained 20lbs not lost 42. He''s still a wanker.

[krusso7530]

Richard Butler must not be much of a journalist if he spent all that time with kidnappers and he has no clue as to who they are, or aligned to. Since he resents us so much, I say we give him back.

[brianbwb-2009]

"Gee, I don''''t believe we have been doing that in Gitmo - why not ? Are we afraid the enemy might react harshly towards our captives ?" Posted by speakinup

We have been doing worse, at least when someone''s throat gets cut that person dies. when that person is drowned, revived, and drowned again, that person is repeatedly pushed through death''s door.

Also there is a bottom line to this, we invaded them on the basis of lies. Any invader (or anyone considered to be assisting the invader) caught by those defending their neighborhoods is subject to the consequences of their choice to be there.

Those carrying out Bush''s agenda, and supporting it are the "bad guys" in this scenario, those defending themselves are not, even if the actions appear to be similar, the defenders have a righteous motivation (self defense) for their acts, the invaders have only lies.

[brianbwb-2009]

"And, yet the translator with Butler has his throat cut. I guess Butler has that to be thankful for too. Gee, I don''''t believe we have been doing that in Gitmo - why not ? Are we afraid the enemy might react harshly towards our captives ?"
Posted by speakinup

Read a little further, it says; "Then it wasn''t until I got to Basra Palace, which was about 15 minutes later, and there was a British colonel there, and the first thing I asked him was if he had any news on [the translator], and he said, "Yes, he is fine. CBS have looked after him".

So he did not get his throat cut, it was a bluff. If you read only what justifies your hatred, you miss the truth, and it makes your point look silly. Yes, Butler should be thankful that he wasn''t treated as we have treated the Iraqis detained in Bush''s secret concentration camps.

Man you take the cake! Gitmo would not accept a p.....y like you. And CBS wonders why they barely stay in business. What a joke you are.

[gitarfan]

So the next time this bonehead gets in trouble, don''t call us. Good thing those Iraqi troops were well trained by US or British troops. BBC, CBS no difference, I guess. What a load of ***. The self-congratulatory BS at the end was the icing on the cake.

[speakinup]

Now I see on the last page this wasn''t true - about the translator - nice touch SeeBS.

But how many times do have we heard where translators are killed ?

[speakinup]

Butler:So yes, I was relieved that my captivity wasn''t as harsh as I have witnessed being applied to suspects taken from Afghanistan.

Pizzey: You were saying it is better to be kidnapped by Shi''ites in southern Iraq than by Americans in Afghanistan.

Butler: I was pleased I wasn''t being waterboarded in Guantanamo or being held for six and a half years like an al Jazeera cameraman, for instance.







And, yet the translator with Butler has his throat cut. I guess Butler has that to be thankful for too. Gee, I don''t believe we have been doing that in Gitmo - why not ? Are we afraid the enemy might react harshly towards our captives ?