Exclusive: released Iraq hostage Peter Moore’s first account

Former Iraq hostage Peter Moore has spoken to Channel 4 News at length about his two and a half years in captivity.

Mr Moore, an IT consultant, was abducted with four security guards in May 2007.

Jason Creswell, Jason Swindlehurst and Alec MacLachlan were all killed, and their bodies have been returned to the United Kingdom.

A fourth hostage, Alan McMenemy, is believed to be dead according to the British Foreign Office. His body has not yet been returned by the kidnappers.

In an interview with the programme’s home affairs correspondent Andy Davies, he gives a vivid description of his imprisonment, including the moment when his captors carried out a mock execution.

“They take me off the chains, which is a little bit odd,” he said.

“They handcuff me behind my back, blindfold me, walk me out into another room, and they kneel me down.

“They cock a pistol. They put it to my head. They pull the trigger and at the same time they fire a gun off behind my back. Obviously, I thought the gun had gone off.

“I remember very clearly, I sat there with my hands behind my back. I was blindfolded looking down. I remember thinking: OK, I’m dead.”

Injecting a guard

He goes on to describe the moment when he and one of his fellow British hostages – who had medical training – weighed up the possibility of killing a guard by injecting him with air to make their escape.

“And the issue was, fundamentally, could we inject that guy, get up, disable the other guy, get next door, get a pistol, come back, shoot the other guy and get out?

“Bearing in mind, we’re still sat on the floor, whereas he’s near the door, he’s just got to run out and we’ve had it. There was a bit of umming and ahing about it.

“I said ‘I’m a hindrance’, and ultimately what I was concerned about was getting out of the frying pan into the fire, in that there’s two in here, but probably a hundred of them outside.”

Peter Moore also talks of other, as yet unreported, hostages for the first time, neither of whom was British.

Negotiating with terrorists?
In a separate interview, Iraq MP and hostage negotiator Sami al-Askari suggests British officials met with Qais al-Khazaali, whose Asaib al-Haq group is believed to have seized the five Britons at the interior ministry in May 2007.

Al-Askari tells Channel 4 News that it became clear the hostage takers were from the Qais al-Khazaali’s League of Righteous (Asaib al-Haq) when he asked to meet them in October 2008.

“There was a group. The American and British. A British army general and a representative of the American ambassador.”

He goes on: “We usually have a meeting regarding the reconciliation – with all the groups, not just the Shia groups. And I have regular meeting with them.

“In one of those meetings they said, ‘Yesterday we were with Qais al-Khazaali in the Cropper camp. And he asked to see you. I asked him why. He said, ‘He got something to tell you, to tell the prime minister.’

“I said, ‘OK, I have to check with the prime minister.’ So I went to the Prime Minister al-Maliki. I told him Qais al-Khazaali asked to see me. ‘What you say?’ He said, ‘OK. Go see him and see what he got.’

“So we all went. I mean, the General Hughes and the American diplomat. And there was Qais al-Khazaali and his brother, Laith.”

Violence and punishment

Among the indignities Peter Moore suffered during his time in captivity, one punishment involved him being stood in the corner, handcuffed behind his back, and having water poured over him.

He continues: “Then they put a chair next to the door, made me stand on the chair with my back to the door, put my arms over the top, and one of the guys pulled down on the handcuffs, pulled the chair away. Just left me hanging there.”