Former Iraq hostage describes months of abuse

Hallums, 57, describes his experience as a captured civilian contractor with “60 Minutes” reporter Lesley Stahl on a segment that will air Sunday on CBS.

It is the first interview Hallums has given since he was rescued by coalition troops from a 4-foot-high crawl space under a farmhouse on Sept. 7. His ex-wife, Susan Hallums, said he returned to his hometown of Memphis two days later to a joyous family reunion.

“When I saw him come down off the plane, it was the happiest moment of my life,” she said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press earlier this month.

Hallums, who worked for a contractor supplying food to the Iraqi Army, was captured Nov. 1 and held with several other hostages, but he was blindfolded and bound the entire time, according to a release from CBS.

The kidnappers wanted Hallums to cry on tape as he read from a script that called President George W. Bush selfish and indifferent to hostages so they beat him, the former hostage said.

Hallums said that he believed the captors were related, “a family business,” and were trying to get ransom money out of the hostages’ families, according to CBS spokesman Kevin Tedesco.

The kidnappers tried to force Hallums to give them a phone number for his family so they could ask for money, but Hallums did not reveal that information, Tedesco said.

“I knew if I gave them the number, they would call them and ask for money,” Hallums said. “I didn’t want (my family) to deal with a call like that.”

While he was missing, his ex-wife and two daughters, Carrie Anne Cooper and Amanda Hallums, set up a Web site, called world leaders, raised a monetary award for information and held candlelight vigils, hoping for a safe return.

According to Tedesco, the taped interview will show that the unit that rescued him had essential information that led them directly to the entrance of the crawl space, which was hidden by a refrigerator.

The FBI has been speaking with Hallums since his return to the United States, according to Cooper. She also said that the FBI was instrumental in the investigation into his kidnapping in Iraq.

“I’m not totally here yet,” Hallums said, “because that was my reality for 10 months.”