Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
On April 5, 2004, a British civilian contractor and consultant for a laundry firm endured a terrifying ordeal…and almost two decades later, he is sharing his harrowing history in book form.
The Iron Hostage by Gary Teeley recounts a time in his life when he was kidnapped in Iraq, where he was isolated and tortured before being rescued.
He started penning his manuscript in 2005, and after refining it over the years, reached out to Bahrain-based Karina Mullineaux, 49, in June to complete the final editing and add finishing touches, if any.
It took him 18 years to finally get his story out to the world.
“I had previously been in Iraq in 2003, between October and December,” explained the 56-year-old who currently works on various projects in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
Gary, who stays in Bahrain over the weekends as it is his favourite place, has worked in the textiles industry on and off for 40 years as well as in the chemical industry and the British police.
“I only went back (to Iraq) in March 2004 to relieve my best friend at the time of his duties, so he could go and see his new-born son,” explained Gary, who at the time was a consultant to a Qatari company where his role was to carry out a turnkey facility for the US Air Force on Tallil Air Base, Nasiriyah, Iraq.
“I was staying in a villa with the general population, but working in the military base,” he told GulfWeekly.
“On April 5, at 11:55am, I was preparing to leave the villa to go to base when the Mahdi Army was ordered by their leader, Muqtada Al-Sadr, to go and take hostages. I was the first one to be taken.”
According to The Iraq Hostage Crisis: Abductions in Iraq report, made by Forsvarets Forskningsinstitutt (FFI) Norwegian Defence Research Establishment in October 2004, there was a ‘phenomenon of abductions of foreigners in Iraq between April 1 and August 31, 2004’.
Their reconstructed timeline includes 63 abduction incidents (159 hostages) in this period…and Gary was one of them.
“There was no bottled water, quality of food was poor and I did not sleep at all,” he recalled.
“I was dealing with the guilt, especially for my mum, and fearing death 24 hours a day. I was tortured at length, for approximately six hours on my birthday, which is April 8. It was the worst date of all.”
He sat in a house that was directly in the middle of a battle between the Mahdi Army and the Italian military, and had nowhere to go as he was locked in a room.
“If potential readers like reading something that is authentic and like to feel that they are there in my place, they can experience it,” explained the father-of-four.
“There is some timely humour in the book which some may not quite understand, but it is amazing how humour and your personality can keep you alive. They will not only be able to experience my near-death experiences, but also read about my respect for many Iraqis and how I felt about my captors, which would surprise you.
“I have no previous life as a soldier, no training or experience in a hostage situation, but used my unknown skill-set to keep me alive.”
Gary was freed by his kidnappers on April 11, 2004 at 3pm and handed over to the Iraqi authorities after talks between various parties.
His late mum Patricia had shared her delight with British Television after hearing of his release and said she had spoken to Gary while he was in a coalition hospital where he told her that he was lucky to be alive.
In a news report earlier, she had stated that Gary was in a house on his own and the militia had taken over the residence. She also said there was fighting between the Italian coalition and the militia, and, at that point, Gary thought he was going to die.
Fortunately, he did survive whereas other hostages held at different times weren’t as lucky.
Nonetheless, he requests that those reading his book keep an open mind.
“I’m not asking for readers to feel sorry for me because I’m alive and have no animosity towards my captors, it is just a chapter of my life,” said Gary, who after his release, went on TV shows in the UK and Italy as well as radio shows.
“I would truly love it if the reader could take positives from my book and maybe take a different outlook on their own life,” he said.
“Sometimes we think we have a bad, tough life, we worry about things that technically are small issues/subjects. I’m proving those facts now as I type these words because to do so, I’m living and breathing, surely that must be worth its weight in gold.
“I have never needed any counselling, have never knowingly suffered from nightmares or similar disorders, I just got on with my life.”
After the 306-page book was completed by Karina, who worked with Her Majesty’s Prison Service and the Greater Manchester Police Force before immigrating to Bahrain with her family, it went out to Amazon to be published earlier in August.
“The book is available via Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk and other regional Amazon sites,” said Karina who has been in Bahrain since 2014.
“There is a digital version to download, and there is also a paperback version printed by Amazon, which will be delivered to purchasers if they are unable to download it.”
