Former Hostage Talks About Ordeal

Sept. 26, 2005 — -- American contract worker Roy Hallums, who was kidnapped in Iraq and held for more than 10 months, says in an exclusive morning show interview with "Good Morning America's" Charles Gibson that his captors kept him blindfolded and bound throughout the ordeal.

Hallums, 57, was allowed to push up the mask only three times a day when his captors let him move it to the bridge of his nose so he could eat.

On Nov. 1, 2004, as many as 20 gunmen stormed the house where Hallums was staying in Iraq, along with other members of a Saudi catering company under contract to feed the Iraqi Army. The gunmen stormed the house. Hallums said he heard about five or six shots. He was immediately grabbed and put in a car that sped off.

"At that particular moment I thought if I live two weeks or three weeks it will be a miracle," Hallums said.

He was rescued by coalition troops on Sept. 7. He was beaten and cried on tape as he read from a script that called President Bush selfish and indifferent to hostages.

Five other men in the house were kidnapped as well -- a Filipino, a Nepalese and three Iraqis. They were released earlier this year. In fact, the Filipino hostage, Robert Tarongoy, 31, was set free in June, presumably after a ransom was paid (Filipino officials say they asked that Hallums be released too, but the kidnappers refused).

Tarongoy has said he believes he spent part of his captivity in the same room as Hallums, although Hallums isn't positive. The captors repeatedly threatened to kill any hostage who tried to communicate with another hostage, and Hallums said he took them at his word and kept to himself.

The kidnappers wanted phone numbers of Hallums' family so they could ask for ransom for his release.

"I wouldn't give it to them because I didn't know them," he said. "I told them the phone numbers were on my cell phone -- which they didn't bring from the office -- and I had put the phone numbers in like a year before. I was telling the truth."