in 1990, saddam invaded kuwait. >> we had to get out of iraq. it's at that moment that the nightmare really started. >> we have to head back. >> no, tom. >> we were now in a very very dangerous situation. >> where are you taking us? >> this place was hell on earth.

>> we were incredibly scared. if they wanted to kill you, they killed you and nobody said a word to them. >> what are we doing! >> we had no idea whether we were going to come out of this alive. i went to iraq in may, 1990. i was 26 years old. i had been given a 12-month contract on a gas and oil field. the money looked good, so i decided to take up on the option. it was a very exciting opportunity for a young lad to go to a part of the world which most people didn't know about.

i was looking forward to it. the oil field was 15 miles west of tikrit, saddam's hometown. and it was named for the arabic for saddam's-field. it didn't cause alarm bells. just felt we were working on something important. the living quarters were within the compound area. everything was self-contained within that site. my immediate boss on the project was another irishman about ten years older than me. his name was john white. we formed a good relationship from the beginning. >> how was your flight? >> it was grand. >> when tom turned up, i thought he was a fantastic guy. he was so full of life, so exuberant. we got on very well straightaway. >> we've got good people here.

want me to show you around? >> yeah, that would be great. >> great. >> tom was one of the 15 engineers i had under my control. they looked up to me because of my experience in the region. i knew quite a bit about the lie of the land, or so i thought. at that particular point, all things were going splendid. and my two weeks r&r were coming up. i was really looking forward to getting back to ireland to see my children, my wife. i was very excited about that. at that particular point, there was nothing on the horizon to suggest that i wouldn't make it home. that morning, turned on my radio, heard the news that saddam had invaded kuwait. we heard that they were pulling families out of homes, raping women.

there were mass killings. the reports from kuwait were shocking, absolutely shocking. >> very quickly, the western world started making threats against iraq. we realized we were now in a very, very dangerous situation. >> we were now in the middle of what was shaping up to be a full scale war. >> my whole desire was to get out of there and get back to my family in ireland. >> hi, love, it's me. >> but my wife said saddam had put a block on all westerners in and out of the country. it hit home like a thunder bolt. she said we were going to be used as human shields.

>> a realization dawned that we were already on a site of strategic importance. we were on saddam's oil field. it was nerve-racking to consider we were going to be in the line of fire. so i knew that we needed to take some drastic action or else i wasn't sure what was going to become of us. very soon a group of us started to plan for the escape. >> you all right in the okay, guys. you know why we're here. >> we knew the only way out was going to be a land crossing across one of the countries that border iraq. syria, turk, jordan and iran. >> we split split into teams of two and three. >> what do you think about yourself and michael heading towards turkey? >> if a team discovered there

was a way out, that team would return to the site and then the larger group would attempt to escape. but there were risks. we knew if they discovered what we were up to, we would lifted immediately by iraqi security. but these risks seemed more imaginable than just sitting there waiting for the bombing to happen. over the next few days the teams went out to the various border trips. one by one they went out and one by one they came back. >> how'd you get along? any luck? >> no. there's military everywhere. >> soldiers were being seen everywhere. checkpoints along the main roads every 20 or 30 miles. >> it was beginning to look like our situation was really hopeless. but the determination was there to continue to try. >> so what do you reckon? >> well, can't go on the main roads.

>> had to look at some of the more difficult options. john and i decided rather than using the main road approach we would drive north to a small little town named hatra. >> sounds grand. >> we knew there were big, big risks in trying to get across this completely inhospitable desert. >> so our plan was to penetrate 15, 20 kilometers and see if the vehicle was able to get through and report back to the rest of the team. >> just hope this works. >> it has to. >> i had no understanding that john might deviate from that plan. that morning, we set out at 7:00 a.m. on that reconnaissance mission. >> there was a great sense of adventure and a great sense of hope. >> john seemed excited about this trip. if there was this option to get

out, he would be home with his family pretty soon. that's, after all, what he wanted. back in ireland, i'd been part of the reserve defense forces. so to get us through the desert, i made a makeshift compass. i knew it was going to be some way important, but i didn't really understand at that time how important that compass was going to be. as we were driving north, our only concern was that military would stop us and if they did, what would be the outcome. but we were getting more and more hopeful, this was starting to look easy. and then we hit our first problem. >> in the distance we could see this much larger checkpoint. all the soldiers had their

kalashnikovs on their shoulders. there were officers present. and it was our first moment of concern. >> we pulled up and the senior officer started asking us questions in basic english as to where we were going. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> i don't understand. >> where you go? >> we're going to hatra. >> he started barking and shouting. all of a sudden there was a commotion around the back of the vehicle. an iraqi soldier jumped in with an ak-47. all of a sudden we were waved on through the checkpoint not knowing what was happening. now we were in the middle of iraq heading out on our reconnaissance mission, something we clearly shouldn't have been doing with an iraqi soldier planted in the back of the car. we started discussinging in gaelic language what was the reason for us being there.

>> who is this guy? what do you think this fellow's in here for? >> we discussed turning around at this stage but we knew we couldn't. so we had to carry on. we didn't know what to do when we got to hatra with this soldier in the back. how can anyone sleep like that? well, just put on a breathe right strip and pow! it instantly opens your nose up to 38% more than cold medicine alone. so you can breathe and sleep. shut your mouth and say goodnight mouthbreathers. breathe right i missed a payment. aw, shoot. shoot! this is bad. no! we're good! this is your first time missing a payment. and you've got the discover it card, so we won't hike up your apr for paying late. that's great! it is great! (both simultaneously) thank you. at discover, we treat you like you'd treat you. get the it card with late payment forgiveness. so we know how to cover almost alanything.ything, even a stag pool party. (party music)

(splashing/destruction) (splashing/destruction) (burke) and we covered it, october twenty-seventh, 2014. talk to farmers. we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ ♪ [car driving] ♪ [engine revving] ♪ ♪

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we were now in a very much of a limbo situation. armed soldier in the back not knowing what he was doing there. >> we were driving along and then the guy just started roaring and shouting. >> we had no idea what he wanted us to do now. so we stopped the vehicle. >> okay, okay, okay. all right, all right, all right. >> all of a sudden he ran around to the side of our vehicle. [ speaking in foreign language ]

>> it turned out he was simply just riding a lift with us into hatra. >> there was a great sense of relief amongst tom and i. >> we could now make this evaluation that we set out to do. >> at the edge of hatra was this vast inhospitable desert. we knew there was nothing there between us and syria for at least 150 miles. we knew there were going to be vast challenges in getting across it, but i also understood

that we were only going out 15 kilometers and then we would report back to the rest of the team. >> this is it then. >> yep. let's go. >> the first five kilometers or so went entirely to plan. the surface was pretty flat and my roughly made compass was giving us the right way we should be heading. then we came across our first problem in that desert. >> we came upon these vast dunes and craters which we couldn't drive through. >> i knew this was going to be a concern, but i was still convinced we could get around them without getting lost. >> keep left. >> i know, i know. i know. >> after 15 kilometers we had achieved exactly what we'd set

out to do. we knew we were going to pushed left and right by these river beds, but it looked like there was a way out to the syrian border. so i said to john -- >> about time to start heading back, set out what we went to do. >> he was acting strange. >> we're going to take it forward. >> we said 15 kilometers was the cutoff point. >> we're going a little bit further, tom, all right? >> i began to wonder why was john asking us to go a little bit more and a little bit more. i knew we had accomplished what we set out to do. i felt i wasn't having my proper say in this. i think i understood better than he did the implications. i was watching the fuel gauge very, very closely. >> john, we have to head back. we're about to go past the point of no return. our lives are on the line. >> no, tom. i'm going to keep going. >> we can't keep going.

>> there were so many reasons to continue. >> we're doing fine. >> we have one bottle of water between us two. we're not prepared at all! >> let's just keep going. >> for god's sake, john! >> in the end, i had to play what i thought was the trump card and say our responsibilities are back with the people on the site. >> they're expecting us to come back with news as to whether we could go back. >> i wasn't going back. i was going to continue until the last drop was gone out of that tank. and that i was in syria. i wanted more than anything to get home to see my family. at the expense of tom and the other guys i'd left behind. just consumed. >> i was not happy about this, but there was no chance of going back anymore. we couldn't have made it back. this point of no return had been exceeded. i resigned myself to it and i

decided to get us to where we were meant to be going. but it was a very scary time. there was absolutely nothing in that desert to indicate whether we were on the right track or not. at one stage we were doing such large sweeps left and right that i was seriously doubting whether we were going around in circles or not. we had left than a quarter tank left. so we turned off the air conditioning to reduce the amount of fuel consumption. even though the outside temperature had reached nearly 50 degrees celsius. we had about half a bottle of water left and i knew either fuel running out or water running out or a combination of both was very, very likely to kill us here.

>> the situation at that particular moment was grim. i knew i had made the wrong decision. and i became incredibly worried. it seemed like all our hopes were shattered. >> all of a sudden, we saw telegraph poles. i don't think i fully believed it. it meant someone was out there. >> look over there. >> i see it. i see it. >> suddenly we saw in front of us a tarmac road. i was elated. i can't describe to you the feeling.

i felt vindicated that i had pushed on. i honestly believed that we had had made it to syria. then we had to make a decision whether to go right or left. >> left. >> we were driving down the road and there was a great sense of achievement between tom and myself. i was really convinced that we had made it. completely convinced. and then suddenly we saw iraqi flags. we were devastated. absolutely crushed.

i felt obviously all of that was for absolutely nothing. >> suddenly we noticed military vehicles were coming at us with great speed. >> we realized we're in a highly sensitive militarized area. we wanted to turn around quickly and drive away from them. they had already seen us. >> it's at that moment that the nightmare really started. divide by 3.14 something something something... [ beeping, whirring ] great caesar salad! ♪ and now the name your price tool shows people policy options to help fit their budget. is that a true story? yeah! people really do save an average of over $500 when they switch. i mean about you inventing it. i invented the story, and isn't that what really matters? so... what else about me? iand quit a lot,t but ended up nowhere. now i use this.

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john, what the hell is that? >> the iraqi military vehicles were coming at us with speed through the desert. >> it was abundantly clear we were in a very, very serious situation. we knew this would take a lot of getting out of. >> the military vehicles pulled up around us. lots of soldiers surrounded us pointing their ak-47s at us. they were all excited and clamoring and shouting.

there was a huge amount of uncertainty there. were they going to just discharge weapons at us in overexcitement? a few moments later a captain came up through the front of the iraqi group. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> we don't understand. >> oh, you speak english. >> yes. >> so what are you doing here? >> we told them that we'd been in hatra looking at archaeological ruins and we got lost in the desert. >> lost? >> yes. >> hatra is here. we are here. a long way, no? >> he obviously didn't believe us. this guy was too intelligent not to know what was happening.

we knew our number was up then. >> we had no idea where we were going or where we were to be taken. after an hour's driving, we came to a large military installation. >> we were brought into this dining hall area. the whole table was laid out for dinner. then tom and i had to sit there and have dinner with them. people were looking very, very strangely at us and started talking and laughing. something was seriously wrong. >> suddenly everything took a very, very serious turn for the

worst. there was a complete air of coldness about them. it felt like the temperature of that air dropped by 10 degrees. >> i recognized him as the iraqi secret police. the iraqi people were terrified of these people because of their ruthlessness. they torture people. they kill people. they are the most terrifying people in the world. >> they moved us very quickly out of that room. there was no delay in anything they did. a complete knot in our stomachs developed. >> where are you taking us? [ speaking in foreign language ] >> the anxiety was beginning to escalate because we were now in an entirely different situation.

>> we pulled up outside a plush hotel in the middle of baghdad. i had no idea why i was arriving there. >> they brought us into the lobby where quite a substantial amount of other western expats were. in secret, we were able to speak with a few of the westerners. >> what are they using this place for?

>> it's a turning center. every time people come, people go. >> go where? >> we are being used as human shields. >> i don't think we could believe it. we had attempted to find ways out of iraq and we were now going to be put right in the firing lane that we tried to avoid. >> that was a pretty frightening prospect. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> we were whisked upstairs pretty quickly. >> this was a very, very heavily guarded area. we were brought down to the very end room and they closed the door behind us. i was angry towards john for getting us into this situation.

i thought that maybe there was a way out of this. in the en suite, there was a phone. >> john, it has a dial tone. >> this was absolutely fantastic because we knew as electrical engineers, once the dial tone was there, we could make a call. >> call the embassy. i'll keep an eye on the door. >> it had no dial plate on the phone but you would overcome this by tapping the top of the phone. i tried tapping the irish embassy number. i could hear the phone attempting to make the connection. i was completely surprised to hear that the phone was picked up by the embassy staff. it was a very hurried conversation. i didn't want to hold that line open. i urged the ambassador to come as quickly as possible.

the minute we got dispatched to some vital installation, it would have been very hard to track us down again. i stayed on about a minute and a half maximum. >> when police guys came in, we didn't know what was happening. >> had they detected that i'd been on the phone? was i in for some serious trouble as a result? were we being taken to a vital installation? we just didn't know. the first thing i saw was that the first council was there. it was a fantastic feeling. it was a flood of relief. >> it gave us renewed hope that

very, very soon our ordeal was going to end. >> boy, are we glad to see you. >> we blurted out our story. >> we went into the desert to explore a little bit and we got lost. that's when those guys picked us up and brought us here. >> we asked him to intervene. to stop us being sent out to vital installations. >> i have a very young family. i need to get out of here. >> but there was no optimism in what he was saying. >> you're in a foreign country. you were caught in an area you shouldn't have been. we're doing everything we can. >> what does that mean? >> we're doing the best we can. >> it was very obvious it wasn't within his power to do anything. we were not going to be released. there was no negotiation and we were back to the same situation. he gave us a few important things. some money, passports. then we were taken out of that room. >> suddenly there was an order barked out by one of the senior

policemen. the men were being taken by military. they were to be used as human shields. and it left the wives and children crying and screaming. they had no idea if they were ever going to see their men again. we knew for sure we were going to get on one of those buses. that's why we were there. it really seemed i would never see my family again. maybe you should've done more research on them. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. liberty mutual insurance. on the floor! everybody down! hey, do something!e floor! oh, i'm not a security guard. i'm a security monitor. i only notify people if there's a robbery.

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i'm richard lui. nbc news confirming the nypd is investigating allegations that former new york governor eliot spitzer assaulted a woman saturday at a manhattan hotel. sources familiar with this investigation claim spitzer is accused of choking the woman, no charges have ever been filed. the body of supreme court justice antonin scalia has been

moved to a private airport in el paso, texas. the court's longest serving justice was found dead yesterday morning at a rank where he was visiting. he was 79 years old. now back to lockedup, abroad. all of a sudden, we were pushed out the door and moved down the corridor very, very fast. >> we felt that we were being moved onto strategic locations as human shields. it was unbearable. it was unbearable. >> the secret police brought us out the back door of the hotel and we were bundled quickly into the back of a waiting vehicle. and to my horror.

>> reporter: could see that the irish diplomatic car was being held up at the security gates. it became clear that that was the reason for our urgent departure. >> look, look, look. >> they clearly didn't want the two of us to meet up again. that tenuous link with the outside world was now being taken from us yet again. and it just heightened the sense of danger, the fact that they clearly could not accept the embassy knowing where we were going. >> we were moved to a very, very bleak building within the city of baghdad. we had no idea what were we doing there. >> we were pushed into a place which was as far as you can possibly imagine from the hotel we'd just come from.

>> suddenly we were encased in a sea of bodies all shouting, screaming, trying to figure out who we were, what we were. it was a frightening, frightening experience. >> we were quickly guided to one of these dugouts in the side of the wall. i realized that we were now in a prison-type environment. and it looked like we were going to be dealt with as part of the criminal system. why else would we be there? we didn't know what the charges were going to be. whee no idea of what the penalty was being sought. it was a pretty frightening situation to comprehend. >> later that night there was a blast of automatic gunfire. we were sure that it was a firing squad.

>> we asked ourselves, were we next? we knew the system had managed to successfully remove us from any type of contact with the outside world. it would be easy to do away with us. it was at this time john rapidly went downwards. he just lost it. he retreated into himself. >> i felt we wouldn't make it. i had almost thrown in the towel. >> the more that john's head dropped and the more he lost his sense of purpose, the more i pushed myself to look for some solution, some route out.

so i started to explore all the various different dens and cubby holes within that compound. one of them was a small toilet area with one slit window up high. so i decided to see if it did indeed represent a wave escape out from where we were. i started widening it. using my fingers, i made some little bit of an impact on it, but not enough. so i managed to pry a brick out of the surface of that slit. that brick then became a tool so i was able to make much more progress. suddenly i heard footsteps coming. i was in a very dangerous situation. if i was found doing what i was doing, i would be next in the firing line.

i had to make believe as if i was using the toilet facilities. the reality was that as much as i wanted to get out of that place, it just wasn't going to work. but i didn't resign myself at all after that. one option had failed. i'd wait and see what the next option might be. we were fully expecting to wait in that detention center and that that was to be our fate. but after five days the guard came for us. >> for one moment i felt that just maybe we were actually being released. just maybe i would get to see my family again. >> but they were waiting for us with two more. >> here we were again back in

the arms of the secret police. i was absolutely certain our situation was going to get worse. but they brought us to an infamous prison in the center of baghdad called shaab. when i realized this is where we were, i almost had a heart attack. it was a notorious interrogation center where the secret police were not governed by any law. they were the law. they decided they were going to torture you, they tortured you. if they were going to kill you, they killed you, and nobody said a word to them. >> we were led into the depths of this prison down long corridors. the atmosphere was getting thicker and more dense. we heard screams of pain.

finally they came to the end of a corridor. they tossed us both in and closed the door behind us. >> this is crazy. why are we here? what are we doing! >> needless to say, we were incredibly scared. later that night we heard this incredible commotion. screams and shouts and dragging of people around the corridor outside. we shot up, tried to look out. there was a very small little opening in the door. we could actually see it a little bit up the corridor. it just heightened our sense of fear as if it wasn't high enough already. emotionally to hear another human being being tortured, it is mind blowing.

>> we had to consider we were next. why else would we be there? >> we were seriously concerned for our lives. never in my life will i forget it. i can still hear the screams like they're just happening outside the door right now.

the next morning, they owl opened the door to lead us out into the toilet area. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> there was a long, long corridor that we had to walk down. i noticed from the corner of my eye something hanging. i looked away because i didn't

understand what it was and then i was able to look back. i stood transfixed. there were two iraqis hanging by their arms. their whole chests were completely open in circular lines where obviously somebody had whipped them. it was a dreadful, dreadful sight. tom was completely freaked. >> he really was so, so afraid, so scared. he was quite uncontrollable. >> i felt complete abhorrence that anyone could do this to someone else. a serious desire overcame me to get the people who did this and to tear their eyes out. it was most overwhelming and

draining series of emotions i've ever had. finally they moved us. we were brought on to this prison bus. as we sped out the front gates, suddenly a mean looking guard came into the back shouting and roaring loudly at the top of his voice. he stamped down the center of the bus. he blocked off all the ventilation halvves if half --

the roof. now effectively, we were in a steel coffin with no air getting in. the internal air temperature started rising and rising and rising. temperatures were probably around 50 degrees. it was becoming extremely hard to take each breath. i believe there was a very strong chance that people were going to suffocate in here. i was getting very angry. here was another sadistic iraqi causing direct hurt and injury to someone. i noticed that he was carrying a pistol, very clearly on his right hip, and i was so angry, and so furious, i wanted to jump up and grab the gun. but was i going to be able to get that gun from his holster? would i manage to cock it in time?

and even if i could cock it in time, would i be able to do what you're supposed to do with a pilates? that was to pull the trigger. i decided not to go ahead with it. and i felt guilty with myself for several hours for not going ahead with it. finally we arrived at a police base. we were taken off to a small room, and there, sitting in the room, was the first counsel. -- consul. >> we were thrilled to see him, but we were also incredibly intrigued as to why had contact been re-established.

the reason that he was there was to inform us that we were going to trial. >> the charge was being in an area prohibited by military law. this charge was an allegation that we had been spying, and that carried with it an 1-year sentence. >> i'm afraid there's very little the embassy can do at this point. >> it was a shocking moment to realize that after all we'd been through, it comes down to a court case. and we knew in our heart and soul that we were going to be found guilty. and we knew that in itself was a death sentence. small business edition. oh, no! i'm up to my neck in operating costs! i'll save the day! for plumbers and bakers and scapers of lawn, she's got insurance savvy you can count on. you chipped my birdbath! now you're gonna pay! not so fast! i cover more than just cars and trucks. ♪ action flo did somebody say "insurance"? children: flo! ♪ action flo cut! can i get a smoothie, please?

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>> finally, we were given a definite day for the trial. we now knew that it was going to be in three days' time. they were three of the longest days in my entire life. i knew that where i was, was a

direct result of decisions that were imposed upon me by john. so i had to work at keeping the resent and the blame out of the equation. there was enough other emotions in my life at that point. there just wasn't room for those ones as well. >> after the trial, we sat in our cell. nobody was letting us know whether we were guilty on not guilty. >> it was a pretty bad time mentally for both of us. >> finally one of the guards came and called for john and i. he indicated, take your bags an. we were completely deflated. we thought we were being moved somewhere for 18 years.

we asked him several times, which particular prison it was. >> which prison? >> and he said, you are free, you are free. >> free, free, free. >> i don't think we could believe it. it was just immense. somebody was at last telling us we're finally free. we were taken out and there standing in front of us was the suv that we had used to get across the desert. the first consul was waiting there for us. >> is it true? are we free? >> he said, you were found not guilty, and you're being released. >> as we left, it was an overpowering feeling.

tom and i were shouting and roaring inside the vehicle. [ laughter ] just incredibly relieved to have gotten ourselves out of that situation. to his eternal credit, tom never in any way blamed me for the situation that we found ourselves in. could have and should have. but he kept his counsel. >> his decision to carry on caused me extreme hardship, however, it doesn't cause me any bitterness, and it doesn't cause me any resent. what happened happened and we both got through it. >> my family were waiting for me in dublin. it was fantastic.

it was just wonderful. all that madness was finally behind me. you know, i'd managed to get home. it was good to be back. back reunited with my loved ones. ♪ we were going down to mexico, and we were buying steroids with counterfeit money. we were crossing over the border, and we had all the stuff packed in the spare tire. i was thinking to myself, don't start acting weird. be calm. i was not about to get caugh