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American Morning

Should U.S. Try to Rescue Kidnapped Reporter?

Aired January 29, 2002 - 09:05   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Let's begin the hour with the big question, and the question is: Should the United States try to rescue the kidnapped reporter from "The Wall Street Journal?" Daniel Pearl was in Pakistan. He last seen in Karachi on his way to meet with a source. A Pakistani groups to holding Pearl now in -- quote -- "inhumane conditions" unquote. They released these photographs of him in shackles. One of them he has a gun being held to his head.

Pearl's boss, the journal managing editor Paul Steiger, talked about colleague last night on "LARRY KING LIVE."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL STEIGER, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": We've talked with people in both the U.S. government and the Pakistani government, trying to get their advice on what to do to get Danny back. And they've been helpful, but nobody has any magic ideas yet. You know, we're just waiting to hear from his captors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAFFERTY: Meantime, U.S. and Pakistani authorities continue to search for Pearl, with no success yet.

Joining us from Washington to talk about what is a very sticky wicket, this kidnapping, is Kelly McCann. He's CNN security analyst and president of Crucible Security.

Kelly, good to see you. Thanks for being with us.

KELLY MCCANN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Thanks, Jack.

CAFFERTY: What responsibility does the United States have in this case?

MCCANN: Well, really none. Unfortunately, this is a tough situation, because it was a criminal incident that required money, kidnap and ransom insurance, you know, might cover it. But this is a political thing, and the U.S. policy on counterterrorism states that we will hold the host nation accountable for his release, or recovery or negotiations. So he is in a very tough spot.

CAFFERTY: The host nation presumably is Pakistan, I guess. He was last seen in Karachi, so one would conclude that he's being held somewhere in that country. If they can prove he's in Pakistan, that creates another problem, doesn't it?

MCCANN: It sure does. Now Richard Boucher from the U.S. State Department, their spokesman, said that the FBI had sent representatives there. That may be a forward element of what's the Foreign Emergency Support Team, which is a multiagency organization that's led by state to help the chief admission in country, in other word the ambassador in Pakistan, with enhanced hostage negotiations capability, and usually it's comprised of an intel cell, advanced communication cell, a military cell that might do contingency planning on the "what if" premise. But that's all done to basically enable to Pakistani government to seek resolution to this.

CAFFERTY: What's your best guess how much danger this man is in? It seems to me that his situation is dire?

MCCANN: It's Difficult to predict, Jack, because journalist have gone missing before, first in Bosnia and Brazil and places like that. And remember that really what they're after here is try to get the story out. So I mean, in the best worlds, hopefully he'll be fine. Mr. Pearl will be returned, you know, albeit a little bit frightened and roughed up, but hopefully once the story is out and they get their message across, he will be released without being harmed.

CAFFERTY: But it's a little vague exactly what they want. What's your best understanding of what the kidnappers would like to see happen? And what is the chances it's going to happen?

MCCANN: Well, of course all hostage-takers want the unattainable, which is they want -- supposedly this was in Urdu. It was an adjunct message to the e-mail, and they wanted the aircraft that we had sold to Pakistani government and did not deliver. That's been resolved between our government. They want better treatment for the detainees, and they specifically wanted Pakistani detainees to be returned to Pakistan to be tried there.

This organization also is a brand new name, but it is, we all think, is probably a outcropping of the Hakarad (ph) Mujahedeen, which was put on the State Department list back in 1997. It had five or six different names. So it is a very murky situation, and trying to get to the heart of it will be difficult. It's going to be a little bit of a rough road ahead.

CAFFERTY: All right, appreciate your perspective. Thanks for joining us here this morning.

MCCANN: Thank you, Jack.

CAFFERTY: All right, Kelly McCann, CNN security analyst, and CEO of Crucible Security.

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