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CNN Live At Daybreak
International News Desk
Aired October 25, 2002 - 05:51 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I have wandered over to our international desk to check on what they're covering today. We want to talk to our international editor, Lonzo Cook.
And, Lonzo, the big story of the day is, of course, happening in Moscow.
LONZO COOK, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Indeed. We have about 40 armed Chechen rebels who have taken about, just over 600 Russians, and also foreigners hostage in a Moscow theater. They're demanding an end to the Russian military campaign in Chechnya. And we do have some rather dramatic pictures taken by an NTV, that's a Russian TV group...
COSTELLO: Because the Chechen rebels invited television cameras into the theater to take some pictures of them?
COOK: Correct. Indeed. And it's quite dramatic stuff. You see some armed, the armed rebels. Only their leader is unmasked. He felt brave enough to do so. And strange enough, you also see pictures of armed women and they have their heads covered. And you will notice they also have bands of explosives surrounding their bodies and they are ready to blow themselves up should Russian forces try to storm the facility.
COSTELLO: Is it a normal thing for women to be fighting in the Chechen rebellion?
COOK: Well, they do regard it as a total war, so they're trying to motivate, you know, every force possible in their struggle.
COSTELLO: And how dangerous is it for our correspondents to be outside of that theater?
COOK: It's reasonably safe right now. They're outside the police cordon. We've been reporting live around the clock. We have three correspondents. Matthew Chance has just taken over live and we have Mike Hanna, as well. Certainly the...
COSTELLO: And the best news that's happened today is more children were released.
COOK: Eight children have been released. We expect more. Unfortunately, no foreigners. We've been waiting since yesterday for foreigners to be released. Western diplomats, including the U.S. ambassador, did show up. But that release has not taken place and we hope it will do so soon.
COSTELLO: And as far as we know, three Americans inside that theater?
COOK: Three Americans. Three Americans inside.
COSTELLO: I want to talk a little bit about Iraq, too, because I understand our correspondents have now been kicked out of the country.
COOK: Indeed, they have until Monday to leave. We're very proud of our Baghdad operation. We've been the only news organization to have a Western journalist based in Baghdad for almost, uninterruptedly for 12 years. And we hope it'll be a short departure from the city.
COSTELLO: Do we know why Iraq decided to expel our correspondents?
COOK: They're unhappy with certain aspects of our reporting. They're also unhappy that we have Brent Sadler in northern Iraq in the Kurdish controlled part of Iraq. One report they did take exception to was that we said that shots were fired to disperse an anti- government demonstration outside the Ministry of Information on Tuesday. They took exception to that, but we stand by our reporting.
COSTELLO: Yes, because we actually have pictures of the event.
COOK: Indeed, with the shots which can be clearly heard. So we stand by that and we hope, you know, that we will be let back in, that there'll be restrictions from time to time. We've been thrown out up to roughly five times. But this is the first time that our bureau has been effectively closed and we hope that the Iraqi government will see fit to let us back in in short order.
COSTELLO: We hope so, too.
Lonzo Cook, thank you very much.
I'll let you get back to work.
COOK: Thank you, Carol.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 25, 2002 - 05:51 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I have wandered over to our international desk to check on what they're covering today. We want to talk to our international editor, Lonzo Cook.
And, Lonzo, the big story of the day is, of course, happening in Moscow.
LONZO COOK, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Indeed. We have about 40 armed Chechen rebels who have taken about, just over 600 Russians, and also foreigners hostage in a Moscow theater. They're demanding an end to the Russian military campaign in Chechnya. And we do have some rather dramatic pictures taken by an NTV, that's a Russian TV group...
COSTELLO: Because the Chechen rebels invited television cameras into the theater to take some pictures of them?
COOK: Correct. Indeed. And it's quite dramatic stuff. You see some armed, the armed rebels. Only their leader is unmasked. He felt brave enough to do so. And strange enough, you also see pictures of armed women and they have their heads covered. And you will notice they also have bands of explosives surrounding their bodies and they are ready to blow themselves up should Russian forces try to storm the facility.
COSTELLO: Is it a normal thing for women to be fighting in the Chechen rebellion?
COOK: Well, they do regard it as a total war, so they're trying to motivate, you know, every force possible in their struggle.
COSTELLO: And how dangerous is it for our correspondents to be outside of that theater?
COOK: It's reasonably safe right now. They're outside the police cordon. We've been reporting live around the clock. We have three correspondents. Matthew Chance has just taken over live and we have Mike Hanna, as well. Certainly the...
COSTELLO: And the best news that's happened today is more children were released.
COOK: Eight children have been released. We expect more. Unfortunately, no foreigners. We've been waiting since yesterday for foreigners to be released. Western diplomats, including the U.S. ambassador, did show up. But that release has not taken place and we hope it will do so soon.
COSTELLO: And as far as we know, three Americans inside that theater?
COOK: Three Americans. Three Americans inside.
COSTELLO: I want to talk a little bit about Iraq, too, because I understand our correspondents have now been kicked out of the country.
COOK: Indeed, they have until Monday to leave. We're very proud of our Baghdad operation. We've been the only news organization to have a Western journalist based in Baghdad for almost, uninterruptedly for 12 years. And we hope it'll be a short departure from the city.
COSTELLO: Do we know why Iraq decided to expel our correspondents?
COOK: They're unhappy with certain aspects of our reporting. They're also unhappy that we have Brent Sadler in northern Iraq in the Kurdish controlled part of Iraq. One report they did take exception to was that we said that shots were fired to disperse an anti- government demonstration outside the Ministry of Information on Tuesday. They took exception to that, but we stand by our reporting.
COSTELLO: Yes, because we actually have pictures of the event.
COOK: Indeed, with the shots which can be clearly heard. So we stand by that and we hope, you know, that we will be let back in, that there'll be restrictions from time to time. We've been thrown out up to roughly five times. But this is the first time that our bureau has been effectively closed and we hope that the Iraqi government will see fit to let us back in in short order.
COSTELLO: We hope so, too.
Lonzo Cook, thank you very much.
I'll let you get back to work.
COOK: Thank you, Carol.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
