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CNN Live Today

Discussion with ITN Reporter Who's Team Came Under Fire

Aired March 24, 2003 - 11:40   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Gary. Gary Tuchman, by way of videophone, an air base near the Kuwaiti/Iraqi border.
A quick note here, CNN has confirmed a British soldier has been killed in action in Southern Iraq today, on Monday. That's according to the British Defense Ministry. Again, one British soldier killed earlier today, killed in action in Southern Iraq.

Tell you a guy who's lucky to be alive. His name is Daniel Demoustier. He's a photographer for the ITN television network. This past weekend, he and three other colleagues went into Iraq, unassisted, unescorted by either the British or U.S. military. Terry Lloyd, age 50, father of two and married, paid for that trip with his life. Terry Lloyd a longtime veteran correspondent for the ITN network and a long time war correspondent as well.

Earlier today, Daniel stopped by our location here, and he described what happened to him and his three other colleagues inside of Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANIEL DEMOUSTIER, ITN PHOTOGRAPHER: We were driving toward Basra. Iraqis were coming from Basra. The moment I saw the Iraqis, we did a U-turn, right, to get away from them, and the second car -- both cars did a U-turn. The Iraqi soldiers, my understanding was they wanted to surrender. But I didn't want to do anything to do with them. And my understanding is that they wanted to use us as a cover to drive on that road.

HEMMER: I see. So as you soon as you took the U-turn, that's when things got ugly. You were inside a vehicle. You were driving at the time. What was happening inside that would account for the wounds that I see on your face?

DEMOUSTIER: It was like a movie. You cannot imagine. I have got automatic gun fire inside the car. The windows were exploding. I had to duck down, and I was shouting and screaming, because I said, this is it, I'm dying right now. I mean, there's no way I can get out of this anymore. This all happened in a few seconds, of course. When I ducked down under my steering wheel, the car was still going, because you probably still push the gas, you know, I don't know. But I looked to the right a split second, and I saw Terry wasn't there anymore. He was out of the car. The door was open. So for a long time, I was very confident that he managed to jump out of the car.

HEMMER: You thought he might be OK at that time? DEMOUSTIER: Yes.

HEMMER: There were two other colleagues from your network as well. Do you have any idea about their fate?

DEMOUSTIER: I'm still confident that we're going to find him. Because later on, I'm pretty sure I saw Fred Nyrak (ph) coming out of a ditch trying to get to his car. His car was pretty OK. My car was bone nose (ph) completely, but his car was still there. It was too far away to get there for me, because it was still firing at me.

HEMMER: You were in two vehicles. You were not embedded. You were doing what's called unilateral. You were in there under your own decision and your own risk, frankly. Do you regret now looking back, given the shape that the battlefield that you encountered?

DEMOUSTIER: I think it is extremely important that we keep going with independent journalism, NEVILLE: at we have to try to find out what the exact situation is on the ground. Because I mean, the imbedded system is fantastic. We can get great footage. It's fantastic television. It's great pictures.

But it is also at the same time sometimes very difficult to get the right information, and I think we can only get the pure, independent information if you can go there and judge for yourself what is going on. We know that there are risks in it, and we have to calculate them. And again, it can go wrong. This was an incident, a very tragic incident, and I'm so sorry for my colleagues.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: Daniel Demoustier, again, lucky to be alive. Still shaken, visibly shaken during that interview. And here are two days later, still hopeful again that his two other colleagues may be treated in a hospital right now in Basra. But no confirmation as to their whereabouts or to their condition inside Iraq.

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 March 24, 2003 - 11:40   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Gary. Gary Tuchman, by way of videophone, an air base near the Kuwaiti/Iraqi border.
A quick note here, CNN has confirmed a British soldier has been killed in action in Southern Iraq today, on Monday. That's according to the British Defense Ministry. Again, one British soldier killed earlier today, killed in action in Southern Iraq.

Tell you a guy who's lucky to be alive. His name is Daniel Demoustier. He's a photographer for the ITN television network. This past weekend, he and three other colleagues went into Iraq, unassisted, unescorted by either the British or U.S. military. Terry Lloyd, age 50, father of two and married, paid for that trip with his life. Terry Lloyd a longtime veteran correspondent for the ITN network and a long time war correspondent as well.

Earlier today, Daniel stopped by our location here, and he described what happened to him and his three other colleagues inside of Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANIEL DEMOUSTIER, ITN PHOTOGRAPHER: We were driving toward Basra. Iraqis were coming from Basra. The moment I saw the Iraqis, we did a U-turn, right, to get away from them, and the second car -- both cars did a U-turn. The Iraqi soldiers, my understanding was they wanted to surrender. But I didn't want to do anything to do with them. And my understanding is that they wanted to use us as a cover to drive on that road.

HEMMER: I see. So as you soon as you took the U-turn, that's when things got ugly. You were inside a vehicle. You were driving at the time. What was happening inside that would account for the wounds that I see on your face?

DEMOUSTIER: It was like a movie. You cannot imagine. I have got automatic gun fire inside the car. The windows were exploding. I had to duck down, and I was shouting and screaming, because I said, this is it, I'm dying right now. I mean, there's no way I can get out of this anymore. This all happened in a few seconds, of course. When I ducked down under my steering wheel, the car was still going, because you probably still push the gas, you know, I don't know. But I looked to the right a split second, and I saw Terry wasn't there anymore. He was out of the car. The door was open. So for a long time, I was very confident that he managed to jump out of the car.

HEMMER: You thought he might be OK at that time? DEMOUSTIER: Yes.

HEMMER: There were two other colleagues from your network as well. Do you have any idea about their fate?

DEMOUSTIER: I'm still confident that we're going to find him. Because later on, I'm pretty sure I saw Fred Nyrak (ph) coming out of a ditch trying to get to his car. His car was pretty OK. My car was bone nose (ph) completely, but his car was still there. It was too far away to get there for me, because it was still firing at me.

HEMMER: You were in two vehicles. You were not embedded. You were doing what's called unilateral. You were in there under your own decision and your own risk, frankly. Do you regret now looking back, given the shape that the battlefield that you encountered?

DEMOUSTIER: I think it is extremely important that we keep going with independent journalism, NEVILLE: at we have to try to find out what the exact situation is on the ground. Because I mean, the imbedded system is fantastic. We can get great footage. It's fantastic television. It's great pictures.

But it is also at the same time sometimes very difficult to get the right information, and I think we can only get the pure, independent information if you can go there and judge for yourself what is going on. We know that there are risks in it, and we have to calculate them. And again, it can go wrong. This was an incident, a very tragic incident, and I'm so sorry for my colleagues.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: Daniel Demoustier, again, lucky to be alive. Still shaken, visibly shaken during that interview. And here are two days later, still hopeful again that his two other colleagues may be treated in a hospital right now in Basra. But no confirmation as to their whereabouts or to their condition inside Iraq.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com