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American Morning

A Look at the World of Osama bin Laden; Tape Released of Two Kidnapped Fox Journalists

Aired August 23, 2006 - 08:30   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Rick Sanchez, in for today Miles O'Brien.

(NEWSBREAK)

O'BRIEN: A new poll out shows Republicans are seen as stronger on terror; Democrats have the edge when it comes to the war in Iraq. What do those numbers mean for elected officials and the upcoming midterm elections? One congressional race in Pennsylvania could speak volumes about what lies ahead for all politicians.

AMERICAN MORNING's Bob Franken in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, this morning.

Bob, good morning. We're talking about Representative Curt Weldon's race, aren't we?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We are. And he is a 19-year incumbent in Congress, somebody who has been entrenched for a long time. He's in a district here where, as you can see behind me, has a lot of oil refineries. It's outside Pennsylvania -- it's outside Philadelphia on the Delaware River. And he is in for quite a fight, possibly the first one he's ever had.

Now, as far as the national security issues are concerned, the Republicans have generally been able to exploit those issues since the Bush presidency. But what we're seeing now is a tendency for more of a debate over that. The particular opponent here in this particular district, Joe Sestak, is a retired three-star admiral. He has very strong national security credentials. He's making an issue out of it here. And even with those poll numbers, Soledad, the Democrats feel the Republicans may be vulnerable.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk, Bob, for a moment about those poll numbers. The new survey that comes from the Opinion Research Corporation shows 48 percent of people polled think Republicans are stronger on terror, compared to 38 percent of Democrats. For future attacks, more than half say there will be no change whether the Democrats take control. So what do you think, overall, those polls mean for the big national picture, then?

FRANKEN: Well, the Democrats are of the opinion that they're a mixed bag, that these are numbers that could be changed, particularly in the area of terrorism. They also show that people -- the polls show that people are separating for the first time the Iraq war and the terrorism issue, which for a long time had become a staple for the Republicans.

So, what we have now is something that's in transition. The experts will tell you that the large issue is that the incumbency may not be a big advantage this time, that people may be out for a change. And that could bode ill for the likes of a Curt Weldon.

O'BRIEN: Bob Franken for us this morning. Bob, thanks.

Rick?

SANCHEZ: Just how likely are we to capture Osama bin Laden? Well, there's a new poll out from the Opinion Research Corporation. It says 58 percent of you think that he'll be captured or killed eventually. That's down by from 66 percent two years ago, and down 76 percent from 2001.

But to catch the man, you have to know the man. CNN is taking a closer look at the life of Osama bin Laden and his first warning to the Western world.

Here's CNN's Christiane Amanpour.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The mountains of Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden would feel most at home, the place he came to when he was in trouble, safe behind these walls.

(on camera): By 1996 Osama bin Laden was a man on the run, stripped of his Saudi citizenship and banished from Sudan. He came to this, now destroyed, compound in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. It was from here that he would galvanize his followers by declaring war on America. He had a chilling message, and he delivered it to CNN in his first-ever television interview.

PETER ARNETT, JOURNALIST: My name is Peter Arnett. I met bin Laden as a CNN correspondent in Afghanistan in March 1997. While bin Laden was not well-known to the American public or to the world, within the news media there was quite a lot of competition for that interview.

AMANPOUR (voice-over): Spearheading CNN's effort was then producer Peter Bergen. He negotiated for months with bin Laden contact in London.

PETER BERGEN, JOURNALIST: And then we basically got the green light. About a month later, I got a call saying a man in Kuwait wants to see you, which was the code for go to Jalalabad, see bin Laden.

Mr. Bin Laden, you have declared a jihad against the United States. Can you tell us why?

OSAMA BIN LADEN, LEADER, AL QAEDA: (speaking foreign language)

GRAPHICS: We declared jihad on America because the U.S. government is unjust.

BERGEN: Basically, he was declaring war against the United States for the first time to Western reporters. That was the message.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: That was the message, and this is the man. As a matter of fact, the man who did that interview is with us right now. CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen is good enough to spend some time with us this morning.

That was 1997. You were one of the first persons to sit down with him. Did you get a sense then that he was essentially declaring a holy war against the United States? Because prior to that, it was more of an Middle Eastern conflict, right?

BERGEN: Yes. I mean, it was the first time that he told Western reporters he was declaring war on the United States. He said in the interview that he declaring war against U.S. military. If American civilians got in the way, it was sort of their problem. Obviously over time, you know, it became both the U.S. military and U.S. civilians.

SANCHEZ: Something interesting about this documentary that's going to be airing tonight on CNN -- as I was reading some of the material on it last night, I got a feeling that -- and I didn't know this. Osama bin Laden possibly came to the United States at one point.

BERGEN: Yes. According to his childhood friend, bin Laden's oldest son had a health problem when he was a very young boy and went to the United States for his health problem. Now, there's some controversy within the bin Laden family whether that's actually the case. Other people in the family say that bin Laden traveled to the United Kingdom for this medical treatment for his young son.

By the way, this is one of the very few times the bin Laden traveled to the West. He is unlike -- most of the rest of the family, quite Western-oriented. A lot of them studied in the West. That's not the case with bin Laden himself.

SANCHEZ: There's some irony, if not some hypocrisy there, isn't there? I mean, I hate them, I hate them, I hate them. My son's in trouble, I'm going to go to them.

BERGEN: Bin Laden drove a Chrysler when he a teenager. You know, he was anti-American when -- you know, as a young man. By his own account, it was the Israeli incursion into Lebanon in 1982 that really turned him against the United States, because it was his view that, without American support, that wouldn't have happened.

SANCHEZ: Wasn't it his adherence to al-Zawahiri and the Muslim Brotherhood and that combination of factors that kind of led him in that direction? Was he led into this Islamic fundamentalism?

BERGEN: Well, you know, he's an intelligent man, so you know, he can make his own decisions. But certainly, he was very influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood, initially, and then -- which is an Egyptian organization originally -- and also by Egyptians like Ayman al- Zawahiri.

SANCHEZ: But here, he's got a dad who's almost like royalty, Muhammed, friend of the royal family, right?

BERGEN: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Engineer, wealthy man, many children, lots of wives. You'd think Osama bin Laden could have had it made to stay as he was.

BERGEN: Well, you know, if other circumstances happened, he would have just been a -- not -- a rather ordinary member of the bin Laden family, drawing the million dollar a year paycheck and living a rather unexceptional life in Saudi Arabia. What really transformed him was the experience of going to Afghanistan and fighting the Soviets. That changed him rather dramatically.

SANCHEZ: Do we know where he is, or do you have a sense -- obviously, I know, not exactly which cave or which grid, but...

BERGEN: Twenty-seven million dollars if you can answer the question with any accuracy.

SANCHEZ: Is he going to be in the mountains of either Pakistan or that area in there?

BERGEN: Yes. I mean, it is the universal consensus of the American intelligence community and U.S. military that's in Pakistan in the northwest frontier province on that border with Afghanistan, possibly way up in the north.

SANCHEZ: Disappointed that he got away? How did he get away?

BERGEN: He got away -- I mean, he was at the battle of Tora Bora, we had him sort of surrounded, but we didn't have enough American troops on the ground, by my calculation. There more American journalists at Tora Bora in December of 2001, than American troops.

SANCHEZ: Final question. Is he apocalyptic? Is he getting almost what he wished for with the wars in Iraq and the recent situation in Lebanon?

BERGEN: Well, the war in Iraq and the situation in Lebanon both feed into his narrative about the United States, no doubt. Does he have an apocalyptic worldview? Yes. I mean, he would like -- if he had a nuclear weapon he could drop on the United States, he would do it tomorrow.

SANCHEZ: Peter Bergen, thanks for coming by and talking to us. Should be good tonight. Look forward to it, 9:00. Appreciate it. We'll get much more tonight when we see the stories only CNN can tell you about, the man who became the world's most wanted terrorist. Don't miss "In the Footsteps of bin Laden." It's going to be a "CNN PRESENTS" special two-hour investigation with Christiane Amanpour. It's tonight 9:00 Eastern, once again only on CNN.

Soledad, early to you.

O'BRIEN: We were reporting earlier former American U.N. Andrew Young stepping down from a Wal-Mart committee after making what some people said were racially insensitive comments. When the former Atlanta mayor was asked whether Wal-Mart's forcing mom-and-pop stores to close. He says, i should. Then he went on. He's quoted as saying that "Jews, and Koreans and Arabs have ripped off enough communities," so Wal-Mart should come in, was the inference. Young appeared on "ANDERSON COOPER 360," had this to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW YOUNG, FMR. U.N. AMBASSADOR: I resigned because I'm a professional, and I goofed. I shouldn't have lost my cool with that reporter. And for me to make this kind of almost hate speech should not reflect on any of my associations. And rather than have it reflect on my associations, I'd rather separate myself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Young was hired to help Wal-Mart improve the company's image.

SANCHEZ: Most hostages in Gaza are released within hours. So why is there still no word on two journalists kidnapped nine days ago? That's going to be coming up. We'll be looking into it.

O'BRIEN: Also the Virginia man who's accused in the shooting deaths of a sheriff's deputy and security guard, some say he was legendary for bizarre behavior even before the shootings. We'll explain just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

SANCHEZ: Here's a story that really hits close to home for all of us this in this profession. The conflict in Southern Lebanon has overshadowed the kidnapping of two Fox News journalists in Gaza a week and a half ago. The two, an American reporter and a New Zealand cameraman, disappeared August 14th.

CNN's Paula Hancocks is joining us now live from Jerusalem.

Paula, have we heard anything since their disappearance?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rick, just in the past 60 seconds alone, we have heard that there has been coming out of Gaza a videotape which shows the two men looking alive and looking well. We understand it's from a group called the "Holy Jihad." Now, this is a group that we have not heard of before. This is a group that we're not familiar with at all, neither are our the security sources in Gaza, so obviously and a new group that has formed quite recently.

And two men, 36-year-old cameraman Olaf Wiig and also the 60- year-old reporter Steve Centanni, are seated. They're looking well. They say they are being fed. They feel good. They just want to go home.

And so this has just come in to us in the past couple of minutes. We're hoping to have that tape from Gaza itself in the next 15 minutes, showing us that the two have actually been seen well and alive. So this is very significant.

Up until about a couple of minutes ago, nothing had been heard from the kidnappers of these two Fox journalists, and we hadn't heard any demands, any claims of responsibility. It was very unusual, and concerns were mounting about their safety.

Now, usually in this sort of situation, kidnappers want to make a statement, they want to demand money, jobs or a prisoner exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HANCOCKS (voice-over): It is the tenth day since two Fox journalists were kidnapped in Gaza. Still no word on who took them and why. Thirty-six-year-old cameraman Olaf Wiig from New Zealand and 60-year-old American reporter Steve Centani were abducted by masked men in the center of Gaza City.

Both men are well respected, experienced journalists who have worked for a number of broadcasters. including CNN.

KEN CENTANNI, BROTHER OF KIDNAPPED JOURNALIST: Our brother, Steve Centanni, was kidnapped on August 14th, last Monday.

HANCOCKS: Families of both have made televised appeals for their release. The brother of Centanni made a statement on Arab network Al- Jazeera.

The wife of cameraman Wiig met protesting mothers of Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails.

ANITA MCNAUGHT, WIFE OF KIDNAPPED JOURNALIST: In Gaza today, it's like a prison. And now my husband, his colleague, Steve, and I are all in prison with you.

HANCOCKS: But still, no contact has been made by the kidnappers. The press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders says it is becoming increasingly concerned that no group has claimed responsibility for their abduction, despite the many appeals for their release.

Palestinian journalists took to the streets of Gaza over the weekend, saying coverage of the Palestinian cause would be severely damaged if abductions continued. In New Zealand diplomat Peter Rider met with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya. Haniya gave a personal commitment to do all he could to secure the journalists' release.

PETER RIDER, NEW ZEALAND DIPLOMAT: Gaza is a very confused place. That's why it's so difficult to get leads. It's not an ordinary city where ordinary policing works in a normal way. It's much more going to be somebody coming to tell somebody something, because they think that's the right thing to do. So I would ask them to come out and tell us if they do know anything.

HANCOCKS: Palestinian security sources say an unnamed militant group has warned all foreigners to leave Gaza, threatening abductions. At least 26 foreigners have been kidnapped in Gaza over the past two years, nine from the media. Hostages have usually been released within hours.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HANCOCKS: Now, that report was prepared just before we did hear that in the past few minutes, we have confirmed there is video of the two men that have been kidnapped by the Holy Jihad. Now, this is a group we're not familiar with, a group that has not been heard of before, but they are seen seated. They are saying they are being fed, and they are being well-treated. So finally, after nine, ten days of being held captive and no negotiations, no claim of responsibility, the first point of contact has been made -- Rick.

SANCHEZ: What do we know about this group? And since these things are usually about money, does it appear that this one is going to be about money, as well, Paula?

HANCOCKS: There are a number of things that it could be about. It could be demanding money, it could be demanding jobs, of course. Most people in working for the Palestinian Authority and working in Gaza at the moment are without jobs, because it is in such dire economic crisis. It could also be asking for a prisoner exchange.

At this point, we don't know exactly what they are demanding. We're hoping to get this tape within about the next ten minutes or so, and that should give us a clear indication of exactly what this group wants. But the group called the Holy Jihad. I personally haven't heard of it. Many people here and also our sources in Gaza are saying it must be a very new group, either that or it could be a splinter group of one of the more major militant groups that we're used to hearing from. So at this point, still very little known. But the crucial fact that both families of both men will be very pleased to know is that at this point, they are well -- Rick.

SANCHEZ: That is great news. It's good to hear. We've all kind of been holding our breaths here. We've worked with many of these folks as our colleagues, as well, and hopefully this thing will turn out well for them as we get this information. We do understand that you'll have that tape that you mentioned -- we're going to have it sometime around 9:00, which is about eight minutes from now. And we might be able to turn it around and show parts of here on CNN. Soledad, over to you.

SANCHEZ: What a relief from the family members to finally see some kind of evidence that they're at least OK.

Ahead this morning, most forecasters predicted that this would be an extremely busy hurricane season. It hasn't been. Why has it been so quiet so far? We're going to take a look just ahead as we continue right here on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BUSINESS HEADLINES)

SANCHEZ: We do have some developing news that's coming out of the Middle East. As a matter of fact, those two Fox journalists -- apparently there is a group now claiming responsibility. There's a video with their picture. The good news is that they look good in this video. A lot of developments, though. As we get them, we will share them with you. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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