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S. Korean Optimism Dashed as Businessman Killed in Iraq; Bush Reacts to News with Hungarian Prime Minister
Aired June 22, 2004 - 13:58 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: It happened again. A civilian hostage killed by an Iraqi militant group. It is a story developing this afternoon. We've got the details and world reaction.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Treatment of prisoners at Gitmo. What did the Pentagon authorize? New memos released this afternoon/
PHILLIPS: And finally on sale. President Clinton on the record and on the road, pumping up his life in print.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, hello, Kyra Phillips. Miles is on assignment.
WHITFIELD: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM begins right now.
PHILLIPS: Shock waves in Iraq today over the execution of a South Korean hostage. Iraqi militants carried out their threat and kill 33-year-old Kim Sun-Il. Our chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, is live from Baghdad with the latest now -- Christiane.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, when word started first to come from Al-Jazeera, which ran a crawl on its channel saying that the militants holding Kim Sun-Il had in fact beheaded him. Then we heard that the U.S. military had found a body of an Asian man in the vicinity around here and had sent pictures of that to the South Korean embassy who had positively identified those photos as being the corpse of Kim Sun-Il, the 33- year-old man who had so dramatically and harrowingly pleaded for his life on that video that was broadcast on Sunday evening.
Also, obviously, we have confirmation now from the South Korean foreign ministry. The video that was broadcast pleading for his life saw him in English crying, begging, saying that he did not want to die, also saying to keep South Korean troops out.
Now the militants, the killers who got him said that they wanted South Korea to remove the 600 or so military personnel they have here in Iraq and to not deploy 3000 or so more that they plan to deploy. South Korean officials had sent mediators to this region. They were here in Iraq today. But it was too late. There was word that perhaps the deadline for the execution had been extended. It was due to have expired at midnight Monday our time. But apparently, it may have been extended, although we can't be sure. We don't know that. We just know that it is only now that this news has flashed. Al-Jazeera, who has always been given this news first, was the first to broadcast it -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Christiane, with regard to the relationship between the United States and South Korea, relations have not been that good, although South Korea was involved somewhat in this war against terror. Where does it go forward from here?
AMANPOUR: Well, it's hard to tell. South Korea was standing firm despite these demands by these terrorists. It was not bowing, at least not in any public way, to the demand not to send any more troops.
Of course, the South Koreans are based up in the north of Iraq, where they're engaged in mostly humanitarian work. And there had been a suggestion that the following 3000 troops would go up around there as well.
Now a statement that had been broadcast on Al-Jazeera on the latest images is a statement by the alleged leader of this group just -- with the images you see of Kim Sun-Il in the orange jumpsuit, had said that this was addressed to the South Korean people, saying, enough of the lies, enough of the games, you claim that you're here on behalf of Iraq and the Iraqis, but the truth is you're here on behalf of the United States.
So it's this campaign of terror that is being mounted and accelerating as the handover countdown proceeds. It's against, obviously, U.S. soldiers, as it has been for a long time, but it's against foreigners, too. A lot of foreign contractors, foreign journalists, foreign workers here have been targets of this. And of course, not least, the Iraqis themselves.
Today there were two academics who were killed, assassinated up in the north. There were four other Iraqis killed by a roadside bomb. So the object appears to be to destabilize this whole process, to get foreign troops out, and to try to knock the interim government off course -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Christiane, you bring up an interesting point about attacking the foreign support in this war on terror. Previously we saw the two executions of Americans. Now it's a South Korean. Why South Korea?
AMANPOUR: Well, I suppose the obvious question -- the obvious answer would be that they have troops here. Others who have troops here have had their nationals targeted as well. The Japanese were targeted earlier, a couple of months ago. They managed to get their hostages released. But others have been killed.
The American Nicholas Berg was killed. Paul Johnson was killed. And there was all sorts of claims about his killers about what was going on in Iraq, what was going on against Muslims around the world. So it is this campaign against people who are involved here, who are working with the occupational authorities.
Now apparently, Kim himself, according to the reports that we can gather, had been working in Iraq for the better part of a year. He was working as a translator for a firm that apparently was involved in supplying elements of the U.S. military, apparently food or some such thing. He was also, according to reports, a devout Christian. And from what we know, and of course we never really know, but from what we know he was kidnapped in Fallujah. It's not at all clear what he was doing there.
PHILLIPS: Christiane Amanpour, live from Baghdad. Thank you.
WHITFIELD: Well, on the issue of the treatment of detainees in Iraq and Guantanamo now, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said there's no wiggle room on the subject of torture. But secret memos and a list of aggressive interrogation tactics are raising new questions today. It has to do with a Gitmo detainee and what was and was not allowed in his interrogation. Let's go to senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre for details now -- Jamie.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, the Pentagon is saying that when it releases documents later today, memos between Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and some of the commanders and interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba, it will show that he did not authorize a controversial interrogation technique known as "water boarding" in which the subject is made to feel as though he is drowning.
Instead, the Pentagon will show that there was a list of very aggressive interrogation techniques that was requested by the commanders. That included convincing a detainee that death or severe pain could be imminent, exposure to cold weather or water, inducing the perception of suffocating using a wet towel or water. That's the so-called water boarding technique. And also mild, non-injurious physical contact such as grabbing an arm or poking somebody in the chest.
The Pentagon says that last one is the only one of those aggressive techniques that Defense Secretary Rumsfeld approved, that he specifically did not approve of some of the more aggressive techniques. He also approved things such as extended interrogation sessions of more than 20 hours, and even forcing a detainee to stand for up to four hours at a time. Rumsfeld noting in the memo, I'm told, that he stands every day for eight hours a day because he works at a stand-up desk. So he certainly didn't consider that torture.
Anyway, the point of releasing all of these documents today is to try to underscore the Pentagon's case that while it was doing everything it could to get information out of detainees that they thought were valuable sources of intelligence, the Pentagon asserts it did not cross the line into anything that could be construed as torture -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: So Jamie, there's no likelihood that this report would name any other names, anyone else who may have approved such tactics outside of the defense secretary?
MCINTYRE: Well, what it's going to show is exactly what was requested, what some of the interrogators wanted to do, and what Rumsfeld signed off on and what he approved, and they're going to argue that none of the things that he approved were torture.
WHITFIELD: Jamie McIntyre from the Pentagon, thanks very much -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: New numbers out today in the war on terror. And they're said to show many more victims than the State Department had first reported. CNN's Sean Callebs is in Washington waiting for this revised report to be made public.
What can we expect today to come out of this report, Sean?
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, we can expect U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to hold a briefing probably sometime within the next 10 minutes or so at the State Department. Now the initial report said that there were some 190 global attacks on terrorism, claiming 307 lives. There is the revised report.
The significance here, that would have been the fewest number of people killed in terrorist activities in 35 years. Very significant for an administration that has made fighting global terrorism one of the cornerstones of the administration.
However, the new revised figures will show there were 200-plus attacks and a total of 625 people killed in these terrorist activities. That is a sharp revision, more than doubling the number of people killed last year, 2003, in terrorist activities -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Sean, what does this mean about the war on terror? Is it as successful as the Bush administration has said it has been or not?
CALLEBS: That depends on who you ask. The administration says the bottom line is this shows that there are positive strides being made in the global fight on terrorism. The administration points out in 2002 more than 775 people were killed in terrorist assaults. It also goes to -- it also details the fact that the State Department sort of streamlined the way that the intelligence agencies were able to speak to the other, to each other.
However, many congressional members aren't so sure. In fact, one saying on the floor today a funny thing happened on the way to the printer. They say that perhaps the numbers were deliberately manipulated to show the administration as actually making more inroads in the fight against terror than it actually is.
Secretary Powell has vehemently denied that. He says there is no effort to try and couch the numbers, that there were simply problems in the way the new system was set up, simply the way the numbers were calculated and the various entities involved in all this -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: So you're saying it wasn't manipulation, that Colin Powell is coming forward, saying there was just a mistake. How high could these numbers be?
CALLEBS: Well, the numbers themselves, we already know that they are going to say it's 625 people were killed rather than 307. There were a number of things playing into this factor. One, the organization responsible for counting those killed in terrorist acts stopped counting on November 11, and there were serious attacks in Russia blamed on Chechen rebels and Saudi Arabia as well as a series of blasts in Turkey that claimed 61 lives in the end of November.
PHILLIPS: Sean Callebs live from Washington, D.C. Thank you.
PHILLIPS: We are waiting for Secretary of State Colin Powell to make some public remarks. We'll take those live as soon as that happens. We're on stakeout.
Also, we're going to take you live to Seoul, South Korea, where the story continues about the hostage whose life was taken within the past hour. More on that right after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: More now on our top story, the killing of a South Korean hostage in Iraq. The South Korean government had appealed through the Arab media for Kim Sun-Il's release. Our Sohn Jie-Ae is on the phone with us from Seoul with reaction there.
And Jie-Ae, to what extent did the South Korean government go to try to negotiate something for his safe release?
SOHN JIE-AE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the South Korean government, the South Korean foreign minister appeared on the Middle East channel Al-Jazeera. There the South Korean -- there was a delegation sent to Iraq. The South Korean people were out in the streets pleading for the safe release of Kim Sun-Il.
There are people on the Internet logging on to the Al-Jazeera home page. So there were a lot of efforts being made both on the government as well as the private side. But it seems all for naught as just about an hour-and-a-half ago the South Korean foreign ministry spokesman took the podium and had very grave news for the South Korean public.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): It breaks our heart that we have to announce this unfortunate news. On June 22, Seoul time 10:20 p.m. and Baghdad time 5:20 p.m., the South Korean embassy in Iraq was informed a body identified to be of an Asian male was found between Baghdad and Fallujah. Afterwards a photo of the body was e- mailed to the South Korean embassy and was confirmed to be the body of Kim Sun-Il. South Korean embassy officials are on their way to get the body.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: And we'll get back to Sohn Jie-Ae in a moment to continue our coverage there on the killing of a South Korean hostage. For now we want to take you to the White House. Taped comments coming earlier from President Bush there as he was meeting with the president (sic) of Hungary. Let's listen in.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I will have a statement. He will have a statement. We'll answer two questions per side. Hold on a second, please. I'll have a statement. He will have a statement. And then we'll have two questions per side. I'll call upon an American reporter, and he will call upon a Hungarian reporter.
Mr. Prime Minister, welcome. We have just had another meaningful discussion about a lot of issues, starting with our bilateral relations.
Relations between Hungary and the United States are strong, and I want to thank the prime minister for your friendship.
I told the prime minister I appreciate a man who sticks by his word. When the prime minister gives you his word, he means it. He is a strong leader for Hungary. He is a strong ally for the United States. More importantly, he is a strong visionary for free and peaceful societies.
I appreciate very much, Mr. Prime Minister, the sacrifices of the Hungarian people when it comes to making the world more secure and peaceful. Your great country lost a brave soldier. I extend the deepest condolences to the family of that soldier from the United States of America. I appreciate his sacrifice, and I want his folks to know that we will complete our task and the world will be more peaceful and more free because Iraq will be free and peaceful.
Thank you very much for understanding the hopes and aspirations of the Iraqi people.
I also appreciated our discussion about NATO. We are allies in an important alliance. And our jobs are to make sure that NATO fulfills its mission, which is a hopeful mission to bring stability and peace throughout the world.
I want to thank you for your briefing of the recent E.U. meetings. And as you know, I'm going to Ireland to visit with the leadership of the E.U. and I want to thank you for giving me a good strong briefing on the E.U.
And finally, we had a really interesting discussion about the Hungarian economy. And the prime minister has got a very good vision about making sure that the Hungarian workforce is educated for the jobs of the 21st century. We talked about how we can work together on high-tech transfers and educational transfers.
I told the prime minister that the decisions he's making for his economy are very important in attracting U.S. capital, that Hungary is a place that is a stable country based upon rule of law and transparency, and that we look forward to working together to make sure our trade is vibrant, as well as travel between our countries is expedited.
We have talked about a visa policy that admittedly has created a problem in Hungary. The prime minister came and told me directly that he expects me and my administration to do everything we can to expedite travel between Hungary and the United States.
I appreciated your very strong statement on behalf of the Hungarian people.
And I assure him that we will work as best we can to make sure the visa system works like we want it to work, because in America we welcome people from all parts of the world. We welcome your business leaders. We welcome your students. We welcome your artists. And it's in our nation's interest that we have a full interchange and exchange with the Hungarian people.
So I want to thank you for coming, Mr. Prime Minister. You're a good strong leader and a good friend, and welcome.
PETER MEDGYESSY, PRIME MINISTER OF HUNGARY, (through translator): Thank you very much, Mr. President, for the opportunity. Just within two years this is the second opportunity to meet.
American-Hungarian relations can enter a new stage now. The past two years should prove that we are reliable and predictable partners, and we can step beyond that now.
And as it's been mentioned by the president right now, we can make good progress in terms of technology cooperation, technology transfer, research and development, education.
And a good development of economic relations is extremely important for Hungary.
Thank you very much, Mr. President, for bringing up the visa issue. I especially requested the president to look into this matter, how this can be expedited.
American-Hungarian relations are entering a new dimension now, because we have become members of the European Union, which means we shall present a new quality.
I was truly delighted to see that in the European Council meeting trans-Atlantic relations were very important and there is a true intention on the part of Europe to find the fastest possible solution for the Iraq issue. And I could feel in that issue that everybody is looking forward now.
Mr. President referred to the death of the Hungarian soldier, which is, of course, very painful to all of us.
Nevertheless, I could confirm to the president that Hungary's commitment to the presence in Iraq is unchanged. And we want to promote stabilization.
Our troops will not be removed before the term. And we are more than happy to participate in processes that can promote the transfer of stabilization, democratization, all our know-how...
(CROSSTALK)
MEDGYESSY (through translator): And thank you very much, Mr. President, once again, for the opportunity, because this can give another impetus, a new impetus to American-Hungarian relations.
BUSH: Thank you, sir. Thank you.
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. Secretary Rumsfeld expressed some concern last week that a perception might be taking hold that your administration (OFF-MIKE) worried that might give other countries an excuse to torture American civilians and American soldiers. I'm wondering if that's what prompted you to release these memos (OFF-MIKE).
BUSH: Let me make very clear the position of my government and our country. We do not condone torture. I have never ordered torture. I will never order torture. The values of this country are such that torture is not a part of our soul and our being.
The prime minister brought up the Abu Ghraib situation. I assured him that these soldiers do not represent what Americans think. And I also assured him that, unlike a society run by a tyrant, the world will see an open, fair trial for those accused of breaking U.S. military law.
QUESTION: Mr. President, (OFF-MIKE)
BUSH: In Iraq? What's important for the Iraqis to know is that the world stands with them as a free society emerges. Hungary is a society which is a free society. It's a society which has rejected totalitarianism and has now welcomed democracy and rule of law and human rights and human dignity. And it's very important for the Iraqi people to be able to share those values with people beyond just the United States.
I mean, Hungary is such a great example of what is possible in a free society.
Plus it helps to have troops fulfill certain missions as we help rebuild Iraq. It's more than just a symbol. These troops are providing a very important role as Iraq emerges from a society run and brutalized by a tyrant to a society in which people are able to realize their hopes and aspirations -- and it's happening.
I told the prime minister I was very pleased with Prime Minister Allawi's strength and his vision and his strong statements, particularly in the face of these brutal terrorist attacks.
He's not going to be intimidated by these killers. And he said that he understands what a free society will mean.
We're not going to be intimidated by the terrorists either. Freedom is too precious and too valuable. And free societies wind up making the world a more peaceful place, which is my hope and it's the prime minister's hope as well.
QUESTION: Mr. President (OFF-MIKE)
BUSH: I haven't had a chance to speak to President Roh yet, but I would hope that President Roh would understand that the free world cannot be intimidated by the brutal action of these barbaric people.
See, what they're trying to do is they're trying to shake our will and our confidence. They're trying to get us to withdraw from the world so that they can impose their dark vision on people.
And remember what their dark vision is like. Remember what it was like for a young girl with the Taliban in Afghanistan? This was a society where young girls weren't even allowed to go to school, a society where people were humiliated in public. This is a society where people couldn't worship freely. This was a dark and dismal society.
And that's their vision of the world. In order to impose their vision, they want us to leave. They want us to cower in the face of their brutal killings.
And the United States will not be intimidated by these people because we believe strongly in freedom and liberty and human rights and human dignity, freedom to worship as you see fit, freedom to speak your mind. And I believe President Roh understands that.
MEDGYESSY (through translator): And we share the same values with the United States.
QUESTION (through translator): Mr. Prime Minister, has it been brought up that perhaps the mandate of Hungarian troops will be prolonged after the 31st of December? Did you touch upon that issue?
MEDGYESSY (through translator): We were talking about how delighted we were about the Security Council resolution both in Europe...
(CROSSTALK)
MEDGYESSY (through translator): That we welcome the intention that gradually the conditions are created for the Iraqi people to take over control over the government. And in the awareness of that process we should decide whatever should happen with Hungarian soldiers then.
BUSH: Thank you, sir.
MEDGYSSY: Thank you.
BUSH: Good job.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: President Bush there at the White House meeting with the prime minister of Hungary, talking about a number of things pertaining to Iraq, from the continued strong relations between the U.S. and Hungary to the condemnation of the killing of the South Korean businessman.
And President Bush also responding to questions about the methods of treatment of detainees in Iraq as well as Gitmo, saying, we do not condone torture, I have never ordered torture.
In fact, we're waiting from the White House to release documents about the approval or lack thereof of interrogations. And Dana Bash is at the White House, also awaiting those documents coming from the White House.
What are we expecting to see in those documents?
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, that is the reason why the president was asked about that issue at this time. We are awaiting really what seems to be a concerted effort by the Bush administration to try to have what seems to be an old- fashioned Washington document dump pertaining to what exactly was suggested, what was proposed versus what was actually approved by President Bush in terms of interrogation techniques for suspected terrorists.
There have been a lot of questions and even some leaked memos, of course, that we've reported on coming from the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice from 2002, suggesting that some of the international laws and treaties could be stretched.
Now, the White House has said since then that these were simply academic papers, if you will, or opinion pieces but that what was important was that the president himself said that any kind of interrogation must be within the laws of the Geneva Convention, for example, for these terror suspects, and that that is what the decree was and that the president does not condone any kind of torture.
That's why you heard the president say that. That is what we're expecting the White House to try to convince reporters and Americans of when they, as we understand it, release some documents later today, both here at the White House and over at the Pentagon -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. As we continue to wait for those documents, is the White House elaborating in any way on how the U.S. and perhaps South Korea may have worked together in trying to win the safe release of Kim Sun-Il, who we know now has been killed in Iraq?
BASH: Well, unclear about behind-the-scenes workings, certainly we could imagine that there was a great deal of that. But what was interesting in this meeting is that obviously the reason allegedly that the people who did this gave was because they didn't want South Korea's 3000 troops to come into Iraq. And it was noteworthy that the president had the prime minister of Hungary, who does have some troops in Iraq, sitting next to him, pledging that he too will keep his troops there -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. Dana Bash, thanks very much, from the White House now. 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 June 22, 2004 - 13:58 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: It happened again. A civilian hostage killed by an Iraqi militant group. It is a story developing this afternoon. We've got the details and world reaction.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Treatment of prisoners at Gitmo. What did the Pentagon authorize? New memos released this afternoon/
PHILLIPS: And finally on sale. President Clinton on the record and on the road, pumping up his life in print.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, hello, Kyra Phillips. Miles is on assignment.
WHITFIELD: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM begins right now.
PHILLIPS: Shock waves in Iraq today over the execution of a South Korean hostage. Iraqi militants carried out their threat and kill 33-year-old Kim Sun-Il. Our chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, is live from Baghdad with the latest now -- Christiane.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, when word started first to come from Al-Jazeera, which ran a crawl on its channel saying that the militants holding Kim Sun-Il had in fact beheaded him. Then we heard that the U.S. military had found a body of an Asian man in the vicinity around here and had sent pictures of that to the South Korean embassy who had positively identified those photos as being the corpse of Kim Sun-Il, the 33- year-old man who had so dramatically and harrowingly pleaded for his life on that video that was broadcast on Sunday evening.
Also, obviously, we have confirmation now from the South Korean foreign ministry. The video that was broadcast pleading for his life saw him in English crying, begging, saying that he did not want to die, also saying to keep South Korean troops out.
Now the militants, the killers who got him said that they wanted South Korea to remove the 600 or so military personnel they have here in Iraq and to not deploy 3000 or so more that they plan to deploy. South Korean officials had sent mediators to this region. They were here in Iraq today. But it was too late. There was word that perhaps the deadline for the execution had been extended. It was due to have expired at midnight Monday our time. But apparently, it may have been extended, although we can't be sure. We don't know that. We just know that it is only now that this news has flashed. Al-Jazeera, who has always been given this news first, was the first to broadcast it -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Christiane, with regard to the relationship between the United States and South Korea, relations have not been that good, although South Korea was involved somewhat in this war against terror. Where does it go forward from here?
AMANPOUR: Well, it's hard to tell. South Korea was standing firm despite these demands by these terrorists. It was not bowing, at least not in any public way, to the demand not to send any more troops.
Of course, the South Koreans are based up in the north of Iraq, where they're engaged in mostly humanitarian work. And there had been a suggestion that the following 3000 troops would go up around there as well.
Now a statement that had been broadcast on Al-Jazeera on the latest images is a statement by the alleged leader of this group just -- with the images you see of Kim Sun-Il in the orange jumpsuit, had said that this was addressed to the South Korean people, saying, enough of the lies, enough of the games, you claim that you're here on behalf of Iraq and the Iraqis, but the truth is you're here on behalf of the United States.
So it's this campaign of terror that is being mounted and accelerating as the handover countdown proceeds. It's against, obviously, U.S. soldiers, as it has been for a long time, but it's against foreigners, too. A lot of foreign contractors, foreign journalists, foreign workers here have been targets of this. And of course, not least, the Iraqis themselves.
Today there were two academics who were killed, assassinated up in the north. There were four other Iraqis killed by a roadside bomb. So the object appears to be to destabilize this whole process, to get foreign troops out, and to try to knock the interim government off course -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Christiane, you bring up an interesting point about attacking the foreign support in this war on terror. Previously we saw the two executions of Americans. Now it's a South Korean. Why South Korea?
AMANPOUR: Well, I suppose the obvious question -- the obvious answer would be that they have troops here. Others who have troops here have had their nationals targeted as well. The Japanese were targeted earlier, a couple of months ago. They managed to get their hostages released. But others have been killed.
The American Nicholas Berg was killed. Paul Johnson was killed. And there was all sorts of claims about his killers about what was going on in Iraq, what was going on against Muslims around the world. So it is this campaign against people who are involved here, who are working with the occupational authorities.
Now apparently, Kim himself, according to the reports that we can gather, had been working in Iraq for the better part of a year. He was working as a translator for a firm that apparently was involved in supplying elements of the U.S. military, apparently food or some such thing. He was also, according to reports, a devout Christian. And from what we know, and of course we never really know, but from what we know he was kidnapped in Fallujah. It's not at all clear what he was doing there.
PHILLIPS: Christiane Amanpour, live from Baghdad. Thank you.
WHITFIELD: Well, on the issue of the treatment of detainees in Iraq and Guantanamo now, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said there's no wiggle room on the subject of torture. But secret memos and a list of aggressive interrogation tactics are raising new questions today. It has to do with a Gitmo detainee and what was and was not allowed in his interrogation. Let's go to senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre for details now -- Jamie.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, the Pentagon is saying that when it releases documents later today, memos between Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and some of the commanders and interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba, it will show that he did not authorize a controversial interrogation technique known as "water boarding" in which the subject is made to feel as though he is drowning.
Instead, the Pentagon will show that there was a list of very aggressive interrogation techniques that was requested by the commanders. That included convincing a detainee that death or severe pain could be imminent, exposure to cold weather or water, inducing the perception of suffocating using a wet towel or water. That's the so-called water boarding technique. And also mild, non-injurious physical contact such as grabbing an arm or poking somebody in the chest.
The Pentagon says that last one is the only one of those aggressive techniques that Defense Secretary Rumsfeld approved, that he specifically did not approve of some of the more aggressive techniques. He also approved things such as extended interrogation sessions of more than 20 hours, and even forcing a detainee to stand for up to four hours at a time. Rumsfeld noting in the memo, I'm told, that he stands every day for eight hours a day because he works at a stand-up desk. So he certainly didn't consider that torture.
Anyway, the point of releasing all of these documents today is to try to underscore the Pentagon's case that while it was doing everything it could to get information out of detainees that they thought were valuable sources of intelligence, the Pentagon asserts it did not cross the line into anything that could be construed as torture -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: So Jamie, there's no likelihood that this report would name any other names, anyone else who may have approved such tactics outside of the defense secretary?
MCINTYRE: Well, what it's going to show is exactly what was requested, what some of the interrogators wanted to do, and what Rumsfeld signed off on and what he approved, and they're going to argue that none of the things that he approved were torture.
WHITFIELD: Jamie McIntyre from the Pentagon, thanks very much -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: New numbers out today in the war on terror. And they're said to show many more victims than the State Department had first reported. CNN's Sean Callebs is in Washington waiting for this revised report to be made public.
What can we expect today to come out of this report, Sean?
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, we can expect U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to hold a briefing probably sometime within the next 10 minutes or so at the State Department. Now the initial report said that there were some 190 global attacks on terrorism, claiming 307 lives. There is the revised report.
The significance here, that would have been the fewest number of people killed in terrorist activities in 35 years. Very significant for an administration that has made fighting global terrorism one of the cornerstones of the administration.
However, the new revised figures will show there were 200-plus attacks and a total of 625 people killed in these terrorist activities. That is a sharp revision, more than doubling the number of people killed last year, 2003, in terrorist activities -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Sean, what does this mean about the war on terror? Is it as successful as the Bush administration has said it has been or not?
CALLEBS: That depends on who you ask. The administration says the bottom line is this shows that there are positive strides being made in the global fight on terrorism. The administration points out in 2002 more than 775 people were killed in terrorist assaults. It also goes to -- it also details the fact that the State Department sort of streamlined the way that the intelligence agencies were able to speak to the other, to each other.
However, many congressional members aren't so sure. In fact, one saying on the floor today a funny thing happened on the way to the printer. They say that perhaps the numbers were deliberately manipulated to show the administration as actually making more inroads in the fight against terror than it actually is.
Secretary Powell has vehemently denied that. He says there is no effort to try and couch the numbers, that there were simply problems in the way the new system was set up, simply the way the numbers were calculated and the various entities involved in all this -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: So you're saying it wasn't manipulation, that Colin Powell is coming forward, saying there was just a mistake. How high could these numbers be?
CALLEBS: Well, the numbers themselves, we already know that they are going to say it's 625 people were killed rather than 307. There were a number of things playing into this factor. One, the organization responsible for counting those killed in terrorist acts stopped counting on November 11, and there were serious attacks in Russia blamed on Chechen rebels and Saudi Arabia as well as a series of blasts in Turkey that claimed 61 lives in the end of November.
PHILLIPS: Sean Callebs live from Washington, D.C. Thank you.
PHILLIPS: We are waiting for Secretary of State Colin Powell to make some public remarks. We'll take those live as soon as that happens. We're on stakeout.
Also, we're going to take you live to Seoul, South Korea, where the story continues about the hostage whose life was taken within the past hour. More on that right after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: More now on our top story, the killing of a South Korean hostage in Iraq. The South Korean government had appealed through the Arab media for Kim Sun-Il's release. Our Sohn Jie-Ae is on the phone with us from Seoul with reaction there.
And Jie-Ae, to what extent did the South Korean government go to try to negotiate something for his safe release?
SOHN JIE-AE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the South Korean government, the South Korean foreign minister appeared on the Middle East channel Al-Jazeera. There the South Korean -- there was a delegation sent to Iraq. The South Korean people were out in the streets pleading for the safe release of Kim Sun-Il.
There are people on the Internet logging on to the Al-Jazeera home page. So there were a lot of efforts being made both on the government as well as the private side. But it seems all for naught as just about an hour-and-a-half ago the South Korean foreign ministry spokesman took the podium and had very grave news for the South Korean public.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): It breaks our heart that we have to announce this unfortunate news. On June 22, Seoul time 10:20 p.m. and Baghdad time 5:20 p.m., the South Korean embassy in Iraq was informed a body identified to be of an Asian male was found between Baghdad and Fallujah. Afterwards a photo of the body was e- mailed to the South Korean embassy and was confirmed to be the body of Kim Sun-Il. South Korean embassy officials are on their way to get the body.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: And we'll get back to Sohn Jie-Ae in a moment to continue our coverage there on the killing of a South Korean hostage. For now we want to take you to the White House. Taped comments coming earlier from President Bush there as he was meeting with the president (sic) of Hungary. Let's listen in.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I will have a statement. He will have a statement. We'll answer two questions per side. Hold on a second, please. I'll have a statement. He will have a statement. And then we'll have two questions per side. I'll call upon an American reporter, and he will call upon a Hungarian reporter.
Mr. Prime Minister, welcome. We have just had another meaningful discussion about a lot of issues, starting with our bilateral relations.
Relations between Hungary and the United States are strong, and I want to thank the prime minister for your friendship.
I told the prime minister I appreciate a man who sticks by his word. When the prime minister gives you his word, he means it. He is a strong leader for Hungary. He is a strong ally for the United States. More importantly, he is a strong visionary for free and peaceful societies.
I appreciate very much, Mr. Prime Minister, the sacrifices of the Hungarian people when it comes to making the world more secure and peaceful. Your great country lost a brave soldier. I extend the deepest condolences to the family of that soldier from the United States of America. I appreciate his sacrifice, and I want his folks to know that we will complete our task and the world will be more peaceful and more free because Iraq will be free and peaceful.
Thank you very much for understanding the hopes and aspirations of the Iraqi people.
I also appreciated our discussion about NATO. We are allies in an important alliance. And our jobs are to make sure that NATO fulfills its mission, which is a hopeful mission to bring stability and peace throughout the world.
I want to thank you for your briefing of the recent E.U. meetings. And as you know, I'm going to Ireland to visit with the leadership of the E.U. and I want to thank you for giving me a good strong briefing on the E.U.
And finally, we had a really interesting discussion about the Hungarian economy. And the prime minister has got a very good vision about making sure that the Hungarian workforce is educated for the jobs of the 21st century. We talked about how we can work together on high-tech transfers and educational transfers.
I told the prime minister that the decisions he's making for his economy are very important in attracting U.S. capital, that Hungary is a place that is a stable country based upon rule of law and transparency, and that we look forward to working together to make sure our trade is vibrant, as well as travel between our countries is expedited.
We have talked about a visa policy that admittedly has created a problem in Hungary. The prime minister came and told me directly that he expects me and my administration to do everything we can to expedite travel between Hungary and the United States.
I appreciated your very strong statement on behalf of the Hungarian people.
And I assure him that we will work as best we can to make sure the visa system works like we want it to work, because in America we welcome people from all parts of the world. We welcome your business leaders. We welcome your students. We welcome your artists. And it's in our nation's interest that we have a full interchange and exchange with the Hungarian people.
So I want to thank you for coming, Mr. Prime Minister. You're a good strong leader and a good friend, and welcome.
PETER MEDGYESSY, PRIME MINISTER OF HUNGARY, (through translator): Thank you very much, Mr. President, for the opportunity. Just within two years this is the second opportunity to meet.
American-Hungarian relations can enter a new stage now. The past two years should prove that we are reliable and predictable partners, and we can step beyond that now.
And as it's been mentioned by the president right now, we can make good progress in terms of technology cooperation, technology transfer, research and development, education.
And a good development of economic relations is extremely important for Hungary.
Thank you very much, Mr. President, for bringing up the visa issue. I especially requested the president to look into this matter, how this can be expedited.
American-Hungarian relations are entering a new dimension now, because we have become members of the European Union, which means we shall present a new quality.
I was truly delighted to see that in the European Council meeting trans-Atlantic relations were very important and there is a true intention on the part of Europe to find the fastest possible solution for the Iraq issue. And I could feel in that issue that everybody is looking forward now.
Mr. President referred to the death of the Hungarian soldier, which is, of course, very painful to all of us.
Nevertheless, I could confirm to the president that Hungary's commitment to the presence in Iraq is unchanged. And we want to promote stabilization.
Our troops will not be removed before the term. And we are more than happy to participate in processes that can promote the transfer of stabilization, democratization, all our know-how...
(CROSSTALK)
MEDGYESSY (through translator): And thank you very much, Mr. President, once again, for the opportunity, because this can give another impetus, a new impetus to American-Hungarian relations.
BUSH: Thank you, sir. Thank you.
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. Secretary Rumsfeld expressed some concern last week that a perception might be taking hold that your administration (OFF-MIKE) worried that might give other countries an excuse to torture American civilians and American soldiers. I'm wondering if that's what prompted you to release these memos (OFF-MIKE).
BUSH: Let me make very clear the position of my government and our country. We do not condone torture. I have never ordered torture. I will never order torture. The values of this country are such that torture is not a part of our soul and our being.
The prime minister brought up the Abu Ghraib situation. I assured him that these soldiers do not represent what Americans think. And I also assured him that, unlike a society run by a tyrant, the world will see an open, fair trial for those accused of breaking U.S. military law.
QUESTION: Mr. President, (OFF-MIKE)
BUSH: In Iraq? What's important for the Iraqis to know is that the world stands with them as a free society emerges. Hungary is a society which is a free society. It's a society which has rejected totalitarianism and has now welcomed democracy and rule of law and human rights and human dignity. And it's very important for the Iraqi people to be able to share those values with people beyond just the United States.
I mean, Hungary is such a great example of what is possible in a free society.
Plus it helps to have troops fulfill certain missions as we help rebuild Iraq. It's more than just a symbol. These troops are providing a very important role as Iraq emerges from a society run and brutalized by a tyrant to a society in which people are able to realize their hopes and aspirations -- and it's happening.
I told the prime minister I was very pleased with Prime Minister Allawi's strength and his vision and his strong statements, particularly in the face of these brutal terrorist attacks.
He's not going to be intimidated by these killers. And he said that he understands what a free society will mean.
We're not going to be intimidated by the terrorists either. Freedom is too precious and too valuable. And free societies wind up making the world a more peaceful place, which is my hope and it's the prime minister's hope as well.
QUESTION: Mr. President (OFF-MIKE)
BUSH: I haven't had a chance to speak to President Roh yet, but I would hope that President Roh would understand that the free world cannot be intimidated by the brutal action of these barbaric people.
See, what they're trying to do is they're trying to shake our will and our confidence. They're trying to get us to withdraw from the world so that they can impose their dark vision on people.
And remember what their dark vision is like. Remember what it was like for a young girl with the Taliban in Afghanistan? This was a society where young girls weren't even allowed to go to school, a society where people were humiliated in public. This is a society where people couldn't worship freely. This was a dark and dismal society.
And that's their vision of the world. In order to impose their vision, they want us to leave. They want us to cower in the face of their brutal killings.
And the United States will not be intimidated by these people because we believe strongly in freedom and liberty and human rights and human dignity, freedom to worship as you see fit, freedom to speak your mind. And I believe President Roh understands that.
MEDGYESSY (through translator): And we share the same values with the United States.
QUESTION (through translator): Mr. Prime Minister, has it been brought up that perhaps the mandate of Hungarian troops will be prolonged after the 31st of December? Did you touch upon that issue?
MEDGYESSY (through translator): We were talking about how delighted we were about the Security Council resolution both in Europe...
(CROSSTALK)
MEDGYESSY (through translator): That we welcome the intention that gradually the conditions are created for the Iraqi people to take over control over the government. And in the awareness of that process we should decide whatever should happen with Hungarian soldiers then.
BUSH: Thank you, sir.
MEDGYSSY: Thank you.
BUSH: Good job.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: President Bush there at the White House meeting with the prime minister of Hungary, talking about a number of things pertaining to Iraq, from the continued strong relations between the U.S. and Hungary to the condemnation of the killing of the South Korean businessman.
And President Bush also responding to questions about the methods of treatment of detainees in Iraq as well as Gitmo, saying, we do not condone torture, I have never ordered torture.
In fact, we're waiting from the White House to release documents about the approval or lack thereof of interrogations. And Dana Bash is at the White House, also awaiting those documents coming from the White House.
What are we expecting to see in those documents?
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, that is the reason why the president was asked about that issue at this time. We are awaiting really what seems to be a concerted effort by the Bush administration to try to have what seems to be an old- fashioned Washington document dump pertaining to what exactly was suggested, what was proposed versus what was actually approved by President Bush in terms of interrogation techniques for suspected terrorists.
There have been a lot of questions and even some leaked memos, of course, that we've reported on coming from the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice from 2002, suggesting that some of the international laws and treaties could be stretched.
Now, the White House has said since then that these were simply academic papers, if you will, or opinion pieces but that what was important was that the president himself said that any kind of interrogation must be within the laws of the Geneva Convention, for example, for these terror suspects, and that that is what the decree was and that the president does not condone any kind of torture.
That's why you heard the president say that. That is what we're expecting the White House to try to convince reporters and Americans of when they, as we understand it, release some documents later today, both here at the White House and over at the Pentagon -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. As we continue to wait for those documents, is the White House elaborating in any way on how the U.S. and perhaps South Korea may have worked together in trying to win the safe release of Kim Sun-Il, who we know now has been killed in Iraq?
BASH: Well, unclear about behind-the-scenes workings, certainly we could imagine that there was a great deal of that. But what was interesting in this meeting is that obviously the reason allegedly that the people who did this gave was because they didn't want South Korea's 3000 troops to come into Iraq. And it was noteworthy that the president had the prime minister of Hungary, who does have some troops in Iraq, sitting next to him, pledging that he too will keep his troops there -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. Dana Bash, thanks very much, from the White House now. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
