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American Morning

Interview of Kelly Campbell, Relative of 9/11 Victim

Aired January 16, 2002 - 09:33   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: We've been telling you this morning about a United Nations-sponsored trip involving meetings between American families of the victims of September the 11th, and Afghan families who are the victims of the U.S. bombing campaign there.

Joining me now, from Kabul, is Kelly Campbell. She's from Berkeley, California. She lost her brother in law during the terrorist attacks. Her brother in law was at the Pentagon.

Kelly, it is nice to have you with us. Tell me a little about what you are doing over there, if you would.

KELLY CAMPBELL, RELATIVE OF 9/11 VICTIM: Well, Jack, we've been here for a little over 24 hours now, and we've just seen some incredible stories. We've been meeting with families here who have lost their loved ones to the U.S. bombing campaign, and just seen some amazingly tragic stories, some beautiful people, and some people who really need help here in this country.

CAFFERTY: Can you give our viewers a sense of whether or not what you encountered in Kabul is what you expected, how the people live there, the kinds of settings, perhaps, that these meetings are taking place. Are you meeting with people's homes? Give us a little flavor of where you are, and what the people are like?

CAMPBELL: Well, the people have been absolutely wonderful.

Most of the meetings that we are doing are in people's homes, or in homes of their friends where they are staying. Several of the families that we've met, their homes have been destroyed as well as some of their family members killed. So, many of these people are actually displaced right now, and we've been meeting in mostly very small homes.

People who have nothing are offering us food as we visit their homes, and we've met with a lot of children who are eager to practice their English and to teach us some of their language. So, it's been an amazing trip.

CAFFERTY: Are there plans in the future for possibly a reciprocal visit by some of the people from Kabul to the United States, or would they be interested in coming here, do you suppose?

CAMPBELL: That's a really great idea, and I think it is something we may try to pursue. Another thing that we've been talking about is seeing how we could set up some kind of victims' fund here similar to the one that has been set up for the September 11th victims because clearly there are many civilian casualties here who -- their families are suffering, and they are in need of basic things such as housing and food and education.

CAFFERTY: Are you satisfied, Kelly, with the way the United States has responded to the events of September 11?

CAMPBELL: I have a lot of concerns over the way that the United States has responded. I'm very concerned about the people here who, through no fault of their own, have suffered on top of the suffering they were already enduring for the past 20 years because of the U.S. bombing.

So I would like to see us talk about what some other options are, and what we can do now, now that this has already occurred, what we can do for these people as well as for the people in America.

CAFFERTY: All right, we've got to leave it there, Kelly. I appreciate you joining us, and good luck on the rest of your trip over there. Kelly Campbell joining us this morning from Kabul, Afghanistan, a humanitarian visit to victims of the bombing campaign there.

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