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American Morning

The Big Question: Should U.S. Be More Aggressive to Free Hostages?

Aired February 18, 2002 - 07:19   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.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: With kidnapped American reporter Daniel Pearl still missing in Pakistan, the big question this hour, should the U.S. be more aggressive to free hostages?

Just today, there is news the Bush administration has quietly adopted a new policy on handling hostage situations that could include using commando style raids where warranted, that according to a report in today's "New York Times."

FBI agents have been assisting Pakistani authorities investigating the kidnapping of Danny Pearl, the "Wall Street Journal" reporter. But almost four weeks later, he still remains missing.

Now, this, of course, is not the first time an American journalist has been kidnapped. You might remember 15 years ago journalist Charles Glass suffered his own hostage ordeal in Beirut. He was then an ABC News correspondent. He was held captive for 62 days before he finally escaped.

Charles Glass joins us now from Paris. Thanks very much for being with us this morning, Mr. Glass.

I want to ask you, as someone who has been hostage, what went through your mind when you heard about Danny Pearl?

CHARLES GLASS, JOURNALIST, FORMER BEIRUT HOSTAGE: I was in Jerusalem, as it happened, when he was kidnapped and it was my birthday. And when the word came, I thought oh my god, not another one. I hope he'll, I hope he'll be all right, obviously, and I was worried about his fate and the fate of his family, who must be terrified for him throughout this ordeal.

COOPER: You were taken hostage in Beirut in 1987 by a group backed by Iran. You were held for two months. You were able to escape. Put us in the mind of someone being held hostage. How do you survive both physically and mentally?

GLASS: Well, obviously, for everyone it's different. I was held alone, as I assume Daniel Pearl is. He doesn't seem to be held with any other hostages. So being alone all the time, you have nothing but time to think, to pray, to try to plan an escape if you can, to hope that your family knows you're alive. There are so many things, and confusing things, going on in the mind of somebody in those circumstances. It's, I suppose, one of the most difficult things is to try to focus your thoughts so that you don't become too depressed and too vulnerable to any suggestions that the hostage takers might make to you.

COOPER: In your book "Tribes With Flags," I read, you write about imagining relatives there with you. Tell us just a little bit more about that.

GLASS: Well, for me one of the ways of surviving is I imagined each day of the week I was with a different -- I have five children. So Monday I would be with one child, Tuesday with another child. So I always had a companion. Then on the weekends I'd be with my wife and then all the children on Sunday.

It was just a way of pretending not to be alone, because for long periods I had nothing to read, nothing to do. I was blindfolded. I was chained. The conditions were very bad.

And this took me out of it. It made -- it put me back at home with my family at least in my imagination, and that sort of thing, which I suppose you would call a survival mechanism, did help me a great deal to get through it.

COOPER: You also write a lot about the power of prayer. Is that something that stayed with you?

GLASS: I wish it had stayed with me more. I certainly prayed a lot then and under the circumstances I had a lot of time free to pray. I'm probably praying a bit less now, although I have to say I've been praying for Daniel Pearl, as I suppose many, many of his friends and colleagues have been doing, as well. Because in the, as someone who observed this -- and I don't know Daniel Pearl myself, but he's a colleague and he's a fellow journalist out in the field who's been taken. And so I feel very strongly for him and I feel powerless, as I suppose his colleagues at the "Wall Street Journal" feel, as well.

So the only thing we can do in the absence of, in order to do something positive, is to pray for him.

COOPER: Pakistani authorities in today's "New York Times" are recorded as saying that they believe Mr. Pearl's kidnappers are on the move. You were moved around quite a bit as a hostage. I got the senses that made it harder for you. Is that true?

GLASS: Well, it made it harder and, because usually you become attached to a place. You feel safe in a place, even if the conditions are terrible. And when you're blindfolded and dragged out and thrown into the back of a car and moved to another place, you don't know if it'll be better or worse, and you usually assume it'll be worse. In fact, it usually was worse.

If they do move people, it's just for their own security. It means that they're afraid they're being observed and that in this case the Pakistani police might know where they are and might be planning a rescue, which I, personally, I hope they are.

COOPER: Mr. Glass, we only have about 30 seconds left. How does an experience like this change you? Are you a different person today than you were before you were kidnapped?

GLASS: Sadly not. No, I don't think it changed me very much. You recover very quickly. Now, I was only there for two months, unlike some of the other hostages in Lebanon who were there for years and years. They may have had a more profound change than I had. And I hope Daniel Pearl is out as quickly as I was, or even more quickly than I was, and then he probably won't be changed very much, either.

COOPER: All right, Charles Glass, thanks very much for joining us. The book, "Tribes With Flags," I really enjoyed it. It'/s a very good read. Thanks very much for being with us this morning.

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