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American Morning
Americans Ambushed
Aired January 22, 2003 - 09:09 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: I want to get to the latest on that Kuwaiti ambush from yesterday that was really leading our newscast throughout the day. An American man killed there yesterday in Kuwait. Apparently a camera, some sort of videotape machine at an intersection at Kuwait City, may have captured the incident. Several people today being detained for questioning.
Let's get to Martin Savidge on the scene yesterday, yet again today, live in Kuwait City for more the hunt for the killers there.
Marty, hello.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Bill.
The Kuwaiti government says that it has detained a number of suspects. Suspects is their word, not ours, and they won't say exactly how many people. They will say that most of them are Afghan Arabs. That is sort of a catch phrase to imply Kuwaitis who went to Afghanistan and trained with the Taliban or Al Qaeda and may actually even have fought with them, and after things died down in Afghanistan, then returned to Kuwait. The thinking being that these people have the training and maybe even the mindset to want to carry out an attack against the United States.
Moving on now, David Caraway, he is the 37-year-old survivor, the American of yesterday's attack. He was the driver, severely wounded, underwent several hours of surgery. We talked to his doctor today. He says he's in stable condition, in intensive care. The good news is, they don't think he will need any more surgery, at least for the time being. Even better news for the investigation, he is talking.
Apparently, he had a meeting with investigators this morning. And he may be a key witness trying to identify who carried out this attack. We don't even know exactly how many gunmen were involved, and he might be able to tell us information along that lines.
So then you mentioned the camera. These are the cameras, like the ones in the United States, that catch you if you run through a red light, it snaps your picture. They have those at the intersection, and the belief is that when that car was hit, it actually lurched forward during a red light. They may have tripped the beam, the camera may have taken some pictures, and they want to see if they can see anybody or anybody leaving from that attack to determine who it was that carried it out.
So they have a lot to go through, Bill. HEMMER: Certainly they do. On a different front there, overall security in Kuwait right now, as a result of this going back to November and October, previous attacks on Americans taking place there. Has anything changed in terms of position and security for the Kuwaiti government?
SAVIDGE: Well, the Kuwaiti government says that this is an unfortunate incident. Keep in mind, this is only the third incident since the military buildup began. It is still extremely rare, despite the headlines. There is two levels of security your talking about, one for U.S. military forces, it remains very high in and around the installations where the U.S. troops are housed. Then you have the American population in general that lived here even before the buildup, numbered about 8,000. The U.S. embassy warning them, be extra careful, be mindful of your surroundings. Their meeting today at the embassy to decide if they should do even more -- Bill.
HEMMER: Marty, thanks. Martin Savidge in Kuwait City. Thank you.
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 January 22, 2003 - 09:09 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: I want to get to the latest on that Kuwaiti ambush from yesterday that was really leading our newscast throughout the day. An American man killed there yesterday in Kuwait. Apparently a camera, some sort of videotape machine at an intersection at Kuwait City, may have captured the incident. Several people today being detained for questioning.
Let's get to Martin Savidge on the scene yesterday, yet again today, live in Kuwait City for more the hunt for the killers there.
Marty, hello.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Bill.
The Kuwaiti government says that it has detained a number of suspects. Suspects is their word, not ours, and they won't say exactly how many people. They will say that most of them are Afghan Arabs. That is sort of a catch phrase to imply Kuwaitis who went to Afghanistan and trained with the Taliban or Al Qaeda and may actually even have fought with them, and after things died down in Afghanistan, then returned to Kuwait. The thinking being that these people have the training and maybe even the mindset to want to carry out an attack against the United States.
Moving on now, David Caraway, he is the 37-year-old survivor, the American of yesterday's attack. He was the driver, severely wounded, underwent several hours of surgery. We talked to his doctor today. He says he's in stable condition, in intensive care. The good news is, they don't think he will need any more surgery, at least for the time being. Even better news for the investigation, he is talking.
Apparently, he had a meeting with investigators this morning. And he may be a key witness trying to identify who carried out this attack. We don't even know exactly how many gunmen were involved, and he might be able to tell us information along that lines.
So then you mentioned the camera. These are the cameras, like the ones in the United States, that catch you if you run through a red light, it snaps your picture. They have those at the intersection, and the belief is that when that car was hit, it actually lurched forward during a red light. They may have tripped the beam, the camera may have taken some pictures, and they want to see if they can see anybody or anybody leaving from that attack to determine who it was that carried it out.
So they have a lot to go through, Bill. HEMMER: Certainly they do. On a different front there, overall security in Kuwait right now, as a result of this going back to November and October, previous attacks on Americans taking place there. Has anything changed in terms of position and security for the Kuwaiti government?
SAVIDGE: Well, the Kuwaiti government says that this is an unfortunate incident. Keep in mind, this is only the third incident since the military buildup began. It is still extremely rare, despite the headlines. There is two levels of security your talking about, one for U.S. military forces, it remains very high in and around the installations where the U.S. troops are housed. Then you have the American population in general that lived here even before the buildup, numbered about 8,000. The U.S. embassy warning them, be extra careful, be mindful of your surroundings. Their meeting today at the embassy to decide if they should do even more -- Bill.
HEMMER: Marty, thanks. Martin Savidge in Kuwait City. Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
