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American Morning

An Interview With Jill Carroll's Mother; New Information on American Airstrike in Pakistan

Aired January 19, 2006 - 07:00   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Miles O'Brien in New York. Pleas for the release of an American journalist held in Iraq. Soledad will have an exclusive interview with Jill Carroll's mother.
We'll also go live to Baghdad for more on this developing story.

New information this morning on an American airstrike in Pakistan that we've been telling you about. Some Al Qaeda leaders may have been hit. We'll get the latest.

And windy woes in the Northeast. Thousands still without power this morning. Details ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

I'm Miles O'Brien in New York. Good to have you with us.

Soledad is in suburban Washington with that exclusive interview with Jill Carroll's mother. We'll be with her very shortly. We begin with the plight, of course, of Jill Carroll, the American journalist held hostage in Iraq. The people who abdicated her almost two weeks ago have set a Friday deadline for the U.S. to release all women held in their custody.

Our Michael Holmes is following developments from Baghdad.

Michael, good morning.

We saw some additional tape this morning, but it's from the original -- it's just different scenes from the original tape, isn't it?

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's what Al Jazeera is saying. They aired that footage just about a little over an hour ago now. We thought it was new footage initially, but it is from that same tape. It shows Jill Carroll siting on the floor of a fairly bare room. She's surrounded by three armed men. They're masked as well. And one man appears to be reading from a statement.

Now, meanwhile, of course, efforts continuing behind the scenes then publicly to try to get her released. We're now well over halfway into the 72-hour deadline set by the kidnappers. Their demands, that the U.S. release all women prisoners being held by the United States.

Miles, let's put it in perspective. There are 14,000 thousand people held in insurgent-related activity. Only eight of them are women, and we're told by the Iraqi justice minister, or ministry, that six of those were due to be released in the days ahead anyway. We must emphasize unrelated to these demands -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Michael Holmes in Baghdad, thanks very much.

Let's get right to Soledad with that interview -- Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Miles, thanks.

This morning, we are learning much more about Jill Carroll, this brave young woman who stared down danger to tell the story, the real story of the Iraqi people.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, she's an innocent journalist. It would seem to be wrong to murder someone who devoted much of her young life to explaining the problems that Iraq faces.

S. O'BRIEN: With the deadline from kidnappers fast approaching, officials at "The Christian Science Monitor" say they're working tirelessly for Jill Carroll's release. The 28-year-old reporter was on assignment for the Boston-based newspaper when she was abdicated on a Baghdad street on January 7th. She is the first female American journalist to be kidnapped in Iraq.

DAVID COOK, "CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: Jill wrote that the reason she would risk her safety and report from a war zone was out of concern, quote, "for the stability of the Middle East and the countless lives at stake."

S. O'BRIEN: Jill Carroll is a Michigan native growing up in an Ann Arbor and an avid swimmer. She graduated from the University of Massachusetts in 1999 and speaks Arabic. She's been reporting from the Middle East for the past three years.

JACKIE SPINNER, "WASHINGTON POST": She's a very warm person, very gregarious, embraces life, didn't let the violence stop her from finding moments of happiness in Iraq. And she's just very committed to being a foreign correspondent and to the Iraq story.

S. O'BRIEN: Muslim groups in and outside of Iraq have called for Carroll's release. A friend and fellow journalist told Larry King that speaks volumes.

SPINNER: They pointed out that her stories walk the line. They show Iraqis in states of crises, which would be important for anyone who wanted to highlight what the occupation has done. And, you know, Jill's just one of those reporters who loved the Iraq story and loves Iraq and wanted to be there more than any other place in the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: American journalist Jill Carroll wanted to go where the news was happening, and that led her to Baghdad, perhaps the world's most dangerous city. On January 7th, she was kidnapped. This morning we have our exclusive interview with Mary Beth Carroll. She is mother of Jill Carroll. Thank you for talking with us. We certainly appreciate it, especially under the circumstances. I know you have a statement you want to read. Why don't we start with that?

MARY BETH CARROLL, MOTHER OF HOSTAGE: OK, thank you.

"My daughter, Jill Carroll, was taken hostage on Saturday, January 7th, in Baghdad, where she works as a reporter. Jill's fairness in reporting and her genuine concern for the Iraqi people made her the invited and welcomed guest of many Iraqi friends.

"A video just released gives us hope that Jill is alive, but has also shaken us about her fate. So, I, her father and her sister are appealing directly to her captors to release this young woman who has worked so hard to show the suffering of Iraqis to the world. Jill has always shown the highest respect for the Iraqi people and their customs. We hope that her captors will show Jill the same respect in return. Taking vengeance on my innocent daughter who loves Iraq and its people will not create justice.

"To her captors, I say that Jill's welfare depends upon you. And so we call upon you to ensure that Jill is returned safely home to her family who needs her and loves her. Jill's father, sister and I ask and encourage the persons holding our daughter to work with Jill to find a way to contact us with the honorable intent of discussing her release."

S. O'BRIEN: That's a statement.

CARROLL: That's a statement.

S. O'BRIEN: The friends that we talked to have said passion over and over again, passion. She's so passionate about her work, and that's reflected in your statement. Tell me what brought Jill into Baghdad.

CARROLL: Well, Jill has always been interested in people of other countries, and she's very interested in the Middle East and the politics of the Middle East. We could see the war was coming in Iraq, and she didn't want to be a parachute journalist, someone who just comes in opportunistically; she wanted to get to the Middle East early, learn about the people of Iraq, learn about the culture, and the customs and the politics so she could report well and accurately with deep background information.

S. O'BRIEN: And she spoke Arabic fluently.

CARROLL: Well, she didn't when she went there. For years she studied very hard and went to school. When she didn't have enough money, she engaged a tutor, an Arab tutor, who wanted to learn English, and she also spent a lot of time in Iraq at friends -- Iraqi friend's homes, where I think she really sharpened her skills speaking Arabic.

S. O'BRIEN: As a parent, on one hand, you want your child to find a passion, which she clearly had as a journalist, and obviously in the Middle East. On the other hand, you must have been absolutely worried all the time about her safety. CARROLL: Of course. But her passion was so important. She is a young woman of convictions, and a very strong young woman. And if that's where her passion brings her, I can only be supportive of her and be proud of her for what she's doing.

S. O'BRIEN: But when she called you up and said, hey, mom, I'm going to Baghdad, and I'm going to report on the war that's coming. What did you say?

CARROLL: I said, Jill, don't be complacent. You've been there a long time. Don't be complacent, remember how to keep yourself safe. She's the expert. She's been in Baghdad for two years. She knows better than I or anybody else I think in that case what she needs to do to keep herself safe.

S. O'BRIEN: All her friend that we talked to said she was very careful, that she was passionate, but also very, very careful. Did you ever talk about security with her, or do you sort of leave it at, you know, mom says be safe.

CARROLL: Yes, we did, for sure. And we talked about even the eventuality of her being kidnapped, and that gives me some comfort now to know some of the things that she had knew and had talked with other about people vis-a-vis kidnapping, and also I told her frankly how I felt if she was kidnapped, what I would be thinking, and supporting her and knowing that she was doing what she loved and what she thought was very important to do, and that that would give me and her family comfort at this time, and it does.

S. O'BRIEN: So she knows what you're thinking, and you know what she's thinking.

CARROLL: I think. I think. And I feel also after being in Baghdad for two years, that she knew what she was doing, she knew what the dangers were, she knew what the risks were, and she chose to accept those, because what she was doing to communicate to the world the sufferings of the Iraqi people was important.

S. O'BRIEN: What kind of stories were her passion, were her focus?

CARROLL: Well, you know, she did everything from interviewing the Sunnis to Shias. She traveled all over Iraq, doing the political scene, but also some of the stories, I remember, are about the schools that were being rebuilt and how some of them were falling apart and how that affected the education of children; and also was very moved by a family that she kept subsequently in contact with after doing the story who had a child who was injured. So she had a very deep compassion, I think, for Iraqis, definitely for all human beings, but Iraqis in particular, because of course that's where she was.

S. O'BRIEN: Our interview is being simulcast on CNN International, which airs in every single Middle Eastern country.

So, if her captors are listening, what do you want them to know? What do you want to say to them? CARROLL: Well, that they've picked the wrong person. If they're looking for somebody who is an enemy of Iraq, Jill is just the opposite, and her Iraqi friend can attest to that.

And I think she was a wonderful ambassador, is a wonderful ambassador, to the United States for the Iraqis and Iraqi people.

S. O'BRIEN: And if she can hear you or see you, what do you want her to know?

CARROLL: Well, what she already knows. Those things have been said, and she knows that we love her and we support her. She knows that we can be strong for her, and we know that she's a strong woman, and that her strength of character and her mind will get her through this.

S. O'BRIEN: A number of prominent people have come forward, also joining in the cause for her release, and a number of Iraqis as well. More today actually we've heard about. That must hearten you.

CARROLL: Tremendously. There are so many people on the ground in Iraq, her Iraqi friend, friends in the press corps, Iraqi officials, who have seen the injustice and the horror of this brutal act and have stepped up, at some risk to themselves, to speak out for Jill, and I think to speak out for the Iraqi people, who don't want to be represented to the world as people who are supportive of this kind of horrible brutality.

S. O'BRIEN: How do you as a mother hold up?

CARROLL: Well, shock. I think that I'm in shock right now, and I know that falling apart is not going to help my daughter, and I could say her father and her sister are the same way. And I think when this is resolved, we'll all fall apart. But for now, I think it gives me a lot of comfort to know that if I can stay strong, her father can stay strong, her sister and all her relatives can stay strong, this is good genetic stock, and Jill is strong, too, in captivity.

S. O'BRIEN: We hear that about her. Good luck to you. We're hoping for the very best, along with you and everyone else as well.

CARROLL: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Mary Beth Carroll, thank you for talking to us this morning. We truly appreciate it.

CARROLL: You're welcome.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's get right back to Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Boy, that's an impressive display of strength there by her.

Soledad, thank you very much. Coming up, new developments in that U.S. airstrike in the mountains of Pakistan. Maybe it wasn't a failure, as it was first described after all. A top Al Qaeda terrorist might have been in that building.

And later, an update on Randy McCloy. The only survivor of the Sago mine tragedy breathing on his own now and apparently responding to his family slightly. We'll ask his doctors what it means for his long-term recovery, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Fifty-eight degrees right now in Central Park as you look at the east side of Manhattan from our vantage point here at Columbus Circle. What causes wind you may ask. A temperature change, 58 degrees today. Yesterday at this time, or do I have it backwards. It's 34 this morning; it's 58 yesterday.

In any case, that change in temperature is what created this. Winds, which flirted with hurricane-force levels, at least in gusts. Look at these people blowing around in Boston. Upwards of 70-mile-an- hour gusts, airports closed down all over the place, all kinds of problems. Tens of thousands of people having to go on having their morning coffee without power. Maybe they're not having morning coffee. They're certainly not listening to us right now. Their power may not be back on for several days.

We got more from Eric Parker of our CNN affiliate WFSB in East Hartford, Connecticut.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIC PARKER, WFSB REPORTER (on camera): Seems like what we're seeing here in East Hartford, Connecticut are being repeated across the state. Here we have one power line taken down by a tree limb during the height of yesterday's storm. Unfortunately, there are dozens, if not hundreds of situations just like this across the state. That, unfortunately, means in each case a power crew has to go out and fix that individual line. Now, they tell us that takes several hours at each pop. So it really is going to add up to maybe a couple days before everyone in this state gets their power turned back on.

It was a very fast-moving storm that really wiped across the state yesterday morning. It had some snow, some ice, some rain, and it moved through this state quickly, but left a lot of damage behind. At one point, we had about 100,000 homes that were in the dark. They made a good dent into that. They're down to about 35,000, 36,000 right now this morning, and they're getting some help from some other power crews coming in from Virginia, from North Carolina, even some coming down from Canada. They will be happy to see them, because many of the power crews here have been on the clock since yesterday morning , trying to get the power restored. They've been working throughout the night, and they say it will likely be several more days before all the homes here in the state of Connecticut have their power back on.

In East Hartford, Connecticut, I'm Eric Parker, WFSB News. (WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Just who was in the crosshairs of that CIA drone flying over Pakistan last week? We still do not think Al Qaeda's number-two man was there, but the early reports of innocent victims may have been off the mark as well. A key Al Qaeda figure just might have been there.

We get details now from our national security correspondent David Ensor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATL. SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: U.S. counter- terrorism officials say al Qaeda's chemical weapons and explosive expert Midhat Mursi was, quote, in the vicinity Friday when CIA airstrikes hit a gathering including terrorists in a remote Pakistani village, and that he could have been killed.

Officials stress, though, at this point they cannot confirm whether he really was killed. Known by his nom de guerre, Abu Khabab al-Masir, the 52-year-old Egyptian has a price on his head from the U.S. government, $5 million, for information leading to his killing or capture.

Officials say Abu Khabab ran the notorious Derunta training camp for Al Qaeda, teaching chemical weapons and bombmaking techniques to would-be terrorists, and testing chemicals on animals on this tape obtained by CNN.

Some reports say Khabab's students included Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, and Zacarias Moussaoui. U.S. officials do say that between four and eight Al Qaeda-affiliated foreigners were killed in the attack, including some Egyptians. They still do not know whether their main target, Al Qaeda's number two-man Ayman Al Zawahiri, was killed. Pakistani officials say he was not. Knowledgeable sources say the bodies of the foreigners, plus several more, were quickly removed by comrades and buried elsewhere.

David Ensor, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Details on all this still emerging, and we are trying to sort it all out for you. In just a little while, we'll speak with an international security expert, and we'll ask him what he thinks about these latest reports that a significant Al Qaeda member might have been a victim of that attack. That's in our next hour on AMERICAN MORNING.

Coming up, the Sago mine tragedy's only survivor, Randy McCloy, appears to be emerging from his coma. But what is the outlook on his recovery long term? We'll ask his doctors, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MARKET REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Today's top stories straight ahead, including the latest efforts on to save the kidnapped American journalist Jill Carroll. Just moments ago, as you saw, we hoped, Carroll's mother appear on AMERICAN MORNING in an emotional plea for her daughter's captors. Very strong woman and very strong interview. We'll have that for you in just a bit. An AMERICAN MORNING exclusive.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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