Bush Administration Defending Domestic Spying; American Hostage
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The Bush administration with a full- court press defending domestic spying this week. That includes speeches today by President Bush, and the man who headed the super- secret spy agency that does the eavesdropping. The national security correspondent David Ensor in Washington now for us. David, tell us the message today.</s>DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATL. SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Miles, the Bush administration is putting out the firepower of a respected four-star general, General Michael Hayden, who used to head the National Security Agency and is now the second highest intelligence officer in the land. He will -- he knows in excruciating highly classified detail the whole program of domestic surveillance that the National Security Agency is running. He is expected to -- at the National Press Club this morning talk about, to the extent he can in an unclassified forum, how it works, and how it makes the nation safer. This is all part of a campaign that will go all week. The administration appears to have decided that it will go on the offensive, that in fact this program is probably popular with Americans, or they can make it so during the week. So many in the administration will speak about it and, as you know, this morning, you spoke to Dan Bartlett. He had this to say about the program.</s>DAN BARTLETT, COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT: There are multiple checks and balances to make sure what we're doing is targeting just that, international phone calls of terrorists, not the conversations between two families coordinating a family vacation. We have very strict laws, very strict oversight. This is a targeted program. And I think most of the American people will be very angry if they thought we weren't doing just this.</s>ENSOR: And of course, the program will include a visit to the National Security Agency on Wednesday by the president himself -- Miles. David Ensor, in Washington watching that for us. Thank you very much -- Soledad.</s>SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: In Iraq, American journalist Jill Carroll has been missing for 16 days. Her kidnappers are demanding that the U.S. release all Iraqi women held in its custody. It's impossible, of course, to know what Jill Carroll, is going through, but if anybody has any insight, it's Roy Hallums. He was a civilian contractor, or was, was kidnapped November 2004. Held for 311 days. He's in Memphis this morning. Thank you for talking with us, Roy. We certainly appreciate it. You know, I think you're probably one of the best people to give us a sense of what is going on right now. The videotape that we have seen, really the only thing we've seen of Jill since she's been kidnapped, you made a tip similar to that one, didn't you? Tell me about your experience.</s>ROY HALLUMS, FMR. HOSTAGE IN IRAQ: Yes, I did. When they made my videotape, I was given a script and they were -- a person there with a camera, of course, and then several people in the room with weapons, and there was actually a lighting guy there with a light bulb on the end of a handle. So, you know, during the videotaping, they told me exactly what to say. They wanted me to act upset, because they said they wanted my family and others to be concerned about me and worried about what they might do to me.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Do the captors speak English fluently all around you? Was it just one person in charge? Or was it dozens of people or a handful of people?</s>HALLUMS: They didn't speak English fluently. I mean, they could -- a couple of them could speak a little bit of English, and that's how I was able to communicate with them.</s>S. O'BRIEN: After you made the tape. What happened next?</s>HALLUMS: Well, after -- I was locked in a cellar under a storage building on a farm. They took me out to make the tape. And then as soon as the tape was finished, I was put back down in there.</s>S. O'BRIEN: So you had no awareness of what was going on or the response to the tape that you had made?</s>HALLUMS: No. I mean you don't get any information from them. They just tell you, you know, make the tape, you make, and it they don't talk to you anymore, and then, you know, you don't get to see the newspaper or hear the radio or the TV. So you don't really know what is going on in the world concerning anything, including yourself.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Did your family members take to the airwaves to beg for your release, as well?</s>HALLUMS: Yes, my former wife and my oldest daughter were on quite a few shows to try and keep my name in the public and to point out that there are hostages in Iraq, and several hostages.</s>S. O'BRIEN: When I talked to Jill's mother the other day, and her father, too, they both seemed just incredibly strong, and really I thought were able to sort of hold it together. I'm curious to know, I guess you really didn't have access to what was being seen, but if that helps to see your wife sobbing and begging for your return, or if it's more helpful to see your wife stoic and strong, and asking for a direct conversation with your kidnappers? What do you think?</s>HALLUMS: Well, I don't know. I mean, different people react in different ways. I guess they're both appropriate for the person's personality. I think in my, case for my kidnappers, they wouldn't be concerned either way. They weren't really concerned about appeals; they were interested in cash. So appeals wouldn't have affected them at all.</s>S. O'BRIEN: How was your family negotiating? I mean, you know, obviously they thank god, never been an experience like this before, so how did they suddenly become experts in an international hostage situation?</s>HALLUMS: Well, it's one of those things that you're just thrown into. I mean -- and they weren't negotiating; they were just trying to make contact, the way Jill's family is now. Because in my particular case I was kidnapped on the first of November in 2004, and there was no contact or no information concerning me until the videotape was released in January. So you've got those months when there's no word, no information; people didn't know what was going on with me. And then after the videotape, there was no contact with my family at all. So it makes it difficult, the uncertainty of the situation.</s>S. O'BRIEN: I bet. Roy Hallums, thank you for sharing your circumstance with us. It gives us tremendous insight. We're glad that we're able to talk to you in person on live TV all about it. Thank you. Appreciate it.</s>HALLUMS: Thank you.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Roy Hallums, of course, a former hostage in Iraq.