Still No Word on Jill Carroll
KING: Let's meet our panel and we will later take phone calls. Judea Pearl remains with us, the father of the late Daniel Pearl. In New York is Garen, documentary journalist who was abducted in Iraq in August of 2004, released after ten days in captivity. He and his partner Marie Helene Carlton are co-authors of "American Hostage, a Memoir of a Journalist kidnapped in Iraq and a Remarkable Battle to win his Release." There you see the cover and he knows Jill Carroll. In Washington is Natasha Tynes, a good friend and former journalistic colleague of Jill. Jill was part of her wedding and has stayed in her home in Amman, Jordan. Her blog at www.natashatynes.com includes commentary about Jill and this kidnapping ordeal. In Jerusalem is Stephen Farrell, the Mid East Bureau Chief of "Times of London." He was abducted near the Iraqi city of Fallujah in April of 2004, set free after he managed to convince his captors that he was a genuine journalist. He, as well, knows Jill Carroll. And Lara Logan is joining us in New York. She is the CBS News correspondent, contributing correspondent for "60 Minutes," has reported extensively from Afghanistan and Iraq, indeed was in Iraq last month for the national election. She is not, however, acquainted with Jill Carroll. Michah, tell us your story. How were you taken?</s>MICHAH GAREN, JOURNALIST, KIDNAPPED IN IRAQ: Well, I was working in Nasiriyah for about five months in the summer of 2004 and it was my last weekend of filming. And, as luck would have it, I was trying to film B-roll in a marketplace and a man noticed my camera and as soon as they noticed that, you know, they realized that you're a foreigner. And I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and they took me at gunpoint, a number of people, threw me in the back of a car and then I was taken first to the Sadr (ph) office and then driven out into the marshes blindfolded for ten days.</s>KING: Did you think you had bought the bullet?</s>GAREN: Yes, there were times actually, you know. Most of the time I figured it was 50/50 but five days into it when they made a video execution threat unannounced they just blindfolded me, led me into a building and I found myself on my knees in front of a small video camera with about a dozen men with guns. I was fairly convinced that that was it.</s>KING: Should we be encouraged, Michah that Jill is a journalist and speaks Arabic?</s>GAREN: Absolutely. I mean the fact that she's a journalist makes a very big difference, the fact that she can speak Arabic means that she can represent herself to her captors and connect with them and these are very important things. You know the fact that she is a journalist, she has so many friends now who are out there pleading on her behalf and I'm incredibly encouraged to see the number of Muslim voices that have come out in the past two days and I think it's a good sign.</s>KING: You know her well right?</s>GAREN: Yes, we were actually staying in the same hotel for the five months that I was out there.</s>KING: Natasha, who's a good friend and former journalistic colleague of Jill, the longer this goes on are you more hopeful?</s>NATASHA TYNES, JOURNALIST, FRIEND OF JILL CARROLL: Yes, at this point I believe no news is good news and the fact that many Muslim and Arab organizations now they are condemning this and are asking for her quick release and all of them are saying this is wrong and she's a journalist and she's innocent and these are all good signs. And, the efforts are still ongoing as we speak, so these are all good signs so I'm hopeful.</s>KING: Stephen Farrell, who was abducted near the Iraqi city of Fallujah in April of 2004, he's Mid East bureau chief for the "Times of London," did you think that you had bought it?</s>STEPHEN FARRELL, "TIMES OF LONDON": Yes, absolutely. I was sure. I was sure I had. When they dragged us out of a car and pulled us into a taxi with Kalashnikovs at your head and knives at your throat, head butting you trying to blindfold you, you really do think your time has come.</s>KING: What were they asking for?</s>FARRELL: Well, they weren't asking for anything. We were taken by a group of effectively bandits, road bandits who just seemed to want to -- I don't know what they wanted. They just -- we didn't fit in and they certainly took our money. But after that we were handed on to another group and they were -- they described themselves as the resistance or the mujahaddin and they were much more calmer and rational and spelled out their demands or at least spelled out their conditions, which were if you're a journalist you're OK. If you're not, you're not, and we managed thankfully to convince them we were and were just hoping that although it's a slightly longer time scale, obviously, that Jill manages to do the same.</s>KING: Lara Logan, you've had a lot of experience in the region. What do you make, what do you think, who do you think this group is?</s>LARA LOGAN, CBS NEWS: Well, it's obviously very difficult for anyone to say because the name that was posted on the al Qaeda website is probably just made up. It's a kind of operational name, the same way the American military would give an operation a name when they go and move into an area. That's what the kidnappers do. If it's not a group that anybody recognizes, then most likely it doesn't exist and it's only the people who are talking to the kidnappers who really know what's going on. They're the only ones who have any idea whether it makes a difference that Jill's a woman, that she speaks Arabic, that she's a journalist. I mean we hope that these are mitigating factors but the fact that Margaret Hassan was an aid worker and was Irish and had worked with the Iraqi people for decades helping them that didn't help her in the end. So, it really isn't possible for anyone to speculate on that.</s>KING: So, therefore, you have to say you're in the dark on this?</s>LOGAN: You're definitely in the dark and there are people who are trying to make contact with the kidnappers. For all we know contact has already been made and it's only people who are in touch with them who are getting a real sense of who these people are and what they want. But when it isn't overtly political, you know, you'll have seen in the past when al Qaeda take hostages they're the first people to stand up and say and claim responsibility. You know it's political. You know who they are and you know what they want, which is to incite terror. And, it's very clear from the outset what their aims are. When it's a group like this, it's highly likely that the motive here in money.</s>KING: Judea, do you think it's negotiable?</s>PEARL: I am very happy to hear that so many groups are coming, voicing condemnations and speaking on her behalf but I think they're missing, what we're missing is coordinated effort against not this case but against the general phenomena of abducting journalists. And, I would like to propose two important acts that need to be taken. One, the media and the press should put their act together and not let these decisions, namely what to broadcast, what terrorist produced material to broadcast and when to broadcast it, not to leave it to the whims of individual networks.</s>KING: Who should decide it then?</s>PEARL: It should be decided by a collective board or...</s>KING: Sensors?</s>PEARL: No, no not, absolutely not sensors but there is a code of ethics that hasn't been established yet and could be established by the journalists themselves...</s>KING: To decide what is...</s>PEARL: ...</s>KING: Got you.</s>PEARL: Yes.</s>KING: Let me get a break and we'll ask the journalists' thoughts on that. Should there be some sort of code of ethics as to what is reported in matters like this? We'll be right back.