CBS Executive Believes Crew Is Held by Iraq

CBS News said Friday that it believes that correspondent Bob Simon and his crew are being held by Iraqi troops, either in Iraq or Kuwait.

“We don’t know this for certain, but the information we now have leads us to believe this is the most likely case,” CBS spokesman Tom Goodman said.

Simon and a three-man crew have been missing since Jan. 21. Four days later, Saudi troops found their abandoned Toyota Land Cruiser at the Kuwaiti border, 300 miles from Dhahran. The CBS crew had gone out on its own, without military escort.

Also missing with Simon are producer Peter Bluff, cameraman Roberto Alvarez and soundman Juan Caldera.

CBS came to the conclusion that the Iraqis be holding the men after CBS News Vice President Don DeCesare traveled to the scene and interviewed the Saudi military personnel who found the abandoned vehicle.

“The communications could make it very difficult to pinpoint their location, and to that end we are hoping to send a CBS News executive from Jordan into Baghdad on a humanitarian mission to help locate the crew,” Goodman said.