CBS Correspondent, Crew Held Prisoner in Iraq, TV Show Says

Reports by the syndicated television news magazine “Inside Edition” that CBS News reporter Bob Simon and his crew are being held as prisoners of war in Iraq are unconfirmed, CBS spokesman Tom Goodman said Wednesday, but they mirror earlier accounts of the missing journalists’ whereabouts.

“There are indications based on second-, third- and fourth-hand sources that they were taken to Kuwait and then eventually to Baghdad, but nobody knows that’s true,” Goodman said.

Simon, producer Peter Bluff, photographer Roberto Alvarez and soundman Juan Caldera have been missing since Jan. 21, when they left the protection of the Pentagon reporting pool to cover the war on their own.

Av Westin, executive vice president of “Inside Edition,” said that the program planned to report on Wednesday night that an international arms dealer, Sarkis Soghanalian, had offered to fly to the Middle East next weekend with Simon’s wife, Francoise, to try to negotiate the journalists’ release.

Westin, a former vice president of ABC News, said that he did not have hard evidence that Simon and the others were prisoners. “I haven’t seen Bob Simon in Baghdad,” Westin said. “(We are) reporting somebody’s information that we believe to be reliable.”

The tip about Simon and the crew came during an interview with Soghanalian by “Inside Edition” reporter Bonnie Strauss, Westin said.

“Bonnie Strauss was present in Sarkis’ office when a phone call came in which Sarkis had previously indicated was from the Middle East,” Westin said. The caller, whom Westin would not identify, told Soghanalian that Simon and the others were being moved to Baghdad from Kuwait City, where they had been held since their disappearance, Westin said.

CBS’ Goodman confirmed that the arms dealer had offered to negotiate Simon’s release. But he said the network had not yet decided whether to take him up on his offer.