Lost CBS News Crew Reported Held in Baghdad

CBS News reporter Bob Simon and three crew members who disappeared in the northern Saudi desert last month are being held in Baghdad, the president of CBS News said today.

Eric Ober confirmed a CNN report earlier today that the journalists have been held for two weeks in the Iraqi capital. CBS spokesman Tom Goodman said efforts are under way “to secure their safe release and return.”

The crew was reported missing at the Kuwaiti border Jan. 21, four days after the Gulf War started. CNN quoted what it called reliable sources as saying the fate of the crew will be decided by Saddam Hussein.

CBS is “obviously pleased the Iraqis have allowed this information to be released,” Goodman said after the CNN report. “We hope that the Iraqis recognize the four are journalists and not combatants, and were simply there to cover a story.”

The four were picked up by an Iraqi military jeep patrol in a remote part of the Kuwait border, CNN reported.

They “are still being investigated by the Iraqi intelligence service to determine the full circumstances of their capture,” CNN correspondent Peter Arnett said.

“Apparently, there are three categories they can fall under: innocents who could be released, prisoners of war or spies,” Arnett said. “I am told that President Saddam Hussein will personally determine the outcome of the cases.”

“My sources say that the health of all four is good. They are being fed three meals a day, the same food as their investigators,” he said.

Three of the crew were wearing military uniforms to pass by Saudi checkpoints in the guise of American soldiers, Arnett said he was told.