Jesse Jackson offers to seek spy plane crew's release

Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson says he wants to help the United States gain the release of detained crew members 654K/60 sec. AIFF or WAV sound

No thanks, White House says

CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson offered Tuesday to travel to China to help secure the release of a U.S. spy plane crew held there.

"We must somehow bring our soldiers back home and not allow them to be trophies in a growing, deepening crisis between the U.S. and China," Jackson told CNN.

The White House has declined the offer, saying the Bush administration preferred to rely on conventional diplomacy to resolve the 10-day-old impasse.

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Jackson told CNN he had contacted the office of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to make his offer. Administration officials said Jackson had also spoken with Secretary of State Colin Powell.

"The secretary expressed his thanks for Mr. Jackson's concern, told him about the intensive diplomacy that's going on and said we would continue to use that channel," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

The 24 crew members of the Navy EP-3 Aries II have been held on China's Hainan Island since April 1, when their plane made an emergency landing after colliding with a Chinese jet fighter sent to shadow it. The pilot of the Chinese plane is missing and presumed dead.

"I think President Bush and Secretary Powell are doing their best, but there must be some bridge to break the impasse," Jackson said. "We must prioritize getting the release of the American soldiers who are, in fact, being held hostage."

China wants the United States to apologize for the collision, which the U.S. says occurred in international airspace off the southeastern Chinese coast, and for landing on Hainan without Chinese permission.

The Bush administration has refused, saying the Chinese pilot hit the U.S. plane, which then had to make an emergency landing. U.S. officials have offered statements of "regret" and "sorrow" for the missing pilot instead.

Jackson said the United States could afford to offer an apology, but "we will not apologize even for slavery. We're hung up on that word, that kind of cultural wall."

"We should be able to say that if there is an offense unintentional, a mistake, we apologize," he said. Jackson has successfully acted as an unofficial intermediary in similar situations, helping to get Americans freed from Yugoslavia, Iraq and Syria over the past two decades.

The former Democratic presidential candidate and CNN talk show host withdrew from much of his public life after admitting in January that he fathered a child during an extramarital affair with a staff member. He later had to amend tax returns by his Chicago-based civil rights organizations to include a $35,000 payment to his former lover.

He denied he was making the offer to garner positive publicity following the revelations.

"I have nothing to do with our soldiers being there," Jackson said, adding he would like to "do something to help get them out."

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