Ex-hostage: No dealing, but U.S. must talk to kidnappers

Pakistani kidnappers released this picture, among others, of The Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, saying they were holding him in Pakistan.

KARACHI, Pakistan (CNN) -- Terry Anderson, who was taken hostage while reporting from Beirut, Lebanon, in 1985, said the United States shouldn't negotiate but must communicate with the captors of the Wall Street Journal reporter being held by an unknown Pakistani group.

"The U.S. government will not negotiate with these people, and I have to say I don't believe they should. This is not a matter of negotiations. It is a matter of communications," said Anderson, who was interviewed from the U.S. Virgin Islands on Monday night by CNN's Aaron Brown, about Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Anderson was taken while he was a reporter for The Associated Press.

"We don't have enough information about who they are or what they exactly want," Anderson said of the group. "We have to be able to talk to them. And I hope that they are willing to set up a contact where that can happen."

Anderson said that when he was released from captivity in the early 1990s, his kidnappers said "this was not a useful tactic. It didn't work. We didn't gain what we hoped to gain.

"And I hope that the people holding Daniel will come to understand that fairly quickly."

Anderson at his homecoming

The group that kidnapped Pearl said he was being held in connection to the detainment by the FBI of Pakistani prisoners at the U.S. Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It said the Pakistani prisoners must be sent back to Pakistan and tried in court there.

In an e-mail sent to three news organizations with four photos, the group identified itself as "the national movement for the restoration of Pakistani sovereignty" and accused Pearl of being a CIA officer. Both the newspaper and the CIA denied that claim.

Anderson, who was held in captivity during the Lebanese civil war, said that if the group was seeking attention, they could have gotten it "if they'd simply given Daniel the interview he was after."

"There is not going to be anything that we can give them to gain Daniel's release. What we have to do is convince them that they've made a mistake, they got the wrong guy. It's not going to serve their purposes. The best thing you can do now is let him go."

Anderson, who lived in harrowing conditions during his imprisonment, understands what Pearl is going through. Pearl is seen shackled and with a gun to his head in photos sent to news outlets. The group itself says Pearl is being held in "very inhumane conditions."

"Well, I'm sure he is scared. I don't know what conditions he is being held under. When they say inhumane conditions, it may be as mild as in a cell by himself. There was no indication that he has been severely abused in the pictures. I hope he hasn't been."

Anderson himself was imprisoned in secret locations for nearly seven years. Brown asked him if he thought his ordeal would end swiftly when he was taken hostage 17 years ago.

"You always hope it will end quickly. In my situation, I think we were fairly realistic from the beginning. We knew it was going to be a long, hard situation."

A Pakistani man, probably the last person to see Pearl, said the journalist had interviewed him and was about to leave for another interview about Richard Reid, a man accused of trying to destroy an American Airlines plane with explosives hidden in his shoes.

"Daniel is not a spy. He is just a journalist and kidnapping journalists doesn't do anybody any good," Anderson said. "I'm very nervous for his safety. It's a dangerous situation. People who are willing to kidnap are dangerous people. We have to believe that they are capable of carrying out the threats (they) make or they imply. Daniel knew that."

Pearl has been missing since Wednesday evening, when he left his Karachi quarters to do an interview with an important source, according to Steven Goldstein, a spokesman for the Journal. He did not check in that evening and has not been heard from since. Goldstein said all of the newspaper's international correspondents who work in dangerous areas are required to check in with the newspaper every evening.

"Being a foreign correspondent in a war-torn country is a dangerous job. It's a difficult job," Anderson said. "He is an intelligent man. He is an experienced correspondent. He is not there because it's thrilling. He is there because he thinks it's important and I'm sure he weighed the risks as he did every day as every correspondent does."