Ed and Paula Kassig, parents to ISIS captive Peter Kassig, said that they're "doing everything we can" to secure the release of their son, in an interview with CBS News' Margaret Brennan that was broadcast today, Oct. 13, 2014 on CBS THIS MORNING (7:00-9:00 AM).
Despite their exhaustive efforts to communicate with ISIS and retrieve their son, the Kassigs told
CBS that the terror organization's demands "have always been ones that we cannot accommodate," adding, "We have tried. But we don't have the power to do it."
The family said that although for the past year they've been keeping their son's abduction a secret, they decided to break their silence following the death of journalist Steven Sotloff.
"The dynamics have changed now," Mr. Kassig told
CBS News. "Steven's family kept to secrecy, and he was executed. Peter's name has been listed."
A partial transcript of the interview is below.
ED KASSIG: We're doing everything we can to secure his release.
For most of the last year, Ed and Paula Kassig kept their son Peter's abduction a secret - an order from his captors, the terror group ISIS.
PAULA KASSIG: We couldn't answer honestly when people would ask us. So we had to lie to our friends again and again and again.
But the recent murder of American journalist Steven Sotloff, Kassig's cellmate at one point, prompted the Kassigs to make a public plea for help.
ED KASSIG: The dynamics have changed now. Steven's family kept to secrecy, and he was executed. Peter's name has been listed.
Their only son, Kassig grew up in suburban Indiana loving fishing and hiking. After serving briefly in Iraq, Kassig found his calling: delivering aid to Syrians brutalized by the civil war.
PAULA KASSIG: He always was a compassionate person. And this was just something he felt he needed to do.
It was on one of those missions when he was taken. Ed Kassig was told the day it happened by a friend of Peter's in Syria.
MARGARET BRENNAN: How did you find out that he had been captured?
ED KASSIG: Phone call. It was Peter's number. And I thought, "Oh man, I get to hear from Peter." And when I picked up the phone, I didn't recognize the voice. And the individual introduced himself. And we learned that he had been detained.
Once the video appeared showing their son being threatened by ISIS, Ed and Paula retreated to a hotel to avoid the media. Ed described his reaction one morning at breakfast when images of his son flashed across the TV.
ED KASSIG: One minute you look at your scrambled eggs and you look up, it's football. Next minute, look at your scrambled eggs, you look up and there's your son. And you sit there and you have to watch everybody's jaw on the place drop. And you've got to fake it too, because you don't want to stand there and look callous. And inside, you just want to scream. "Hey, that's my kid." You just ate it, went back upstairs.
Chris Licht is the Vice President of Programming,
CBS News, and Executive Producer of
CBS THIS MORNING.
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