Bodies of Two Missing U.S. Soldiers Found
O'BRIEN: Thirty teenagers from 13 countries now in the U.S. as part of a World Cup youth soccer delegation sponsored by the State Department. Two of those teenagers are young women from Afghanistan who've had their lives changed by an Afghan-American with some very big dreams.</s>O'BRIEN: It looks like an ordinary day of soccer in New York City. But for these teens on this field and for many watching, this is much more than a game.</s>AWISTA AYUB, AFGHAN YOUTH SPORTS EXCHANGE: I know that the future is very bright for Afghanistan, but it can't happen without cultivating future leaders, and that starts today.</s>O'BRIEN: Awista Ayub is a 26-year-old woman who came to the United States from Afghanistan at age two. She's always loved sports and felt empowered by athletic competition. So she started a nonprofit group called the Afghan Youth Sports Exchange.</s>AYUB: I thought of the idea soon after the fall of the Taliban.</s>O'BRIEN: The idea was to give youngsters in Afghanistan, especially girls and young women sidelined by the Taliban, the skills to become the next generation of leaders.</s>AYUB: It was one of those a-ha moments that just flows, and makes sense and feels very natural.</s>O'BRIEN: It all started with eight girls she brought to the U.S. for soccer camp in the summer of 2004. Two of those girls, Shamila Kohestani and Roia Ahmad, are back in the United States now. Awista has changed their lives.</s>SHAMILA KOHESTANI, AFGHAN SOCCER PLAYER: It's definitely change my life and I want -- I play football and I go to different countries for trips and for football. And I know about their culture.</s>O'BRIEN: Shamila had never played soccer until two years ago. Now she's one of 250 young women playing on 15 female soccer teams in Afghanistan. And she's the captain of the country's new national team.</s>KOHESTANI: In period of Taliban, it was very hard for my family especially. We always sat at corner of room thinking that how can we spend all of this life like this? No study. All sit at home. It's too hard.</s>O'BRIEN: The Taliban kept her out of school for more than four years. Now, at 18, she's nearly caught up and is looking forward college where she wants to study journalism or business. Sixteen year-old Roia has similar dreams. (on camera): What do you want to do?</s>ROIA AHMAD, AFGHAN SOCCER: Doctor.</s>S. O'BRIEN (voice-over): Glamour magazine calls Awista its hero of the month. But she's not the only one being honored. Next month Shamila and Roia will receive an ESPY, called the Arthur Ashe Courage Award, from</s>ESPN. AYUB: They faced so much tragedy and hardship. And for them to be awarded now finally for showing the perseverance they have, despite all of the challenges they face, I think just will hopefully take soccer and girl so to the next level, and youth sports to the next level, and show that young girls can be role models in their own lives.</s>O'BRIEN: Shamila and Roia were going to be in the United States until the end of July, but they're taking a side trip this week to Germany with that State Department group to watch the U.S. flay Ghana in the World Cup -- John.</s>ROBERTS: We want to add a little bit of programming for you here and a little bit more on our story this morning that two bodies have been found in the town of Jurf al-Sakhar, which is about 50 miles south of Baghdad. We have senior officials confirming that bodies have been found. On the phone with us now is Major William Willhoite. He's the multinational forces spokesman in Iraq. Good morning or good afternoon to you, Major Willhoite. What can you tell us about the bodies that were found in this town?</s>MAJ. WILLIAM WILHOITE, SPOKESMAN, MULTI-NATIONAL FORCES, IRAQ: Well, we do know that two bodies have been found, but we haven't made confirmation of whether they're U.S. -- the two U.S. soldiers we're looking for or some other bodies.</s>ROBERTS: So you can't tell us whether or not these are the bodies of Private Thomas Tucker and Private Kristian Menchaca?</s>WILHOITE: No, sir, I can't tell at all at this time.</s>ROBERTS: Have you been conducting search operations down in that area?</s>WILHOITE: I'm not exactly sure where we've been looking. Obviously, operational concern where we -- what we talk about. But there has been over 8,000 U.S. military and Iraqi army and police working together and doing an intensive search trying to find our soldiers.</s>ROBERTS: There have also been reports, Major, that the state of the bodies made it appear as though they may have suffered some signs of torture. Can you confirm that?</s>WILHOITE: I do not know that yet. I haven't heard anything to our official channels on this.</s>ROBERTS: Major, I'm wondering about the identification of the bodies. Has the military been able to identify the bodies, but you're just holding off on notification of bodies pending potentially notification of next of kin?</s>WILHOITE: Truthfully, I don't know what the status is on these bodies, whether they're in our control now or they're still in Iraqi control. Obviously, if -- before we made any announcement, if it was our soldiers, we'd have to make notification to the family.</s>ROBERTS: Right. So these bodies were in Iraqi control. Do you know if the Iraqis were able to positively identify them and is that where these reports came from?</s>WILHOITE: I do not know. Again, this the first we heard about is when we started getting phone calls from other news organizations asking us questions.</s>ROBERTS: OK, Major William Wilhoite, who is the multinational forces spokesman in Iraq, thanks for being with us. Appreciate it.</s>O'BRIEN: Let's get right to the Pentagon now. Barbara Starr's standing by for us. Barbara, good morning. You just heard the major with sort of an update -- very low on specifics what we know. They're confirming the bodies found, but not confirming much more than that.</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Soledad. You know, we have to explain to our viewers this is a very, very sensitive matter, of course, because there are two sets of families in the United States waiting for definitive word about their loved ones. Notification of next of kin in these matters is something the military takes extremely seriously and they simply want to make sure, if there is an announcement to be made, that the families will be the first to know the details. What we do know, of course, is that the Ministry of Defense made a statement a short while ago that two bodies had been found and that clearly, in their view, there was every reason to believe they were the two missing soldiers. So we began to talk to our sources around here. They are aware of the Ministry of Defense statement and what they tell us is that they cannot be specific about the current state of the situation, but if these bodies, in fact, are coming to the U.S. military, which they may well be, that they will then conduct DNA testing on them. That DNA testing may be under way in the field at this hour. We're not entirely clear on that, or it may about to begin. The military does have mobile pathology labs, if you will, in Iraq that can very readily go to a scene where remains are found and begin to conduct initial identification tests. That is something they're going want to complete as quickly as possible on these remains so they can notify the families. And as we have discussed, the procedure is the families get notified and then typically there is a public announcement 24 hours later in order to give the families the time to have their initial privacy before the world learns of any event. Whether that 24 hour period is held to in this case, of course, remains to be seen now that the Iraqis have made this announcement. So the best we can tell you is everyone is very aware of what has transpired. We do expect that identification testing is either ongoing or about to begin. And we do expect to learn more in the hours ahead.</s>O'BRIEN: Barbara, let me ask you a question. So it sounds like what you're saying -- that if, indeed, this is the case, that these two bodies are U.S. soldiers -- that somehow the Iraqi military, which is what's being quoted in some of the wire reports, have not gone the way the procedure is supposed to go. Because as they talk about the bodies not being identified or they sort of haven't -- you know, we heard from the major a moment ago they're not really sure. I mean, they -- it completely is contradictory to what we're hearing from the Iraqis. What do you think is going on here?</s>STARR: Right. Well, I think that what we can all probably assume is that certainly the families of these two young soldiers are being made aware at this hour that remains have been found in Iraq and that there is an effort under way to make an identification on those remains, so they can give the families definitive word that it either is or is not their loved ones. You know, there were 8,000 troops since Friday night searching for these two soldiers. That's 8,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops. So it is absolutely possible that the Iraqis came across these two sets of remains in the operations that they were conducting and are now bringing the U.S. military into the process so that the military can begin the formal identification process. Because, as you can well imagine, Soledad, before any family is notified of the death on the battlefield of their loved one, there is a very, very strict identification procedure to go through. No one would want any mistakes here. So they're trying to follow it by the book. But its a very sensitive matter at this time, until the families get that official notification.</s>O'BRIEN: Barbara Starr for us at the Pentagon. Barbara, thanks for the explanation. Appreciate that. I should mention also that we're going to be getting a briefing out of Iraq this morning, 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. So in about 30 minutes -- and maybe we'll get some more information, and maybe some clarification on exactly how this information got out. Short break. We're back in just a moment.