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CNN Live At Daybreak

Lockerbie Appeal Rejected; Bush Angered At INS

Aired March 14, 2002 - 06:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Scottish judges today rejected the appeal of the Libyan intelligence agent convicting in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Our Chris Burns is at the former U.S. Air Base of Camp Zeist in the Netherlands where the decision was announced.

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CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The final drama in this courthouse over my shoulder, it used to be a U.S. military base, a basketball court, turned into a Scottish court where five appeals court judges today determine that Abdel Baset Al-Megrahi is guilty of bombing Pan Am Flight 103, the starkest image before September 11th of airline terrorism, a shattered Boeing 747 with 269 people aboard, also 11 people killed on the ground, shattered and spread over 200 square miles over the Scottish countryside.

The defense argued that on the ground he was wrongly convicted, that he was convicted of circumstantial evidence. He was fingered by a shop owner in Malta as having bought the clothes that ended up being wrapped around the bomb that exploded on Pan Am 103. However the shop owner could not 100 percent identify Al-Megrahi as being that man.

Also the defense said that there was new evidence. There was a security guard at Heathrow Airport outside of London, and that being the airport where Pan Am 103 took off before its loading. Someone had broken into the baggage area where Pan Am 103 would later be loaded. The five judge appeals court panel decided that the defense arguments were not founded, that Al-Megrahi will have to spend the life term, of his 20 years of a life term, in a Scottish prison, a specially built cell dubbed Gadhafi cafe.

Chris Burns, CNN, Camp Zeist, the Netherlands.

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COSTELLO: And President Bush is calling for reform at the INS after a major snafu in the case of two September hijackers. As CNN's Skip Loescher reports, student visas for the hijackers arrived at the flight school on Monday.

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GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I could barely get my coffee down.

SKIP LOESCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Bush says he was stunned and not happy with the Immigration Service for approving student visas for two of the September 11th terrorists.

BUSH: I was plenty hot, and I made that clear to people in my administration.

LOESCHER: On Monday Huffman Aviation, a flight school in Venice, Florida received forms from the INS stating it had approved the visas for Mohammed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi. The president says the INS needs to be reformed.

BUSH: We've got to push hard to do so. This is an interesting wake up call for those who run the INS.

LOESCHER: The INS claims it happened because of a backlog of paperwork. The visas were approved last summer before September 11th. But it was six months later before the flight school was notified.

BUSH: It's inexcusable.

LOESCHER: A spokesman says that Attorney General John Ashcroft is furious and has ordered the inspector general to investigate. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle says he is absolutely shocked by the revelation.

SEN. TOM DASCHLE, MAJORITY LEADER: I, for the life of me, I can't understand how something like that can happen. It's a major embarrassment.

LOESCHER: And officials from both parties agree the problem has to be fixed.

Skip Loescher, CNN, Washington.

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