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CNN Connie Chung Tonight
Saddam Hussein Backs Down; United States Nabs al Qaeda Suspects
Aired September 16, 2002 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CONNIE CHUNG, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening. I'm Connie Chung.
Tonight: Saddam Hussein backs down, but is he just playing for time yet again?
ANNOUNCER: After four years of stalemate, Iraq agrees to unconditional United Nations weapons inspections. How important was the U.S. pressure on Saddam Hussein? And what happens next?
A blow against al Qaeda: In a worldwide effort, the U.S. makes a bold sweep of terror suspects: a major al Qaeda leader captured in Pakistan now in U.S. custody; six U.S. citizens allegedly trained by al Qaeda under arrest in Buffalo, New York. Is the U.S. making headway in the fight against terrorism? How many terrorists could still be in hiding on American soil?
Son of a mobster: an infamous mob hit man murdered by his own gang; his son caught between the feds, seeking his testimony, and the mob, determined to keep him quiet. Tonight: the story of a mafia killer, his son and the legacy of a mob life.
Private pain in the public eye. Tonight: how personal tragedy can cause a political crisis for national leaders.
Vanished: A former NBA player and his girlfriend sailing the South Pacific disappear without a trace. Weeks later, their ship is found with no one aboard. Tonight: Why are investigators searching for the man's brother?
This is CONNIE CHUNG TONIGHT. Live from the CNN Broadcast Center in New York: Connie Chung.
CHUNG: Good evening.
Tonight: Saddam Hussein has given in. In the face of intensifying pressure from the United States, the United Nations, and from some of his neighbors, the Iraqi dictator says he will allow U.N. weapons inspectors to return to Iraq for the first time in four years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: I can confirm to you that I have received a letter from the Iraqi authorities conveying its decision to allow the return of the inspectors, without conditions, to continue their work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHUNG: But will this mean an end to whatever threat Iraq poses? Or is Saddam Hussein simply reverting to the pattern he perfected in the 1990s, giving in only at the last minute and only enough to stave off U.S. military action?
CNN State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel is on this story tonight. And she broke this story tonight.
Andrea, thank you so much for joining us here in New York.
Tell me, the Bush administration immediately reacted, saying this is not a surprise.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
This was really a curveball. The U.S., as you know, President Bush just gave this big speech last week in which he's trying to build international consensus within the U.N. to have a new resolution which forces the inspectors back into Iraq, gives them a set deadline, and then says, "If you don't give us unconditional access, then there's going to be the threat of force."
Now Saddam Hussein has pulled the rug out from the U.S. and is saying: "Come on in, guys. Bring the inspectors back in. No conditions." And so the Bush administration I'm sure is saying, "Whoa, hold on a second," because here Secretary Powell's in town. He's still trying to work things with these diplomats.
CHUNG: Right. He's been meeting with the U.N. Security Council, right, trying to galvanize a consensus so that they could come up with a really tough resolution with teeth?
KOPPEL: Exactly.
CHUNG: Now what?
KOPPEL: Now what? Well, it will be interesting to see what happens, because Kofi Annan -- this was a letter that Saddam Hussein's foreign minister delivered to Kofi Annan today. That letter has now been passed throughout the Security Council.
They're going to review it tonight and presumably come back to work tomorrow. And, Connie, I've got to tell you, there are going to be a number of countries who say: "This is great. We're going to avert war. Saddam Hussein is saying he's opening the doors and saying, 'Come back in.' And they're going to want to give him a chance."
That really does preempt what the U.S. was trying to do, because there is not an "or else."
CHUNG: So does that mean the U.S. will pull back some of that talk of war?
KOPPEL: We'll have to see. I mean, as you know, there are some within the Bush administration who didn't even want to go to the U.N., who said: "Why do we need to go to the international community? We know Saddam Hussein is a threat. He's got this weapons of mass destruction program. The guy is trying to get nuclear weapons. He poses an imminent threat to us. Let's go. And whoever wants to join us, that's fine."
But then there were others within the administration, like Secretary Powell, who said: "Hold on a second. We've got this war on terrorism. We need the support of the international community. Just the other day, Pakistan handed over some suspects, al Qaeda suspects that they had nabbed."
CHUNG: Yes.
KOPPEL: "We need to keep the world community on board, so let's go to the U.N." President Bush decided that was the right thing to do.
CHUNG: And now...
KOPPEL: This has upset the whole equation right now.
CHUNG: All right, Andrea Koppel, thank you so much.
Actually, we're going to get on to those arrested in Pakistan as well. We have two stories tonight from the front lines of the war on terror. A self-confessed September 11 mastermind is now in U.S. custody. We'll get to him in a bit.
First, though, the home front, just outside Buffalo, New York, where six men are in custody accused of giving support to al Qaeda. U.S. officials had to go to Bahrain to get No. 6.
And CNN national correspondent Susan Candiotti is on the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Plans for his parents to attend their son's marriage was what led authorities to locate suspect Mukhtar Ali al-Bakri arrested on his wedding day in Bahrain. The 22-year-old al-Bakri was put on a plane to the U.S. and arrested when he entered U.S. airspace.
PETER AHEARN, FBI: These were upstanding members of the community. They went to school. They did things. Well, that's true. But, frankly, that's the same thing that you heard about a lot of the 19 hijackers.
CANDIOTTI: Al-Bakri is a U.S. citizen, like the other five men who were rounded up in Lackawanna over the weekend. They are charged with participating in an al Qaeda training camp in the summer of 2001 and therefore providing material support to a terrorist organization.
Ahmed al-Bakri says his brother did travel overseas, but could not be involved in doing any harm to the U.S.
AHMED AL-BAKRI, BROTHER OF MUKHTAR AL-BAKRI: No. My brother loves this country. He just graduated from the high school. And he is a U.S. citizen. He's not a member of a terrorist attack or a terrorist organization.
CANDIOTTI: Al-Bakri was last in Western New York in July before returning to Bahrain. FBI agents interviewed al-Bakri on September 11, when America marked the anniversary of the attacks.
The government says al-Bakri admitted going to an al Qaeda camp and implicated others. That prompted the weekend arrests. He appeared in court wearing leg irons and handcuffs. The judge appointed the unemployed former deliveryman an attorney. A not-guilty plea was entered on his behalf.
JOHN MOLLOY, ATTORNEY FOR AL-BAKRI: My client seems -- he's a little bit confused because of everything happening so fast.
CANDIOTTI: Two other suspects are believed to be in Yemen, according to the FBI; one of their names, Jaber Elbaneh, revealed in a criminal complaint unsealed in court.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: CNN's Susan Candiotti in Buffalo.
Joining me now is the uncle of Shafal Mosed, one of the men arrested Friday night. His name is Mohamed Albanna. And he joins me tonight from Buffalo.
Thank you, sir, for being with us.
MOHAMED ALBANNA, UNCLE OF ALLEGED AL QAEDA SUPPORTER: Thank you for having us.
CHUNG: Your nephew was arrested. Does he have any connections with al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden?
ALBANNA: Well, not that we know of.
But the authority, the FBI and other enforcement agencies, have him under arrest for that purpose. And we are leaving that up to the authorities to prove that he is a member of the al Qaeda. But as far as we are concerned, we don't believe he is.
CHUNG: One of the men who was arrested said that your nephew did go to Afghanistan and was trained at an al Qaeda training camp. Is that true?
ALBANNA: Well, I don't know that. I know that he and others went on a trip early part or mid part of 2001 to Pakistan. Now, whether they entered Afghanistan from Pakistan, that is what the authority claims. And we really have -- we cannot confirm it or deny it.
CHUNG: When was that trip again?
ALBANNA: I think it's in either May or -- April or May of 2001.
CHUNG: All right, do you know why he was going to Pakistan?
ALBANNA: Well, what they told their families when they went is that they are going for further study, Islamic study in Pakistan, and also to attend an Islamic conference. That's the extent of the knowledge that we know about the trip. We really didn't ask them, when they went or come back, whether the trip that they went for is in fact or not.
CHUNG: Does your nephew know the other five men who were arrested?
ALBANNA: Yes, he knows them. I know them as well.
CHUNG: Excuse me. You know them?
ALBANNA: Yes, I know all of them. They are all members of the community. We are a small community in western New York. And we -- they all lived within one block of each other.
CHUNG: Well, do you know if any of those men are involved in terrorist activities with al Qaeda, connected to Osama bin Laden?
ALBANNA: No. We have no knowledge. We have no idea. And we are still in shock. And we can't believe that they are accused of that.
CHUNG: Can you tell me about your nephew very briefly? Does he have a job? I know that he did go to the high school, local high school there, didn't he?
ALBANNA: Yes. He and three others are graduates of the Lackawanna High School. Right now, he's attending Erie Community College. And he also worked as a telemarketer.
CHUNG: Do you have any idea what he wanted to do when he graduated from college, presuming he would?
ALBANNA: I really have no idea.
CHUNG: Is your family concerned about this, because it's quite serious?
ALBANNA: Well, naturally, the -- his family, as well as the entire community and the family of all the others, are concerned and they are worried about their loved ones.
But we are in America. And each individual is presumed innocent until proven guilty. And we have enough faith in the court and the legal system. And we should be patient and allow the process to go forward.
CHUNG: All right, Mohamed Albanna, thank you so much for being with us tonight. We appreciate it.
ALBANNA: Thank you for having us.
CHUNG: All right.
Although we're talking to our guests tonight from Buffalo, New York, the story is actually in the Buffalo suburb, as he had mentioned, in Lackawanna. The town is home to an estimated 1,000 people from Yemen. And it's also believed that someone in the Lackawanna Muslim community provided the initial tip pointing authorities to the six men now under arrest.
Joining me now is Lackawanna's police chief, Dennis O'Hara.
Thank you, sir, for being with us tonight.
DENNIS O'HARA, LACKAWANNA POLICE CHIEF: Good evening.
CHUNG: Good evening.
The uncle of one of the men -- I just interviewed -- says that, to his knowledge and to the knowledge of the family, his nephew has no involvement in any terrorist activities or any connection with al Qaeda. Do you know of any evidence that would connect any of these gentlemen with al Qaeda?
O'HARA: Connie, I'm not directly involved with any of the evidence. The case was investigated by the joint terrorism task force here in Buffalo, which is run out of the FBI office here in Buffalo. And they handled all the evidence. Knowing the criminal justice system as I do, they must have had enough evidence to get a warrant signed by the magistrate. So I'm sure the evidence is going to end up appearing in court.
CHUNG: Chief O'Hara, you were aware, however, that these men were under investigation since before 9/11. Isn't that correct?
O'HARA: Not really. I knew an investigation was going on. I had no idea who was going to be arrested right up until the time of the arrests on Friday.
CHUNG: I see. Were any of your detectives involved with the FBI in following these men or following their whereabouts?
O'HARA: Most definitely. One of our detectives is a member of the joint terrorism task force.
CHUNG: I see.
And do you know if he was aware of these six individuals or more individuals?
O'HARA: He was aware of all their identities, yes.
CHUNG: I see.
Did he tell you what it was that they were suspicious of?
O'HARA: No. We just knew it was a serious national security concern. We weren't informed of anything else. The task force works on its own and they keep their work to themselves.
CHUNG: There is quite a large community there, is there not, of Muslims?
O'HARA: Very much so. I think I heard you quote 1,000 before, but I would think it's even more than that myself, Connie.
CHUNG: You know what? I do believe you are correct. I think it is more than 1,000. Are they quite surprised at what has happened?
O'HARA: I think the proper word is shocked. It was no secret that the FBI was in town. No one knew what they were investigating. For charges to be this serious to boys that were raised in our own backyard, went to our local schools, everyone's shocked right now.
CHUNG: Do you have security concerns there?
O'HARA: Security at the mosque, there hasn't been a problem since these incidents, these arrests on Friday.
We've beefed up patrols. We want to make sure that -- we just have five Americans arrested. No one should put a black eye against the whole Muslim community. That's not fair. And they're not found guilty yet. So everything's been peace and quiet in Lackawanna. Thank God. And let's see what happens in the course of the trial.
CHUNG: All right, Chief O'Hara, I'm sure the Muslim community so appreciates what you just said. And I thank you for being with us tonight.
O'HARA: Thank you for having me, Connie.
CHUNG: Still ahead: He's accused of playing a leading role in the September 11 attacks. Tonight, America has him in custody.
Stay with us.
ANNOUNCER: Still ahead: A former NBA star and his girlfriend vanish in the South Pacific. Why are the FBI and the families of the missing now searching for his brother?
CONNIE CHUNG TONIGHT continues in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Now that Ramzi Binalshibh is in U.S. custody, the objective will be to get him to talk.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He's the one that thought he was going to be the 20th bomber. He thought he could hide. He thought he could still threaten America, but he forgot the greatest nation on the face of the earth is after him, one person at a time.
ARENA: While he's not believed to be a senior member of the al Qaeda terrorist organization, the information the Binalshibh provides could be vital and could include intelligence about future attacks. U.S. officials say the plan is to interrogate Binalshibh at an undisclosed location. It's the same tactic used with considerable success with another al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah.
DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: The more of these people that are rolled up and put in jail and interrogated, the more difficult it is to recruit, the more difficult it is to retain people, the more difficult it is to raise money, the more difficult it is to transfer money, the more difficult it is for those folks to move between countries, and the more careful they have to be in everything they have to be in everything they do.
ARENA: During the raids last week in Pakistan, another al Qaeda operative was also taken.
(on camera): U.S. officials identify the individual as Umar al- Gharib, a mid-level al Qaeda operative who happens to be the brother of Tawfiq Attash Khallad, who is thought to be one of the masterminds behind the bombing of the USS Cole.
Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: And joining us now from Washington is CNN's terrorism analyst Peter Bergen -- Peter thank you.
PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Hi, Connie.
CHUNG: Peter, obviously the United States intelligence would like Ramzi Binalshibh to give information about the future, any future plans. But my question is, why would he talk?
BERGEN: Well, we've seen a variety of responses from people who are affiliated with al Qaeda or members of al Qaeda once they've been captured.
In Kelli Arena's piece, she mentioned Abu Zubaydah. Abu Zubaydah, according to people involved in the investigation of al Qaeda, has been a sort of gold mine of information. Information that he provided led to the arrest of Jose Padilla, the Hispanic American arrested in Chicago in May, who may have been coming to the United States to let off a dirty or radiological bomb. Abu Zubaydah...
CHUNG: But...
BERGEN: Go ahead.
CHUNG: Peter, what I'm saying is that these are people who are willing to die for what they believe in. So what I don't understand is how any officials can force these people to talk and if we can depend on the credibility of it.
BERGEN: Well, in the case of Abu Zubaydah, he's talking. And, apparently, most of the information is credible.
There are other examples which go sort of the flip side of that. Ahmed Ressam, who was arrested at the Canadian-American border at the time of the millennium with all sorts of explosives, remains silent for over a year about what his intentions were and who he really was working for. Facing 140 years in prison, he suddenly had a "Saint Paul on the road to Damascus" moment and decided to start cooperating with authorities and told them that his intended target was Los Angeles International Airport.
So there's a wide variety of possible responses to being captured. And we don't know what Ramzi Binalshibh is going to do, whether he'll cooperate, say nothing, eventually say something a year from now.
CHUNG: Do you know anything about the other individuals who were taken into custody in Karachi?
BERGEN: Well, Kelli Arena mentioned somebody who may be involved in the USS Cole. There was some indication that one of them may have been involved in the U.S. Embassy bombing attack in Kenya.
There seems to be some debate about the number of people caught and what their exact identities are. We still don't know exactly who those people are. Ramzi Binalshibh, I think, is a tremendous success.
CHUNG: All right.
And what is he suspected of doing regarding 9/11?
BERGEN: Well, as a rather remarkable act of chutzpah, he did a two-day interview with Al-Jazeera, which basically revealed his role and a lot of information we didn't know about 9/11.
We now know from his information that the fourth target was indeed the U.S. Capitol. There was some debate about whether Flight 93 was going to go against the White House or the Congress. It turns out it was the Capitol. We also know from that interview that they contemplated attacking American nuclear facilities, but decided not to do that because of perhaps unintended consequences they couldn't foresee.
We also know from his own statements that he was the conduit for information between Mohamed Atta in the United States and the al Qaeda leadership in Afghanistan in the weeks leading up to 9/11. I think if he'd got into this country -- he failed to get in three times he applied for a visa -- he would have been more than the 20th hijacker. He would have played a major operational role.
He might have almost been more important than Mohamed Atta. He's an expert, self-confessed expert on American airline schedules. He's obviously a very bright guy. And he described himself as the operational leader of 9/11 in the course of an interview in which he was compelled to say nothing. So this is really what he believes he is.
CHUNG: Can you give us an idea? Omar al-Farouq was able to give interrogators a good deal of information. What was he able to give us?
BERGEN: Well, the reason there was the code orange alert in the last possible days -- last few days was because of Omar al-Farouq's information. It was very specific.
It was about attacking American targets in Southeast Asia, which led to the closing of American embassies in Indonesia and in other countries in Southeast Asia. His information was very specific. And unlike other alerts we've had in the past, when the alert came out, it was very much related to attacks on -- car bombs against American targets in Southeast Asia. And that was the information that he was able to give.
Going back to your original point, he didn't say anything for three months, this al-Farouq character. So, after three months, he began to talk.
CHUNG: All right, Peter Bergen, thank you so much. We appreciate your being with us.
BERGEN: Thank you.
CHUNG: And still ahead: A former NBA player and his girlfriend vanished. Was it an accident at sea or foul play?
ANNOUNCER: Still ahead: the son of a mafia hit man living on the right side of the law in the shadow of the mob -- when CONNIE CHUNG TONIGHT continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHUNG: We will continue in a moment.
(NEWS BREAK)
CHUNG: Still ahead: How is a son supposed to feel about a dad who is a mafia killer? We'll ask him.
Stay with us.
ANNOUNCER: Still ahead: addiction. The Bush family faces a crisis that millions of American families share -- when CONNIE CHUNG TONIGHT continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHUNG: A sad mystery took a chilling turn this weekend. Bison Dele, he played for the NBA, including the 1997 championship Chicago Bulls, under his original name, Brian Williams. He had been traveling the world with his girlfriend, Serena Karlan. And together they were supposed to sail from Tahiti to Honolulu. They haven't been heard from since July 8.
On Friday, the FBI issued a warrant for the arrest of Dele's brother, who was picked up in Phoenix this month with Dele's passport. And this weekend, his sailboat, the Hakuna Matata, was found in Tahiti repainted and renamed. What exactly has happened here? And where are Bison, Serena and the missing captain of their boat?
One of the people leading the search is Serena's father, Stuart Karlan, who joins me now.
Thank you so much, Mr. Karlan.
STUART KARLAN, FATHER OF SERENA KARLAN: It's my pleasure.
CHUNG: Now, when Serena first found out that her boyfriend, Bison, was inviting her to go travel the world in a 55-foot catamaran, were you at all concerned for her safety, because, after all, she's 30 years old.
KARLAN: No. We trusted Serena. We do trust Serena completely. She's always been immensely mature, and feet on the ground, and just the clearest person you'd ever want to know. So, ever since she was 16, she's been really making a lot of decisions for herself.
CHUNG: When did you become concerned?
KARLAN: Well, her mom, Gale, called me toward the end of -- middle, end of August. And her alarm went off first. We knew that they would be in remote areas for periods of time. So we were really flexible.
When Gale called me, I immediately -- my alarm went off. And I started calling the Coast Guard. And we started the search then.
CHUNG: Bison's brother was arrested on September 5 in Phoenix trying to cash a large check, $150,000 check. And he had Bison's passport. And he was trying to sign his brother's name.
KARLAN: He was trying to buy gold. Apparently, he tried to get $500,000 worth initially. And the coin dealer couldn't handle that much. So he took it down to $152,000. And he had his passport and his credit cards.
CHUNG: So, clearly, that sounded suspicious to you?
KARLAN: Immediately, it went from being a search for missing people to something that had shades of terror that we had not even -- we hadn't even anticipated at all.
CHUNG: And this past weekend, when the boat was found renamed and repainted, what did you think?
KARLAN: Well, I mean, it was news that -- it was good news that they found the boat. But it was heartbreaking to know that it had been camouflaged and the name changed.
CHUNG: Do you have any idea what has happened to your daughter?
KARLAN: We've theorized every possible scenario. And we've had to look at every possibility. I'm hoping that we're going to find a very hungry 30-year-old girl who is upset that we used the wrong picture in the publicity.
CHUNG: Stuart Karlan, we wish you the very best of luck and hope you're able to find your daughter.
KARLAN: Thank you.
CHUNG: The Web site is where WhereIsBison.com.
And still head: another father's agonizing quest to help his daughter. This time, the villain is no mystery.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHUNG: How could one of the top members of the notorious Gambino crime family in New York, a known killer many times over, also be a good father?
That's one of the central questions behind the new book "For the Sins of My Father." It's by Albert DeMeo, whose father, Roy, was a hit man, a loan shark, a car thief, and a peddler of pornography. And Al joins me now to tell about life in both families.
Thank you so much for being with us.
ALBERT DEMEO, AUTHOR, "FOR THE SINS OF MY FATHER": Thank you for having me.
CHUNG: You were really close to your father. Tell me about him.
DEMEO: Well, he was a young father. He was very good to his children. He took us and did all the things that regular fathers, so to speak, do with their kids. We went to the playground, the park, all those things. He was always there for us. And he was there for Sunday dinners and all that.
CHUNG: So what did you think he did for a living?
DEMEO: That question was very tough for me throughout my young life. In school, you get that question from a teacher. She says, "Today we're going to write a report on what our fathers do for a living." And I had no answer for that.
CHUNG: Is it because you didn't know or you knew and you couldn't say?
DEMEO: I didn't know. There were too many things. I had little snippets of occupations, but I didn't have one occupation that I could pin on him.
CHUNG: When did you first realize what your father did for a living, that he worked for the mafia?
DEMEO: Like I said, it was a slow progression.
But the final nail in that coffin, so to speak, was around 1976, when Carlo Gambino passed away. I'm watching the TV. And I see the funeral of Carlo Gambino, head of the mafia. And I see my father coming out of the church at a funeral parlor. And I'm like, "Oh, so that's the name for what my father does." And then I had a name for it. I didn't understand what it was. I said: "OK, there's a name to it now. He's in the mafia."
CHUNG: You helped him in some way or another here and there.
DEMEO: Right.
CHUNG: You actually picked up money when you were how old?
DEMEO: The first time I made collections, I was about 14 years old.
CHUNG: Did you know what you were doing then?
DEMEO: The circumstances that surrounded me doing that, they were like desperate times, where my father was kind on the downswing in his criminal career, or career in the mob, or whatever.
And he needed -- he kind of expressed to me that he didn't trust anyone else and I had to just do these things. So that's what I did. I didn't really question it at that point.
CHUNG: So here you are a teenager and you're picking up thousands of dollars in cash.
DEMEO: Right.
CHUNG: Were you scared, you know, bringing it home?
DEMEO: No. It was unbelievable. I look back now and I try to say, how did I muster the strength and the...
CHUNG: Yes.
DEMEO: ... will to do these things then, when I can't even really fathom doing them now? So I guess it's kind of the naivete of being a child, too. So I guess that helped me deal at that time.
CHUNG: You're 17 years old.
DEMEO: Right.
CHUNG: There's a knock at your front door. It's the FBI. What did the agents tell you?
DEMEO: I walked to that door. They asked me my name. They said, "Albert DeMeo?"
I said, "Yes."
And they said: "We found your father shot and stuffed into the trunk of his car. And his friends did it."
CHUNG: Did you know that there was a chance your father might be killed?
DEMEO: He said to me -- he said, "After tomorrow, I'm not going to be around anymore."
CHUNG: He said that point blank?
DEMEO: Point blank, yes. And I kind of -- in my heart, I was kind of like trying to fool myself, think, "OK, he's going to disappear and he's going to make me think that he's dead so I could be believable if someone asks me."
So, like for that day and that night, I was like, all right, this is what's going to happen. And I fooled myself. And for years leading up to this, I felt that that day would come that my father would be killed.
CHUNG: About 10 years ago, a book was written that just spilled all the information. It revealed that your father had murdered as many as 200 people. He was a hit man.
DEMEO: Right.
CHUNG: What did that do to you?
DEMEO: I went through all these years of dealing with the trials and dealing with all this stuff. Everything died down. And now I got to get this book throwing it in my face again. So it really threw me off track.
CHUNG: I know that it reached real depths. How low did you go?
DEMEO: I went so low as to attempt suicide. Basically, one day after my wife went to work, I went into the garage with a gun, put a bullet in the cylinder, spun it, put it to my head, and pulled the trigger. And it didn't -- obviously, I didn't kill myself.
CHUNG: As you look back, do you have a hatred for your father?
DEMEO: It's taken -- obviously, it's taken a long time for me to even talk about it. I mean, I couldn't even talk about it with my friends. And here I am, in a very public format, speaking of it.
I went into therapy. It took a long time to bring it up, just to deal with it. And writing the book was a great catharsis for me. And I'm at the point now where I'm very angry at my father's choices that he made in life.
CHUNG: Did you innately know that this was not the kind of life you wanted to live?
DEMEO: Definitely not. I mean, I wouldn't -- I never would want to live that kind of life. There's no redeeming qualities in it.
CHUNG: How do you think your father was able to murder as many as 200 people, take people for rides as a loan shark, and, at the same time, be such a loving father to you and your sisters and your mother?
DEMEO: I think, when you see the worst things in this world that there are that can happen, I think you only want the best for the people that you love. It's a very selfish thing, though. But I kind of think that's what it was.
CHUNG: You know, all of us see these movies, "The Godfather," "Goodfellas." And now, of course, "The Sopranos" is on HBO. Do we have a clearly wrong impression of the mafia? Or are they portrayed accurately?
DEMEO: Well, I think "The Sopranos" portrays the modern mob in a very realistic light, definitely, so much so that, when I watched it sometimes, I had to shut it off because it hits too close to home.
CHUNG: Really?
DEMEO: Yes. It just shows that these people, they're normal people. They have crabgrass. They have arguments with their wives. Their children do things they don't want them to do. And it just shows that dichotomy, that they step through that door and they have a different life than they have on the street. So there it is.
CHUNG: It is your life.
DEMEO: It's very scary. It is very similar.
CHUNG: All right, well, thank you so much.
DEMEO: Thank you.
CHUNG: We really appreciate your being with us.
DEMEO: Thank you for having me.
CHUNG: We'll be right back, but first a look at another well- known mobster, tonight's edition of "Off the Radar."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: The mafia likes to cultivate an image of honor and glamour. As Salvatore Gravano showed, the truth is something different. Gravano, known as "Sammy the Bull" for his brutality, served under New York crime boss John Gotti. But Gravano left Gotti's side to stab him in the back.
Was it his conscience that led him to tell all? No. He was facing 19 murder raps. Gravano testified to cut his sentence down to five years. The feds put away three dozen mobsters, including Gotti, who just died in prison this year. Reportedly, Gotti put out a $1 million bounty on Gravano's head. So what happened to this "Bull"- turned-rat after he got out of prison? The answer when we return. (END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: What happened to Salvador "Sammy the Bull" Gravano after the short prison term he served in return for his testimony? Gravano did a brief turn in the Witness Protection Program, but dropped out on his own. Apparently, the money from his Arizona restaurant, construction and pool-building businesses weren't enough for him. He was indicted on charges of running a crime ring that sold drugs to kids.
BRUCE CUTLER, FORMER ATTORNEY FOR JOHN GOTTI: It was expected that this reprobate -- who I referred to many times as a born liar, a coward, and a traitor -- would, of course, do what he did best, which was destroy the lives of others.
ANNOUNCER: Of course, Gotti's attorney might still have been sore about Gravano's testimony. Nevertheless, a judge pretty much agreed and just this month sentenced Gravano to 20 years in prison. Despite all the hype about mafia honor, Gravano also got his son, daughter and wife convicted. Gravano himself won't be able to start his next criminal operation on the outside until he's 77.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: Noelle Bush is not only the niece of President Bush and the daughter of Florida Governor Jeb Bush. She's also apparently battling addiction.
She's now facing a court appearance, after police said they found a fifth of a gram of crack cocaine in her shoe. That could get her kicked out of her drug-rehab program. And it could mean jail time for a previous charge of using a fraudulent prescription to get drugs.
One man who knows what Noelle Bush and her family are going through is former presidential candidate and Senator George McGovern. His daughter Terry spent her adult life battling a drug that causes more misery, more crime and death than any other: alcohol. She lost her battle. Drunk, she froze to death outside a bar.
George McGovern spoke with me earlier from Mitchell, South Dakota.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: Senator McGovern, it's so good to see you again. Thank you for being with us tonight.
GEORGE MCGOVERN, FORMER U.S. SENATOR: It's my pleasure.
CHUNG: You must be able to empathize with the Bush family on so many devils as you watch the Noelle Bush story unfold.
MCGOVERN: Well, my heart goes out to Governor Bush and Mrs. Bush and the family.
This is a tough experience to go through. It's an illness. When you have a child or a member of your family suffering from a chemical addiction, they're sick. And that has to be treated. And I'm sure the Bush family is well aware of this. It's not a political crisis. It's a personal family crisis, and a very sad one.
We lost a daughter, as I think you know, to alcoholism, one of the finest young women I've ever known in my life. But she was an addict. She just could not get on top of that problem. And it finally took her life.
CHUNG: How early did you realize that she had an alcohol problem?
MCGOVERN: It began in the college years.
She was at the University of South Dakota. And we saw the grades start to slip. We saw her behavior become more irregular. We saw the beginning of emotional depression. We knew something was wrong.
CHUNG: What is so extraordinary is that she was in and out of detox centers 68 times, which is a staggering number.
MCGOVERN: It is.
She was living in Madison, Wisconsin, then. And she fought that illness, I think, every day of her life. She not only went into detox centers -- which is simply a matter of a few days, three or four or five days -- but she was in long-term treatment.
I used to tell Eleanor: "Don't worry about Terry. She's a real battler. She's not going to give up easily. She'll get on top of this thing. She's a tough-minded scrapper. And she's going to lick this thing sooner or later." I really believed that. It wasn't just a pep talk to Eleanor. It was something I fully believed.
So, when I got the news that at Christmastime of '94 about midnight, when a police officer and a clergyman came to our house in Washington and told us that our daughter Teresa Jane had been found dead, frozen to death in a snowbank in Madison, Wisconsin, while deeply intoxicated, I just couldn't believe it. I was too stunned even to react. I just literally went numb.
And it's been a tough time since then dealing with this loss. You keep thinking of things you wish you had done or hours you wish you had spent with the suffering member of your family. But, in the end, I think we did everything almost humanly possible to help her.
And I'm sure the Bush family has done the same thing. This is an enlightened, intelligence, sensitive family, a good family. And I'm sure they've done everything in their power to help their daughter. But these addictions are powerful things. They're nothing to fool around with.
CHUNG: What kind of advice would you have for the Bush family? Because it does seem as if Governor Jeb Bush has been out there, very straightforward, very honest. He's not trying to hide anything.
MCGOVERN: Well, that's the advice I would give, to do just as he has and to be open and honest and direct about it. And what he's going to discover is that people will respond favorably to that.
We found that in our case. I had people in my state of South Dakota walk up to me when Terry was in trouble one time. And it turns out it was a devout Republican. And he said: "Look, George, I don't agree with you on politics, but I certainly agree with you on the way you're handling this problem with your daughter. And you have my full sympathy." I later heard that he even voted for me.
So I'm not saying this is the way to get votes, but I am saying it's not a political crisis, in a damaging sense, for Governor Bush.
CHUNG: Do you think it's hard for the children of public figures, in this respect, because, if you look at it, Noelle Bush has an uncle who's president, has a father who's governor of the state? I mean, that's quite a lot to deal with, and knowing if indeed that you have a problem, that you know it's not going to be a private problem.
MCGOVERN: Yes, it is tough on children.
I became aware of that rather early in my career, that my children were paying a price for my prominence and my national involvement and all of those things that go with public life. I think it is tough on kids. Whether or not that's the kind of a problem that could lead children into drugs, I don't know. I'm not wise enough to know that. But I do know that politics takes a heavy toll on family life.
CHUNG: Thank you so much. It's just terrific to see you.
MCGOVERN: Well, I hope to see you soon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHUNG: We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHUNG: Tomorrow: The women had their turn. Now get ready for the men of Enron in "Playgirl" magazine. If I could raise my eyebrow, I would.
And coming up next on "LARRY KING LIVE": the three men detained in Florida last week, and the latest on the Westerfield verdict and the upcoming trial of Alejandro Avila, the man accused of killing Samantha Runnion.
Thank you for joining us. And for all of us at CNN, good night and see you tomorrow.
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