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CNN Live Saturday
Interview With 9-11 Victim's Mother Alice Hoglan
Aired May 18, 2002 - 18:19 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.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: United Airlines Flight 93 was one of four planes hijacked on September 11. That plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania, killing 44 passengers and crewmembers.
Among the victims was 31-year-old Mark Bingham. He was finally laid to rest yesterday.
His mother, Alice Hoglan, joins us now with more on the 9/11- security breach.
Ms. Hoglan, thank you so much for your time. I know that to have to answer -- to deal with these questions -- so soon after you laid your son to rest -- I know it can be difficult, but we appreciate if you would share your thoughts with us -- what do you think about these revelations that we've heard over the last few days?
ALICE HOGLAN, MOTHER OF 9/11 VICTIM: I can't really fault President Bush. Hindsight is much clearer than foresight. He was operating on information that was given to him during a routine security briefing, without any particular emphasis placed on it, and certainly no specifics.
I believe him when he says that had he known more specifics, he certainly would have acted on it.
SAN MIGUEL: Are you as forgiving of some of the other agencies that might also have known about this, the FBI, the CIA?
HOGLAN: Well, that's a good point; it certainly points up how deficient our intelligence and law enforcement system has been.
We need to have an arrangement where law enforcement on the federal level can talk to enforcement on the state and local levels that our intelligence system, the CIA, will be able to share information more effectively with all law enforcement agencies, and law enforcement can share information with the entities that tend to be affected by terrorist threats.
President Bush has done a great deal toward that end. I applaud Robert Mueller for his efforts to bring the FBI into the modern age, and deal with the present terrorist threat. I think that George W. Bush is doing a fine job with respect to his creation of the Office of Homeland Security. The FAA, another federal agency that has long been ridden with inefficiency and too heavily influenced by such things as airline lobbies, is also being revised. The Transportation Security Administration has come into being, and all those things are good.
SAN MIGUEL: Let me ask you this -- because we are also hearing reports now that memos were sent to the airlines warning of possible hijackings. You are a flight attendant. Have you heard anything along those lines from the pilots or the airline that you work for?
HOGLAN: In a word, no. And it does not surprise me that the airlines would have been given a special briefing. This is the first I've heard of that.
In 1995, Osama bin Laden was narrowly thwarted in an effort to blow something like 13 airliners, including United Airliners, right out of the air from points over the Pacific Rim.
It wasn't because of any effort by the airlines, particularly, or law enforcement, to stop the planned terrorist attack; it was a coincidence, and it was an incidental thing that happened. In Manila, an apartment fire in the apartment of one of the terrorist's that brought that terrorist act to an end.
We need a much better system, and I am really sorry to observe, in the months since I've returned to flying as a flight attendant -- and United Airlines is not alone in this -- but the airlines tend to emphasize corporate interests, profits -- at the expense of security. I would really like United to be the first airline to implement specific and effective and truly important security changes.
SAN MIGUEL: And we will see what they do about that. We just have about 45 seconds left. I was wondering your thoughts on a "Newsweek" poll that says while 55 percent of those surveyed think the public should have been warned about possible hijackings, two-thirds believe such warnings would not have prevented the attacks. Your thoughts?
HOGLAN: Well, I have to agree with the smaller percentage that thinks the public should be told. In California here, our Governor Gray Davis took a lot of heat in recent months for making public a threat against our bridges.
It's turned out that the threat apparently was a hoax, or perhaps Governor Davis' warning brought it to an end. But, he represents the opposite end of the spectrum from what George W. Bush did, and it took a lot of courage for Gov. Davis to speak out and bring the public's attention to that threat, and I think we need to have more of that and not less. Let us decide what's good for us.
SAN MIGUEL: We want to go ahead and let our viewers know that you have a web site dedicated to your son, markbingham.org, and we also understand that next Wednesday would have been his 32nd birthday, I believe?
HOGLAN: Yes, that's right. May 22 -- they're having a fundraiser for him this evening, and people can read about it -- they've made a Web site that's easy enough for his mom to remember the address. It's just markbingham.org. Thanks.
SAN MIGUEL: Thank you very much, Alice Hoglan, for showing -- for sharing your thoughts with us about this situation.
HOGLAN: You're welcome, thanks for having me.
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