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CNN Live At Daybreak
Meeting Between Nuclear Weapons Inspectors, Libyan Officials
Aired December 22, 2003 - 05:06 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.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we should know more later today about a weekend meeting between nuclear weapons' inspectors and Libyan officials. The hastily arranged session followed Friday's announcement Libya would dismantle its weapons of mass destruction program and allow inspections. And U.S. officials say that Libya had come close to being able to enrich uranium and has facilities capable of producing biological agents for weapons.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. RICHARD MYERS, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: He's got the delivery means with ballistic missiles. We know, we think he has chemical, perhaps biological and the start of a nuclear program. And it's significant that he's willing to give that up, to give it up to inspections and to join the normal nations of this world. That's a huge, a huge event, if it takes place, as has been described.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CALLAWAY: U.S.-Libyan relations began to improve earlier this year when Libya accepted responsibility for the bombing of PanAm Flight 103. Sunday marked the 15th anniversary of that bombing.
But some relatives of those who died on the flight accept what the U.S. is doing now.
Here's CNN's Michael Okwu.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fifteen years after PanAm 103 was blown up in the skies over Lockerbie, more than 200 victims' relatives and friends marking the anniversary with solemn music. Under a wintry blue sky in Arlington National Cemetery, relatives read the names of all 270 people who died, most of them Americans.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Glen John Bouckley, Nicole Elise Boulanger.
DANIEL COHEN, FATHER OF PANAM 103 CHILD: It gets me. It genuinely gets me. When you bury your child, you don't forget it. You don't forget it in 15 years, you don't forget it in 50 years if you live that long.
OKWU: But on this day of reflection, remembrance, outrage from some families after President Bush's Libya speech. The president said Muammar Qaddafi's Libya had begun the process of rejoining the community of nations after declaring an intention to disclose and dismantle all its unconventional weapons programs.
KATHLEEN FLYNN, MOTHER OF PANAM 103 VICTIM: Why would anybody want to believe this man? And I'll go back to say, if Iraq, why not Libya?
OKWU: Kathleen Flynn lost her 21-year-old son John. Flynn and people like Daniel and Susan Cohen, who lost their only daughter, Theodora, believe the administration is preparing to lift sanctions on Libya and that should never happen, they say, as long as Qaddafi is in power.
SUSAN COHEN, MOTHER OF PANAM 103 VICTIM: I would call it a devil's pact. Qaddafi did this. He blew up an American plane. There is, that was far worse than anything that Saddam Hussein ever did to us.
OKWU: The U.N. lifted its sanctions on Libya in September and Libya has also settled to pay victims' relatives some $2.7 billion. Some of the families say if this is the way to keep Qaddafi in line, so be it.
Jeannie Boulanger, mother of Nicole Elise, who was 21.
JEANNIE BOULANGER, MOTHER OF PANAM 103 VICTIM: You know, you can foster hate in your heart and you cannot let go of the anger, but does that really honor the people that were lost? I would hope that their death stood for something.
OKWU: Michael Okwu, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Officials>
Aired December 22, 2003 - 05:06 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we should know more later today about a weekend meeting between nuclear weapons' inspectors and Libyan officials. The hastily arranged session followed Friday's announcement Libya would dismantle its weapons of mass destruction program and allow inspections. And U.S. officials say that Libya had come close to being able to enrich uranium and has facilities capable of producing biological agents for weapons.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. RICHARD MYERS, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: He's got the delivery means with ballistic missiles. We know, we think he has chemical, perhaps biological and the start of a nuclear program. And it's significant that he's willing to give that up, to give it up to inspections and to join the normal nations of this world. That's a huge, a huge event, if it takes place, as has been described.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CALLAWAY: U.S.-Libyan relations began to improve earlier this year when Libya accepted responsibility for the bombing of PanAm Flight 103. Sunday marked the 15th anniversary of that bombing.
But some relatives of those who died on the flight accept what the U.S. is doing now.
Here's CNN's Michael Okwu.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fifteen years after PanAm 103 was blown up in the skies over Lockerbie, more than 200 victims' relatives and friends marking the anniversary with solemn music. Under a wintry blue sky in Arlington National Cemetery, relatives read the names of all 270 people who died, most of them Americans.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Glen John Bouckley, Nicole Elise Boulanger.
DANIEL COHEN, FATHER OF PANAM 103 CHILD: It gets me. It genuinely gets me. When you bury your child, you don't forget it. You don't forget it in 15 years, you don't forget it in 50 years if you live that long.
OKWU: But on this day of reflection, remembrance, outrage from some families after President Bush's Libya speech. The president said Muammar Qaddafi's Libya had begun the process of rejoining the community of nations after declaring an intention to disclose and dismantle all its unconventional weapons programs.
KATHLEEN FLYNN, MOTHER OF PANAM 103 VICTIM: Why would anybody want to believe this man? And I'll go back to say, if Iraq, why not Libya?
OKWU: Kathleen Flynn lost her 21-year-old son John. Flynn and people like Daniel and Susan Cohen, who lost their only daughter, Theodora, believe the administration is preparing to lift sanctions on Libya and that should never happen, they say, as long as Qaddafi is in power.
SUSAN COHEN, MOTHER OF PANAM 103 VICTIM: I would call it a devil's pact. Qaddafi did this. He blew up an American plane. There is, that was far worse than anything that Saddam Hussein ever did to us.
OKWU: The U.N. lifted its sanctions on Libya in September and Libya has also settled to pay victims' relatives some $2.7 billion. Some of the families say if this is the way to keep Qaddafi in line, so be it.
Jeannie Boulanger, mother of Nicole Elise, who was 21.
JEANNIE BOULANGER, MOTHER OF PANAM 103 VICTIM: You know, you can foster hate in your heart and you cannot let go of the anger, but does that really honor the people that were lost? I would hope that their death stood for something.
OKWU: Michael Okwu, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Officials>
