Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Daughter of 9/11 Victim Discusses Intelligence Allegations

Aired May 17, 2002 - 08:15   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: As you might imagine, news that the White House was warned of possible terrorist hijackings before September 11 has brought very strong reaction from the families of 9/11 victims.

Carie Lemack's mother, shown here in white, was on board one of the planes that flew into the World Trade Center. Carie joins us this morning from Boston.

Welcome back. Good to see you again, Carie.

CARIE LEMACK, MOTHER KILLED ON 9/11: Good morning, Paula. Thank you. Good to see you.

ZAHN: So what do you make of this tempest in Washington that's brewing over where the blame should lie?

LEMACK: You know, I don't even want there to have to be blame. We just want to know what happened. You know, for eight months the victims' families have wanted to understand what led up to and what happened on September 11. Senators Lieberman and McCain have proposed a bill to do such an investigation and thus far it has been squashed by the administration and it has not had support by Congress.

We are actually planning a rally on June 11 to try to get that bill passed. Hopefully now people understand that there are a lot of questions that need to be answered. It's not about blame. It's about finding out what happened and what we can fix to make sure it doesn't happen again.

ZAHN: But based on what you've seen so far, I guess there are a couple of facts. First of all, it has been reported that some members of Congress had the same intelligence briefings that the president did. The president's spokespeople made it abundantly clear yesterday that the warnings were not specific at all. There was no mention, you know, that a commercial airliner could be potentially used as a missile.

So just...

LEMACK: Well, actually that's not...

ZAHN: I know you don't want to pin blame...

LEMACK: That's not true.

ZAHN: Yes, I'm just wondering what you assess of what we know so far? I mean clearly the system didn't work and there was a break down in communication that even the CIA has admitted between the CIA and the FBI.

LEMACK: Well, that's clear.

ZAHN: What do you think we're looking at?

LEMACK: Well, the press secretary, Mr. Fleischer said, you know, this is about lots of little dots that had to be connected. I believed as a citizen, and I know my mom, who paid taxes, believed that her government was going to connect those dots to protect her. Condoleezza Rice said well, we had the warnings about hijackings, but not necessarily suicide hijackings. Quite honestly, my mother didn't want to be hijacked one way or the other. And the fact that people are now saying well, it's a blame game, it's being politicized, I really hope that people can step beyond that and look at the facts.

Three thousand people were murdered. Let's find out what happened. Let's make sure it can't happen again.

ZAHN: Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday that the digging will stop at ground zero come May 30, leaving many family members without remains of their loved ones. What do you think of the mayor's decision?

LEMACK: Well, from what I've heard from different people that are working down at ground zero, they've reached bedrock. So there's no more debris for them to search through, which is very sad. But they are to be commended for the wonderful job they did, that they did it so quickly.

In terms of remains, there are right now about 19,000 body parts being held by the medical examiner of New York and they're hoping to help identify. So the identification process has not stopped, just the fact that there's no more debris to be recovered.

ZAHN: On an emotional level, will May 30 represent something significant to you?

LEMACK: I don't know. I think these days, I don't want to speak for all the victims, but for a lot of the victims' families every day is a roller coaster and I have no idea how I'll feel till that day comes.

ZAHN: Well, we'll be tagging along with you when you go to that rally later on next month.

LEMACK: Thank you.

ZAHN: Carie Lemack, thank you very much for joining us this morning.

LEMACK: Thanks, Paula. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com