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American Morning

Bush Administration Considering Changing Status of Scott Speicher

Aired August 15, 2002 - 08:53   ET

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

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Before we went to the break, we were telling you about the Bush administration considering changing the status of Navy Captain Scott Speicher from missing in action to missing-captured. And with all good luck, we are going to keep our fingers crossed here. We have Cindy Laquidara here, who represents the Speicher family, joining us now.
Cindy, can you hear me.

CINDY LAQUIDARA, SPEICHER FAMILY ATTORNEY: Yes, I can. Good morning.

ZAHN: OK, good. Good morning.

So why do think the administration is actively considering making this change in Scott's status?

LAQUIDARA: Well, I don't want to play all of the cards, of course, in public. But there's several reasons why. One of them of course is that it's accurate. Factually, he meets all of the criteria, and there's no reason not to place not the serviceman in a proper criteria.

In addition to that, we need to be following through on a diplomatic note and we need a recognition from this country to Iraq that they have Scott in captivity, and they continue to have him or his remains, but most likely him.

ZAHN: Now a meeting was canceled, was it not, that had been proposed, where the United States talked about to the Iraqis about the status of Scott. The meeting has been on again and off again. The status of the diplomatic note (ph) is in question.

We really need a plan. We need to be effectuating it. There are things going on right now that we're pleased with, but we have to know how we're going to resolve this matter for Scott, and certainly if we're going to head toward war, we need to not let Saddam know that if he takes our people, he gets to keep them.

ZAHN: Let's talk about the timing of this, because one Navy source told CNN that this would give the United States another reason to bomb Iraq, in his words. Do you think that is what is partly motivating this?

LAQUIDARA: Well, certainly they're intertwined. If we believe it's necessary for us to go to war with Iraq, it would be ridiculous for us to leave this one element off the table. I can't imagine that we're ready to bomb the country before we even formally ask for the return of Scott Speicher. We have not done that yet.

ZAHN: It's interesting to note that former chief weapons inspector Richard Butler told Congress -- and this is, as you might remember, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- that he thinks that the evidence in this case is strong enough, and we're going to listen to a little bit of his testimony now.

LAQUIDARA: Thanks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD BUTLER, FMR. CHIEF U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: I formed the view, and it's only a personal opinion, that the possibility that he is alive is not small. And I therefore do not believe that should give up on him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Do you think this testimony has had an impact on the Bush administration as they reconsider Mr. Speicher's status. Yes, I do. I think it was very helpful testimony. Senator Nelson asked the question, and has been pushing this issue. We need a recognition that we have to do what we say we do, which is -- we say our servicemen will not be left behind, and we have to make sure they're not. We can't let Saddam win this. I don't know why we would want to give him the upper hand.

ZAHN: It must be exhausting for the family of Scott Speicher to go through this.

What is their reaction to yet this latest suggested change?

LAQUIDARA: It's a suggestion that -- it's a request that they made. I on their behalf last September. So their pleased that it's near fruition. They're waiting for the secretary of the Navy to go ahead and make the change and recognize that he's in captivity. But they're anxious to bring this to resolution. They're anxious for the United States to be following the U.N. Security Council resolution, and be bringing these matters to the table with Iraq, and insisting on Scott's return.

ZAHN: Cindy, do you think the U.S. government knows more about this case than they're sharing?

LAQUIDARA: Well, certainly. I can tell you I know more about this case than I'm sharing. So we have to have faith in our government. We do have faith. The family does have faith in it. It's been a long time. It's ready to be resolved. You know, Iran got 600 of their MIAs back, the remains. And you look at something like that, and that happened at the end of July, and you say, what was Saddam doing? Was he giving us a signal that he's willing to deal with us with Scott, or was he spiting in our face? It's hard to tell.

But there's a lot of information. There's a lot of activity that we can't talk about, and we're just very hopeful.

ZAHN: Well, when you can, we'd love you to come back and share some of that with us.

Cindy Laquidara, thanks for your time this morning. I'm sorry about the false start up there.

LAQUIDARA: Thank you very much for your interest.

ZAHN: Our pleasure.

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