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American Morning

Interview with Stephen Push

Aired December 06, 2002 - 07:31   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Henry Kissinger is taking on a new role as head of an independent commission charged into looking at the failures, the intelligence failures of 9/11. There are questions, though, about whether some of Kissinger's business relationships may or may not pose conflicts of interest.
The former secretary of state was appointed last week by President Bush. Kissinger, though, not the first choice for a number of families in the group called Families of September 11.

That group's spokesman, Stephen Push, is our guest this morning live in D.C.

Stephen, good morning.

STEPHEN PUSH, FAMILIES OF 9/11: Good morning.

HEMMER: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.

PUSH: Thank you.

HEMMER: My condolences to you 15 months down the road for the loss of your wife on American Airlines Flight 77.

I want to be delicate in this, because I understand your situation here. What's wrong with Henry Kissinger? Why not trust the man?

PUSH: Well, we have not joined the chorus of people who have been criticizing the appointment of Henry Kissinger. We felt we wanted to give him a chance to show that he could do a thorough and independent investigation. But we've become concerned that he is refusing to disclose his client list and many commentators have suggested that he has conflicts of interest. And we'd like the air cleared about this.

And now we get this report that came out yesterday from the Congressional Research Service saying that by law he is required to disclose his clients, and yet he and the White House are still refusing to do so, as far as we know.

HEMMER: And Stephen, to this point, he denies any client conflicts. In going forward, though, he says he will disclose a number of items here. But my question, he's an American and he's trying to get to the bottom of this, trying to get answers for people like you who are still suffering. Why not give him a chance? PUSH: We want to give him a chance. But he hasn't said he would disclose his clients. He said if he encountered any conflicts, he would discuss it with the White House counsel and drop those clients, but he said he wouldn't disclose them publicly. So we want public disclosure, and that's what the law requires.

HEMMER: I want to get past the Kissinger issue and I want to get to the core of this. There's a deadline in the middle of December in order for this group to get together, the commission to be assigned. There's a lot of infighting right now throughout Washington as to who will comprise this group. Let's get past that, as well, Stephen.

What do you and the other families want accomplished through this process?

PUSH: We want an independent commission and because a six vote, six of 10 commissioners must vote in order to issue subpoenas, and we feel that this commission will be toothless without subpoenas, we think it's imperative that Warren Rudman be appointed to one of the Republican slots in the commission. He is the only qualified Republican that the families trust, the only one who we feel is independent enough to be, to vote in favor of a subpoena when it's necessary to do a thorough investigation.

HEMMER: And why do you feel that way on Rudman?

PUSH: Because of his experience with the Hart-Rudman Commission. He warned the country prior to 9/11 about the danger of terrorism. We believe if the country had heeded his warnings more, perhaps 9/11 wouldn't have happened.

HEMMER: Yes, listen, 18 months from now, when you get a look at that report, what do you hope to be contained in there that will maybe ease the burden or pain for you and others?

PUSH: I hope that we do a thorough, no holds barred investigation of what went wrong prior to 9/11. We know some of the mistakes that were made. We don't know all of them yet. And unless we really understand what all of the mistakes were, how can we correct them and make sure that this doesn't happen again?

The only way that I could feel worse about what happened to my wife is to feel that we missed an opportunity to learn lessons from her death in order to save other Americans' lives.

HEMMER: Wow.

Quickly here, Stephen, there has been a lot of talk about the Saudi connection and the Saudi relationship with the United States. How much consideration do you give this issue and how much do you think about this in terms of really making an impact going forward for the connections that we have seen in different parts of that kingdom?

PUSH: I think there is a lot of evidence pointing towards Saudi Arabia, not necessarily the Saudi government, but certainly individuals and organizations in Saudi Arabia that have been complicit in the 9/11 attacks. I think this is, they're being protected by the Saudi government and I think even the U.S. government often looks the other way when this information comes to light.

HEMMER: Once again, December 15 the deadline for the nominations to be in for that commission in D.C., and then we wait about 18 months after that for the ultimate answers to the investigation there.

Stephen, thank you.

Good luck to you.

PUSH: OK. Thank you.

HEMMER: Stephen Push in D.C.

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







Aired December 6, 2002 - 07:31   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Henry Kissinger is taking on a new role as head of an independent commission charged into looking at the failures, the intelligence failures of 9/11. There are questions, though, about whether some of Kissinger's business relationships may or may not pose conflicts of interest.
The former secretary of state was appointed last week by President Bush. Kissinger, though, not the first choice for a number of families in the group called Families of September 11.

That group's spokesman, Stephen Push, is our guest this morning live in D.C.

Stephen, good morning.

STEPHEN PUSH, FAMILIES OF 9/11: Good morning.

HEMMER: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.

PUSH: Thank you.

HEMMER: My condolences to you 15 months down the road for the loss of your wife on American Airlines Flight 77.

I want to be delicate in this, because I understand your situation here. What's wrong with Henry Kissinger? Why not trust the man?

PUSH: Well, we have not joined the chorus of people who have been criticizing the appointment of Henry Kissinger. We felt we wanted to give him a chance to show that he could do a thorough and independent investigation. But we've become concerned that he is refusing to disclose his client list and many commentators have suggested that he has conflicts of interest. And we'd like the air cleared about this.

And now we get this report that came out yesterday from the Congressional Research Service saying that by law he is required to disclose his clients, and yet he and the White House are still refusing to do so, as far as we know.

HEMMER: And Stephen, to this point, he denies any client conflicts. In going forward, though, he says he will disclose a number of items here. But my question, he's an American and he's trying to get to the bottom of this, trying to get answers for people like you who are still suffering. Why not give him a chance? PUSH: We want to give him a chance. But he hasn't said he would disclose his clients. He said if he encountered any conflicts, he would discuss it with the White House counsel and drop those clients, but he said he wouldn't disclose them publicly. So we want public disclosure, and that's what the law requires.

HEMMER: I want to get past the Kissinger issue and I want to get to the core of this. There's a deadline in the middle of December in order for this group to get together, the commission to be assigned. There's a lot of infighting right now throughout Washington as to who will comprise this group. Let's get past that, as well, Stephen.

What do you and the other families want accomplished through this process?

PUSH: We want an independent commission and because a six vote, six of 10 commissioners must vote in order to issue subpoenas, and we feel that this commission will be toothless without subpoenas, we think it's imperative that Warren Rudman be appointed to one of the Republican slots in the commission. He is the only qualified Republican that the families trust, the only one who we feel is independent enough to be, to vote in favor of a subpoena when it's necessary to do a thorough investigation.

HEMMER: And why do you feel that way on Rudman?

PUSH: Because of his experience with the Hart-Rudman Commission. He warned the country prior to 9/11 about the danger of terrorism. We believe if the country had heeded his warnings more, perhaps 9/11 wouldn't have happened.

HEMMER: Yes, listen, 18 months from now, when you get a look at that report, what do you hope to be contained in there that will maybe ease the burden or pain for you and others?

PUSH: I hope that we do a thorough, no holds barred investigation of what went wrong prior to 9/11. We know some of the mistakes that were made. We don't know all of them yet. And unless we really understand what all of the mistakes were, how can we correct them and make sure that this doesn't happen again?

The only way that I could feel worse about what happened to my wife is to feel that we missed an opportunity to learn lessons from her death in order to save other Americans' lives.

HEMMER: Wow.

Quickly here, Stephen, there has been a lot of talk about the Saudi connection and the Saudi relationship with the United States. How much consideration do you give this issue and how much do you think about this in terms of really making an impact going forward for the connections that we have seen in different parts of that kingdom?

PUSH: I think there is a lot of evidence pointing towards Saudi Arabia, not necessarily the Saudi government, but certainly individuals and organizations in Saudi Arabia that have been complicit in the 9/11 attacks. I think this is, they're being protected by the Saudi government and I think even the U.S. government often looks the other way when this information comes to light.

HEMMER: Once again, December 15 the deadline for the nominations to be in for that commission in D.C., and then we wait about 18 months after that for the ultimate answers to the investigation there.

Stephen, thank you.

Good luck to you.

PUSH: OK. Thank you.

HEMMER: Stephen Push in D.C.

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