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American Morning
A Family's Hope
Aired April 17, 2003 - 08:40 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: While the seven rescued POWs are now out of that country, coalition forces are not done looking for some of their own. U.S. troops now, four of them, missing in action in the current war, and now that the Iraqi regime has been toppled, the Navy pilot, Scott Speicher, shot down in the first Persian Gulf War 12 years ago, and his body was never found, and after receiving new intelligence, the Navy recently changed his status from killed in action to missing in action. It's been a long battle for the Speicher family.
Cindy Laquidara represents the family. She is with us live this morning.
Good morning, Cindy.
We understand several weeks ago the search under way on the ground in Iraq. Are they making any progress toward a conclusion one way or the other about Scott?
CINDY LAQUIDARA, SPEICHER FAMILY ATTY.: First, let me say he's actually missing captured, so the United States is very confident that he was alive and in Iraqi captivity. They're making some progress. I'm here in part to say that I think he should become the priority, that it's more important to search these tunnels and interview these intelligence resources than it is to search for weapons of mass destruction. The questions to Saddam Hussein's half-brother should be led with the secret prisons as opposed to weapons of mass destruction.
HEMMER: Cindy, let me just take the converse of that when I could. The Iraqis have been proud had they capture U.S. soldiers, U.S. Marines, U.S. pilots. Why would we not see Scott Speicher on national TV over the last time 12 years?
LAQUIDARA: That is actually a pretty simple answer. Why did you not see Jessica Lynch? Why did you not see, until 1998 when they were freed, three Iranians, one of whom was a pilot, who has been kept for 17 years? Actually, typically, they do not show POWs if they don't think you know they have them, and that was a situation with Scott. We said he was dead, and they said, aha, we've got something of value here, and that's very consistent with how they have treated foreign prisoners for the past 20 years.
HEMMER: Cindy, I want to know about the family and how they're doing, and how much of a struggle is it for them when they see American POWs being rescued, set free and then shipped back to the United States? LAQUIDARA: Well, it's great. It's great for them. They rejoice just like everyone else does. You see servicemen coming home, that's a wonderful thing. They have maintained their focus though, on working with the U.S. government to ensure adequate resources that are put on finding Scott, and similarly with the other MIAs, that we still have MIAs over there from this war. We have Scott -- we have intelligence that he's alive. I've spoken to defectors, a former intelligence officer who said he's alive and saw him, you know, was six, eight feet away from him. We want the resources. We think hundreds of people should be searching those tunnels and should be interviewing anybody who possibly even lives near them or walks by them, should be following up in all of the intelligence information we have. That should be the priority.
If it's true, that there is nothing greater than recovering our personnel, let's put our people where our mouth is.
HEMMER: Cindy, also, in the short time we have left here, you mention some of the help you're getting on the ground in Iraq. Are you getting help today from local Iraqis to pursue this end?
LAQUIDARA: We are getting some, and the more people we put on the ground, the more help we can get from the local Iraqis. We need to contact them ourselves. We need to have a very high presence, and we need to elevate the concern about Scott And the missing Kuwaitis.
HEMMER: Cindy Laquidara, the attorney for the Speicher family, with us live this morning in Jacksonville, Florida. Thanks for talking with us.
LAQUIDARA: Thank you for your continuing interest.
HEMMER: Sure thing.
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 April 17, 2003 - 08:40 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: While the seven rescued POWs are now out of that country, coalition forces are not done looking for some of their own. U.S. troops now, four of them, missing in action in the current war, and now that the Iraqi regime has been toppled, the Navy pilot, Scott Speicher, shot down in the first Persian Gulf War 12 years ago, and his body was never found, and after receiving new intelligence, the Navy recently changed his status from killed in action to missing in action. It's been a long battle for the Speicher family.
Cindy Laquidara represents the family. She is with us live this morning.
Good morning, Cindy.
We understand several weeks ago the search under way on the ground in Iraq. Are they making any progress toward a conclusion one way or the other about Scott?
CINDY LAQUIDARA, SPEICHER FAMILY ATTY.: First, let me say he's actually missing captured, so the United States is very confident that he was alive and in Iraqi captivity. They're making some progress. I'm here in part to say that I think he should become the priority, that it's more important to search these tunnels and interview these intelligence resources than it is to search for weapons of mass destruction. The questions to Saddam Hussein's half-brother should be led with the secret prisons as opposed to weapons of mass destruction.
HEMMER: Cindy, let me just take the converse of that when I could. The Iraqis have been proud had they capture U.S. soldiers, U.S. Marines, U.S. pilots. Why would we not see Scott Speicher on national TV over the last time 12 years?
LAQUIDARA: That is actually a pretty simple answer. Why did you not see Jessica Lynch? Why did you not see, until 1998 when they were freed, three Iranians, one of whom was a pilot, who has been kept for 17 years? Actually, typically, they do not show POWs if they don't think you know they have them, and that was a situation with Scott. We said he was dead, and they said, aha, we've got something of value here, and that's very consistent with how they have treated foreign prisoners for the past 20 years.
HEMMER: Cindy, I want to know about the family and how they're doing, and how much of a struggle is it for them when they see American POWs being rescued, set free and then shipped back to the United States? LAQUIDARA: Well, it's great. It's great for them. They rejoice just like everyone else does. You see servicemen coming home, that's a wonderful thing. They have maintained their focus though, on working with the U.S. government to ensure adequate resources that are put on finding Scott, and similarly with the other MIAs, that we still have MIAs over there from this war. We have Scott -- we have intelligence that he's alive. I've spoken to defectors, a former intelligence officer who said he's alive and saw him, you know, was six, eight feet away from him. We want the resources. We think hundreds of people should be searching those tunnels and should be interviewing anybody who possibly even lives near them or walks by them, should be following up in all of the intelligence information we have. That should be the priority.
If it's true, that there is nothing greater than recovering our personnel, let's put our people where our mouth is.
HEMMER: Cindy, also, in the short time we have left here, you mention some of the help you're getting on the ground in Iraq. Are you getting help today from local Iraqis to pursue this end?
LAQUIDARA: We are getting some, and the more people we put on the ground, the more help we can get from the local Iraqis. We need to contact them ourselves. We need to have a very high presence, and we need to elevate the concern about Scott And the missing Kuwaitis.
HEMMER: Cindy Laquidara, the attorney for the Speicher family, with us live this morning in Jacksonville, Florida. Thanks for talking with us.
LAQUIDARA: Thank you for your continuing interest.
HEMMER: Sure thing.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
