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U.S. Troops Pose with Body Parts; Number of Women "Irrelevant"; Hitting Wall Street's Glass Ceilings; Hookers, Lavish Spending And Politics; King: Don't Blame Obama For Scandal; Using Feeding Tubes To Lose Weight; Pronouncing Tricky Food Names; Scandal Following President; Appeal to Syria's First Lady

Aired April 18, 2012 - 12:00   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Live from CNN headquarters in Atlanta where it's 12:00 noon, 9:00 a.m. on the West Coast, I'm Suzanne Malveaux.

I want to get you up to speed for this Wednesday, April 18th.

I want to go straight to the outrage over pictures of U.S. troops posing with the severed body parts of Afghan bombers.

I want to clarify: CNN has not independently authenticated the photos. They are gruesome. So we are blurring some of these images. This one shows soldiers and Afghan police holding the severed legs of a dead bomber.

"The Los Angeles Times" published it today.

And the U.S. military asked "The Times" not to publish these photos, but the paper's editor defends this move saying, quote, "After careful consideration, we decided that publishing a small but representative selection of the photos would fulfill our obligation to readers to report vigorously and impartially on all aspects of the American mission in Afghanistan, including the allegation that the images reflect a breakdown in unit discipline that was endangering U.S. troops."

Nick Paton Walsh, he is joining us live from Afghanistan.

Nick, first of all, seeing these photos, a lot of people reacting to it today. It is shocking. What do we know surrounding these pictures, the circumstances? How did this happen?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, these appear in "The L.A. Times" to have been published, two of the collection of 18 photographs leaked to them according to them by a soldier who was in the 82nd Airborne, serving not far from where I'm standing now in the east of the country. They were in Sabol province.

Now, these pictures relate to two instances in early 2010, two years ago now, in which men from this particular unit were called to scenes in which insurgents had blown themselves up and posed, as you can see, with the remains of the individuals. These pictures taken and then apparently leaked after two years to "The L.A Times" because the soldier in question felt there was a breakdown in leadership and also was concerned that it might somehow lead to a security lapse at the base where the soldiers were.

But NATO coming forward very quickly, to even preempt the publishing of these pictures, issuing a strong condemnation, saying it has nothing to do with the discipline and behavior expected of ISAF soldiers that it remains to be seen really if after four months of bad news will really assuage the Afghan public here -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Nick, I can only imagine the concern where you are about this. We have seen in the past, as you mentioned before, the last four months or so, a lot of things happening that have really put a lot of tension between U.S. and Afghan forces. The accidental burning of the Korans, the shooting of the Afghan civilians there.

What is the reaction there? Is there a concern there's going to be violence because of this?

WALSH: Well, the Pentagon has expressed concerns that could be the case and they have actually did, as you say, urged "The L.A. Times" not to publish perhaps as one motivation.

But it's interesting to see over the four months what really has sparked violence. In January, there was the video of U.S. marines urinating on Afghan corpses. That didn't really spark that much protest or fury. It was the Koran burning by mistake by NATO soldiers the next month that sparked a week of bitter protest and violence, leaving many dead.

And, of course, there was great, widespread fury amongst the population after the massacre of 17 Afghan civilians in Kandahar in March.

We don't know as yet quite how widespread these pictures will get in Afghanistan. Remember, much of the population lives in the countryside, but electricity or electronic media, they are taking up in the Twitter sphere in Kabul, amongst connected in that way. But we haven't yet heard from the Afghan government any kind of strong condemnation.

So, the jury is out on how the Afghan public will react but certainly it's painting again this negative image of the past four months of a NATO campaign often spending more time apologizing for itself than grasping its own narrative, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Nick, do we know if the U.S. military or NATO are taking any kind of steps to protect the soldiers, Americans, any aggressive action on their part to look out for the potential of revenge here?

WALSH: They're always on their highest guard. And to be honest, that's increased in the past few months, been a lot of instances, called green on blue. That's where member in Afghan army uniform attack American soldiers, killing -- nine Americans, in fact, killed in the first three months of this year through that particular tactic.

Often after that we hear of Taliban infiltration. But there have also these suggestions that some of the misconduct of the past few months may have sparked those killings in the east of the country in March, in fact.

So, yes, deep concerns. It's still early days with this because news takes some time to travel in Afghanistan, but certainly NATO is trying to put this fire out before it even began -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right. Nick Paton Walsh, thank you very much.

"The L.A. Times" says it has tried unsuccessfully to get responses from the soldiers involved.

We are getting strong reaction from the U.S. military.

Barbara Starr, she's at the Pentagon.

And, Barbara, these pictures are two years old. Is there any indication that the military authorities knew or were aware of this incident when it actually happened?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, we don't know, Suzanne. What we do know is that the Army already has begun its investigation trying to determine the facts surrounding this. Did somebody know about it? Sure, because there is somebody taking the photo. There were all the people standing in front of the camera.

And I think when you look at that photo, one of the most interesting things is the person -- the man standing to your far right with that dark jacket and the sort of light blue/green uniform there, that is a traditional uniform of an Afghan security force member. So, there were Afghans on this site as well when these photos were taken. That's not something we often see.

Here at the Pentagon, again, condemning it. Statements are being issued.

The Pentagon press secretary saying, quote, "These images by no means represent the values or professionalism of the vast majority of U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan today. An investigation that could lead to disciplinary measures is under way. Anyone found responsible for this inhuman conduct will be held accountable in accordance with our military justice system."

But I think Nick is exactly right, of course. It remains to be seen. The Afghan people have seen so much in the last several months. Will this resonate any differently with them? People living out in that very remote countryside, very likely to be some time, if ever, before they see these pictures, they live without electricity, without the Internet in so many cases.

MALVEAUX: Barbara, how is the military dealing with these soldiers? If -- can officials do anything if these soldiers are no longer serving in the military? What are they actually doing to track down the people they believe are involved?

STARR: Well, there's some practical realities here, if you will. In some cases that we've seen in the past, they know that these are young troops who already have served their enlistment period and who are out in the civilian world now. Technically, yes, they could bring them back on active duty and potentially prosecute them perhaps.

But this is not something that may become criminal activity, if you will, something they would exactly be charged with. There is something called general order number one in the U.S. military. That requires that you not take photographs of dead bodies on the battlefield.

But the punishment for that could be more administrative, if you will -- letters of reprimand for those still serving. Essentially, you know, the strong hint that your career is over. If you're already out, I think it's going to be very problematic.

MALVEAUX: All right. Barbara Starr, thank you so much.

We're going to have more on the scandal over these foe foes photos in the next hour. We're going to talk from a retired army general about what's next.

And also, what do you think about this? How damaging are these pictures for our troops?

Watch me here on CNN for more on the story. Tweet me, so we can get your thoughts, @SuzanneMalveaux and like me on Facebook.com/SuzanneCNN. I'm going to read your responses in the next hour.

A Democratic senator has some advice for the agency involved in spending $800,000 on this lavish party with clowns, mind readers, the whole thing. Barbara Boxer says the General Services Administration should clean house to root out corruption. A new round of hearings on the spending scandal got under way today. And Democrats pointed out that the GSA has a history ever misconduct under Democratic and Republican administrations.

Bin Laden's three wives, two daughters now free, no longer under house arrest. Now, they have been in custody in Pakistan since the U.S. military raid that killed bin Laden. That was last May, you may recall. Now, these five women were convicted of living illegally in Pakistan. Have to serve more than 45 days of detention. They could be deported back to their home countries at any time.

Police say a Houston nurse faces capital murder charges for killing a woman so she could real her baby. An arrest report says 30- year-old Verna McLean has admitted shooting Kyla Golden as she left the pediatricians office. The 3 day-old baby is being reunited with his father.

The U.S. military and police near Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, are searching an area where a missing soldier was last started. Private Kelli Boudreaux disappeared after leaving a bar in Fayetteville. An Army official says someone who worked there gave her a ride home. Well, the official says that Bordeaux sent a text at one point saying, quote, "Got home safely."

Her family says she would never go AWOL.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OLIVIA COX, MISSING WOMAN'S SISTER: She's an amazing soldier. Being a soldier to Kelli is something she wouldn't jeopardize for anything. Missing work is not something that is in character for Kelli.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Here is a run down of some of the stories that we are covering.

First, the danger behind Secret Service agents engaging with prostitutes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some guys just have a problem when they're in intimate situation with beautiful women and they feel flattered. They engage in pillow talk. They want to sound impressive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Mitt Romney weighing in on the Secret Service scandal saying what he would do if he were president.

And then women, they're breaking the glass ceiling to become head of Fortune 500 companies, right? But they are not making much headway on Wall Street.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: A Republican senator says it doesn't matter if it was two or 20 prostitutes with U.S. Secret Service agents in Colombia.

Maine Senator Susan Collins says she is appalled and the number of women involved really is irrelevant.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: We don't know if they had weapons in their room that could be tampered with. We don't know if there was an opportunity for these women to plant eavesdropping devices. The whole behavior is so incredibly dangerous and risky, particularly for those who are charged with the solemn obligation of protecting the president of our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Senator Collins, you should know, she's the ranking Republican on the committee of homeland security and governmental affairs.

I want to bring in Dana Bash.

Dana, we know this is an internal investigation led by the director of the Secret Service. Do we anticipate that there's going to be an independent review or something that is going to be more substantial here?

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think it's unclear at this point, Suzanne. But I just want to add to what Susan Collins just said. She obviously was talking about her concern that there was a security breach. Our John King has some new information according to sources that he's talked to saying that the Secret Service does not believe these agents had classified tick tock information about the president's movement and they didn't have classified documents with them at the time.

But regardless, bigger picture, what Susan Collins and other people here in Congress are saying is that they're worried this is a cultural problem, that this may not just have been the one and only time that this kind of thing had happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: It's so difficult for me to believe that this is the first time that this kind of behavior would have happened. And the reason for that is it wasn't just one or two personnel. It was 11 Secret Service personnel and approximately 10 military personnel. That is so troubling.

It's not one or two bad apples, and that raises questions about the culture. It raises questions about oversight. And most of all, it raises questions about whether or not this has happened before in other countries, on other important missions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, you alluded to this earlier, Suzanne. Senator Collins earlier this week said she was told by the secret service director there were 20 to 21 women involved. The Secret Service is pushing back on that. She said what could have been a little bit of a miscommunication is that the Secret Service was also talking about the military personnel involved and that he doesn't want to step on their investigation.

But as you said, regardless, she says that's not the point. The point is that according to the words even of the Secret Service director to her, he had to, quote, "scrape himself off the ceiling" based on all the information that he was getting.

MALVEAUX: Wow. Do we think this is dividing along political lines or does it look like you have Republicans and Democrats equally saying, look, this kind of thing is not acceptable?

BASH: Right now, it is not dividing on political lines at all. As you said, we are hearing from Republicans like Susan Collins, from Democrats like Patrick Leahy, who is a Democratic chairman of the Judiciary Committee, the Democratic chair of the Intelligence Committee, Dianne Feinstein -- all are saying this is unacceptable.

But to go back to your earlier question, it is interesting that not only is there not -- at this point, this early point, an independent investigation. When it comes to Congress, we're not seeing a rush to hold hearings like we do on so many other controversial issues. Republicans and Democrats are saying, let's hold off, let's see what the information brings us as the Secret Services tries to get the nuts and bolts early on.

MALVEAUX: Why do you suppose that's the case, Dana? That they're not calling for hearings. Do you think people are tired of these hearings, more and more hearings? Or they're just trying to be a little more cautious?

BASH: I think in this case, they're trying to be a little more cautious. I mean, just look at what we've been covering all week long, which is the hearings about this excess spending at the GSA. Democrats and Republicans, they didn't wait a heartbeat even during congressional recess to schedule hearings. They were all over it and they've -- by the end of the week, they will have held four hearings on that.

This particular issue is about security. It is -- many of these issues are classified. So that's why we're hearing from some of the chair and ranking members of the key committees that they want to get a sense of how deep this goes before they call hearings, and they are -- some of them concerned that holding hearings might not be that efficient because a lot of what the witnesses will be talking about would be classified and they couldn't do it in public.

MALVEAUX: All right. It makes sense. Dana Bash, thank you. Appreciate it.

So women taking the reins over several Fortune 500 companies, but they are not breaking the glass ceiling on Wall Street. We're going to take a look at why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Women and the economy.

Women have made huge advances in the corporate world, right, heading companies like IBM, Pepsi, Hewlett-Packard. But when it comes to Wall Street, still a glass ceiling.

Alison Kosik, she's joining us from the New York Stock Exchange.

Alison, tell us why. Why aren't we seeing women more prominent in the finance industry?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: OK. So, you know, women are in the finance industry itself, Suzanne. You look at Wall Street. Women are everywhere.

But the thing is they're not necessarily at the very top. And then you look at the Fortune 1,000 list of companies, and then only 38 women on that list are CEOs. Only one of them is from a financial company. That's Beth Mooney of KeyCorp.

So, it's kind of become this pyramid where women make up at the bottom more than half of the financial industry, about 55 percent. But then as you go up the ladder there of that pyramid, there aren't many female executive officers, female board directors, obviously at the top female CEOs are the hardest to come by, about 3 percent there.

Now, here at the New York Stock Exchange, you know, a lot of people may think of this place as the ultimate boys club. I'll be honest with you, sometimes it feels like a boy's locker room but there are women traders here. I promise you that.

You know, the NYSE for some reason, though, isn't telling us how many women are on the floor. I'll give a guess -- about 15 to 20 women are on the floor. I talked to one of them, she said the NYSE is no longer the boys club that it used to be.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOREEN MOGAVERO, COFOUNDER, MOGAVERO LEE & CO.: Even though you see a lot of men here, first of all, they're much younger men and they have a different philosophy than the previous generation of men did. You know, they got mothers and sisters that are all in the working world now. So, it's not quite so different to them to see a woman working down here and they work a little bit more easily, shall I say, than the generation previously.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: Now, Doreen Mogavero also told me that technology leveled the playing field for her because in the old days, she says, men had a trading advantage because they were just physically bigger. So people could see them better. You know, this is back when the trading floor was jam-packed and you used actual paper to trade. Everybody was kind of shoulder to shoulder.

Well, now, of course, is trading is almost all done by computers, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Yes. I know a couple women actually who used to be a part of that bumping and shoving and that kind of thing -- trading on the floor there. Why do we suppose that it has not been easier for women on Wall Street?

KOSIK: You know, some of the insiders I talk to say there's still this kind of clubby stare that can be tough for women. And sexism hasn't disappeared, even though formal complaints have been dropping. Sexual discrimination allegations by women at finance companies have actually dropped 44 percent from 2000 to 2011, but there are still some high profile lawsuits.

In fact, Goldman Sachs is currently fighting one that alleged systemic and pervasive discrimination against female employees. Goldman Sachs though is denying those charges -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Good to see you there at the New York Stock Exchange, Alison. Representing there.

Tell us a little bit about the stocks. How are the markets doing?

KOSIK: Looks like stocks are taking a bit of a step back after we saw the Dow up almost 200 points yesterday. You're seeing new worries creeping in about Europe again, specifically Spain.

These actually aren't new worries. They're resurfacing. You know, Spain came out today with data showing that Spanish banks are holding more bad loans than expected. Also, less than stellar corporate report cards from tech heavyweights IBM and Intel. They're weighing on the market as well.

So, you see the Dow down about 50 points right now -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right. Thank you, Alison.

Mitt Romney says he would clean house, fire those involved in the Secret Service scandal, and that it's an embarrassment for President Obama. How is it going to play in the election? We're going to break it down, up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Here is a rundown of some of the stories we're working on next.

Mitt Romney weighing in on the Secret Service prostitution scandal, saying what he would do if he were president.

And then brides to be go to new disturbing extremes to lose weight before the big day.

And later, a group of influential wives, they are sending a strong video message to the wives of the Syrian president to stop the killing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NARRATOR: Asma, when you kiss your own children good night, another mother will find the place next to her empty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Dog eat dog world out there in Washington. Just as the race for the White House heating up, politics has suddenly gone to the dog.

Here is Conan O'Brien.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONAN O'BRIEN, COMEDIAN: Ann Romney meanwhile is now defending her husband for once strapping the family dog to the roof of the station wagon on a family trip saying the dog loved it.

Yes, unfortunately, the dog could not be reached for comment because he ran away to stay with Michael Vick. Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: All right. Are the scandals causing embarrassment for the White House right now becoming political ammunition for the general election? Mitt Romney weighing in on two headline-grabbing stories: the hookers allegedly hired by Secret Service agency and the over the top spending by the General Services Administration, both those stories. You're going to hear what Mitt Romney had to say.

But, first I want to bring in our political panel: Republican strategist Lenny McAllister and Democratic strategist Robert Zimmerman.

Good to see you guys, both.

ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Good to be with you.

MALVEAUX: Good to see you.

LENNY MCALLISTER, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Good morning.

MALVEAUX: First of all, Romney was asked about these problems regarding the Secret Service and the GSA on Laura Ingraham's radio show today, and here is part of what he said.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You got to bring people into the leadership of these organizations that are absolutely committed to living by the highest standards of integrity, people who do not see their services in government as a time to go play and to take advantage of the largess of the taxpayer.

LAURA INGRAHAM, RADIO HOST: What would you do right now to do it -- to fix it?

ROMNEY: Well, I'd clean house. And the right thing to do is to remove people who have violated the public trust and have put their play time and their personal interests ahead of the interests of the nation.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Lenny, is this going to be a problem for President Obama the more we hear from Mitt Romney weighing in on these things that are potentially embarrassing for the administration?

MCALLISTER: It is definitely embarrassing for the administration, but it's how Mitt Romney and his campaign spins it. It's going to be very hard for President Obama and his campaign to have this war on women when at the first half of this administration, there was this reputation of the White House being this boys' club that President Obama oversaw.

And then at the end of this administrative term, you now have this scandal with the Secret Service and women in such a degrading way. If they could shape that and show is this the type of tone we want from our leaders in Washington -- of course, President Obama did not have his hand specifically in what happened with the Secret Service, but if you could set it as if this is a tone that you've seen over the last four years and couple it in with some of the other disasters, it's something that would play pretty well in a negative ad.

ZIMMERMAN: Oh, Lenny --

MALVEAUX: Robert, does that ring true to you that voters are going to put this on the president?

ZIMMERMAN: Of course not. Lenny, first of all, Mitt Romney doesn't have the character to stand up to Rush Limbaugh and Ted Nugent over their obnoxious and vulgar behavior. So I think he's got to first pass that character test.

MCALLISTER: But he did.

ZIMMERMAN: He didn't step up to them. He quietly dismissed them. The more important point here is that this scandal concerning the Secret Service and the GSA in no way reflects on President Obama and his standards.

In every poll the American people show they trust and believe and respect this president. So the character issue has never been in question for Barack Obama. Some of you -- neither of you were around in the early '80s.

I was, of course very young at that time, in the early '80s Ronald Reagan was attacked because the Pentagon was selling toilet seats at $400 and hammers at $500, at $600.

My party tried to attack Reagan for that, but it never worked because Reagan's character was clearly above that kind of scandal.

MALVEAUX: Robert --

MCALLISTER: Same here with President Obama.

MALVEAUX: Thanks for the compliment there, but Lenny and I, we were both around, we remember the '80s.

MCALLISTER: I was really around then.

MALVEAUX: Lenny, I want you to listen to this though Republican lawmaker saying that we should not pin all of this on the president. This is Representative Peter King on the Secret Service scandal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPRESENTATIVE PETER KING (R), NEW YORK: Let me just say, as a Republican, there's no responsibility here about President Obama. The Secret Service is -- basically operates independently, doesn't matter if it's a Democrat or Republican president.

Obviously, what these 11 agents did was entirely wrong, wrong really in every respect, but while, again, it could create a climate that people could use against the president.

I'm saying that President Obama had really absolutely nothing to do with this, no responsibility. He was down there trying to do his job as president, representing all the people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: So, Lenny, does Mitt Romney -- does he face the possibility here of really overstretching this thing a bit. I mean, you know, people are going to look through this and say that doesn't really sound like that's even accurate to try to pin this on the administration.

MCALLISTER: And Suzanne, I concur with that, but let's be clear. We're not talking about if a campaign as far as the candidate says something. We're talking about a campaign, which also includes the "Super PACs" behind him.

So, yes, you can't pin what happened with the Secret Service on President Obama. He's not responsible for that. But when you're starting to talk about "Super PACs" and negative ads, they will try to set a tone and tie this in as a narrative.

This would possibly maybe not definitely, but possibly be a campaign strategy when it comes to negative ads. Is it something I would pursue or something I would like to see?

No. I would like to see American politics above this, but so far in 2012 have we seen it that way when it comes to the negative ads, absolutely not.

MALVEAUX: All right, let's change the subject a little bit. This is not highbrow politics. It's gone to the dogs literally. It started with the story about Romney transporting his dog on the roof of his car and the dog got sick.

He stopped, hosed him off, and kept going. A lot of people thought that was a little strange. The Obama folks responded by sending a picture of President Obama petting Bo, the first dog, inside the limo, saying here is how you treat your pet here.

Now we have something else. A lot of tweeting going on about what President Obama wrote about when he was a boy in Indonesia eating dog meat. Do you think we have officially, Robert, gotten to the silly season that President Obama talks about so often back in 2008 that folks are talking about this? ZIMMERMAN: You know, this is the kind of topic that fascinates political pundits and partisans on both sides and then there are people with real lives that want to focus on real issues.

Let me just say as a Democratic National Committeeman, I have every confidence that the Romney family and Obama family love and respect their pets. I only hope their staffs will give up their Twitter accounts to 10-year-old so he can elevate the dialogue.

MALVEAUX: I hear you. I'm with you on that one. We have to leave it there. Robert, Lenny, good to see you both.

MCALLISTER: Dog gone it, I didn't get a chance to speak.

MALVEAUX: Go ahead real quick.

MCALLISTER: Dog gone it. I was just saying dog gone it, you didn't give me a chance to reply.

MALVEAUX: Dog gone it.

ZIMMERMAN: That sums it up.

MALVEAUX: OK, thanks, guys.

You are going to hear from two top members of the Obama administration today on THE SITUATION ROOM with Wolf Blitzer. He's going to have a rare joint interview with the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. That is today at 4:00 Eastern.

This is deserving. Many brides turn to fad diets to shed a few extra pounds for the big day, right? Well now, some women, they're turning feeding tubes to lose the weight. We're going to talk about the risk.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: All right, by now you have heard this story about the bride who went to extreme measures to lose weight before her wedding.

Now, there has been an outcry, the doctor now defending himself. I want to bring in Elizabeth Cohen here because -- I mean, we've been talking about this all day. It is so disturbing. But first of all, just recap, tell us what this woman did.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. There's something called a nasal gastric tube, which doctors use for sick patients. They put the tube up the nose. It goes down the throat, and it attaches to a pouch of fluid so these people are fed fluid.

So what this doctor said that he did was he would give -- he gave this bride 800 calories a day and so what we're seeing here I believe is a video that he has posted doing it to himself, OK, so 800 calories a day of proteins and fats, no carbs and no sugar.

"The New York Times" and ABC said that a bride tried it who wanted to lose 10 pounds and she lost 10 pounds in eight days. She wasn't obese. She just wanted to lose ten points. She lost 10 pounds in eight days and he charges $1,500 to do this.

MALVEAUX: And how he started? I mean, whose idea was this?

COHEN: He told CNN in an e-mail that he got started with obese patients. You know, people who medically needed to lose weight, but that he said some patients and I want to quote him, "begged him to try it." Patients who wanted to lose 20 pounds begged him to try it so he let them try it.

MALVEAUX: Talk a little bit about the backlash because this just doesn't seem like a responsible way of trying to lose weight here.

COHEN: I know.

MALVEAUX: It seems very extreme when you see this.

COHEN: I just got off the phone with Art Kaplan, a medical ethicist and he used the term stupid and the word outrageous. We wanted to get a response from the doctor. We have been trying to talk to him for several days now and haven't been successful getting him on the phone.

But he said, look, an NG tube is for sick people. Doctors use it for sick people. So using it to lose 20 pounds is not the customary use for it. It hasn't been tested. It's not necessarily safe. It's not necessarily effective.

He said he feels people will look at this doctor and it will undermine people's trust in doctors that these doctors are doing it just to make money. I mean, $1,500, that's a nice chunk of change for a one-week program plus there's medical issues.

MALVEAUX: Yes, I mean, what are the dangers of this and does it even work?

COHEN: You can -- when you're putting a tube down your nose and down your throat. You could perforate the back of your throat. You could cause gastrointestinal bleeding. You increase the risk of having pneumonia when you have this thing sitting in you.

It can even dent or scar your nose. You can have electrolyte issues. You can have gallstone issues if you're losing this much weight that quickly. So there's a whole host of risks you're taking to lose 10 pounds.

MALVEAUX: And you were saying earlier today that you're going to put that back on afterwards because this kind of quick weight loss thing doesn't really work for the long term.

COHEN: Right, studies have shown when you lose weight really quickly it make it is more likely for you to gain it back and then some. We only know of one bride who tried this and she was thrilled. She said nothing bad happened to her and she lost weight and she was happy.

But she knew her wedding was coming up for months. She could have just done, God forbid, diet and exercise. Let's think about doing that. Why do you need to do a medical procedure?

It's unclear to me why you would opt to do that rather than just diet and exercise to -- it's only 10 pounds we're talking about.

MALVEAUX: Do we know if anybody is going after this doctor at all? I mean, there's been a lot of publicity here, people reacting to this, but ethically, does he face any kind of charges or --

COHEN: Not that we know of. Things get kind of squishy here because the way that medicine works is that when you have an NG tube that's out there for one purpose, for medical reasons for people who are sick.

And you want to use it on a patient just to lose weight, it gets a little squishy how legal or ethical that is. I haven't heard of anyone going after him. It will be interesting to see if anyone does.

MALVEAUX: Ladies, diet and exercise. That's what I say, diet and exercise.

COHEN: It's just 10 pounds. There's got to be a safer way to lose 10 pounds than sticking a tube down your nose. Plus you're walking around with a tube in your nose and a sack of fluid. Your friends must think you're sick or something.

MALVEAUX: A little nuts. Elizabeth, thanks.

So what do you think about it? What is the most extreme thing that you have done to change how you look before an important event? Watch us here at CNN, more for the story. Tweet me so we can get your thoughts @suzannemalveaux and like me on facebook.com/suzannecnn to keep the conversation going.

Some geologists in Chechnya believe that they have stumbled into a huge find. This is the largest fossilized dinosaur eggs in history. The egg is maybe 60 million years old or may not be eggs at all. It's four feet wide, some experts say no dinosaur ever laid an egg that big and these may just be unique rock formations.

Speaking of eggs, ever want to go to a restaurant and wonder how the heck do I pronounce what is on the menu like Hoda? I'm not sure how to say that. I'll talk about that up ahead.

Tips on how to get over anxiety when you take that menu and you can order up a delicious dish that you always wanted, but you just can't pronounce it.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) FRED ASTAIRE, MUSICIAN/ACTOR (singing): You like potato and I like potahto. You like tomato and I like tomahto. Potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto! Oh, let's call the whole thing off!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: I love that clip. Fred Astaire not the only one confused by food names sometimes. Many get a bit nervous. We open up a menu, come across something that's not really easy to pronounce. Sarah Letrent from Eatocracy, she's here to help.

Wow, you know, we all face that menu every once in a while, that tricky name. And even the most savvy foodie is not really foolproof here in how we should pronounce these things. How does that actually impact what people are ordering?

SARAH LETRENT, EATOCRACY EDITOR: Yes. There's the old Shakespeare quote, "what's in a name?" And apparently a lot when people are deciding what they want to eat. In fact, in a recent "Wall Street Journal" report, they found out that when they changed the name of the dish gnocchi to Italian style dumplings, sales skyrocketed. And it's really a symptom of the ego. Nobody wants to sound dumb when they order something. So by changing it to dumplings they kind of alleviated that pressure and they could say, "I'll have the dumplings" instead of stumbling through the gnocchi pronunciation.

MALVEAUX: That's actually really smart.

I know that there are a lot of Eatocracy readers and they've really -- this has struck a chord with them. What have they been telling you?

LETRENT: So we got a lot of responses via Twitter and via FaceBook and I'm just going to read a couple off.

So Sarakategr, she said, "I ordered 'version margaritas' until around age nine when, thanks to Madonna, it all came together in my mind." Of course she was ordering virgin margaritas.

And then Zeitfeisty said, "I nearly had to perform CPR on my grandmother after suggesting a 'tapas bar' one night. Now it's just 'Spanish place'." Tapas is, of course, small plates in Spanish. So there's definitely confusion out there.

MALVEAUX: Yes, you know, I mean, that -- we all get a little confused there. And sometimes it does sound very similar. What are some of the ways that you can kind of avoid all of this and say, look, you know, I can't pronounce this, but I'm going to try and this is what I want to eat?

LETRENT: There's a lot of tips that you can go to. The Internet really is your friend in this. If you're really nervous about going out on a business meeting or on a date, there are so many online menus out there. In fact, if a restaurant doesn't have an online menu, they're probably doing a disservice to their own business. There's also online pronunciation guides that you can look to. And if you have a smartphone, there's translation apps that you can even take a picture of some of the dishes and it will actually translate it for you.

Another thing that you can do is you can use the waiter. They're there to help you. You can ask questions. And if you're not sure the pronunciation, you can actually lead them on. Say, "I'm really interested in this beef preparation. Can you tell me more about it?" And in that case, they'll kind of come back to you and say, well, this is the name of the dish. And they do the work for you.