Return to Transcripts main page
CNN 10
CNN STUDENT NEWS
Aired February 06, 2002 - 04:30 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.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching CNN STUDENT NEWS seen in schools around the world because learning never stops and neither does the news.
SHELLEY WALCOTT, CO-HOST: CNN STUDENT NEWS gets underway with rounds of Enron hearings on Capitol Hill. Then we're following the money in "News Focus." Do you know where your charitable contributions are going? Later, the fallout over fallout shelters. From indoors to the out of doors, Student Bureau takes us mountain climbing. Be sure to join us.
Welcome to CNN STUDENT NEWS. I'm Shelley Walcott.
Former Enron Chairman Ken Lay will have to make at least an appearance on Capitol Hill next week. Two congressional committees voted yesterday to subpoena him. Lay backed out of plans to testify Monday saying he believes lawmakers have already decided on his guilt.
The Enron case is getting just about everyone's attention on Capitol Hill. Multiple committees and subcommittees are investigating every imaginable aspect of the energy giant's collapse. So why so many hearings? Well CNN's Bruce Morton did some investigating of his own into that matter. We'll hear from him after this report by Jonathan Karl on the latest developments on Capitol Hill.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This time it was Arthur Andersen's man in the hot seat. Democrat Gary Ackerman got so angry he forgot his question.
REP. GARY ACKERMAN (D), NEW YORK: I don't even know what my question is, I mean, this is so mind boggling. I mean, how do you let this happen, captain? Your ship is going to go down and you're going to be lashed to the mast, unless you start talking to us about what happened! Maybe you can explain it.
JOSEPH BERARDINO, CEO, ARTHUR ANDERSEN: Congressman, we are still getting facts. You want me to give you conclusions without all the facts.
KARL: Berardino rejected the charge that his company caused Enron to fail. BERARDINO: Congressman, I can't let that stand. This company failed. Whether the accounting was appropriate, whether we had all the information, these are fair questions that we will all get to the bottom of. At the end of the day, we do not cause companies to fail.
KARL: At another hearing, a former Enron employee emotionally recalled losing her life savings just as she prepared for her daughter's wedding.
DEBORAH PERROTTA, FMR. ENRON EMPLOYEE: And such financial commitments were made, increasing my frustration and anxiety. As a mother, this is something I always dreamed of doing for my daughter. Today that burden has fallen on her shoulders.
KARL: And at yet another committee meeting, there was a unanimous vote to subpoena Ken Lay, and some political finger- pointing.
SEN. GORDON SMITH (D), OREGON: And what is clear to me, if we want to get real counterproductive, is to start pointing fingers at the Bush administration or the Clinton administration. This Ponzi scheme was developed during the Clinton administration. And most of its transactions occurred then.
SEN. ERNEST HOLLINGS (D), SOUTH CAROLINA: He said let's don't get political, but he gets Clinton into it. I don't know how you get Clinton into this thing. I mean, come on. He's the one mentioning Clinton. Everybody is playing games. I'm not playing games. I'm dead serious, and enough said.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEN. TED STEVENS (R), ALASKA: It's going to be a whole series of fun and games before we're through here, but...
BRUCE MORTON, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That's the Enron hearing -- well, it's today's Enron hearing. It's an Enron hearing. We may have lots. Nine committees, by our count, have scheduled Enron hearings. Nine? Nine. Have a look. Why so many?
Well, committee chairmen like publicity, of course, but Enron really does cover a lot of areas: 401(k) reform, campaign finance, accounting practices, and so on.
THOMAS MANN, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: There's a wide range of policy issues at stake here. And their responsibilities as chair is to jump on something like this. So I think ego plays a role, but less of a role than the seriousness and range of the issues at hand.
MORTON: Congress could form a select committee, hold one set of hearings.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If they get a select committee, it would suit me. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I join you in hoping we'll have a select committee appointed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did the president know and when did he know it?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORTON: A Senate select committee investigated the Watergate scandal back during Richard Nixon's presidency, but that really was about one thing. A select committee investigated the Iran-Contra hearings during Ronald Reagan's presidency. But, again, that was one story: selling arms to Iran and using the money to arm anti-government rebels in Nicaragua.
Whitewater, regular committees investigated. This time, Thomas Mann thinks one select committee would be wrong.
MANN: It may look neat. It may avoid some duplication and overlap, but it's less likely to produce constructive results.
MORTON: Senator Majority Leader Tom Daschle isn't sure yet.
SEN. TOM DASCHLE (D-SD), MAJORITY LEADER: I want to see how this plays out before we come to any final decision.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The committee...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... will come to order. The chair recognizes himself...
MORTON: OK, nine committees, maybe more. It is a big story and it really does affect a lot of people, unlike, say, who Monica hugged.
MANN: If you look back over the last decade or two and seen the trivial matters that have occupied congressional investigations, really sort of partisan food-fights, this looks so much more important and constructive. So politicians have an incentive to rush into it.
STEVENS: It's going to be a whole series of fun and games before we're through here.
MORTON: Let's the games -- uh, hearings begin.
Bruce Morton, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALCOTT: Following days of angry exchanges with the United States, Iran is now looking for help in arresting al Qaeda fighters who may have fled to Iran. Last week, President Bush said Iran was part of an "axis of evil," accusing the nation of helping al Qaeda and Taliban fighters flee Afghanistan.
CNN's Sheila MacVicar reports on the hunt for terrorists and Iran's potential role in helping find them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The mountain fortress of Tora Bora have proved empty. The U.S. administration has now had to acknowledge that the leadership of Al Qaeda has escaped American surveillance and slipped away.
ABDUL BARI AL ATWAN, EDITOR, "AL QUDS": Until now, we don't know the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden. We don't know what happened to Ayman Al-Zawahri, the military brain behind Al Qaeda. We don't know what happened -- even the families of Osama bin Laden and others. Until now, nobody of those people where caught.
MACVICAR: After weeks of bombardment and targeted airstrikes, only one senior Al Qaeda leader is confirmed dead -- Osama bin Laden's military chief Mohamed Attaf, killed near Kabul in November. At Guantanamo, only one senior Al Qaeda figure is in custody, the man who ran some of the training camps in Afghanistan.
Intelligence sources tell CNN that at least some of Al Qaeda's leaders are confirmed to have crossed over the borders of Afghanistan. Some into Pakistan. Few north into Tajikistan, toward Chechnya, and still others westwards to Iran, seeking sanctuary in geographic blind spots.
No place is more sensitive than Iran, and since mid-January, the U.S. administration has publicly accused Tehran of harboring Al Qaeda leaders.
CNN has learned their is conflicting intelligence about the whereabouts of Al Qaeda's operations chief Abu Zabeda (ph). Terrorism experts believe he is now the military commander. Some intelligence reports put Abu Zabeda and his deputy in Tehran. However, U.S. officials say Abu Zabeda is not in Iran, but in a different country, which they decline to name.
(on camera): Iran is known to have arrested and to be holding in custody about a dozen Al Qaeda members wanted for questioning by the United States. Iran has refused to hand them over, saying they will instead be returned to their home countries: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Yemen.
(voice-over): And U.S. relations with Iran seemed to have been thrust back into deep freeze.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: States like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil.
AL ATWAN: It was considered one of the evil countries, so why the evil country should cooperate with the United States?
MACVICAR: Analysts say by including Iran on that short list of nations, President Bush may have closed the door to further cooperation with those factions in Iran, which had been helpful to the U.S., creating another geographic blind spot. Sheila MacVicar, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALCOTT: And for more information, head to our classroom in cyberspace, CNNstudentnews.com. There you'll find background material on Iran, Iraq and North Korea.
In our "News Focus," more on the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Today, the ongoing controversy surrounding money meant for victim's families. Now some relatives are upset because in order to apply for federal money, they must give up their right to sue airlines and others. Families are also upset about a cap on the amount of money they can receive for a lost loved one.
With more, here's Hillary Lane.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HILLARY LANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Within 30 seconds of opening the floor to questions, 25 people had rushed to the microphones. Each had lost a loved one.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is my husband and our 2 1/2-year-old twins. I'm obviously expecting shortly.
LANE: Each wanted answers from Kenneth Feinberg.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you basically tell us to trust you -- this will be OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I basically tell you not to truth me.
LANE: When Feinberg, the man appointed to oversee the Victim Compensation Fund gives those answers, he is consistently loud, forceful and firm. But he's listening, too.
When families of civil servants began to yell at each other, it was Feinberg who made the peace.
KENNETH FEINBERG, 09/11 VICTIM COMPENSATION FUND: What I hear you saying is everybody who was a victim should receive more than $250, 000.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. I do agree with that.
LANE: It's clear Kenneth Feinberg is in this role because he is straight-forward and doesn't back down from confrontation. In about two weeks, what may have been the hardest part of his job will be over. He'll issue the final set of rules, and then leave it up to the families to decide.
Whether to take the government's settlement and waive their right to sue or take the road Feinberg repeatedly warned against.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know that that's a dead end, as you've already stated here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What? The airline suit?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right. Dead end.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dead end.
LANE: Many here feel their hands are tied.
CARL DIFRANCO, FATHER OF 09/11 VICTIM: It's a snow job between Mr. Feinberg with the fund and it's a snow job between Congress, what they did. They made victims of everybody a second time around.
LANE: A few understand.
SONNY GOLDSTEIN, FATHER OF 09/11 VICTIM: He's in no-win situation. He's not going to please everybody. We are all going to be a little bit upset. Again, here we go again. How do you put a dollar value on your family, on your grandchildren, on my daughter?
LANE: A job King Solomon refused, one Kenneth Feinberg is about to do 3,000 times over.
Hillary Lane, for CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALCOTT: Lots of people donated money after the terrorist attacks, but how much of that money is actually going to help the victims? Deborah Feyerick takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There are a lot of things for sale following the September 11th tragedies. There are T-shirts and hats, posters and pins, but where is all the money going? Well, maybe not to charity, as you might think. For example, take these sneakers. They've got an American flag on the side, and they cost about 50 bucks. They were created by designer Steve Madden. He's got a store here in SoHo.
You go to Madden's website, and it says he's teamed up with actor Dennis Leary, who has a firefighter's charity. Well, as first reported in the "New York Times," since the disaster some 35,000 pairs have sold. It wasn't until January 15 that the deal between Steve Madden and Leary was formalized.
If you thought all $50 was going to charity, you'd be wrong. It was only 10 percent of all profits donated. The company says Steve wanted to do this for all the right reasons. There was no motivation to capitalize on this tragedy. The company says it has given $100,000 so far, and has yet to make back that amount.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I will be more inclined to buy a product that is donating to one that is not donating. FEYERICK: Then there is this book, called "Brotherhood." It's sold at places like Barnes & Noble. On the inside, there are pictures of different firehouses. On the outside, there is a sticker that says "all profits donated to FDNY charities."
Well, that's not really true. You see you can buy this book for $30. American Express, which publishes it, is donating all its profits to charity. However, that's only after the actual book stores take their cut.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If it's something I really needed or wanted, and then I felt like some of the money was going to somebody, to benefit somebody, then I would probably do it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot of times, only like 8 percent of the profit goes towards something. My main reason for buying it is for my proceeds to go to that certain organization.
FEYERICK: The concert at Madison Square Garden gave police and firefighters a chance to forget for a couple of hours. Want to buy the CD? You can, and all the proceeds will go to benefit the Robin Hood Relief Fund. That deal was cut before the CDs ever reached the shelves.
That's not the case with other CDs, where it's still unclear exactly how much of the profits will actually go to charity. The New York State attorney general says if you want to buy a CD, buy a CD. But if you want to give to charity, you better write a check for that charity.
Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALCOTT: Thousands of people are descending on Salt Lake City for the Olympic Games and this means space throughout the city will be at a premium. That means long lines in gift shops, restaurants and yes, bathrooms, which raises a question, where do you go if you've got to go?
Lisa Verch reports on the porta potty.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA VERCH, KEZI-TV REPORTER (voice-over): It's a dirty business, portable toilets, a plastic hut propped over a tank full of you know what. But don't kid yourself, not every porta potty is the same, and an Oregon company's wiped out the competition proving it.
JASON PERRY, HONEY BUCKETS: Actually, it's the people that clean them that make them special. Our drivers are probably some of the best. They're kind of (ph) -- I have young drivers that they clean them and they have a passion for it.
VERCH: That's right, you heard the man, they're passionate about their potties. So much so that someone from the Olympic Committee used one last year and asked them to submit a bid to the Winter Olympics.
(on camera): And these just aren't any portable toilets going to the Olympic Games, these are fully accessorized. Check this out, you got sanitary seat covers, antibacterial hand cleaner, three roles of toilet paper, a venting tube and yes, that's a urinal, not to be mistaken for a purse holder.
(voice-over): Honey Bucket sent 2,500 of those to the Olympic Games plus hundreds more that are handicap accessible, not to mention the toilets for the high rollers equipped with running water, lights and heat all solar powered.
PERRY: They'll be in the VIP areas where like the leaders of the countries will be staying and the major corporate executives and stuff like that.
VERCH: And these honey buckets have to endure some of the roughest conditions and remain safe on the slopes like subzero temperatures and 80-mile-an-hour winds.
PERRY: We put bolts in them and we've ran like tie downs that you'll see holding trailers and whatnot down. We're doing the same thing for each unit.
VERCH: Honey Buckets expects to pump nearly two million gallons of waste before the Olympics are over. That's nearly as much as they pumped for all of Oregon last year. It's not glamorous, but when you got to go, you'll be glad they're there.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Exploring our world, here now is CNN STUDENT NEWS "Perspectives."
WALCOTT: For more than a hundred years, the biggest lead smelter in the United States has been the biggest landmark and top employer in a small Missouri town. And now the EPA is telling dozens of neighbors to leave their homes for a while because their houses and yards are contaminated with lead.
Natalie Pawelski has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NATALIE PAWELSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Four kids stuck inside on a rare warm day in January because playing outside might be hazardous to their health.
(on camera): These are not children who are short on energy.
CAROL MILLER, RESIDENT: Oh no, and this is my life. It's hard on them; they can't go to Grandma's, they can't go to any of their relatives here in Herky because of the lead.
PAWELSKI (voice-over): "Herky" is what the locals call Herculaneum, Missouri. All the playgrounds are closed, and signs warn kids not to play on the streets, because of lead contamination. The EPA says the Doe Run lead smelter has polluted earth, air, and water with lead, and it's asking more than 90 families to move out of their homes while their yard soil is replaced and their houses professionally cleaned.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You guys aren't going to clean any better than I clean. Why don't you take some of this money and do something about this problem?
PAWELSKI: But at a town meeting, it's clear there is not a lot of faith in that plan.
It seems to me that you are working for the lead smelter.
PAWELSKI (on camera): Plans to move families back in to their homes after the lead has been removed don't sit well with some of the neighbors: What good will it do, they ask, if the smelter continues to pollute. Won't their houses and yards just end up being contaminated all over again?
(voice-over): Doe Run says that won't happen, that its smelter continues to cut emissions as the company pays to clean up yards and homes.
BARBARA SHEPARD, DOE RUN LEAD COMPANY: There have been emissions in the past, and what we are now doing is coming into compliance with the national ambient air standard. And so we're now wanting to get the soils and the houses cleaned up.
We did not do anything wrong.
PAWELSKI: In the meantime, Carol Miller worries about elevated lead levels in her home and in her children's blood, and on learning disabilities and health problems she blames on lead.
MILLER: Everything that they say lead can cause we have it in our family.
PAWELSKI: So the Millers are moving into a motel while their topsoil is replaced and their house scrubbed. But they will come back to a street where some neighbors don't yet qualify for cleanup.
MILLER: I guess when we come back, we'll live in a little bubble, and my kids won't know you step on that property, won't walk down the sidewalk.
PAWELSKI: The EPA says wholesale evacuations are not necessary, and the lead company agrees.
SHEPARD: The risks are not that great to be living here. We're remediating the soil, changing the soils, and we're cleaning the houses, and we're also doing the schools and the playgrounds. We are a responsible corporate operation wanting to work with its community, to make things right in Herculaneum.
PAWELSKI: But among the people of this small town, there's a lot of doubt about whether things will ever be right again.
Natalie Pawelski, CNN, Herculaneum, Missouri.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALCOTT: New fears over nuclear terrorism have brought a blast from the past, Americans are building fallout shelters in record numbers. The designs are more elaborate than ever, but are these shelters what you would really need in the event of a nuclear attack?
Our Bill Delaney takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL DELANEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): By the time the great fear of the 1950's and much of the 60's too, nuclear war, faded so did building that backyard bunker, the fallout shelter. Becoming a near comic image of another crew cut generation's paranoia.
Well, fallout shelters are serious business again. Sales quadrupled around the country since September 11. Paul Siefriend who lives outside Salt Lake City, Utah is already ready.
PAUL SIEFRIEND: This is an 18-by-32 foot shelter. It's very cramped, and it would accommodate about four to eight people. I have about 800 gallons of water in my shelter. We have a lot of canned fruit. We have canned goods that are very easy to prepare. We have several radios and radiation survey instruments. I do this because I have kids. There are nasty people out there that have some dangerous weaponry.
DELANEY: Keeping to the apocalyptic theme, Siefriends even got a red phone. As for profiting from a potential nightmare scenario, with price tags for shelters now averaging around $50,000 and as high as $300,000.
WALTON MCCARTHY: Under here is a 125-gallon water tank built into the shelter.
DELANEY: Well, Walton McCarthy sells shelters.
MCCARTHY: You got plenty of headroom. You can do jumping jacks down here.
DELANEY: Up in New Hampshire.
MCCARTHY: We have three markets. We have a military market. We have a commercial market, and we have a residential market. It's bad in a sense that I'm sorry that there's something that people had to die for that makes our business strong. But it's just like selling seat belts. We think there's going to be other threats out there.
DELANEY: Though some ask whether building a fallout shelter isn't just digging yourself into a hole.
(on camera): Why a shelter after all in a relatively remote place like say, New Hampshire, when a terror attack is much more likely in a major city like Boston. In the suburban and rural places most shelters are built, experts say, the most likely fallout could be city people running for their lives.
(voice over): A recent study conducted for the Governor of New Hampshire concluded the states most likely nightmare scenario isn't so much a terrorist attack as a mass evacuation of Boston, following a terrorist attack there, which would leave people in shelters hiding from desperate people without shelter. How's that for a nightmare scenario?
Bill Delaney, CNN, Boston.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALCOTT: From the depths of U.S. fallout shelters to the heights of Kyrgyzstan's great mountains. We turn now to a story of nature, marvelous in its beauty and the limitless climbing possibilities it provides.
Our CNN Student Bureau takes us to Kyrgyzstan for a look at what mountain climbing is all about.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, CNN STUDENT BUREAU (voice-over): These mountains of Kyrgyzstan have been compared to the Alps of Switzerland because of their beauty. Some of the tallest summits are 7,000 meters or 22,000 feet above sea level.
When the Soviet Union collapsed 10 years ago, the way was open for serious mountain climbers from all over the world to travel here to challenge these mountains. This sport is called mountain climbing and the season traditionally begins with a celebration on April 13 where both experienced and less experienced climbers climb (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Today we have both seasoned mountain climbers who have climbed Mount Everest and children from an orphanage in Bishkek who make the climb for the first time in their lives.
"It is the first time we have participated in such a mass (ph) arrangement with the children. We want them to love mountaineering and to associate with other climbers."
Today, they climb their summit and that's what they examination on stress. Almost all of the children made it to the top.
"This route is not difficult. It has a difficulty rating of 1B. And this summit, as you may see, is the most difficult. It has a difficulty rating from 2A to, I guess, 5."
The very challenge of overcoming difficulties can be compared with climbing a mountain.
"The risk of climbing is always constant because there are a lot of rocks. In reality, depends on the complexity of the route."
Mountaineering is not just about difficulties and challenges for strong men, but it's also about beautiful sunrises, cool winds and the dazzling whiteness of snow and ice. You can say a lot about the romantic side of mountaineering or about the dangers, but better, believe me, is to try it yourself.
"There is a saying that says man strives for the sky, and where else other than on the summit can he be close to it?"
Even the children from the orphanage touched the sky today. The future lies unknown ahead for the children but reaching the summit today might help them to realize other dreams as well.
"There is only Mount Gatu (ph) and Mount Everest."
The professional mountain climbers congratulated everybody that reached the summit today for the first time, and presented them with a certificate and a badge declaring him or her an official climber of Kyrgyzstan.
"Future conquest of other summits will come. If we are strong, everything is possible."
(on camera): Mountaineers still have a lot of unsolved problems on the high altitude routes. The huge Tian Shan and Pamir Ali (ph) ranges are not well known, and leave big possibilities for the new discovers in worldwide mountain climbing.
(UNINTELLIGIBLE), CNN Student Bureau, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALCOTT: That's another edition of CNN STUDENT NEWS. We'll catch you back here tomorrow. Bye-bye.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
