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CNN Student News

Aired May 20, 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.

MICHAEL MCMANUS, CO-HOST: Welcome to Monday's show. We get things started with a look at the rundown. First in our agenda, a look at East Timor as they celebrate their independence. From politics to pop culture, we're headed to the movies in "Focus." The FBI may be looking for you, learn why in today's "Chronicle." Then, watch and listen as art and technology come together in our "Culture Report."

And welcome to CNN STUDENT NEWS. I'm Michael McManus.

East Timor is celebrating its independence. It became the first new country of the millennium this weekend. At midnight Monday East Timor time, the United Nations flag was lowered ending the U.N.'s interim rule over the territory it's been governing since 1999. That's when East Timor voted to secede from Indonesia.

East Timor is a small island about 400 miles north of Australia. Independence ends 400 years of Portuguese rule and two decades of Indonesian occupation that turned bloody toward the end. Indonesian military forces have been hesitant to let East Timor go and there's been much fighting over the years.

CNN's Maria Ressa reports now on the three men who will lead the country, a poet warrior, a teacher and a Nobel laureate.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIA RESSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's an emotional time for East Timor, etched on the faces of its people as they prepare for independence. It comes after centuries of colonial rule, decades of violence, much suffering and loss. On Monday, East Timor's new government will take office.

There are three key leaders: the unifying voice for the people, Xanana Gusmao, elected president last month by an overwhelming 83 percent of the votes. Fifteen years in the jungle fighting Indonesia, seven years in a Jakarta prison, this poet warrior became an inspiration for his people. The fight he says is not yet over. His message is simple. XANANA GUSMAO, PRESIDENT OF EAST TIMOR: To change mentalities, to change behaviors, to ask for more (UNINTELLIGIBLE), a new type of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in which all the people must give more than us.

RESSA: But the day-to-day task of running the government lies with its soon-to-be Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri. A former law teacher, he is also the Economic Minister. His party, the Fretilin, won a two-thirds majority in East Timor's parliament.

MARI ALKATIRI, PRIME MINISTER DESIGNATE: My main obligation is to be able to create that very strong team working together and there to maintain -- to maintain this credibility of the government externally.

RESSA: Helping in that is its Foreign Minister, Nobel laureate, Jose Ramos Horta. Like Alkatiri, he spent years in exile keeping Timor's cause alive for the international community. Like Gusmao, he has the common touch. His appeal is for patience.

JOSE RAMOS HORTA, FOREIGN MINISTER DESIGNATE: But this will take time in a way the next two, three years for us to see some of the benefits, to see unemployment reduced, poverty reduced. Between now and then we have to ask our people to trust us, to be patient.

RESSA: There is a political crack. Gusmao advocates including smaller, often less sophisticated parties in government. Doing that says Alkatiri's party could lengthen debate and paralyze the fledgling government.

(on camera): Still most agree these three men have the experience and sophistication to lead their fledgling nation. The three said they know the high expectations they face from their people and the international community.

Maria Ressa, CNN, Dili, East Timor.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: We've heard from the nation's political leaders, now let's head to Cassa, East Timor for a perspective from a few of its citizens.

As Veronica Pedrosa reports, much bitterness remains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VERONICA PEDROSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The only road going into Cassa runs through the upper part of the village. Before long, a dirt track on your left divides the village along social and political lines. The border with Lower Cassa isn't just a place on the road but a seam in the political fabric of East Timor and a lesson in a difficult reconciliation process.

(on camera): Most of those who live on this side of the village supported the independence movement during the 24 years of Indonesia's annexation, but most of those who live on that side of the village supported integration with the government in Jakarta, and some of them took that support to an extreme.

(voice-over): Anita Lopes Jikaravalos (ph), a widow now, her husband was one of the few people on this side of Cassa that voted to break away from Indonesia in 1999, but he was one of hundreds killed by pro-integration militia soon after the vote.

"No, I can't forgive the militia," Anita tells me. "They made me suffer, they killed my husband. Forgive them, no way."

But Cassa is a small place, a community tightly knit by blood ties and shared poverty. So perhaps it's not surprising that Anita is imminently practical about the fact that she lives in the same village as many militia members who are coming back from Indonesian West Timor.

She tells me that if they come back to be her neighbors she'll welcome them with open arms and let the government decide if it wants to put them on trial. But she says it won't be possible for reconciliation without justice.

Just next door to Anita's house stands a burnt out shell of a house. It belongs to her cousin and one of the top leaders of the same militia who killed Anita's husband.

Nemesio Lopes de Caravalivo (ph) is the highest ranking militia member to have come home to East Timor. He says he's ready to defend himself in a trial but that he wants to put an end to the hostilities between the pro- and anti-independent supporters. He points out that he's been welcomed back into his village.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) it is a possibility of East Timor, the correct (UNINTELLIGIBLE) easy to forget and easy to remember something like that.

PEDROSA: The character of East Timor is likely to be tested many times in the first years of its newly won independence, not only over reconciliation but the grinding poverty in many village such as Cassa. But people here seem to have found a way of living together and building a future for now. But the victims of past violence could find it more and more difficult to bear their hardships if justice doesn't come soon.

Veronica Pedrosa, Cassa, East Timor.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Our "Focus" this week takes us to Tinsel Town, the movie factory also known as Hollywood. But it takes more than a good movie to pack a theater, it takes hype. Trailers, billboards and word of mouth are just part of the package.

CNN's Frank Buckley talks with one man with a ticket to box office success.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It's one of the most successful film franchises ever, the James Bond series of films have spanned four decades, and the man responsible for getting us into the theater to see this one, the next Bond film coming out in November, is a guy who may be just as important to Bond success as the super spy himself.

BOB LEVIN: Levin, Bob Levin.

BUCKLEY: Levin is President of Worldwide Theatrical Marketing and Distribution for MGM, the company that distributes the James Bond films.

BUCKLEY (on camera): As you enter the summer season, as a marketer, is it a nervous time, an exciting time?

LEVIN: Being a marketer in the motion picture business is like a constant state of nervousness.

BUCKLEY (voice over): Because a film's success if often judged on a marketer's success in getting audiences into the theater, especially on its opening weekend.

LEVIN: This is a giant game of playing chicken and being bullies.

BUCKLEY: And Levin says the big films on the block with the big stars or the big hype try to pick the best opening weekends first.

LEVIN: And you can get out and declare a big date first, you sort of wait around and say, did I scare them off? They let me really have this date all by myself, and sometimes you get it and sometimes you don't.

BUCKLEY: Levin knows that as well as anyone in the business. His previous credits range from the "Lion King" to "Pretty Woman" to "Men in Black" to "Jerry McGuire." Studios spend a lot of money marketing films, $31 million on average, per feature.

LEVIN: We do engage in a lot of information gathering versus just, you know, three of us sitting in a smoky room going, oh that's pretty good. You know it's much beyond that.

BUCKLEY: In the case of the bond films, promotional tie-ins play a big role. Products that appear in the film help to promote it. In the last Bond film, BMW launched a new model.

BUCKLEY (on camera): But in the next Bond picture, James Bond will not be driving a BMW. This time MGM is putting him in the same kind of car driven by the Sean Connery version of James Bond. In "Die Another Day" James Bond will be driving an Aston Martin, but he'll still be the ageless action hero playing at a theater near you, and the marketing man behind Bond -

LEVIN: Levin, Bob Levin.

BUCKLEY: -- will do his best to get you to see him. Frank Buckley, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: OK, still to come, we'll take you on a virtual tour of a new era of music and dance. And we'll tell you why for many guys dancing takes both physical and emotional stamina. All that headed your way in "Perspectives." Stick around.

If you're graduating from college this month, you have some work ahead, you have to find a job. Well if you're in the dark about where to begin, we have a story for you. The FBI is casting a new type of dragnet hoping it'll catch some top-notch recruits.

Let's go to Quantico, Virginia now and Jonathan Aiken.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN AIKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Thirty years ago, training films glamorized the life of an FBI agent. But as those agents would tell you, the bureau has always been about detective work, not car chases.

September 11, though, shifted the bureau's emphasis to one of preventing crimes, not just trying to solve them after the fact. The attacks also stretched the ranks too thin for comfort.

ROBERT MUELLER, FBI DIRECTOR: We lack a sufficient number of agents and analysts with the full range of language skills as we require today.

AIKEN: With a goal of 900 new agents by this September, the FBI is aggressively hitting colleges and job fairs.

ANDRE HAMMEL, FLORIDA A&M STUDENT: The more and more talk about the FBI, the more I'm thinking about it more, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) for me, maybe.

NIAMBI ROBINSON, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: We are focusing as well on intelligence or counterterrorism, explosives...

AIKEN: And applicants with engineering, language, and computer skills are also highly prized.

Whether it's patriotism, the hard sell, or both, the effort is paying off. In the past month alone, the FBI received more than 15,000 applications on its new online job site.

Hearing the call is one thing. Cutting the mustard is another. Times have changed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, FBI TRAINING FILM)

NARRATOR: Preparation, the fact that it separates the men from the boys, the heavies from the lightweights...

(END VIDEO CLIP) AIKEN: And this is not your father's FBI.

(on camera): What you're going to see here is a 21st century application of an old FBI standard, a shooting range with virtual application that makes it easier for people not familiar with firing a weapon to do so.

(voice-over): Instructors say this targeting system, using video to measure hand-eye coordination, is more effective in training younger agents.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I had experience growing up playing with pinball's, computers, video games, this is how I'm going to learn.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely. Visual physical feedback.

AIKEN: Interactive CD-rom exercises are familiar ground to younger agents; sometimes too familiar.

DONALD CAVENDER, FBI COMPUTER TRAINING UNIT: They figure out who the bad guy is pretty quick, but then they have to collect the evidence to make the case, to arrest him. And that's usually the biggest challenge.

AIKEN: Among the new agents at the FBI Academy is a former police officer, Joe. And Bridget, a former teacher and child abuse investigator. Their identities are a bit vague for security reasons. Both say their past careers have prepared them for their next one.

BRIDGET, FBI TRAINEE: I'm an investigator. I have an analytical mind, and I'm always thinking. And that's more what an F.B.I. agent is.

JOE, FBI TRAINEE: It can be tough, being patient, doing very in- depth investigations. They allow you that time, though, it's not -- it's something I never experienced as a police officer.

AIKEN: The FBI isn't alone in seeking the best and the brightest: A host of federal agencies have put out help wanted signs since September 11. The CIA has received 75,000 resumes since then.

BILL HARLOW, CIA PUBLIC AFFAIRS DIRECTOR: We are not having problems filling out positions.

AIKEN: After six weeks at the FBI Academy, these agents in training will be forced to hit the ground running.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Then I'll give you the test, and turn you loose.

AIKEN: Ongoing terrorism threats mean there is less time for older agents to explain the nuts and bolts. The class of '02 will get the basics, and then learn the rest of what they need to know on the job.

Jonathan Aiken, CNN. Quantico, Virginia. (END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Exploring our world, here now is CNN STUDENT NEWS "Perspectives."

MCMANUS: Our look at the FBI continues now over at the "Perspectives" board. So did the Feds spark an interest in a career maybe? If it did, you'll really like our next interview. It's with C.W. Saari. He's a special agent with 26 years experience and he's about to give us an up close and personal look at a career in the FBI.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

C.W. SAARI, FBI AGENT: When I was 14 years old, I had decided -- I was thinking, what do I want to do with my life? Initially I had thought about being a jet pilot until I went to the eye doctor and he said forget that. But I was always intrigued by being a detective, and I thought what's the best law enforcement experience that I could steer myself toward.

And it ended up, one night I was in a public library with nothing to do, sort of killing time, and I saw a monitor coming my way. And if I wasn't working on something or didn't have a book, I would be asked to leave. So I reached out to the shelf next to me and I pulled a book. It just so happened to be "The FBI Story" by J. Edgar Hoover. And I happened also to be assigned to write a paper on an interesting job so I used that. No. 1, I thought this is what I might want to do and I did some research. And from that point on, I geared what I took in school, what I majored in to lead me -- to make myself most competitive. And that caused me to go into the Marine Corps. I also went through law school. I served as a Judge Advocate General or a JAG officer and applied for the FBI while I was still in the military.

I initially was assigned to the Omaha office of the FBI, and that office covers two states, Iowa and Nebraska. And maybe it being a little bit naive, I raised my hand as a volunteer once and took responsibility for investigating FBI crimes as a street agent for 14 counties comprising 10,000 square miles in the two states. I learned a great deal.

My current job is that of recruiter, and I cover the entire state of Georgia and I look for most competitive individuals for employment opportunities with the FBI. The agent position is one in which we're looking for people that have an academic background, the intelligence, the initiative, the drive and the skill set that would make them a good investigator. You have to be a U.S. citizen between 23 and 36 at the time you apply. At a minimum, you have to have a Bachelor's degree from an accredited university.

Keep in mind that actions that you take now can affect you long into the future so be responsible for what you do. And that could be as something as simple as you've done something illegal, never been caught. But with us, if you want to be an agent or a support employee, you're going to take a polygraph exam and that issue or matter may come out. If you have the opportunity to learn a foreign language, learn it, learn it well. If you have the opportunity to really enhance or work on your computer skills, do that, because that's the future.

Once somebody is selected to be an agent, they have to undergo 16 weeks of training at our academy in Quantico, Virginia. It's pretty intensive, but they're surrounded by other new agent trainees that share their background, their enthusiasm and their motivation. They receive approximately 750 hours of instruction in areas such as academics, defensive tactics, firearms, forensic examinations and a lot of practical problems. We have entire fake city. It's about a $3 million fake city. The bank is robbed about five times a day there. It's called Hogan's Alley. And we use that to put more life into the practical problems that we have.

There's a perception that the public has that it's a very dangerous job. I sort of disagree with that in that we do so many of our operations on our terms, they'll well planned. If need be, they're rehearsed. We actually do a written plan on our arrests. And if it's a major subject like a top 10 fugitive, we'll bring our No. 2 executive on scene. Our agents are -- receive the best training in the world and will overwhelm somebody with sheer numbers. So the danger aspect I think really can be minimized.

I'm occasionally asked what's the downside of joining the FBI, what are the negatives? I really don't think there are any significant ones. If I had to point to one for the agent position, it would be that you cannot select where you're initially assigned. You have to be available to be transferred to wherever the FBI's needs will take you. We're on call 24 hours a day.

We do have some people on our five rapid deployment teams, which consist of 160 experienced personnel each. They're on call and have to be ready to depart within two hours anywhere in the world. If there's a bombing of an embassy in Africa or some other terrorist incident affecting U.S. strategic interest outside of the Continental U.S. or an Oklahoma City bombing, they're prepared to go on site. And they may be away from their families, and it may be a disruption for a period of time. But like September 11 of this year, things will get back to normal or near normal.

I think the FBI agent position is one of the best jobs in the world. As I said, I've been doing it for 26 years. I plan on making it a career. You have the opportunity of working a wide variety of violations. And what you do makes an impact on a community. You're not only solving crime, preventing crime but you're making a community a better place in which to live.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Call it a sign of the digital times. Imagine a performance where the musicians, dancers and even the conductor are all in different cities. Think it's impossible, think again. Our global village just got a little smaller thanks to the magic of something called a digital studio.

Ann Kellan has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ANN KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You are watching one of the world's first virtual orchestra conductors at work. James Oliverio, along with staff and students at the University of Florida, have combined art and technology to create the Digital Worlds Institute.

JAMES OLIVERIO, DIRECTOR, DIGITAL WORLDS INSTITUTE: It's a joint enterprise between the College of Engineering and the College of Fine Arts. So really we bring together two cultures that are traditionally seen as very desperate, even to the point of being from different sides of the brain, if you think of it like that.

We're trying to apply digital technology to serve what I think of as the emerging digital culture of the 21st century.

KELLAN: In this virtual studio, Oliverio links with musicians, dancers and other artists who can be anywhere in the world. Well, any place hooked up to the Internet. It's done using a series of large screens, cameras and computers, all running across high-speed Internet connections.

OLIVERIO: When you collaborate with an artist, especially in the performing arts, you have had to be in the same space at the same time to get anything done. Now we're able to actually see and hear each other at a great distance and start to put together pieces of art.

KELLAN: The dancers choreograph to the sounds of the music, and the musicians in turn change their tune based on feedback from the dancers.

James recently showed some of his work to the global supercomputing conference in Denver, Colorado.

OLIVERIO: We actually had a master percussionist in Brazil, a choreographer in Minnesota, dancers in Florida, more musicians in Florida, dancers in Denver, and joining North and South America, music led to the dance, the dance was facilitated in multi-points by this technology.

KELLAN: Their effort was dubbed most courageous in creative use of the high-speed network.

KELLY DRUMMOND-CAWTHON, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR: If this is contemporary art, it should be all about our time, and our time involves digital media.

KELLAN: The musicians and dancers say the virtual studio may help ease the strain of busy performance schedules, while at the same time enhancing the creative process.

K. KAY SPENGLER, DANCE MAJOR, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA: The schedules are crazy for performers, and for artists, and for engineers, and for all of the people that are working on these things. But if we can look across the screen and talk to someone, we can share those ideas and have something that's more creative than either one of us could have done by ourselves. KELLAN: Those involve, however, stress that the virtual studio is not a substitute for the real thing.

DRUMMOND-CAWTHON: I think the theater and the live performance is essential; I don't want to take that away, but I want to add to that.

KELLAN: Professor Oliverio and the University of Florida are working on plans to grow the program in the near future. For now, their students say their program has taken a giant leap in the right direction.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Ann Kellan, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: As music and dance move into a new era, more people are taking interest. All too often though, boys who want to get involved are teased by schoolmates or friends, but the truth is that it takes both physical and mental toughness as our "Student Bureau Report" shows us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RACHEL SHRIEBMAN, CNN STUDENT BUREAU (voice-over): Some men have found dance exciting, useful and to be major parts of their lives. How does society see men who dance?

Dann See's life has been affected by dance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dance has affected my life in a very positive way. It's gotten me in extreme shape. It has brought me into this like great community of like love and just like in this whole environment that I just -- I can't leave. It's just amazing. I love it.

SHRIEBMAN: Jesse Frank, a student at Carver Arts and Technology, thinks dance is like any other art.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dance is like everything else in the performing arts world because you've got to learn something and then you've got to practice it, then you've got to rehearse it for an audience and things like that, then you give performance.

SHRIEBMAN (on camera): Boys who dance are great. The value is evident to those who are around them and they know what they want to do with life.

(voice-over): Jaime (ph) has had to deal with being teased.

JAIME: My response to the other boys that were teasing me was you know I said I can dance and I can play sports but the thing is can you dance? And they would always look at me and they're like no.

SHRIEBMAN: Bein Feinblum (ph) uses dance for his theatrical magic performances and to help with acting.

BEIN FEINBLUM, DANCER: Well, the stereotypes exist mostly in the minds of those who have never danced or seen dance. When I got into the dance classes, the serious dancers knew that it -- they thought it was more masculine for a man to be able to dance and move that way. So I think the stereotypes are wrong and I think that they're just -- they're hurtful. They're nothing but hurtful and obnoxious. I wish people knew more about what dance really was. It's a -- it's a natural animalistic expression which connects very deep with who we are as human beings and it's something that I think too many people limit themselves away from.

SHRIEBMAN: As you can see, these young men feel that their passion for dance overcomes their fear of peer and societal acceptance.

(on camera): Rachel Shriebman, CNN Student Bureau, Baltimore, Maryland.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

"Where in the World" first colonized by the Portuguese in 1520, after Indonesia, Australia is its closest neighbor, has six new stamps marking its independence? Can you name this country? East Timor.

MCMANUS: That's it for today's show, but it's not the end of what we want. We'd like to hear from you. If you have questions, comments or suggestions, drop us a line at cnnstudentnews@cnn.com. You may even have your letter read on our program so please put something in our mailbag -- why not?

All right, I'll see you tomorrow. Have a great day.

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