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CNN STUDENT NEWS For August 1, 2002
Aired August 01, 2002 - 04:00 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.
SUSAN FREIDMAN, CO-HOST: The debate over Iraq tops our program. The full story is coming up. After that, we "Chronicle" the adventures of one highly sought after coin. Later, technology meets drive on the baseball field. Fast forward to Student Bureau to meet students making unique and profitable contributions.
Welcome to CNN STUDENT NEWS on this first day of August. I'm Susan Freidman.
President Bush has made it clear, he wants a change of regime in Iraq. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has begun public hearings to determine what it would take to remove Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from power. Lawmakers at the hearing are looking at whether his weapons development poses enough of a threat to warrant U.S. military action. The committee said yesterday it won't make any hasty decisions and that a U.S. attack on Iraq this year is unlikely.
CNN's Wolf Blitzer is following the hearings and has this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Shortly after Senate Foreign Relations chairman Joe Biden opened what he called a "national dialogue" on whether to go to war against Iraq, witnesses offered some alarming testimony. Former U.N. chief weapons inspector Richard Butler said the Iraqis may now be ominously close to developing a nuclear capability.
RICHARD BUTLER, FORMER CHIEF U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: What there is now is evidence that Saddam has reinvigorated his nuclear weapons program in the inspection-free years. And over two years ago, the IAEI estimate was that if he started work again on a nuclear weapon, he could build one in about two years.
BLITZER: Butler said the Iraqis may have been only six months away from developing a bomb before they invaded Kuwait in August, 1990. President Bush has not yet signed off on any military option designed to overthrow Saddam Hussein's regime. If he approves a military strike, one military analyst testified that it won't be easy, given the current capability of the Iraqi army. ANTHONY CORDESMAN, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Only fools would bet the lives of other men's sons and daughters on their own arrogance and call this force a cakewalk or a speed bump or something that you can dismiss.
BLITZER: Still, there was a consensus among the committee members and witnesses that Saddam Hussein must be removed, one way or another, especially with the clock ticking down to the development of weapons of mass destruction.
BIDEN: Saddam Hussein's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, in my view, is one of those clear dangers, even if the right response to his pursuit is not so crystal-clear. One thing is clear: These weapons must be dislodged from Saddam Hussein, or Saddam Hussein must be dislodged from power.
BLITZER: Wolf Blitzer, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FREIDMAN: As the Senate continues hearings on Iraq, a big question looms in Washington: Is the political climate right for an attack?
CNN's Bill Schneider takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In 1990, there was a clear provocation. Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. The world was outraged. But a lot of Americans wondered what does this have do with us?
REP. JOHN LEWIS (D), GEORGIA: I don't want the blood of American young men and women, not the killing of thousands of innocent people who call the Persian Gulf home to be on my hands, not on my conscience.
SCHNEIDER: Memories of Vietnam lingered. In late 1990, the public was divided over going to war with Iraq. Congress was divided too.
REP. TOM FOLEY (D), HOUSE SPEAKER: This debate longest in the modern history of the House of Representatives extending over 20 hours.
SCHNEIDER: In the end, most Democrats voted against authorizing the use of force in the Persian Gulf. Most, but not all.
SEN. AL GORE (D) TENNESSEE: I feel that I owe my vote to an expression of support for the resolution authorizing the use of force. I hope it'll not be used. I'm afraid that it will be, but I will vote for that resolution.
SCHNEIDER: What's different now? Two U.S. triumphs in the Persian Gulf and in Afghanistan and an attack on the U.S. Now, the American public solidly supports sending U.S. troops to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Democrats, as well as Republicans. The Vietnam syndrome is gone. The Persian Gulf syndrome has taken over. Potential Democratic contenders are, as a famous Democrat once put it, acting to protect their political viability. They don't want to be on the wrong side in this Iraq debate.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: As for Iraq, I agree completely with the administration's goal of a regime change.
SCHNEIDER: Although they reserve the right to say we could do it better.
GORE: And I seriously question why we would be publicly bustering and announcing an invasion, a year or two years in advance.
SCHNEIDER (on camera): In 1991, the international consensus for war was strong and the domestic consensus was weak. In 2002, the domestic consensus is strong and the international consensus is weak. Which matters more? We'll see.
Bill Schneider, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FREIDMAN: For more on the hearings and the issues at hand, head to our Web site, CNNSTUDENTNEWS.com. While there, you can also check out an interactive timeline of the Gulf War.
Making "Headlines," the Pope has canonized the Roman Catholic Church's first Native American saint. Thousands of faithful took to the streets of Mexico City Wednesday to celebrate the event honoring 16th century priest Juan Diego. Diego is believed to have been visited by the Virgin Mary in 1531. He also played a role in converting millions of Mexico's indigenous peoples to Christianity.
Some young people from Cuba who attended the Pope's ministry in Toronto have decided not to go home. They are seeking refugee status in Canada.
Lucia Newman has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There were embraces, and even some tears of relief, as friends and relatives welcomed home the first contingent of Cuban Catholic youths from Toronto, a trip to meet Pope John Paul II, made bittersweet by the defection of at least 23 of the 200-member youth delegation.
MARGARITA HERNANDEZ, CHURCH CHAPERONE (through translator): It's painful, but it's the reality of Cubans, that when they get a chance to leave, they become overwhelmed by the developed world.
NEWMAN: Many say the important thing is that the majority did return, invigorated with religious fervor.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Those who stayed are free to do so. Each made their own decision.
NEWMAN: Others, though, see the defections as a betrayal, not so much of their country, but of the confidence of their church.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Let God judge, but I think it wasn't right what they did to the Cuban Catholic Church.
NEWMAN: The bishop of Guantanamo, who led the Cuban delegation, says those who defected had their own reasons, but that they didn't include religious persecution.
MONSIGNOR CARLOS BALADRON, BISHOP OF GUANTANAMO (through translator): We felt no religious persecution there, or here in Cuba.
NEWMAN: Cuba's Catholic Church has another explanation for the defections.
ORLANDO MARQUEZ, CATHOLIC CHURCH SPOKESMAN (through translator): These people are driven to take such a drastic decision because they feel that no solution or future lies within their country for the dreams and hopes they aspire to.
NEWMAN: The defections are a blow to the church, which expected all delegates to return to Cuba to spread the gospel. It's also yet another embarrassment for the Cuban government, coming just days after the high-profile defection to Miami of a former deputy foreign minister.
(on camera): Every day, Cubans leave this country, either legally or illegally, with the intention of not returning. And, it's not just ordinary Cubans. The children or other family members of some of the highest ranking communist government officials, including the daughter of the president himself, have deserted.
(voice-over): That's why, for the relatives of those who didn't return from Canada, the defections are not so much a stigma on their families as they are a national tragedy caused by the continuous exodus from Cuba.
Lucia Newman, CNN, Varadero, Cuba.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FREIDMAN: Afghanistan is on a quest for stability. In order for that to come about, reconstruction must happen in a number of areas, one of which is the economy. Many Afghan business leaders say corporate growth has been nearly impossible because of corruption and a lack of resources.
CNN's Nic Robertson has their story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Meandering the remains of his once profitable paint plant, Iqbal Rashidzada reminisces on its former glory. IQBAL RASHIDZADA, PRESIDENT, YAHYA GULF TRADING: They told me that the enamel is there and the emulsions over here.
ROBERTSON: These days, it's a school. But now he's returning from years in exile and is ready to invest.
RASHIDZADA: On a business level, I think you know we have tremendous opportunities. I mean I have no doubt that we're going to be very profitable. On a personal level, you know, this is my role, this is my part that I'm playing in reconstruction.
ROBERTSON: What's lacking however, he says, is a good business environment.
RASHIDZADA: Unfortunately, you know, we still have a lot of the trade and industry policies of the communist era left over.
ROBERTSON: He's talking about corruption and he's not the only one.
At a gathering of the country's richest businessmen ready to invest $2 billion to $3 billion, government ministers were challenged to reform. The ministers promised they would. Unlike most of the conference, with delicate business interests to protect, recent economics graduate Abdul Wahid talks openly about the costs of corruption.
ABDUL WAHID, ECONOMIC GRADUATE: First he pays Afghan taxes for that particular privates (ph). By the time if he (ph) wants to bring it to Kabul, he's paying over $50,000-$60,000 extra on it.
ROBERTSON: Charges the Afghan consumer picks up.
(on camera): Many businessmen here suspect the fear of corruption is stopping donors sending much promised economic aid. The catch they see, however, is that without that international investment, they cannot get the businesses here off the ground.
(voice-over): At this raisin packing plant, men and machine stand idle much of the time. With improved roads, managers say exports would grow.
SAHAR GUL, FACTORY MANAGER (through translator): The international community needs to be engaged in rebuilding roads and reviving economic infrastructure. It will pave the way for us to come back and rebuild the country.
ROBERTSON: For businessmen like Iqbal, the coming months are critical. Unlike most here, however, if the revival fails, he can return to a lucrative life in exile.
Nic Robertson, CNN, Kabul, Afghanistan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CHRISTOPHER BAILEY, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE: My name is Christopher Bailey from Nashville, Tennessee. And I want to Ask CNN: All the country names in the surrounding Afghan region end in "stan," like Pakistan, Uzbekistan, et cetera. What does this suffix mean?
ALAN CARROLL, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC: I had to ask some colleagues to answer this question for me. I was curious about it myself. It turns out that stan is Persian for country or land so Afghanistan simply means land of the Afghans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FREIDMAN: Unless you're an avid coin collector, you've probably never heard of the 1933 U.S. Double Eagle. Maybe that's because all but one of these rare coins was destroyed. The last one carries a complicated life story rivaling the intrigue and mystery of any spy. And this week it hit the auction block.
CNN's Beth Nissen takes us inside the history of the Double Eagle.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Inside this black plastic case is a treasure that over seven decades has been stolen, shipped to Egypt, hidden, fought over in court and almost destroyed by fire twice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the 1933 gold double eagle, one of the rarest coins in the entire world.
NISSEN: What makes this ounce of nearly pure gold so valuable is its beauty, its literal mint condition, its rarity and a life story to rival the Maltese falcon.
That story begins in 1933, with the United States in the depth of the Great Depression.
DAVID REDDEN, VICE CHAIRMAN, SOTHEBY'S: People in the U.S. were hoarding gold. It was undermining our entire financial system, and FDR, almost as soon as he became president, within a couple of days, took us off by executive order off the gold standard.
NISSEN: With payment or hoarding of gold prohibited, thousands of citizens turned in their gold to the banks, but no one told the U.S. Mint to stop making new gold coins; 445,000 new gold double eagle coins were cast in 1933, after FDR's order. Although they were never issued or circulated.
REDDEN: Coins are not money until it's monetized, until the Treasury says they're money, and so in fact, no, they weren't money. They weren't legal to spend. It was simply a bright gold round disk.
They were by order of the Treasury in 1937 melted down.
NISSEN: At least authorities thought they were all melted down. It would be years before they discovered the truth. In 1944, agents for Egypt's King Farrukh (ph), an eclectic collector of stamps, aspirin bottles, old razor blades and coins applied for an export license for a 1933 gold double eagle.
REDDEN: And it wasn't until a few weeks after that license was signed that suddenly everybody realized an awful mistake has been made, and this coin was illegal to own, and in fact, had been stolen from the U.S. Mint.
NISSEN: It had been an inside job. The Secret Service fingered George McCann, the chief cashier of the Mint, as the thief. Investigators had evidence that McCann had stolen 10 of the 1933 double eagles, and they set off to recover the stolen U.S. property.
REDDEN: Nine were found; they were in the hands of rich and important collectors who wanted this extraordinary treasury, but eventually one by one they were disgorged, except for this one.
NISSEN: The T-men and G-men knew the last coin was in King Farrukh's (ph) collection, but were stymied in their attempts to retrieve it.
REDDEN: In 1944, we were in the middle of a world war, and Egypt stood at the crossroads in the middle of the Mediterranean. It was not perhaps the precisely right moment in diplomatic history to go and try to make a claim on a coin.
NISSEN: The coin detectives had to wait eight long years until 1952, when King Farrukh (ph) was overthrown and his famous collection put up for auction.
REDDEN: The U.S. government recognized that the 1933 double eagle was in that collection, and they officially asked the Egyptian government to pull it from the sale and return it as stolen property of the United States.
NISSEN: The double eagle was pulled from the sale, and disappeared like a coin in a magic trick. Authorities didn't know where the coin was for more than 45 years, until 1996, when a British coin deal Stephen Fenton (ph) brought it to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City to sell to an American collector.
REDDEN: And the Secret Service, ever passionate, ever diligent, you know, not letting their man go, created a sting operation, seized the coin, and actually put poor Mr. Fenton (ph) in jail.
NISSEN: Fenton (ph) got out of jail and went to court. While he and the U.S. government battled over ownership of the coin, the coin itself was stored in what authorities thought was a secure location: A vault at the World Trade Center. But the coin was fated to survive yet again. It was removed from the World Trade Center vault weeks before September 11, after the case was settled out of court. Fenton (ph) and the U.S. government will split proceeds from its sale. The coin was moved to Fort Knox.
The 1933 double eagle has been under the watchful eye and heavy guard of the U.S. Mint police ever since, and will be until the coin is sold, or rather until the disk is sold. It won't technically be legal tender and legal to own until the director of the U.S. Mint signs these documents after the auction.
REDDEN: And the irony of ironies is that in order to make this coin totally legal and totally monetized, the buyer will have to give, in addition to the millions of dollars it costs to buy, an extra $20, a $20 bill to go back to the Treasury to repay the Treasury for this coin and to make it into real money that can be spent.
NISSEN: And what if -- just what if -- there are any other purloined 1933 double eagles out there? The Mint says they may look like hard cold cash, but they will be seized and melted down.
Beth Nissen, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FREIDMAN: After only nine minutes of bidding, the coin went to an anonymous buyer who phoned in his bid for $6.6 million. If you include Sotheby's commission that puts the final price tag at a whopping $7.6 million.
ANNOUNCER: Exploring our world, here now is CNN STUDENT NEWS "Perspectives."
FREIDMAN: There's no business like show business, especially when you're at the top of your game. Tom Hanks, only 46 years old, already has joined the ranks of some of Hollywood's greatest legends. In 1997, "Empire" magazine ranked him 17th out of the top 100 movie stars of all time. This year he's been granted an even more prestigious honor.
Janine Sharell has the Hollywood scoop.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, Tom Hanks.
JANINE SHARELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tom Hanks was the toast of Hollywood as he received the 30th Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute.
(on camera): You're too young for this life achievement.
TOM HANKS, ACTOR: I agree. Don't talk to me, there's a big hotshot you can come by here and complain.
KATHLEEN QUINLAN, ACTRESS: He's setting a trend. You don't have to be propped up and be 90 to get a Lifetime Achievement Award.
STEVEN SPIELBERG, DIRECTOR: Well we ran out of the really old guys to honor.
SHARELL (voice-over): Hanks is the youngest recipient of the award, joining the ranks of Alfred Hitchcock, Jimmy Stewart, Barbara Streisand and Betty Davis, to name a few.
HANKS: To be here and have it literally my life and my work at the same time, it's an intimidating, almost undoing process.
SHARELL: Hanks made a splash on the big screen in 1984 thanks to director Ron Howard who cast a relative unknown.
(on camera): Now you took a very big chance in casting Tom Hanks in "Splash" many moons ago.
RON HOWARD, DIRECTOR: Yes, well, I mean he wasn't a movie star, but he was -- you know he was just so gifted. He came in, he auditioned and he won the role.
SHARELL (voice-over): That's not all he's won. Try back-to-back Oscars for his work in "Philadelphia" and "Forrest Gump."
HANKS: You never know what you're going to get.
SHARELL: What he gets now is respect from the Hollywood community, and you'd be hard pressed to find anyone with anything not nice to say.
GARY SINESE, ACTOR: He's just a very responsible guy that has his flaws. He does have his flaws.
SHARELL (on camera): Tom? Tom Hanks can't have flaws.
SINESE: He has his flaws. We're not going to go into any of those, but he does.
SHARELL (voice-over): A parade of co-stars paid tribute to Hanks.
(on camera): The other half of "Bosom Buddies" right here.
PETER SCOLARI, ACTOR: Yes. Yes, the tall one.
SHARELL (voice-over): And they sang his praises big time.
ELIZABETH PERKINS, ACTRESS: People are always saying, oh come on, everybody always says Tom Hanks is down to earth, Tom Hanks is fun (ph), Tom is professional, Tom -- but it's the truth.
BARRY PEPPER, ACTOR: I'm a husband and a father of a 2-year-old, and it's just the finest example for -- you know for a young actor in Hollywood to see that you can be successful and you know, still get home for dinner and tuck your kids in.
SPIELBERG: You've seen the real Tom Hanks in a lot of the characters he's played because he sometimes plays very close to himself. He's honest. He's truthful. People trust him.
SHARELL (on camera): Receiving the AFI Life Achievement Award in no way means Tom Hanks is ready to hang it up. He's starring in "Road to Perdition" and "Catch Me If You Can," which is slated for a Christmas Day release.
Janine Sharell, CNN, Hollywood.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FREIDMAN: There are more than 10,000 baseball players in the Minor Leagues and a million or so more on school youth teams, but only about 60 a year make it to the Major Leagues. A sports medicine clinic is using technology to help aspiring pitchers improve the long odds of reaching the big time.
CNN technology correspondent Renay San Miguel has the story.
070906CN.V74
FREIDMAN: Everywhere in every corner of the globe there are people in need. And where there are needs, often there are folks willing to fill them. They are people who give of their time, money and belongings.
Well generosity isn't a characteristic found only in adults. Take, for example, some college students CNN Student Bureau got to know. These kids are giving something very valuable up and are reaping a big return in more ways than one.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID PARTIN (ph), CNN STUDENT BUREAU (voice-over): There's a bank in town that's giving away money. But it's a little different, the bank doesn't take money in for deposits, it takes plasma.
We spoke with Gary Orlich from ZLB Plasma Services.
GARY ORLICH, ZLB PLASMA SERVICES: Plasma makes you (ph) process itself, provides you know a service to the health community. It's sent off to the customer and used to make life-saving drugs and things that are actually, you know, other human beings need to survive. So besides making a little money for yourself, you're actually helping someone else, too (ph).
PARTIN: We caught six-year donor Stanton Moore as he was leaving the bank and asked why he's such a faithful giver.
STANTON MOORE, BLOOD DONOR: Well what they tell us and the literature they give us, you know, it's goes toward, you know, burn victims, you know, and research, you know, plus they pay you.
PARTIN: If you're 18 to 59 years old, have a pulse and maybe a lunch break, you're probably a potential donor.
ORLICH: The actual process of donation takes probably about 45 minutes. First time a donor comes in, they can expect to spend a couple hours here because you've got to go through a physical and some other things for your first donation.
PARTIN: This bank is not only saving lives in the hospitals but proving a service in the community.
ORLICH: Provides them an opportunity if they need the money. It gives them a way to make money or they don't have to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) you know in every process and be denied, you know, like been looking for a job. Gives you a chance to make money pretty much just by showing up.
PARTIN: So how much money is an hour of someone's time and their plasma really worth?
ORLICH: Twenty-five dollars for new donors for the first two donations, and then after that every donation depends on weight.
MOORE: I get 25 each time I come.
PARTIN: Twenty-five dollars an hour sounds good to me. That extra money can be used for lots of things.
MOORE: It's the gas money.
PARTIN: This sounds like a great idea for college students who often need that quick cash at the end of a semester.
ORLICH: We have a lot of centers in college towns. Lawrence -- we have them in Lawrence, we have them in Manhattan and that general area, one in Springfield down by that college and those centers get a lot of college students.
PARTIN: So students, if you need money for gas or for that biology book, just head down to the bank.
David Partin, CNN Student Bureau, Kansas City, Missouri.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
"Where in the World" large cities include (ph) and (ph), languages Arabic, (ph) and Kurdish, literacy rate 60 percent? Can you name this country? Iraq.
FREIDMAN: We're out of time, but we'll see you back here tomorrow. Have a great day.
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