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CNN Live Sunday
Gay Marriage Becomes Legal In Massachusettes Tomorrow; Pentagon Vehemently Denies Latest New Yorker Article; Powell Angered Over Lack Of Arab Outcry Over Berg Death
Aired May 16, 2004 - 16:00 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.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Changing what the word "marriage" means, gay and lesbian couples in Massachusetts get their chance to tie the knot tomorrow morning.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel like Cinderella in the dress. I feel like Cinderella.
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NGUYEN: The difference a prom dress makes: a teenager's legacy.
And put your white booties on if you want to see the latest Mormon Temple, but you better hurry. Its doors close soon to all but the very faithful.
Hello and welcome to CNN SUNDAY LIVE, I'm Betty Nguyen. Let's start with the headlines.
Arab television network al-Jazeera is airing this video of two men it says are Russian electrical workers held hostage in Iraq. A group called itself the Army of the Victorious Sect claims to be behind the kidnapping. A Russian TV network says the two men appear to be Russian. CNN is working to independently confirm the tape.
Roadside bombs continue to take their toll on U.S. troops in Iraq. An American soldier was killed last night when his vehicle hit one in Baghdad. His death brings the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq to 783. Another soldier in the same vehicle was wounded.
A change in U.S. policy could help save lives in a global fight against AIDS. The FDA is expected to expedite its review process for a combination of generic drugs that could be used to treat AIDS patients in Africa. The World Health Organization says such drugs would help them get low-cost AIDS treatment to developing countries.
Officials are trying to determine what sparked an engine fire on a gambling cruise ship off the Florida coast. Several passengers suffered from minor smoke inhalation, but no serious injuries are reported. The SunCruz Casino ship left port about noon today with about 160 passengers on board. It was about three miles south of Ft. Lauderdale when the fire started, forcing it to return.
The Pentagon is angrily denouncing a "New Yorker" magazine article about Iraqi abuses. Writer Seymour Hersh says the scandal resulted from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's decision to expand a secret U.S. operation originally aimed at al-Qaeda. That decision allegedly gave interrogators more flexibility in their tactics. CNN's Kathleen Koch is at the pentagon with more reaction. Hi, Kathleen
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Betty. A very indignant Pentagon says those charges are false and filled with error. Now, the article in "the New Yorker" by journalist Seymour Hersh alleges that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld expanded a clandestine operation that was being used against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan to Iraq in order to get more intelligence about the growing insurgency.
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SEYMOUR HERSH, "THE NEW YORKER": Rumsfeld, through his Undersecretary for Intelligence Steve Cambone cut an order, they changed the secret program and ordered this secret program to send a squad, or some people, I can't tell you how many--part of their assets into Baghdad into the prison. The instructions were: "Let's get tougher." Let's use much more coercion, let's use sexual intimidation, because in the Arab world that's an easy way to make somebody talk, and maybe you can get somebody so frightened that he'll go back into the community and become an asset.
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KOCH: Hersh writes that a former intelligence official who he interviewed told him that the rules of the operation were, quote, "grab whom you must, do what you want."
And as I said, the Pentagon is in the most forceful terms calling the story outlandish and completely false. Spokesman Larry DiRita telling CNN, quote, "No responsible official of the Department of Defense approved any program that could conceivably have been intended to result in such abuses as witnesses in the recent photos and videos."
And Secretary of State Colin Powell this morning voiced his agreement that he has seen no indication that any higher official or any military program authorized or condoned the actions in Abu Ghraib prison.
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COLIN POWELL, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I'm not aware of anybody higher up telling them, but that's why Secretary Rumsfeld has commissioned all of these inquiries to get to the bottom of it. What these individuals did was wrong. It was against rules and regulations, it was against anything they should have learned in their home and their community and their upbringing.
So we have a terrible collapse of order that took place in that prison cellblock. Let's not use this to contaminate the wonderful work being done by tens of thousands of other young American soldiers in Iraq. We'll get to the bottom of this, justice will be served.
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KOCH: Now these latest charges are adding to the calls for an intensified and very intense and new congressional investigation into the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison. And when it comes to that controversy, these new allegations, true or not, do throw fuel on the fire, making it even tougher for the Pentagon to argue that those responsible for what occurred behind the walls of Abu Ghraib prison were simply a few bad apples acting on their own -- Betty.
NGUYEN: A lot still to be learned here. Kathleen Koch at the Pentagon, thank you.
Bush administration officials are upset at the Arab world reaction to the beheading of American businessman Nicholas Berg. Secretary of State Colin Powell says there is no excuse for silence, and he would like to see a, quote "much higher level of outrage." More from White House correspondent Dana Bash.
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DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Secretary of State brought the U.S. apology for what happened at Abu Ghraib directly to those most publicly enraged by the abuses, the Arab world. But after weekend meetings with Arab leaders in Jordan, Secretary Powell expressed his own outrage about what he didn't hear in return--widespread condemnation of the videotaped beheading of American civilian Nicholas Berg.
POWELL: There ought to be outrage. There is anger in the Arab world about some of our actions, but that is no excuse for any silence on the part of any Arab leader for this kind of murder.
BASH: The head of the Arab League responded.
AMR MOUSSA ARAB LEAGUE SECRETARY GENERAL: No, sir, we are against such acts of extreme violence and despicable attitudes towards human beings.
BASH: But frustration with most Arab leaders for not decrying a grisly murder is a sign of U.S. challenges in enlisting support where their blessing will be needed most, still evolving plans to transfer sovereignty just six weeks away.
As Secretary Powell lobbied Iraq's neighbors, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice spent the weekend working other parts of the globe. Before meeting with European leaders, a first stop in Russia, looking for crucial international support for a new UN resolution backing the handover of power. Leaders of the temporary caretaker Iraqi government set to take over June 30th have not yet been chosen. And Bush officials are trying to battle skepticism they will simply be hand-picked by the U.S. and UN, with no real authority.
In Sunday's "Washington Post," Senators Joe Lieberman and John McCain argue there is a way to prove Iraqis that U.S. occupation is really coming to an end. "We should strongly consider moving up the date of the planned elections from January to this fall," they write. Powell dismissed accelerated elections as unrealistic, but took pains to emphasize the political occupation is almost over.
POWELL: Is this a government that's going to have sovereignty? Is it going to have authority over its land? And the answer is yes, because the Coalition Provisional Authority is going away.
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BASH: And the secretary tried to clarify comments he made last week, saying that the U.S. military would pull its 135,000-plus troops from Iraq if asked by the new government. He said hypothetically, American forces would leave, but he said, given the security challenges there, he doesn't expect that request to be made -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Dana Bash at the White House, thank you.
Massachusetts breaks new legal ground tomorrow. At midnight it becomes the first state in the country to allow same-sex couples to legally marry. It could fuel political and legal battles nationwide. Hundreds of gay and lesbian couples are expected to seek marriage licenses, many of them from out of state in defiance of Massachusetts' Governor Mitt Romney. He says his state will not marry couple from states with laws forbidding same-sex marriages. Friday, the Supreme Court failed to block a last minute legal challenge to the gay weddings. A federal appeals court will hear the case next month.
Well, how does the public feel about same sex marriages? It depends on the age of the person you asked. Younger Americans are apparently more tolerant of the idea, while older ones are not, our Maria Hinojosa explains.
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MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Vicky Goundaris called this her big fat Greek wedding shower, traditional right down to the cookies and cake. Those boy-meets-girl family values are destined for a jolt when Massachusetts is scheduled to become the first state to recognize boy-meets-boy, America's first legal marriages of gay and lesbian couples begin Monday.
GEORGIA GOUNDARIS, MOTHER OF THE BRIDE: Because of the way things have changed in regards to how people do get married, I don't how to use that word "tradition" anymore.
HINOJOSO (on camera): Even as marriage goes undergoes one if its most substantial changes in history, polls show a majority of Americans are not comfortable inviting gays and lesbians to the wedding party.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I really feel that a man and a woman should be married and two people of the same sex, I don't think that's the way God created us.
HINOJOSA (voice-over): 38 states have banned gays from getting married, with opposition strongest in the South and rural areas. NIVETTA FREEMAN, GEORGIA RESIDENT: I think it's bad for kids to see that -- for children to be raised by parents being gay, that's not what society has always been about. It's always been mother and father, not mother and mother.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jenore (ph) and I have been in love for...
HINOJOSA: But gay couples have continued to fight for the right to marry since 1993, when they won a temporary victory in Hawaii's Supreme Court.
EVAN WOLFSON, FREEDOM TO MARRY: We've seen a steady improvement in the number of people who support marriage equality for same-sex couples in '95, '96, it was low as 27 percent of the public supported marriage equality. Now we're in the high 30s, even in the 40s, depending on the poll and on the day.
HINOJOSA: And depending on the age. Polls show that most younger people, like Nick and Vickie (ph), think anyone should be able to hire a wedding planner as special as theirs.
FRANCINE DECICCO, WED WITH A RED HEAD: A girl being escorted by her father to the aisle to be given to the man of her dreams waiting for her, these are all things that we think about, all things we want for our children. Unfortunately, nowadays there are such different situations that what you want sometimes cannot be.
HINOJOSA: But with 800 weddings on her resume, this wedding planner says she's ready for whatever the future will bring. Maria Hinojosa, CNN, New York.
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NGUYEN: Marking a milestone in the nation's history. It's been 50 years since a group of lawyers and a little girl broke the legal back of segregation, so why is the education divide alive and well? Dan Lothian goes in search of an answer next.
And still to come...
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE : Lots of broken bones, sometimes both legs are broken; sometimes one leg may be broken or may have suffered an amputation on the other leg.
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NUGYEN (VOICE OVER): A military hospital's view of the war in Iraq, 2,000 miles away from the battle lines.
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NGUYEN: Forced segregation of America's public schools has been illegal for 50 years almost to the day, but despite the Supreme Court's historic ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, black and white students still aren't achieving in school. Correspondent Dan Lothian takes a hard look at the learning gap tonight on CNN PRESENTS, but before Dan joins us, here's an excerpt.
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DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Shaker Heights, Ohio, an integrated community of 30,000 people just outside Cleveland. People move here for the schools which are nationally known for excellence. But Shaker Heights has a problem: a significant gap between black and white students.
MARK FREEMAN, SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT: There's a gap. There's a gap in achievement. There's a gap in grades. There's a gap in test scores, just like there's a gap in the state, just like there's a gap in the entire country.
LOTHIAN: The numbers were impossible to ignore when in 1997 the student newspaper wrote about a school sponsored study. 82 percent of the students who failed proficiency tests were black. 84 percent of the students getting Ds and Fs on their report cards were black. And the average SAT score for black students was 305 points lower than for white students.
REUBEN HARRIS, SHAKER HEIGHTS PARENT: We can't say all of the negative outcomes are attributable to poverty or low income. The numbers just don't add up, don't make sense.
LOTHIAN: The issues in Shaker Heights are part of a growing national conversation about how to bridge the gap. It includes tough talk, even broaching a taboo, the notion that some African Americans are perpetuating a culture of anti-intellectualism. In other words, undermining their own chances for success.
RON FERGUSON, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: Even though it's difficult to say in public and particularly on television, I think there are racial differences in the outside-school intellectual climate that we need to face up to and to work on.
LOTHIAN: 8 percent of white eighth graders watch TV six hours or more each day. For blacks, that number is 30 percent, nearly four times higher, and these are kids whose parents graduated from college.
ABIGAIL THERNSTROM: Black kids themselves say we have to watch a lot of television, because we otherwise wouldn't be part of the peer culture.
LOTHIAN: Black community leaders and academics are also touching raw nerves with hard-line ideas.
JOHN MCWHORTER, AUTHOR, "LOSING THE RACE": There's a cultural issue. Most black people know that a large part of the problem with middle-class black students is a lot of middle-class black students teach each other not to do well in school. Among people who are rather extreme, there's a quiet sense that to do well in school is to embrace "the man."
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LOTHIAN: We're live now in Topeka, Kansas standing in front of what used to be Monroe Elementary School. It's now a museum. It was one of four segregated black schools here in Topeka back in the early 1950s. It's also important because this is where Linda Brown, the young girl at the center of this landmark legal case, also attended school. And the museum looks at that case but also at the fight for civil rights nationwide. Tomorrow, the museum will be officially dedicated. President Bush will be here for the event -- Betty.
NGUYEN: A big day there. And you can see more of Dan Lothian's report on the education gap, that's tonight, CNN PRESENTS at 8:00 Eastern.
Searching for survival in America; they endured a civil war and years in a refugee camp, but can they make it in the U.S.? We'll speak to the makers of the film "The Lost Boys of Sudan."
And Secretary of State Colin Powell heads to the Middle East on a mission for peace. We'll tell you the blunt message he got from a traditional American ally
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NGUYEN: Two decades of civil war in the Sudan have claimed many young victims, though some did get out. Now, years later, the so- called "Lost Boys of Sudan" are trying to get a new start over in the U.S., but it's proving more difficult than they had hoped. CNN's Elaine Quijano reports.
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ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They walked barefoot for months on dusty roads out of southern Sudan; as many as 20,000 boys, by some estimates, fled their villages in the late 1980s to escape the civil war that killed many of their mothers and fathers.
JOHN AROU, SUDANESE REFUGEE: So the only alternative that we had was to run away and go farther apart from where the bullets were coming.
JACOB ABOR, SUDANESE REFUGEE: People were telling me that you don't have to come back again to the village. There's dying there. People are being killed already. So...
QUIJANO: The boys belonged to Sudan's ethnic Dinka population, a group with mainly Christian and animist beliefs who found themselves at odds with Sudan's northern Arab Islamic government. Jacob Abor was a young boy tending goats when the fighters arrived.
ABOR: I ran together with some of the other people. They were running in the direction that seemed to be the safe place and it was getting worse, so there I was separated. I didn't go back. I didn't meet with my mom again. My dad was killed there.
QUIJANO: He joined the sea of refugees pouring out of southern Sudan, walking for a month to Ethiopia, eventually settling at a refugee camp in Kenya. Along the way, according to the Red Cross, thousands died, some from dehydration, starvation or drowning. Others were shot or eaten by wild animals. Jacob survived and years later was one of several thousand war orphans the U.S. took in. But the American dream has proven somewhat elusive.
An issue made clear in the recently released independent film "Lost Boys of Sudan."
Despite hardships, they believe they are better off and hope education will help them return to Sudan to solve its problems, but experts say even those armed with knowledge face a daunting challenge.
JOEL FRUSHONE, U.S. COMMITTEE FOR REFUGEES: There's no infrastructure in the South anymore, there are no school buildings, there are very few health clinics.
QUIJANO: Still, just as "the Lost Boys" were determined then to find a path to safety out of Sudan, they remain committed now to paving the way to stability back to their homeland. Elaine Quijano, CNN, Washington.
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NGUYEN: For more on this powerful, eye-opening documentary, I'm joined by the award-winning co-directors of "Lost Boys of Sudan", Jon Shenk and Megan Mylan from San Francisco. Thanks for being here, both of you.
JON SHENK, CO-DIRECTOR "LOST BOYS OF SUDAN": Thank you.
MEGAN MYLAN, CO-DIRECTOR, "LOST BOYS OF SUDAN": Thank you.
NGUYEN: John, let's start with you; this is both a heart- wrenching and triumphant story. What drew you in to making this into a documentary?
SHENK: When these guys first started coming over in late 2000 and early 2001 they did get press attention in the States here. And Megen and I read the story and were taken with it and made immediate plans to go and meet some of the lost boys themselves, some of who had settled in the Bay Area, in San Jose.
NGUYEN: And -- go ahead.
SHENK: And when we met them, it really clinched it for us. Hearing the story from their perspective is just incredible, and they are, as people -- many people who have met them, testify, just incredibly charming people. They seem like very great subjects for us to follow and for people to tell -- for characters to tell their own story on film.
NGUYEN: And Megan, for you, what was the most gripping part of this real-life story?
MYLAN: I think the hardest part for Jon and I making the film was not being able to reach out to the guys and really help them with their adjustment. The film is every bit as much about America as it is Sudan and about the challenges of breaking into this modern society we've created. The guys would comment to us, well, everyone keeps their doors shut, how am I going to make new friends? And so it was a daily challenge just not to be that friend for them, help them sign up for school, help them with their driver's test, help them in all of the little ways that are so important when you're starting life in a new place.
NGUYEN: I think you struck on a very good point. And Jon, let's talk to you about that because some of these challenges were very simple for Americans, who have grown up in this country, but for those who have come over here, immigrated here, these are huge obstacles.
SHENK: Yeah. You have to, you know, take your own life and just start stripping away all the things you take for granted every day. Number one, your family, your infrastructure, your support group, and then take away all those other things, all your material possessions. And then take away the knowledge you have about what it's like to just get around in our modern country that we've created for ourselves. You know, these guys had no idea they would be so dependent on the automobile, for example, or, you know, going to grocery stores and trying to find their food in what were to them strange packages on shelves that they had never seen before. So it was just incredibly difficult and one thing we found very early on as we followed these guys around is that the one thing they really needed were people to reach out to them and just not give them money or give them things necessarily, but to help them, to be their friend, to be their mentors.
NGUYEN: So, Megan, is that part of the message of your film?
MYLAN: Very much so. On the most basic level, we hope that people come away from the film with an appreciation of what a challenge it is to start life here and really motivated to extend themselves, whether it's to refugees, the 30,000 or plus that come into the country each year and you can sign up with your local refugee agency and be a mentor, or if it's a newcomer to your community who might just be from another state, that's really kind of our core message, but one of the really satisfying things has been now that the film is in theatrical release, being able to travel around the country, get to know the boys, and help to make some of these bridges and introductions and motivate community members to get involved. If people are interested in learning more about the lost boys, or finding out how they can volunteer with refugee agencies, they can go to our website, which is lostboysfilm.com, and there are ways that you can connect with the guys, the refugees.
NGUYEN: Alright. Megan Mylan and Jon Shenk. We thank you being here and for showing us a little bit about this story.
SHENK: Thank you.
NGUYEN: From the beheading of an American in Iraq to the photographs from the prison abuse scandal, the media has a lot of censorship power when it comes to releasing the images of war. We'll ask an industry expert when self-censorship crosses the line.
Plus the fallout from the battlefield. Hear the emotion tales from a very busy military hospital.
And still to come: How one girl's closet is making prom dreams come true for disadvantaged teens.
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NGUYEN: Here's a check of the latest developments at this hour.
The Arabic TV network Al-Jazeera aired these pictures today saying the men were Russian electrical workers taken hostage last week south of Baghdad. CNN is working to independently verify the tape, but the Russian television network says the men appear to be two workers captured last Monday when their vehicle was ambushed south of Baghdad.
Secretary of State Colin Powell says he would have had like to have seen a higher level of international outrage over the beheading of American Nick Berg. Today Powell say there is no excuse for the Arab world to ever remain silent about the killing. Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates condemned Berg's beheading.
In Iraq coalition today forces from Nasaria (ph) to Karbala continued battles with members of Moqtada Al Sadr's militia. Italian troops in Nasaria fought for control of the coalition provisional authority's headquarters. It was seized last week by Sadr's militia.
One thing we haven't heard much about in the fight for Iraq is the growing number of injured U.S. troops. The increase has created a new normal working condition at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany that the largest American hospital outside of the U.S. CNN's Beth Nissen explains.
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BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice-over): The number of sick and wounded troops arriving at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center is at a six-month high. In the month of April alone, more than 1,000 were medivac here from downrange in Iraq.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're very busy. This is the new normal. So being very busy is the new normal here.
NISSEN: Part of the new normal, a sharp increase in the number of medivac troops with battle injuries, from 20 percent to more than 50 percent.
LT. COL. RONALD PLACE, M.D., LANDSTUHL REGIONAL MED. CENTER: We're seeing a large increase in infraracised explosive device type wounds, fragment wounds, that are just open, jagged, ragged wounds.
MAJ. JIM MILBURN, CHAPLAIN: We've seen amputees; we've seen lots of burn patients badly burned patients.
NISSEN: The serious injuries reflect the escalation in fighting in Falujah, in Najaf and what seems to be a change in insurgent's tactics.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Unfortunately, the enemy has recognized that our body armor is really quite good. Instead of aiming for the chest or torso where they know they can't be very effective, they're probably aiming at the head and neck.
NISSEN: Many patients have eye and head injuries. Shrapnel from a grenade blast damaged Corp. Joshua Carpenters right eyeball.
CORPRIAL JOSHUA CARPENTER: Best case is I will be back to 20/20,worst case is I won't be able to see.
NISSEN: Shrapnel from the same grenade blast also hit Corporal Brian Cornut (ph) in the legs and chest. Cut nerves in his face, sliced into his neck.
COR. BRIAN CORNUT (ph): It was very close to my jugular vein they were saying, and at the time I thought it hit it. Because I had my hand on my neck, and it was squirting through my fingers.
NISSEN: Like most of the seriously injured, he has vivid flashbacks.
CORNUT (ph): I can remember the screaming, and remember seeing what I saw when I first opened my eyes.
NISSEN: What was that?
CORNUT (ph): I saw another marine looking at his arm screaming really loud.
NISSEN: That marine was Lance Corporal Zach Van Canon (ph).
LANCE CORPORAL ZACH VANCANON (ph): I heard a loud pop and I looked over to my left I seen that my arm was dangling. I didn't think I was going to make it.
NISSEN: He made it to Landstuhl, but his lower arm was too mangled to reattach. The surgeons here had to amputate just below the elbow. It is hard for Landstuhl's corps of doctors and nurses to see so many, so young with such serious injuries.
RONALD PLACE M.D., LANDSTUHL REGIONAL MED. CENTER: While they are still here, while things are still fresh, typically the reality of the situation hasn't set in yet. They're so young, many of them don't really get it that they're hurt this bad.
NISSEN: It is hard for non-medical staff, too, for the orderlies and the Chaplin's who meet every group of new patients bussed from medivac flights that land at nearby Ramsey Air Force Base. What's been the hardest for you personally?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably unplugging machines with some of the young men when they're not going to make it, and to sit there with mom and dad or a wife while they pass away. That's very difficult, heart- wrenching, hard wrenching. NISSEN: For hospital staff, the mission is clear, stay ready for incoming wounded and any number with any injuries. Stay ready for the next six weeks, six months, and two years. The new normal. Beth Nissen, CNN, Landstuhl, Germany.
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NGUYEN: 14,000 troops have been treated in Landstuhl since the start of the war. All but eight have survived.
Well, when it comes to coverage of the Iraq conflict, the war on terror and other controversial issues, some complain that the news media go too far, while others charge the media censors themselves. Matt Felling media director at the Center for Media and Strategy is in our Washington bureau. And we thank you for being here.
MATT FELLING, MEDIA DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR MEDIA AND STRATEGY: Thank you Betty.
NGUYEN: First off, thank you. Let's start with Nicholas Berg and the beheading there, most media outlets chose not to run that. Was that the right call?
FELLING: Yes, I think that there is an unwritten rule in most media circles, that you can show blood, but cannot show a death occurring. I mean nobody ran the Daniel Pearl video, and everyone seems to turn away from death actually happening in real time anyway. All you need to know is al Jazeera, which has taken a lot of fire for airing things that were extremely controversial, even al Jazeera refused to run this on the basis of it being way to graphic and way to inflammatory.
NGUYEN: But Matt, some will argue that you're just simply sanitizing the reality of this?
FELLING: I don't think we have to worry about sanitizing what is really going on over there. I am in favor of seeing everything possible. As we saw in the segment immediately preceding me. We're seeing what's happening there. And to a great degree, I mean I will take your point, ever since the embeds left last year and major military operations concluded, to a great degree the military -- this war was not televised, but then Fallujah occurred. And it kind of open the door towards displaying the war in reality a little bit. And then coffin controversy, should we see photos, should we be face-to-face with the cost of war?
And with what we saw with the prison photos, we are seeing what is really happening over there. You do not need to see the "Swan" on Fox, you don't need to tune into "Survivor," this is reality TV. This is what we need to see. And it is not just, I mean the problem with this issue is that a long time ago the antiwar crowd took over the debate on we need to show everything, because they thought it would turn our stomachs and we would become antiwar with them.
But a lot of military families agree on the same thing. Because if we don't have footage of this we will not know the extent to which our military personnel are sticking their necks out on the line every single day. If we just think of all they do is hang out with president on Thanksgiving. And to have a big smiling turkey.
NGUYEN: So are you saying that we need to see, the public needs to see all those additional photos?
FELLING: Well, I think that it's tough to make the case that we are building a capital democracy in Iraq and we are -- we believe fervently in a free press, and then we're not willing to demonstrate it here within our borders. And the Pentagon needs to realize that if they do not display all the photos, they will get leaked to the press over time. It is the ultimate D.C. parlagate (ph). And if they allow the photos to drip, drip drip, the story will never goes away. But if they just release 3,000 photos all at once, it would be to much for us to handle and it probably would be gone within a week.
NGUYEN: Because a lot of people right now are already saying I've seen too much of this, it's been in the news for too long already.
FELLING: Yes, and to a great degree that's because the prison for photos, the press conference about the prison abuse took place in January, and the press slept on the story. They did not run with it what so ever. It was only when the photos came out that the media jumped on it. And there's a great degree that they are making up for lost time, they're piling on now, because they feel guilty for having missed it the first time.
NGUYEN: OK, Matt. We are out of time. Matt Felling at the Center for Media and Strategy. Thank you.
FELLING: Thank you, have a good day.
NGUYEN: You too.
Israel's military chief says hundreds of Palestinian homes in Gaza may be destroyed by bulldozers. The threat follows Israel's Supreme Court clearing that is, the way for demolitions after a violent week of fighting. Secretary of State Colin Powell says the U.S. understands Israel has a right to defend itself, but opposes the demolitions. The United Nations says Israel has demolished 88 homes in Gaza since Wednesday leaving a thousand Palestinians home less. Israel says Palestinian gunmen used the buildings for cover. Palestinians call it collective punishment.
It's been a tough weekend for U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell; he faced a lot of skepticism at a World Economic Forum in Jordan. The mostly Arab dignitaries are angry about the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal and distrustful of the U.S. commitments to the creation of a Palestinian state.
CNN's Walter Rodgers has more.
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WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The American Secretary of State Colin Powell labored mightily to re float the Bush administration's Middle East policies on Israel and the Palestinians, on Iraq and on political reform in the Arab world.
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: We are doing everything we can to deal with what you describe as the frustrations within the Arab world.
RODGERS: Powell did repeated interviews beseeching skeptical Arabs to believe President Bush is committed to establishing a Palestinian state. But as so often happens, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat still locked down by the Israelis on the West Bank was stirring the political pot, quoting the Koran, Arafat calling on Palestinians to find strength to strike terror in their enemies.
POWELL: Mr. Arafat continues to take actions and make statements that make it exceptionally difficult to move forward.
RODGERS: Given the overwhelmingly Arab competition of this meeting of the world economic forum, however, the view here was that the United States is too eager to blame Palestinians when Arabs feel much of the blame for the impasse lies with Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
AHMED MAHER, EGYPTIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: What is important is for the United States to be to move as strongly as they do the Palestinians, strongly criticize Mr. Sharon, because his plan, the plan that the Americans are talking about is a plan that didn't float at all.
RODGERS: The images of abuse of Iraqi Arab prisoners at Abu Ghraib continued to dog the Americans in the Middle East, and even traditional American friends had blunt messages for the Bush White House.
MARWAN MUASHER, JORDANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: The image of the United States in the Middle East has never been lower and we all need to do a lot in order to head this.
RODGERS: They are now (UNINTELLIGIBLE) hanging over this region, the feeling that nothing is going to succeed in the Middle East until the Bush administration acts decisively on the Israeli Palestinian issue. Until they do, one Arab analyst said everything the Americans do here will be seen as suspect.
Walter Rodgers, CNN at the Dead Sea in Jordan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: Well, get your booties on if you want to visit a new big apple attraction. Still to come white this pristine palace has a short shelf life when it comes to tolerating tourists.
And up next,
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel like Cinderella in the dress. NGUYEN: Giving teenagers a chance to feel like prom princes with out a steep price. We'll talk with the parents of an extraordinary girl who are keeping their daughter's dream alive.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: It's prom season across the U.S. Teenage girls are hoping for just the right dress to make their prom special. For families on hard times, getting it may mean a great sacrifice, but they have a family of Fairy godmothers. No they don't wave magic wands, but they do have the key to an enchanting closet. Our John Zarrella explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The dress fit Linda Partain as if it had been made just for her.
LINDA PARTAIN, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: I feel like Cinderella in the dress.
ZARRELLA: Linda is about one of 100 girls who come here each weekend to Becca's Closet a booth at a flea market near Ft. Lauderdale. The girls share a common bond. Prom night is coming.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I like that one.
ZARRELLA: If it wasn't for Becca's Closet, many of these girls may not have that special dress to wear on that special night.
NANCY PARTAIN, LINDA PARTAIN'S MOTHER: Our family had some financial problems this year, so I told Linda, I don't know what we're going to be able to do for prom, because proms can be very expensive for girls, by the time you finish with hair and nails and dresses and the whole works.
ZARRELLA: A couple years ago, 16-year-old Rebecca Kirtman started a dress bank. She got a company to donate prom dresses and then gave them to girls who couldn't afford them. Last August Rebecca died in a scar accident, but her dream did not.
CHELSEA KOFF, REBECCA KIRTMAN'S SCHOOL MATE: It's a way to keep her spirit alive. We do it for her.
ZARRELLA: Rebecca's family and friends have taken her dream and grown it. Before she died Rebecca had put smiles on faces of about 250 Cinderella's. Now there are thousands of donated dresses, and Becca's Closets are in several states.
JAY KIRTMAN, REBECCA KIRTMAN'S FATHER: What we 're looking for is a national retailer to step forward so we can open up a Becca's Closet everywhere. Any girl that needs a dress will get one.
ZARRELLA: And need is based solely on the honor system. After the girls pick out that perfect prom dress, they come here to Rosemarie Cosmetics where they're giving just the right makeup and lipstick to complement their dresses.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just a little bit of color in your cheeks, but really natural.
ZARRELLA: The girls get to keep the makeup and the dresses, and there's no charge, but Rebecca's family and friends are rewarded, in smiles and the joy Rebecca's dream brings. John Zarrella, CNN, Florida.
NGUYEN: Becca's Closet is expanding to help in other ways as well. Her parents Pam and Jay Kirtman and their son Ian join us from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to tell us more about it. Thanks for being here all of you.
PAM KIRTMAN, REBECCA'S KIRTMAN'S MOTHER: Thanks for having us.
J. KIRTMAN: Thank you.
NGUYEN: Jay, let's start with you. First I just want to tell you that we're sorry about your loss, but it must be a tremendous feeling to see that you're carrying on Rebecca's legacy.
J. KIRTMAN: Yes, it's very rewarding to help girls all throughout our community, and this is what Rebecca wanted, and this is what my family and friends are continuing.
NGUYEN: Pam, let's talk about how many dresses you've collected, many of these brand-new from stores. Are you also getting them donated from folks, gently worn dresses?
P. KIRTMAN: Yes, definitely. They come from manufacturers, stores, and a lot of the dresses come from just people who want to help. And they're all beautiful.
NGUYEN: And how many do you have? I read some 3,000? Is that correct?
P. KIRTMAN: Yes, there's actually even more than that, a little over 3,000. It just keeps growing. We hope that all the closets in the country will have the same amount of dresses.
NGUYEN: Are you surprised about this tremendous amount of support?
P. KIRTMAN: I am very grateful for it, and surprised also, yes.
NGUYEN: Jay, you mentioned in the story that we just saw that you're hoping to expand this, because basically you're out of room, aren't you?
J. KIRTMAN: Yes. We are totally out of room. We have warehouse space also donated in plantation, and we're looking for more space, and we're also looking for a national retailer to step forward so we can do a national dress drive, and we can open up Becca's Closets in every community, so every girl can get a dress.
NGUYEN: Is that every community in Florida or is that nationwide?
J. KIRTMAN: In the United States, nationwide. We will succeed. We need -- we have tremendous support from our community locally, and we're looking for it now on a national level.
NGUYEN: Ian, let's talk to you. What do you think your sister would say if she were here today to see all of this?
IAN KIRTMAN, REBECCA KIRTMAN'S BROTHER: She would almost laugh, not at the success of it, but she never could have imagined it getting this big. It's really what she wanted to help everybody. I don't think she could have imagined it getting this big and that is the type of person she was.
NGUYEN: Pam, quickly, reminds us how Becca came up with this idea.
P. KIRTMAN: She read an article in a magazine about a group of girls in boarding school who sent their gowns to a group of girls in a high school in a low-income area, and she expanded it from there.
NGUYEN: What a great heart. Jay, let's talk to us, if you would, about some of these special stories, the young girls who come in looking for a dress and how this has made a huge difference in their lives.
J. KIRTMAN: It's tremendous. We have all different kinds of stories. We have a young lady who came in with her mom, and her mom's best friend, who she grew up with when she was a child, and this young lady would not have been able to attend prom unless we gave her a dress. And it turns out this young lady is going to the University of Notre Dame on a full academic scholarship, and now she'll have that dress all the way through her college experience and her formals there.
NGUYEN: That's got to make all of you feel so wonderful inside.
P. KIRTMAN: Yes.
J. KIRTMAN: It does, to watch the kids and their moms walk away with a smile and a lot of times tears in their eyes, their appreciation, and their gratitude is nice to see.
NGUYEN: Well, we are so thankful to be able to speak with you. This is a wonderful organization. We wish you the best of luck. Jay, Pam and Ian Kirtman, thanks so much for your time.
P. KIRTMAN: Thanks for having us.
J. KIRTMAN: Thank you.
I. KIRTMAN: Thank you.
NGUYEN: A temporary tourist attraction with a higher calling opens in New York. We'll take you behind its spectacular doors next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: In the heart of hectic New York City, there's now a place where you can find peace and tranquility, but if you'd like to visit, you better hurry. In one month the temple becomes members only. Our Alina (ph) Cho takes us on a tour.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): For the Mormon faithful, a chance to be in what they call the house of the lord.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's unlike anything on earth.
CHO: For non-Mormons, a lesson in a different faith.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't intend to convert, nobody asked me to, but it's a wonderful opportunities to learn more.
CHO: This woman from Bolivia was overwhelmed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have no way to express myself how I feel inside it's like I'm shaking.
CHO: From the stained glass windows to the gold leaf columns, this Mormon temple is a series of rooms designed within an existing building in Manhattan.
EARL TINGEY, MORMON CHURCH ELDER: New York is the center of the media world, it's the center of the financial world, and we have many, many members in the church here, and we feel we need a temple where they live.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you're out on the streets in New York, in Manhattan, its organized chaos, kind of crazy, and you come in here, and it's just calm and peaceful.
CHO: Mormon temples are only open to the most devout members of the church. This temple will be open to the public until it's dedicated next month, then the doors will close to all nonmembers. For now anyone who puts on white booties to keep the carpets clean, can take a peak at the hand painted murals in the instruction room and the celestial room where members are urged to be silent, to give them a sense of what it's like to be in the presence of god.
There's the bride's room where the wedding party gets ready, and the sealing room, where the wedding is held and mirrors symbolize eternity.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is overwhelming in a way.
CHO: A place that Mormons call sacred not secret. Alina (ph) Cho, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: It's beautiful. Here is Daniel Sieberg with a preview of what's ahead next on "NEXT @ CNN."
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This week we're bringing you the best of science and technology news from our "NEXT@CNN" mansion. Well, actually, it's the "Playboy" mansion. And I'm in Los Angeles at E3, the annual video game extravaganza. And tonight is actually a coming-out party for a new "Playboy" video game. As well as all the details and news coming out of E3. Plus the latest in science and technology news of the week.
NGUYEN: Then at 6:00 Eastern on "CNN Live Sunday," flirting with danger, we'll expo what possesses people to ignore government warnings and travel to some of the most dangerous places on earth.
And stick around at 7:00 Eastern, it's "People in the News" profiling Alanis Morissette and Howard Stern. Thanks for joining us. I will be back with the headlines after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Hello, I'm Betty Nguyen. "Next @ CNN" is coming right up. First though the headlines.
The Arab news network Al Jazerra has aired a tape showing what it says are two Russian hostages in Iraq.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 16, 2004 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Changing what the word "marriage" means, gay and lesbian couples in Massachusetts get their chance to tie the knot tomorrow morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel like Cinderella in the dress. I feel like Cinderella.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: The difference a prom dress makes: a teenager's legacy.
And put your white booties on if you want to see the latest Mormon Temple, but you better hurry. Its doors close soon to all but the very faithful.
Hello and welcome to CNN SUNDAY LIVE, I'm Betty Nguyen. Let's start with the headlines.
Arab television network al-Jazeera is airing this video of two men it says are Russian electrical workers held hostage in Iraq. A group called itself the Army of the Victorious Sect claims to be behind the kidnapping. A Russian TV network says the two men appear to be Russian. CNN is working to independently confirm the tape.
Roadside bombs continue to take their toll on U.S. troops in Iraq. An American soldier was killed last night when his vehicle hit one in Baghdad. His death brings the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq to 783. Another soldier in the same vehicle was wounded.
A change in U.S. policy could help save lives in a global fight against AIDS. The FDA is expected to expedite its review process for a combination of generic drugs that could be used to treat AIDS patients in Africa. The World Health Organization says such drugs would help them get low-cost AIDS treatment to developing countries.
Officials are trying to determine what sparked an engine fire on a gambling cruise ship off the Florida coast. Several passengers suffered from minor smoke inhalation, but no serious injuries are reported. The SunCruz Casino ship left port about noon today with about 160 passengers on board. It was about three miles south of Ft. Lauderdale when the fire started, forcing it to return.
The Pentagon is angrily denouncing a "New Yorker" magazine article about Iraqi abuses. Writer Seymour Hersh says the scandal resulted from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's decision to expand a secret U.S. operation originally aimed at al-Qaeda. That decision allegedly gave interrogators more flexibility in their tactics. CNN's Kathleen Koch is at the pentagon with more reaction. Hi, Kathleen
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Betty. A very indignant Pentagon says those charges are false and filled with error. Now, the article in "the New Yorker" by journalist Seymour Hersh alleges that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld expanded a clandestine operation that was being used against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan to Iraq in order to get more intelligence about the growing insurgency.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEYMOUR HERSH, "THE NEW YORKER": Rumsfeld, through his Undersecretary for Intelligence Steve Cambone cut an order, they changed the secret program and ordered this secret program to send a squad, or some people, I can't tell you how many--part of their assets into Baghdad into the prison. The instructions were: "Let's get tougher." Let's use much more coercion, let's use sexual intimidation, because in the Arab world that's an easy way to make somebody talk, and maybe you can get somebody so frightened that he'll go back into the community and become an asset.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOCH: Hersh writes that a former intelligence official who he interviewed told him that the rules of the operation were, quote, "grab whom you must, do what you want."
And as I said, the Pentagon is in the most forceful terms calling the story outlandish and completely false. Spokesman Larry DiRita telling CNN, quote, "No responsible official of the Department of Defense approved any program that could conceivably have been intended to result in such abuses as witnesses in the recent photos and videos."
And Secretary of State Colin Powell this morning voiced his agreement that he has seen no indication that any higher official or any military program authorized or condoned the actions in Abu Ghraib prison.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I'm not aware of anybody higher up telling them, but that's why Secretary Rumsfeld has commissioned all of these inquiries to get to the bottom of it. What these individuals did was wrong. It was against rules and regulations, it was against anything they should have learned in their home and their community and their upbringing.
So we have a terrible collapse of order that took place in that prison cellblock. Let's not use this to contaminate the wonderful work being done by tens of thousands of other young American soldiers in Iraq. We'll get to the bottom of this, justice will be served.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOCH: Now these latest charges are adding to the calls for an intensified and very intense and new congressional investigation into the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison. And when it comes to that controversy, these new allegations, true or not, do throw fuel on the fire, making it even tougher for the Pentagon to argue that those responsible for what occurred behind the walls of Abu Ghraib prison were simply a few bad apples acting on their own -- Betty.
NGUYEN: A lot still to be learned here. Kathleen Koch at the Pentagon, thank you.
Bush administration officials are upset at the Arab world reaction to the beheading of American businessman Nicholas Berg. Secretary of State Colin Powell says there is no excuse for silence, and he would like to see a, quote "much higher level of outrage." More from White House correspondent Dana Bash.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Secretary of State brought the U.S. apology for what happened at Abu Ghraib directly to those most publicly enraged by the abuses, the Arab world. But after weekend meetings with Arab leaders in Jordan, Secretary Powell expressed his own outrage about what he didn't hear in return--widespread condemnation of the videotaped beheading of American civilian Nicholas Berg.
POWELL: There ought to be outrage. There is anger in the Arab world about some of our actions, but that is no excuse for any silence on the part of any Arab leader for this kind of murder.
BASH: The head of the Arab League responded.
AMR MOUSSA ARAB LEAGUE SECRETARY GENERAL: No, sir, we are against such acts of extreme violence and despicable attitudes towards human beings.
BASH: But frustration with most Arab leaders for not decrying a grisly murder is a sign of U.S. challenges in enlisting support where their blessing will be needed most, still evolving plans to transfer sovereignty just six weeks away.
As Secretary Powell lobbied Iraq's neighbors, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice spent the weekend working other parts of the globe. Before meeting with European leaders, a first stop in Russia, looking for crucial international support for a new UN resolution backing the handover of power. Leaders of the temporary caretaker Iraqi government set to take over June 30th have not yet been chosen. And Bush officials are trying to battle skepticism they will simply be hand-picked by the U.S. and UN, with no real authority.
In Sunday's "Washington Post," Senators Joe Lieberman and John McCain argue there is a way to prove Iraqis that U.S. occupation is really coming to an end. "We should strongly consider moving up the date of the planned elections from January to this fall," they write. Powell dismissed accelerated elections as unrealistic, but took pains to emphasize the political occupation is almost over.
POWELL: Is this a government that's going to have sovereignty? Is it going to have authority over its land? And the answer is yes, because the Coalition Provisional Authority is going away.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: And the secretary tried to clarify comments he made last week, saying that the U.S. military would pull its 135,000-plus troops from Iraq if asked by the new government. He said hypothetically, American forces would leave, but he said, given the security challenges there, he doesn't expect that request to be made -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Dana Bash at the White House, thank you.
Massachusetts breaks new legal ground tomorrow. At midnight it becomes the first state in the country to allow same-sex couples to legally marry. It could fuel political and legal battles nationwide. Hundreds of gay and lesbian couples are expected to seek marriage licenses, many of them from out of state in defiance of Massachusetts' Governor Mitt Romney. He says his state will not marry couple from states with laws forbidding same-sex marriages. Friday, the Supreme Court failed to block a last minute legal challenge to the gay weddings. A federal appeals court will hear the case next month.
Well, how does the public feel about same sex marriages? It depends on the age of the person you asked. Younger Americans are apparently more tolerant of the idea, while older ones are not, our Maria Hinojosa explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Vicky Goundaris called this her big fat Greek wedding shower, traditional right down to the cookies and cake. Those boy-meets-girl family values are destined for a jolt when Massachusetts is scheduled to become the first state to recognize boy-meets-boy, America's first legal marriages of gay and lesbian couples begin Monday.
GEORGIA GOUNDARIS, MOTHER OF THE BRIDE: Because of the way things have changed in regards to how people do get married, I don't how to use that word "tradition" anymore.
HINOJOSO (on camera): Even as marriage goes undergoes one if its most substantial changes in history, polls show a majority of Americans are not comfortable inviting gays and lesbians to the wedding party.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I really feel that a man and a woman should be married and two people of the same sex, I don't think that's the way God created us.
HINOJOSA (voice-over): 38 states have banned gays from getting married, with opposition strongest in the South and rural areas. NIVETTA FREEMAN, GEORGIA RESIDENT: I think it's bad for kids to see that -- for children to be raised by parents being gay, that's not what society has always been about. It's always been mother and father, not mother and mother.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jenore (ph) and I have been in love for...
HINOJOSA: But gay couples have continued to fight for the right to marry since 1993, when they won a temporary victory in Hawaii's Supreme Court.
EVAN WOLFSON, FREEDOM TO MARRY: We've seen a steady improvement in the number of people who support marriage equality for same-sex couples in '95, '96, it was low as 27 percent of the public supported marriage equality. Now we're in the high 30s, even in the 40s, depending on the poll and on the day.
HINOJOSA: And depending on the age. Polls show that most younger people, like Nick and Vickie (ph), think anyone should be able to hire a wedding planner as special as theirs.
FRANCINE DECICCO, WED WITH A RED HEAD: A girl being escorted by her father to the aisle to be given to the man of her dreams waiting for her, these are all things that we think about, all things we want for our children. Unfortunately, nowadays there are such different situations that what you want sometimes cannot be.
HINOJOSA: But with 800 weddings on her resume, this wedding planner says she's ready for whatever the future will bring. Maria Hinojosa, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: Marking a milestone in the nation's history. It's been 50 years since a group of lawyers and a little girl broke the legal back of segregation, so why is the education divide alive and well? Dan Lothian goes in search of an answer next.
And still to come...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE : Lots of broken bones, sometimes both legs are broken; sometimes one leg may be broken or may have suffered an amputation on the other leg.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NUGYEN (VOICE OVER): A military hospital's view of the war in Iraq, 2,000 miles away from the battle lines.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Forced segregation of America's public schools has been illegal for 50 years almost to the day, but despite the Supreme Court's historic ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, black and white students still aren't achieving in school. Correspondent Dan Lothian takes a hard look at the learning gap tonight on CNN PRESENTS, but before Dan joins us, here's an excerpt.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Shaker Heights, Ohio, an integrated community of 30,000 people just outside Cleveland. People move here for the schools which are nationally known for excellence. But Shaker Heights has a problem: a significant gap between black and white students.
MARK FREEMAN, SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT: There's a gap. There's a gap in achievement. There's a gap in grades. There's a gap in test scores, just like there's a gap in the state, just like there's a gap in the entire country.
LOTHIAN: The numbers were impossible to ignore when in 1997 the student newspaper wrote about a school sponsored study. 82 percent of the students who failed proficiency tests were black. 84 percent of the students getting Ds and Fs on their report cards were black. And the average SAT score for black students was 305 points lower than for white students.
REUBEN HARRIS, SHAKER HEIGHTS PARENT: We can't say all of the negative outcomes are attributable to poverty or low income. The numbers just don't add up, don't make sense.
LOTHIAN: The issues in Shaker Heights are part of a growing national conversation about how to bridge the gap. It includes tough talk, even broaching a taboo, the notion that some African Americans are perpetuating a culture of anti-intellectualism. In other words, undermining their own chances for success.
RON FERGUSON, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: Even though it's difficult to say in public and particularly on television, I think there are racial differences in the outside-school intellectual climate that we need to face up to and to work on.
LOTHIAN: 8 percent of white eighth graders watch TV six hours or more each day. For blacks, that number is 30 percent, nearly four times higher, and these are kids whose parents graduated from college.
ABIGAIL THERNSTROM: Black kids themselves say we have to watch a lot of television, because we otherwise wouldn't be part of the peer culture.
LOTHIAN: Black community leaders and academics are also touching raw nerves with hard-line ideas.
JOHN MCWHORTER, AUTHOR, "LOSING THE RACE": There's a cultural issue. Most black people know that a large part of the problem with middle-class black students is a lot of middle-class black students teach each other not to do well in school. Among people who are rather extreme, there's a quiet sense that to do well in school is to embrace "the man."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LOTHIAN: We're live now in Topeka, Kansas standing in front of what used to be Monroe Elementary School. It's now a museum. It was one of four segregated black schools here in Topeka back in the early 1950s. It's also important because this is where Linda Brown, the young girl at the center of this landmark legal case, also attended school. And the museum looks at that case but also at the fight for civil rights nationwide. Tomorrow, the museum will be officially dedicated. President Bush will be here for the event -- Betty.
NGUYEN: A big day there. And you can see more of Dan Lothian's report on the education gap, that's tonight, CNN PRESENTS at 8:00 Eastern.
Searching for survival in America; they endured a civil war and years in a refugee camp, but can they make it in the U.S.? We'll speak to the makers of the film "The Lost Boys of Sudan."
And Secretary of State Colin Powell heads to the Middle East on a mission for peace. We'll tell you the blunt message he got from a traditional American ally
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Two decades of civil war in the Sudan have claimed many young victims, though some did get out. Now, years later, the so- called "Lost Boys of Sudan" are trying to get a new start over in the U.S., but it's proving more difficult than they had hoped. CNN's Elaine Quijano reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They walked barefoot for months on dusty roads out of southern Sudan; as many as 20,000 boys, by some estimates, fled their villages in the late 1980s to escape the civil war that killed many of their mothers and fathers.
JOHN AROU, SUDANESE REFUGEE: So the only alternative that we had was to run away and go farther apart from where the bullets were coming.
JACOB ABOR, SUDANESE REFUGEE: People were telling me that you don't have to come back again to the village. There's dying there. People are being killed already. So...
QUIJANO: The boys belonged to Sudan's ethnic Dinka population, a group with mainly Christian and animist beliefs who found themselves at odds with Sudan's northern Arab Islamic government. Jacob Abor was a young boy tending goats when the fighters arrived.
ABOR: I ran together with some of the other people. They were running in the direction that seemed to be the safe place and it was getting worse, so there I was separated. I didn't go back. I didn't meet with my mom again. My dad was killed there.
QUIJANO: He joined the sea of refugees pouring out of southern Sudan, walking for a month to Ethiopia, eventually settling at a refugee camp in Kenya. Along the way, according to the Red Cross, thousands died, some from dehydration, starvation or drowning. Others were shot or eaten by wild animals. Jacob survived and years later was one of several thousand war orphans the U.S. took in. But the American dream has proven somewhat elusive.
An issue made clear in the recently released independent film "Lost Boys of Sudan."
Despite hardships, they believe they are better off and hope education will help them return to Sudan to solve its problems, but experts say even those armed with knowledge face a daunting challenge.
JOEL FRUSHONE, U.S. COMMITTEE FOR REFUGEES: There's no infrastructure in the South anymore, there are no school buildings, there are very few health clinics.
QUIJANO: Still, just as "the Lost Boys" were determined then to find a path to safety out of Sudan, they remain committed now to paving the way to stability back to their homeland. Elaine Quijano, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: For more on this powerful, eye-opening documentary, I'm joined by the award-winning co-directors of "Lost Boys of Sudan", Jon Shenk and Megan Mylan from San Francisco. Thanks for being here, both of you.
JON SHENK, CO-DIRECTOR "LOST BOYS OF SUDAN": Thank you.
MEGAN MYLAN, CO-DIRECTOR, "LOST BOYS OF SUDAN": Thank you.
NGUYEN: John, let's start with you; this is both a heart- wrenching and triumphant story. What drew you in to making this into a documentary?
SHENK: When these guys first started coming over in late 2000 and early 2001 they did get press attention in the States here. And Megen and I read the story and were taken with it and made immediate plans to go and meet some of the lost boys themselves, some of who had settled in the Bay Area, in San Jose.
NGUYEN: And -- go ahead.
SHENK: And when we met them, it really clinched it for us. Hearing the story from their perspective is just incredible, and they are, as people -- many people who have met them, testify, just incredibly charming people. They seem like very great subjects for us to follow and for people to tell -- for characters to tell their own story on film.
NGUYEN: And Megan, for you, what was the most gripping part of this real-life story?
MYLAN: I think the hardest part for Jon and I making the film was not being able to reach out to the guys and really help them with their adjustment. The film is every bit as much about America as it is Sudan and about the challenges of breaking into this modern society we've created. The guys would comment to us, well, everyone keeps their doors shut, how am I going to make new friends? And so it was a daily challenge just not to be that friend for them, help them sign up for school, help them with their driver's test, help them in all of the little ways that are so important when you're starting life in a new place.
NGUYEN: I think you struck on a very good point. And Jon, let's talk to you about that because some of these challenges were very simple for Americans, who have grown up in this country, but for those who have come over here, immigrated here, these are huge obstacles.
SHENK: Yeah. You have to, you know, take your own life and just start stripping away all the things you take for granted every day. Number one, your family, your infrastructure, your support group, and then take away all those other things, all your material possessions. And then take away the knowledge you have about what it's like to just get around in our modern country that we've created for ourselves. You know, these guys had no idea they would be so dependent on the automobile, for example, or, you know, going to grocery stores and trying to find their food in what were to them strange packages on shelves that they had never seen before. So it was just incredibly difficult and one thing we found very early on as we followed these guys around is that the one thing they really needed were people to reach out to them and just not give them money or give them things necessarily, but to help them, to be their friend, to be their mentors.
NGUYEN: So, Megan, is that part of the message of your film?
MYLAN: Very much so. On the most basic level, we hope that people come away from the film with an appreciation of what a challenge it is to start life here and really motivated to extend themselves, whether it's to refugees, the 30,000 or plus that come into the country each year and you can sign up with your local refugee agency and be a mentor, or if it's a newcomer to your community who might just be from another state, that's really kind of our core message, but one of the really satisfying things has been now that the film is in theatrical release, being able to travel around the country, get to know the boys, and help to make some of these bridges and introductions and motivate community members to get involved. If people are interested in learning more about the lost boys, or finding out how they can volunteer with refugee agencies, they can go to our website, which is lostboysfilm.com, and there are ways that you can connect with the guys, the refugees.
NGUYEN: Alright. Megan Mylan and Jon Shenk. We thank you being here and for showing us a little bit about this story.
SHENK: Thank you.
NGUYEN: From the beheading of an American in Iraq to the photographs from the prison abuse scandal, the media has a lot of censorship power when it comes to releasing the images of war. We'll ask an industry expert when self-censorship crosses the line.
Plus the fallout from the battlefield. Hear the emotion tales from a very busy military hospital.
And still to come: How one girl's closet is making prom dreams come true for disadvantaged teens.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Here's a check of the latest developments at this hour.
The Arabic TV network Al-Jazeera aired these pictures today saying the men were Russian electrical workers taken hostage last week south of Baghdad. CNN is working to independently verify the tape, but the Russian television network says the men appear to be two workers captured last Monday when their vehicle was ambushed south of Baghdad.
Secretary of State Colin Powell says he would have had like to have seen a higher level of international outrage over the beheading of American Nick Berg. Today Powell say there is no excuse for the Arab world to ever remain silent about the killing. Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates condemned Berg's beheading.
In Iraq coalition today forces from Nasaria (ph) to Karbala continued battles with members of Moqtada Al Sadr's militia. Italian troops in Nasaria fought for control of the coalition provisional authority's headquarters. It was seized last week by Sadr's militia.
One thing we haven't heard much about in the fight for Iraq is the growing number of injured U.S. troops. The increase has created a new normal working condition at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany that the largest American hospital outside of the U.S. CNN's Beth Nissen explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice-over): The number of sick and wounded troops arriving at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center is at a six-month high. In the month of April alone, more than 1,000 were medivac here from downrange in Iraq.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're very busy. This is the new normal. So being very busy is the new normal here.
NISSEN: Part of the new normal, a sharp increase in the number of medivac troops with battle injuries, from 20 percent to more than 50 percent.
LT. COL. RONALD PLACE, M.D., LANDSTUHL REGIONAL MED. CENTER: We're seeing a large increase in infraracised explosive device type wounds, fragment wounds, that are just open, jagged, ragged wounds.
MAJ. JIM MILBURN, CHAPLAIN: We've seen amputees; we've seen lots of burn patients badly burned patients.
NISSEN: The serious injuries reflect the escalation in fighting in Falujah, in Najaf and what seems to be a change in insurgent's tactics.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Unfortunately, the enemy has recognized that our body armor is really quite good. Instead of aiming for the chest or torso where they know they can't be very effective, they're probably aiming at the head and neck.
NISSEN: Many patients have eye and head injuries. Shrapnel from a grenade blast damaged Corp. Joshua Carpenters right eyeball.
CORPRIAL JOSHUA CARPENTER: Best case is I will be back to 20/20,worst case is I won't be able to see.
NISSEN: Shrapnel from the same grenade blast also hit Corporal Brian Cornut (ph) in the legs and chest. Cut nerves in his face, sliced into his neck.
COR. BRIAN CORNUT (ph): It was very close to my jugular vein they were saying, and at the time I thought it hit it. Because I had my hand on my neck, and it was squirting through my fingers.
NISSEN: Like most of the seriously injured, he has vivid flashbacks.
CORNUT (ph): I can remember the screaming, and remember seeing what I saw when I first opened my eyes.
NISSEN: What was that?
CORNUT (ph): I saw another marine looking at his arm screaming really loud.
NISSEN: That marine was Lance Corporal Zach Van Canon (ph).
LANCE CORPORAL ZACH VANCANON (ph): I heard a loud pop and I looked over to my left I seen that my arm was dangling. I didn't think I was going to make it.
NISSEN: He made it to Landstuhl, but his lower arm was too mangled to reattach. The surgeons here had to amputate just below the elbow. It is hard for Landstuhl's corps of doctors and nurses to see so many, so young with such serious injuries.
RONALD PLACE M.D., LANDSTUHL REGIONAL MED. CENTER: While they are still here, while things are still fresh, typically the reality of the situation hasn't set in yet. They're so young, many of them don't really get it that they're hurt this bad.
NISSEN: It is hard for non-medical staff, too, for the orderlies and the Chaplin's who meet every group of new patients bussed from medivac flights that land at nearby Ramsey Air Force Base. What's been the hardest for you personally?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably unplugging machines with some of the young men when they're not going to make it, and to sit there with mom and dad or a wife while they pass away. That's very difficult, heart- wrenching, hard wrenching. NISSEN: For hospital staff, the mission is clear, stay ready for incoming wounded and any number with any injuries. Stay ready for the next six weeks, six months, and two years. The new normal. Beth Nissen, CNN, Landstuhl, Germany.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: 14,000 troops have been treated in Landstuhl since the start of the war. All but eight have survived.
Well, when it comes to coverage of the Iraq conflict, the war on terror and other controversial issues, some complain that the news media go too far, while others charge the media censors themselves. Matt Felling media director at the Center for Media and Strategy is in our Washington bureau. And we thank you for being here.
MATT FELLING, MEDIA DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR MEDIA AND STRATEGY: Thank you Betty.
NGUYEN: First off, thank you. Let's start with Nicholas Berg and the beheading there, most media outlets chose not to run that. Was that the right call?
FELLING: Yes, I think that there is an unwritten rule in most media circles, that you can show blood, but cannot show a death occurring. I mean nobody ran the Daniel Pearl video, and everyone seems to turn away from death actually happening in real time anyway. All you need to know is al Jazeera, which has taken a lot of fire for airing things that were extremely controversial, even al Jazeera refused to run this on the basis of it being way to graphic and way to inflammatory.
NGUYEN: But Matt, some will argue that you're just simply sanitizing the reality of this?
FELLING: I don't think we have to worry about sanitizing what is really going on over there. I am in favor of seeing everything possible. As we saw in the segment immediately preceding me. We're seeing what's happening there. And to a great degree, I mean I will take your point, ever since the embeds left last year and major military operations concluded, to a great degree the military -- this war was not televised, but then Fallujah occurred. And it kind of open the door towards displaying the war in reality a little bit. And then coffin controversy, should we see photos, should we be face-to-face with the cost of war?
And with what we saw with the prison photos, we are seeing what is really happening over there. You do not need to see the "Swan" on Fox, you don't need to tune into "Survivor," this is reality TV. This is what we need to see. And it is not just, I mean the problem with this issue is that a long time ago the antiwar crowd took over the debate on we need to show everything, because they thought it would turn our stomachs and we would become antiwar with them.
But a lot of military families agree on the same thing. Because if we don't have footage of this we will not know the extent to which our military personnel are sticking their necks out on the line every single day. If we just think of all they do is hang out with president on Thanksgiving. And to have a big smiling turkey.
NGUYEN: So are you saying that we need to see, the public needs to see all those additional photos?
FELLING: Well, I think that it's tough to make the case that we are building a capital democracy in Iraq and we are -- we believe fervently in a free press, and then we're not willing to demonstrate it here within our borders. And the Pentagon needs to realize that if they do not display all the photos, they will get leaked to the press over time. It is the ultimate D.C. parlagate (ph). And if they allow the photos to drip, drip drip, the story will never goes away. But if they just release 3,000 photos all at once, it would be to much for us to handle and it probably would be gone within a week.
NGUYEN: Because a lot of people right now are already saying I've seen too much of this, it's been in the news for too long already.
FELLING: Yes, and to a great degree that's because the prison for photos, the press conference about the prison abuse took place in January, and the press slept on the story. They did not run with it what so ever. It was only when the photos came out that the media jumped on it. And there's a great degree that they are making up for lost time, they're piling on now, because they feel guilty for having missed it the first time.
NGUYEN: OK, Matt. We are out of time. Matt Felling at the Center for Media and Strategy. Thank you.
FELLING: Thank you, have a good day.
NGUYEN: You too.
Israel's military chief says hundreds of Palestinian homes in Gaza may be destroyed by bulldozers. The threat follows Israel's Supreme Court clearing that is, the way for demolitions after a violent week of fighting. Secretary of State Colin Powell says the U.S. understands Israel has a right to defend itself, but opposes the demolitions. The United Nations says Israel has demolished 88 homes in Gaza since Wednesday leaving a thousand Palestinians home less. Israel says Palestinian gunmen used the buildings for cover. Palestinians call it collective punishment.
It's been a tough weekend for U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell; he faced a lot of skepticism at a World Economic Forum in Jordan. The mostly Arab dignitaries are angry about the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal and distrustful of the U.S. commitments to the creation of a Palestinian state.
CNN's Walter Rodgers has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The American Secretary of State Colin Powell labored mightily to re float the Bush administration's Middle East policies on Israel and the Palestinians, on Iraq and on political reform in the Arab world.
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: We are doing everything we can to deal with what you describe as the frustrations within the Arab world.
RODGERS: Powell did repeated interviews beseeching skeptical Arabs to believe President Bush is committed to establishing a Palestinian state. But as so often happens, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat still locked down by the Israelis on the West Bank was stirring the political pot, quoting the Koran, Arafat calling on Palestinians to find strength to strike terror in their enemies.
POWELL: Mr. Arafat continues to take actions and make statements that make it exceptionally difficult to move forward.
RODGERS: Given the overwhelmingly Arab competition of this meeting of the world economic forum, however, the view here was that the United States is too eager to blame Palestinians when Arabs feel much of the blame for the impasse lies with Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
AHMED MAHER, EGYPTIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: What is important is for the United States to be to move as strongly as they do the Palestinians, strongly criticize Mr. Sharon, because his plan, the plan that the Americans are talking about is a plan that didn't float at all.
RODGERS: The images of abuse of Iraqi Arab prisoners at Abu Ghraib continued to dog the Americans in the Middle East, and even traditional American friends had blunt messages for the Bush White House.
MARWAN MUASHER, JORDANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: The image of the United States in the Middle East has never been lower and we all need to do a lot in order to head this.
RODGERS: They are now (UNINTELLIGIBLE) hanging over this region, the feeling that nothing is going to succeed in the Middle East until the Bush administration acts decisively on the Israeli Palestinian issue. Until they do, one Arab analyst said everything the Americans do here will be seen as suspect.
Walter Rodgers, CNN at the Dead Sea in Jordan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: Well, get your booties on if you want to visit a new big apple attraction. Still to come white this pristine palace has a short shelf life when it comes to tolerating tourists.
And up next,
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel like Cinderella in the dress. NGUYEN: Giving teenagers a chance to feel like prom princes with out a steep price. We'll talk with the parents of an extraordinary girl who are keeping their daughter's dream alive.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: It's prom season across the U.S. Teenage girls are hoping for just the right dress to make their prom special. For families on hard times, getting it may mean a great sacrifice, but they have a family of Fairy godmothers. No they don't wave magic wands, but they do have the key to an enchanting closet. Our John Zarrella explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The dress fit Linda Partain as if it had been made just for her.
LINDA PARTAIN, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: I feel like Cinderella in the dress.
ZARRELLA: Linda is about one of 100 girls who come here each weekend to Becca's Closet a booth at a flea market near Ft. Lauderdale. The girls share a common bond. Prom night is coming.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I like that one.
ZARRELLA: If it wasn't for Becca's Closet, many of these girls may not have that special dress to wear on that special night.
NANCY PARTAIN, LINDA PARTAIN'S MOTHER: Our family had some financial problems this year, so I told Linda, I don't know what we're going to be able to do for prom, because proms can be very expensive for girls, by the time you finish with hair and nails and dresses and the whole works.
ZARRELLA: A couple years ago, 16-year-old Rebecca Kirtman started a dress bank. She got a company to donate prom dresses and then gave them to girls who couldn't afford them. Last August Rebecca died in a scar accident, but her dream did not.
CHELSEA KOFF, REBECCA KIRTMAN'S SCHOOL MATE: It's a way to keep her spirit alive. We do it for her.
ZARRELLA: Rebecca's family and friends have taken her dream and grown it. Before she died Rebecca had put smiles on faces of about 250 Cinderella's. Now there are thousands of donated dresses, and Becca's Closets are in several states.
JAY KIRTMAN, REBECCA KIRTMAN'S FATHER: What we 're looking for is a national retailer to step forward so we can open up a Becca's Closet everywhere. Any girl that needs a dress will get one.
ZARRELLA: And need is based solely on the honor system. After the girls pick out that perfect prom dress, they come here to Rosemarie Cosmetics where they're giving just the right makeup and lipstick to complement their dresses.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just a little bit of color in your cheeks, but really natural.
ZARRELLA: The girls get to keep the makeup and the dresses, and there's no charge, but Rebecca's family and friends are rewarded, in smiles and the joy Rebecca's dream brings. John Zarrella, CNN, Florida.
NGUYEN: Becca's Closet is expanding to help in other ways as well. Her parents Pam and Jay Kirtman and their son Ian join us from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to tell us more about it. Thanks for being here all of you.
PAM KIRTMAN, REBECCA'S KIRTMAN'S MOTHER: Thanks for having us.
J. KIRTMAN: Thank you.
NGUYEN: Jay, let's start with you. First I just want to tell you that we're sorry about your loss, but it must be a tremendous feeling to see that you're carrying on Rebecca's legacy.
J. KIRTMAN: Yes, it's very rewarding to help girls all throughout our community, and this is what Rebecca wanted, and this is what my family and friends are continuing.
NGUYEN: Pam, let's talk about how many dresses you've collected, many of these brand-new from stores. Are you also getting them donated from folks, gently worn dresses?
P. KIRTMAN: Yes, definitely. They come from manufacturers, stores, and a lot of the dresses come from just people who want to help. And they're all beautiful.
NGUYEN: And how many do you have? I read some 3,000? Is that correct?
P. KIRTMAN: Yes, there's actually even more than that, a little over 3,000. It just keeps growing. We hope that all the closets in the country will have the same amount of dresses.
NGUYEN: Are you surprised about this tremendous amount of support?
P. KIRTMAN: I am very grateful for it, and surprised also, yes.
NGUYEN: Jay, you mentioned in the story that we just saw that you're hoping to expand this, because basically you're out of room, aren't you?
J. KIRTMAN: Yes. We are totally out of room. We have warehouse space also donated in plantation, and we're looking for more space, and we're also looking for a national retailer to step forward so we can do a national dress drive, and we can open up Becca's Closets in every community, so every girl can get a dress.
NGUYEN: Is that every community in Florida or is that nationwide?
J. KIRTMAN: In the United States, nationwide. We will succeed. We need -- we have tremendous support from our community locally, and we're looking for it now on a national level.
NGUYEN: Ian, let's talk to you. What do you think your sister would say if she were here today to see all of this?
IAN KIRTMAN, REBECCA KIRTMAN'S BROTHER: She would almost laugh, not at the success of it, but she never could have imagined it getting this big. It's really what she wanted to help everybody. I don't think she could have imagined it getting this big and that is the type of person she was.
NGUYEN: Pam, quickly, reminds us how Becca came up with this idea.
P. KIRTMAN: She read an article in a magazine about a group of girls in boarding school who sent their gowns to a group of girls in a high school in a low-income area, and she expanded it from there.
NGUYEN: What a great heart. Jay, let's talk to us, if you would, about some of these special stories, the young girls who come in looking for a dress and how this has made a huge difference in their lives.
J. KIRTMAN: It's tremendous. We have all different kinds of stories. We have a young lady who came in with her mom, and her mom's best friend, who she grew up with when she was a child, and this young lady would not have been able to attend prom unless we gave her a dress. And it turns out this young lady is going to the University of Notre Dame on a full academic scholarship, and now she'll have that dress all the way through her college experience and her formals there.
NGUYEN: That's got to make all of you feel so wonderful inside.
P. KIRTMAN: Yes.
J. KIRTMAN: It does, to watch the kids and their moms walk away with a smile and a lot of times tears in their eyes, their appreciation, and their gratitude is nice to see.
NGUYEN: Well, we are so thankful to be able to speak with you. This is a wonderful organization. We wish you the best of luck. Jay, Pam and Ian Kirtman, thanks so much for your time.
P. KIRTMAN: Thanks for having us.
J. KIRTMAN: Thank you.
I. KIRTMAN: Thank you.
NGUYEN: A temporary tourist attraction with a higher calling opens in New York. We'll take you behind its spectacular doors next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: In the heart of hectic New York City, there's now a place where you can find peace and tranquility, but if you'd like to visit, you better hurry. In one month the temple becomes members only. Our Alina (ph) Cho takes us on a tour.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): For the Mormon faithful, a chance to be in what they call the house of the lord.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's unlike anything on earth.
CHO: For non-Mormons, a lesson in a different faith.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't intend to convert, nobody asked me to, but it's a wonderful opportunities to learn more.
CHO: This woman from Bolivia was overwhelmed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have no way to express myself how I feel inside it's like I'm shaking.
CHO: From the stained glass windows to the gold leaf columns, this Mormon temple is a series of rooms designed within an existing building in Manhattan.
EARL TINGEY, MORMON CHURCH ELDER: New York is the center of the media world, it's the center of the financial world, and we have many, many members in the church here, and we feel we need a temple where they live.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you're out on the streets in New York, in Manhattan, its organized chaos, kind of crazy, and you come in here, and it's just calm and peaceful.
CHO: Mormon temples are only open to the most devout members of the church. This temple will be open to the public until it's dedicated next month, then the doors will close to all nonmembers. For now anyone who puts on white booties to keep the carpets clean, can take a peak at the hand painted murals in the instruction room and the celestial room where members are urged to be silent, to give them a sense of what it's like to be in the presence of god.
There's the bride's room where the wedding party gets ready, and the sealing room, where the wedding is held and mirrors symbolize eternity.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is overwhelming in a way.
CHO: A place that Mormons call sacred not secret. Alina (ph) Cho, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: It's beautiful. Here is Daniel Sieberg with a preview of what's ahead next on "NEXT @ CNN."
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This week we're bringing you the best of science and technology news from our "NEXT@CNN" mansion. Well, actually, it's the "Playboy" mansion. And I'm in Los Angeles at E3, the annual video game extravaganza. And tonight is actually a coming-out party for a new "Playboy" video game. As well as all the details and news coming out of E3. Plus the latest in science and technology news of the week.
NGUYEN: Then at 6:00 Eastern on "CNN Live Sunday," flirting with danger, we'll expo what possesses people to ignore government warnings and travel to some of the most dangerous places on earth.
And stick around at 7:00 Eastern, it's "People in the News" profiling Alanis Morissette and Howard Stern. Thanks for joining us. I will be back with the headlines after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Hello, I'm Betty Nguyen. "Next @ CNN" is coming right up. First though the headlines.
The Arab news network Al Jazerra has aired a tape showing what it says are two Russian hostages in Iraq.
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