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CNN STUDENT NEWS for May 24, 2002

Aired May 24, 2002 - 04:30   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching CNN STUDENT NEWS seen in schools around the world because learning never stops and neither does the news.

MICHAEL MCMANUS, CO-HOST: Welcome to Friday's program. Topping our news, from Russia with love, U.S. President Bush flies in for a landmark summit. And then it's on to "Chronicle" where ancient customs meet modern crime fighting. Speaking of crime fighting, we profile another heroic career, that of the police officer. We close up shop with a story about a patriotic American icon.

It's Friday, and this is CNN STUDENT NEWS. It's good to be here. I'm Michael McManus.

A big day today for U.S. President Bush and his Russian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin, as the two leaders sign a historic nuclear arms reduction treaty. It's aimed at slashing U.S. and Russian long-range arsenals by two-thirds over 10 years.

And this programming note, we may break away for coverage of the signing, so stay tuned right here to CNN.

In the meantime, Mr. Bush arrived yesterday in Moscow after wrapping up a visit to Berlin. He's encouraging the Russian people to find their future in Europe and with America. Now as President Bush and Putin sign the landmark arms reduction treaty, new goals are being set to ease some old, yet justified fears.

CNN's Jill Dougherty reports on why concern still lingers on the possibility of mass destruction.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Russian army's special chemical troops get their orders, unknown contamination not far from Moscow. Wearing protective suits, they take samples, then rush them to a portable laboratory for analysis. It's a drill they've practiced numerous times. During the Cold War, the enemy was the United States or NATO. Now it's terrorism or accidents.

A frightening legacy of the Cold War, chemical, nuclear and biological weapons produced in enormous quantities by both sides. U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons have been the subject of treaties since the 1970s, but part of the old Soviet Union's biological weapons program are still shrouded in secrecy.

Russia has 40,000 tons of chemical weapons, the largest stockpile in the world. Nerve agents like sarin and VX, less than a drop can kill you. As this rare military films shows, it's packed into shelves and missile warheads ready for action. Vulnerable, experts say, to theft by terrorist or by underpaid, disgruntled Russian soldiers.

(on camera): This is the danger, a small artillery shell that looks like this filled with lethal doses of serin nerve agent. Something you could fit in a backpack could potentially kill thousands of people.

(voice-over): Russian scientists test new ways of destroying these chemical stockpiles in a lab paid for by the United States. And at a top secret military base north of Moscow, the Russian Defense Ministry, in conjunction with the U.S. Defense Department, test new ways of protecting nuclear weapons until they can be destroyed. Electronic sensors and monitors, a barricade that can stop an eight- ton vehicle, special locks that open only with a secret code and a handprint.

But at nuclear power plants, research centers and other civilian sites, security often is much weaker. This video was shot in February by a camera crew, along with a member of parliament and Greenpeace activist, who sneaked into a high security industrial complex in Siberia storing spent nuclear fuel.

SERGEI MITROKHIN, RUSSIAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER (through translator): If a terrorist group takes over this facility, it would be a catastrophe like Chernobyl. They could also take the plutonium kept at the plant and make a so-called dirty nuclear bomb.

DOUGHERTY: Lawmakers and scientists in both the U.S. and Russia now warn terrorists are trying to obtain nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. They're urging both President's Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush to speed up protection for these weapons before it's too late.

Jill Dougherty, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: President Bush continues his European tour this weekend in Mr. Putin's hometown, St. Petersburg, Russia. Among other things, he and the first lady will tour the city's famed Hermitage Museum. Not far away though, is a town called Amerika. Once a bustling and a fluent locale, it's since fallen on hard times.

Lisa Morando (ph) has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA MORANDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Welcome to Amerika. No, not that one, this is Amerika, Russia. Not much to look at today, but not so long ago in the years after World War II Amerika was booming with activity. A time when these buildings, now old and crumbling apart, housed the many new arrivals who came here to harvest the peet that fueled the power plants in nearby cities like St. Petersburg, known as Leningrad back then.

Along with the people and the housing came stores, shops, schools, daycare centers, health clinics and plenty of affluence. But that, as you see, was long ago. Amerika today is desolate. Soviet era subsidies have dried up, the railroad has been dismantled.

LEONID GELEY (ph), LOCAL RESIDENT (through translator): For those who are younger, it is not that big of a problem, but our mothers, grandmothers and elderly are left here. People who worked here their whole life, damaged their health on peat production and now they are forgotten by everybody.

MORANDO: Anna Yefimova arrived in Amerika in 1944. She struggles to put food on the table, even as she keeps the sense of humor about her adopted town. She jokes about being an Amerikan, though is keenly aware that this Amerika is pretty different from that other one.

ANNA YEFIMOVA, LOCAL RESIDENT (through translator): Slowly people left this place so everything started to disappear. Everybody started to steal things. Right behind me there was a club and there was a dining hall.

MORANDO: Amerika is a place that President Bush won't see while in Russia, a stopover simply not on the agenda. Some here wish it was, maybe Mr. Bush would have some advice. Disillusioned residents say their leaders both in the old Soviet days and in the new Russia of today have repeatedly promised to do more, to invest more, to make Amerika the thriving place it once was.

Lisa Morando, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: For additional resources, log on to CNNSTUDENTNEWS.com. Log on there to get maps and a nuclear arms tracker.

Now here's another heads up for you, starting June 17 you'll have to get up or set your VCRs a half hour earlier. We'll be airing -- we'll begin airing at 4:00 a.m. Eastern, 1:00 a.m. Pacific. That's June 17, mark your calendars. Are we worth staying up for? Heck yes.

Their ancestors hunted for animals and now a group of Native Americans called the Shadow Wolves are hunting for people, drug smugglers to be exact.

And Ed Lavandera reports on how this group uses ancient techniques to tackle a very current problem.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHARMAINE HARRIS, SHADOW WOLVES TRACKER: They're trying to hide their tracks. ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The jagged terrain and thorny brush of the Arizona desert might seem like the perfect place to hide.

JASON GARCIA, SHADOW WOLVES TRACKER: As far as laying there, anybody can travel through here without being bothered.

HARRIS: This looks suspicious the way they crossed.

LAVANDERA: But a U.S. Customs crew called the Shadow Wolves knows the secrets of this land. Made up of 18 American Indians, the group tracks drug smugglers.

HARRIS: That way.

LAVANDERA: The Shadow Wolves patrol more than 4,500 square miles. They use ancient skills to find their prey.

GARCIA: Our ancestors hunted for animals, game, you know, to survive. Well, we're in some aspects doing the same things, but we're hunting for people to catch them with contraband.

HARRIS: We're looking for their tracks where they crossed. See, there they are.

LAVANDERA: Charmaine Harris is the first female Shadow Wolf. She is on the trail of what she believes are three drug smugglers.

HARRIS: They're doing a good job. I'm having a hard time following them.

GARCIA: This is where he was coming through.

LAVANDERA: When the trail runs cold on the ground, she looks up.

HARRIS: I would probably check this right here and see if they left anything on here. And there was -- see that, that's a burlap right there.

LAVANDERA: A miniscule clue: It's common for smugglers to carry drugs in burlap sacks, so she knows they walk through this brush.

HARRIS: They carry the contraband.

GARCIA: I'm going to walk west from the black hill, and see if I can pick them up.

LAVANDERA: A few miles away, Jason Garcia hops on the trail. He is looking for footprints.

GARCIA: One I would describe has a rainbow pattern; the other one had small and diamonds throughout the shoe.

LAVANDERA: Garcia comes across two illegal immigrants. Their shoes don't match the smuggler's prints. He hands them over to the Border Patrol, then after several hours, Garcia tries to get back on track.

GARCIA: There's three sets of tracks here. It looks like these are our guys. I do see the one with the diamond pattern. This must be the one that they describe as the fancy one.

LAVANDERA: The Shadow Wolves' work demands patience. Twenty- five-year veteran Marvin Eleando knows that in a high-tech age...

MARVIN ELEANDO, SHADOW WOLVES TRACKER: I'm coming in that direction.

LAVANDERA: ... learning to become a traditional tracker isn't as attractive as it once was.

ELEANDO: Nobody teaches it or nobody wants to, you know, learn it. You know, it's going to eventually die out, and we won't have anybody doing this anymore.

LAVANDERA: The Shadow Wolves capture more than 70 percent of all U.S. Customs seizures in their territory. They know what they catch is dwarfed by what makes it through.

GARCIA: Yes...

(SPEAKING IN NATIVE TONGUE).

LAVANDERA: But for the Shadow Wolves, tracking smugglers preserves a way of life.

GARCIA: The way I see it is it's not so much a trespassing issue, but more of a lack of respect for the people who have lived her for thousands of years.

HARRIS: Go ahead and come up 7.5.

LAVANDERA: About 10 hours on the trail and still no luck. The three smugglers have eluded the Shadow Wolves, but they'll keep hunting. The trail will heat up again.

GARCIA: We just notice that something is out of the ordinary -- out of place.

LAVANDERA: Ed Lavandera, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

MCMANUS: We wrap up our weeklong profile of careers with a look at local law enforcement. You see police forces have been a regular fixture in the U.S. since New York City established one in 1844. But times have changed and so has the challenge of police work.

CNN's Deanna Morowski recently sat down with an Atlanta officer to find out what police work is like today. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SERGEANT CONNIE LOCKE, ATLANTA POLICE DEPARTMENT: My name is Connie Locke. I'm an Atlanta police officer. I'm a sergeant. I have been with the Atlanta Police Department for 15 years. I've enjoyed every minute of it. It has been a roller-coaster ride. I would tell -- I would buy that ticket one more time again. I absolutely love my job.

When you're out on calls, you have to be aware of what could possibly happen to you or your fellow officer. That's where training comes in to play. Training, we have an extensive academy. It's 26 weeks of training, learning the laws, learning how to deal with people, learning how to communicate, learning everything that you need that you may come up against in the world, in society.

There are things that happen out on a day-to-day basis that you need to be ready for. You are riding one person to a car, male or female, it doesn't matter, one person to a car. You have better be able to communicate with the person and be able to defuse -- if it's a fight call, if it's a domestic disturbance, you have better be able to communicate because your help, if you can't defuse a situation, your help can be three minutes -- up to three minutes away.

When I speak about training, an incident comes up in my mind. It happened in October of '93. I responded to a silent alarm call in my patrol vehicle. Came up into the parking lot, put my lights off as training tells us, checked the outside of the establishment, went around to the back. And when I went around to the back it was dark outside. I had my flashlight and my weapon drawn.

All of a sudden I heard two pops. I thought, oh my God, what is this? Shine my flashlight into the glass part of the door and all of a sudden a face popped up into the window portion. Scared the daylights out of me. I scared him more than he scared me, I think, I hope. And he had a red mask on with the eyes cut out and a bandana tied around his nose portion.

I immediately radioed for backup, said that I had a burglary in progress. And then when -- that's when the training kicked in. I immediately looked around for cover and concealment. I found it. The perpetrator came out swinging a 9mm weapon. I yelled "police." He kept running. I managed to get behind a brick wall, got down, cover, and he started to draw his weapon. He didn't make it all the way up, and I was ready for it.

This is what I'm talking about training. I was ready for it. I ran after him. All of the units came, secured the getaway vehicle with the getaway person in there, the other perpetrator. And the incident went down as it should have.

When you go out on a call, you have to remember even if that call's over, you have to remember what the victim said, what the perpetrator said, how was the victim dressed, how was the perpetrator this -- dressed, what weapon was used. Who, what, when, where, why, which is what you're learning now, that is imperative. You cannot complete an incident report efficiently if you don't have that skill, which is being attentive, being aware of your surroundings, being aware of what people are telling you.

It's very important for a police officer to understand the various cultures that are within a community. For example, I speak Spanish fluently. I teach cultural awareness at the academy. Whatever community that we have going on in Atlanta that's growing, it's important that you understand the culture of various groups. And knowing a foreign language is a great, great feel. I mean it's a skill and it will help. It will help in your career as a police officer.

Every call is different. And you know I do want to say that mostly people call you because they've got problems they need solutions to and it's your responsibility to help them.

You wear different kinds of hats. You wear the hat of a psychologist, the hat of a teacher, the hat of an attorney, the hat of a doctor. All of this you do in one day and you don't even think about it because your training kicks in. You have to be there. You have to be able to serve the community. If that's what you want to do, then you'll do it well.

If you can turn all these negatives or at least one negative, I'm saying a call that people need help with, if you can turn one negative into a positive, man, you have had a great day. You have had the best day because it makes you feel good. It makes you feel good that you've helped someone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: An extension now from our last "Week in Review." Over the years we've seen many signs of the Cold War era's demise, and perhaps there has been no better indicator than the one that comes today, the signing of a nuclear arms reduction treaty.

Another sign of the changing times, President Bush's urging for the reform of NATO and the organization's embrace of Russia.

Here again, Jill Dougherty.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Five years ago there were high hopes that Russia and it's former enemy NATO could cooperate. In May of 1997, President Boris Yeltsin signed a formal agreement with NATO, but it never really worked. Russia felt it had no real voice in deliberations with NATO's other members. It was 19 against 1. Today, a new poll shows more than half of Russians still think NATO is aggressive and a security threat.

Here's how President Vladimir Putin put it last year.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We ask ourselves, is this a military organization? Yes, it's a military organization. It doesn't want us in it. No, they don't want us. It's moving toward our border. Yes, it's moving toward our border. Why?

DOUGHERTY: NATO expansion has always been the biggest single irritant in the Russia-NATO relationship. But in a major policy shift, President Putin has changed the equation, improve Russia-NATO relations, he says, and the issue of NATO expansion will cease to matter.

September 11 and Mr. Putin's support for the war on terrorism was a catalyst. Now he's poised to sign a new agreement with NATO that some claim will bury forever the Cold War. Moscow will have a seat at the table on issues from terrorism to arms proliferation and NATO promises that this time Russia will have an equal voice.

A former Russian general is dubious.

LEONID IVASHOV, RETIRED RUSSIAN GENERAL (through translator): It'll be a big discussion club. They'll listen to each other, but I'm convinced they won't make any decisions on any serious matters.

DOUGHERTY: But in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, people are more hopeful. It used to be German territory, swallowed by the Soviet army in World War II, right in the heart of Europe.

(on camera): For people here in Kaliningrad, NATO is not just some abstract concept dreamed up by some military planner, it's already on their border. Poland is a member and as Lithuania joins, Kaliningrad will be surrounded by NATO.

(voice-over): But many here say joining NATO could bring them closer to their European neighbors.

NATO and Russia may have found a common enemy, but it may still be years before these new allies can erase their mutual suspicion.

Jill Dougherty, CNN, Kaliningrad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Imagine having to wait 60 years to receive your high school diploma. That's what happened to eight men in Ohio who left school early to fight in World War II.

Our student bureau has a story that gives new meaning to the phrase better late than never.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jack Edward Ware, Class of 1943.

DAVID SPRUNT, CNN STUDENT BUREAU (voice-over): News of the graduation went out early in the local community.

BOYD WOOTEN, WWII VETERAN: I saw an article in one of magazines pertaining to military personnel and what was going on in Franklin County. And so I decided I -- why not. I said I think I'd probably be entitled to it. SPRUNT: The graduation was a learning experience for students, and local elementary students presented the veterans with handmade gifts.

KELSEY JOHNSON, AGE 10 (ph): We've come here today to show our appreciation to you for serving our country.

JACK WARE, WWII VETERAN: Well it just makes you feel good. It just makes you feel good that -- to know that the younger folks care enough to and the schools care enough to recognize the missed opportunities that we had.

DALE FOOR, GAHANNA LINCOLN HIGH SCHOOL: One of the things that truly made the graduation ceremony very, very exciting was the opportunity for the graduates to have invitations to send out to friends, guests, and a number of them had family members travel a great distance to come and join in the celebration.

WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM, WWII VETERAN: I love it because I always wanted to get a high school graduate -- graduation. And I think it's the greatest thing I ever did.

LEWIS MAHR, WWII VETERAN: It's just out of this world. There's no words to describe it.

SPRUNT (on camera): This year's graduation ceremony was just a second in a series of events. The one last year, the National Honor Society posted a senior-senior prom for those veterans who could not attend their prom due to fighting in the war.

(voice-over): As we prepare this time a year for high school and college graduations, we now can recognize these veterans because if it wasn't for them, our nation would be a different place.

David Sprunt, CNN Student Bureau, Gahanna, Ohio.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Another veteran of World War II is in the spotlight. Her name is Rosie the Riveter. On Wednesday, Normal Rockwell's famous painting went on the auction block at Sotheby's.

Now for decades, Rosie has symbolized the resilience and the strength of American women during the war.

Here's Garrick Utley now on Rosie and her real life inspiration.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARRICK UTLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There she sits, quiet, strong, self confident, drawing us to her as she has drawn and captivated generations of Americans. Why does Rosie the Riveter still possess this power? Perhaps because now as then, the nation faces a threat and a challenge.

The then was World War II. As men went to war, women streamed into factories to build the weapons. Long before feminism or women's liberation became a slogan, and then a movement, women doing a man's job was a fact and a popular song.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (singing): All day long, whether rain or shine, she's part of the assembly line. She's making history working for victory, Rosie the Riveter.

UTLEY: When Norman Rockwell decided to paint Rosie he had to look for inspiration and found in Michelangelo's rendering of prophet Isaiah in the Sistine chapel. Although in the left hand he placed a sandwich. This was after all Rosie's lunch hour. And there in her lap was the Riveting gun, and at the bottom of the painting, her penny loafers on top of Adolf Hitler's Nazi bible "Mein Kampf."

If Rockwell was trying to depict the new American woman, this was his vision.

(voice-over): Her arms are muscular, her face is smudged with dirt. Put she has put on lipstick and her curls are all in place. There's a lace handkerchief in the pocket of her overalls. And over her head is a halo. Rosie is a saint.

When Norman Rockwell painted Rosie, he needed a model. He found her in 19 year-old Mary Doyle, a telephone operator in Arlington, Vermont, who was back with the painting as it went on sale at Sothebys in New York City.

She didn't see any resemblance.

MARY DOYLE KEEFE, "ROSIE": Once I saw it, I realized I'm not that big and everybody was kidding about the size he made me.

UTLEY: Through his long career Rockwell saw himself as an illustrator struggling to be accepted as a true artist. For decades his covers for "The Saturday Evening Post" captured the humor and the humanity of American life. But in 1943 with "Rosie" he achieved something more.

PETER RATHEBONE, SOTHEBY'S AUCTION HOUSE: It is a great painting, and I think one of the reasons it has this iconic quality is because it is more than just an illustration for "The Saturday Evening Post" cover.

UTLEY: If Critics hail Rosie as an exceptional work, how does the model who was paid $10 for two sittings see herself?

DOYLE-KEEFE: Just a normal person. So, nothing anything different than just a normal person.

UTLEY: And could that also be the secret of Rosie's appeal? When we look at her, we hope we're seeing something of ourselves.

Garrick Utley, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(INTERRUPTED BY TREATY SIGNING)

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