Quick Guide & Transcript: Hearings begin on Walter Reed conditions, Bush to visit South America
POSTED: 2000 GMT (0400 HKT), March 6, 2007
Adjust font size:
(CNN Student News) -- March 6, 2007

Quick Guide
Troop Treatment - Listen to testimony from congressional hearings on a military medical scandal.

Trip to South America - Find out what's on the agenda for President Bush's trip to South America.

Bling Dynasty - Meet China's newest "dynasty," which appears to have shucked off communism for capitalism.

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

DANIELLE ELIAS, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Hi there -- thanks for tuning in! I'm Danielle Elias, and you've landed on CNN Student News. It doesn't look like ideal conditions at the army's top medical center. And Congress wants to know, if it's the same everywhere for recovering U.S. troops. It doesn't look like what you'd find in a tightly controlled communist society. But you'll hear few complaints from China's nouveau riche. And it doesn't look like your typical new year's bash. But these lanterns aren't launched in your typical American metropolis. Take in an enlightening tale from Thailand.

First Up: Troop Treatment

ELIAS: First up, combat is ever-changing. And as countries and wars change, technology also changes, too. Not just in weapons, but in medicine. U.S. troops in combat get some of the best emergency medical care available. But there's a big scandal stirring about what happens when wounded troops come home -- specifically about conditions at the hospitals where they recover. Tara Mergener gives us a glimpse into congressional hearings concerning the army's top medical center in Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARMY SPECIALIST JEREMY DUNCAN: It wasn't fit for anyone to live in room like that. weaker immune system. The black mold can do damage to people, the holes in the walls.

TARA MERGENER, CNN REPORTER: Eye opening testimony from a soldier as he describes conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

DUNCAN: I wouldn't live there even if I had to.

MERGENER: Weeks after a news report exposed problems at Walter Reed, from run down rooms to rats, Congress held its first hearing on the scandal Monday -- allowing patients and family members to air their grievances.

ANNETTE MCLEOD, WIFE OF SOLDIER: My life was ripped apart when my husband was injured, but then having to live through the mess that we lived through at Walter Reed has been worse than anything I've ever sacrificed in my life.

MERGENER: According to a memo that recently surfaced, the Army knew about substandard conditions for months. The fallout has triggered the resignation of the secretary of the army and the firing of the hospitals top commander.

MAJ. GEN. GEORGE WEIGHTMAN, FMR. COMMANDER, WALTER REED ARMY MEDICAL CENTER: It is clear mistakes were made and I was in charge. You can not fail one of these soldiers and their families, not one, and we did.

MERGENER: But for many, an admission of failure is not enough.

STAFF SGT. JOHN DANIEL SHANNON: I don't know how things work, but in combat we don't get to resign when bullets are flying.

REP JOHN TIERNEY (D) MASSACHUSETTS: There appears to be a pattern here. First deny, then try to cover up this case. There appears to be a pattern here.

MERGENER: The White House is vowing to look into the allegations and find out if similar conditions exist at other facilities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Fact Check

DON LEMON, CNN REPORTER: This was Walter Reed. At age 17 he became youngest graduate of the University of Virginia Medical School. As a major in the U.S. Army, it was Walter Reed who discovered that mosquitoes spread yellow fever. The protective practices he developed enabled workers to finish building the Panama Canal. The nation was at peace when the hospital first opened with 80 beds in 1901. Then came World War One, and capacity mushroomed to 25-hundred beds in a matter of months. The hospital continued to expand...through World War Two, Korea and the Vietnam Wars, as hundreds of thousands of servicemen and women were treated there. Today, the hospital -- with a staff of some 600 doctors -- admits more than 14-thousand patients annually. Among U.S. presidents who were patients: Dwight Eisenhower received treatment for his heart disease and, following a heart attack, died at Walter Reed in 1969. Harry Truman was a patient, as was Ronald Reagan. Foreign patients have included Winston Churchill and King Hussein of Jordan. One of the most recent celebrated Army patients at Walter Reed was Gulf War POW Jessica Lynch.

Shoutout

CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Time for the Shoutout! Which of these countries is not in South America? If you think you know it, shout it out! Is it: A) Uruguay, B) Colombia, C) Brazil or D) Ghana? The West African country of Ghana is across the Atlantic Ocean from South America. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout!

Trip to South America

ELIAS: But the other countries you saw in that Shoutout -- plus Guatemala and Mexico -- all factor into President Bush's upcoming trip south of the border and south of this hemisphere. Though Venezuela is not on the itinerary, that country's leader always seems to stir controversy when the U.S. president is concerned. Suzanne Malveaux considers whether that could affect Mr. Bush's trip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN REPORTER: In anticipation of President Bush's trip to Latin America --- Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez accused the U.S. of plotting to kill him, calling the new Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte a professional assassin.

HUGO CHAVEZ, PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELA: They have assigned special CIA units and real assassins not only in Venezuela, but in Central and South America as well.

MALVEAUX: The White House says that claim is baseless. Chavez has made a name for himself with his occasional barbs aimed at President Bush:

CHAVEZ: Yesterday, the devil came here....right, the devil.

MALVEAUX: Oil is the one one thing that keeps these two leaders tied to each other. The U.S. gets up to 15 percent of its oil supply from Chavez. So the president is going to South America----pitching the trip, in part, as a path to making Americans less dependent on foreign oil.

MICHAEL SHIFTER, INTER-AMERICAN DIALOGUE: The U.S. is vulnerable. And I think the U.S. has been, this in part has stimulated an effort to try to focus more on alternative energy and energy independence.

MALVEAUX: So the Bush administration is partnering with Brazil to increase both countries' production of the alternative fuel ethanol. Seventy percent of the world's supply of ethanol comes from these two countries---produced from corn in the U.S., and from sugarcane in Brazil. But it's Chavez's oil---some given away to his South American neighbors --- that has made Mr. Bush's nemesis increasingly powerful and popular in the region.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Promo

ELIAS: Teachers, try downloading some of our new online maps! And see if your students can identify the location of Venezuela, and the other countries on President Bush's itinerary.

Bling Dynasty

ELIAS: China is one of the bigger countries you'll find on our maps section -- and the world's most populated. Officially, it's a communist nation, but the government has relaxed its economic control since former communist leader Mao Tse-Tung, led China in the 1950's. In fact, some Chinese are reaping the benefits of outright capitalism. John Vause describes what could be called, the "bling dynasty."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN REPORTER: Charles Liu is one of the haves in a land of almost a billion have-nots. He made most of his hundred-million dollar-fortune through real estate, and is unabashed about his wealth.

'When you have money,' he told me, 'you want the best quality for your money.'

Like a 16 000 square foot home designed by a French architect, with domed roof to resemble the U.S. Capitol, and seven purebred horses brought over from England. It's a long way from 20 years ago when most had little choice but to wear a Mao suit, the trademark uniform of the so called 'worker's paradise.' More like 'shoppers paradise' these days for a small but growing middle and upper class.

VAUSE: Esther Yim and Li Ya - both professionals - spend almost two thousand dollars each month on designer clothes hand-bags and shoes. . . almost half their monthly salary. . . and more than three times what China's farmers make, on average, each year.

RUPERT HOOGEWERF - "HURUN REPORT": I think there's been a revolution in the image of wealth in China.

VAUSE: Because in the new China, nothing quite says 'I've made it' like a bit of conspicuous consumption...speed boats, fast cars, expensive art. In this newest of new economies, there is only new money. Wealth, not style is a fashion statement.

China's billion-dollar-plus luxury spending spree is just getting started - analysts believe within a decade, China's upper and middle class will become the world's biggest consumer of luxury brands.

Highlighting a gap between rich and poor which is already greater than the U.S. and Britain. I asked Mr Liu - the son of laborers - what Chairman Mao would make of his newfound wealth.

'First he would confiscate it," he laughs. But then adds, 'I think if Mao were to come back today, even his attitude would change.'

In China's five thousand year long history, this could well be remembered as the Bling Dynasty. John Vause CNN Beijing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Before We Go

ELIAS: Before we go, there's the green lantern; there are magic lanterns and then there's the kind that float like fireflies into the night sky. It's an annual sight in Thailand, where lanterns meant to bring luck are released as part of the Lunar New Year festival. Another part of the country brought a bit more pop to its party, firing off a fantastic fireworks finale.

Goodbye

ELIAS: An illuminating way to end our show! I'm Danielle Elias for CNN Student News. We'll see you tomorrow, online or on Headline News.