TRANSCRIPT: 052804CN.V27

SECTION: NEWS; International

LENGTH: 7019 words

HEADLINE: Interview with High School Journalist Kimberly Hagan, David Winter; Military Bloggers Write about Time on Frontlines in Iraq

BYLINE: Carol Lin, Bob Franken, Alina Cho, Catherine Callaway, Jeff Goff, Ed Lavandera

GUESTS: Chris Missick, Jon Peede, Kimberly Hagan, David Winter, Nicholas Perricone

HIGHLIGHT:

Military bloggers write about time on frontlines in Iraq.

BODY:


CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Her son died in combat but she's been denied membership to an exclusive club that's supposed to comfort those in need. It's a fight that has at least one community crying foul.

(break)

Also, on the front lines and on the Web. I'm going to talk to one soldier whose milblog is really his personal diary. Some poignant excerpts coming up.

And can a three-day diet take years off your looks? I'm going to talk to one doctor who says his diet does just that.

It's May 28th and you're watching CNN LIVE SATURDAY.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Carol Lin. Our top story in just a moment. But first other stories making news right now.

Well, it used to be pen and paper. But now it's mouse and computer. U.S. soldiers turning to blogs to record stories of battle. A military blogger and a representative from the National Endowment for the Arts joins me next.

LIN: Every week we bring you the more personal stories from the front lines. And today we're going to be talking about bloggers. Battlefield memories are being preserved on milblogs. Perspectives of the war derived from troops' own letters and online diaries.

Jon Peede is the director of the National Endowment for the Arts "Operation Homecoming" program in Washington. We're going to get to that in a moment, but I want to introduce you to Army Reserve Sergeant Chris Missick. He is a milblogger, standing for military blogger and he is out in Los Angeles now, back from the war zone. Chris, let me begin with you. In reading your military blog, I don't know, I think I was expecting these literally war stories from the field but they were very, very personal stories. What is it that you were trying to get across to your readers?

SGT. CHRIS MISSICK, ARMY RESERVES: Well, two things, Carol.. First of all I wasn't having that sort of combat experience. I wasn't like the brave soldiers going street to street fighting. But what I was experiencing is something that a lot of the soldiers in the supply aspect of the army have. And I wanted to let people at home know what it was like to be there, to be a year away from your family.

LIN: Let me share some of the quotes that I personally picked that I thought were kind of compelling. You had an essay called "Simple Pleasures: a Haircut," dating back to August 2004. You say, "as soon as I say the words high and tight, I start to feel drowsy as the clippers vibrate against my head and I close my eyes. When I was a kid I always drifted off to sleep whenever I got my hair cut, it was just one of the most relaxing feelings for me." This a message from the war zone.

MISSICK: It really is. Especially a haircut, it's so simple but one of those few pleasures that you have to enjoy over there. There's not a lot of recreation but it's one of those things you sit in a chair and just kind of relax.

LIN: And you talked also about because you physically don't get touched a lot there, that it was a pleasure of having human contact as well in such a simple thing you remember from your childhood.

Another one, "Reflections on Being Homesick." This was my favorite because you shared a funny story about your parents about how they had this penchant for remodeling every time you deployed. And you said departing for basic training back in 2001, you said, "This deployment has been the most drastic to date. Our backyard is now completely different with new landscaping ... and a totally remodeled pool and an added Jacuzzi." You went on and on about how your father simply could not stop remodeling. And I got the sense your parents in their anxiety about you just wanted to have something to do.

MISSICK: It's true. They're amazing people. And I think that was their form of therapy. You know, just a chance to be distracted with something else.

LIN: Jon Peede, you have something called "Operation Homecoming" program where you're gathering some of the memories of the soldiers out in the field. Tell us a little bit more about it.

JON PEEDE, NEA'S "OPERATION HOMECOMING": Well, it has a simple goal, which is, we want to give voice to the troops, and we have more than 10,000 pages from troops. We have a lot of bloggers like Chris, and preserving their stories, why we go across the country, overseas to bases with writers like Jeff Sherra (ph), Mark Bowden (ph).

LIN: What have you learned, that actually will make history down the road?

PEEDE: It will. When future historians want to understand this, they'll be able to go right to the words of the troops and I think that's essential. And they're writing it in the real time, the immediacy of the blogs, of the submissions we receive, it's very special and it's very unique.

LIN: Mm-hmm. Chris, you write about the, you write about how there's a smell to the sand and the air in Iraq, that it's 120 degrees in the shade, that every morning, one of your routines is to look for spiders and scorpions in your boots, just kind of the odd detail of everyday life. When you look back on that experience, now that you're home does it seem real to you? MISSICK: You know, it really doesn't. For the first two weeks, it felt like I was going to have to go back, that I wouldn't be able to enjoy home very long, but before I knew it, it felt like I was in a dream, that everything that had happened over there, just it was a memory of some film I saw or something I didn't really even experience. It's all so strange.

LIN: Mm-hmm, so you were actually talking on your milblog about maybe your next project will be a writing project as you went across country to follow up on some of the stories and the people that you met during the war.

MISSICK: It's true.

LIN: Are you going to do it?

MISSICK: You know, I'm planning on it. There are so many great Americans that come out to support milbloggers, thousands -- I'm talking about thousands of e-mails, care packages, letters. And I just want that opportunity to meet face-to-face with some of these people. I set up a Web site and a blog to kind of keep track of that, that's at webofsupport.com, and I'm hoping that's something that I can get going on towards the end of summer here.

LIN: Right. Chris, we'll be looking more for your writings. Jon, I'm just wondering of all the writings you've read, what's your favorite?

PEEDE: The personal ones, what you touched on, Carol. The most powerful one, I guess because I met this particular troop, was a soldier and she wrote a letter to her unborn child. She was pregnant and just about why she wore the uniform and that was stunning when I heard her read it, and it remains so a year later.

LIN: All right. History in the making. John Peede good luck with the project. Chris Missick, we'll be looking forward to a bright future for you. Thanks so much.

MISSICK: Thank you. Appreciate it.

LIN: Well, it was the worst school bus accident in Texas history. Twenty one students killed, almost 16 years ago. Coming up, one of the survivors talks to CNN about the deadly crash and about how her brother saved her life.

Plus charged with cheating in a story about this soldier, a high school newspaper scoops the national media on a big story only to be falsely accused of plagiarism. The student reporter and her adviser join me live.

And you want to look younger and live longer? Well, one doctor says you can in just three days. He told me how.

LIN: Welcome back. Here's a quick look at what's happening right now in the news.

Despite a report to the contrary, former President Clinton is not stopping his tour of tsunami-ravaged South Asia. That is according to his former White House chief of staff. An earlier report said he had canceled the rest of the tour due to exhaustion.

And we're told that King -- Saudi King Fahd's health is improving. The 82-year-old monarch was hospitalized yesterday with pneumonia-like symptoms. The Saudi foreign minister says the king is in stable condition. The hospital official says, well that the king has water in his lungs but his fever is coming town.

Oscar winning director Oliver stone is out of a California jail after posting bond for DUI and drug charges. Beverly Hills police say Stone showed signs of alcohol intoxication at a DUI checkpoint last night. They also say they say they found unspecified drugs in his car.

And it's almost been 16 years but the memories of a deadly bus accident are still vivid for one young woman in Texas. She was headed to school with her young classmates unaware that in a matter of moments their lives would change forever. Ed Lavandera shows us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On an early September morning in 1989, a day like any other day in Alton, Texas, 81 students boarded their school bus. Seventh grader Virginia Flores was near the back.

VIRGINIA FLORES, CRASH SURVIVOR: Everybody in the morning -- we were chitchatting, looking out the windows and looking around.

LAVANDERA: Wide eyed and young they had no idea of what was to come.

FLORES: I saw it coming, approaching us, and realizing that it wasn't going to stop because it was coming fast.

LAVANDERA: It was a truck barreling through a stop sign, crashing into the bus.

FLORES: I remember every second of it as if it was just yesterday. I see it frame by frame.

LAVANDERA: The impact forced the school bus off the road 16 years ago, right here.

FLORES: It was kind of like a big old like a hill, that's why the bus went up that way, because it was like a hill right here in this end.

LAVANDERA: Did you know what was on the other side?

FLORES: I knew what was on the other side.

LAVANDERA: The hill led to a steep drop into a watery gravel pit.

FLORES: When the bus flew up, though, yes, I flew up and hit the back of my head on the roof of the bus. I was flying in there like a rag doll. It seemed like in slow motion. Like I saw the sky. I saw the wall, and then I saw the water. You know, and then it was like boom! And just like that.

LAVANDERA: The bus plunged into 20 feet of water and started to sink.

FLORES: I didn't see anything or hear anything for a little while, I'm guessing, I don't know how long it was, and then I heard a voice calling me by my nickname.

LAVANDERA: Virginia's brother was one of the first to get out.

ALEX DE LEON, CRASH SURVIVOR: I thought for sure, you know, I was going to die. Because we were going straight down.

LAVANDERA: Alex De Leon immediately reached back for his sister.

FLORES: He was calling me, Gorah! Gorah! And I thought I was dreaming and finally I opened my eyes and I looked, and there was a hand, like this, and I said, well, I guess I'm going to heaven.

LAVANDERA: Instead, Alex grabbed her hair and pulled her out to safety. For the next hour, rescuers worked to reach the drowning students.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had to break the glass of the windows to get in.

LAVANDERA: Students tried to save their friends.

DE LEON: Everybody was screaming it was going on down and nobody could believe we came out, everybody was crying, help me get my sister out, help me get my brother out. But there was nothing they could do.

LAVANDERA: As school notebooks floated to the surface, 21 students were trapped inside and drowned.

FLORES: Seeing your friends dead on top of a bus. It's nothing that you wish on anybody. It was something that was very hard.

LAVANDERA (on camera): If you spend a lot of time driving around this part of south Texas, it's incredibly flat and that's one of the things I'm struck by the most as we stand here at the bottom of the pit. The accident happened just at the top of that cliff and of all the places where this accident could have happened this was the worst possible location, feet from the intersection is this 50-foot drop into a body of water.

FLORES: Was he in the bus accident, too?

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Sixteen years after the accident, Virginia Flores still struggles with the haunting memories as Virginia and her mother thumb through snapshots of those days for us. Her mother pulled out a surprise.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Alex's clothes that she wore at the bus accident.

LAVANDERA: You kept it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah. I don't know why.

LAVANDERA: For reasons only a mother can really understand, Virginia Flores never threw away the clothes Alex wore the day he rescued his sister, white pants, muddied with the stands of the gravel pit.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He doesn't know that I have them. And I was going to throw it away one time when I was cleaning up and I just said no, I think I better keep it, as long as nobody see it is, you know.

LAVANDERA: The accident took its toll on the family. Months of depression, visits to therapists, and then Alex moved away.

FLORES: My brother is, I hold him dear to me, although I never see him anyway, you know. I don't see him, but he's still my brother, no matter what. Even though we don't see each other.

LAVANDERA: Virginia Flores says the accident changed her forever.

FLORES: I learned to appreciate my life, because I didn't appreciate my life. I wanted to die, and at that moment, I realized how much I wanted to live.

LAVANDERA: Today crosses mark the spot where 21 students died, in the worst school bus crash in Texas history. A memorial where many still come struggling to understand why some lived and some had to die. Ed Lavandera, CNN, Alton, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: We've got news across America right now. A missing 3-year- old Missouri boy is alive and well after a harrowing night. Holden Modlin and his dog wandered away from his great grandmother's home late yesterday. The two were found today a few miles away, the boy too young to tell investigators very much say he slept curled up with his dog. We'll have more on this story, in fact, a live interview with the family at 10:00 tonight.

In the meantime, transportation officials are investigating a massive tanker truck explosion in Dallas. The tanker apparently went over an embankment today exploding in a ball of fire. One person was killed. Three firefighters injured. The overpass was damaged and will be closed for weeks.

And more than four years after the Florida election debacle, new trouble is brewing in Miami-Dade County. The elections chief now wants to ditch the ATM-style voting machines that replace the troublesome punch ballot machines used in 2000. The switch out cost taxpayers almost $25 million. The county is being urged to replace those with optical scan machines.

And little Tinky Winky is getting a little R and R after a frightening rescue. The pooch fell from a sea wall into a small ledge in Oregon yesterday. A firefighter repelled down and brought him to safety. Tinky Winky, safe at home tonight.

In the meantime, a roller coaster of emotions, that is what an Atlanta teenager has experienced this year after writing an article for her high school newspaper. Kimberly Hagan's piece was praised by her teachers and classmates, it was even entered into a national competition, and then there was a shocking announcement, a judge accused Hagan of plagiarism saying her work was too good to be hers.

So what does she do then? Well, she's joining me now along with her school advisers, David Winter one of her advisers, David Winters. The competition itself, nationwide competition associated with Columbia School of Journalism, Right?

KIMBERLY HAGAN, HIGH SCHOOL JOURNALIST: That's right.

LIN: A lot at stake. You wrote a story about a lieutenant colonel who was accused of abusing a prisoner during an interrogation. Pick up the story here.

HAGAN: He was threatened of a court-martial that could possibly get him dismissed from the army or possibly have him facing prison time and after this happened, his brother came to us and wanted to write a story about -- basically his brother's story with the army and felt like his brother's side wasn't getting out. So that was the first tip we got on the story. We published two stories about Lieutenant Colonel West. We received this evaluation, the evaluator believed we had plagiarized both of our stories about LTC West as well as some of the other stories I had written.

LIN: There were some scathing words. This is LTC West, people might recall, this is LTC Alan West. The story was a major coupe because it ended up making national headlines in light of the Abu Ghraib scandal and whatnot and here you are a high school senior getting the scoop from the lieutenant colonel as well as his family.

HAGAN: Mm-hmm.

LIN: All right, the judge said that the language that you were using was too mature essentially -- that there were phrases in the article, name a few, for example name a few that the judge gave some exception to.

DAVID WINTER, H.S. NEWSPAPER ADVISER: Well, she named one specifically, the phrase was "ill-fated precedent," which in the sentence that Kimberly originally wrote, it was that convicting him of, you know, the court-martial convicted him, than it would have set an ill-fated precedent for future generals in similar situations.

LIN: Citing the Geneva Conventions. HAGAN: She believed a high school student would not cite a Geneva Convention, she said that a high school student would never have conduct these interviews or the interviews other articles which I think is probably the worst part for me because I love the interview process so much and it means so much, and then to have someone say I had never done that at all was probably the worst part about the accusation.

LIN: How extensive was your research?

HAGAN: Well, I did, I guess, research before I interviewed them, looked up the Geneva Convention and talked to LTC Alan West's brother, Arlen West about which charges, which policies he believed -- or the army believed he might have violated. I spoke with -- in each of these I spoke with West's attorney, Neil Puckett who was willing to talk to me and basically what you do with any news story, tracking down and you probably know this, tracking down different contacts and finding out as many different people who you can talk to and what their opinions are.

LIN: Mm-hmm, all right, well, you did get a concession from the competition itself, according to Edmund Sullivan, director of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, and this is a quote here. He says, "We regret that the judge's choice of language may have reflected poorly on Kimberly Hagan's excellent story, a piece of enterprising journalism that deserved the praise it had received." And you got a gold medal for the reporting. Do you feel vindicated?

HAGAN: For me this isn't so much about vindication or really getting a formal apology. I appreciate Mr. Sullivan's comments so much and all of the attention and praise and recognition this has gotten for high school journalism. Because for me that really is the important part. It might sound idealistic but what I want high school journalism to be respected and recognized and for that to stop having the criticism or disbelief of what high school students can do.

LIN: Was it a problem, David, that the newspaper had been cited before, had even admitted that it had made up, had falsified quotes in the past?

WINTER: Well, that was kind of disappointing, that they mentioned that, in my opinion, because I mean we did have three students last publication year who did that, and while I was disappointed in those individuals, I was extremely proud of the staff as a whole, because they took accountability for the mistake and you know, in the discussions leading up to it they really, you know, took a very responsible, ethical, filled with integrity approach to it.

LIN: As have some major news organizations including "New York Times," "Newsweek," even CNN, I think that when you step up to the plate you admit your mistakes and correct the problems, that everyone can be vulnerable to bad journalism but in this case excellent reporting and now acknowledged on a national level. Any job offers? You're a senior now.

HAGAN: Not yet, no. LIN: You certainly have quite a clipping file to present if you want to go into journalism.

HAGAN: That's right and I might work on a college newspaper which would be amazing.

LIN: Wouldn't that be? Thanks very much, Kimberly.

HAGAN: Thank you.

LIN: David good luck with your future enterprising -- future Nobel Prize winners.

WINTER: Than you. That's the greatest thing about working with high school journalists. They're the best to work with.

LIN: Wouldn't it be ironic if she ended up at Columbia for graduate school?

Thanks guys.

Well, you've heard the saying you are what you eat. Well, my next guest says that couldn't be more accurate. Straight ahead, looking younger and living longer. You can do it in just three days.

LIN: It's a promise some may find hard to swallow. An anti- aging diet that can turn back the clock. Well, it's outlined in the book "The Perricone Promise" and early I spoke with author and Doctor Nicholas Perricone about the three-day eating plan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICHOLAS PERRICONE, AUTHOR AND DOCTOR: And the nice thing about the three day nutritional facelift is that it truly works. That is if you start the program and on the fourth day, when you are through with the program, finish your three day nutritional facelift, you will look so different that you'll walk into your workplace or see friends and relatives and they'll be completely shocked about how you look. They'll ask you what have you done, had a face lift? It is that radical and happens in such a short period of time. I make this promise because if people do the three-day program and see the results, they're very much likely to go out to the 28-day program.

LIN: All right. Well, on the screen we'll give some of the information, some of the details of the three-day program. But give me the premise behind it. What's the theory behind it?

PERRICONE: The theory behind it is this, that micro- inflammation, invisible inflammation affects every cell in our bodies. And this inflammation is responsible for aging and wrinkles and dark circles and age-related diseases like heart disease and cancer and all the rest. That you can decrease inflammation rapidly with this three- tiered program. The first tier and the most important aspect of this program is eating the anti-inflammatory diet, that is, we get rid of pro-inflammatory foods the starches and sugars, we eat a lot of anti- inflammatory foods, which are just things like fresh vegetables and fruits and lots of fish.

LIN: So what's the perfect menu then?

PERRICONE: Perfect menu then, you're going to have, let's talk about an average dinner, you're going to have a nice piece of broiled salmon, and with that you're going to have a big green salad, and on the salad you'll have olive oil and lemon juice as your dressing and for dessert I want you to have berries, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and some, say cantaloupe melon and drink eight glasses of water a day. And you will have that meal, by the way, this is kind of a strict thing for those three days. I want you to have the salmon meal twice a day. The other meal we have to stay with the actual principles of the program, avoid starches and sugars and I want you to give up coffee for three days. I'm not saying give up caffeine. I want you to have green tea instead of coffee and that's all we need to do for the three days and you'll look like a completely -- and feel like a different person.

LIN: When you're talking about a regimen, it's a combination of diet as well as supplements as well as topical creams. But your essential theory behind all of this is that your body biochemistry processes all of these things in such a way it reduces this form of inflammation and reduces aging?

PERRICONE: Exactly. This inflammation, by the way is invisible. We can't see it, we can't feel it, but it's going on all the time, caused mainly by the foods we eat, stress, environmental factors. So by eating the anti-inflammatory diet and you could just do the diet for three days and have fantastic results. I think you get better results if you do the diet and add the supplements and the supplements are basically vitamins, anti-oxidants that have anti-inflammatory activity and the third level, taking the anti-inflammatory topicals which I've worked on for years and used those.

However, we have done this many times with just the first tier, the food and it works and it works extremely well, photographable and you'll see the difference and will feel the difference and most importantly everybody else will see the difference.

LIN: How long do you have to keep this up for? Longer than three days.

PERRICONE: Well, the three-day diet is a very kind of a concentrated strict powerful anti-inflammatory program. Once you do the three-day program you move on to the 28-day program, which is a very diverse diet, much more relaxed, greater choices and a lot easier to follow.

LIN: Dr. Perricone, it sounds almost too good to be true. We've shown the before and after pictures but it looks like you're on to something. Thank you very much.

PERRICONE: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Of course I had two candy bars before I did that interview. So I'm way behind the curve.

He was a teenage private who died with an American flag on his shoulder and wasn't even a citizen of the United States. Straight ahead, a father remembers his fallen soldier.

LIN: Like many of you, we are honoring military veterans this Memorial Day weekend, including those who saw the September 11th attacks as a call to duty and enlisted. Not all of those who shed their blood were born here. But that does not make their sacrifice any less poignant.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE RINCON, DIEGO'S FATHER: He was ready to go to the homecoming and I was so proud (ph) because obviously he was my big boy, you know. That's Diego right there. There's another picture of my baby. In his beautiful uniform. He's my baby big time. I miss Diego. One day he was playing Nintendo. The next day, he was in the middle of the war. Nineteen years old, they are not ready to do things like this. They just want to have fun, but Diego, no, he was doing something for everybody in this country.

DIEGO RINCON, DEAD SOLDIER: I Diego Fernando Rincon do solemnly swear...

GEORGE RINCON: He decided to go into the army because after that happened on September 11th in New York changed his life, I think. He said, "Dad, I have to do something for my country. It's my country to defend." It's nothing that I -- I don't want to be here, sitting around waiting for somebody to kill us here, you know?

He was in the middle of nowhere. It was raining, you see here, and he was smiling. No matter what, he was happy all the time and you know why he was happy all the time? Because he was in that for you, America, for us, and for everybody.

This is Diego Rincon here, the face right here. I was asking, why you don't go up to the army and be in the kitchen. He said no, let me go, to be in the front. He said, "no, dad, I want to be with the best ones."

Coming to this country, giving everything, not even being a United States citizen, and giving his own life for this country was only heroes do that. And he died with Diego the same day. But no matter what, I'm strong. I'm going to be okay. I don't want to take the son, the picture out of my life. He's going to be in my picture of my life forever. I pray for every single family in Iraq. And not only that because they deserve to live a free life free life and they deserve to have a free country, like we have here in the United States. For me, every single red color in the flag is the blood of my son. This is not for free. We paid for this. And we paid this big time, you know, only to give some people a nice country to live.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Rincon was awarded citizenship posthumously.

Well, that's all the time we have for this evening. I'm going to be back at 10:00 Eastern, though. Tonight the mother of the little lost boy in Missouri and the uncle who found him are going to join me live. Can you imagine how happy those folks are. A check of the hour's headlines up next and then "THE CAPITAL GANG."

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LOAD-DATE: May 29, 2005