CNN Student News 5.5.2011 Transcripts

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

ALLIE, ROWAN COUNTY MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENT: Hi, I'm Allie.

SARAH, ROWAN COUNTY MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENT: And I'm Sarah. We're from Rowan County Middle School in Morehead, Kentucky. We'd like to recognize Ms. Hood, our social studies teacher.

ALLIE: And tell her how much we appreciate her [UNINTELLIGIBLE]

BOTH STUDENTS: We love you, Ms. Hood!

CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: We love you too, Ms. Hood! And all of you teachers out there as Teacher Appreciation Week continues. I'm Carl Azuz. Your 10 minutes of commercial-free headlines start right now!

First Up: Photo Release Debate

AZUZ: First up, President Obama is scheduled to meet with families of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The meeting's scheduled for this morning. And they're happening as he visits Ground Zero, the site of the World Trade Center, which was attacked on 9/11. The visit comes days after Osama bin Laden -- the man responsible for the 9/11 attacks -- was killed by U.S. forces.

That happened at this compound in Pakistan. Yesterday, President Obama said the government won't release any pictures of bin Laden's body. This is a debate that's been going on since the terrorist leader's death. Should pictures be released as proof? The government confirmed it was bin Laden through DNA testing, but some people say that's not enough evidence; they want to see proof.

One argument is that releasing a photo could anger terrorists who might want to retaliate against the U.S. Another argument is that if the photos are going to get out eventually, the government should release them now, on its own terms. Today's Daily Discussion questions at CNNStudentNews.com encourage you to consider the same questions that lawmakers are debating. What are the potential pros and cons of releasing these photos? And how might different groups of people react if the photos ever are released?

Shoutout

TOMEKA JONES, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Today's Shoutout goes out to Mrs. Tate's social studies class at Laurens-Marathon Middle School in Laurens, Iowa! Which of these special operations groups is part of the U.S. Navy? You know what to do! Is it: A) Force Recon, B) Green Berets, C) SEALs or D) Combat Controllers? You've got three seconds -- GO! SEALs are part of the U.S. Navy; the name stands for Sea, Air and Land. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout!

Mission Training

AZUZ: Sea, air and land, because the SEALs are trained to operate in all of those environments. SEALs have been an integral part of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And it was a group of these elite troops who carried out the operation that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. Chris Lawrence shows us how they trained for this mission.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: The team that killed Osama bin Laden had gone through thousands of scenarios for assaulting a compound, just like this group of Navy SEALs on U.S. soil. But the team that went after bin Laden was special, part of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, or DEVGRU.

STEW SMITH, FORMER NAVY SEAL: This SEAL team is the all-star of the SEAL teams.

LAWRENCE: Stew Smith is a former SEAL who says the men in that raid have at least five years as special operators.

SMITH: This SEAL team is based on combat experience. And all these guys probably have 100, 200 missions.

LAWRENCE: The CIA provided detailed satellite pictures of bin Laden's compound, enough to build a replica where the SEAL team practiced. A senior defense official says for a time, they trained without knowing who their actual target was. But by Sunday, they knew the location of every gate and window in that compound, the exact height of the walls.

JOHN BRENNAN, DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: They operated according to that, and they didn't know when they got there exactly what some of the internal features of it would be.

LAWRENCE: The defense official says by the time the SEALs ran out of the house with bin Laden's body, they could probably count the exact number of steps to the helicopter outside. Special operator training is brutal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go, Johnson. Fletch just passed you up.

LAWRENCE: But the men that took down bin Laden don't necessarily look like linebackers.

SMITH: They have a great deal of muscle. Just not everybody is massive. You know, you don't have to be, you know, 6'5", 250 pounds to be a SEAL.

LAWRENCE: Two teams were supposed to fast rope down from the Blackhawks. But one helicopter had mechanical problems and had to land hard; put one team directly on the ground. There was a contingency plan, and the SEALs scrambled out to continue their mission.

SMITH: There's a reason why they brought two helicopters. Because in the SEAL teams, we say two is one; one is none. And, you know, they knew what to do even in the event of a downed helicopter.

(END VIDEO)

Levee Concerns

AZUZ: Efforts to lower flood levels in the midwestern U.S. are working, but the threat is still there. We told you yesterday that officials are trying to help some communities by intentionally flooding other areas. We also talked about the tense debate over that plan. Rob Marciano is in Missouri, where this is happening. He filed this report yesterday on the explosive situation.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Day two of the exploding levee extravaganza. Extreme measures taken for, really, an extreme flood event. We haven't seen this level on the river here in Mississippi and along the Ohio since 1937. And yesterday, they blew up a second levee.

Take a look at this video. Extraordinary stuff, during the daytime. Soil and earth being blown above the tree tops. That is at the opposite end of this floodway, so that some of this water can begin to drain. This is farmland. This is now not so good farmland, at least for this year. And that has a lot of farmers upset. There's class-action lawsuits happening, the state of Missouri not happy at all about the solution that they've had.

We tracked down one farmer, a retired farmer, old timer who was here during the 1930s flood. And here's what he had to say about the situation.

NORBERT ROLWING, RETIRED FARMER: Some of them are farming a lot of acres, and they've just been lucky these last few years that they haven't had a flood. This is one of the things that happens once in a great while, and they just had to take it on the chin.

MARCIANO: Not just farmers who are getting hit with this. Lot of towns are evacuated, a lot of homes are completely flooded out.

Yesterday, we went out with the Illinois DNR and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and they toured us around some areas that were really hit hard, Olive Branch among them. A lot of these folks aren't going to see the waters recede for several days, because what they have released here, now they're releasing more water upstream that's been held with all this rainfall. So, this is going to be a multiweek event that will be affecting millions of people all the way down into Louisiana. Reporting from Mississippi County, Missouri, I'm Rob Marciano.

(END VIDEO)

Storm Aftermath

AZUZ: The governor of Alabama says the road to recovery is going to be long and it's gonna be tough as his state struggles through the impact of deadly storms. The University of Alabama held a moment of silence yesterday, exactly one week after a tornado hit the town of Tuscaloosa. In this iReport, one Alabama resident talks about his experiences following this storm.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

JOSH SPURGIN, TORNADO SURVIVOR, IREPORTER: Everyone, this is Josh Spurgin, or @GoTeamJosh on Twitter. We're here at the remnants of my house from the tornadoes that came through on April 27, 2011. Tornadoes that came through and hit Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, all the other states that were affected. If you look from my front porch here, I mean just in the general area, practically every house here is completely flattened. There are people down the road, neighbors of mine, who are now dead. I have cousins, aunts, uncles all around. Completely flattened houses. I mean, there's trash and pictures, everything that's been found hundreds of miles away from here by other people. We're not here today to make you all upset and everything. I just wanted to make this video to thank those who have shown support to me, my family, friends of mine and others who've been affected by the tragedy. We've had plenty of support, me personally from people on Twitter, Facebook, everything. And I just wanted to thank everyone, so that's what this video is going to be about.

(END VIDEO)

AZUZ: You heard Mr. Spurgin talk about Twitter and Facebook. He turned to social media to let people know what he's going through, and social media is helping him recover, too. Celebrities that he contacted directly actually replied back to him, shared his story with others, simply asked, "What can I do to help?" Josh says it's helped to raise awareness and raise donations for him and his family. Sometimes it only takes 140 characters to make that kind of difference.

Before We Go

AZUZ: Before we go, you've heard the phrase "lead by example." Well, when a flash workout broke out during a "Let's Move" event in Washington, first lady Michelle Obama did just that. "Let's Move" is her campaign to fight childhood obesity, and this dance sequence was designed especially for it. These students might have known they were going to get down, but I bet they didn't expect to see the first lady getting down too.

Goodbye

AZUZ: But that's the kind of experience that can't be beat. We're gonna turn the beat around and step up for another edition of CNN Student News tomorrow. Bennett's Mill Middle School: Thanks for visiting yesterday. We'll see y'all soon.