One Person in Custody After Shooting at Fort Worth Naval Air Station; AIDS in America
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Shots ring out at the Naval air station in Fort Worth, Texas. We know that three people are hurt, but other details are still developing. Fredricka Whitfield following the story in the newsroom right now -- Fred.</s>FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right. Well, we know that the -- three reportedly have been wounded. And we also are being told that one person is in custody there at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in West Fort Worth. You're looking at a live shot right now provided by WFAA. And outside the gate of the air reserve station is Yolanda Walker, who is with WFAA. And she has just spoken with authorities there. And, Yolanda, do we know, at this juncture, whether those wounded and the suspected shooter are civilians or otherwise?</s>YOLANDA WALKER, WFAA REPORTER: Now, it appears that all three persons involved are military personnel. And we're told that the gunman in this case is -- was a disgruntled employee. He has been transported to the hospital, in critical condition. We don't know his name or what the problem was. We do know that the two injured may not have been severely injured. But one of them, we think, has been transported as well. We're still waiting on the chief here to come out and give us some more information. And what information we do have came from a Fort Worth police officer. Fort Worth police have been called off of this investigation, because military personnel, they have their own police force. And federal investigators are on the base now. We're told that this happened somewhere in the ops center, or near the ops center, which is part of the control tower on the base. They were holding traffic coming out of the base for quite some time and had several roadblocks set up. Now they're allowing traffic in and out of the base at this time.</s>WHITFIELD: And, so, Yolanda, for clarification one more time, are we talking about two wounded or three?</s>WALKER: We're told, initially, that it was three wounded, one being the gunman. And he -- and he may have wounded himself, as a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The other two, we're told, the injuries were superficial. But we're hearing that unconfirmed.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, Yolanda Walker of WFAA, thanks so much for being with us on the phone there. So, Kyra, of course, involving military personnel, as you heard from Yolanda, now a -- a matter that is being investigated by military and even federal authorities there at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in West Fort Worth. And this is an air station, where -- it is also home to fighter attack and airlift units from the reserve components of the Air Force, the Marines and the Navy -- Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: Operation Thunder Blitz launched Tuesday in Iraq along the Tigris River in Southern Baghdad -- hundreds of U.S. troops and Iraqi forces taking part. And, according to the U.S. military, dozens of suspected insurgents have been arrested. The aim is to stabilize the area before key national elections later this month. And a tale of two cities in Iraq, Tal Afar in the north, and Fallujah in the heartland, both of them tests of a new Iraqi military that is very much a work in progress. President Bush cites the progress. But CNN's Nic Robertson reports, the focus in country is very much on the work.</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Tal Afar two months ago, the battle President Bush touts to show the Iraqi troops are getting better -- the president said 11 Iraqi battalions took the lead, with 5 U.S. battalions in support, and said the Iraqis performed better than in the Fallujah offensive a year ago. But they were two different battles, Fallujah an all-out offensive, Tal Afar, a dangerous, but more contained large-scale cordon and search. Even with many Iraqi troops, the battle was fought from a U.S. plan, requiring U.S. tanks and helicopters -- in other words, no U.S. troops, no victory. The next big operation, Steel Curtain, U.S. troops led the way, outnumbered Iraqis six to one. "Uneven" was how President Bush described Iraq's security preparedness. He's in tune with his commanders here.</s>GENERAL MARTIN DEMPSEY, U.S. ARMY, COMMANDER OF MULTINATIONAL SECURITY TRANSITION COMMAND: Progress is uneven, and -- and it's uneven across the country. It's uneven in units. It's uneven between the army and the police.</s>ROBERTSON: President Bush said there were 120 Iraqi battalions, 40 leading the fight, 80 fighting alongside U.S. troops. Iraqi battalion commander Colonel Thear is capable of leading the fight.</s>COLONEL STEVEN SALAZAR, 3RD BRIGADE: He is the most effective counterinsurgency combat leader serving with this brigade task force right now.</s>ROBERTSON: But Thear lacks even an armored Humvee. He says U.S. forces are planning to downsize significantly at his base, and he wants to expand.</s>COLONEL ISMAEL THEAR, IRAQI ARMY: We told coalition forces, just, we need like support.</s>ROBERTSON: Iraqi soldiers being trained by Lieutenant Colonel Ross Brown are a long ways short of Colonel Thear's readiness.</s>LIEUTENANT COLONEL ROSS BROWN, TRAINING IRAQI SOLDIERS: When did he last clean his weapon? No, that's the answer. But look at that weapon. What did he clean it with?</s>ROBERTSON: It's a daily battle for Brown, getting the unit he mentors ready to fight alongside U.S. soldiers.</s>BROWN: They didn't do too much work yesterday. They didn't do too much work the day before. They haven't done too much work since they have been here.</s>ROBERTSON: President Bush didn't say how many Iraqi troops are at level-one readiness, units capable of planning and carrying out counterinsurgency operations on their own.</s>DEMPSEY: And I don't know what the particular number today is on level one.</s>ROBERTSON (on camera): As expected, President Bush didn't detail precise conditions for U.S. withdrawal. Iraqis we talked to said, even if he did, they wouldn't believe him. But what President Bush did do was send a very clear message to the insurgents: The U.S. won't withdrawal until the Iraqis are ready. Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.</s>PHILLIPS: America's highest-ranking soldier stuck to the White House battle plan today at National Defense University, a day after President Bush released his national strategy for victory in Iraq, one based largely on standing up a credible Iraqi military. Joint Chiefs Chairman Peter Pace confronted the issue of American troop strength. Too much or too little?</s>GENERAL PETER PACE, CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: The question I get most often is -- about security and security forces -- is: "Don't we need more troops?" The answer is: "We need more Iraqi troops. And we are working on that."</s>PHILLIPS: Now, regardless of what President Bush says, or the Joint Chiefs chairman, or any other administration official, Democratic Senator John Kerry is show no sign of letting up in his criticism of Mr. Bush's Iraq war policy. Kerry was on hand with Mr. Bush today at a White House event honoring Rosa Parks. At first, it was all smiles and a handshake. But, once the ceremony was over, Kerry went on the attack, saying that more of the same in Iraq will just prolong the war.</s>SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: If you just continue along the road we're going now, without a more concrete transfer of responsibility, a -- a -- a target schedule, by which you begin to turn over provinces, by which you specifically begin to shift the responsibility, I think a lot of people fear that it's going to be more of the same. So, I'm not asking even for the specific timetable of withdrawal. I'm asking for a specific timetable of transfer of authority, of transfer of responsibility, of the shift and the setting of the benchmark specifically that allow us to bring our troops home.</s>PHILLIPS: Well, Kerry also says the president is ignoring the realities on the ground in Iraq, as military leaders have described them to Congress. Not inevitable and not acceptable, President Bush's perspective on HIV infects and AIDS -- as many as 40,000 new cases in the U.S. alone every year. On World AIDS Day 2005, we know that some 40 million people around the world are living with HIV. The U.N. estimates that more than half of those, some 26 million, live in Africa, a million or more in America. More than three million people have died of AIDS worldwide this year alone. And, despite all the spending, research and cutting-edge treatments, the World Bank says 2005 will be the worst year ever for HIV infections and AIDS deaths. One group of Americans is particularly vulnerable to the -- to the scourge and the stigma. And you may be surprised to learn which. Here's CNN's Ali Velshi.</s>IDA BYTHER-SMITH, HIV POSITIVE: I was literally dying.</s>ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ida Byther-Smith remembers her shock the day she took a routine blood test and found out she had</s>HIV. BYTHER-SMITH: You made a mistake on my name when I walked in, so I know you got the wrong person.</s>VELSHI: But it was true. Seventeen years ago, she was infected by her husband, who left her for another man. After a long period of shame and silence...</s>BYTHER-SMITH: I thought I was going to cut my wrists.</s>VELSHI: ... Ida told her family, forgave her husband, and nursed him for three years, until his death. She now works to prevent AIDS among African-American women, a highly vulnerable group, according to the Centers For Disease Control. HIV is the leading cause of death in African-American women age 25 to 34. Black women are 21 times more likely to be diagnosed with HIV than white women. And 76 percent of all women are infected through heterosexual sex.</s>BETHSHEBA JOHNSON, LUCK CARE CENTER: Your viral load is really out of control. And...</s>VELSHI: On the front lines is Bethsheba Johnson, a nurse who runs a clinic for AIDS patients on Chicago's South Side.</s>JOHNSON: Hey.</s>VELSHI: She says, every day, she sees why HIV cases are up among African-American women.</s>JOHNSON: We don't like to think of our -- our partners as being bisexual or gay. We don't want to think of our men possibly incarcerated having sex with other men. It -- it's just a lot denial: "My man wouldn't do that."</s>VELSHI: Health officials believe some ex-offenders go back and infect their wives and girlfriends. Other men may have multiple sex partners, putting women at risk. Bethsheba says women still assume that AIDS is just a gay white male disease.</s>JOHNSON: Or, "It just won't happen to me," if you're young. "I'm invincible."</s>BYTHER-SMITH: I wasn't a prostitute. I wasn't a gay white man. I wasn't on drugs. People think they can see HIV. You can't see</s>HIV. VELSHI: For Ida, the answer lies in empowering African-American women. That means educating themselves and practicing safe sex...</s>BYTHER-SMITH: You have got to confront something before you can fight it. We have got to acknowledge that this is happening.</s>VELSHI: ... and never have a false sense of security.</s>BYTHER-SMITH: We need to look in the mirror and say, this is the face of HIV. Ali Velshi, CNN.</s>PHILLIPS: Well, the part of New Orleans hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina is open today -- and today only -- so that residents can see what is left of their homes and remove their most cherished belongings. We are talking about the city's lower Ninth Ward. It was largely demolished by the breach of the London Canal -- London Avenue Canal, rather. And, up until today, the only access the residents had was a one-day bus tour. Three months now since Katrina roared ashore, this is how it looks, overturned cars, neighborhoods converted into fields of debris, homes moved from their moorings and buried under rubble. In the words of one resident, and probably many more, "Everything is gone." Once again, this is the scene today in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. Also in New Orleans, a suburban shopping mall has removed a Yuletide display that may have been a little too realistic. The snow- covered scene had a train that ran through neighborhoods where homes were covered with tarps surrounded by rubble and marked as condemned. Officials at Lakeside Shopping Mall in Metairie said, most people seemed to like it. But, to some, it apparently cut too close to the bone. The designer, Frank Evans, he spoke this morning to CNN's Miles O'Brien. (</s>BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "AMERICAN MORNING") FRANK EVANS, HOLIDAY DISPLAY DESIGNER: I think, when people come back to New Orleans -- you know, people are coming back every day. And the people go through a grieving process, and the people who have been here the longest, they -- you know, they finally looked at the display and said, you know, I don't want to cry anymore; I just laugh about it. And some people weren't to that point yet, I guess, and it -- it might have upset them. So, you know, I had family members. My daughter lost her whole house. She helped me build the display, and she enjoyed it. You know, she -- she thinks it's funny.</s>PHILLIPS: Evans says he has received requests to mount his display elsewhere. And don't forget to check out "AMERICAN MORNING," of course, at its new time, 6:00 a.m. A political balancing act -- Senator Clinton states her case on the U.S. role in Iraq, why she criticizes the president's strategy, but still defends her vote to authorize the war.