The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

JIM LEHRER: Good evening. I'm Jim Lehrer. On the NewsHour tonight: The news of this day; then an update on the political situation in Lebanon; the latest on an investigation of prisoner abuse in Iraq and elsewhere; a report from Chicago on the new SAT tests; a look at a U.N. report on children in wars; and a Richard Rodriguez essay on the reds and blues.

NEWS SUMMARY

JIM LEHRER: This was another violent day in Iraq. A suicide bomber killed at least 47 people in the northern city of Mosul. The blast occurred during a funeral in the courtyard of a Shiite mosque under construction. Hospital officials reported 90 people wounded. Elsewhere, two police chiefs were assassinated in separate attacks in Baghdad, and a roadside bomb killed two policemen in Basra to the South. On the politics side, two of Iraq's political parties announced a deal to form a government. The leading Shiite alliance and a Kurdish bloc have been in talks for weeks. They placed first and second in January's elections, but neither won an outright majority. They agreed that Kurds will hold the presidency and one cabinet post. The Kurds, in turn, will back a Shiite for prime minister. The minority Sunnis, who largely stayed away from the polls, will also get a cabinet position. Iraq's new national assembly is to open next week. Pakistan's chief nuclear scientist gave centrifuges to Iran, a key component in making nuclear weapons. A Pakistan official confirmed that today, but said the government had nothing to do with it. Last year Pakistan admitted Abdul Qadeer Khan had passed nuclear secrets to Iran and several other countries. The scientist has been pardoned by Pakistan President Musharraf, and is under guard at his home in Islamabad. Lebanon's former prime minister was reinstated today. Omar Karami resigned the office just ten days ago, after a popular uprising against his pro-Syrian government. But the country's president re- appointed him following a massive counter demonstration organized by the militant group Hezbollah. The New York Times today reported a possible shift in U.S. policy toward Hezbollah. It cited unnamed diplomats who said the U.S. could be ready to recognize the previously declared terrorist organization as a legitimate political force. In Washington, a State Department spokesman did not deny that story.

ADAM E ERELI: Our views on Hezbollah haven't changed, I think, and are well known. I think the important point to make here is the point I made when speaking about the new government of Lebanon, is that the people of Lebanon are looking for a new future for their country. Our focus is on helping them to fulfill that; helping them to realize that future.

JIM LEHRER: We'll have more on Lebanon later in the program. Doctors in Rome have extended Pope John Paul's hospital stay. They say they want to keep him there until he's stronger. The 84-year-old pontiff had throat surgery two weeks ago. He's expected to return to the Vatican in time for Holy Week, which begins March 20. Former U.S. President Clinton had surgery on his chest today at a New York City hospital. Doctors said everything went fine. It was a low-risk procedure to remove scar tissue and fluid that had built up following his quadruple bypass operation last year. Mr. Clinton is expected to be hospitalized for up to ten days. Defense Department policies were not the cause of prison abuse scandals in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. That was the gist of a Pentagon report released today. It blamed low- and mid-level officers. The report was presented to a Senate committee today. Democrats on the panel claimed it was not independent enough. Vice Adm. Albert Church responded.

VICE ADM. ALBERT CHURCH: Eight hundred interviews, several thousand pages of documents that we reviewed over nine months, many were sworn to interviews with the is senior deputy secretary of defense and the vice chairman. I don't believe anyone can call this a whitewash. Had the facts and the documentation led me to a different conclusion, I would have made that conclusion.

JIM LEHRER: We'll have more on the prisoner abuse hearings later in the program. A House committee has subpoenaed several major league baseball players to appear for a hearing on steroid use. They include Sammy Sosa and Jason Giambi as well as Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco. It's not clear the players will show. Stan Brand, a lawyer for major league baseball, says the committee has no jurisdiction in the matter, and is violating baseball's right to privacy. A spokesman for the committee said the committee has the authority to investigate any matter at any time. Chicago police investigated a Wisconsin lead today in the murders of the husband and mother of a federal judge. Yesterday, a man in West Allis, Wisconsin, shot himself to death during a traffic stop. He reportedly left a note claiming responsibility for the murders. The judge, Joan Lefkow, had ruled against the man in a medical malpractice case in January. People who live downwind from coal-fired power plants could be breathing cleaner air within the next ten years. The Environmental Protection Agency today set new air pollution limits for 28 states, most of them east of the Mississippi River. Levels of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide will have to be slashed by 2015. It will be left to the states to force power plants to comply, but consumers can expect higher electric bills to pay for the change. On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained more than 45 points to close at 10,851. The NASDAQ fell more than a point to close at 2059. That's it for the News Summary tonight. Now it's on to: A Lebanon update, interrogation abuse; the new SAT's; children in war; and a Richard Rodriguez essay.

UPDATE - POLITICAL TIDES

JIM LEHRER: The Lebanon story: The country's prime minister left office ten days ago; now he's back. Pro and anti-Syria demonstrators fill the streets on different days, and 14,000 Syrian troops are still occupying Lebanon, despite calls for them to leave. We get an update from Michael Young, an editor at the Daily Star in Beirut. Margaret Warner talked with him by phone earlier this evening.

MARGARET WARNER: Michael Young, welcome. This reappointment of Omar Karami as prime minister is quite a turnaround. How did it come about?

MICHAEL YOUNG: Well, essentially, it seems that it was decided that the president consulted with the various parliamentary blocks, and Karami got 71 votes. But I think more importantly, the Syrians decided they wanted to bring him back.

MARGARET WARNER: And how big a factor was the large demonstration that Hezbollah staged two days ago in Beirut?

MICHAEL YOUNG: Well, I think that was part of it, obviously. It was sort of an effort to bolster the Syrian position. On the other hand, I think we shouldn't underestimate the fact that there are not many credible Sunnis out there who are willing to take the job, so they essentially decided Karami again. He's not very credible. But, you know, there are not many alternatives.

MARGARET WARNER: Explain the internal politics of this, though. Presumably, Syria never wanted Karami to be kicked out in the first place. Why was Syria now in a position to be able to exert this kind of influence and have him re-appointed?

MICHAEL YOUNG: Well, we should understand that Karami-- because this parliament is mainly made up of -- the Syrians can bolster him, the pro-Syrian MP's can bolster a majority -- even when Karami resigned, he could have passed a vote of confidence in parliament. So he does have a majority. And the Syrians, of course, do continue to control much of political life in the country. So there was never any difficulty for them to name him again, or to have him named again. The fact is, though, that Karami is facing a very skeptical society. That's really where the real problem lies.

MARGARET WARNER: Now, Karami today said he was inviting the opposition to join him in a national unity government. First of all, when he talks about the opposition, who is he really talking to, and why did he do that?

MICHAEL YOUNG: Well, the opposition is basically a coalition of groups who are now united around one thing; it's that they want the Syrians to leave, the Syrian army and intelligence services. It's a broad coalition of Christian politicians close to the Marinate patriarch, the leaders, several sort of neo-leftist groups. It's a broad coalition. It's mostly made up-- and I should add, of course, the MP's who were in the block headed by former Prime Minister Hariri. So it's a fairly broad group, and they have responded to Karami's invitation by essentially saying, "No, we are not interested in a ministerial post. We want to know the truth about who killed Rafik Hariri."

MARGARET WARNER: And one, why do you think Karami is inviting them in? Why does he want them to join the government?

MICHAEL YOUNG: Well, I think Karami understands that he has been given, you know, probably the worst job in the world today. I don't think he had perhaps much of a choice. The Syrians wanted him to come in, he had to accept. But he wanted, I think, and he wants to try to broaden the base of that government; not to be chased out of office for a third time. He was chased out in 1992 initially. The fact is, though, he realizes that his credibility is very low, that any government is really going to be -- to not have a great deal of confidence of the Lebanese public. I think he's trying to broaden the base. But ultimately, I think he'll be unsuccessful.

MARGARET WARNER: And what impact does this have potentially on Syria's role, first of all, on their announced plans to pull back their troops, and more broadly, on their political dominance in Beirut and in Lebanon?

MICHAEL YOUNG: Well, I think the Syrian intention -- I mean, I think they're going to lead, so I think they understand that they've got to leave. Their intention now, I think, is to leave behind a Lebanese system that is essentially in their pocket. And the first step for that, of course, is to create a compliant government that will essentially pass an election law. And I think that will become very important for the Syrians. They would like an election law -- they would like, essentially, to manipulate the election law and the election so that they can then have a majority in parliament for when they leave. And that's where, of course, Karami comes in. He will head a government that will pass what the Syrians hope will be an election law that they can use in their favor.

MARGARET WARNER: For the May election. And finally, have the opposition protesters returned to the street?

MICHAEL YOUNG: No. But I mean, they are in the streets, but next Monday there will be -- every Monday there are protests, but next Monday I suspect there will be a very large protest, partly in reaction to Hezbollah, partly also because it will be a month since the death of Hariri. And may I add it will also be the anniversary next week of the death of Kamal Jumlah, the father of the Druze leader Jumlah, who was killed by the Syrians.

MARGARET WARNER: Michael Young, thanks so much.

MICHAEL YOUNG: Thank you.

FOCUS - ABUSE REPORT

JIM LEHRER: Now, a new Pentagon report on prisoner abuse by U.S. forces around the world. It was presented to a Senate committee today. Kwame Holman has the story.

KWAME HOLMAN: The Navy's inspector general delivered his report to the Senate Armed Services Committee this morning. It constituted the Pentagon's largest review to date of prisoner abuse at U.S. detention facilities abroad. Vice Adm. Albert Church said his ten-month review found there was no single overarching explanation for the abuses cataloged in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. And he said top Pentagon officials and their policies on detainees were not to blame for the cases of abuse.

VICE ADM. ALBERT CHURCH: My key findings, clearly there was no policy, written or otherwise, at any level that directed or condoned torture or abuse. There was no link between the authorized interrogation techniques and the abuses that, in fact, occurred.

KWAME HOLMAN: The report also concluded the "vast majority of detainees held by U.S. forces, have been treated humanely" but noted, "There was a failure to react to early warning signs of abuse." The report said there were 71 cases of abuse involving 121 detainees. Some 130 cases still are under investigation. Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner asked about the range of abuses, beyond the now-infamous photos of detainees abused at Abu Ghraib Prison outside Baghdad.

SEN. JOHN WARNER: The pictures captured certainly what went on in that prison. But there are other incidents, for instance, at the point of detention in the heat of battle. Often there's extenuating circumstances in the heat of battle for those who are making that apprehension. But in other words, I want it here in the record as best we can a description of other things that were the basis for these trials that we have not seen by virtue of those pictures.

VICE ADM. ALBERT CHURCH: It's the full range, Senator. We have six deaths of those who were detainees. There were a number of detainee deaths. Most of them were by natural causes. We looked at every single detainee death. That was the far end. To the low end, you'd probably go to Guantanamo where there were incidents of slapping, there were what we call minor abuse cases. There were a couple of sexual assaults that were in that 70 at the high end, and there was the range all the way in between.

KWAME HOLMAN: Democrat Joseph Lieberman put a context on the number of abuse cases.

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN: Seventy cases out of 50,000 detainees is about one-tenth of 1 percent of the detainees, and it justifies your conclusion that in the overwhelming majority of cases, detainees to the best of our knowledge now have been treated within the standards that we in America would want detainees to be treated.

KWAME HOLMAN: Republican John McCain questioned President Bush's decision to deny some of those detainees prisoner-of-war rights. McCain was a POW in Vietnam for five years.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN: If we decide that a certain country's military personnel are not eligible for treatment under a convention that we signed, then wouldn't it be logical that they would declare, as the north Vietnamese did, that American prisoners are not eligible under the Geneva Conventions.

VICE ADM. ALBERT CHURCH: My opinion is that the president made the right call.

KWAME HOLMAN: Democrat Jack Reed said Adm. Church's report was not the no-holds barred review he wanted.

SEN. JACK REED: Admiral, this to me is a very disappointing report. You've drawn some conclusions, and it seems to me the conclusion is this is all just one big misunderstanding, this policy here, falling through the cracks, et cetera, which I don't think is an adequate response to the problems we've seen. There is an ancient Roman that posed the question, "who will guard the guardians?" It's a question we face today. Who will look after those that we've entrusted with our national security and defense and make sure that they follow laws? And I think the jury is still out.

VICE ADM. ALBERT CHURCH: I'd like to challenge the premise that this was all one big misunderstanding. We spent nine months, as I said initially, over 800 interviews, reviewed thousands and thousands of pages of documents, leveraged all the other reports. Clearly some things were done wrong. Clearly some things, in hindsight, Senator, would be done differently. And I think I've captured those. I've laid out all the abuse cases. And had the chips fallen differently, I would have made that call. They didn't, and the facts are the facts. And I understand that some people won't like the facts or, in some cases, the conclusions. But it's not all one big misunderstanding, sir.

KWAME HOLMAN: The American Civil Liberties Union, a critic of the administration's interrogation policies, said in a statement today: "It seems the military can only look down the chain of command not up, when it comes to holding people accountable." Armed Services Chairman Warner said at least one more hearing would be held to examine the potential accountability of top Pentagon officials.

FOCUS - MAKING THE GRADE

JIM LEHRER: Now, the SAT test. It's been revised for the first time in ten years, and the new version makes its debut across the country this Saturday. Elizabeth Brackett of WTTW- Chicago reports.

ALLAN MATHER: Let's talk about pacing and this gets into some basic strategy concerns.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: These Chicago high school students have come to a test prep course designed by the Kaplan Company to find out what they will face when they take the newly revised SAT Test. The old math and verbal sections have both been transformed, and for the first time the SAT will contain a two-part writing section.

ALLAN MATHER: Again, this is the part of the SAT that is entirely new.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Instead of the analogies featured on the old test, one part of the writing test will be a multiple choice test on grammar and sentence structure; the second part, a written essay.

ALLAN MATHER: One essay scored on 0-6 scale that represents one-third of the writing portion of the new SAT

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Students will have 25 minutes to write a response to a prompt that describes an issue. The College Board gives this sample question. "Assignment: Are people motivated to achieve by personal satisfaction rather than by money or fame? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations." Readers hired by the College Board, mostly high school and college English teachers, will have two to three minutes to score the student essays.

STUDENT: I'm a little bit worried about the essay even though I don't really have any problems with my writing. I just want to get some experience with it.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: James Montoya is vice president of the College Board, the not-for-profit association that owns and administers the SAT Test that 1.4 million students take as part of the college admissions process.

JAMES MONTOYA: Each essay will be read by two readers. Each will be scored on a scale of one to six. What will happen is that if indeed there is more than a one point differential in the scoring, it will go to a third reader, just to insure fairness and the most thoughtful evaluation possible.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: The new math section on the test eliminates quantitative comparisons and includes multiple choice questions from Algebra I courses, Geometry courses, and for the first time, questions like this one from third-year college prep Algebra courses.

JAMES MONTOYA: This is the biggest change in the last decade. It was the mid-'90s when we saw the last big change. As I meet with students, as I meet with parents to talk about the test, what I'm able to assure them is that the test is not harder, it's just different.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: High school counselors also have been trying to reassure students that the new SAT will not be more than they can handle. The reaction was mixed from these two Chicago public high school juniors who will take the new test this Saturday.

MALLORY POWERS: I wanted to take the new SAT because the writing was added and they took out analogies, which were, like, one of the hardest things for me to do.

MIA NDRAHT: Obviously you don't know what the topic to write about is going to be until you've got the test, and I just don't -- and if a topic, you know, if you don't really know what to say about it, I don't think that that's exactly like a fair way to judge you on, you know, if you get a low score on that. I don't think that's really fair.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Anxiety over the new SAT has been a boon to the test prep business.

ANDREW LAVOY: For those events that we've held where students come to practice test, 78 percent increase just based on, you know, the new tests. So there's anxiety out there.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Andrew Lavoy says the Kaplan test prep company has poured millions into completely revising their SAT Course in light of the new test.

KAPLAN REPRESENTATIVE: And to answer the questions, what you want to do --

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: The Kaplan pitch persuaded 16-year-old Max Caploe, a student at a top college prep public high school in Chicago, that he needed to take the course before he took the new test.

MAX CAPLOE: I'm not very good at test taking, so it's a lot of pressure for me because there's a lot of strength on me to do really well in this class from, like, my parents and my family and all that stuff.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: His parents saw the prep course as a way of taking pressure off their son because he would feel better prepared.

MRS. GRENROCK-CAPLOE: He's a good student, but there's so much competition, and you always want to get that little extra edge. And, you know, to have prep for him is the best thing we could do.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Daniel Vargas' parents, who came to Chicago from Puerto Rico, felt the same way. But it was more of a struggle for the family to come up with almost $1000 for the Kaplan course. But the Vargas' have always been determined that their two boys would go to college.

JASMINE VARGAS: My husband and I didn't have the opportunities that they have, you know? So why not just try to give them that leg up? You know, that's really all we can do. We -- we're not rich, we're not millionaires, we don't have, you know, anything. All we can give them is just the grounds for a good education.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Montoya, the first in his family to go to college, worries about the sacrifice families like the Vargas' make to pay for expensive test prep courses.

JAMES MONTOYA: I believe that the claims made by the test prep companies are overblown. As we have moved forward in the development of the new SAT, we have also paralleled that effort in making certain that there is low cost and free test prep.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Students can download a practice test from the College Board web site or take an online test prep course for $70. The College Board had been under pressure to revise their SAT test ever since the president of the University of California threatened to drop the SAT four years ago.

RICHARD ATKINSON: The motivation is to have an admissions process that's perceived as being fair, one that really focuses on testing students on what they've studied in high school and where the student and their parents really understand the relationship between that test and the events in high school.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Montoya says the new SAT should fulfill that challenge.

JAMES MONTOYA: We want to make certain that the SAT really helps an admissions office gauge a student's ability to be successful in college.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: But the dean of admissions at Lawrence College in Appleton, Wisconsin, admission doesn't buy it. This small liberal arts college with a little under 1,500 students just announced that it will drop the SAT And go test optional for revisions next year.

STEVE SYVERSON: It doesn't add enough to our understanding of the student to justify the amount of stress that the students are undergoing to provide us with that information. We think what they've done over four years in high school is a much better indicator than what they do for three and a half hours on a Saturday morning taking one of these tests.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: The University of Chicago will continue to require the SAT, but the dean of admissions, Ted O'Neil, doesn't think much of the addition of an essay.

TED O'NEIL: I think the current instrument isn't very good. I think it's going to be a generic instrument to measure first draft writing in a hurry. I think it's going to disadvantage students who are English as second language kids, and I'm afraid it'll further disadvantage poor kids, who the tests haven't served very well thus far.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Montoya says over 400 colleges and universities have said they will require college admission tests that include writing scores for the entering class of 2006.

JAMES MONTOYA: We are the first to say that no admission decision should ever be made on the basis of scores alone. But it provides a context and it continues to be a helpful tool.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: For those who do decide to take the new test, they won't be able to compare scores with their parents and their older siblings; 1,600 is no longer the perfect score. 2,400 is now the fabled number.

JIM LEHRER: Still to come on the NewsHour tonight: Children in war; and a Richard Rodriguez essay.

FOCUS - CHIDLREN AND CONFLICT

JIM LEHRER: Next, children in war, as victims and sometimes as fighters. Ray Suarez has our story.

RAY SUAREZ: From the dangerous streets of Iraq to the battlefields of the Congo to the jungles of Colombia, around the globe children are living in war zones, sometimes even taking up arms themselves. A recently released U.N. report on children and armed conflict cited five grave abuses: Child soldiering; abduction; abuse; attacks on schools; and sexual violence. Fifty-four groups were specifically named as perpetrators in eleven countries. The U.N. estimated some six million children have been injured in the last decade from war, and two million have been killed. Thirteen million are internally displaced because of war and two hundred and fifty thousand are child soldiers. As part of what it calls a "name and shame" strategy, the report cited the armies of three nations as alleged violators: Congo, Uganda and Myanmar. In northern Uganda, conflict between the government and the Lords Resistance Army is now in its 18th year. The anti-government force actively abducts children, forcing boys to become fighters and girls to become sex slaves. And in Sudan, thousands are displaced and have been forced into refugee camps as fighting continues in the Darfur region. Of those in the camps, many of them are children. The Janjaweed in Darfur continue the practice of using children within their ranks. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was also discussed for the first time in the report. Also for the first time, the U.N. report issued recommendations for change and punishments. They include a monitoring system to report violations, and international enforcement of travel bans and arms sales. Two other countries who are permanent members of the Security Council were included in the report: Great Britain, where the 37-year conflict in Northern Ireland drew criticism for the recruitment of children by paramilitary groups; and Russia was noted for last September's terrorist siege at a school in Beslan, in North Osetia. More than 300 children, parents and teachers were killed.

RAY SUAREZ: Joining me to tell us more about this year's report and the ongoing discussions at the Security Council to get these measures adopted is U.N. Undersecretary Olara Otunnu. He's Kofi Annan's special representative for children in armed conflict. And Mr. Undersecretary, maybe we could begin by getting your overview of the state of children in conflict areas around the world. Is it improving?

OLARA OTUNNU: Well, children exposed to war are among the most vulnerable anywhere in the world. We've been working on this issue for a few years. And there are areas of improvement, but there are situations which continue to be very difficult. For example, in Sierra Leone, in Angola, in the Balkans, in Liberia, in East Timor, these are all situations in which the conditions of children have improved relative to what they were a few years ago. The number of child soldiers has gone down from about three hundred thousand maybe five years ago, to about a quarter of a million. But beside this progress there remains a situation which is entirely grave and unacceptable in most of the places where war are going on today, where children are being used as child soldiers, girls are being raped, where there is abduction going on, schools are being attacked, and children are being killed and maimed. And we've got to stop this.

RAY SUAREZ: You know, here in the United States I think a lot of people live lives, pretty ordinary lives. It would make it very hard for them to imagine the kind of children you and your investigators saw out there in the world. Maybe you could tell our audience a little bit more about the kinds of situations you found individual people in.

OLARA OTUNNU: Well, typically these are situations in which war, mainly civil wars, have been going on, not just for months and for years; in many cases for decades-- in Colombia, in Sudan, in Burundi, in Sierra Leone, in Liberia, in Angola, in Myanmar, in Nepal, so most of these are wars which have gone on for years and therefore subjected generations of children to ruin. These are ordinary children like children anywhere else. They are very bright kids. They are curious. They're thirsty for knowledge. They want to develop and be the future leaders of their countries. But the conditions in which they are born and the exploitation and abuse by the cynical leaders of groups which are fighting is ruining their lives, and they need the support of the international community to assure their protection and to assure relief for them.

RAY SUAREZ: Is there any particular child who caught your attention or whose story you heard that stuck out in your mind?

OLARA OTUNNU: Well, I recall very well visiting a place outside Bogota in Colombia and meeting a group of kids who couldn't have access to school and to social services. They were displaced children. But they were so bright. I came with one ball, a soccer ball, and the excitement in their faces. They began playing like any children anywhere else, and there were volunteers who had come to help them do some very basic lessons in reading and writing. But these children, you see them in Sudan, in Jubah, you seem them in Sierra Leone -- which I visited, in Angola-- you see them in Kosovo. Everywhere I've gone, what is so striking is simply how eager and bright and spirited these children are, and how they do not deserve to be condemned to this life of ruination. Fortunately today we have the means in the international community. We have the standards, we've got the institutions, and we've got the means of influence to make this happen.

RAY SUAREZ: The means, but does the international community have the will, Mr. Undersecretary? Is there an appetite in the U.N. to start slapping bans on travel, to stop sending aid to some of these countries, to make it impossible for them to buy weapons, for instance?

OLARA OTUNNU: Well, this has been a building process, block by block. It's taken several years to arrive at this turning point, and we're at a turning point of great consequence. I believe that the Security Council will adopt the measures which are now before it. They're discussing it right now. That is entirely feasible, and I hope the Council will be able to adopt these measures.

RAY SUAREZ: By publicly naming the regimes, the parties, the institutions that are using children in this way, victimizing children in this way, by shaming them publicly and then calling for the U.N. to back this up with action, have you seen in the last several weeks that the U.N. as an institution is really willing to do this? After all, we know about children soldiers, about the use of rape as a tool of political violence for years.

OLARA OTUNNU: Well, this very fact of accepting this issue as an integral part of the Security Council agenda is a major achievement, is a relatively recent development. We have been naming and listing offending parties over the last three years, and that has caused tremendous pressure on them. What we now want is not just to name and list, but to name and hold them accountable, and to do that you need both a carrot and a stick. You need to have the names listed, impose sanctions, and then give the opportunity for these parties within a time-bound frame to clean up their act, to stop these violations on the ground. That is what we now need.

RAY SUAREZ: Stop those violations on the ground, or else what? What is the U.N. Arguably prepared to do that might keep these regimes from continuing to victimize children?

OLARA OTUNNU: The Security Council can impose sanctions on the offending parties. Whether the parties are governments or they're insurgent groups, it doesn't matter. But the target is the party, not the country, not the state, but the offending party. In addition, we've now got various juridical institutions. There are ad hoc tribunals, there's the international criminal court that can hold individual leaders accountable. And we've got the pressure of international public opinion. These groups do not want to be exposed in the media. They don't want their names to be listed and be held accountable for abusing children.

RAY SUAREZ: Have any of the parties that were named in your report since contacted either you or another part of the U.N. and said, "We're sorry we're on that list. We want to do what's necessary to get off it," and started to work with you?

OLARA OTUNNU: Yes, indeed. In fact, this year's list has eight parties dropped relative to the previous list, which means that there are eight parties which have, in fact, complied with what the Security Council asked. There are a few other parties added, especially from Darfur in Sudan. But since this latest report came out, for example, we've had several parties make contact, including the LTTE of Sri Lanka, the Tamil Tigers, who contacted us to say, "We've noticed that our name has been listed. We want to discuss and we want to see how best we can address the violations for which we have been cited." We welcome this message by the LTTE, but we insist that immediate steps should be taken to bring an end once and for all for the violations for which they have been cited.

RAY SUAREZ: United Nations Undersecretary Olara Otunnu, thanks for being with us.

OLARA OTUNNU: Thank you. Thank you, Ray.

ESSAY - RED AND BLUE

JIM LEHRER: Finally tonight, essayist Richard Rodriguez considers an America that is more than just red or blue.

RICHARD RODRIGUEZ: In Washington, the political classes color America blue or red, reducing everyone and every place to their political schema. Florida and Utah, for example, are red. I cannot think of two cities more different than Salt Lake and Miami. Despite the fact that your mall looks exactly like mine, it is astonishing how much regionalism survives in America: Barns and beans and notions of what a garden should look like. And yet, something in us resists all talk of regionalism. We are, after all, resolutely individualistic and mobile. We work and live within a suburban architecture belonging to no region or weather. Parents raise children to leave home. Interstate freeways facilitate divorce. Despite our wandering lives, what one notices in America is not a lack of regional cultures but a compounding of them. Consider President Bush. The president names Crawford his home. He wears a cowboy suit when he is in residence at what his staff calls "the western White House." But Crawford is not really the West. More truly, it marks the confluence of Kennebunkport, Riyadh, Houston and Yale. One thinks of regionalism and the region that comes inevitably to mind is the South. The South remains the most potent, the most potent, the most deeply dyed region of America. I speak here not of the new South of 30 years past, symbolized by Atlanta's skyline and its black bourgeoisie and northern transplants. I speak of the new old South of NASCAR and Nashville lyrics of flat-out regret, and a white working class political resentment rooted in the reconstruction. The white working class in the South has never disappeared behind a smiling middle class billboard, as elsewhere. Forty years ago, blacks and other groups of Americans who had been deprived of equal opportunity were designated "minorities" by liberal Washington. The white working class was excluded from that term. Not coincidentally, today's white working class South is Republican, and low church southern Protestantism has become the most influential broadcaster of American Christianity both nationally and internationally. And Arkansas-born Wal-mart, where the working class shops, has changed the buying habits of the world, even as it is devastating regional main streets. By contrast to the American South, California has recently seen its political and cultural influence decline nationally. The president never visits except when he comes to see the troops or to raise money. It's part of our regional tradition in California to see ourselves in contrast to the rest of the country. This state's notoriety, after all, has been as the home for crackpots and other extreme behaviors appropriate to the end of the line. But Californians like to imagine that living on the edge grants us an exceptionalism. The future happens here in advance of the rest of the country. Today, while Americans elsewhere argue over creationism, California's voters have approved a multibillion-dollar measure supporting stem cell research. Regionalism: The sense that we are shaped by a place, sky and soil, shaped in common with our neighbors. Regionalism is never static. For one thing, the faces of one's neighbors change. Suddenly, Karl Marx's prediction that a global culture would happen first in California is apparent on every street corner. Waiting for the green light are descendants from all corners: Africa, Europe, Latin America, Asia. Asia completes the circle, making California a globe. To live here now is to sense that the soil under our feet has changed us anew. Here, America comes to an end, yes. But this coastline is also where Asia begins in America. Blue? Red? There are not enough colors in the politician's box of Crayolas to paint the states of our lives. I'm Richard Rodriguez.

RECAP

JIM LEHRER: Again, the major developments of this day: A suicide bomber killed at least 47 people in northern Iraq. Lebanon's former prime minister was reinstated, after resigning only ten days ago. And early this evening, the Senate approved new bankruptcy laws which would make it harder for some people to avoid paying their debts.

JIM LEHRER: And once again to our honor roll of American service personnel killed in Iraq. We add them as their deaths are made official and photographs become available. Here, in silence, are seven more.

JIM LEHRER: We'll see you online and again here tomorrow evening, with Mark Shields and David Brooks, among others. I'm Jim Lehrer. Thank you and good night.