The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

JIM LEHRER: Good evening. I`m Jim Lehrer.

On the NewsHour tonight: the news of this Friday; then, the latest on the investigations into the killings of Iraqi civilians by U.S. military personnel, as reported by Eric Schmitt of the New York Times; analysis of this and other matters by Mark Shields and David Brooks; two stories from New Orleans, a John Merrow update of the post-Katrina state of the schools, and how the coming of another hurricane season looks to guest essayist Chris Rose of the New Orleans Times-Picayune; and, finally, a report on a poetry recitation contest for high school students.

(BREAK)

JIM LEHRER: The U.S. military has cleared American troops in one of the cases involving the killing of Iraqi civilians. Major news organizations reported that today, citing defense officials.

The case is unrelated to allegations concerning U.S. Marines at Haditha. Instead, this incident happened north of Baghdad last March. Iraqis disputed U.S. accounts, including how many people died, 11 or four. The investigation found the troops acted properly after being attacked.

In Baghdad today, a top coalition spokesman acknowledged growing questions and investigations involving American troops. U.S. Army Brigadier General Donald Campbell said the strain of the mission is too much for some.

BRIG. GEN. DONALD CAMPBELL, U.S. Army: It`s very difficult to determine in some cases on this battlefield who is a combatant and who is a civilian. It doesn`t excuse the acts that have occurred; we`re going to look into them.

But I would say it`s stress, fear, isolation and, in some cases, they`re just upset. They see their buddies getting blown up on occasion, and they could snap.

JIM LEHRER: The main investigation to date involves claims that U.S. Marines killed two dozen civilians at Haditha last November.

Today, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld was asked about that case at a conference in Singapore.

DONALD RUMSFELD, U.S. Secretary of Defense: The investigation`s under way, and I`m in the chain of command. And anything I say can conceivably be misconstrued in the press in a way that would be characterized as command influence and adversely affect the case from any direction, and I simply am not going to talk about it anymore.

JIM LEHRER: Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki said today he`ll ask the United States to hand over files from the investigation of Haditha. We`ll have more on all of the investigations right after this news summary.

Scattered attacks today killed at least nine Iraqis and wounded dozens. More than 900 Iraqis were killed in May, according to the Associated Press.

Well over 4,000 Iraqis have died in the violence so far this year; most were civilians. There were 69 U.S. troops killed in Iraq in May, down slightly from April. More than 2,470 Americans have been killed since the war began.

A taped message warned Iraqi Sunnis today to reject peace with Shiites. The speaker for the four-hour sermon was said to be Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaida in Iraq.

The tape was posted on the Internet early Friday. It referred to Shiites as snakes. It said their top cleric, Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani, is an atheist.

The president of Iran insisted today on the right to nuclear technology. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted by Iran`s state news agency. He said, "The efforts of some Western countries to deprive us will not bear any fruit." The Iranian leader did not directly mention incentives and penalties approved by the U.S. and other states.

In Washington, White House spokesman Tony Snow played down the statements.

TONY SNOW, White House Press Secretary: There are going to be a lot of statements made right now in advance of actually having seen a proposal, so we take them for what they are: They`re statements in advance of a proposal.

This is a negotiation. And I would expect people -- I would expect Iran to try to take some negotiating positions in advance, but I also think it`s safe to say that the Iranians are going to take a careful look at this.

JIM LEHRER: Snow said the proposal may be presented to Iran this weekend. The U.S. has offered to join direct talks with the Iranians if they suspend nuclear activities. Today, Secretary of State Rice said Iran has weeks, not months, to decide its course.

The U.N. appealed today for $100 million to help survivors of the Indonesian earthquake. The money would be used over the next six months. Almost half would go toward housing.

More than 6,200 people died in the quake last Saturday. An estimated 650,000 were left homeless.

In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department reported today the unemployment rate was 4.6 percent in May, down 0.1 percent. Employers added 75,000 new jobs, but that was well below expectations.

On Wall Street, the relatively weak jobs number caused concern that economic growth is slowing. And the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 12 points to close below 11,248. The Nasdaq fell about a half a point to close at 2,219.

For the week, the Dow lost 0.3 percent; the Nasdaq rose 0.4 percent.

And that`s it for the news summary tonight. Now, the latest on the civilian deaths investigations in Iraq; Shields and Brooks; rebuilding the schools of New Orleans; waiting for the next one in New Orleans; and a poetry bee.

(BREAK)

JIM LEHRER: Margaret Warner has our Iraq story.

MARGARET WARNER: Late today, Pentagon officials told reporters that a military probe had cleared U.S. troops of wrongdoing in a raid last March in the town of Ishaqi, north of Baghdad. A warning: This report contains some graphic footage.

It was one of three known incidents under investigation into allegations that U.S. troops deliberately killed Iraqi civilians and then covered up the circumstances. All three probes pitted an early official U.S. version of events against charges by Iraqis on the ground.

Today, Associated Press television news re-released this graphic on- scene footage shot shortly after the Ishaqi incident. The U.S. military had reported in March that four people died when U.S. forces, pursuing a suspected al-Qaida member, destroyed a house in a ground and air attack.

Iraqi police and some local residents charged that the U.S. raid killed 11 people, most of them women and children. They also said U.S. forces deliberately murdered the Iraqis and then tried to cover up what they`d done by blowing up the building on top of the dead bodies.

This Ishaqi resident, who claimed to have witnessed the event, didn`t want his face shown.

ISHAQI RESIDENT (through translator): Children were stuck in the room, alone and surrounded. After they handcuffed them, they shot them dead. Later, they struck the house with their planes. They wanted to hide the evidence. Even a six-month-old infant was killed.

MARGARET WARNER: But late today, a Pentagon official told the NewsHour the investigation, quote, "didn`t find any misconduct in the operation."

Separately, at Camp Pendleton in California, seven Marines and a Navy corpsman are being held in the brig, pending charges in connection with the shooting death of an Iraqi man in Hamandiyah, west of Baghdad, on April 26th.

And at least two investigations are under way into allegations that U.S. Marines murdered two dozen Iraqi civilians last November in the insurgent stronghold of Haditha and then provided false information about the deaths.

For an update on all of these investigations, we turn to New York Times Pentagon reporter Eric Schmitt.

Eric, welcome back.

ERIC SCHMITT, The New York Times: Thanks, Margaret.

MARGARET WARNER: This Ishaqi incident, first of all, is it official? Have these troops been cleared?

ERIC SCHMITT: Well, again, this is just breaking news, as you pointed out in your report, that the military is now exonerating the troops that were involved in this incident in early March of any type of wrongful death of civilians.

This has been an issue that had been reported, as you said, in March. And, again, there were disputes. But what made this interesting was these were actually Iraqi police reports that accused the American soldiers of killing unarmed women and children.

So the military has gone back in and -- again, just this evening, as these press reports were resurfacing today in the new light of Haditha -- the military is now coming back to say that the Army investigation has exonerated these, but we`re still pressing for more details about that.

MARGARET WARNER: Well, two questions on that. First of all, when was this investigation concluded? I mean, did it just conclude, or was this something some time back? Well, just start with that one.

ERIC SCHMITT: Again, this is unclear. Right now, this was brought to the attention of the authorities in Baghdad in mid-March, right after this incident happened, and right after the Iraqi police filed their report.

It had basically been lying dormant, I think, up until that point, until, again, with the incident of Haditha providing new context for these type of incidents, suddenly this report became fresh again, and the United States and the military was forced to respond to it.

Again, there weren`t a lot of details about this report put out tonight. We`re still trying and pressing on them.

MARGARET WARNER: And is there any caution that we should say here in the fact that there hasn`t been an official statement clearing them? I mean, we`ve all been briefed on a background basis, essentially?

ERIC SCHMITT: Well, I think we`re all being very careful right now in reporting this, because, of course, this was the initial response to the Haditha incident, was that this couldn`t possibly be, that reports like this and reporters pressing this news were being dupes of the insurgents.

So I think right now, until we see more concrete evidence coming out of the Pentagon or the military in Baghdad, we still need to be pressing those questions.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Let`s turn to the Haditha investigation, because that is the incident that`s generated the most attention, obviously. Now, there are two probes going on. Where do each of those stand right now?

ERIC SCHMITT: Sure, there`s one of the first probes, who`s conducted by -- is being conducted by Major General Eldon Bargewell of the Army. This was the inquiry that was started shortly after the initial investigating officer went to the scene in Haditha and determined there were enough inconsistencies in the Marines` initial statements about how these civilians were killed that additional investigations were warranted.

So the number-two commander in Iraq, Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli, ordered this investigation by General Bargewell to determine whether or not there was essentially a cover-up of the information that came out of this.

The second investigation that`s going on is by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and they are actually looking at the incident on the ground, the allegations that a small group of Marines shot and killed these 24 Iraqis in the town of Haditha last November.

The time frame of these investigations is a little uncertain right now. The military was hoping to present the investigation`s findings to General Chiarelli as early as today in Baghdad. I`m told that has not happened, and it`s going to be taking a little more time.

But even after General Chiarelli receives the findings of General Bargewell`s inquiry, it`s probably going to be at least a few weeks before he reviews them and sends them up his command of command, perhaps back to the Pentagon, as well, before there`s any public release.

And we`re told the second inquiry, the criminal inquiry conducted by the naval investigators, may not be completed until some time in July or later.

MARGARET WARNER: Now, Congressman Murtha, as we know, was briefed by the Marine commandant and I think other Marine officials. And he has used -- in terms of the criminal side -- he has said murder was committed and, two, he has said a cover-up was committed.

How far along are these investigations? Are they that far? In other words, have they determined that, even if everyone`s individual culpability hasn`t been decided, that there was at least some unjustified homicide committed and that there was a deliberate effort to cover up the events afterwards?

ERIC SCHMITT: Well, again, military officials and congressional officials I`ve spoken to, who have been briefed, say they fully expect very serious charges to be filed against some number of these Marines, including homicide charges.

As for the cover-up, it`s looking like at least members of the individual squad that was involved in the incident may well have passed falsified statements up the chain of command in their reporting chain, so there`s where you might end up in the initial stages of a cover-up.

Exactly how high up the chain that goes is what General Bargewell and the Navy investigators, as well, are looking at.

MARGARET WARNER: Now, finally this third incident in Hamandiyah, and we just referred to that in the taped piece briefly. This took place, I think, April 26th, but already some Marines are in the brig in Camp Pendleton. What were the circumstances of that? And what crime is alleged to have been committed there?

ERIC SCHMITT: Well, we learned last night from some of the defense lawyers who are representing these Marines that they expect these seven Marines and the Navy corpsmen to be charged with murder, kidnapping and other charges, involving the slaying of an Iraqi man in that town in April.

And then what these Marines and Navy corpsmen are alleged to have done is then staged the incident and laid the dead Iraqi down and put an AK-47 next to him to make it look like he was an insurgent, when actually he was, apparently, just some Iraqi man that was killed.

We don`t know how many people actually participated in the killing and how many may have known about it and did not report it; that`s why there`s probably as many as eight people here implicated so far.

MARGARET WARNER: Finally, the senior Pentagon leadership that you speak with, do they think that there are more of these incidents taking place, that they have a growing problem with their troops on the ground in any way? Or is it simply that the Haditha incident now has unearthed a lot of other disputed incidents that ordinarily would be investigated, the soldiers cleared, and we would never hear about?

ERIC SCHMITT: I think, Margaret, it`s a little bit of both. I think what you`ve seen so far is Haditha has brought to light some of the incidents that have been out there and thought were perhaps isolated or weren`t given a whole lot of credence by the military.

Now the military is going back and looking through their files. Human rights groups, both in the United States and in Iraq, are going back and looking at their files to see what incidents may deserve greater scrutiny.

On the other hand, I think military leaders, both in Iraq and in Washington, recognize the stresses and strains that combat duty in Iraq pose. Just this week, for instance, Lieutenant General Chiarelli ordered mandatory sensitivity training for all coalition forces in Iraq right now, basically to go over things like cultural sensitivities with Iraqis, the stresses, the rules of war, and those important types of things, when you`re dealing with combat situation. I think the Pentagon is looking at both those situations.

MARGARET WARNER: All right, Eric, thank you so much, Eric Schmitt of the New York Times.

ERIC SCHMITT: Thank you.

(BREAK)

JIM LEHRER: Still to come: schools in New Orleans; a waiting in New Orleans essay; and poetry out loud.

JIM LEHRER: But first, the analysis of Shields and Brooks, syndicated columnist Mark Shields, New York Times columnist David Brooks.

The Haditha story and the others, Mark, where does it seem to be headed?

MARK SHIELDS, Syndicated Columnist: Well, it seems to be headed, Jim, towards serious charges being leveled, and the consequences and the fallout are just enormous.

I mean, first of all, just in the United States, if these charges are made and confirmed and they`re -- the sense of the United States, we`ve always felt that our purposes are noble, our ideals are high. This just goes right to the self-image of the country.

It makes us, in a sense, at moral parity with those that we`re fighting. It undermines, obviously, the relations with Iraq itself and its government. You can see its government asserting itself.

There was no government at the time of Abu Ghraib to register its objections to that treatment and mistreatment. But now, just for its own identity, its own satisfaction of its own constituents, the prime minister has condemned the United States...

JIM LEHRER: And they`re going to have their own investigation.

MARK SHIELDS: They`re going to have their own investigation. And on top of that, obviously, you`ve got -- if Abu Ghraib was an enlistment incentive for terrorists, this could be a poster for insurgents, that the charge that the United States -- this is what they are, they (inaudible) democracy. Actions always speak louder than words. And, finally, for the Marine Corps...

JIM LEHRER: Tough for the Marine Corps, yes.

MARK SHIELDS: ... which is the nation`s elite fighting force and which stands accused.

JIM LEHRER: David, how do you see it?

DAVID BROOKS, Columnist, New York Times: I guess I do see it a little differently. I mean, we`ll have the investigation, but I don`t think it says anything about moral parity between the U.S. and its enemies.

I mean, this was an atrocity. What our enemies do is a matter of policy when they do the same thing.

And the second thing -- and we`re going to have an argument about it - - is this is the context. What is the context in which these events happen? And to be honest, I think this says nothing about the American cause, and the American nature, and the nature of the American power.

When you look at when these events happen, it tends to be in a certain sort of war, and that is guerrilla war with high-technology weapons. If you go back in history and you look where there has been massive violence, massive combat stress, but relatively few atrocities, you get things like the Civil War and World War II, where you have big armies fighting each other relatively separated from civilians.

But when you get guerrilla war, with fast weapons, fast pace of battle, integrated with civilians, then you get these atrocities, and that`s true here. It`s true in Vietnam, but it`s true in Africa.

There have been cases where you`ve got armies fighting with high casualties with no atrocities. And then you get, in the same country, a guerrilla war, massive atrocities.

So it`s the nature of this kind of fighting. And these things happen when you get this integrated -- you don`t know who your enemies are. These guys are under tremendous stress, and some of them do horrible things.

JIM LEHRER: What about Mark`s point that we Americans tend to see ourselves as the non-barbarians of the world? But you go -- you mentioned the Civil War, the battle of Antietam and many other wars, where there were young Americans looking eyeball to eyeball and blowing each other`s heads off.

So, I mean, properly triggered, any human being is capable of committing a barbaric act. Is that also a message here?

DAVID BROOKS: Well, if we have an innocent image of ourselves, this is something that grew up in the last 30 years. For most American history, we didn`t have this image of ourselves.

If you go through World War II, when -- I mentioned last week the Dresden. These were hundreds of thousands civilians were killed, and it happened in part -- in part -- because there was a coarsening of the national mind, where people thought, "We`re desperate to win. We`re going to do whatever it takes to win."

And that also factored into the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. And to me, one of the paradoxes is, when you get a draft, when you got lots of people whose sons and daughters are at risk, you actually get a more bloodthirsty country. And that`s what we were by the end of World War II.

MARK SHIELDS: You also get a more democratic response when there is resistance to the war.

I could not disagree more strenuously with David. Jim, there is no code, Marine Corps code, American code, international code, that says the murder of civilians -- if we have a nine-year-old child testifying that he saw his grandmother and grandfather killed by Marines in a cold-blooded way, that is -- I can`t tell you how devastating that is.

That is so violative of every norm, every value, every rule that Marines are inculcated with, and this...

JIM LEHRER: No matter what`s happening on the ground?

(CROSSTALK)

DAVID BROOKS: And I never said anything remotely to contradict that.

(CROSSTALK)

MARK SHIELDS: No, but, I mean, it isn`t a question of -- the context is there, always. The context has been there. The Marines have made the effort more than any other branch of the service to win the hearts and minds. I mean, General Conway, that whole effort to reach out to...

JIM LEHRER: General Maddes (ph) at the beginning.

MARK SHIELDS: General Maddes (ph) at the beginning...

JIM LEHRER: He said we can be your best friend or your worst enemy; the choice is yours, the Iraqis...

MARK SHIELDS: That`s right. And they`ve had great successes. I mean, they really have. And so this is really so horrendous.

And the cover-up, I mean, let`s be very blunt about this. We`ve had criticism of the American press for not telling the good stories and the positive stories. But for the lonely courageous reporting of Time magazine, we wouldn`t know about this.

JIM LEHRER: That`s right.

MARK SHIELDS: I mean, and here we are six-and-a-half months later, and we still don`t know.

JIM LEHRER: That`s a fair point, David. You know, why the Pentagon had this report, knew this incident had happened, why didn`t they tell the public about it?

DAVID BROOKS: Well, they`re an institution. I mean, first, you start at the ground -- and I`m only supposing here -- but people who kill civilians are going to lie about it. I mean, they`re not the most morally upstanding people who have done it.

So you`ve got a chain of lies and then institutions have a chain of cover-up. The question will be, after the time, do they fully expose? But just two points.

JIM LEHRER: Sure.

DAVID BROOKS: This could be the most noble war -- I thing it started out as a noble war. This could be the most effectively fought war, you could still get incidents like this. And it doesn`t necessarily reflect on the other Marines or the cause in general.

This is the debate we`re going to have, because some people think it`s caused by the policy, caused by the president, caused by Rumsfeld. It may be, but to me you get these events no matter what, in this type of warfare.

JIM LEHRER: And this is going to go on. My first question, there are going to be congressional hearings. And this has been -- and what Eric Schmitt just told Margaret, it`s going to be a long time even before we know what the results of these things are.

DAVID BROOKS: One silver lining, and this has to do with the Iraqi reaction. I think one of the things the Iraqis have had to do is rebel against us.

One of the few things I`ve written that`s memorable or worth remembering in the past three years was a column where I said, in order for to us win, we have to lose.

And the argument was that, as long as the insurgents are the only anti-Americans, they`re going to have support in that country. But when the democratic leaders are anti-Americans, which has happened today, that`s a silver lining. That gives them some legitimacy to be a democratically- elected sovereign government.

MARK SHIELDS: It`s a very high price to pay to...

DAVID BROOKS: Oh, no question.

MARK SHIELDS: ... establish that. And I would say this, I`d point out I think it`s very significant the two figures in Congress who have been the most outspoken in condemning this, and searching out a cover-up, and insisting for full accountability and transparency are two Marines, John Kline, a career Marine, Republican from Minnesota, and Jack Murtha, who has seen the havoc and the tragedy on the battlefield.

JIM LEHRER: And Senator John Warner who...

MARK SHIELDS: John Warner, that`s right.

JIM LEHRER: ... also is a former Marine, and former secretary of the Navy...

(CROSSTALK)

JIM LEHRER: ... and chairman of the Armed Services Committee says he`s going to have hearings.

Iran, big developments this week. What do you make of them, the U.S. decision to say, "We will go with our friends and talk to Iran directly"?

DAVID BROOKS: Well, I think very positive developments. What had happened, basically, Iran was winning. They were controlling the events. They were controlling the initiative. The world focus was whether we would talk to them. It was on the U.S. And by agreeing to talk, with our friends and our pseudo-friends, and then by insisting...

JIM LEHRER: I`m not going to ask you who you`re talking about.

(LAUGHTER)

DAVID BROOKS: But then insisting on sanctions before -- which is always a European position -- we`ve put the focus on the Iranians. We`ve put them in a difficult position.

And we`ve, I think, hastened the time we get to sanctions. I think it`s possible that by July we could be at the U.N., really, talking about sanctions. So I think we`ve taken the initiative, which is good.

JIM LEHRER: Do you see it that way?

MARK SHIELDS: Perspective really does -- I mean, if you look at it and say, "George W. Bush last week said there`s no way in the world we`ll ever negotiate with these people. Six years we`ve said it, 27 years the United States, for God`s sake, we`re not going to negotiate with them." "I`m going to negotiate with them."

Now, I guess, some people would say that`s flip-flop. Others said, "Gee, it`s enlightened pragmatism."

JIM LEHRER: What do you say it is?

MARK SHIELDS: I`m glad that he`s doing it with a group of other nations. I mean, we saw what we went into Iraq with, 38 nations, four of which had armies. And, you know, the fact that he does have the Security Council members and Germany signed on, at least to the point of this is serious and we are talking. They got our attention. They got our attention by developing nuclear capability. That`s how they got it.

JIM LEHRER: What`s your opinion of the new secretary of the treasury, or, well, the secretary of the treasury-nominee, Mr. Henry Paulson?

MARK SHIELDS: It`s like the marriage of the divorcee. It`s the triumph of hope over experience. I mean, his two predecessors certainly have had their distinguished public careers diminished by their experience, Paul O`Neill and John Snow.

I don`t know anybody -- I went through it this afternoon -- who`s had his stature enhanced by service in the Bush cabinet. Colin Powell, certainly, Tommy Thompson were less figures, I mean, distinguished careers.

So he`s got very little to play with between now -- the whole thing between now and November is hanging onto the Republican majorities. There`s not going to be any tax reform. There`s not going to be any Social Security reform. You know, he gets good reviews...

JIM LEHRER: As a person, you mean?

MARK SHIELDS: As a person, yes.

JIM LEHRER: What do you think, David?

DAVID BROOKS: Yes, well, I think why don`t we just let Goldman Sachs take over the government? They`ve got Robert Rubin; they`ve got him; they`ve got Josh Bolten...

JIM LEHRER: That`s right, Josh Bolten, the chief of staff, was there.

(CROSSTALK)

DAVID BROOKS: ... the whole upper echelon of Goldman Sachs.

MARK SHIELDS: You mean they haven`t?

(LAUGHTER)

DAVID BROOKS: Right. Listen, I think the significance of it: Is he going to be an independent voice? I don`t think he would have taken it if he wasn`t going to be an independent voice.

JIM LEHRER: So he went in there and said, "I will do it, but you`ve got to do this, this, and this"?

DAVID BROOKS: I can`t imagine he wants to see what happened to Snow happen to him. I just can`t imagine that.

JIM LEHRER: OK.

DAVID BROOKS: And then the second thing is...

JIM LEHRER: Just for the record here, so people know what we`re talking about, they started undermining Snow almost about three days after he got in the job.

MARK SHIELDS: And, I mean, plus the president said last week, "I`d never heard he was going to resign." He`d already got Paulson to sign on at that point, four days earlier.

DAVID BROOKS: And the transition -- there was that moment where they thought they were getting rid of him. They couldn`t find anybody else, and it was awful and awkward.

JIM LEHRER: I just wanted to make sure people knew what we were talking about.

DAVID BROOKS: Right. And then the second point is he stands for a sort of establishment point of view, which has actually gotten short shrift in both parties, and this is a point of view that puts deficit reduction first, which has a little more active domestic policy. He has warned about global warming, so this is sort of a centrist position which I think is emerging in the country.

And the only politician I can think of who really speaks for it is Chuck Hagel, in a pure sense, but that position will not have a very vocal advocate.

JIM LEHRER: He`s not known as a ideologue politically?

DAVID BROOKS: Not particularly. He`s known as a Concord Coalition, house in order, but worry about domestic policy...

JIM LEHRER: Get the deficits down, as you said, and all that?

DAVID BROOKS: Get the deficits down, be very safe and...

(CROSSTALK)

JIM LEHRER: The Democrats comfortable with him, too?

MARK SHIELDS: Well, obviously, Chuck Schumer was all over him like a cheap suit, the Democratic senator from New York. He liked him very much.

You know, it`s good that John Snow is going, because he was obviously responsible for everything that`s gone on in Iraq. You know, I mean, that`s a good reason for him to go.

DAVID BROOKS: You can`t get off it.

JIM LEHRER: You can`t get -- yes, right, right, right. One thing, just for the record, the audience needs to know this -- if they don`t, full disclosure -- both Mark and I are former Marines, so when we talk about it and we -- people just need to know that. OK, yes, see you all next week.

(BREAK)

JIM LEHRER: Now, our two hurricane stories. First, an update of the school situation in New Orleans. The reporter is NewsHour special correspondent for education John Merrow. He`s been tracking the story since Katrina hit.

PHOTOGRAPHER: One, two, three!

JOHN MERROW, NewsHour Special Correspondent: Last week was graduation for Edna Karr High School in New Orleans.

PARENTS OF STUDENT: The hurricane tried to put a damper on things, but we were strong.

STUDENT: Oh, yes, I was determined. We were determined.

(AUDIENCE CHEERS)

JOHN MERROW: In many ways, it was an improbable ceremony, considering how the year began.

HURRICANE PLANNER: This is the old Perry Walker Auditorium, which had some significant roof damage with the roof torn off.

JOHN MERROW: Hurricane Katrina severely damaged more than half of New Orleans` schools...

HURRICANE PLANNER: What`s the time line for moving off of our disaster recovery system...

JOHN MERROW: ... leaving the cleanup efforts to consultants like Sajan George.

What do you have to do to get some schools open?

SAJAN GEORGE, Alvarez and Marsal: What don`t we have to do? We`ve been submitted bids to get the repair work done.

HURRICANE PLANNER: You can still see some standing water over here, too.

SAJAN GEORGE: Select the bidders. They`ve got to do mold testing throughout the schools.

HURRICANE PLANNER: It`s all going to have to come up.

SAJAN GEORGE: We`ve got to get food into the schools. Our cafeterias are wiped out. You`ve got to clean the schools. You`ve got to get textbooks and supplies. You`ve got to get the grade configurations right. You`ve got to get classes set up, curriculum. And then, last but not least, we got to get the money to pay for all this.

JOHN MERROW: But in the wreckage lay opportunity. Before Katrina, New Orleans public schools, 128 in all, were an educational disaster, underachieving, riddled with corruption and financial problems. The storm opened the door to a state takeover of almost 90 percent of the schools.

JOHN HISER, Principal, Edna Karr Secondary School: It is a good day for the city of New Orleans, and it`s a great day for you guys who are here.

JOHN MERROW: By mid-December, only nine schools had reopened. Most of them, including Edna Karr, as charter schools, independently-run public schools.

JOHN HISER: We`re trying to have some generic lessons that will put everybody on the same page.

JOHN MERROW: Returning Principal John Hiser embraced his new role.

As principal of a charter school, are you going to have more authority?

JOHN HISER: Yes. Now, I`m in charge. In fact, I was telling the teachers yesterday that we are all accountable, that I will determine whether they stay or whether they go. They will determine whether I stay or whether I go.

JOHN MERROW: We went back to Edna Karr as the school year drew to a close.

JOHN HISER: It`s been a struggle. It`s been a joy, but it`s certainly been a struggle. These kids have been awesome. I mean, they`ve come in, and they`ve had to adjust to a different standard in a lot of ways.

The faculty we started with in December was 17. The faculty that we have now is 50. And they`ve really done a remarkable job; you know, we`ve basically created something out of nothing this year.

JOHN MERROW: By year`s end, 12,000 out of 60,000 students had returned. Next year, New Orleans plans on opening 58 schools. It`s anticipating 34,000 students.

JIM LEHRER: Earlier today, John spoke with Ray Suarez from New Orleans.

RAY SUAREZ: John Merrow, welcome. Do school authorities have any reliable way of knowing just how many kids are going to show up for school at the end of August?

JOHN MERROW: Not only do they not have any reliable way, Ray, they keep changing the number. The number in the piece, which was recorded two or three days ago, changed yesterday. They said 27,000 or 24,000. And then it changed again today, and now they`re saying they expect anywhere between 17,000 and 34,000. That`s a lot of wiggle room.

RAY SUAREZ: And I guess the uncertainties don`t end with the number of students. Do the New Orleans public schools know where all their teachers are and whether they`re coming back to work?

JOHN MERROW: No, they don`t. And, in a way, they can`t, Ray, and they don`t know about the parents, either, because housing is so uncertain. They don`t know if there will be places to live.

As it turns out, New Orleans has a lot more older students than would be expected, and that`s because the younger siblings, apparently, are still in Houston or somewhere else. Now, they probably will come back, if there`s housing, but nobody knows if there will be housing.

And they`re uncertain about money, as well. You know, the state took over about 90 percent of the schools. They told us, well, they do have enough money for next year, but there`s an uncertain look when they say the long-term future is just not very clear as a real tax base.

RAY SUAREZ: As a practical matter, what does state receivership mean? Does is it mean that the mayor and a local school board are not in charge of the public schools?

JOHN MERROW: They are most certainly not in charge. The New Orleans school board is in charge of four schools at this moment, and two of those are charter schools, which essentially are independently-run public schools. And the other two may also apply for charter status.

The state has control of over 100 schools, most of which, of course, are not open, but about half of them will be charter schools, which means the principals, like John Hiser, have an awful lot of authority and can be held accountable, but they can take some chances and maybe make a difference.

I mean, they cannot go back to what they were. This was easily the worst public school system in the nation. On a test last year, a GEE test, which is a test for seniors, 96 percent scored below basic in English and 94 percent below basic in math. I mean, that is just disastrous.

RAY SUAREZ: Well, this was all, of course, before Hurricane Katrina hit. Now, the system is going to reopen, reorganize. But if you`ve got largely the same staff, largely the same student body, and largely the same physical plant, how much does just being a charter school really change day to day?

JOHN MERROW: You won`t have the same staff, I don`t think, Ray. I mean, the principal can hire and fire. Teachers who have been in the system can apply for their jobs, but there`s no guarantee they`ll get them.

And I think they`re looking for people who want to make a difference, looking for young, energetic teachers who will work as a team. So there really is an opportunity there.

They will have the same students, of course, but intelligence is randomly distributed. You can do catch-up work with these kids. You can`t give up on these kids, for sure.

RAY SUAREZ: Well, will there be some difficulties in placing children when they return? Some of them may have been attending schools in places like Houston and Memphis; some may have not attended school at all.

JOHN MERROW: You know, your first question was about uncertainty, and that`s just another element of uncertainty. You`re right, of course.

And adding to it is New Orleans has decided to become an open-access system, a choice. That is, parents may choose whichever school they want their kids to go to, which sounds wonderful, except there`s no information about any of these schools.

It would be a little bit like being given a restaurant guide which lists the name of all the restaurants but doesn`t say whether it`s Italian food, or Indian food, or French food. They have choice but no information as to how to make a choice. So it`s going to be a very, very complicated story.

Now, there`s another argument about vouchers. New Orleans has a huge private school population, the largest of any place in the country. Almost 45 percent of school-aged children in New Orleans go to private schools, parochial schools, evangelical Christian schools, traditional private schools.

They wouldn`t mind seeing vouchers from the state government to allow public school kids to go to their schools. On the other hand, the governor says, "No, wait a minute. We have to choose: vouchers or rebuilding the public system." She says there`s only enough money to do one of those things, and she`s pledged to veto any effort to create vouchers.

So really a remarkable situation here. It`s a chance -- it`s a kind of a do-over. I guess that`s a golf term. New Orleans gets to start over. And what`s interesting is I`m here with 150 education reporters, part of the Education Writers Association, so we`re all watching, and we`re all going to be watching all next year to see what happens.

RAY SUAREZ: Aren`t private schools facing some of the same challenges, having to get their physical plant back in order and figure out where their students are?

JOHN MERROW: Yes, of course they are, but private schools reopened pretty early after Katrina. New Orleans didn`t open its first school until November, and it only managed to open 12 during the year.

Private schools in New Orleans, Ray, started the year, before Katrina, with 49,000 students. Today, as school is ending, they have 42,000 students.

New Orleans started with 60,000-plus; they have 12,000. So New Orleans public schools lost 80 percent. The private schools not only reopened, they reopened and they got most of their students back.

RAY SUAREZ: And, John, before we go, during my reporting trips to New Orleans, I saw a lot of public schools in some pretty bad shape after the storm. Who`s bearing the costs of fixing them up again?

JOHN MERROW: Well, they were taken over by the state. They`ve become a state responsibility. The state is asking FEMA to pick up the cost, and there are some rules about the except of damage, but there`s a lot of fighting going on about the money. So right now, again, that`s just yet another area of uncertainty.

RAY SUAREZ: John Merrow, thanks for being with us.

JOHN MERROW: Thank you.

(BREAK)

JIM LEHRER: Our second take from New Orleans. It`s an insider`s view of the new hurricane season from guest essayist Chris Rose of the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

CHRIS ROSE, New Orleans Times-Picayune: The hurricane season stands in front of New Orleans like a terrorist on the side of the road, burly pack tied to his chest, while we drive straight at him.

Forgive the melodrama, but you`d have to live here to fully understand.

The National Hurricane Center recently tossed these predictions our way: There will be 16 named storms in the Gulf and the Atlantic this season, 10 full-fledged hurricanes, and perhaps six of those will be, quote, "intense."

Whatever label they attached to Katrina, in the final analysis, it was a Category 3 storm that made landfall in Mississippi. The idea that New Orleans` day of reckoning, our 100-year-storm has come and passed is a flighty notion, at best.

Living in New Orleans has always been brutal in summertime. Business and tourism slow to a crawl; conventions head for cooler northern cities; and the deadening heat and humidity create a thick, nearly viscous atmosphere through which to navigate.

But now add the Katrina malaise that leaves us battered each morning before we`ve even had a cup of coffee.

Daily, headlines tell us that we`re not ready, that the Band-Aids on our pumps, levees and flood gates are not yet in place. Call us "The Big Uneasy," a city with a collective case of existential dread.

The slow, sometimes imperceptible ravages of our community will begin again. Businesses that have been limping will fall. Families that are stressed to the breaking point will falter.

Alcohol and drug use are already off the charts here. News of local suicides pepper our daily water-cooler conversations.

The powerful images of this disaster -- helicopters, high water, looters and fires -- are long behind us. Now comes the slow and agonizing psychological plundering of the populace, impossible to capture on film and largely unnoticed outside of this city.

If -- when -- that first call comes to evacuate the city for a hurricane this summer, how many spouses will turn to the other during that tense gridlock, 16-hour drive to Houston and say, "I don`t want to live like this anymore"?

That`s a reasonable line of thinking. And if it is shared widely enough, we`re toast. Many whose homes survived the flood`s ravages are getting out now, all these months later, leaving for sunnier economic or emotional landscapes.

All the money in the world can`t save a city without people committed to making it happen. Tens of thousands still haven`t come back to reclaim their homes or their property, and it seems unlikely that they`ll choose the dead of this summer to do so.

But those of us left will go about the business of living and celebrating our culture in the weeks and months ahead in relative isolation, as our high holy celebrations of Mardi Gras and JazzFest are behind us.

And while we have one eye on the band and on the dance floor, the other will be trained on the weather report on TV, waiting for the news we don`t want to hear, and hoping that that crazy-looking guy on the road ahead is not a harbinger of our doom but just another lost soul who stayed too long for Carnival and is now trying to find his way back home.

I`m Chris Rose.

(BREAK)

JIM LEHRER: First, there were spelling bees, now a contest with poetry. Jeffrey Brown has another in our occasional series on poets and poetry.

(APPLAUSE)

JEFFREY BROWN: This isn`t "American Idol." It`s a poetry competition. High school students from all 50 states and the District of Columbia battling it out in the first Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest.

STUDENT POET: I acknowledge my status as a stranger.

JEFFREY BROWN: It`s a collaboration of the National Endowment for the Arts, state arts agencies, and the Poetry Foundation, the NewsHour`s partner in our poetry project.

ANNOUNCER: Our first prize winner, the champion of Poetry Out Loud...

JEFFREY BROWN: The idea, to build on the success of poetry slams...

STUDENT POET: I`m not much different from the girl in the `hood.

JEFFREY BROWN: ... and rap music...

NOTORIOUS BIG, Rap Artist: Now I`m in the limelight because I rhyme tight.

JEFFREY BROWN: And tap the natural competitiveness of students to bring poetry into the schools in a fresh and exciting way. NEA chairman Dana Gioia is himself an accomplished poet.

DANA GIOIA, Chair, NEA: This is a program which revives a very ancient custom, which is to memorize and recite poems in public, which I think is a great way to learn about literature and it`s a great way to learn about speaking and knowing yourself as a public person.

JEFFREY BROWN: John Barr, a published poet and businessman, is president of the Poetry Foundation.

JOHN BARR, President, The Poetry Foundation: A poem is, first of all, an event of the ear, not of the eye, and that the music of the language is really as much a part of the meaning as the sense of the words.

I want them to take away an appreciation for an intimate engagement with a great work of art. And how often does that opportunity arise in our culture today?

JEFFREY BROWN: For tens of thousands of high school students around the country, Poetry Out Loud began in the early spring.

TEACHER: So you might take a little bit of time to think, "OK, if I`m telling a story, where would I naturally pause more?"

JEFFREY BROWN: We tracked the process in the District of Columbia, starting in the classroom of English teacher Whitney Warren at Banneker High.

STUDENT POET: He said, again, the fences make good neighbors.

JEFFREY BROWN: Last year, one of Warren`s students won a pilot competition for Poetry Out Loud held in Chicago and Washington.

WHITNEY WARREN, Banneker High School: Our students love to perform, and they don`t get a lot of outlets for that. So this gives us a really nice balance and allows them to think of poetry as fun. And, ultimately, that`s where the joy of learning is.

And it blows your mind when you think this is not a pep rally, this is not a ball game. And listen to these kids: They`re cheering. They`re holding up signs. And this is poetry.

JEFFREY BROWN: For some, the enthusiasm spilled over from the classroom to the street.

STUDENT POET: Beware the Jabberwock, my son, the jaws that bite, that claws that catch -- where the Jubjub bird is shunned.

JEFFREY BROWN: From the individual classrooms at Banneker, a panel of teachers pick semi-finalists to compete at the school`s finals. Kofi Afori (ph), a junior, was one of the chosen.

STUDENT POET: The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, came whiffling through the tulgey wood, and burbled as it came. One, two, one, two, and through and through. The vorpal blade went snicker-snack. He left it dead.

JEFFREY BROWN: Here, as around the country, students were judged on pacing...

STUDENT POET: Three, two, one, blast off.

JEFFREY BROWN: ... volume...

STUDENT POET: But he poked out his tongue...

JEFFREY BROWN: ... voice inflection...

STUDENT POET: I know what the cage bird feels.

JEFFREY BROWN: ... posture, presence, and gestures...

STUDENT POET: Ten thousands eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt.

JEFFREY BROWN: ... and, importantly, evidence of understanding. As some found, it`s not easy.

STUDENT POET: Oh, my god. Oh. And while the crowd -- and while the crowed cheered...

JEFFREY BROWN: From 300 students, Leila Pree emerged as Banneker`s winner, reciting "Beautiful Black Men" by Nikki Giovanni.

LEILA PREE, Banneker High School Winner: What I like to hug? Jerry Butler, Wilson Pickett, the Impressions, Temptations, mighty, mighty Sly, don`t have to do anything but walk on stage, and I scream, and I step, and I shout! (inaudible) and breed all in Dashiki suits with shirts that match the lining.

JEFFREY BROWN: And after a short celebration, she began preparing for the next round. Students picked from 350 poems, ranging from classics to contemporary, in the Poetry Out Loud anthology.

LEILA PREE: When I look at a poem, I try to figure out where the author is coming from and how this relates to them, and then I can relate it back to me.

JEFFREY BROWN: The next stop for contestants: state or, in this case, district finals. Katherine Feliz learned English and Spanish as a child when her parents moved to Washington from the Dominican Republic.

KATHERINE FELIZ, Washington, D.C., Winner: Let it be forgotten, as a flower is forgotten. Forgotten is a fire that once was singing gold. Let it be forgotten forever and ever. Time is a kind friend.

JEFFREY BROWN: On this day...

(APPLAUSE)

JEFFREY BROWN: ... it was Katherine, who wants to be a professional singer, who emerged the winner and moved on to her preparation for the national competition.

KATHERINE FELIZ: I speak loudly and clearly so that everyone can hear me.

JEFFREY BROWN: Feliz has been writing her own poetry, as well as reciting, since she was a young child.

KATHERINE FELIZ: Poetry, it can do a lot of things. It can say how you`re feeling. It can say -- it can move people. It can make a person cry, happy, and also it can tell history. I think it just gives out messages, is a powerful way to refer to people`s feelings and expressions.

JEFFREY BROWN: In mid-May, the field of thousands had been cut to 51 who gathered inside Washington`s Lincoln Theater, on a stage that`s featured Duke Ellington and many other greats. One of the judges was E. Ethelbert Miller, a poet based at Howard University.

E. ETHELBERT MILLER, Poet: Maybe because I`m a writer, you know, I`m looking at how a person really, you know, takes the words into themselves. You know, I`m looking at how they digest the words. I`m looking at how the poem is part of their growth.

JEFFREY BROWN: Miller and his fellow judges had a chance to compare various renditions of certain poems. For example, Allen Ginsberg`s "A Supermarket in California."

STUDENT POET: What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman.

STUDENT POET: I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless.

STUDENT POET: Where are we going, Walt Whitman? The doors close in an hour.

JEFFREY BROWN: Jackson Hille, a senior at Columbus Alternative High School in Ohio, wowed the crowd with a recitation of Billy Collins` funny and sad poem about aging called "Forgetfulness."

JACKSON HILLE, Winner, Poetry Out Loud: As if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain to a remote fishing village, where there are no phones.

(LAUGHTER)

Long ago, you kissed the names of the nine muses good-bye and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag. And even now, as you memorize the order of the planets, something else is slipping away, a state flower, perhaps.

(LAUGHTER)

JEFFREY BROWN: And he was declared champion of the first Poetry Out Loud national competition.

ANNOUNCER: The winner of a $20,000 scholarship, Jackson Hille.

(APPLAUSE)

JEFFREY BROWN: Not bad for a high school student, and good money for poetry.

JACKSON HILLE: It`s pretty awesome. I mean, you don`t have something like this come around. I mean, it`s my senior year, my last chance at this, and it was something that just sort of clicked with me. And, I mean, I`ve always believed that every person has that one poem, no matter what they say, that`s going to get them.

JEFFREY BROWN: The organizers now hope that poems will get more and more students as the competition expands and grows in the years ahead.

JIM LEHRER: More on Poetry Out Loud and on our poetry project can be found on our Web site at PBS.org.

(BREAK)

JIM LEHRER: And, again, the major developments of this day. The U.S. military confirmed it cleared American troops of misconduct in the killing of Iraqi civilians last March. The incident happened north of Baghdad. It was unrelated to the Haditha case involving several Marines, which remains under investigation.

And the president of Iran insisted his country has the right to nuclear technology.

(BREAK)

JIM LEHRER: And, once again, to our honor roll of American service personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. We add them as their deaths are made official and photographs become available. Here, in silence, are 14 more.

"Washington Week" can be seen on most PBS stations later this evening. We`ll see you online and again here Monday evening. Have a nice weekend. I`m Jim Lehrer. Thank you, and good night.