The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

JUDY WOODRUFF: Good evening. I`m Judy Woodruff. Jim Lehrer is away.

On the NewsHour tonight: the news of this Monday; then, an update from Iraq on the troop surge and today`s anti-American demonstrations from Ed Wong of the New York Times; two views of President Bush`s plan to overhaul immigration laws; a NewsHour report about the high cost of government contracts to provide housing following Hurricane Katrina; and a Media Unit look at the uproar over radio host Don Imus` racially charged remarks.

(BREAK)

JUDY WOODRUFF: Thousands of Shiites protested in Iraq today, demanding U.S. forces leave. The protests marked the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad.

Large crowds marched peacefully through Kufa and Najaf, two Shiite holy cities south of the capital. Demonstrators waved Iraqi flags and carried banners. The rally in Najaf was organized by the cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Another Shiite leader spoke on his behalf.

ABDUL HADI AL MUHAMMAD AWI, Shiite Cleric (through translator): In your name, oh, believers, in your name, oh, patient people, in your name, oh, fighters, we call for the withdrawal of the occupier and the withdrawal of the last American soldier. We also refuse the continued presence of any kind of military base in this country of believers.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Yesterday, al-Sadr called for his Mahdi Army to rise up against U.S. forces.

Ten U.S. soldiers were killed over the weekend in Iraq. That makes 35 in the first nine days of this month.

But the marine commandant, General James Conway, said efforts to pacify western Iraq have, quote, "turned the corner." We`ll have more on the protests and the violence in Iraq right after this news summary.

In southern Afghanistan, roadside bombings killed seven NATO soldiers on Sunday. Six were Canadians who died in a single attack. It was Canada`s worst combat loss since the Korean War. The seventh soldier was killed in a separate blast.

Iran proclaimed today it has begun making nuclear fuel on an "industrial scale." President Ahmadinejad announced it during a ceremony at the uranium enrichment site in Natanz. He insisted again the program is for peaceful purposes, but he added a warning.

MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, President of Iran (through translator): They should know that the path of the Iranian nation has no return. The Iranian nation has so far behaved, based on the rules and regulations they have issued themselves, and has gone on a peaceful path, and is still keen to continue in the same way, not to take measures that make us revise our behavior.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Later, Iran`s top nuclear negotiator said the country now has some 3,000 centrifuges in place to enrich uranium. That would be an almost ten-fold expansion, in defiance of a U.N. order to stop.

In Washington, a State Department spokesman called the Iranian move a "missed opportunity" for further talks.

Plans to shut down North Korea`s main nuclear reactor were in doubt today. U.S. diplomats said a dispute over frozen funds had not been resolved. The North Koreans have agreed to close the reactor by next Saturday, but only if they get the money.

Today, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and a U.S. delegation met with the top North Korean negotiator. The Democratic presidential candidate pressed for action.

The sole woman among the British sailors and marines seized by Iran spoke out today. Faye Turney gave a paid interview to the British broadcaster ITV-1, with military approval. She spoke of being held captive for 14 days and of writing letters that condemned U.S. and British policy.

LEADING SEAMAN FAY TURNEY, Royal Navy: When they wanted me to write what was written by the British American troops, I felt like a traitor to my own country. I had no choice. If I didn`t comply, I was looking at being charged with being a spy.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Another sailor in the group also gave an interview today. Afterward, the British military reversed itself and banned all servicemembers from taking pay for interviews.

The price of oil plunged today, as tensions between Britain and Iran eased. It was down more than 4 percent in New York trading, or nearly $2.80. It finished at just over $61.50 a barrel.

President Bush touted tougher border security today. He traveled to Yuma, Arizona, in a bid to boost his immigration plan. Mr. Bush called for Congress to let illegal immigrants get work visas and eventually become citizens. We`ll have more on the immigration story later in the program tonight.

Wal-Mart has won a gag order against a fired worker who charged that the company spied on critics. Security operative Bruce Gabbard accuses Wal-Mart of conducting surveillance of employees, reporters and others. In a new lawsuit, the company charges that Gabbard stole trade secrets. It seeks unspecified damages.

On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained nearly nine points to close at 12,569. The Nasdaq fell two points to close at 2,469.

The creator of the "B.C." comic strip, Johnny Hart, has died. He had a stroke on Saturday at his home in Nineveh, New York. In 1958, Hart launched "B.C.", with cavemen as the characters. It eventually ran in more than 1,300 newspapers. Later, he co-founded "The Wizard of Id," another staple in the funny papers. Johnny Hart was 76 years old.

That`s it for the news summary tonight. Now: the surge, the soldiers and anti-American protests in Baghdad; temporary workers and border security; complaints about contracts after Katrina; and Don Imus` offensive words.

(BREAK)

JUDY WOODRUFF: More American troops on the streets of Baghdad; more Iraqis on the streets of Najaf protesting the U.S. occupation. We have a report from Edward Wong of the New York Times in Baghdad. Margaret Warner talked with him earlier this evening.

MARGARET WARNER: Ed Wong, welcome back.

We understand that the fourth anniversary of Baghdad`s fall went pretty unremarked in the city itself, but it was quite different in the city of Najaf to the south.

EDWARD WONG, New York Times: That`s right. Today in Najaf, there were tens of thousands, at least, of people marching in support of Muqtada al-Sadr`s call to end the American occupation.

Mr. Sadr put out a statement yesterday criticizing the Americans, and then he called for thousands of people to come to Najaf. There were some estimates that there might be as many as half a million people there, and basically they walked through the streets carrying Iraqi flags and telling the Americans to leave.

MARGARET WARNER: Well, Ed, U.S. and Iraqi officials had believed that Sadr was telling his Mahdi Army to lie low during the new Baghdad security push. What do they think he`s up to now?

EDWARD WONG: Well, it`s still unclear, because no one knows where Sadr is and no one knows what his true motivations are. A few weeks ago, the U.S. was telling us that they believed he was in Iran.

Today, I spoke to one officer who didn`t want to say where they thought he was. And Sadr`s own office isn`t telling us, either.

So we can only look at what`s going on, on the surface, and try and guess, you know, make a guess as to his intentions. What we`re seeing is a huge protest in Najaf, and the protest isn`t violent. There were not people taking up arms or shooting in the air during this march.

Instead, it was very peaceful. It was very well-disciplined. And so we can only guess that, at this current time, Sadr is still content with playing his role as politician. He might have elements that are carrying on violence, but on the surface he wants to remain a politician.

MARGARET WARNER: But now, isn`t his Mahdi Army fighting the U.S.-led forces in Diwaniya?

EDWARD WONG: That`s correct. There has been battles going on for three, four days now, starting Friday in Diwaniya. And basically what had happened was the U.S. and the Iraqi army decided to seal off certain neighborhoods in Diwaniya at the request of the governor and the provincial council.

They were saying that there were too many militiamen there, there were lots of killings, lots of robberies, lots of abductions. And we`re hearing that residents of Diwaniya were also sick of this. They also wanted some action against these militiamen.

Now, it`s unclear whether these cells in Diwaniya are being controlled by Sadr, whether they actually answer to him, or whether they`re being controlled by other commanders out there in the field. Yesterday, Sadr issued a statement basically telling the Mahdi Army cells in Diwaniya to stop fighting with the Iraqi army soldiers there. But so far, no one has listened to that; the fighting is still going on.

MARGARET WARNER: Now, there`s been a big -- there is a big debate here in Washington about whether the new security push in Baghdad is really making life better there. You`ve done an analysis, really looking at the numbers. What have you found?

EDWARD WONG: Well, there`s no clear picture right now on what`s going on with the surge. Basically, the picture is still one of massive violence throughout large parts of Iraq.

In Baghdad specifically, what we`ve seen is there is a certain type of violence, which is basically execution-style killings dropping, according to stats from the American military. The military says that these types of killings dropped by 26 percent from February to March.

But at the same time, they stated overall Iraqi casualty numbers have not dropped, either in Baghdad or in the country as a whole, mostly because there are lots of devastating car bombings and suicide bombings throughout the capital and throughout Iraq.

We`ve seen a lot of the violence push out to other parts of Iraq. There`s been chlorine gas bombs in parts of Anbar province, for example. Militants in Diyala province have been burning down homes and driving Sunnis and Shiites from neighborhoods.

And then we saw a massive truck bombing in Tal Afar last month that killed at least 152 people. And some American commanders in neighborhoods in Baghdad say that they`re starting to see some signs of the sectarian killings creeping back up again.

MARGARET WARNER: And then what about during these seven weeks of the so-called surge, what about for U.S. troops?

EDWARD WONG: The casualties of U.S. troops in Baghdad have spiked. They`re double what they -- in the last seven weeks, they`ve been double what they were in the seven weeks before that.

Partly we think that that`s because there are more U.S. troops here in Baghdad, and they`re exposing themselves more. They`re being put out on more patrols. They`re doing more foot patrols, more vehicle patrols. They`re supposed to get out there into the streets, try and provide an air of security to the Iraqis.

And also insurgents may have decided to target them more in Baghdad because they know that this has become the main effort of the U.S. military.

We`ve seen troop casualties or fatalities drop in some other parts of Iraq, such as Anbar province. So, overall in Iraq, the fatality numbers have stayed roughly the same.

MARGARET WARNER: Now, you went last week out to one of these outposts in Baghdad, went out on patrol with one of these units. What did you find, in terms of the interactions between them and the Iraqi population?

EDWARD WONG: I went out on several foot patrols with both Kurdish units and American units when I was out at this outpost, and it was interesting, because what struck me was that a lot of the tactics that they were doing now were tried back in 2003 and in early 2004.

I mean, back then, you couldn`t go anywhere in Baghdad without encountering American convoys, without seeing American soldiers on the corners. They were everywhere throughout the city. It definitely felt like an occupied city at that point.

Then, the American military started pulling back into these big bases, and that was when sectarian violence really exploded. And now they`re trying to get back out into the neighborhoods again.

So I watched these American soldiers talking to families, trying to go into living rooms, gather intelligence from the families. And in many cases, it seemed a little bit awkward to me. There was this disconnect, I think, partly because of language, partly because the soldiers walked in with so many weapons and so much armor.

And here you have these Iraqi families there who were finishing dinner or trying to settle in for the night. These soldiers come in. They asked them about activity in the neighborhoods. And then the families looked a little nervous, and then the soldiers would leave.

MARGARET WARNER: You also wrote last week about one Sunni woman who did turn to the U.S. forces for help and paid a price.

EDWARD WONG: That`s right. It was a woman I had met named Suaada Saadoun. And I had met her when she had called some Kurdish soldiers for help, because she was being evicted from her home by two Shiite men who claimed they were from the ministry of finance.

And she had called both the Americans and the Kurds that afternoon. They had come, arrested the two men, said that these were most likely fake papers that the men were holding and then taking the men away to a detention center.

But the next day, the woman was gunned down in a marketplace. And then her family did eventually end up moving out of that home the morning after her death.

So, in a way, whatever militia was operating in that neighborhood, it was clearly a Shiite militia who had done their job in getting this family to move.

And that`s still happening throughout Baghdad, this displacement based on sectarian identity. It`s been one of the biggest problems for the Americans and for many Iraqis during this civil war. And we`re seeing Americans trying to control it, but it`s very, very difficult to do that.

MARGARET WARNER: All right, Ed Wong of the New York Times, thanks so much.

EDWARD WONG: Thanks, Margaret.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: Next, President Bush makes another push to reform immigration. Ray Suarez has that story.

RAY SUAREZ: Since last July, some 6,000 National Guardsmen have been deployed along the nation`s southern border, helping Border Patrol agents stem the tide of illegal crossings from Mexico.

The guardsmen and women are part of Operation Jumpstart, a Bush administration program the president praised this morning during his tour of the border near Yuma, Arizona.

GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States: The men have reported that the number of arrests are down, which is an indication that fewer people are trying to cross the border at this part of along the border. So we`re making some pretty good progress.

RAY SUAREZ: In fact, apprehensions at the border during the last six months were down about 30 percent from the same period a year earlier.

In addition to increased fence construction along the border, the administration has added Border Patrol agents, beefed up aerial surveillance, installed sophisticated cameras and sensors, and built border fortifications, like this project meant to stop cars from crossing off- road, along with new skyboxes, portable watchtowers loaded with hi-tech surveillance equipment.

The NewsHour talked to Staff Sergeant Dan Heaton of the Michigan Air National Guard during its deployment late last year.

DAN HEATON, Michigan Air National Guard: If somebody sees that the border is being guarded, the border is being defended, and they decide not to cross, you know, we`ll view that as a success. It`s difficult to quantify it, but clearly that`s a success.

RAY SUAREZ: But during remarks delivered outside the Yuma border patrol station, the president said the border won`t be fully secure unless Congress overhauls the nation`s immigration laws. Key to his plan: a guest-worker program granting undocumented workers temporary permission to work in the U.S.

GEORGE W. BUSH: And that way, our Border Patrol can chase the criminals and the drug runners, potential terrorists, and not have to try to chase people who are coming here to do work America`s not doing.

RAY SUAREZ: As for the estimated 11 million already in the country illegally, they would be required to return to their home countries, get in line behind people already in the process, and pay hefty fines before they could become legal U.S. residents.

That proposal met opposition over the weekend, as thousands marched through Los Angeles, spurred in part by what they called "a betrayal by Mr. Bush," who last year supported a bill that would have allowed illegal immigrants to remain in the U.S. while they applied for citizenship.

However, a majority of House Republicans and several in the Senate helped scuttle that bill, calling it amnesty for lawbreakers.

Despite early signs that Republican opposition to the president`s guest-worker idea has only grown, Mr. Bush told his congressional allies to take another look.

GEORGE W. BUSH: It`s important for people not to give up, no matter how hard it looks from a legislative perspective. It`s important that we get a bill done.

RAY SUAREZ: The Senate is expected to take up immigration reform next month.

Now, two views on the president`s attempt to jump start immigration reform in the Congress. One comes from Gabrielle Giffords, a first-term Democrat in the House of Representatives. She joins us from Tucson, Arizona.

And from J.D. Hayworth, a Republican who served 12 years in the House before his re-election defeat last November. He joins us from Phoenix.

Representative Giffords, the president had two main messages today in Yuma, one, that the new border measures were working, two, that they were incomplete without a package that takes into account his immigration reform proposals. Is he right?

REP. GABRIELLE GIFFORDS (D), Arizona: I believe the president is 100 percent correct talking about, first and foremost, the importance of securing our borders.

Chief David Aguilar, the head of the Border Patrol, and I spent some time in a helicopter just a couple of days ago touring the 115-mile stretch of my district, which is one of the very few U.S.-Mexico border districts. We need to have multiple layers of enforcement on the border.

But to do all of that and not to have a comprehensive immigration reform bill that comes out of Congress within the next couple of months is going to really disrupt our economy here in the United States. It truly has to be comprehensive. We have to address border security, but we have to also look at the economic realities of our nation, as well.

RAY SUAREZ: Mr. Hayworth, the president has moved a little bit since his proposals of last year. Is he closer to J.D. Hayworth today?

J.D. HAYWORTH (R), Former U.S. Representative: Ray, I don`t believe so. And I listened with interest to Gabby`s evaluation of what is transpiring.

Essentially, sadly, in a time of war, the dynamic needs to be this: number one, enforcement first. The president, Gabby and I all agree on border security. Where there is a disconnection is at this insistence that, simultaneously, we`ll secure the border and at the same time institute a guest-worker program, which I still believe contains many aspects of what could be deemed as amnesty.

I don`t believe it will stop the flow. And I believe the irony is, for a wartime commander-in-chief, to leave as his historical legacy an undying commitment to open borders, instead of following enforcement first, that`s why you`re seeing such widespread dissatisfaction.

Unfortunately, there is an essential distrust that we will move to enforce the border first, at a time of war, that is both regrettable and unconscionable.

RAY SUAREZ: Representative Giffords, speak to that point, will you, that, first, border security, as Mr. Hayworth points out, should be handled without the concentration on regularizing the status of people or addressing the status of people who are in the country illegally.

REP. GABRIELLE GIFFORDS: Well, the chief of the Border Patrol just last week at Ellis Island during a hearing talked about the fact that 90 percent of the people that are coming here are coming here for economic reasons. That means that there`s jobs available here, my farmers, my ranchers, folks in the construction industry.

Arizona is now the fastest-growing state in the nation, and there are jobs out there that we do not have workers for.

This bill is tough, practical and effective. This bill, meaning the STRIVE Act, which I`m proud to be a cosponsor, along with a fellow Republican colleague, Jeff Flake, from the Phoenix area.

This bill puts sanctions on employers who are knowingly hiring people here illegally. There`s more border enforcement. There`s a temporary visa program for high-tech workers, also for folks that are taking agricultural jobs and lower-skill-type jobs. And there`s also a realistic plan to deal with the 11 million people who are here illegally.

This bill is not amnesty. I don`t support amnesty. My district doesn`t support amnesty. The president doesn`t support amnesty. That`s what President Ronald Reagan granted back in 1986. The bill that we`re working on here in Congress does not do those things.

RAY SUAREZ: Well, Mr. Hayworth, what about the economic point that Representative Giffords is making, that it`s one thing to secure the border, but you also need the supply of labor that`s needed in a place like Arizona and a lot of the places where illegal immigrants are heading to work?

J.D. HAYWORTH: Well, I believe I just have a fundamental disagreement and it comes from this fact. I was pleased and proud to serve 12 years. When I took the oath of office, I understood that my first commitment was to protecting the American people for national security.

And, look, I believe in pro-growth economic plans. And I listened with interest to Gabby`s assessment, because I`m sure I could find some skilled laborers, some carpenters and others, who are out of work because they`ve essentially been undercut in the job market with the influx of illegal labor.

But the fact remains that, first, foremost and always, border security is national security. And I will tell you, Ray, I will tell you, Gabby, it`s the equivalent of whistling past the graveyard if we try to subsume national security to temporary economic policy, because that is a prescription for disaster.

If we have learned nothing in the post-9/11 world, if we fail to take into account the numbers of people we have picked up, those who have come from the Middle East, assuming Hispanic surnames, attempting to have a workable knowledge of Spanish so as to blend in with the masses from Mexico, if we fail to take that into account, then I shudder to think of the consequences.

RAY SUAREZ: Representative Giffords, can you serve all these masters, keep the country safe, secure the border, make sure there`s a steady supply of labor, and keep track of the people that want to gain entry on temporary work permits?

REP. GABRIELLE GIFFORDS: Well, certainly, it`s easy to throw out sound bites, and it`s certainly easy to rile the fears and anxieties that we have in our country over a whole host of different issues.

I had a hearing just last week in Saladitha (ph), which is a border community here in southern Arizona. We had folks such as the Minutemen show up, along with folks from the faith-based communities, like Humane Borders, come. And we had a several-hour discussion, along with representatives of the Border Patrol, to talk about some of the real challenges that we have here on the border.

Yes, the number of entrants being apprehended is down. Last year, the Tucson sector apprehended about 450,000 people coming illegally. But actually the drugs are increasing, 37 percent increase from last year, of over 600,000 pounds of marijuana, Tucson being a major clearinghouse for those drugs.

So we had a chance to talk about the enforcement. We heard from farmers, and ranchers, and the businesses about the challenges that a guest-worker program and a visa process would certainly take into consideration. And we had a chance to hear, also, about the real humane aspects of people that are dying in the deserts, as well.

This is a very complicated problem. The last Congress failed to deal effectively with the immigration crisis. And that is why it is important for this Congress, Democrats and Republicans working together, along with the leadership of the president -- and I`m really pleased to see him in Yuma -- step up and do the right thing in overhauling our immigration laws.

RAY SUAREZ: J.D. Hayworth, the president shifted a little bit by adding the so-called touchback provision that would make it necessary for people to return to their native country in order to begin the process of entering the country illegally. That had been a sticking point with your caucus in the last Congress.

Is that enough? Will he get more Republican support by making sure that`s in a new bill?

J.D. HAYWORTH: Well, again, it begs this basic question, Ray. If people aren`t obeying existing laws because those laws are not being enforced, what makes us think they`re going to obey any new laws with or without a touchback provision?

And I might add, to actually evaluate and see if, in fact, people are engaged in the touchback will require the mother of all bureaucracies. Far better to enforce the law first, to send a clear signal, both for national security and for humanitarian reasons, so that those are not tempted to cross the border.

And we might also point out, in terms of national security, just a few weeks ago, if memory serves, I believe in Sasabe, Arizona, where some of the National Guardsmen manning an observation post were overrun and outgunned essentially by Mexican drug runners.

We have a very serious situation on the border. The problem, in fact, is compounded by the presence of National Guard units who are not engaged in their own force protection. In fact, they`re depending on the Border Patrol for force protection. They`re there primarily for clerical work and observation.

For all the reasons, but paramount being national security, we must move to enforce the laws first. Failure to do so sends the wrong signal, not only to those who wish to come across our border -- albeit illegally -- but also to our enemies abroad.

RAY SUAREZ: Earlier in the discussion, Representative Giffords, you mentioned that this is not an amnesty bill. And, sure enough, there is a sizable fine, if you want to leave the country and begin the process of coming back in illegally. Will people really leave, if they have to pay a $10,000 fine, in order to get in status, get legal?

REP. GABRIELLE GIFFORDS: Yes, the fine isn`t quite $10,000. I believe that people don`t want to break the law. The majority of people who come here come here seeking a better life. The majority of people coming here are working, doing a lot of jobs that Americans just don`t want to do.

I think about my farmers out in Sunflights (ph) and Willcox and these rural areas. It`s really tough to find people that want to do those agricultural jobs.

So I think, when people start seeing the process, that they can apply for a temporary visa program, that they`ll have to learn to speak English, have civics education, go through criminal background checks, pay fees and fines, have to leave the country to apply, and then they`re going to start at the end of the line, again, not like what President Ronald Reagan granted, where millions of people jumped the line after 1986. This bill, the STRIVE Act, is different.

And I think people do want to comply with the law. People don`t want to live in the shadows. And, again, we can either continue to put our heads in the sand and pretend there`s not a problem, or we can aggressively and actively deal with this problem. And that`s what I intend to do representing the southern Arizona district.

RAY SUAREZ: J.D. Hayworth, I only have time for a very quick response.

J.D. HAYWORTH: Well, I just believe it`s important to understand this: If people are not obeying existing laws, what makes us think they`re going to obey any new laws? The way you get people to obey the law is to enforce the law.

And it does not come about with so-called comprehensive immigration reform, which essentially tries to marry two issues or put the cart before the horse, in terms of allowing illegals to stay, oh, and, yes, simultaneously enforcing the law. That is a dangerously mixed and ineffective signal in an increasingly dangerous world.

RAY SUAREZ: J.D. Hayworth, Representative Giffords, thank you both.

REP. GABRIELLE GIFFORDS: Thank you.

J.D. HAYWORTH: Thank you.

(BREAK)

JUDY WOODRUFF: Coming up: the furor over Don Imus` comments about black women basketball players and the high cost of federal spending after Hurricane Katrina. Jeffrey Kaye of KCET-Los Angeles has a case study, the use of private contractors for housing on the Gulf Coast.

JEFFREY KAYE, Reporter, KCET: Across southern Mississippi, some 27,000 trailers and mobile homes still house people displaced by Hurricane Katrina. The homes are a reminder, not only of the storm`s lingering impact, but of the continuing controversy over post-Katrina federal spending.

Complaints about costs began right after Katrina, when FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, paid billions of dollars to buy and install 150,000 trailers throughout the Gulf Coast. Now, there`s a new concern about the expense of maintaining trailers that are vacant.

MAYOR AARON LOTT, Lumberton, Mississippi: There`s one right back there.

JEFFREY KAYE: Aaron Lott, mayor of Lumberton, Mississippi, says three of the 27 FEMA trailers in his small town are deserted.

MAYOR AARON LOTT: The maintenance contractor for the last eight months has not bothered to call FEMA and say, "There`s no resident living in this camper." It don`t even have water and power.

JEFFREY KAYE: There are at least 1,000 abandoned FEMA trailers in Mississippi, but there`s little financial incentive to haul them away quickly, because the companies that do the towing also get monthly maintenance fees.

BARRY BARIA, Former FEMA Inspector: It`s pretty easy to tell sometimes when the trailer`s abandoned, and they should report it, but they don`t, because they get paid per trailer.

JEFFREY KAYE: Until recently, Barry Baria worked as a FEMA inspector.

BARRY BARIA: ... windows busted out in them. They`ve still got the preventative maintenance stuck in the door.

JEFFREY KAYE: Preventative maintenance what?

BARRY BARIA: That`s their form they fill out. Yes, they have to leave a copy of it in the door.

JEFFREY KAYE: To say that they actually did it?

BARRY BARIA: Right.

JEFFREY KAYE: After Katrina, FEMA awarded no-bid trailer contracts to four well-connected companies. FEMA gave the Mississippi contract to the Bechtel Corporation, one of the largest engineering, construction and project management companies in the world.

REP. GENE TAYLOR (D), Mississippi: They did a crummy job, and they can`t tell me otherwise because I`m from here.

JEFFREY KAYE: Democratic Congressman Gene Taylor is building a new house on the property in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, where his old home, destroyed by Katrina, once stood. He`s been a dogged critic of Bechtel.

REP. GENE TAYLOR: I know the people that were hurt by their lack of actions, and I know how much money they squandered that could have been done a heck of a lot cheaper, and they`ll never convince me otherwise.

JEFFREY KAYE: Taylor says FEMA gave Bechtel a cost-plus contract, which pays for expenses and overruns and offers no motivation to minimize costs.

REP. GENE TAYLOR: The more money they spend, the more people they hire, the more needless layers of bureaucracy they put in there, they get paid a profit on top of every expenditure they run up.

CLIFF MUMM, Bechtel Corp.: Bottom line, we`re absolutely proud of the work we do.

JEFFREY KAYE: Cliff Mumm is a Bechtel senior vice president based in Maryland. Bechtel`s total bill came to nearly $500 million. Mumm says FEMA approved all expenses.

CLIFF MUMM: We`re paid based on supported and certified invoices; that is, we have to have timesheets and money spent. And, you know, and then we have to certify that it`s correct.

JEFFREY KAYE: Many residents of Mississippi are thankful for the roofs over their heads.

SOLEDAD MOLINA, Hurricane Katrina Victim: To this day, I`m grateful. I can`t really say we`re not, because, you know, I`m absolutely sure that they tried the best they could.

JEFFREY KAYE: But they wonder about the cost, saying they were surprised that Bechtel hired so many people.

SOLEDAD MOLINA: There was seven men to build these guys.

JEFFREY KAYE: Seven men to build these steps?

SOLEDAD MOLINA: Seven men. At each side, you would see seven men working at it.

JEFFREY KAYE: So how many do you figure this could haul?

Robert Jackson, Jr., hauled trailers for Bechtel subcontractors.

ROBERT JACKSON, Construction Worker: It was six or eight guys on that set-up, to set up a trailer. It don`t take but two guys to set a trailer up. That`s all it takes.

JEFFREY KAYE: In seven months, Bechtel set up some 35,000 trailers and a housing application system. The company employed 75 subcontractors; they, in turn, often took fees for hiring their own subs. Before he worked for FEMA, Baria was a trailer inspector for a subcontractor to a subcontractor.

And you get left with what?

BARRY BARIA: Ten dollars a trailer.

JEFFREY KAYE: And for ten dollars a trailer to do preventative maintenance, was everyone actually doing that? Or were they paid...

BARRY BARIA: No, there were several instances where people were not doing the job. They would just forge peoples` names on documents, saying that they`d been to the trailer and not even go the trailer, so I`m not really sure. There was no system in place, really, to make sure that I was doing my job.

JEFFREY KAYE: Higher up the food chain, subcontractors for Bechtel say they also experienced inefficiency. Aaron Lott, a builder as well as a part-time mayor, is the business manager for a Bechtel subcontractor that installed just over 25 percent of the Mississippi trailers for Bechtel.

AARON LOTT, Hensley R. Lee Constructing: I think we wound up doing over about 9,000, total.

JEFFREY KAYE: Lott says, of the $15,000 a trailer FEMA paid Bechtel on average, Bechtel paid his company about $3,000 a trailer.

AARON LOTT: It seemed like every one of them had worked on a nuclear power project somewhere. So we went and met with them. Very, very courteous, generous folks, but they -- you know, I don`t know how to build a nuclear power plant, and they don`t know how to sell or set up campers. So we explained to them what to do, and we got the mission started.

CLIFF MUMM: We`re used to mobilizing quickly and doing very diverse projects. But I think the proof of our value added, one thing is that this was the fastest -- not only our fastest mobilization, but this was the fastest delivery of homes and the fastest response in Mississippi in FEMA`s entire history.

JEFFREY KAYE: Bechtel says that they put in trailers in record time. They`d never...

AARON LOTT: No, the subcontractors put in the trailers. The people that were used were already in place and had already done FEMA work.

JEFFREY KAYE: You`re saying they`re taking credit for work that you did?

AARON LOTT: That`s correct.

JEFFREY KAYE: Government oversight officials have also criticized FEMA for failing to adequately monitor contractors. FEMA had just 17 staff people overseeing the $3.4 billion worth of trailer contracts and subcontracts throughout the Gulf Coast.

A top FEMA officially recently acknowledged the Bechtel contract was wrong and costly, but the agency`s director of acquisition for Gulf Coast recovery, Tina Burnette, says Bechtel was paid a fair and reasonable price.

TINA BURNETTE, FEMA: I do not believe that there was waste. I have not uncovered waste. Do I think that we could do things better in the future in a competitive fashion? Of course.

JEFFREY KAYE: Burnette agrees FEMA had an insufficient number of monitors right after Katrina, but says the agency now has 40 contracting officers instead of 17.

TINA BURNETTE: We`ve since then set up a program management office in both the Gulf Coast, as well as Washington, D.C., for future disasters.

JEFFREY KAYE: In March 2006, the Bechtel contract wound down. And FEMA, stung by criticism of the no-bid contracts, changed its approach. It took competitive bids and, in Mississippi, awarded trailer contracts to nine companies instead of just one.

The firms are paid to maintain trailers and to decommission unneeded ones, to disconnect, clean, and haul them away. FEMA`s new trailer contractors are, as Bechtel did, farming out much of the work to subcontractors, people such as Tara and James Burkhalter. The Burkhalters, like others at the bottom of the food chain, accuse those in the middle of profiteering.

TARA BURKHALTER, Hurricane Katrina Victim: This is what the de-act was, $350, and to clean the unit was $100.

JEFFREY KAYE: For each trailer "de-act," deactivation, which they did with their own equipment, the Burkhalters received $450. The contractors received between $1,000 and $1,200 per trailer.

JAMES BURKHALTER, Hurricane Katrina Victim: The general contractors were the ones that made the money. For faxing us a sheet of paper, they were making somewhere in the neighborhood of $700. All they`ve seen of the camper was a piece of paper that they faxed that cost 35 cents to fax.

JEFFREY KAYE: The U.S. Department of Labor says it is investigating six of the nine companies awarded deactivation contracts. It won`t give details; FEMA says the investigations are routine.

With diminishing numbers of trailers to maintain and to haul off, FEMA is now re-competing the contracts and plans to pare 10 existing contracts down to five.

None of the current contractors would be interviewed on camera. Their work includes hauling thousands of used trailers to storage sites. FEMA says part of its planning for future disasters is to re-use these units.

The agency has also had competitive bidding for future temporary housing. Of the six contractors that won an initial competition, four were the same companies that received no-bid contracts right after Katrina. Among them, the Bechtel Corporation.

(BREAK)

JUDY WOODRUFF: Finally tonight, crossing the line on-air. Jeffrey Brown has a Media Unit look at the controversy surrounding radio host Don Imus.

JEFFREY BROWN: Every weekday morning, Don Imus holds forth on the air, mixing interviews and opinions, on the news, politics and whatever grabs him that day.

Millions tune in on the radio. Imus` show is broadcast on more than 70 stations nationwide. Another 350,000 or so watch as the program is simulcast on the MSNBC cable network.

But a racially charged exchange with one of his on-air sidekicks last week has sparked outrage and calls for his ouster. The subject: the almost-entirely African-American Rutgers University women`s basketball team, which played in the NCAA championship game.

DON IMUS, Radio Host: That`s some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos and

BERNARD MCGUIRK, Radio Co-Host: Some hard-core hos.

DON IMUS: That`s some nappy-headed hos there, I`m going to tell you that now.

JEFFREY BROWN: Imus initially downplayed the comments as typical of his morning show banter, but by Friday he was apologizing. And this morning, with criticism growing, he made a much longer statement.

DON IMUS: I wasn`t drunk. I`m not some angry, raving nut on a nightclub stage, and I`m not a bad person. I`m a good person. But I said a bad thing. But these young women deserve to know that it was not said with malice.

JEFFREY BROWN: There have been many calls for Imus` firing, among them the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who said this incident was not the first for Imus and crew.

REVEREND JESSE JACKSON, Civil Rights Activist: They`ve made these kind of racist statements about Maya Angelou. They`ve made them referring to Venus and Serena Williams as the animals, they should be in "National Geographic."

JEFFREY BROWN: In another often quoted incident, Imus is reported to have said of the NewsHour`s Gwen Ifill, when she worked at the New York Times in the 1990s, "Isn`t the Times wonderful? It lets the cleaning lady cover the White House."

Imus today denied ever saying that.

This afternoon, Imus appeared on the Reverend Al Sharpton`s radio program. Sharpton had also called for Imus to be fired.

DON IMUS: Don`t you think I`m humiliated? Don`t you think I`m embarrassed?

JEFFREY BROWN: Over the years, Imus has cultivated not only a large radio following, but an influential audience among high-profile politicians and journalists. He often hosts the people making and covering the news.

DON IMUS: Jim Lehrer is the executive director...

JEFFREY BROWN: The NewsHour`s Jim Lehrer and Judy Woodruff have made appearances on the program.

As it happens, two of our own NewsHour regulars have different takes on this story. Clarence Page, one of our essayists, is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune. He stopped appearing on the Imus program in 2000.

And Tom Oliphant, who often sits in on our Friday political wrap, is a columnist for the Boston Globe. He appeared with Don Imus just this morning.

Welcome, gentlemen.

CLARENCE PAGE, Chicago Tribune: Thank you.

JEFFREY BROWN: Clarence, why did you stop appearing on the Imus program?

CLARENCE PAGE: Well, it`s easy. He stopped calling. The last time I was on the show, I elicited a pledge from Don and listing about six or seven different offenses at that time, including the Gwen Ifill episode, and elicited a pledge from him, without any resistance, that he would avoid that sort of behavior.

He denied making half of them, but made the similar kind of statement about, you know, "I`m not a racist, blah, blah, blah." And I took him at his word. And we went on with the interview, and then he hasn`t called me back since.

And so it makes it very easy for me to say now that I wouldn`t be comfortable being on his program now, considering his falling off the wagon, if you will, from the pledge he took.

JEFFREY BROWN: What do you think should happen to him now? Should he be fired?

CLARENCE PAGE: I think he ought to be treated like any other shock jock in America. Don likes to have it both ways. He likes to be a shock jock for 20 minutes and then a reputable interviewer of pundits and we members of the chattering classes, and then he goes back to the shock jock material, with Brian McGuirk and other folks there, yukking it up.

And that`s how they go off the rails every so often, with statements like this "nappy-headed hos" business. I know other stations -- everybody know by now, some shock jock who lost his job for less than this, or been at least suspended for a month or two. Why does Don, a repeat offender, keep getting away with it? I want to know.

JEFFREY BROWN: Tom?

TOM OLIPHANT, Columnist, Boston Globe: You know, actually, Clarence doesn`t do himself justice. I mean, you made Don Imus raise his hand and swear, "I will not."

CLARENCE PAGE: It was an ambush.

JEFFREY BROWN: OK, but he swore, and then he did what he did. And you went on his program today.

TOM OLIPHANT: Right, and I don`t think he should be fired in the absence of clear and convincing evidence of animus, because unless we have standards for our culture, if we get into this area, I worry that almost automatic "screw up and you`re fired" ideas will not teach the country anything.

And the most important thing is that people, if we have an opportunity through this, to teach people just how inexcusably horrible what Don said was. And one of the things that I take hope from is that the person who is most chagrined, down to his tootsies, I`d say, is Don Imus himself.

JEFFREY BROWN: So you think, if he goes out and he apologizes...

TOM OLIPHANT: No, that`s not enough.

JEFFREY BROWN: That`s not enough?

TOM OLIPHANT: And I don`t think he thinks that`s enough. I told him this morning -- I think he had to realize two things.

First of all, the incredible pain he inflicted on those amazing athletes from Rutgers and their coach. I mean, getting almost to the NCAA championship, and then being dissed like that is a horrible thing. The reaction to it has been great hurt and shock in New Jersey. And that`s number one.

Number two is I think he has to understand -- I tried to get him to imagine an 8-year-old kid in the car being driven to school by his mom or dad and hearing this on the radio, and turning to mom and dad, and asking, "What`s that?" And that`s how it starts. That`s how a kid feels the sting of this first.

So there`s a lot to understand. But the reason that I think he`s worth it is that there`s a person in there whose place in the public square is worth struggling to save.

JEFFREY BROWN: But if you go on the program...

TOM OLIPHANT: Yes.

JEFFREY BROWN: ... are you not giving some legitimacy to, as Clarence said, the other side of Imus?

TOM OLIPHANT: Yes, I don`t think there`s any question that that`s true.

JEFFREY BROWN: That`s true.

TOM OLIPHANT: And it is a responsibility that I feel. And it is why you try, you know, in any setting you`re in, in the public square, you try to conduct yourself -- yourself -- in as honorable a way as you can.

I don`t consider myself an enabler. But I recognize -- and one reason I feel that it`s possible to be this tough on him is that I think he understands that those of us from politics and public affairs and whatever who work with him are going to be seen as enabling. And if that`s the case, then his conduct is of interest to me as much as it is to you.

JEFFREY BROWN: You know, our director just told me in my ear that MSNBC suspended Imus` simulcast, the television program, for two weeks.

TOM OLIPHANT: Now, you understand, that doesn`t even touch his impact. This is a 70 radio station mega-show. We`re talking about 300,000 people, largely in New York and Washington, who talk to each other.

The real impact of this program is radio syndicated nationally. And while I take Clarence`s point about shock jocks, in Don`s case, I think it`s more accurate to say "schlock" instead of "shock."

JEFFREY BROWN: "Schlock"? So where do you draw the line, Clarence?

CLARENCE PAGE: You know, I was where my good friend is here up until about Sunday. When I first gave Don the pledge, I was saying, "Should I go back on this show or not, you know?"

And when I was called, I said to Bernard McGuirk, the producer and codefendant here in this controversy, "Well, I`ll come back on, but only if we clear the air about these statements that Don has made that I`ve heard about." And they agreed to that.

And so I thought like you did, you know, that I`m not a P.C. person. Anybody who reads my column knows I`ve defended numerous folks and said, you know, give people a chance to be educated when they have offended.

But, you know, let me say, Don and I have history now. And that was how many years ago? And he still keeps doing it. And the same defense. He said the same thing when I talked to him about then. He said, "I`m not a racist. I have kids of all colors at my summer camp for autistic kids." And he does.

And Don`s my friend. He did a wonderful job in endorsing my book on the air 10 years ago, the kind of publicity every author craves.

And (inaudible) other folks, Harold Ford, he has walked the plank right out there with Harold Ford. So now Don thinks that gives him license to refer to a ladies basketball team as "nappy-headed hos"?

And my 17-year-old son, who I used to drive to school listening to Don Imus but only after he got out of the car -- I didn`t know what Don was going to say next -- nevertheless, you know, my dad said, after I was interviewed by another reporter, he says...

JEFFREY BROWN: Your son.

CLARENCE PAGE: I`m sorry, my son says, "Dad, what did you tell him?"

(CROSSTALK)

JEFFREY BROWN: You used the word "enablers," though. You used the word "enabler." I mean, who are the enablers here? There`s a big viewing audience.

TOM OLIPHANT: Yes, there is.

JEFFREY BROWN: There are prominent politicians and journalists who go on the program.

TOM OLIPHANT: There are our friends in politics who like to talk to us about what we do. I mean, you know, it`s a locker-room atmosphere. And for the record, we all do happen to come from perhaps the foulest-mouthed profession in the history of the world anyway.

(CROSSTALK)

TOM OLIPHANT: But I was with Clarence right up until the last point, about he thinks he can get away with it. That`s where I think maybe the opportunity for epiphany has arisen.

CLARENCE PAGE: Today, not Friday though.

TOM OLIPHANT: And this is why how you view Sunday or what your feelings and your thought process Sunday really are important, I think, as it turned out. And in this case, I have experienced this guy`s shock and his conduct. There is no denying it, as far as I`m concerned.

I am stuck because I can`t vouch for conduct that has yet to occur. And in the aftermath of what Clarence got him to do seven years ago with his hand up, there`s a pretty big sin on the record.

But I`m convinced off my experience directly with him that the animus that ought to be required, before you take the extreme step of ending a career, and especially given the garbage that occurs on so much of radio and television, and it doesn`t reach Don.

JEFFREY BROWN: We only have a minute here. But do you think that other journalists and politicians should take a similar pledge that you`ve taken and...

(CROSSTALK)

CLARENCE PAGE: I`m going to give all of my good friends -- and they are all of my friends, you know, Tim Russert, Chris Matthews, Jim Lehrer, et cetera -- you know, everybody has made the same journey I made, because I didn`t come to this right away, because, I agree with you, you know, the first thing I want to do is to help to educate people about what offends other people.

You know, Don`s not a baby. He`s been around awhile. And I think it`s gotten to the point now where, because he`s gotten away with it so many times, he think he can just continue to do so, just a little apology is not enough.

JEFFREY BROWN: All right. Clarence Page, Tom Oliphant, thanks a lot.

(BREAK)

JUDY WOODRUFF: Again, the major developments of the day.

Thousands of Shiites protested in Iraq, demanding U.S. forces leave.

Iran proclaimed it has begun making nuclear fuel on an industrial scale.

And oil prices dropped more than 4 percent, as tensions between Britain and Iran eased.

(BREAK)

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, 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 12 more.

JUDY WOODRUFF: We`ll see you online and again here tomorrow evening. I`m Judy Woodruff. Thank you, and good night.