The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer; October 2, 2007

I'm Jim Lara, today's news, the Blackwater hearings, Waxman and Davis, the New Orleans Schools and China and Myanmar, tonight on the news hour. Good evening, I'm Jim Lara, on the news hour tonight, the news of this Tuesday.

Then, today's house hearing on the Blackwater security firm in Iraq, we have excerpts and the committee chairman Henry Waxman and the ranking Republican Tom Davis. The second of John Marrow's reports on fixing the public schools, tonight, those in New Orleans and some perspective on China's interest in Myanmar. Major funding for the news hour with Jim Lara is provided by... You've taken a journey filled with surprises. You set your sights on a destination and arrived exactly where you wanted to go.

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Thank you. The head of Blackwater USA defended his private security company today. Blackwater guards protect U.S. diplomats in Iraq. And last month, they killed 11 Iraqis in a Baghdad shooting. At a house hearing today, Company founder Eric Prince said his employees have acted properly at all times. He complained of negative and baseless allegations reported as truth. But committee chairman Henry Waxman questioned whether U.S. officials have covered up misdeeds by Blackwater. He suggested the State Department is acting as Blackwater's enabler. Committee Democrats reported Blackwater guards have been involved in 195 shooting since 2005. We'll have more on this story right after the news summary. British Prime Minister Brown confirmed today he plans to withdraw another 1,000 troops from Iraq. He made an unannounced visit to Basra and said the troops would leave before the end of the year.

We have a report narrated by Jonathan Ruggman of Independent Television News. He called it a fact-finding mission, but on a trip as brief as this, it's likely the Prime Minister had already made his mind up before his helicopter touchdown, 1,000 troops home for Christmas. This sudden announcement, pre-empting the one Mr. Brown is due to make Parliament next week. I believe that within the next two months, we can move to provincial Iraqi control, and that is the Iraqi's taking responsibility for the one security in the whole of Basra. I believe that the 30,000 security forces that have been trained up are capable of discharging these responsibilities for security. Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki said Iraqi forces were ready to take over, but the situation in Basra City is far from stable. Last week, this suicide car bomb killed three trainee policemen and wounded 17 others, and local officials complained that assassinations have been on the increase since British

troops withdrew to the city's airport a month ago. The rocket attacks there have decreased, and as the Prime Minister toured that airport today, 12 miles north of Basra City, his hosts seem pretty relaxed. Mr. Brown is thought to have contemplated withdrawing to Kuwait, or placing British troops in American or Australian bases. In the event, he's doing what Tony Blair did, signing off on a much slower drawdown, which weren't upset Iraq's government or its American backers. The reduction would leave 4,500 British troops still in Iraq. A new fight over war funding was brewing in the U.S. Congress today. The president has asked for another $190 billion for 2008, but the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Democrat David Obi, announced it won't be considered until

next year. He said he opposes any such request that simply serves to continue the status quo in Iraq. Republicans condemned any delay. Senator John Colaveras on us had Congress needs to act by mid-November when a stopgap spending measure runs out. I hope that we're not seeing the beginning of an effort to cut off the troops by cutting off their funding. And hope our colleagues here in the Senate will not follow Chairman Obi's lead, but it will be supportive of the administration's efforts to support the resolution that would continue funding for the troops, either for the next year or in some kind of a bridge that gets us past these winter months. Democrats insisted they'd consider emergency funds to keep war operations going into January, but Senate Majority Leader Reid said he agreed with tying longer-term funding to a change in policy. There is nothing dealing with Iraq that is off the table, and I haven't talked in any

length at all to Chairman Obi about this, but it's, you know, we'll take a look at everything. It's the one thing we're going to make certain is that we're going to continue doing everything that we can to affect change. We need to change course in the war in Iraq. Congressman Obi and two other senior Democrats also called for a tax surcharge to pay for the war. Republican sharply criticized that idea, and Democratic leaders said they won't consider it. A UN envoy finally got to meet today with Myanmar's top military ruler. The meeting came in the remote capital of the country, also known as Burma. It had been delayed several days. UN diplomat Ibrahim Gambari was there to urge an end to the crackdown on pro-democracy protests, but officials offered no details. In Thailand, a spokesman for the government in exile said the UN effort was disappointing. In some ways, it is a weak mission.

Because of the Mr. Gambari position is weak, so he should have made the meeting between the opposition leader and the military hunters leaders. Gambari did meet separately today with the jailed opposition leader, Umsan Su-Chi, while I have more on China's role in the efforts to end the crackdown later in the program tonight. The leaders of North and South Korea held their first summit in seven years today. South Korean President No met briefly with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in the North's capital. No got a warmer reception from thousands of North Koreans during an official welcome ceremony. The South Korean President said he hoped the three-day meeting would help jump-start peace efforts. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments today on disparities in sentencing cocaine dealers. Federal guidelines set harsher penalties for crack cocaine than for powder cocaine. But the issue has racial overtones, since most crack cases in federal courts involve

black defendants. The arguments today focused on letting judges use their discretion to hand down a lesser sentence. In Wall Street today, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 40 points to close at 14,047. The Nasdaq rose six points to close at 2747. And that's it for the news summary tonight. Now the black water hearings and the committee's leaders rebilled in the schools of New Orleans and pushing China to push Myanmar. But he would have had our black water coverage. Since a shootout in the streets of Baghdad three weeks ago that left 11 Iraqis dead, private security firm Blackwater has been under intense scrutiny both in Iraq and in Washington. The Iraqi government claims Blackwater personnel fired first. Blackwater officials insist their employees did nothing wrong.

The Iraqi government demanded the North Carolina-based firm cease its patrols and the company is under investigation by the Justice Department, by the Pentagon and the State Department. Today, Blackwater founder and CEO, Eric Prince, a former Navy SEAL, appeared before the House Government Oversight Committee to defend the work his company does in Iraq and Afghanistan, providing security for State Department personnel and visiting U.S. officials. The company has earned almost $1 billion for that work, committee chairman Henry Waxman. Is Blackwater a private military contractor helping or hurting our efforts in Iraq? Is the government doing enough to hold Blackwater accountable for alleged misconduct? And what are the costs to the federal taxpayers? Although last month's shootings led to today's hearing, the Justice Department asked that the incident not be discussed in public.

Some Republicans also expressed concern that Blackwater was being unfairly singled out before any investigations have been completed. I have no objection to this kind of a hearing, but what really concerns me is that there appears to be a rush to judgment, and I don't think that should happen. It's going to be thoroughly investigated in Iraq by Iraqis and American officials. And until we get that, we won't know exactly what happened or who might have made a mistake or who might have done something they shouldn't have done. But the committee's majority staff yesterday released a scathing report on Blackwater based on internal Blackwater and State Department documents. It found that Blackwater guards in Iraq have been involved in at least 195 escalation of force incidents since 2005, an average of 1.4 shootings per week. That Blackwater fired first 80 percent of the time, even though its State Department

contract allows use of force for defensive purposes only. One that Blackwater has terminated 122 employees in Iraq, 28 for weapons-related incidents, 25 for drug and alcohol violations. The report also found no evidence that the State Department sought to restrain Blackwater's actions, raised concerns about the number of shooting incidents, or detained contractors for investigation. But in his testimony today, Eric Prince said he fully supported his company and it's approximately 1,000 employees on the ground in Iraq. The areas of Iraq in which we operate are particularly dangerous and challenging. Blackwater personnel are subject to regular attacks by terrorists and other nefarious forces within Iraq. We are the targets of the same ruthless enemies that have killed more than 3,800 American military personnel and thousands of innocent Iraqis. Many incident where Americans are attacked serves as a reminder of the hostile environment

in which our professionals work to keep American officials in a dignitary safe, including visiting members of Congress, in doing so more American service members are available to fight the enemy. Blackwater shares the committee's interest in ensuring the accountability and oversight of contract personnel supporting U.S. operations. The company and its personnel are already accountable under and subject to numerous statutes, treaties and regulations of the United States. Blackwater looks forward to working with Congress and the executive branch to ensure that any necessary improvements to these laws and policies are implemented. Prince added that no one under Blackwater protection in Iraq had ever been killed or injured. But 27 Blackwater employees have been killed and hundreds more have been injured there. He said Blackwater guards fired their weapons just 56 times this year in more than 1,800 munitions. We don't even record all the times that our guys receive fire. The vehicles get shot at on a daily basis multiple times a day. So that's not something we even record.

In this case, if an incident is a defensive measure, you're responding to an ID attack followed by a small arms fire. Most of the attacks we get in Iraq are complex, meaning it's not just one bad thing. It's a host of bad things. Far bomb followed by a small arms attack, RPGs followed by sniper fire. An incident occurs typically when our main fear for their life, they're not able to extract themselves from the situation they have to use sufficient defensive fire to get off the axe to get off that place where the bad guys have tried to kill Americans that day. On Christmas Eve, 2006, a drunken Blackwater employee allegedly killed a security guard for the Iraqi Vice President. That was the subject of questioning by New York Democrat Carolyn Maloney. Other than firing him, has there been any sanction against him by any government authority? You mentioned you find people for bad behavior. Was he fined for killing the Iraqi guard?

Yes he was. How much was he fined? Multiple thousands of dollars. I don't know the exact number. I'll have to get you that answer. Look, I'm not going to make any apologies for what he did. He clearly violated our policy. All right. We all, every American believes he violated policies. If he lived in America, he would have been arrested and he would be facing criminal charges. If he was a member of our military, he would be under a court marshal. But it appears to me that Blackwater has special rules. Maryland's Elijah Cummings followed up. It's a question of when things go wrong, where is the accountability? And sir, we fired him. We find him, but we as a private organization can't do any more. We can't flog him, we can't incarcerate him. That's up to the Justice Department. We are not empowered to enforce U.S. law. Do you think more should be done? I'd be happy to see further investigation and prosecution by the Justice Department, yes, sir. Blackwater found some support on the committee, Connecticut Republican Christopher Shays.

I am in awe of what your men and women, and they've been mostly men, have done to protect our civilians. I am absolutely in awe of it. Blackwater charges the government $1222 per day per contractor for its services. Florida Republican John Micah asked about the cost. There's also some argument that you cost the government too much and that you're getting paid too much and that maybe this is something that the military should be doing. Could you respond to that? I greatly encourage Congress to do some true activity-based cost studies. What are some of these basic government functions really cost? Because I don't believe it's as simple as saying, well, the sergeant costs us this much. Because that sergeant doesn't show up there naked and untrained. There's a whole bunch of other costs that go into it.

Later, the committee took testimony from representatives of the State Department, focusing on whether it is exercised enough oversight of Blackwater. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters today he's planning to have the Pentagon strengthen its oversight of private security firms. And with me now to discuss the issues surrounding Blackwater USA are representative Henry Waxman, Democratic California and Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. And it's ranking minority member representative Tom Davis, Republican of Virginia. Gentlemen, thank you both for being with us. Thank you. Representative Waxman, do you first, did you hear anything from Mr. Prince today that reassured you further about Blackwater and what it's doing in Iraq? What bothered me about his company is that it went from a 200,000 government contracts in 2001 to over a billion dollars in the last six years. This is a company that's taken off like gangbusters, all on government contracting.

Now if we, in this privatization of our military, we're paying less and getting better service, then I'd say it's worth it. But we're paying a lot more. Our military is the standard I hold these people to. Our military is doing an outstanding job. But some of these Blackwater personnel are off on doing some very strange things. They're undermining our mission in Iraq. They're angering the military who find that they have no control over them. And there have been a couple of instances that we went through in the hearing where the Blackwater people were unaccountable for some very awful terrible tragedies. Medicine people that were killed and not held accountable by the military, by the Iraqi government or even by the U.S. legal legal efforts at least today. You've raised several points here, the money that's being spent, you say they're undermining the mission of the military and so forth.

Congressman Davis, what about the mission? We heard today from Mr. Prince that they are to be in a defensive posture, but then we also learned that an 80% of these instances, they're firing first. Well, I think the 80% number is reported. I don't know that that's accurate, but the reality is they're a diplomatic security company. Before 2001, there wasn't as much diplomatic security concerns in Iraq and other parts of the world as there is today. And so they, along with other contractors in this business, have naturally their business is escalated because the need has escalated. They operate under contract with the State Department. State Department has guidelines. If we have any quarrel, we ought to be looking to the State Department and defense department for the way they're contracting it and for what the true costs are. I think that's something we need to look at. So Representative Waxman, what you're hearing is that they are supposed to be following these guidelines. Do you feel you now have proof that they haven't followed?

Well, there was one incident in Afghanistan where a black couple of black-white pilots took a plane. They're carrying three US military personnel. They crashed it into a wall. They're flying into one cannon. They didn't know which canyon was the right one. They had no experience in theater. They didn't even follow black waters, own rules. And the result was the death of people who serve our country so well in the military. In that shooting on Christmas Eve where the fellow got drunk and shot the guard to the vice president of Iraq, the State Department worked with black water to get them out of the country in 36 hours. And then talked to black water about how much money there was a debate should they pay to 50 to $50,000 and they're paying $15,000 to the family. In order to get the issue out of the way, the State Department told us they went to black water because it was a short-term project. Well, we've been in Iraq for a long time now.

At the same time, they're spending $600 million building an embassy that's going to be there for a long time. I think we ought to rethink whether we need to privatize and contract out the protection services for the State Department or the additional services that the military needs when they have to go to these private contracts. What about that? Could the work that they're doing, black water and these other firms be handled by the military? Well, originally this was going to be short-term, that's why they got the contracts, that's why you had private security firms. When we first went to Iraq, we didn't have the capability in house to do it. Obviously, we've been there four or five years. It is time to look at it and to examine the costs and the benefits. I'm not so sure it's just clear-cut as Henry would like to make it. But I think we need to examine that and see if the taxpayers are getting their value for the dollar. But the oversight here in terms of whisking people out of the country, those are State Department determinations. Those aren't black water determinations. The punishment for all of these employees are vetted through the State Department. They have security clearances.

So we ought to be focusing on the government and its role less than focusing on just a contractor in this case. I think there are some serious issues there and I want to work with Henry to try to get to the bottom of it. So what do you think should be done? You're saying you're willing to look at it? Well, I think we need to look at costs and benefits at this point. Over a four-year period, we know what the cost of black water is. You report over $1,200 a day for an employee. How does that face up with what we did if we took this in-house with the military or with some civilian agency doing that? What are the costs? What are the training components? And you have to measure these costs fully loaded, not by somebody's salary. And I'd like to see a comparison. GAO can help us. So are we saying nobody really knows whether what they're doing could be done less expensive? I think I'd like to see a GAO accounting of what all of the costs are and what it would take for training and everything else. Yeah, I'm not ready to concede what the costs are, but I've got to believe that if you're planning over the long term, we need to take a careful look at what we can do in-house. Congressman Waxman, are you saying you'd like to see them done away with? I think that we should have a clear picture of what we're doing and what we need in Iraq.

And this goes back to the very beginning of the mistakes of the Bush administration. They didn't give enough military support even the General Shinseki and other military people said they needed more troops there. They never asked for any way to pay for this war. It's all being paid by deficit spending. They never asked for sacrifices by anybody else and now we're paying more and getting less. And a military guy gets paid around $60,000 and if you add up what these individual contractors get, it's over $400,000. So are you saying we should, if we're going to need that job done, then the government ought to do what Mr. Princes do, he's just hiring veterans and then training them to do this job. We ought to do that in-house. We don't need to give him a million dollar a year salary and increase his income by over a billion dollars in contracts when we're getting less performance. With a lot of problems undermining our mission in Iraq and we're paying a lot more money than need to be.

Well, I'm not sure that's true. In fact, the State Department's own determinations shown this. So putting somebody in the field out there is $500,000 a year when you fully load it. That goes into training, that goes into the pension benefits, that goes into the buildings and everything else. But I'd like to see an apples to apples comparison of what we see here is an apples to apples. Let me just add, these hearings are by proxy what the Democrats in Congress haven't been able to accomplish and that is ending to stop the war. But they can go after the individual contractors. There are serious issues at Henry's identified here. We want to work with them to get the bottom of it. But I think focusing on one contractor is not the way to do the focus ought to be on state and defense and how these contracts are letting. What is the benefit to the tax? Well, they're saying this as a proxy for their opposition to the war, is that it is they can hold the hearings. They can spike up the base because they haven't been able to do on the House floor and on the Senate floor what they prefer. Well, for the last six years with the Republicans in charge of Congress, we never had a hearing on the privatization of the military. We've never had a hearing on Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.

We've never had a hearing on important issues and when Clinton was president, the Republicans were in charge, they had an extensive hearing on whether Clinton misuses Christmas card lists. Oversight is an important job and when we are spending as much money as we are on this privatization of the military, then we ought to ask questions especially when this latest incident in September, even President Maliki said, get black water out of here. They're causing more problems than they're doing good. I think that they are undermining our mission because Iraqis who are killed and their family members don't say, oh, that's a private military is supposed to the U.S. military. They said, those are the Americans, they were all being held responsible for some of the people that are acting like cowboys working for black boys. The alternative to privatizing this, and I think we need to look at, but it's a true serve, it's putting more military in there to get the job done at this point at a time when a lot of us would like to be pulling troops out. They only have 800 people in Iraq, we're not talking about black water, but you have other contractors in Iraq, and that's the untold story this one. We are going to leave it there, gentlemen, we thank you both, Chairman Henry Waxman, and Congressman Tom Davis, we appreciate it.

Thank you. Now our second report on new superintendents trying to fix broken school systems. This is New Orleans, just two years after Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flooding devastated the city and its school system. As I said tomorrow, hi, the higher you said it, the higher the children are going to be born. This year, the district has hired about 500 new teachers from around the country.

I love the energy of today, I love the fact that everybody is really, really positive about what we can do in New Orleans. What he brings is a high expectations, of course, but also a sense of urgency you can hear it in his voice. I think I've had a pretty good track record of success, and I think given the fact that this district is, is much smaller, and I'm confident that we can transform this system. In Chicago and Philadelphia, Valus is credited with raising test scores and standardizing the curriculum.

I think he's been a real asset to urban public education around the country. Mike Casserley's organization represents the largest school districts in the country. He urged Valus to take the New Orleans job. Frankly, I was thrilled that somebody of his caliber, his energy, his intelligence, and his ability to marshal resources from around the country would take a job in a system that has as many challenges as that one does. Paul Pesterak, Louisiana's new state superintendent of education, hired Valus to run what is called the Recovery School District, made up of 26 charter and 34 traditionally run schools. The state controls these schools, not the city. I mean, reason why Paul Valus is here is because he is employing a Peace Corps-like mentality. He doesn't need to be here. He could go off and do something that's much more financially lucrative, but I think he fundamentally wanted to come here so that he could do good. Valus has his detractors.

Some feel he left Philadelphia in a shaky financial condition. Others wonder about a non-New Orleans native coming in to lead a community that is skeptical of outsiders. This community sort of treats outsiders like antibodies and rejects them at will. And so one of the reasons why Paul was particularly attractive candidate is because he is really quite capable of engaging with the local community. Is there a concern that he'll be perceived as the night on the White Horse riding in to save New Orleans? Night on a White Horse is one of those a White Night on a White Horse was another. The African American community wants a superintendent who cares, who's committed, who's willing to work hard, and who's willing to immerse himself into the community. And if you're willing to do that, the community doesn't care if your White Black doesn't. What's the old Chinese proverb? Doesn't matter whether or not the cat is White or Black, but whether or not it can catch mice.

Paul Valus faces huge challenges. In many ways, the schools are academically bankrupt. On one state test, 80% of high school students scored below basic and math, 88% below basic in English. The vast majority of students live in poverty, many arrive at school hungry, and New Orleans itself is still struggling to recover. Schools around the district were in various states of disrepair. Some were so badly damaged in the storm that they may never reopen. Repairs on schools that could be salvaged were often moving slowly, meaning that students and teachers will spend at least part of the year in alternative facilities. Despite all these problems, Valus is upbeat. You know, I think we can start seeing results within the next year or so. I mean, I'm that optimistic. I've actually prepared a checklist that we're giving to all the teachers and the parents the first week of school. Valus's checklist includes well-maintained air-conditioned classrooms, modern textbooks,

low student-to-teacher ratios, revamped curriculum and frequent testing to measure student improvement, hot lunches, and functioning bathrooms, and technology in every classroom, including free laptops for every high school student. For those of you that had the chance to walk around the school, I want you to note that we have had a bombardment of technology in the classrooms. At Rob Wayne High School, Principal Adrian L. Boyd is carefully monitoring Valus's checklist. As in, educated for the past 14 years, I've heard it all. I've heard promises being made and nothing being a result. Superintendent Valus is promoting technology in the classrooms. It's here. He's saying every classroom will be painted before students actually come into the school. That is being done. He really has come in with everything that he's promised. Rob Wayne teachers were also keeping tabs. I still have three windows that are broken, but the school has put that on like the hot list. It should be replaced by September 4th when school starts.

So I'm fully confident that there will be because everything that has been told to me so far that will be done has been done. I'm skeptical. Amanda Sius has her doubts, particularly about Valus's plan to distribute laptops to all high school students. I heard him say, you know, every kid is going to get a computer. And I'm like, does he really know what type of kids we're dealing with? Johnny, where's your computer? Oh, I got Jack last night and somebody took my computer. We're going to have to deal with the logistics of it every day. And he won't. You're saying Paul Valus is naive? He's bright eyed. I know he's been successful in other places that we're failing, but New Orleans, it's a totally different ball game. I suggested that teacher look for another school district because that's the exact low expectations that we set for inner city kids. When you raise expectations, people say you're being naive.

But it's like, what comes first, the chicken or the egg? What comes first, the lower performance or the low expectations? That's a difference between low expectations and reality. What's the effect, Katie, you're, you know, listening to the skeptic, maybe even a cynic? Is that going to hurt you and your idealism? I think you just always have to have kind of one foot in an element of just what's realistic. And you have to have the other foot and like what the ideal is and what you want your students to be able to do, where you want them to go. 16 of Rob Wayne's teachers, nearly half the staff or brand new members of groups like Teach Nola or Teach for America, both Peace Corps like organizations. I'm a big fan of the Teach for America program. What they bring to the classroom is a contemporary mastery, enthusiasm, and unbelievable work out. Very high expectations for kids.

High expectations for success. They really commit themselves and throw themselves into the job. It excites me. I've actually picked up a lot of energy from Katie and Jake and some of the other teachers I've been working with just before school starts. I'm fairly young and new as myself, but I've kind of just fed off them a little bit. But some veterans are betting that the young teachers will not last. There's a pool going around. What? That's a pool. You did it. You did it. No. I mean, it's not official, but I mean, it's been talked about. I'm not involved in it yet, but I mean, I want to make some money. What are your best on me? Oh, you got it. You're here. This opening day approached. Everyone seemed to be working around the clock. Where do you want this? Well, on the opening of facilities, I'm confident that they will, because I just ordered up 40 more electricians to go work on the job site for the next 48 hours to make sure it opens, and it will. Born opening day, the schools were in the spotlight.

When students arrived, the technology was in place. But classrooms had been painted, and the textbooks were on hand. But there were problems. We have a lot of people coming in at the last minute to register, or I should say, coming in and registering today. In fact, there's a line wrapped around the building. I'm here to register my son, because I want him to go to Wild Wayne. He told me, Wild Wayne was going to try to put him in through the body, told him in his phone. So right now, I'm getting a run around. Although registration was high, actual attendance on opening day was disappointingly low across the district. About 40 percent of the 13,000 registered students did not show up. And at many high schools, a new computerized scheduling system led to chaos. Rob Wayne High School was no exception. A lot of confusion with scheduling. If a kid was in a 10th grade last year, it gave him the same 10th grade schedule again today. We realized that students were placed in classes that they already passed the previous school year.

Students were kind of all over the place, just because of not knowing where to go. Teachers aren't even sure where they're supposed to go. Literally, everyone kept coming in and saying, I have your class. I have your class. I'm thinking, how in the world do I have 40 kids that have biology, fifth period? I'm a veteran teacher of 10 years. If I was a first year teacher, I wouldn't come back tomorrow. In fact, one new teacher left Rob Wayne after just one week. And Jake's windows? The broken windows are still broken and they're still not fixed. We would have them covered in cardboard, so we can make do for now. It still is the recovery school district and there are still kinks that need to be worked out. And it's not perfect yet, but tomorrow will be better. Repairing buildings may be the easiest challenge that Paul Vallis faces. So you're all going to help me this year? I can hear you. You're all going to help me this year. That's here. You're all going to help me this year.

You're working really hard. God bless you all and I'll be seeing you real soon. John Merrill will have updates on both the Washington DC and New Orleans schools as the year goes on. If you want to see John's earlier stories, visit our website at pbs.org. And finally tonight, Myanmar and its biggest neighbor, China, when I've all has our story. The ongoing crackdown in Myanmar has led to widespread condemnation in the West. But Myanmar's neighbors, China, Thailand and India, have had relatively little to say about the violence when possible reason trade. The ruling hunter in Myanmar, once known as Burma, sits atop significant deposits of natural gas and oil, much of it off the coast. Burmese natural gas generates 20% of the electricity in Thailand, just to the East.

And India is also a market for gas and for Burmese minerals, precious stones and timber. Such resources, many of them untapped, are fueling China's rapidly expanding economy. The Chinese have declined to intervene in Myanmar directly, calling it the inner affairs of another country. But on Friday, Chinese premiere Wen Xiaobao sounded slightly tougher in a statement. China is very much concerned with the situation and hopes that all parties show restraint, resumstability through peaceful means, as soon as possible, promote domestic reconciliation, and achieve democracy and development. China will continue to work to actively facilitate the proper solution to the problem. After Thailand, China is Myanmar's second largest trading partner, sending money to the cash-strapped nation in exchange for hardwoods from its mountainous north, especially tequood, much of the forest there has been decimated. U.S. sanctions have limited the ability of Myanmar's ruling generals to move money through international banks.

The Bush administration has continued to push for broader sanctions against the ruling hunta. Reports about very innocent people being thrown into detention, where they could be held for years without any representation or charges, is distressing. And we understand that some of the monasteries have been sealed, and obviously this has, again, a chilling effect on protesters, but we would ask that everyone show restraint and allow those who want to express themselves to be able to do so in Burma. China continues to oppose sanctions, so Western governments are instead pressing them to lead regional efforts to establish stability in Myanmar. For more, we turn to Priscilla Clap, who served as head of the U.S. Embassy in Burma from 1999 to 2002, and Ming-1, an associate professor of international affairs at George Mason University. He was born in Beijing and is now a U.S. citizen.

Priscilla Clap, how critical is it that China step into this? I think it's very critical at this point. China shares a long border with Burma and a long history, and if anyone can have any kind of influence on the generals, I suspect it will be China. Many other countries have tried and failed, but China, they are becoming increasingly dependent on China economically, and I think it's getting to the point where they must listen to China. Professor One, do you think China wants to be listened to as willing to do what it takes to be listened to? China certainly has power. Greater influence than any other countries in the region. Part of the reason is that the United States and Western powers have been trying to isolate a barber. As a result, they really don't have much leverage. China, by contrast, has had a substantial economic and political relationship with that country. So in a sense, yes, China has leverage. But whether China wants to access that influence now, very much depends on the objective when he is seeking, if you are talking about more moderate and limited objective of coming down the situation,

maybe facilitating the dialogue between the government and the opposition, I can see China doing that. I'm sure that it's behind the scenes, China is properly doing it, some of that. But if you are talking about regime change, and that's not in China's interest, China also does not have the ability to get that done. Do you think it's likely also that your U.S. optimistic that China will do something? And if so, does it have the ability to get it done? I agree that China is not in a position to affect regime change in Burma. The most we can hope for is that China can gradually bring the generals into dialogue with the opposition and press for a transition back to civilian government. Can I ask, can I just show them for a moment? Why is it that China is not interested, maybe it should be obvious, but why isn't China interested in regime change? That's not to say they are interested in regime change. I'm certain they are interested, they won't say it.

I'm saying that. But they cannot go in and simply tell the generals to step down and give way to another power to come in and take over the government. And I think that some of the expectations that have been raised outside in the international community are higher than what we can realistically expect China to be able to do with this regime. I think they will work carefully and quietly. Professor One, let's go back to 1988. The last big pro-democracy, the quashed pro-democracy protest then. What was China's role? Is there anything to, is it different now than what it was then? Yeah, it's different now. At the time, China didn't have much of a role. And the relationship between Burma and China really improved in the late 1980s and put it in the early 1990s. Actually, China Burma had a very troubled relationship until very recently. For example, until through the 1970s, the Chinese government supported the Burmese Communist Party, which was the strongest opposition to the military.

So, in the sense that the relationship was very tense, and the part of the reason why the Burmese military government wanted to improve relation with China was to cut off their support from China. And the Chinese government did, in the early 1990s, China also had its own interest to improve relations with Burma. And that was after Tianmen, China was also isolated. Were these also economic interests getting access to that gas oil we were talking about? I came a bit later with China's economic reform. Right now, China is a major player in Burmese economy. It's really the country's second largest trading partner. Last year, I think they did a trade about 1.5 billion dollars. But if we account illegal trade in timber, jade, and other materials, the voting should be much higher. So, smuggling, smuggling, China also provides aid for Burma. Is Darfur, for example, of this, we saw China being pressured by other nations to step in and to put pressure on the government and cartoon, and eventually it did. Can you see it playing out that same way in this case?

Yes, I think there are a lot of similarities between the two. You might add North Korea to that. That's right. The Chinese party is tied to North Korea. The beginning of this is six party talks and has brought North Korea back into the six party talks when they've been reluctant to join. I think that China is gradually beginning to take a more responsible political diplomatic role in the world. As its power, economic power increases, and that's a very good sign. Darfur is a good example, and I think the world is hoping that they will step up to the plate in the case of Burma. I'm confident actually optimistic that they will do something positive with the Burmese regime. But I'm simply warning that we shouldn't have over-expectations about what they can do, because these generals are not really pro-Chinese. They earn their early metals fighting against these Chinese-inspired insurgencies, communist-inspired insurgencies that were supported by the Chinese. There is a very anti-Chinese sentiment in the Burmese population.

The Chinese there have been race riots against the Chinese, as recently as 1967, and it could break out again. China is very aware of that. So they have to be careful in balancing the way that they approach this situation. Do you agree with that, Professor? Yeah, I agree with. She's absolutely right. And China has to be very careful in how to deal with the Burmese government, given their trouble to history. In fact, you can argue that the relationship between the Burmese media government and the Chinese government has been reasonably good, because both sides have been very careful on the Chinese side. So if they start trying to be viewed as trying to change the government there, there will be a backlash. Is it completely up to China? There are other Arab nations in the region. Thailand is actually its number one trading partner, this India. Is it completely, why is it, are we focusing, I guess, on China so much? Certainly, China is now the only player, but in some way, China is far more important than the other players. You can argue that India and Southeast Asian countries have been engaging in Burma, partly because they worry about China's growing influence.

So they try to match Chinese influence there. And so if China reduces its support to Burma, and there will be less reason for those countries to support Burma as well. So in essence, China is quite important. And I might say we're looking at the future too, because the Chinese are negotiating with Burma now to tap into those offshore natural gas reserves and to build pipelines through Burma to the southern, southwestern part of China, which has traditionally been the poorest part, the part that's left out of the Chinese economic development revolution that's going on right now, because they don't have enough power. And the Burma is going to open that all up. Let me ask you both to translate for me that diplomatic sense, something that we just heard from the Chinese premiere, when he talked about the need for a sense of stability in Myanmar, Burma. And when he said that he would work with to achieve democracy and development. Now, democracy is not a term you hear coming a lot from Chinese leaders, so it caught my ear. What do you think that was about?

I think he's talking about Chinese style democracy, but I think the most important thing is that he's trying to calm down the situation. That is clearly in China's interest. China's paramount interest, policy interest, is to maintain a stable environment. And you're also in China interest that he involves United Nations, China supports United Nations. China wants to have good relations with the West, the United States, and the Olympics is coming up. There are a number of reasons why China wants to calm this stuff. I think one key thing in that talk, and then also voice by other Chinese officials, is national reconciliation. And that means that China wants to see some dialogue between the media government and the opposition. And they have been seeing this so openly. Did we see any sign of that with the visit of the UN envoy today? We'll learn more when he reports back to the Security Council on Thursday. We don't know yet. But the fact that he was able to meet with on-sines, which he twice and that he got to meet all of the top generals is a very good sign. But I heard the Chinese premier saying that the military has to work with the opposition,

that they have to work with all the parties in the country, including the ethnic minorities. That's what I think they mean by democracy and reconciliation, which is not what the military has been doing. And finally, we know that the United States has been using very tough talk and pushing for increased tougher sanctions. Can you ever see China getting on board with that professor? Yeah, it depends on the objective. He is a more limited coming down the situation and working with different players. I can see China doing that. But if the U.S. wants China to help promote democracy, that will not happen. Because China is not democracy. The U.S. cannot outsource democracy and promotion to China, which is not democracy. And I think the U.S. can do is to start a process. And act as a coordinator and set up some infrastructure for sustained discovery. Do you agree with that? Yes, I don't think that China is going to set the example for democracy in the world. But the Burmese now, what democracy is because they had it before in the 1950s.

And, on sense of, she certainly knows what it is. And so if the Chinese can get the process of dialogue going, then it's up to the Burmese to form the kind of democracy they want. And that's what's important. And it's not, but the Chinese then just play a facilitating role. And the Burmese take over. That's right. And we're looking for an effective facilitator we haven't found it yet. But maybe the Chinese can help. Ming Wan, Priscilla Clap. Thank you both very much. Thank you. And again, the major developments of the day. The head of Blackwater USA defended his private security company at a house hearing. Eric Prince insisted his guards acted properly. And a Baghdad shooting that killed 11 Iraqis. But he's Prime Minister Brown confirmed he plans to withdraw another 1,000 troops from Iraq by the end of the year. That would leave 4,500 British soldiers in the country.

And the leaders of South and North Korea held their first summit meeting in seven years. South Korean President knows that he hopes the three-day meeting will help jumpstart peace efforts. And once again, to our honor role of American service personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. And as you know, we add them as their deaths are made official and photographs become available. Here in silence are 11 more. Thank you.

We'll see you online and again here tomorrow. I'm Jim Lara. Thank you and good night. Major funding for the news hour with Jim Lara is provided by

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