The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour

MR. MacNeil: Good evening. Leading the news this Wednesday, a U.S. jet shot down an Iraqi warplane. The Supreme Court said employers could not bar women of child bearing age from certain hazardous jobs. We'll have details in our News Summary in a moment. Judy Woodruff is in Washington tonight. Judy.

MS. WOODRUFF: On the NewsHour tonight, did the U.S. give Saddam Hussein a green light to invade Kuwait? The ambassador who was on the scene made her first public statement today. We have extended excerpts. Next, Correspondent Charles Krause takes a look at Palestinians living in Kuwait, charges that they collaborated with Iraq and now that the Kuwaitis are seeking revenge. Then the effort to rebuild Kuwait, we have a Jeff Kaye report. Finally, a News Maker interview with the president of Poland, Lech Walesa. NEWS SUMMARY

MS. WOODRUFF: An American F-15 fighter today shot down an Iraqi warplane flying in violation of the current Gulf War truce agreement. The agreement stipulates that no Iraqi military aircraft could fly. The plane was downed in Northern Iraq near Takrit, the home town of Saddam Hussein. Pres. Bush commented on the incident this morning during an Oval Office photo session with Polish Pres. Lech Walesa.

REPORTER: Mr. President, does it look like the hostilities are going to be resuming with the shoot down of the plane?

PRES. BUSH: What she's referring to is that one of the Iraqi planes violated the agreement and it was shot down and if other planes violate the agreement, they will be shot down. I don't think that's likely to happen.

MS. WOODRUFF: Kurdish rebels today claimed Iraqi aircraft have been bombing a key oil city they control in Northern Iraq. The city is about a hundred miles from the location of today's U.S.-Iraqi air engagement. In Southern Iraq, Shiite Moslem rebels claimed that they continue to hold several key cities. Meanwhile in Baghdad, Iraq's National Assembly convened for the first time since the war. We have a report narrated by Louise Bates of Worldwide Television News.

MS. BATES: Iraq's National Assembly meets as battles rage in the North and South of the country. In both regions, opposition forces are fighting to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Here for the first time, Iraq accused Iran of actively assisting the rebels. Speaker Assadi Makdisali told the National Assembly that Iran had dispatched groups of what he called saboteurs. Until now, Iraq has blamed the U.S. and Israel. Iran claims it supports the rebels, but denies inciting or aiding the revolt. The Iraqi government and the rebels continue to give conflicting reports on the progress of the fighting. In Southern Iraq, government officials were shown on state television visiting a number of cities, including Basra, where they addressed a pro-Saddam demonstration. The message in this role cast was that Saddam has local backing and his troops remain in control. Shiite Muslim guerrillas say otherwise. They claim to control several major cities in the South. Along with pictures showing support for Saddam, Iraqi television is running reports like this, showing damage blamed on the rebels. It's impossible to verify most reports on the insurgencies because Western journalists haven't been committed to visit the scenes of the fighting.

MS. WOODRUFF: In Washington today, the former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. She said Saddam Hussein lied to her in the days before Iraq invaded Kuwait. The testimony was Ms. Glaspie's first public account of events in Baghdad leading up to the invasion. We will have more on this story right after the News Summary. The Senate voted today to cut off $57 million in U.S. aid to Jordan because of King Hussein's support for Iraq during the war. The provision would cancel all military and economic assistance due Jordan this year. In Kuwait, the ruling royal family has ordered a major government shake-up. The country's 22 member cabinet resigned last night amid widespread criticism for its lackluster, post war leadership. The White House said that it had been assured that the Emir, who is head of state, will request that a new government be formed quickly. Robin.

MR. MacNeil: The Supreme Court today outlawed employers from adopting so-called fetal protection policies that bar women of child bearing age from certain hazardous jobs. With us to explain the ruling is legal correspondent Nina Totenberg. Nina, what were the particulars in this case?

MS. TOTENBERG: Well, Johnson Controls makes batteries. It has 17 companies nationwide and in 1982, it instituted a policy under which it banned all women of child bearing age from its highest paying jobs dealing with lead, having high lead exposure. That meant that women had to show, had to prove to the company that they were sterile in order to work on these assembly lines, and even employees who already had jobs on the assembly lines were yanked off the assembly line and transferred to less high paying jobs. Well, the women sued, charging that this was sex discrimination, that they had the right, the same right to earn a living as the men, and today they won in the Supreme Court.

MR. MacNeil: And so what they're also saying, I guess, and the Court is saying is that only a woman can decide whether her job comes first before her potential as a mother down the line, is that reading it right?

MS. TOTENBERG: That's about reading it right. Interestingly, the Court's decision overall that this policy was so broad and so punishing to women that it amounted to sex discrimination. This was a unanimous ruling by the Supreme Court. Three of the Justices, however, would have left the company some leeway to justify some sorts of discrimination. A clear majority of the Court, however, said, look, men's reproductive functions are affected by lead too, this is a decision for individuals to make, regardless of gender, as to whether they want to have a family and under what circumstances, and what risks they wish to assume, and it is not for the employer to make this decision, it is for the employee to make this decision.

MR. MacNeil: One of the Justices I notice said that this protection, alleged protection, was an excuse to deny women jobs, or to practice sex discrimination. I mean, is that what the majority is saying, that they weren't really interested in protecting the women, they were interested in giving jobs to men?

MS. TOTENBERG: Well, Johnson Controls has a history of not employing women. It then did employ women, but allowed them to work as they wished on the assembly line, then in 1982 imposed this policy. Underlying all of this is the fear by a lot of companies that deal in dangerous products, that they be sued at one time by a disabled child for the mother having been exposed to a dangerous substance.

MR. MacNeil: Suppose now a mother under the new ruling, that a woman goes to work in one of these dangerous jobs, and has the right to do so, and down the line, 10 years from now, becomes pregnant, has a disabled, deformed child, and sues, I mean, can she still sue?

MS. TOTENBERG: Well, what the Court said today is that her likelihood of succeeding would be remote at best because if the company meets acceptable safety standards and educates her as to what the risks are and formally advises her as to what the risks are, the likelihoodis that they cannot be sued successfully.

MR. MacNeil: So is this now going to force a lot of companies that have been excluding women to hire them or promote them?

MS. TOTENBERG: Yes. The short answer is absolutely yes, there are going to be a lot more women and, of course, women's groups were very worried about this case, because if the case had gone the other way, the ruling had gone the other way, and an employer could simply say this could be a danger to your unborn child, therefore, you can't work here, but you can see that that could apply to almost any situation conceivably is a danger to an unborn child.

MR. MacNeil: Is there any estimate of how many women might be affected by them?

MS. TOTENBERG: The estimates are as high as 20 million women being affected by this. They're as low as a million too. But they're very high and in the final analysis really this is a message to employers that they simply cannot choose men over women no matter what it costs to make the workplace safer and to meet overall standards. They're going to have to do it in order to be equal opportunity employers.

MR. MacNeil: Does the unanimity of the Court, the overwhelming decision, mean that it has wider ramifications than just pregnancy discrimination? Is it a larger message that you can't discriminate against women in the workplace?

MS. TOTENBERG: Well, this Court, which I guess we should note is a pretty conservative court, is saying to employers Congress has spoken, Congress says that these are economic choices for individuals to make, not for the courts to make, not for Congress to make. A woman should not be forced to choose between her job and her family. If she wants to have a family and a job, that's up to her.

MR. MacNeil: Would you call this a landmark decision?

MS. TOTENBERG: I would. This is a huge sex discrimination decision and it is a big victory for women's rights advocates. It has the right to life forces extremely upset and it has the business community nervous and worried about what it's going to cost them.

MR. MacNeil: And if it affects one to twenty million women, then presumably it also will affect men whose jobs those women would like.

MS. TOTENBERG: Yes, although there are men who claim that their concerns about safety because of the evidence that their procreative functions might be affected by a situation in the workplace, that they haven't been taken seriously and that now they will be and that the workplace will be safer for everyone.

MR. MacNeil: Well, Nina, thank you. Judy.

MS. WOODRUFF: Pres. Bush announced today that the United States will forgive 70 percent of a $3.8 billion debt Poland owes the U.S. government. Speaking at the arrival ceremony for Polish Pres. Walesa at the White House this morning, Mr. Bush said, "We want your economic transformation to succeed, your new democracy to flourish." Walesa thanked the President, saying Polish economic success would help maintain order and stability in Central Europe. We will have a News Maker interview with Mr. Walesa later in the program.

MR. MacNeil: The U.S. trade deficit widened to $7 billion in January. That was an increase of 11 percent from the previous month. The trade deficit is the gap between U.S. exports and imports. The United States is losing ground to foreign business in a variety of high tech fields according to a report released today by the Council on Competitiveness. The group is made up of industry, labor, and education executives. Their study concluded that over the next five years U.S. industry will not be able to compete internationally in 15 areas ranging from silicon production to robotics.

MS. WOODRUFF: A Cuban fighter pilot defected to the United States today with his plane. The Soviet built MiG 27 landed at Florida's Key West Naval Air Station this morning. Navy officials said the 38 year old pilot was turned over to State Department officials who will decide whether to grant his request for political asylum.

MR. MacNeil: Five New York City police officers were charged with second degree murder, manslaughter, and assault today. The incident involved the death of a 21 year old car theft suspect who died in February after a 15 minute struggle in which the officers allegedly hit, kicked, and choked him. The city's medical examiner said the suspect, Fredericko Perera, died of asphyxiation. The officers all pleaded innocent to the charges. That's our summary of the News. Now it's on to the last U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Palestinians in Kuwait, rebuilding Kuwait, and Poland's President, Lech Walesa. FOCUS - DIPLOMAT'S DILEMMA

MR. MacNeil: First tonight we turn to the story of April Glaspie as she tells it. Glaspie is and was the U.S. ambassador to Iraq when Saddam Hussein sent troops into Kuwait. A week before the August 2nd invasion, Saddam summoned Glaspie. According to transcripts released by the Iraqis, Ms. Glaspie told Saddam that "We have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts -- like your border disagreement with Kuwait." Administration critics claimed that her comments may have given Saddam a green light to invade Kuwait without the threat of U.S. retaliation. Others have suggested she was being made a scapegoat for the State Department. Members of Congress anxious to question her have been blocked repeatedly by the State Department and have recently threatened to subpoena her. Today Amb. Glaspie spoke for herself before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and we have excerpts.

APRIL GLASPIE, U.S. Ambassador, Iraq: I think perhaps in my response to the series of questions that you suggested, Sen. Pell, I might run in summary fashion through the events of the last two weeks of July which were certainly the run-up to the August 2nd invasion. I'm sure that you will all remember that the first part of the year, 1990, in the Middle East was dominated by Saddam Hussein's threats against Israel. Suddenly, on July 17th, Saddam Hussein made a state of the union message, is what he called it, in which he completely switched his focus from Israel and the threat that he declared he perceived from Israel to Kuwait. And he announced in that speech in the crudest and most unmistakable way that if Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates did not revise their oil policy and produce according to their OPEC quotas, Iraq would take upon itself effective measures to make sure that they did. This was a naked threat and it was made on Iraqi television on the evening of the 17th of July. Just hours later, we responded. We responded publicly and we responded privately. To the best of my knowledge, we were the only government ever to respond publicly on behalf of Kuwait. Publicly, you recall, Margaret Tutwiler on behalf of the United States government said that would certainly under any circumstances, we would defend our vital interests. She said we were strongly committed to the individual and collective self- defense of our friends in the Gulf. That's a pretty clear statement I think. Against the advice of our Arab friends, we decided that we must do more. Our Arab friends counseled publicly, in fact, as well as privately that even a show of force would provoke the Arabs, they would provoke the Iraqi government, and would be counterproductive, it would likely lead to an Iraqi military move. We did not take that advice and neither did one of Iraq's neighbors. The United Arab Emirates agreed with us. Together we announced a joint military exercise on July the 24th. We announced that in the afternoon of July the 24th. This at last focused the mind of the Iraqi government. I was summoned at midnight in Baghdad, as was the UAE ambassador. I, of course, repeated our announcement and explained that we were a super power and we intended to act like one. We had vital interests and we would protect them, and that was that. It was clear that our show of force had caught his attention. It was also clear that the United Arab Emirates very bravely had no intention of backing down. It was clear to me that Saddam Hussein was enraged that we had taken this step. He, I think, felt stymied. In any case -- and we can go back to the meeting -- I just wanted to sketch out these two weeks -- he -- he surrendered. He spoke on the telephone to Pres. Mubarak for some time, came back, told me that he had told Pres. Mubarak and he wanted me to inform Pres. Bush that he would not solve his problems with Kuwait by violence, period, he would not do it, he would take advantage of the Arab diplomatic frame work which Pres. Mubarak and King Fahd had set up, that's what he would do. On the 28th of July, I received the same assurances reiterated by the foreign minister. On the 29th of July, they were reiterated to me by the minister of military industrialization who was Pres. Saddam's son-in-law, a very powerful minister. On the 1st of August, while the Kuwaiti-Iraqi conversations were going on in Jedin. The Iraqi delegation announced that the negotiations would resume in a very few days in Baghdad. I think it was four hours later Iraq invaded Kuwait. That is what happened.

SEN. NANCY KASSEBAUM, [R] Kansas: Amb. Glaspie, I would like for you -- to hear your comment and explanation of the conversation on Page 7 and what the context of that was when you were quoted in this as saying, "We understand that and our opinion is that you should have the opportunity to rebuild your country, but we have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait."

AMB. GLASPIE: The context of that particular remark was -- was really quite simple. Saddam Hussein was hinting that we should bully the Kuwaitis into paying up, that this would be an appropriate thing for the United States to do, that we should take the Iraqi position on their border dispute. My point was that it was not our business, it was Kuwait and Iraq's business to decide whether a border post should go one meter to the left or one meter to the right. And that, of course, is what the dispute was about. But it was emphatically our business that they make this settlement in a non-violent way. On the subject, if I may just say, of the transcript, itself, I really hope that the Committee shares my astonishment that a document issued by a President who's credibility is surely not in high repute would be accepted as read. Saddam Hussein had an agenda, Senator, and he was promoting it any way that he could.

SEN. JOHN KERRY, [D] Massachusetts: I'm a little bit, I guess, confused about one aspect of things. You've cited Saddam Hussein's stupidity. You've talked about how he understood nothing about America, was ignorant of our way of operating, so to speak, and of our standards, values, political system, et cetera. Yet, we were operating under National Security Directive No. 26 which basically espoused policy of moderation, assuming that he was going to understand that and react to it. Isn't there a contradiction there? I mean, how could you expect some sort of normal reaction from the man who is and has proven himself to be all that you say?

AMB. GLASPIE: Sir, when the Gulf War with Iran ended in August '88, we were looking at a very powerful and very ambitious President of Iraq. There were only two obvious ways to move forward. We could try to isolate him -- and as I've tried to suggest in a different context, I don't think we could have succeeded -- or we could try to show him, demonstrate to him that a beginning of international political activity, which was constructive, which we had never had from him before, would bring, to use the rawest word, rewards. So we started very, very cautiously. We were trying to educate him. We weren't assuming that he was educated, quite the opposite.

SEN. PAUL SIMON, [D] Illinois: Why didn't the State Department let you testify weeks ago?

AMB. GLASPIE: Now we've won. The war is over. The troops are back and I'm here on instruction to answer your questions. It simply seemed that it was not time for retrospective. It was a time to build our coalition, to support our troops in the field, and now is the time, if you wish, for retrospective. And as I say, I'm here on instruction. I was glad to come, but I was certainly on instruction. FOCUS - FRIEND OR FOE?

MS. WOODRUFF: We go next tonight to Kuwait. During the Iraqi occupation many Palestinians supported Saddam Hussein's army in its efforts to control Kuwait. The situation is now reversed. And many Palestinians say they are being singled out for reprisals. Correspondent Charles Krause reports from Kuwait City.

MR. KRAUSE: Kuwait's Palestinian community was once the second largest and the most prosperous Palestinian community in the Middle East. Before the war, upwards of 400,000 Palestinians lived here in the capital, Kuwait City. They owned many of the best shops, construction companies. Among them were prominent engineers, doctors, managers, civil servants, and above all, businessmen. Except for oil, Palestinians were the motor that drove the Kuwaiti economy. Not all of those who came here from the West Bank and Jordan were rich, but they all felt secure in the country that was pro Palestinian without reservation. Abdul Hameed Jalal was brought here as a child. Like many Palestinians, he says he's grateful for the opportunity he's had to study, to work and to live in Kuwait.

ABDUL HAMEED JALAL, Palestinian: Thanks for everything, thanks for studying here and thanks for 23 years I'm staying here -- and thanks and thanks and thanks.

MR. KRAUSE: Before the war, Kuwaitis not only welcomed Palestinians, the PLO had an embassy here and Kuwait was a prime source of money and political support for their cause. But last August, the Palestinians made what has turned out to be a costly political mistake. Yasser Arafat and the PLO backed Saddam Hussein, and many Palestinians here in Kuwait collaborated with the Iraqis after the invasion. It's that collaboration which has caused so much bitterness and the thirst for revenge. Today almost every Kuwaiti has a bitter tale of Palestinian complicity with the Iraqis.

HAITHUM AL EESA, Resistance Member: Some of them were for them and some of them were in the Iraqi army. I got once searched at a checkpoint and the guy had a, had a Jordanian, Palestinian accent. There's no doubt about it.

MR. KRAUSE: Haithum Al Eesa was a member of the Kuwaiti resistance. Many Palestinians he says remained loyal to Kuwait, but many others did not.

HAITHUM AL EESA: Some of them were informers for the Iraqi intelligence. They informed Iraqis on Kuwaiti officers in the army and the police that were here and these guys, some of them tortured Kuwaitis.

MR. KRAUSE: Other Kuwaitis told us that shortly after the Iraqi invasion last August, Palestinian teachers opened school in defiance of a Kuwaiti boycott. It was one of the number of acts of complicity with the Iraqi authorities. Badrya Al Ghanim and her cousin, Selwa, have reluctantly concluded that during the occupation all too many Palestinians committed treason.

BADRYA AL GHANIM: Now they opened this school, they put the Iraqi flags, they stood in that hateful world called sypra adawer, which means the checkpoints, and if you ask a Palestinian at the beginning, very shocked, they say, yes, you don't like?

SELWA AL GHANIM: We are all very angry and we're very sad, but the Palestinians who lived here, not all of them but the majority, have betrayed us.

MR. KRAUSE: Perhaps the most damning evidence of that betrayal is found at the Al Sabah Hospital. There the morgue is still filled with bodies, the remains of just some of those who were tortured and executed by the Iraqis. Many Kuwaitis believe it was Palestinian informers who betrayed members of the resistance and the others who were killed. It's here in the morgue that one begins to understand the passion, the hatred, and the sense of betrayal which many Kuwaitis now feel for the Palestinians.

BIBI AL MARSOOK: How could they support an aggressor? How could they support an occupying force, when yet they demand to have their own state and rights?

MR. KRAUSE: Bibi Al Marsook is general manager of what's left of the family newspaper, Al Anbah, which in Arabic means "The News". She and her family are close to the Emir of Kuwait and have long been strong supporters of the Palestinian cause. Would you expect that a large number of Palestinians would be asked to leave the country?

MS. AL MARSOOK: Yes.

MR. KRAUSE: Would you expect that there would be an effort made to find those who actively collaborated?

MS. AL MARSOOK: Oh, yes, by God, yes. I mean, I'll hunt them down personally.

MR. KRAUSE: In fact, the hunt for suspected collaborators began right after Kuwait was liberated three weeks ago. Mohammad, a member of the Kuwaiti resistance, told us with very little emotion what happened to a Palestinian who was captured.

MOHAMMAD: After we beat him up, he said everything, he gave us names of his brothers and his daughters -- I mean, his sisters -- and he had a wife and a daughter -- they had a guy from the intelligence agency, Iraq intelligence agency, in their apartment, and we went down and captured his brothers and they confessed the same thing, they said the same thing.

MR. KRAUSE: And what happened to them?

MOHAMMAD: Now? They're dead. They are dead. They are dead. They are gone, gone with the wind, you know.

MR. KRAUSE: The Kuwaiti government says the resistance may have taken the law into its own hands right after the liberation but now its only official role is to help identify suspected collaborators, that according to Sulaiman Al Mutawa, until today Kuwait's planning minister and unofficial government spokesman. The resistance, itself, at least legally is not supposed to detain and question, kill people.

SULAIMAN AL MUTAWA, Acting Government Spokesman: No, no. If there had been anything of that sort, I think it was an individual misbehavior and we immediately put that to a stop.

MR. KRAUSE: But the evidence is otherwise. Last week right out on the Cornishe no more than a mile from where we interviewed the planning minister, we encountered two armed members of the resistance. Both told us they worked for the interior ministry before the invasion and now they say they have official sanction to be out looking for collaborators.

RESISTANCE MEMBER: Yeah, they did catch some Palestinian collaborators who tortured Kuwaitis -- the jail and the police station was full of blood.

MR. KRAUSE: Where are they taking the Palestinian collaborators?

RESISTANCE MEMBER: The Palestinians, they catch the Palestinians, then given the Kuwaiti army and the Kuwaiti army then --

MR. KRAUSE: How long is the militia going to stay or the resistance going to stay armed, how long?

RESISTANCE MEMBER: Martial law is being used in Kuwait. They will be armed. The resistance will still be armed.

SPOKESMAN: Please, I want to speak, please. Give me two minutes. I want to speak.

MR. KRAUSE: Despite official government denials, it's not hard to find evidence of vigilante justice. Saleen Kass, a Palestinian restaurant owner, told us he was beaten up by the resistance. Out on the street in Hawaleh, Kuwait City's principal Palestinian section the stories of retribution and reprisals are even more serious and more alarming. We were nearly mobbed by friends and relatives anxious about the fate of four young men detained 12 days earlier and still missing.

WOMAN ON STREET: What we do, what we do? Where I find my son?

MR. KRAUSE: Did your son cooperate with the Iraqis? Did he do anything --

WOMAN ON STREET: Not with the Iraqis, we didn't work with anybody like this. My friends, they're here in Kuwait, but I want where is my brother, that I want ask about. We go everywhere, nobody, and we give them our name, we don't know where is him.

MR. KRAUSE: Bibi Al Marsook says there is no question the Palestinians are suspect, but she denies reports that hundreds of suspected collaborators have been shot.

BIBI AL MARSOOK, Newspaper Manager: If we wanted to kill the Palestinians and slaughter them, Mr. Arafat of the so called Palestinian state, president of the Palestinian state, if that man yaks about it all over the world and media is there for him, if we wanted to do that, we could have done it on the first night of the occupation when they began their retreat. The point is they wouldn't do that. The only thing they did, the Kuwaitis, was saying, that man or that woman has collaborated.

MR. KRAUSE: But Al Mutawa acknowledges the government has received reports of disappearances.

SULAIMAN AL MUTAWA, Acting Government Spokesman: It was brought to our attention and it is being investigated. Now I cannot swear to its happening or not happening, but all I can say in fairness and in honesty, that it was brought to our attention and immediately the prime minister said to the minister of justice this is your area, please investigate so that we can determine whether it is true or not.

MR. KRAUSE: But leaders of the democratic opposition believe the ruling Al Sabah family is behind the resistance groups. As a result, Abdullah Nibari says he has little faith the government will put an end to the acts of revenge and vigilante justice.

ABDULLAH NIBARI, Opposition Leader: Well, I think the appropriate action is to have due process of law. We have laws, those who collaborated, all those who did will be held and interrogated according to the law fairly and justly and then if they are found guilty punished according to the laws, but to harm innocent people or those who were honest and tell the Kuwaitis, who should be rewarded rather than punished, this is unacceptable.

MR. KRAUSE: But whether reason or retribution will prevail in Kuwait remains to be seen. Clearly, amidst the rubble that Saddam Hussein left behind there are still dangerous emotional and political time bombs that threaten the country's reconstruction and its future. FOCUS - RUSH TO REBUILD

MR. MacNeil: There's no indication how the political situation in Kuwait will be affected by the shake-up announced today by the royal family, but the new government that will be formed soon clearly faces monumental economic problems as well. Many American companies will be waiting to see what happens next. Jeffrey Kaye of public station KCET has our report.

MR. KAYE: Its oil made Kuwait one of the wealthiest nations per capita on earth. Now, even though the country's oil production facilities are blazing infernos, still there's believed to be three and a half times as much oil under liberated Kuwait than under the entire United States, including Alaska. Kuwait's immense reserve of wealth has given rise to a modern day gold rush among companies hoping to rebuild the Emirate. Fawzi Al-Sutan, an executive director of the World Bank in Washington, is one of the architects of Kuwait's rebuilding plan.

FAWZI AL-SULTAN, World Bank: Kuwait has investment reserves and we're very grateful for an excellent policy which we developed from the early '60s, which is we take 10 percent of all income, and that goes into investment reserve, we don't touch it.

MR. KAYE: Al-Sultan says Kuwait expects to spend at least $60 billion in the rebuilding effort and U.S. firms have been promised the lion's share of the reconstruction contract.

FAWZI AL-SULTAN: I think the major player will be the U.S. And again the reasons that we intend to do business very closely with our coalition partners I think Kuwaitis are overwhelmingly grateful for the support it received for its very existence.

MR. KAYE: Much of the initial work in damage assessment is being performed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps received a $45 million contract and it, in turn, subcontracted work to several American firms, among them Blount Incorporated of Alabama, who will do as much as $6 million of repair work to electric lines and building, and Raytheon Company will be paid $5.7 million to rebuild the control system at Kuwaiti's national airport. Raytheon is the Massachusetts firm that made the Scud destroying Patriot missile. It would like to play a much larger role in Kuwait's reconstruction according to company vice president George Sarney.

GEORGE SARNEY, Raytheon Company: What's next is to rebuild the infrastructure of the entire country, ranging from the petroleum sector all the way into power, roads, highways, transportation, communication systems, basically all of the essentials to support a country, and in all of those areas we offer as a team of resources a collective solution.

ANNOUNCER IN PROMOTIONAL VIDEO: In 1947, the Kuwait Oil Company, KOC for short, contracted with Bechtel for a combination of projects to increase the productive capacity of the concession.

MR. KAYE: The San Francisco-based Bechtel Group helped Kuwait build its oil production facilities. The rebuilding of the industry will be a major windfall for Bechtel, which stands to earn more than any other one business in the reconstruction of Kuwait. Bechtel says it will subcontract most of the Kuwait work to other firms which in turn may hire nearly 5,000 people.

SPOKESMAN: [On Phone] Your chances of getting over there are not that great.

MR. KAYE: At the offices of the Fischer Report, a newsletter publisher which operates a job data base, Michael Fischer accepts resumes from engineers and managers hoping to get work with U.S. companies in Kuwait. Michael's father, George, says the small family business has been busy keeping up with the inquiries.

GEORGE FISCHER, Newsletter Publisher: A thousand calls a day.

MR. KAYE: A thousand calls a day.

GEORGE FISCHER: A thousand calls a day.

MR. KAYE: From what kinds of folk?

GEORGE FISCHER: Everybody, from union bosses to ordinary craftsmen, to superintendents, to project managers, you name it, and we've heard from them, incredible.

MR. KAYE: Is there good money to be made?

GEORGE FISCHER: Yes.

MR. KAYE: What kind of money?

GEORGE FISCHER: I would think that the average person out there will make a minimum of $4,000 a month and some who will be working seven days, ten hours a day, will be make somewhere between eight and ten thousand dollars a month. We're getting calls from people saying I want to be on the ground floor, and I'm telling them, look, you're out on the street, the ground floor hasn't been laid yet, so wait, be patient, and this work will come. But we're looking at a month to two months away before we're going to see people going out there.

MR. KAYE: Some American companies are already going out there, particularly those who will put out the 600 or so raging oil fires. Among those firms is Boots & Coots of Houston, Texas. The company has worked with the Kuwaitis before and Coots Matthews says restoring oil production is a priority.

COOTS MATTHEWS, Firefighter: Certainly they've got to get their production back. The Kuwaitis have two things for sale, oil and sand, and nobody wants to buy sand.

MR. KAYE: Matthews and his partner, Boots Hansen, say that because of the number of fires, the Kuwaiti job will be one of the biggest ever.

BOOTS HANSEN, Firefighter: We're going to need dozers and camps and all sorts of back up and people doing pipelines and things like that. It's going to run into millions of dollars, just our part of it.

MR. KAYE: The dangerous work of Boots & Coots, as well as their former boss, Red Adair, was depicted in the 1968 John Wayne movie "Hellfighters". Coots Matthews says they'll douse the fires using the same techniques shown in the film.

COOTS MATTHEWS: Well, the usual procedure is you shoot 'em out with explosives. A 55 gallon oil field drum into this boom and you put three, four hundred pounds of explosives, or whatever the fire requires, and you back it up in there, and you detonate it. The pressure from the explosion knocks oxygen into the well temporary, and the fire doesn't burn without oxygen, then you have a large volume of oil and gas going out that you have to take whatever is on there that's blown up off and put something new on while it's blowing oil.

MR. KAYE: Some of the less spectacular work will go to smaller companies that hope to reconstruct some of the more mundane elements of Kuwaiti life. That includes an amusement park just outside of Kuwait City. It was built in 1982 by a Southern California company, VTN Corporation. VTN President Daniel Montano hopes his firm will be the one selected to rebuild the park.

DANIEL MONTANO, VTN Corporation: This is the most noted project that VTN did in Kuwait, which is the Entertainment City. It's a mini Disney Land, and it basically is right along the beach in the middle of Kuwait Bay.

MR. KAYE: And what's happened to this Entertainment City, as far as you know?

MR. MONTANO: From everything that we've heard, it's been totally dismantled by the Iraqis and carted off to Baghdad. Everybody in Kuwait knows Entertainment City and it seems now everybody in Baghdad is enjoying it also.

MR. KAYE: Montano says his company has been holding discussions with Kuwaiti officials. He's trying to convince them to let him tackle the smaller projects that the larger companies won't handle. But right now all he's got is wishful thinking.

MR. MONTANO: We believe we're going back. We believe we have business there. Our contacts are at the highest level. We've talked to the highest level. They say yes.

MR. KAYE: When will you know?

MR. MONTANO: We wait by the fax every morning. We wait for the phone to ring every day. Every morning we come in by the fax machine and if it's not full, we're broken-hearted.

MR. MacNeil: As of this afternoon, Mr. Montano still hadn't heard anything from the Kuwaitis. NEWS MAKER

MS. WOODRUFF: Finally tonight an interview with the President of Poland, Lech Walesa, who is on a state visit to Washington. The United States welcomed him with the good news that 70 percent of Poland's $3.8 billion debt to the U.S. government will be forgiven. When Walesa last visited Washington in November 1989, he was greeted as the revered leader of the solidarity labor movement which had helped overthrow communism in Poland. Then last fall, he went from leader of solidarity to President of the country in a bitter campaign that split his movement between workers and intellectuals. Today Walesa was greeted at the White House by Pres. Bush, as a fellow head of government with business to discuss. I talked with him after their meeting. Mr. President, thank you for being with us. The last time you came to the United States you were the conquering hero, the hero of a democratic revolution in Eastern Europe. This time you come as President of your country, a year and a half later, seeking help. How different is this mission from your previous one?

PRESIDENT LECH WALESA, Poland: [Speaking through Interpreter] I think that I should be perceived now as a businessman, a businessman doing a business which would secure and guarantee success for these reforms which were so nice and seen then but only political.

MS. WOODRUFF: You have been told now by the United States that we're going to forgive 70 percent of Poland's debt to the U.S., the Western countries are saying they will forgive 50 percent. You're still left though with a debt of $30 billion. Is this enough help for Poland at this time?

PRES. WALESA: [Speaking through Interpreter] I would like to say what I've said, many things already. The United States of America have been doing and ordering a lot for the world. So it is not too good an idea for me to go on talking about this because we still need it, but from this place where I can be heard very well, I'd like to turn the attention of the world to the fact that the reason the United States had this position is that they can look into the future. They can perceive the sense of the reforms. They can understand the struggle and this is proof of today's greatness of the United States, that they immediately understand the greatness of Poland should come with the fact that Poland with its potential of a medium size country can be a business partner, can make it possible to make profit for itself and for others if it reforms. And for this reason, it must get rid of the debt which the communists made, which the old, bad system made, andthis understanding will make us change the system, and then we will become partners, and we will make up for the economic losses. If this is not made possible to us, we will continue to block the development of others and we will not be participating at the center in the economic processes that we could be participating according to our potential. The United States should understand this.

MS. WOODRUFF: You are here to say to American business people invest in us, which they haven't been doing enough of, in your mind. Why should they invest in Poland? What's in it for them? You still have this leftover command system economy you're trying to dismantle. You have problems with transportation, with a telephone system. What's your argument to American business people?

PRES. WALESA: [Speaking through Interpreter] Poland is wealthy because Poland has the best conditions, the best circumstances for an experiment for reforms, conditions which are not existent elsewhere. Firstly, Poland has one uniform nation. There are minorities, but they are minimal. Every other country has problems with their minorities. Poland is the country of one religion. Poland has the Pope and the experience with the system it never relinquished before the communism, therefore, I say that we have the best conditions for conducting the reforms. The market in any respect is -- in the post communist countries is empty. The building construction to make us at least 50 percent like the United States will take us 50 years and building construction is a great industry of cooperation, so we have a lot of work, and we need far sighted collaboration. We have people prepared for communities, are educated, and we have the labor power, but we just can't put ourselves in motion, no way, because the old system was a bad one. It did have some potential, but now we have to put in motion another system.

MS. WOODRUFF: Well, speaking of security, one of the arguments that's made to Americans is that they ought to invest because what Poland does will be followed by other Eastern European countries, but right now, there are other Eastern European countries with enormous problems, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Rumania, Albania, and I could list more. How worried are you about what's going on in Central Europe around Poland?

PRES. WALESA: [Speaking through Interpreter] I propose that we return to my previous visit. There are videocassettes which are recorded here. I spoke about this danger. I warn today even more and I have proof to justify this, you named this proof, a very short period of time, if the reforms don't cause a development of these countries, if the reforms that we propose are not supported by foreign participation, then you would have Afghanistan multiplied N times.

MS. WOODRUFF: What about the Soviet Union? Now we've seen just recently apparent back sliding on the part of Pres. Gorbachev, more influence by the military, by the conservatives. How threatened do you think Poland is by the Soviet Union? Could there be a serious movement backward?

PRES. WALESA: [Speaking through Interpreter] Well, just as there are regularities in our reforms, the same regularities only increase by the size of the Soviet Union, exist in the Soviet Union. The concept of Pres. Bush and other American politicians, the wise concept of help for Mr. Gorbachev is the right one. But it does not encounter practical collaboration. There is no direct assistance and this is what results in the problems for Mr. Gorbachev's revolution. I hope that the world will reflect back and will note the great struggle both in Poland and that of Mr. Gorbachev personally, for it is not in him, not only in him that filling the great revolutionary reforms with some specific matter, defense. It is a great revolution, it is a change of the economic system after 70 years in their case and 50 in our case of the government system. It is a great job and great problem.

MS. WOODRUFF: A question about you, Lech Walesa. As I suggested earlier, we were discussing earlier, when you came to the United States before, you were a symbolic leader of your country, you come this time as a President very much involved in trying to get -- find practical solutions to very real problems. How much different is it, the position you held before, the unofficial position, from the one you have now? And the reason I ask you is because you told our Jim Lehrer in a previous interview that you had no interest at that time of being President, you didn't want to give up your personal freedom, you said you didn't want to give up your unofficial role. You obviously changed your mind.

PRES. WALESA: [Speaking through Interpreter] I would not want to be a President even today but Polish reforms, the fact that I remain on the bows of the ship for a number of years. Seeing the difficulties in our growth did force me to take a different position. Am I right? Am I doing it well? Or have I done it well? One could have doubts. I have them myself, but it would be a great loss to lose the other, to have more problems on the road that we have embarked upon, but I would like to add one more thing, in the past, we weren't politically, theoretically, but all this must be followed, but filling the victory with concrete matter, the economy.

MS. WOODRUFF: But just one last question. You have had a series, almost a continuous series of political and labor problems since you took office, one thing after another. There were critics who said during the election and since that Lech Walesa is too authoritarian, he's going to be more of a dictator than a President. Are you sure within yourself that you're the right one to lead Poland to this democratic system of government, to this capitalist, free market system that you say you want Poland to be?

PRES. WALESA: [Speaking through Interpreter] No, no. I mean, I don't like myself, frankly. I'd prefer to be younger; I'd prefer to have done many things, but I could say I'm trying, I'm trying hard, and of course, when building a democracy, when encountering such great difficulties, problems, many, many things are just not liked. Today even at this point in time in my country many people are opposed to this. We have an opposition and again in a democracy this is normal and to continue the system, the communists will counterattack and it is counterattacking because it's losing certainly. It'll lose various ways of influence and it will try to get them back, but we are not concerned about this. We perceive the necessity of change resulting from the era in which we live. These are all problems, unclear things. Our mistakes, my own personal mistakes, this is all true, but we have no choice. We must go on and we are going in a direction which has been tried by the world. America is an example not only for us but for everybody in any respect.

MS. WOODRUFF: Well, Mr. President, we thank you very much for being with us.

PRES. WALESA: [Speaking through Interpreter] Thank you very much. I hope I shall have understanding and that we shall do business with Eastern Europe jointly and that communism will allow capitalism to make some profit and will become capitalism, itself. RECAP

MR. MacNeil: Again, the main stories of this Wednesday, a U.S. jet shot down an Iraqi warplane in Northern Iraq. The Supreme Court said employers may not bar women of child bearing age from certain hazardous jobs. Finally, we again close our program tonight with the names of more Americans killed in non-combat related incidents in the Gulf War. Good night, Judy.

MS. WOODRUFF: Good night, Robin. That's our NewsHour for tonight. We'll be back tomorrow night with a look at whether Congress is changing its mind about gun control. I'm Judy Woodruff. Thank you and good night.