The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

JIM LEHRER: Good evening. I'm Jim Lehrer. On the NewsHour tonight: A summary of today's developments; excerpts from the House floor debate on airport security; a report on being the first to respond to an anthrax threat; a Newsmaker interview with Mayor Anthony Williams of Washington, DC; an update of the military campaign in Afghanistan; and a look at winning the hearts and minds war.

NEWS SUMMARY

JIM LEHRER: Investigators continued their search today for the source of the anthrax that killed a New York City hospital worker. Officials said the spores were basically identical to those found in tainted letters, but there was still no finding on how the woman contracted inhaled anthrax. Previous cases were concentrated among postal and media employees. In Kansas City, Missouri, anthrax was found at a postal facility that received mail from Washington. About 200 employees began taking antibiotics. Spores were also found in Rockville, Maryland, at four mailrooms for the Food and Drug Administration, and overseas, in a mailbag at the U.S. embassy in Lithuania. In all, there've been 17 confirmed cases of anthrax so far, including four people who died. There has been a credible threat to blow up major suspension bridges in the western United States. California Governor Davis announced that late today. He said the FBI reported there could be rush hour attacks anytime between tomorrow and November 7th. But he said officials still believed the bridges are safe and will let commuters decide whether to use them. A U.N. nuclear agency warned today there's a growing threat of nuclear terrorism. We have a report from Andrew Vietch of Independent Television News.

ANDREW VIETCH, ITN: This is what happens when a jet fighter traveling at 480 miles an hour hits a block of concrete as thick as the wall around a nuclear reactor. The test, in 1988, was meant to reassure. The concrete suffered only superficial damage. What the pictures do not show is that the block was pushed back five feet, and this with a plane with no fuel on board and weighing a fraction of the passenger jets, which destroyed the Twin Towers on September 11, which is why the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency is today urging all nuclear countries to beef up their security.

MOHAMED EL BARADEI, International Atomic Energy Agency: There are obviously some nuclear facilities that will not have adequate security measures because these materials are coming from some nuclear facilities, and we need to continue urgently to upgrade safety at facility and make sure that borders are adequately protected through training, you know, customs officials, through installing detection devices, so there is a lot of work we need to do and do urgently in fact.

ANDREW VIETCH: The Atomic Energy Agency is also warning that security at many civilian and military facilities, especially in the former Soviet Union, is so lax that terrorists might be able to steal enough nuke clear material to make a bomb. Worldwide more than 500teams of nuclear smugglers have been caught since 1993. How many have got through is anyone's guess.

JIM LEHRER: There was a report today that Pakistan has arrested three of its leading nuclear scientists. The "New York Times" said they've been held most of the last week. They're being questioned about whether nuclear technology might have passed to Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. There was no word on the results of the investigation. In Washington, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld said there was no evidence at all that Pakistan's nuclear program has been compromised. On the military campaign in Afghanistan, Rumsfeld said the U.S. is ready to send in more special forces as quickly as possible. He would not say how many are there already, but he did say he'd like to increase the number by three or four times. He said bad weather and Taliban ground fire had prevented doing it before now.

DONALD RUMSFELD: We have been working very diligently to do that for many, many, many weeks now -- and it is difficult to do for a host of reasons -- but we have a number of teams cocked and ready to g. It's just a matter of having the right kind of equipment to get them there and the landing zones in places where it's possible to get in and get out. We expect that to happen -- I've expected it to happen every day and I'm sure it will in the days immediately ahead.

JIM LEHRER: Rumsfeld said the bombing campaign has improved lately with U.S. troops on the ground to pinpoint targets. There were heavy raids again today on Taliban front lines near Kabul, and other northern cities. In other developments, Turkey announced it would send Special Forces troops to train the Afghan opposition. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned a long military campaign could weaken the international coalition. And Osama bin Laden reportedly faxed a statement to an Arab satellite TV channel. It appealed to Muslims in Pakistan to fight for Islam. The U.S. will make new efforts to win support overseas for the war on terrorism. The President's National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, said today President Bush will meet next week with several foreign leaders. He'll also address the nation. But Rice said the United States is not willing to stop bombing during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE: I just want to remind everybody this is an action in self-defense. The United States was attacked on September 11 with incredible brutality. We continue to be concerned about further attacks; we have no choice but to try to go both to the source of this in Afghanistan and to try to root these organizations out wherever we can, and we have to get about that business. We can't afford to have a pause.

JIM LEHRER: Separately, a White House spokesman confirmed the United States and Britain are setting up information offices in Washington, London and Pakistan. The "Washington Post" reported the aim is to make rapid responses to Taliban claims of civilian deaths in the bombing campaign. The U.S. House neared a vote this evening on airline security legislation. Democrats favor a measure that passed the Senate on a unanimous vote last month. It would make all airport security screeners federal employees. President Bush and most Republicans would keep them privately employed, but under federal supervision. It was widely reported today that Microsoft had a tentative settlement with the U.S. Justice Department; 18 states were considering whether to join that settlement or press forward with their own lawsuits. Last summer, a federal appeals court agreed Microsoft had violated anti-trust laws, but it overturned a lower court's order to break up the company. Word of the tentative settlement sent stocks higher on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 188 points, or 2%, to close at 9263. The NASDAQ Index rose 56 points to 1746, a gain of 3.3%. In other economic news, consumer spending in September had its biggest drop since 1987. The Commerce Department reported it fell 1.8%. And United Airlines' parent company, UAL, lost nearly $1.7 billion in the third quarter. It was the worst showing in the company's 75-year history. Two of the planes hijacked September 11 belonged to United. A leading arms control negotiator, Paul Warnke, died Wednesday at his Virginia home. He'd had a lengthy illness. Warnke was among the first government officials to support cuts in nuclear arsenals. He was the chief U.S. negotiator in the strategic arms limitation talks with the Soviets, in 1978. He also served in the Johnson Administration. He was 81 years old.

UPDATE -SECURING THE SKIES

JIM LEHRER: Now to more on today's air security debate in Congress. Kwame Holman reports.

KWAME HOLMAN: Lobbyists for companies that employ airport baggage screeners made final arguments to members of the House of Representatives today, hoping to persuade them to vote against replacing such workers with federal employees. That was the linchpin issue as the House took up sweeping aviation security legislation. On their way to a procedural vote this afternoon, three members exemplified how close the main vote was expected to be. Republican Ben Gilman wasn't sure if he'd vote with President Bush and House Republicans and keep screeners privately- employed but federally supervised.

SPOKESMAN: I'm still looking it over. We met with the President earlier today and I raised some questions, I'm waiting for answers on it.

REPORTER: Are you still undecided?

SPOKESMAN: Still undecided.

KWAME HOLMAN: Joe Crowley, like most Democrats, supports a federal force of screeners.

JOE CROWLEY: Well I'm supporting the Democratic proposal and the Senate bill. 100 Senators voted it unanimously, 49 members of the Republican Party. It's a bipartisan bill and I don't know why we can't get that passed in the House.

KWAME HOLMAN: Jim Demint is a Republican.

JIM DEMINT: Our bill just gives the President the flexibility to add federal employees, local police, private security, and most of all the ability to hire and fire firms that aren't doing it right.

KWAME HOLMAN: House Republican leaders delayed until today a vote on aviation security while they rounded up support for keeping airport screeners employed by private contractors. That issue aside, a large bipartisan majority in the House agrees with the main principles of strengthening aviation security passed unanimously by the Senate three weeks ago. The provisions include: Imposing new airline ticket fees to fund security upgrades, such as cockpit doors only flight crews can open; enough federal air marshals to put one aboard every commercial flight; mandatory anti-hijacking training for flight personnel; and federally- employed screeners at security checkpoints under the authority of the Justice Department. The 28,000 screeners at the nation's airports work for private companies hired by the airlines and have been criticized for on-going security lapses. The screeners' pay is low, the jobs have few benefits and turnover is staggeringly high. Some were found to have criminal records. Democrats say the House Republicans' plan to provide them with better training, better pay and strict federal supervision won't do.

SPOKESMAN: Republican leadership has chosen to rename and dress up the existing failing system. They call it the Airport Security Federalization Act. They are going to require that the private security firms dress up their employees in federal looking uniforms with federal looking badges. They even say that they will be deputized but given no law enforcement powers. Now how is that a change? The same companies that are failing us today and have failed us for 30 years will still be running airport security. So we have a choice here. We can dress up and make it feel better to have private security firms instead of armed federal law enforcement agents providing the security to the traveling public needs, or we can have armed federal law enforcement agents providing for the security the traveling public needs, I think the choice is clear.

KWAME HOLMAN: Republicans argued their approach is better.

SPOKESMAN: Please don't come before the Congress and the American people to tell them we're protecting those private screening companies that are now doing the job. We take this responsibility away from the airlines; we make it a federal responsibility. It is federally managed. It is federally supervised. There are federal background checks, there's federal testing and most importantly there is federal oversight. The Israelis, the Europeans tried the "federalize all public employees" method and what did they? They eventually evolved into a public/private partnership where the government sets the high standards. And that is what we've proposed.

KWAME HOLMAN: Things got off to a slow start in today's floor debate as Republicans leaders continued to work to secure the votes to pass their version of aviation security. At one point, the House clerk spent 25 minutes reading the main Republican bill.

SPOKESMAN: Page one, line 6 -- strike Secure Transportation for America Act of 2001 and insert --

KWAME HOLMAN: Democrats hoped a provision in the Republican bill exempting some companies from legal liability arising from the terrorist attacks would cost them votes.

SPOKESMAN: I mean, imagine the brazen special interest coming forward. There is a provision that was put in to exempt Boeing from liability. Boeing is in my town. Half of Boeing is in St. Louis. That was to I guess get the Boeing people up here lobbying for the bill. That has no place in this bill. If Boeing needs to be made knot liable for some good reason we can do it in another bill. I'm shocked at the special interest coming forward. This is the hog's at the trough.

KWAME HOLMAN: But Republicans modified that provision and dropped another controversial one. Votes are expected into tonight and late this evening, it still as too close to call as to which bill would pass.

JIM LEHRER: Still to come on the NewsHour tonight: The first response; Mayor Williams of Washington; the military campaign; and the hearts and minds campaign.

FOCUS - FIRST RESPONSE

JIM LEHRER: Responding at the local level to anthrax and other security matters. First, the medical response, reported by Susan Dentzer of our health unit, a partnership with the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

DR. VENKAT MANI, Southern Maryland Hospital: Hi.

SUSAN DENTZER: Like most U.S. Physicians, Dr. Venkat Mani had never before seen a case of anthrax, until he was called into the hospital to see a very sick patient on October 22.

DR. VENKAT MANI: He had a chest x-ray done which showed wide mediastinum. Mediastinum is part of the chest between the two lungs. That is normally of a narrow size, and in him, that was wider, and he had evidence of pneumonia on either side of the lung.

SUSAN DENTZER: At that point doctors knew that the patient, Joseph Curseen, was a night- shift worker at a District of Columbia mail processing plant at Brentwood. At least one letter containing the deadly bacteria apparently passed through the facility. Given the results of Curseen's x-ray, doctors suspected that he had inhalational anthrax. They quickly examined some of his blood under a microscope.

DR. VENKAT MANI: In this case, there were so many organisms on the smear, that we could directly see it. When you have a person with blood infection, and you see the bacteria on the... on the blood smear, the patient will almost never survive. By that stage the bacteria is winning the battle.

SUSAN DENTZER: But just one day earlier, things had looked much different well before Curseen's anthrax diagnosis was made here at Southern Maryland Hospital. At that time, Curseen also came to the same facility, driving himself there from his job at Brentwood.

DR. VENKAT MANI: He was alert, he was not toxic, was complaining of upper abdominal pain, nausea, and history of having had diarrhea. He was clinically noted to be dehydrated so he was given intravenous fluids to correct that.

SUSAN DENTZER: Dr. Mani did not treat Curseen on that earlier visit, but says he has reviewed Curseen's medical record. He says it shows no indication that doctors asked Curseen about his occupation or that Curseen told them, and tests performed on Curseen at that time did not indicate a serious problem.

DR. VENKAT MANI: He had a chest x-ray done, which was normal. He had blood tests done, which were nothing out of the ordinary, and he was felt to have gastroenteritis, and he was sent home. Apparently he was very anxious to go. "Look, I'm quite well." The doctor wrote an order for a pain medication. "I don't need any pain medicine. I'm, you know, getting better with all the fluids you have given." And he... He went home.

SUSAN DENTZER: Back at the hospital 24 hours later, Curseen died to the shock of his relatives and the doctors who treated him. His death followed on the heels of another death of a postal worker at Brentwood. Many questions still remain about how health-care providers and public health officials responded to these and other Washington-area anthrax attacks. Dr. Tara O'Toole is a physician and bioterrorism expert at Johns Hopkins University.

DR. TARA O'TOOLE, Johns Hopkins University: Clearly not all docs were aware of the possibility of anthrax being within their patient population. Clearly, not everyone knew to call the health department or call the right place in the health department. I have heard that some docs who were treating anthrax patients haven't heard from the health departments, even after deaths occurred.

SUSAN DENTZER: O'Toole says these lapses illustrate in microcosm just how under-prepared health care providers and public health officials are to cope with bioterrorism.

DR. TARA O'TOOLE: Everyone's working their heart out trying to put this together, but there's no system for doing this with maximum or even moderate efficiency. And of course we're learning as we go.

SUSAN DENTZER: Dr. Georges Benjamin, who heads Maryland's State Health Department and is coordinating that state's response to the regional attacks, agrees.

DR. GEORGES BENJAMIN, Maryland Health Department: We have organized chaos, absolutely. And we have to understand that's the way it's going to be. We are learning every moment. We are readjusting what we do. And I think at the end of this, let's be judged on how quickly we were able to readjust and move forward.

SUSAN DENTZER: Experts say that fighting any epidemic, whether born of bioterrorism or not, requires a coordinated response among health providers and many levels of government. The heart of the response is communication, so that crucial information about is shared about critical questions-- such as who's infected, how they got infected, where they are? Dr. Benjamin says this crisis has added another element: A demand for speed.

DR. GEORGES BENJAMIN: So data that we used to spend hours and days and weeks kind of pondering over and hypothesizing, we're now having to look at that data and make decisions about whether or not there's a blip, right away, every single day.

SUSAN DENTZER: And although it has taken a while to gear up, some public health officials say communications among various players in the system are finally working. Dr. Ivan Walks is Washington, DC's top health official and is coordinating the city's response.

DR. IVAN WALKS, Health Director, Washington, DC: What we also do now is at 10:00 every morning we have a conference call, and it's a pretty big conference call and it takes about an hour and a half. And we have our hospital association and all of our association members, we also have the regional health directors from the Departments of Health in the surrounding counties and we have the emergency preparedness folks on that call as well.

SUSAN DENTZER: Walks says that, regrettably, the hospital that treated Curseen, Southern Maryland, was not included on those daily conference calls until after the postal worker's death. If it had been, it might have passed on word about Curseen's early symptoms, as health providers inside Washington's boundaries had already been instructed to do.

DR. IVAN WALKS: And Southern Maryland was initially outside of our perimeter for that symptom reporting. They didn't get the first memo from us. That's not to say they didn't do exactly what their clinical judgment told them to do, it's just to say that since then we have learned a lesson and we've expanded that perimeter now.

SUSAN DENTZER: Doctors also say they're far better prepared now for possible anthrax cases. Dr. William James Howard is medical director at Washington Hospital Center. He says the treatment protocols there changed almost immediately after the postal workers' deaths.

DR. WILLIAM JAMES HOWARD, Washington Hospital Center: Well, if you said you were from Brentwood, that really raised what we call our index of suspicion very highly. If you came in from Brentwood and you had a fever and those symptoms, we immediately got a chest x-ray; we immediately got a CT scan, a CAT scan of the chest to look for the presenting finding, which is widening of the mediastinum. And we then went on to admit most of these patients and treat them with antibiotics very aggressively.

SUSAN DENTZER: But some experts say doctors and hospitals still are not as prepared as they could be. And a key reason, critics say, is that information is flowing too slowly from the Federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. In fact, it took the agency two weeks after the first victim, Bob Stevens, died of inhalational anthrax in Florida to publish even a cursory description of his case in a key CDC publication. And in congressional testimony this week, some providers complained that although they were forwarding information to the CDC, too little intelligence was coming back.

DR. DAN HANFLING, Inova Fairfax Hospital: What is so ironic is that if this had been a major snowstorm barreling up the eastern coast of the United States, we would've found a lot more information at our fingertips because the mechanism for reporting those sorts of things are in place. But here with an unfolding public health crisis, there was no means for conveying information in a consistent and timely manner.

SUSAN DENTZER: The CDC acknowledges early communications problems early on, but points to signs that things are improving, such as far more timely reports on individual cases. Meanwhile, members of Congress are weighing proposals to beef up the ability of public health departments to respond to bioterrorism, a move that many experts say is long overdue.

NEWSMAKER

JIM LEHRER: And that brings us to a Newsmaker interview with the mayor of Washington, DC, and to Margaret Warner.

MARGARET WARNER: Ever since a highjacked plane slammed into the Pentagon on September 11, Washington has been on the frontlines of the new terrorist threat. For insight into how the city is coping we're joined by it mayor, Anthony Williams.

Welcome, Mayor Williams.

MAYOR ANTHONY WILLIAMS, Washington, DC: Thank you, Margaret.

MARGARET WARNER: First of all, would you agree with kind of the thrust of that report, that the public health system let down those two postal workers?

MAYOR ANTHONY WILLIAMS: When you talk about the public health system, the federal level, the CDC initially with the decision not to go into Brentwood aggressively based on what they knew at the time and the science at the time, if you talk about, Dr. Wachs, my health director, said that that perimeter of symptom notification should have been wider, yes, those were failures, but I think it's important to note that people are working with the best intentions, people are working very, very hard, people are working on their best experience, the science as they know it, and really one of the things we're learning from September 11 is that this is an evolving crisis or situation, and that we have to be ready as public officials to go out there and make decisions, go out there and take risks, go out there and share information with the public knowing that in a week or two weeks we may be second guessed, but I think that's - that cost is worth it. And that problem is worth it - to get out there with people with early information. The most important thing I've learned since September 11 is that you can't provide too much information to people.

MARGARET WARNER: Now, two days ago -- you have the daily briefings and we showed a clip of that -- two days ago at the briefing you said at least vis- -vis anthrax you thought the worst of this is over. Do you still feel that way?

MAYOR ANTHONY WILLIAMS: What I've tried to do and I use a forest fire analogy is try to set up a fire break around this -- to try to spread the perimeter for treatment of employees as wide as we can to get out there with what the doctors are calling prophylaxis - in other words prospective treatment as wide as we can and nipthis thing in the bud -- try to get control of it to move to other larger agenda, which is what do we expect our businesses to do? What do we expect our people to do? What do we expect different parts of our community to do in a way that we can assume these new risks that we have to do? And Washington, DC, like New York City or any big city in America but I would say especially Washington, DC, because we're a target rich environment -- how do we balance the need for public safety with the need for being a living breathing city that still works and is open? And it's a very, very difficult choice, a very difficult balance to strike.

MARGARET WARNER: Give us a little greater sense about the impact, September 11 and this anthrax outbreak has had on this city.

MAYOR ANTHONY WILLIAMS: Well, the impact I mean you had the initial strike on the Pentagon and the shock that that presented to the city. I've said to people you are mayor, you are the chief constable of the city, you're the chief planner of the city. One of the most difficult jobs for being a mayor is to be the chief counselor - to go in and to talk to the schoolchildren who are lost on Flight 77 -- to go and talk to loved ones of Pentagon personnel who were lost -- to talk to the copilot of the plane -- to talk to his family that is, this is very, very difficult to do. And so that emotional trauma if you will in the city hurt -- because when something happens in our city, immediately it hurts. And then you added to that what happens to our nation here in the nation's Capitol, that hurts even more. Then you have the closure of Reagan National Airport and the big message there was we have to be an open city. We have to resist these terrorists. We have to go on about our daily lives. We were just getting into that when all of a sudden we have this anthrax situation. And so it has been very, very difficult to try to create that long-term sustained message we are an open living, breathing city, while at the same time meeting the critical challenges day to day, week to week.

MARGARET WARNER: You also have a lot of extra responsibilities here because there are all these federal facilities to protect which your police are doing. What gets lost there? First of all, how much of a drain is it on the city and then what has to give?

MAYOR ANTHONY WILLIAMS: Well, what people, I mean your viewers can appreciate is when it comes to overlapping governmental responsibilities, I mean we having been there in Washington, DC - we have more -- we deal with the federal government. We are joined at the hip with the federal government, both with the Executive and with the Congress. But they are two separate branches of government. We have to teal with both of them. Fortunately we have a very good relationship with the Bush Administration and it's improving all the time. And I actually think that now for example on a law enforcement basis, I'll give you an example. The work of our police with the FBI is now setting a model I think for the rest of country. To give you an example we do a good job with the IMF World Bank. We do a good job with the inauguration. We are already into experience of working very, very closely with the federal government. We're trying to do that now with something called a joint operation center. We have a center where there is line working real time coordination between Secret Service, FBI, and our law enforcement people. That's a good thing. We need to do that prospectively. Give you an example; there are something like 30 police departments -- more than 30 police departments federal and local in this region. We all don't broadcast on the same frequency. Clearly I mean no one sat around and planned this. But clearly now in the situation we are facing post-September 11 this is a major challenge we have to meet and we're determined to meet.

MARGARET WARNER: You said earlier that Washington is a target rich environment. Do I assume, can I take from that that you are assuming that if there is another terrorist attack, Washington is very much still on the short list of cities that would be attacked?

MAYOR ANTHONY WILLIAMS: What I'm saying very emphatically to my people in our business community -- which really need to be rallied -- is that we are a great city and a great company -- and a great country. We've been knocked down but we haven't been knocked out. I tell people don't be scared; be prepared. In other words, we've got to have one separate message. There are new risks in our lives. We've got to assume these risks, get on top of the risks and manage it, and at the same time, recognizing this, go on about our lives. I think it would be foolish to say everything is fine; we're going to go on about our lives. That's wrong, but it's also wrong to hide in your closet.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. But what is the biggest challenge in getting prepared for this?

MAYOR ANTHONY WILLIAMS: The biggest challenge is getting prepared for this I think is - and I think we're moving aggressively on this -- is the intergovernmental cooperation that is really required here. In New York City, for example, you have 40,000 policemen to handle their responsibilities and Lord knows Rudy Giuliani has some huge responsibilities up there because of its prominence as a financial world center. Here in Washington, DC, the political capital of the world, to meet all these responsibilities, we have 4,000 policemen roughly. There is no way we can meet these responsibilities as first responders without help of the federal government -- that is obvious -- but also working with the surrounding counties, working with the states in Maryland, Virginia and people being involved.

MARGARET WARNER: Finally what would you say to mayors of other American cities who have not been targeting yet, who have not been hit yet? What would you way mayor to mayor is the one most important thing they need to do to get ready?

MAYOR ANTHONY WILLIAMS: The most important thing you can do to get ready I think is learn - you know the lessons that we've already learned. Get out there with early information as to the facts. Don't mix up the factual information with the important information you have to provide in terms of reassurance for your public. Don't wait for perfect information. The cost of perfect information is incredibly prohibitively expensive. And look for your vulnerabilities -- when you are looking at where your weaknesses are, that's exactly what they are; they are your weaknesses, and that is where you ought to be deploying your time and effort and resources, and finally don't try to do it alone. You need the cooperation.

MARGARET WARNER: Mayor Williams, thanks very much, and good luck.

MAYOR ANTHONY WILLIAMS: Thank you.

UPDATE - AFGHANISTAN - MILITARY CAMPAIGN

JIM LEHRER: Now, the latest on the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan. Ray Suarez has our update.

RAY SUAREZ: At the Pentagon this afternoon, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld began his daily briefing by addressing perceptions about the effectiveness and pace of the war effort to date.

DONALD RUMSFELD: I've reflected on some of the questions that were posed at the last briefingabout the speed of progress and questions about the patience of the American people if something didn't happen immediately. And I personally have a sense that the public understands the following facts: On September 11, the terrorists attacked New York and Washington, murdering thousands of people -- Americans, as well as people from dozens of other countries of all races and religions. On October 7, less than a month later, we had positioned coalition forces in the region; we began military operations against Taliban and al-Qaida targets throughout Afghanistan. That was 24 days ago-- three weeks and three days; not three months, not three years, but three weeks and three days. In the end, war is not about statistics, deadlines, short attention spans or 24-hour news cycles. It's about will, the projection of will, the clear, unambiguous determination of the President of the United States-- and let there be no doubt about that-- and the American people to see this through to certain victory.

REPORTER: Your opening statement today wasn't about prosecuting the war. Increasingly, it seems to be about selling the war, telling the American people why it's taking as long as it is, and to have patience. How big a part of your job is the sales effort? What sort of time are you dedicating to that? Are you dedicating too much time to it, and are the people that you're talking to buying?

DONALD RUMSFELD: Well, I would guess it's probably about maybe 30 to 60 minutes a day. Is it important? I guess I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't believe it was important. I think it probably is. I think that the... Well, first of all, we have multiple audiences that we have to deal with. One is the men and women in the armed services. Then there are the American people, and the American people determine where this country goes, ultimately, and so it's important that they have that same understanding. Then there is the press, and...and needless to say, that is important. You play a very important role in this process. And so, as questions come up, it's important for Dick, and for me, and for others to be here almost every day and try to respond to those and provide the calibration that we believe is the right calibration, the honest, true calibration. And that's what we try to do. (Explosion)

RAY SUAREZ: On a day that saw increasingly targeted bombing of Taliban front lines, Secretary Rumsfeld and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs defended the dropping of anti-personnel cluster bombs on Taliban positions.

GEN. RICHARD MYERS, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff: We are trying to be very careful in the way we plan this particular conflict probably only the U.S. and its allies could do it in such a way that we minimize civilian casualties. If we match up a specific weapon to a specific target and we make the judgment that it's in accordance with the law of armed conflict, and we've worked this very, very carefully, then we'll use that weapon. In some cases, that means cluster bombs, and we understand the impact of those. I would take you back to September 11. We also understand the impact of that.

REPORTER: They are being used on front- line al-Qaida and Taliban troops to try to kill them, is why we're using them, to be perfectly blunt.

RAY SUAREZ: They also said American planes were dropping leaflets that try to explain to Afghans how to tell the difference between unexploded cluster bombs and emergency food rations; both of them are coincidentally wrapped in yellow coatings.

FOCUS - WINNING HEARTS & MINDS

JIM LEHRER: The United States and its allies are stepping up the war of words against al-Qaida and the Taliban. Media correspondent Terence Smith has that story.

TERENCE SMITH: This is the Voice of America...

(Speaking Pashto)

TERENCE SMITH: ...Being transmitted in Pashto...

(Speaking Urdu)

TERENCE SMITH: ...Urdu...

(Speaking Dari)

TERENCE SMITH: ...And Dari; three important languages, along with Arabic and Farsi, in the Voice of America's effort to cover the war for listeners in the midst of it in Central Asia. In the wake of the air strikes against the Taliban regime, the 60-year-old government agency has increased its spending and more than doubled its broadcasts to Afghanistan. It is also seeking $30 million in funds to create a new 24-hour Middle East radio network aimed at younger Arabs. Research conducted last year showed that 80% of Afghan males listen to VOA Broadcasts weekly.

ROBERT REILLY, Director, Voice of America: This is a full court press, and I think one of the finest hours for the Voice of America because it shows what we can do on behalf of the people of the United States and on behalf of the President.

TERENCE SMITH: Newly-appointed Voice of America director Robert Reilly says the VOA mission is clear: To report the news objectively while getting the government message out via daily editorials which are up to three minutes long and run an average of two times a day.

SPOKESMAN: Next, an editorial expressing the policies of the United States Government.

TERENCE SMITH: VOA is heard by more than 91 million people worldwide each week.

ROBERT REILLY: Each week we produce 900 broadcasting hours in 53 languages. What's different between now and September 11 is that we are increasing our broadcast in all relevant language services to the Afghan area. That includes: Dari; Pashto inside Afghanistan; Farsi in Iran-- and there are many Farsi speakers inside Afghanistan. Increased broadcasts to Uzbekistan and Uzbek.

SPOKESMAN: VOA Karachi.

TERENCE SMITH: The mission of the news programs on VOA Radio, on the Internet...

SPOKESMAN: Take the wide shot again --

TERENCE SMITH: ...And on television, as spelled out in the agency's charter, is distinctly different from that of the editorials.

ROBERT REILLY: Propaganda, of course, comes from the root to propagate, and in that sense, it's not an onerous term. But in modern-day lingo, it is, because it implies that someone is going to instead of giving you the straight news; slant it in such a way that distortion would gain you some temporary advantage. We're not after temporary advantage. We're after maintaining the credibility of our news so we maintain the trust of our audience.

TERENCE SMITH: That independence was challenged a few weeks ago when the Bush Administration tried to kill this story, which contained interview excerpts with Taliban Leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher:

RICHARD BOUCHER, State Department Spokesman: Considering the fact that U.S. taxpayers paid for this, considering the fact this is the Voice of America, we don't think that the head of the Taliban belongs on this radio station.

TERENCE SMITH: VOA resisted and ultimately broadcast excerpts of the interview. Meanwhile, as part of a broad- based campaign to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people, the U.S. Government has been dropping these leaflets into Afghanistan; and EC-130 aircraft, outfitted as flying broadcast studios, have been bombarding Taliban fighters with an audio message that translates as: "Surrender now and we will give you a second chance. We will let you live." Inhis first primetime televised news conference, President Bush laid out the goals of the information offensive.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: We have go to do a better job of making our case. We've got to do a better job of explaining to the people in the Middle East, for example, that we don't fight a war against Islam or Muslims, we don't hold any religion accountable. We're fighting evil.

TERENCE SMITH: To convey the message, top administration officials have begun granting interviews on al-Jazeera, the Arab television network, which reaches an estimated 35 to 40 million people in the Arab world.

SPOKESMAN: Hello. How are you? Nice to see you.

TERENCE SMITH: But al-Jazeera may prove a double-edged sword. In addition to showcasing American officials, the satellite network also broadcasts civilian casualties in Afghanistan, subsequently acknowledged by the Pentagon, that resulted from U.S. bombing. To blunt those negative images Charlotte Beers, a Madison Avenue ad executive who has been named undersecretary for public diplomacy, is weighing an unconventional strategy to project the nation's message: Paid advertising on al-Jazeera.

ARI FLEISCHER: To provide accurate and timely information on the war....

TERENCE SMITH: Today, at the White House, presidential Press Secretary Ari Fleischer confirmed that the U.S. And British governments are coordinating a worldwide communications strategy that will include briefing reporters around the clock. Fleischer said the aim was to get ahead of what he called Taliban lies.

ARI FLEISCHER: There is a recognition about the fact, particularly with a 24-hour news cycle, people waking up on the other side of the world and they first get their information from the Taliban before they are able to get the facts from anybody in a position of responsibility, that we will put together a capacity to respond and to have a message going out.

TERENCE SMITH: Fleischer said the governments would establish briefing centers in Islamabad, London and Washington to stay ahead of the news curve.

TERENCE SMITH: For more on the war of words we turn to: Geoffrey Cowan, the director of the Voice of America during the Clinton Administration, is now dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. Edmund Ghareeb is an adjunct professor of in the School of International Service at American University; Allen Weinstein is president of the center for democracy in Washington, D.C. And John Reinhardt, retired member of the Foreign Service, was director of the U.S. Information agency in the carter administration. Welcome to you all.

TERENCE SMITH: Allen Weinstein, the phrase winning hearts and minds of course goes back to Vietnam where we were less than completely successful. How do you think the U.S. is doing in getting its message out this time?

ALLEN WEINSTEIN, The Center for Democracy: I think the United States has been a bit slow out of the gate terry. We are playing catch-up where there is a bit of defensive ball being played there but there are reasons for that. First of all the newness of the situation after September 11. The Voice of America as your report indicated got itself involved in a bit of a contretemps over the Mullah Omar reports. USIA -- what used to be USIA -- is cranking up. We still have no surrogate service the way we had during the cold war. Remember during the Cold War Voice of America alternated in tan tam to provide information with Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe. The bill to create a Radio Free Afghanistan, which would serve that information purpose in Afghanistan, is moving its way through Congress at this stage in the game. That I think is essential because one of the elements we have, one of the problems we have now in my view is the fact that we are literally trying to sort of catch up with the lies, the disinformation and the refusal to focus on our message. Lies and disinformation leave so-called 4,000 Jews, throughout the Arab world news reports said 4,000 Jews have not shown up at the World Trade Center. We whacked away at that. Again not adequately enough. We have a Foreign Service. We have people in every country in the Arab and Islamic and Muslim world where we presumably have allies. Those folks should be out there in my view every day countering whatever lies and disinformation the first is the fact that as is sometimes said we've lost the Arab Street. What is the Arab Street? If you have 20,000 demonstrators out of a population of 100 million, in a country like Pakistan or more than 100 million, who is losing what? Our -- our founding father John Adams was asked after the American Revolution, who supported it and who didn't? He said about a third of the population supported it. About a third opposed it and about a third were waiting to see who won. I think that is a kind of emblematic statement on the Arab populations of the countries that we are concerned about. And they're waiting to see who wins. If we project a sense of confidence, a sense of winning, using all of our resources, including our private resources, which haven't begun to be tapped in the information war then I think we'll do better.

TERENCE SMITH: Geoffrey Cowan, you are a former director of the VOA. What impact do you think it has and is having in the Muslim world?

GEOFFREY COWAN, University of Southern California: Well, I think it's hugely important but I think it could be more important if it had more resources as Allen said. You need more resources for this kind of broadcasting. Back in the 190's unfortunately the resources for international broadcasting were reduced significantly. We need more transmitters; we need more hours of broadcasting. We need more personnel to do it. But the great advantage of the Voice of America is that it's so credible. As your report said, something like 80% of the people in -- or the adult men in Afghanistan, the regular limpers to the Voice of America. They know it to be truthful and accurate. Therefore, for years they've been listening to it. They know it tells you the bad and the good. Therefore when you want to combat lies, you have an accurate and credible organization to do it. One of the things I think we have to be aware of is that this is a worldwide phenomenon. What is being said in Indonesia, what is being said in Nigeria-- this is an area in which we have to be in many languages all over the world through every transmission device possible.

TERENCE SMITH: John Reinhardt, how do you feel this country is doing and getting its message across and do you agree with the others that more is needed?

JOHN REINHARDT, Former USIA Director: I certainly agree with Allen when he said we are slow getting away from the gate. And there is a good reason for that as he explained. This is relatively new, little over a month. We do broadcast to the Muslim world, Arab world and it's our single best medium of reaching people -- radio is our single best medium of reaching people abroad in any language. We probably need to step it up. We almost certainly do. We need to broadcast more hours. We need better transmission, we need better technical facilities than we have now, but still it is the best way of reaching people.

TERENCE SMITH: Edmund Ghareeb, former U.S. Ambassador to the region was quoted the other day as saying that the U.S. is simply not a player in the information sweepstakes in the Middle East. Is that so?

EDMUND GHAREEB, American University: I think to a large extent the United States has lost the information war a while ago. This has nothing to do with the recent events It has a great deal to do with U.S. policies in the region, especially when it comes to policies for example towards Iraq, towards the Arab-Israel conflict and some of the other related issues in the area. But at the same time I think it is also important to remember there is not one view of the United States in the Middle East or in the Arab world or in the Islamic world. There are two different views. There's one view that sees the United States as a country of freedom, of democracy, of principles, a country of great charity, the American people as being very friendly, very warm who are tolerant and open so there is that image. There is also -- many people love American films, they like American culture. They want to send their kids to the United States. So there is that one side, they want to send people to study here. So on the other hand, there is the perspective that the United States has double standards when it comes to deal with the Middle East, with Muslims and Arabs it, has one standards for its friend and it's a powerful country, and a different standard for Muslims and Arabs. There is a perception that the lives of westerners, Americans, Israelis, others are more valuable than the lives of Muslims and Arabs. This is a problem. This does not mean that this problem cannot be dealt with. It does not mean that not more could be done but I think this is something that has to be dealt with. We have to understand the issues then go from there to address that.

ALLEN WEINSTEIN: Terry, can I respond very briefly.

TERENCE SMITH: Yes. Allen Weinstein.

ALLEN WEINSTEIN: First of all I think the professor is correct -- that there is a complex altitude toward the United States -- part admiring and part filled with anger in some circles but I think -- this early days. I don't think we've lost anything in the Arab and Islamic world yesterday. The fact of the matter is that one message that is not getting through is we have in the last ten years defended Islamic populations three times at the cost of American lives in Kuwait, in Bosnia, and in Kosovo, and western lives generally. I don't think that message has gotten through. I don't think the message of September 11 has gotten through. I think the vivid reminder that Muslims died in as well as other ethnic groups in the World Trade Center, that message has not gotten through.

TERENCE SMITH: Let's ask Edmund Ghareeb about that.

ALLEN WEINSTEIN: One more point. This new coordinating step by the White House that you mentioned in your brief is very important but not if people stand on the briefers' platform. We have to go out into the field. We have to go out and confront those stations. Those newspaper, we can't let the double standard any longer. You have countries that are supposedly allies where the government sponsored press in Egypt and Saudi Arabia and elsewhere are printing simply lies about us that are not being responded to us.

TERENCE SMITH: All right. Edmund Ghareeb, very quickly -- are those points getting lost?

EDMUND GHAREEB: I think there are some points that are getting lost but on the one hand I want to say also that when I was talking -I was talking about pre 9/11. But I think more recently for example we saw that even the Palestinians critical of U.S. Policy in the Arab-Israeli conflict there was a poll that showed that 64% of the Palestinians were -- condemned attacks in New York. They said this is a violation of Islamic law. This is something that is very important. There is a great deal of sympathy among the public, the Arab public also with the American public for these attacks. The majority of the people don't support these kinds of activities. This is one important thing. The other point that I would like to say is that it's very important to try to reach to these people and to know how to reach. They have to be reached by using their own media, trying to address their issues, trying not to dismiss their public opinions and try to also get people to talk to them, understand their language, their culture and issues.

TERENCE SMITH: Geoffrey Cowan, what do you think of this idea of a Radio Free Afghanistan? Is that a good use of money and the right focus?

GEOFFREY COWAN: I think it depends how much money is available. If there is enough money to do everything I think it's a good idea. And I certainly think that Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty played an important role in the Cold War. Of course, World War II, which is when the Voice of America was founded only had the one service it, performed every role that was needed for international broadcasting at that time. I think there is a misunderstanding, though, about what Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty do versus what some people are asking for a Radio Free Afghanistan to do. Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty are designed to be accurate and balanced sources of information that seem to be coming from within the country that they are broadcasting to. They are not propagandistic in the sense some columnists have treated them. They are not just saying lay down your arms -- otherwise you are going to all be killed. That is the kind of thing that Defense Department SIOPS operations do, that as your piece said is being done by commanders solo. And I think if that is the goal, then the Defense Department can do that but I wouldn't ask either service to. In my view, the most valuable thing we can do if we have any limitation in resources is to put into the one great worldwide service broadcasting in 52 languages with 60 years of the history and reputation for accuracy and balance I would put into the Voice of America.

TERENCE SMITH: That is Voice of America. John Reinhardt, how do you combat the images that come out of civilian casualties and bomb damage that come out of Afghanistan? How do you put that in a context if you are the United States or if you are running the information end of things?

JOHN REINHARDT: These images are very difficult to combat, particularly in time of war. But you got to realize that there is a great backlog of information among peoples all over the world about the United States. This is not by accident. Many of these people have studied here. Many of them have come on exchange grants, vast contacts. There are, there are many peoples around the world who understand what we are like, some like us. Some don't. But the backlog of goodwill is excellent.

TERENCE SMITH: You would tap into that somehow?

JOHN REINHARDT: I would certainly tap into that. We also must realize that there are other media in the United States that are read in the Middle East. That are listened to, CNN broadcasts for example, all of these are not images that we would like to have. But they are an image, are images that give a balanced picture of the United States.

TERENCE SMITH: And they are powerful. Gentlemen thank you all very much.

RECAP

JIM LEHRER: Again, the major developments of this day: Investigators continued hunting the source of the anthrax that killed a New York City hospital worker. California's Governor said there was a credible threat to blow up suspension bridges in the western United States and to correct something we reported earlier United Airlines' parent corporation lost nearly $1.2 billion in the third quarter. We'll see you online and again here tomorrow evening with Shields and Brooks, among others. I'm Jim Lehrer. Thank you and good night.