The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

it's been hi margaret warner jim lehrer

is off this week on the newshour tonight when i fully the discussion about why the nation's crime rate keeps falling leaf hochberg reports on the tension between homosexuals in their churches we get the latest on the power struggle in iran following this weekend's elections and lisa handle of atlanta ga oversight another in our favorite poem series it off i was a summary of the news this monday opening the borders it's been the corporation for public broadcasting this program was also made possible by contributions to pbs stations when viewers like you

think you serious crimes fell seven percent last year for record eight straight year of decline the figures based on crimes reported to police were announced by the fbi president clinton welcomed the news that he said gun control legislation would make americans even safer it still exist though most dangerous countries and will only because we have stubbornly refuse to take prevention seriously when it comes to guns the guns out of the hands of criminals and children and we've had crime writer many years in a row so we now know we can turn the comet around and the next big barrier way damages really really safe country is to take these common sense we'll have more on the story right after the news summary place in the philippines arrested a man today in connection with the love bug computer virus they seized telephone equipment and computer related items from his apartment in manila and said

his girlfriend is also a suspect the virus and many copycat versions overwhelmed computer networks around the world last week new violence erupted today in sierra leone's capital freetown members of the rebel group known as the revolutionary united force shot and killed four protesters we have this report from samir uk met of independent television news this afternoon in freetown evidence of the complete collapse of the un peacekeeping operation rebel soldiers opened fire on an unarmed crowd of demonstrators outside the house at all us leader the focus of the crowd's and there was the man who was supposed to be part of a power sharing government renegade soldiers are believed to be holding up to five hundred un requested says notes that parts of the movie is going to go

up there the premises of the money going into peace maker no one percent of a peacemaker a trademark of his value and during the civil war was raging and mutilating days we didn't know that visible and many in the crowd these un soldiers were brought in under the limb a peace deal signed a year ago to disarm the rebels and uphold the power sharing government which center was included but the deal collapsed over tends to control the country's diamonds fighting broke out when the un tried to move into the diamond producing region controlled by the rebels had no intention of giving up the list of wealth of life their weapons and influence as foreign nationals continue to get out as fast as they can they just report say government soldiers preparing to fight on the streets of the capital un secretary general kofi annan called for a rapid reaction force to aid the peacekeepers he also authorized the evacuation of more than two hundred un civilian staffers from the country in iran today

reformists appear to have won the majority of seats in last friday's runoff elections for parliament but hardliners alleged fraud in the first round of voting in february which the reform has also won if the results stand the religious conservatives would lose control of parliament for the first time since the nineteen seventy nine islamic revolution will have more on this story later in the program back in this country carte on john o'connor was celebrated at a funeral mass in new york today then laid to rest in a crypt beneath the altar of st patrick's cathedral an estimated thirty five hundred mourners filled the cathedral they included president clinton vice president or former president bush in texas governor george w bush the cargo was remembered as a special priest and man he saw and on a common rhetorical still on that with a dramatic gesture

a sharp wit all of you in the service carnal o'connor died of brain cancer last wednesday at the age of eighty us navy warplanes resumed training today on puerto rico's make a silent exercise came just days after federal agents removed more than two hundred protesters from the site today's training use dummy bombs as specified in an agreement with the puerto rican government that's it for the new celery tonight now it's onto why crime is going down gays and religion tensions in iran and another favorite poem airman at today's news in a declining crime rates and when nightfall crime continued its nationwide decline for the eighth straight year the fbi reporting that every region of the country reported a drop in

serious crime last year serious crime is defined by the bureau as homicide rape robbery aggravated assault for burglary larceny car theft and arson but what's behind those falling numbers we asked for experts on crime and punishment frank is simmering a law professor and director of the earl warren institute at the university of california at berkeley catherine russell a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the university of maryland jack riley director of the criminal justice research program at random public policy research organization and randy barnett former prosecutor in cook county illinois he now teaches at boston university school of law mr reilly we hear these numbers and we'd never know what to make of them so maybe you can help us with this what did amy why i think you have to look for something that would help explain why crime fell rather substantially across most of the country and an approximate the same time and there are very few things that can meet

those two criterion in terms of explain what happened to crime i would point first to demographics there's been a rather substantial change in the number of people aged fifteen twenty four bracket that commit most the crimes are in the country or that or that are most likely to care crime and the second factor is probably economic growth in combination with reduced opportunities in marketing and drug trafficking because of declines interviews professor russell let's talk about another one of those issues which people are attributing this for this job which is the building of more prisons the higher rates of incarceration yes at last count there were close to two million people behind bars in the nation's prisons i'm at the federal level and at the state level and we are rapidly say more and more people are being locked up and i'm for nonviolent offenses as well so it's not just these violent crimes that this

drop this reflect about but also for drug offenses and for non violent crimes as well he had a continual continual source we talk about declining drug use in the increase in numbers of people in prison for drug use so that that takes me mr zimmer into the idea of a robust economy and how much does that have to do with israelis two things can be separate well there is no single cause that is going to explain why it is that for the first time essentially since the middle of the twentieth century we've had eight years of consecutive and cumulatively so large decrease in crime if it were the robust economy which is certainly in better shape now than at any time most of our billboards that economic growth in the nineteen sixties and early nineteen seventies so wouldn't have been associated with the large

crime increases if it were demographics along than the early nineteen eighties it started there a little bit of a crime decline of wouldn't have seen a turnaround as rapidly as they did if it were more prisoners then by now we'd have a zero crime rate because we have been doubling and troubling steadily the car sort of controls in the united states since the middle of the nineteen seventies so in the first instance rather than look for a single theory maybe we ought to be like those pain reliever advertisements and start thinking about a combination of ingredients the demographic news has been fairly good the economic news has been very good about our commitment and purchase of social control has been as intense as ever in the history of the country but with all of that coming together we still on a feel both last and somewhat in a state of mystery as to why the news that the other ran on the

outcomes is as good as it is i'm not going to tell me that the crime riddled continue because i don't fully understand the good news that we've already experienced professor grant do you do you agree with you don't we don't quite get all the reasons that we touch all the more guys i do agree with for franken said and i would also add to that there are two other things that we know we know with confidence that a massive increase in the numbers of firearms they're possessed by americans have not resulted in any increase in violent crime did not result in any increase in murder and we also know that the empirical support for the fact that each of the thirty one states they have an active concealed carry was the violent crime rate in those states immediately went down faster than it went down in other states they did not in that those but those concealed carry laws so we do know this challenges the conventional wisdom about the relationship between more guns equals more crimes that gun control proponents were heavily touting in the sixties when the crime rate and the gun possession rate

or for going up at the composition right ray professor russell stanley the same impression that people are more concerned about a nurse at a never before was it was a fear that remain so high the same time that i'm waiting to be going down one quite us the question for him because it is the case that the public is as fearful now as they were ten twelve fifteen years ago are up a crime and i think part of it has to do with the sale is a crime in the nightly news which we hear much about and also about where crime is crime is moving closer to us i saw recently an advertisement worth the million mom march and i they showed a picture of the national zoo was shooting and made reference to the fact that the caption was a close enough yet and i think that people believe that they are more at risk even though i mean year after year these studies come out that indicates how the statistics which indicate that crime actually is on the decline but the park there's really a disconnect with the public in terms of the perception of crime so we're told were not supposed to use our warrants in where we're not

supposed to look askance at any one unit says now there's sort of an encroachment in our personal space that i think this is directly tied to people's perception of rates of crime mr riley is it also possible that by not being sure exactly why this is happening that people can't feel reassured that the numbers are reliable oh i think absolutely although you can you can look at the crime statistics and have a lot of confidence in what has being reported homicide is probably easiest part time job to keep track of because there's usually a victim and it's usually a very eminent crime and the numbers of homicide or very clear throughout the country fifth homicide rates are declining other crimes may be influenced our perceptions of the maybe influenced a somewhat by people's willingness to report a police record keeping and tracking and so forth but by large you know i think we're talking about a very real phenomenon here and as cathy

mentioned they're still reluctance to to feel safe and declare victory some professors in mind just in explain this to me just in december on this program we talked about many other programs how an eisenhower foundation study have shown that a crime had violent crime against twenty percent in the past thirty years how does that jibe with what we're hearing today well it doesn't want so what happens there is that you use a different base right there if you want to go back to nineteen sixty three or nineteen sixty four a before there was a doubling of violent crime in the united states that's what happened between the mid sixties in the mid seventies then you could find times when this was a safer country that is in the year two thousand after nineteen seventy four we then went through a holding pattern for at least twenty years in this country where we were fluctuating a bit down and then back up

to the peaks that we established in the mid nineteen seventies and it really was nineteen ninety five or nineteen ninety six before the cumulative declines that started in the early nineties made it clear to us that we were now breaking new ground on the downside but this is still a country that has both cline and lethal violence rates which are higher than some other countries i think that the public anxiety is not focused on crime generally i think that that is at a fear of illegal violence in the united states there was a bumper sticker in some years ago that was going around in northern california that said that one nuclear bomb could ruin your whole day and i think that when you say the service and fear that can be fed as much by an episode like columbine

school shootings or unexplained and in explicable kinds of workplace shootings the fear of lethal violence is not something which your response to rates four hundred thousand so much as to anxieties that it if it happens anywhere that we care about what was still very concerned mr barnett there are basically two approaches to to bring down the crime rate either been hearing we talked to prevention say putting caps in the street or punishment building more prisons want to be either of those approaches tell us about what happens to prevent this from happening again artist that i'm from the crime rate from beginning to rise again anything well i think perfection is extremely important and none of us have talked so far about other kinds of preventive activities that i think that made a real difference over the last decade for example the vast increase in the number of private residential communities that have their own security our reliance on shopping centers that have their own private security as well as fast commercial office buildings that have their own private

security the number of private security agencies that exist in this country are vastly increased over what we saw twenty years ago prevention i think is the untold story in know why we've had a positive downturn in prague that's tom professor russell about what happens in the future argue we're talking about doubling the number of people who didn't get on the last ten years to about two million they get out of jail sometime we talked about demographics the echo boomers the next boom boom of a baby boomers age comes along they're open a cup become a a crime committee age soon on the is this a big problem that we should see a few tours are some that we've learned from the brain down the crime stats that that we can apply to what happens next what the concern really house to be as you've said what we're going to do and then in the next ten years and that's twenty years and i think the focus has been on are dealing with what's going to happen with the youth who were going to mature into he engaged in criminal activity on but i think that one

thing we really haven't talked about is the issue of race and i think that's something that always has to be addressed out front on that they just directly out when talking about crime and talking about disproportionate rates of tainting but also even higher than disproportionate rates of placing people behind bars and there's been a lot that the fbi statistics don't actually show and they don't actually show the rising numbers of racial profiling or the fact of racial profiling i should say they don't show what people are concerned about his first interracial crime and so there's issues of police violence and i read a study recently that indicated that in the last ten years police across the country killed more than two thousand people and that is something that has to be considered a long way all of these figures about drops all of these figures which will indicate most of the national crime and victimization survey their crimes on the decline <unk> what you think were not touching on well one of the issues of

putting one the issues associated with putting so many people in prison is that eventually they're going to get out and many of them are turning to community here in california we annually pour one hundred and twenty five thousand people who return to the community many are illiterate have poor job prospects have and treat substance abuse problems one consequence of these these delinquencies are these insufficiency says that a high number of them return to prison in a relatively short period of time so take a second component of prevention that we haven't talked about is what we do about the people are actually in prison where their prospects how we prevent them from receiving and heading back to prison and professors entering one final word from you what is it that's not being touched on what is it that we have not that we're skipping over and trying to figure out how to bring these crime members down what i want to emphasize is that it is the continuing mystery and let me tell you why this is the first time in my lifetime that we've had a a sustained

decline of the kind that we have and so we get you for doing this period of time and we say hey eddie what could we try last year and obviously worked whether it's private security or more prisons or prevent you know whatever but the truth is that this is an opportunity to learn for the first time in at least half a century what the dynamics of a genuine crime decline are in an american society and i hope that we can keep our eyes and our ears open an egg and not let the good news people were explained by wishful thinking really that they're polite thank you everybody very much still to come on the newshour tonight gays and died the latest on iran and another favorite poems and he's next the contentious debates over homosexuality and the church the

hopper of oregon public broadcasting reports on how several denominations are struggling with the issue it sounded like the usual sunday service at the trinity united methodist church what time's in the methodist church are not as leaders of being a million member denomination america's second largest are embroiled in a funeral over homosexuality particularly the bible says that certain behaviors or raul we cannot joy burghardt says certain behaviors are wrong the subject was on the mind of pastor robert piper in the days leading up to this week's national methodist conference in cleveland he told his congregation that homosexuality is a sin and leviticus chapter at aden says you shall not lie with the man as with a woman

ah that's pretty clear to me that certain behaviors arson for hoarding to the bible was not my opinion that's an inscription or takes its cue from united methodist hymns national leadership the time when days in many churches are demanding full inclusion methodist leaders in nineteen ninety eight banned gay and lesbian marriage ceremonies piper's church a poster for his gaze to seek rehabilitation and most members reject the idea of gay rights many things ruby ruby ruby what the ban on gay marriage isn't far enough of

last january as an act of conscience sacramento methodist minister don fatal presided over this union so i can agree that movie atonement i can bless anybody's house i can bless their job i can bust their automobile their tractor there are animals are stuffed animals anything but don't put a blessing or say a prayer for two people for the same gender and i will make a commitment to each other for life sixty seven other methodist pastors in california and nevada state with a gala ceremony in support i don't think we have we should be going around calling that god created an abomination i believe sex is good it's a beautiful thing that has been given and their sexual orientation as a gift of god to that is no more good than the blessing of breakable alcohol the ceremony stunned the conservative methodist piper and others sought disciplinary action against clergy who participated

ministers in illinois nebraska already had been punished for blessing same sex couples with all the pastor jimmy creech being defrocked after he performed to gay unions we have found that many people are able to leave homosexuality behind and no longer struggle with these desires and to us that's a much better the solution to this complaint process is you're right in at a press conference in february officials at the california nevada methodist conference which governs the church announced they would not punish the sixty eight astor's decision prompted further strife this is serious enough of an issue that it may mean that we'll have to leave the united methodist church reverend greg smith's congregation here at sacramento's whole church is considering pulling out of the california nevada conservative church and six others have withheld their fifty

thousand dollars annual membership see the whole picture is even ready to give up its sanctuary buildings all belong to the coffers and we just have to leave them behind but were willing to be that end and we're together where we're coming to that consensus that it's worth it to us to follow their troubles with gay rights methodists are not the only the nominations struggling with the issue conservative presbyterians hope to expel liberal congregation it's at that face national meeting in june and the leaders of the nation's two point four million episcopalians are poised for a showdown over gay unions at their meeting in july and those southern baptist leader jerry falwell stressed compassion at a meeting with gay leaders last fall baptists have expelled congregations for blessing same sex unions as for the mormon and catholic churches they contributed heavily to california proposition twenty two which last fall outlawed state recognition of gay marriages in

all these denominations the more conservative and fundamentalist groups have decided that this is where they're going to draw the line in the sand or religious scholar william able of oregon's linfield college says the fray over gay rights reflects a larger battle for control of diversifying churches he says while the purity codes of leviticus in the hebrew bible an apostle paul's letters in the new testament do condemn homosexuality using them to castigate modern days is a misuse of scripture two thousand years ago they didn't have a concept of sexuality and on the sexual way of life and a heterosexual life in the in the way that we do in other words paul i didn't even think about the possibility that there may be days who are committed to one another and long term

lasting relationships ah ah ah ah modern interpretations of approved in march the use of jewish ritual and gay and lesbian youth seattle area around by james morrell notes his temporary than a torah as a popular gay cantor and his interviewing when we gave assistant rabbi a few people really committing itself to each other i think as a society and as a jewish community we want knowing for the last time rapping but even for politically and socially active jer is a comfort zone and gay rights is far define seattle's st mark's episcopal cathedral last fall became the first in the country to select an openly gay de reverend robert taylor the lack of freedoms to be who we are with those we love most is certainly a demon gay and

lesbian church members like me given sergeant davis say they are thrilled oh it makes me feel like this is god's face this is a place where everyone is welcome and we mean everyone there isn't anyone who really would not embrace here is truly right to decode been joyful reverend taylor noted anti apartheid activist who fled his native south africa twenty years ago is popular among straight parishioners to church says financial giving his top forty five percent a crowd of twenty five hundred including south african archbishop desmond tutu greeted him with an extended ovation with his installation just that if the reception from the congregation or the message the memphis couple leaders of the bishops at the most recent gathering of the worldwide anglican communion which includes the episcopal church overwhelmingly voted to declare homosexuality incompatible with scripture it's a vote taylor can't ignore it

is deeply hurtful can talk causes great pain scripture can be used to support a variety of prejudices that's been my own personal experiences i watched young kids being killed on the streets of south africa in the name of god episcopal church is split personality on the issue has created confusion and the diocese couples like me going and sideshow receive the church's blessing that union ceremony last year but did so without the support of the bishop of the diocese warner says he personally supports gay rights but in the past has had to disapprove of unions in his official role as bishop do i approve of the blessing of same sex unions the us as a church approved a no but the church has hinted it will soon leave decisions on unions to individual dioceses and the bishop says he recently did approve a union of a lesbian couple as

if to show how mixed the faith remains on gay rights another fiscal church only ten miles from st mark's has come apart over the issue at st luke's episcopal father thomas bigelow thirty six years as a priest lost much of his congregation recently told them he's gay they went ballistic i couldn't believe that i mean i had a third of the congregation leave without it even saying goodbye people who i had the narrator i had baptized there i had gone to the hospital with he says he was surprised when an active church woman she said she could no longer receive communion in this church because she couldn't take the host from the hands of a sexual life of it you've been doing this for three and a half years i have a joke about it yet with all the

departures st luke's has been unable to afford the assessment of the diocese bishop wonder however initial support that the priest has forgiven the debt as religious leaders of many faiths try to integrate all the competing messages on gay rights scholars so the issue is big enough that it could significantly change the face of american religion there's going to be re alignments we were fine baptists certainly having much more common with liberal catholics than they will with other baptists are within their own the nomination and they will be lined up in ways that i can't quite imagine what little middle ground on the issue the upcoming religious meetings likely won't end the debate but only fuel methodist ministers holding their national meeting in cleveland this week and decided to maintain their opposition to gay unions they still must decide whether gays can become ministers

and whether homosexuality itself is compatible with church teachings and it's been now the latest on the power struggle in iran michaels begins our coverage during this weekend unofficial vote counts out for reform candidates winning big majority in runoff elections for parliament they can't give allies of pro reform president obama coming into of sixty six it's the results resembled the tallies from the first round of parliamentary elections and the world and pro reformers one of the twenty six together the two rounds of voting would give the reformers a solid majority in the expanded two hundred and it seemed lifeless but the complication is that only some of these results are official reflecting the fault line running right through the middle of current iranian politics

the president khatami and his reform allies seemed to one numerical control over parliament and the ability to pass laws reading iranians more personal liberty that many of the election results yet to be validated by iran's other power center council of governors has supreme religious body controlled by islamic fundamentalists and loyalty is supreme leader ali khamenei the council and religious conservatives also dominate missionary military and iranian broadcast the council already has invalidated sixteen of the election results from somewhere over the weekend threatened to block the election of another twenty nine reformers won first round ballot to interact the council said that iran elections were marred by fraud i was

a hardline judiciary shutdown sixteen reformist newspapers and magazines several leading advocates of increased freedoms were also jailed and charges of undermining is to president khatami and his allies urged their supporters to stay calm and not take to the streets provoking a tougher crack tommy's major rival the supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei has voiced personal support for the president while denouncing his allies and the reformist agenda in one speech khamenei said legally violence was a permissible against enemies of the state run it later we'll hear a month ago at the same time iran's relations with the united states and other western nations as well as israel have been exacerbated recently iran's trial of thirteen jewish iranian citizens on charges of spying for israel i mean defend this and now pleaded guilty including

to today and they have insisted their pleas were not the product of course generic torture the defendants face a possible death penalty in non jury trial and she rides some twenty five thousand jews remained in iran after the nineteen seventy nine revolution almost forty thousand left for other countries including the united states the united states is prepared to increased efforts with iran in march secretary of state madeleine albright offers ease some restrictions on trade between the us and iran but albright and other western diplomats as well as major jewish groups said the fairness of the outcome of the trial could help determine western eagerness to improve relations with iran headed by a pro reform government for more on all this we turn to la bun was easy who was born in iran and came to the us in nineteen fifty nine he is now a professor of modern iranian history at boston college elaine so we know who's covered iran for twenty years for the new york times and newsweek her forthcoming book is persian mirrors the elusive

face of iran and daniel pipes editor of the middle east quarterly and director of middle east forum a non profit group that tries to promote us interests in the middle east welcome all elaine we have two conflicting things this week and the reformers win big again the polls then the guardian council turns around and says well you know even the election results from last february and tehran may not be thousands of fraud what you make of this how would a look at all this pirate the best way to look at it is to see iran as a series of battlefields in the reformers are the guerrilla warriors on this battlefield and you just seeing another round in in this great struggle but it's an open ended system and it's an open ended war that just as you've got the guardian council saying we are we have not validated some of the election results you got the minister of the interior ministry of interior saying this is all bologna and these results should be validated that you've had

one member of the guardian council today said in an interview that the reformist should take their positions in tehran so stay tuned daniel pipes to you do you see this as guerilla warfare well the rule of warfare least it's a nice knowledge and that the power is with the hardliners it's those reformers who were expressing that people will return to the various things really to change who uses mortars and so far the momentum is on this law has it all going to be a long term you're probably going to get them a lot of that will depend on the short term surpluses but then what was easy explain what you think the conservatives are trying to give the last few weeks are resting outspoken dissidents shutting the newspapers now threatening to invalidate some elections invalidating others were they really up to here remain free are going to stick to that analogy of guerilla warfare i think here's a

case where a hundred guerillas clearly are in the majority and they have spoken time again in st consecutive elections each time quite eloquently with over seventy percent of the votes cast in favor of the reform candidates on the other side we have an entrenched minority to the clerical establishment has been extremely nervous about its own sites about the possibilities of continuing to remain in power and has resorted to all kinds of the counter guerrilla tactics including serial murders closing of newspapers and a variety of other extra constitutional means to support reform move daniel kreps how far do

you think the conservative hardliners will go to war their sentiments do you think they might try do i know that the tehran seats in the election do you think they might try to actually keep a majority of reformers from taking out their seats in parliament absolutely give them a big bag of tricks and professor bose as you pointed out the ruins a few extra legal spontaneous in some cases ways of resisting the will of the people's expressions elections and they have the power of his face that they're in a position to keep on doing this for a long time to come and my home i'm very optimistic about iran long term there's no way that this was ensconced in our decade after decade but short term they've got the judiciary the military intelligence economic physicians the mass media institutions they got the power mention of you know this far and i think it became deeper trade a little bit more complicated than this when both of my

friends and colleagues have made a couple very interesting points but the fact is who's got the power and to what and does anybody who has the power want to see blood and bloodshed in the streets violent demonstrations and i would argue now we dig all of both the we formed a center present talk to me and i'll eat promenade the ayatollah who is the supreme leader is the durability impermanence of this islamic system yet no one is saying let's get rid of the islamic republic let's go on out into the streets and have a secular democracy there is not a cry for a new revolution so in the end i would say that the goal of boat the important leaders in the country the president and the supreme leader control different institutions of government is exactly the same i would agree with eileen that there is a an entrenched minority that wants to

keep the status quo in the version of islamic law as iran has known it for twenty years but it's the minority professor how do you see this question of how far the conservatives who pushed this in terms of trying to really overturn the will of seventy percent of the voters one of course turn the question around and ask how far are vivid road or three full links going to or are willing to go down that path so far and particularly since the last elections in february the restraints shown by the reformists has been really quite remarkable time and again the president has urged his followers know to push on the hands of well off the hardliners and not to give them an excuse to and no elections or possibly even and stage

a coup d'etat and i think demanded level of modernization and given the level of frustration and suffered down by the majority of it but again i would contend that it is really quite remarkable the political maturity exhibited here is quite remarkable issues are undoubtedly the past a change is going to be a very torturous one but let's keep in mind that the past to change in other countries including for example russia has not been any easier this just as he was set to explain what we should just explain one thing to attempt to clean american audience where is the guardian council get the authority to say trump the voters in other words is that in the constitution is that because the supreme leader the ayatollah ultimately has ultimate power well the guardian

council has been given the charge of protecting the country and the state and islam against all kinds of challenges and it has very broad time powers which has interpret it even more broadly including clear meddling in the affairs of the country so the constitutional this point is vague enough to allow the guardian council found to exercise the kinds of extra judicial extra constitutional authority that has been not exercising but there are other factors i would only mention one answer that i mean that it down your pipes because we just want it back to him and comment on the professors point that the reformers have played it a very smart game here are encouraging their supporters not to go in the streets and not to demonstrate do you agree

with him that that really in the middle me introduce the best strategy i do a degree yes that is by far the strategy where the reformers to act in a hot headed way than the full force well the hardliners would fall on them and they would be crushed perhaps but right now the plane this saturday in and they're getting quite for ios agree with them soon enough point and has a very profound one that nobody's trying to undo the islamic republic is different visions to keep going against little bit like gorbachev and his hard line that everybody wants to keep it going nonetheless the fact is that the reforms of gorbachev on leash reforms the company would want to unleash are in the end probably fatal for the system so it's arduous that no matter how much they want to keep going what about whatever the motives that in fact they unleash these reforms and yes that doing an intelligent way and stay with you for a minute just to pipes how the victors the trial of these iranian jews fit

into this picture it was what purpose deadliest house or for the hardliners is away isolating the country from the outside and isolating reformers from the outside it's a little bit analogous to twenty two years ago when the hardliners at that point took over the american embassy this caused revulsion outside created a breach with the foreign countries and allowed the hardliners to the crease their power within so it is with the iranian jews and forth daily the small scanner which will now five of them have confessed it's it's an internal power play and what i think more broadly we should see the argument that's going on between these two factions as an internal domestic line in debate with very few elements of foreign policy of all they're not talking about the arab israeli peace process and not gotten the weapons instruction and not talking about terrorism and not talk about improving relations with united states that's not the center of gravity is what out how things worked in an

alley so how do you see in the medium term and the reformist forces regrouping here i mean what you think they're going to do well i'd like to come back as first minister something that they didnt set about the the trial of the jews because i don't think we can underestimate the importance the real and symbolic importance of this kind of a trial and its impact on the international community and confessions in iran are nothing new and their emblematic of a dark side a repressive side that continues even to that despite the reformist trans despite the transparency the move towards democracy the rule of law there are centers within centers in iran and i would argue you can't speak of an iranian regime anymore or an iranian role there are different power centers with different levels of authority and influence and i think that that is going to continue to play out in the struggle and that's what it's difficult to predict the trend line or a future pac

professor brief last word would you expect that this new parliament to take office i believe so by the end of may god willing ceiling to make that fearless protection professor yes yes i thank you all very very much and finally tonight with the baseball season underway an ode to the national past time it's part of poet laureate robert pinsky to project of asking americans to read their favorite poems here is a young fan from atlanta mosley sam neill eleven years old and the president of my skull and it's my thumb has just adopted a world name jessie from bulgaria and our team is the atlanta braves as i live in atlanta

and the lawyers and they're very very young the poem i chose is casey at the bat in the reason is i love baseball it's my life i learned to read from looking and many many many archives those are my better baseball cards per pound and on the back of every card they have stats and i learned to read with the first word was a pot parents and giants win barry bonds he's a lot of applause and viable guard sir ken griffey jr hundred dollars and a lot of posters especially convincing as he's within a player and when they're when they're when they're when they're when they're i have two counters and baseball and new buildings and one of the hosts a major leagues baseball i watched base by renowned tv in this piece

and that's a poem he'd feed them back by ernest lawrence there wasn't brilliant for them i don't mind that day scores don't want to do with but one inning more to play and then when you need it at first then barrows did the same a paul likes silence fell upon the patrons and the names are straddling the line up to go in deep despair rest clung to that help them springs eternal in the human breast think that if only casey could get elected that we put up even money now it easy at that but flynn preceded casey ethanol sturgeon blank and the former was a hutu or the latter was a cake so far mexican multitude grim melancholy sat order saying but little chance that if we get into that and one and that's the one tiny bird

share as anything that we should be in there and from five thousand throats and more there rose a listing yell it rumbled through the valley it rattled in the dell it pounded on the mountains and recoiled upon the flat for casey my knee that the nra proof that influence with the pride in casey's bearing and a smile that is in space and when responding to the gst labor me that this hat no stranger in the crowd about with casey at the bat and they're by fans in terms of wide at the heat waving their shirts and while the writhing a caravan of volunteers the guys like sneer curled casey's lip and now the leather covered sphere came hurtling through the air but he thinks they're watching it and heidi grand or they're led by gary bettman the violent events there

wine sanchez black with people there and up a muffled roar like the beating of his long way that is very indistinct shore and it that's my acting charity great casey's visage shone he failed the rising tumult he bade the game go on he signaled to the pitcher and once more in advance their low but casey still ignored it and the umpire said cried the maddened thousands and echo answered but one scornful look from casey and the audience was odd a thought is a space during cold they saw his muscles strain and they knew they key thing wouldn't let that ball go by again it's near have gone from casey's lip his he went in at a long island in that up on the blade

and now the figure of all of the ball and now he lets it go and now the area shattered by the war that oh somewhere in this the relentless sun is shining bright the band is playing somewhere and somewhere hearts are light and so our men are laughing and little children shout but there is no joy in night vale mighty casey has struck out oh you and again the major stories of this monday serious crime fell seven percent last year for a record eighth straight year of declining police in the philippines arrested a man in connection with the love bug computer virus and rebels in sierra leone killed several demonstrators in the capital freetown will see online and again here tomorrow evening i'm margaret warner thanks for being with us tonight

it's a solidly richer teams with it reconvened more people with the same lawyer who has committed of this nutritional resources at it this is that scene solomon says the corporation for public broadcasting this program was also made possible by contributions to pbs station from viewers like you thank you it's been

the piece now video cassettes of the newshour with jim lehrer are available from pbs video call one eight hundred three to eight pbs won out oh yeah it's been fb

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hi margaret warner jim lehrer is off this week on the newshour tonight when i fully the discussion about why the nation's crime rate keeps falling leaf hochberg reports on the tension between homosexuals in their churches we get the latest on the power struggle in iran following this weekend's elections and lisa handle of atlanta ga oversight another in our favorite poem series it all follows a summary of the news this monday is because of stability in the world and not just of politics dedicated opening the borders and the people need it's been

the corporation for public broadcasting this program was also made possible by contributions to pbs station from viewers like you think you serious crimes fell seven percent last year for record eight straight year of decline the figures based on crimes reported to police were announced by the fbi president clinton welcomed the news but he said gun control legislation would make americans even safer it's delicious though most dangerous countries and will only because we have stubbornly refuse to take prevention seriously when it comes to guns the guns are hands of criminals and children and we've had crime writer many years in a row so we now know we can only come around and the next big barrier way damages really really safe country is to take these common sense we'll have more on the story right after the news summary

place in the philippines arrested a man today in connection with the love bug computer virus they seized telephone equipment and computer related items from his apartment in manila and said his girlfriend is also a suspect the virus and many copycat versions overwhelmed computer networks around the world last week new violence erupted today in sierra leone's capital freetown members of the rebel group known as the revolutionary united force shot and killed four protesters we have this report