The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer; April 3, 2006

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I hope you succeed. Sometimes, success needs to be nurtured. Sometimes, it wants to be pushed. Sometimes, success takes everything we can give, and then demands more. And sometimes, all it takes is someone who sees what you see. At CIT, we're in the business of financing great ideas, so you can take yours all the way to the top. And by the Archer Daniels Midland Company, Toyota, and the Atlantic Philanthropies, and this program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting,

and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you. Thank you. Succarius Busawi was found eligible for the death penalty today in the 9-11 attacks, a federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia reached that verdict in its fourth day of deliberations. Moments later, a court spokesman read the key findings of fact to reporters outside the courthouse. The defendant intentionally participated in an act defined as line to federal agents on August 16-17, 2001. The jury answered yes. At least one victim died on September 11, 2001, as a direct result of the defendant's act. The jury answered yes. As to count three, conspiracy to destroy aircraft, and count four, conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, the same questions were asked,

and the jury answered them the same way they did as to count one. By this verdict, the jury has found that death is a possible sentence in this case. Busawi is the only person charged in the U.S. and the 9-11 attacks. After the verdict today, he told the court, you'll never get my blood. God curse you all. The jury must now decide whether he does receive the death penalty. First, the court will hear testimony from families of the 9-11 victims among others. The U.S. Supreme Court today refused to hear a challenge to the President's powers in the war on terror. It came from Jose Padilla and American citizen. He was held more than three years without access to the courts. But late last year, he was moved into the federal courts. He's charged with activity and a terror cell. The court ruled today his appeal is now moot. U.S. deaths in Iraq spiked over the weekend. 13 Americans were killed, aid in combat, five in a truck accident. In Baghdad today, a suicide truck bomber killed at least 10 Iraqis

near a Shiite mosque, eight people died in other attacks. Secretary of State Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw ended a two-day visit to Baghdad today. They pressed Iraqi leaders to put aside political divisions and form a new government. Rice said the American people, the British people, need to know that everything is being done to keep progress moving. Well, I'm more on this story right after the news summary. The death toll rose to 27 today after tornadoes raked the U.S., south and midwest on Sunday. Scores more were injured. The deadly spring weather also damaged or destroyed hundreds of homes with fierce winds and hail the size of softballs. NewsHour correspondent Kwame Holman narrates our report. The early morning sun unveiled the scope of the storm's destruction. A national weather service map showed tornadoes and high winds clustered over eight states. There were preliminary reports of 63 tornadoes. Northwestern Tennessee was hardest hit with 23 deaths,

along 125 miles stretched between Newburn and Bradford. 19 people were killed, four from the same family. You're on a cross, somebody's victim is going to make people let you know. That's what happens. Good thing about being a small town cop. You know where everybody works like about it is. You know where everybody. Across the Mississippi River, a half dozen tornadoes struck in Arkansas. One flattened almost half the town of Marmaduke. The same place was hit hard by another twister nine years ago. A tornado also ripped through Carruthersville, Missouri on Sunday. Displacing more than a thousand families. Last night, residents in Christian County, Kentucky, surveyed the damage just after the storms hit there. It sounded like a two freight train in what it sounded like. Real deep roar. It turned out to be way worse than what we ever could have imagined. You can tell from this. I mean, this is not a day or two job. Just cleaned up this one little place here. High winds and driving rains also swept into downtown Indianapolis.

Over night, the RCA dome there is playing host to the NCAA men's basketball finals. Just blocks away the wind tore down the exterior walls of a bank building. As of late today, 17 people were still hospitalized in Tennessee in critical condition. A large U.S. military cargo plane crashed a Dover Air Force base in Delaware today. All 17 people on board survived, but several were injured. The C-5 galaxy had problems just after takeoff and tried to turn back. It fell short of the runway and broke into pieces. An investigation is underway on the cause of the crash. General Motors announced today at selling a majority stake in its financing firm, GMAC. The new owners will be a consortium of investors, including City Group. The deal is expected to bring GM $14 billion over three years. The automaker lost more than $10 billion last year. On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained more than 35 points

to close at nearly 11,145. The Nasdaq fell three points to close below 2337. And that's it for the news summary tonight. Now, no agreement in Iraq. Salmon issues in the northwest. Steroid questions in baseball and life in remote Iran. Gwen Eiffel has our Iraq story tonight. During their visit to Iraq, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her British counterpart, Jack Straw, prodded Iraqi leaders to get on with the critical business of forming a new government. The first step she said today is for Iraqis to settle on our prime minister. It is not my responsibility or the responsibility of Secretary Straw to determine who is going to be the prime minister of Iraq. That can only be determined by Iraqis.

We know that the largest voting bloc out of the democratic process will nominate that person. That is also only fair in a process like this. But the only question that we have had is how this gets done now, how you complete the process of getting a government, how you complete the process, and in order to do that you have to have a prime minister named. And that must be somebody who can unify the various blocks, the various groups of voters who also went to the polls, and had now represent the interests of their voters. Rice did not mention him by name, but foreign diplomats, and increasingly critical members of interim prime minister Ibrahim Al-Jafri's own Shiite alliance have been calling for him to step aside. British Foreign Minister Straw, who traveled with Rice to Iraq, said political instability is feeding violence. I think there's a sense by the Iraqi politicians that we met that they recognize the urgency of the matter. And I think they also recognize something I certainly recognize,

and Secretary Rice does, that if this vacuum continues, then the opportunity for the terrorists and the insurgents, who are trying to stop democracy, stop the Iraqi people having their own government, will bluntly expand. While in Baghdad, Rice and Straw met with Jafri and President Jalal Talabani, but also with other religious and ethnic leaders, who support for Jafri has begun to fracture. Jafri has criticized what he has described as America's interference in Iraq's political process. But Secretary Rice said the United States has every right to urge Iraqis to form a new government. The Iraqi people deserve one and need one because there is a vacuum, and a vacuum so not good in politics. We are talking with them as allies, as countries, representatives of countries that have shed blood, and are paying a lot of the financier to build a stable Iraq.

The dispute over Jafri's future has escalated the tensions between feuding Shiite militias, one led by cleric Mutata Al-Sater, who supports Jafri and another by Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim, who heads the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. Efforts to form a new government have been up in the air since the December elections. So is outside pressure doing anything to change the political equation in Iraq? For that, we turn to two people who have been watching the situation closely. Trudy Rubin, who is a fair foreign affairs columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, she's traveled to Iraq frequently, and Babak Rahimi, an assistant professor of Islamic Studies at the University of California in San Diego. He's also a senior fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Trudy Rubin, how significant was whatever this was with Rice and Straw in Iraq today, whether you call it intervention, interference, or just involvement.

Well, I think the visit took place because everyone in the U.S. and in Britain in the leadership is getting so worried about the failure to form a government, but in the end, I don't think it's going to be the U.S. intervention that decides whether that government is formed, because in reality Iraqi politics have taken on a life of their own, and the formation of a government is really going to be decided by whether the Shiites, who are at deep odds over the choice of a prime ministerial candidate, can decide among themselves, and then once that decision is made, whether Shiites, Kurds, and Sunnis can form a government of national unity, Rice could try to expedite the process, but there's deep internal rifts between the Shiite groupings that will really decide whether it happens. Professor Rahimi, do you think it's necessary to have Secretary Rice as Trudy Rubin put it expedite the process? Not at all. I think it's giving the impression to the especially the Shia Iraqis, and just generally Iraqis in large,

that really the Americans are the ones that are calling the shots, and I think it's highly problematic for an Iraqi state to legitimize itself, the way it's forming right now, to legitimize itself while at the same time hearing Dr. Rice making comments like this. I think what the U.S. should do at this stage is to keep a distance from what's going on with the domestic, and really the Shia conflict within the Shia party, to keep a distance, and even if it wants to do anything, even if it wants to advise or push any agenda, it should do it discreetly, because definitely it's giving the wrong impression to the Iraqi people. Professor, are you saying there's just the wrong impression, or is there a potential for backlash? Oh, definitely potential for backlash. I guess you could say it was being very polite, but definitely there's potential for backlash. I was in Iraq last summer, and while the Constitution was being ratified before the August 15th deadline, and definitely among the Iraqi Shi'as in the South that I talked to,

definitely there was an impression that the U.S. is very much pushing this in their own direction. The Americans are pushing this towards their own direction, and they just simply were seeing this whole government formation as an American process, and I think that's something the U.S. should avoid at this stage. Tritty Rubin, let's talk a little bit about whatever the U.S. wrote a lot of be, but also about why obviously Secretary Rice and Foreign Minister Stark felt the need to be there today. Obviously, they don't think that things are working out on their own, that the Shi'at majority in particular has figured out what to do about this Prime Minister's job. No, in reality, the failure to pick a Prime Minister is not because the U.S. is meddling. It's because Iraqi politics is so deeply divided. The way the Constitutional process works, the largest block, which is a Shi'at block made up of several Shi'at parties, is supposed to nominate the Prime Minister. They voted amongst themselves and picked Joffrey by just one vote. There are deep divisions. The largest Shi'at party, its acronym is SCIRI, is tremendously against Joffrey.

There is a historic rivalry between their families, the Kurds and the Sunnis are also, their large blocks are also against Joffrey. It's the feeling that he has been ineffective, that he doesn't consult, and he is backed by the radical cleric Mukta Da Al-Sater, who turns off the seculars and worries many of the other parties. So there are deep divisions within the Iraqi body politic and the complicated constitutional logistics of getting a Prime Minister in place are also making the choice more difficult. But until recently, Trudy, it seemed that the United States supported Joffrey, and as well as Mukta Da Al-Sater, as you pointed out. And he had his supporters, but everyone seems to be billing out now. What's changed? The U.S. was never for Joffrey backed by Sutter, but they sort of stood back, although it was well known that the United States would have favored the alternative candidate that was put up by SCIRI, vice president, Audelab-Dumadi. But they left the pick up to the Shiites. The problem is that the choice was so narrow, and everyone actually thought that it was going to go to Audelab-Dumadi.

There was a lot of shock when it went the other way, and there were a lot of accusations that Mukta Da Al-Sater, the radical cleric, has a militia, and that his militia men had threatened some of the voting delegates in the Shiite block. And so there's a lot of worry now, and really the vast majority of those elected would like Joffrey to step down. But Joffrey is very firmly insisting on staying, because he thinks he has always thought of, interviewed him several times, that he is chosen, both perhaps spiritually, and by the Iraqi body politic to lead, and he just is not going to give way. And he also says that the process called for him to be chosen by the largest block, and he was. The problem is that the other elected groupings, Kurt and Suni, and really just about half of the Shiites in their block, determinately, and seriously do not want this man, they are deeply opposed to him. And so you have a stalemate.

Professor Rahimi, as we look at the stalemate, what is at stake right now? The stake is a weakening of the Iraqi state, and unfortunately the eventual possibility of the failure of the Iraqi state, the last thing Iraq right now needs. And unfortunately, exactly what the lady was talking about, the inner confluent within the Shia parties, and especially the scary faction in one side. And of course, the Muqtara side and another side is definitely creating a lot of problems. We saw what happened in August 26 last year, where the actual militias were fighting, it's each other for power. And that happened in the realm of the military sphere. This is right now what we are seeing is happening in the political sphere, and it's simply not good for Iraq. Which professor is the chicken, and which is the egg here, is the political stalemate driving the sectarian violence, or is it the violence that's driving the state, or that's creating the situation that allows the stalemate? Well, it's ultimately, it's on different levels. One could say that there's an interest sectarian problem here, among the Shi'as, where it's definitely fueling the fire, and unfortunately something that existed even prior to the toppling of the Saddam Hussein's regime.

It's already there, and unfortunately with the US invasion, very much kind of unwrapped itself, unleash itself. Now we are seeing the problems manifest in the Iraqi politics right now. So definitely that's what I will see, the interest sectarian conflict, and also the sectarian conflict, which are already seeing happening for the last few months or so. Trudy Rubin, we have heard the President, and we've heard the Secretary of State talk again and again about the need for a unity government in Iraq. As Professor Rahimi just pointed out, sometimes there is interest sectarian disagreement, which would seem to act against a unity government, even among Shi'as, even if the Shi'as were the only people who had to be taken into account here. What is the possibility now that this kind of disagreement, the stalemate is derailing the opportunity to form a unity government? It absolutely is doing so. If there could be a prime ministerial candidate that could have the agreement of most people in parliament, I think we've reached the point where you would have a national unity government.

The key now is whether the Shi'ites are willing to split their bloc. The Shi'ites had hoped that democracy would give them power because they're the majority, and their leading religious figure, Ayatollah Sistani, has wanted their bloc to stick together. What we will see in the next few days is whether the leader of the largest party in that bloc, Abdul Aziz Hakim, the head of Skiri, will split the bloc, because his party does not want Joffrey as the prime ministerial candidate. And if he splits the bloc, there would be enough votes along with Kurds and Sunnis to perhaps nominate another candidate in the assembly or through a complicated process, vote down the Joffrey choice. And we will see whether Ayatollah Sistani would tolerate a split within the Shi'ite bloc. That will be played out in the next few days. Professor Rahimi, if there is that kind of split in the Shi'ite bloc, who stands to benefit and who stands to lose?

Well, actually, I would think that Muqtara Saab will be the ultimate winner. He will be the ultimate winner because he would show at least to his constituency, to his base, that those people that did not support us, those people, that were, I guess you could say, pro-American. There are the ones that kind of distant are themselves from us. And look at us, look at the only ones where the only group that is anti-occupation group, and we have to split away. And I think ultimately what Muqtara Saab could do is create its own party, and not only just the party, but also given the fact he has so much power within the within the southern Iraq, he could definitely create a lot of problems in Haywalk because of their splits. And remember, there's still a lot of, yes, I'm sorry. I was just going to ask you finally a question both to you and to Trudy Rubin, which is, should the United States or anybody watching this situation be as worried as Secretary Rice and foreign ministers draw up here to be? Or is this just the way democracy unfolds in a new, for the first time in this area?

I think that should be very worried because the differences within the Shiite bloc are very deep and historic, and this is going to be hard to overcome in a peaceful way. It may be. But certainly there is reason to worry because the longer the vacuum goes on and the longer there's no stable government, the harder it is to be going to be even to address the issues of sit potential civil war and the insurgency, and the harder for American troops to draw down. Professor Rahimi, do you agree with that? Absolutely. Also, the more dangerous thing is not necessarily sectarian fight or conflict between the Sunnis, and the Shia's were actually fight within the Shia community in the South. I think the most important figure in this whole story would be Ito Los Estani, and we just have to see what he will say and what sort of politics he will play in the months to come. Baba Rahimi and Trudy Rubin.

Thank you both very much. Thank you. Come on, the news are tonight, a salmon story, a steroid's issue, and a remote life. There is trouble in the salmon world of the Pacific Northwest. Here's our correspondingly Hockberg of Oregon Public Broadcasting as our report. On fishing docks up and down 700 miles of the Oregon and California coasts, fishermen appear lost and anxious. The spring salmon fishing season was canceled. Regional fish managers this week are expected to curtail the summer season as well. It's to protect a declining run of salmon that come to the ocean from the Clameth River near the California Oregon border. Fisherman Dave Densmore of Astoria, Oregon, says this is a catastrophe. There's a hell of a lot of people up and down this coast.

They're not sleeping nights. They're walking the poor one and what, and the hell am I going to do? Here's guys going to lose their bodies. They're going to lose their cars. They're going to be people trying to figure out how to keep their damn lights on. I don't know. I don't really know what that we're going to do. It's going to be a bad one. We're pretty hurtin'. Fisherman Franklin Dick of Charleston, Oregon, fears he'll have to pump gas. Doug Caesar says he'll scrap his planned surgery. I was hoping we'd be able to fish salmon because I could probably get the money I'd need to get my hip replacement. But now I don't know. I just don't know. It's not right. The looming shutdown of the $150 million industry has left those who fish furious at the federal government. The Pacific Fishery Management Council recommended restricting the fishing season because it was the only action it could take to protect the Clameth Salmon. But it's biologists say the real problem is federal government mismanagement of the Clameth River itself.

We are done bearing the burden of others mismanagement. At a protest in Astoria, Democratic Congressman David Wu said Bush administration policy on the river has favored farmers and dam operators rather than fish. The intentional mismanagement of these water resources have caused this crisis and what has this administration done. It has come here and said, you want to complain about the fish. Here's a sharp stick in the eye. We're going to make you stop fishing for salmon. Northwest Chinook Salmon hatch in the Clameth and hundreds of other rivers and streams. They swim out into the Pacific and then three to four years later, return to the rivers to spawn the next generation of fish. The Clameth once was the West's third largest salmon producing river with one and a half million fish. But four hydropower dams were built on the river in the 1950s without fish passage.

And much of the river's water is diverted to irrigate high desert farms along the Oregon, California border. So the water flow in the river is lower and warmer than natural. That spells disaster for salmon. Only 30,000 are expected to return to the Clameth this year to few to guarantee the run survival. Glenn Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman's Association. The river is dying and is being systematically starved, strangled for lack of attention and for a long series of federal mismanagement. The management issues along the Clameth first drew national attention in the drought year of 2001. To support an endangered species of fish, irrigation water for farmers was withheld. Fields and businesses dried up. The next year, President Bush's political advisor, Carl Rove, came to Oregon and promised farmers they'd get their water. The government's own biologists protested.

They warned diverting water to irrigators would imperil salmon. But interior secretary Gail Norton flew to Oregon and ceremoniously opened the water gates to the farms. Oregon Democratic Congressman Peter Daphazio says that decision was based on politics, not science. We had the secretary of the interior down there opening up the irrigation dams. They went for the rural vote and the farmers to the exclusion of the fishers. And the other interests are concerned about the health of the river and these fish stocks. Bureau of Reclamation Deputy Commissioner Bill Rennie answers that the Clameth is a complicated ecosystem. We've followed along what's in obviously a very complex situation. But we have followed very closely that script and that prescription of the best information we had and the best direction in requirements we had. And I think we would from our perspective leave quite frankly we would probably do the same things.

But later in 2002, the largest fish kill in California's history occurred. Up to 80,000 adults salmon died in unusually warm shallow water on their way to Clameth spawning grounds. The state of California blamed the federal Bureau of Reclamation for diverting too much water from the river. The US Fish and Wildlife Service concluded low river discharges did not provide suitable flows for salmon. It's those salmon that would have been returning to the Clameth this year. The Bureau of Reclamation emphasized unusually warm weather and an unusually large return of fish contributed to the die-off. There's multiple factors here play and again you just can't just say well it's just because of low water and it was a Bureau of Reclamation's operations. Or you know through the Department of Bureau's operations it's not. There's more things to play here than that. Clameth Basin farmers told us they're sympathetic to the fishermen's plight.

Mike Byrne rose alfalfa and barley for his several hundred head of cattle. We've failed very much for the fishermen. We were shut down in 2001. People just out of business overnight. You know when people are coming back but it's ruined families, it's ruined communities. You go downtown these little towns and half the businesses are gone now. We don't want to see that for the fishermen. Byrne says he's trying to be more efficient with his irrigation water and use less of it. It's been a very, very wet year. I'm trying to get my crops in early so they can use the soil moisture so I don't even have to divert and apply as much water to get the same crop. A couple hundred acres planted already and it'll come up without an irrigation because the soil's dead. And that water will be able to use for other purposes. Since 2002 there's been talk of a federal program to buy out the farmers' rights to the irrigation water and transition them to dry land crops that don't require irrigation. The federal government hasn't funded the idea and some clam of farmers are against it.

Greg Addington, the head of the water user organization, says the salmon's problems are probably not caused by man anyway. I'm just not so sure it's a simple thing. Well the policies that have been in place are the reason or because we get water up here to irrigate, that means there's no fish. I don't think it's that kind of a linear equation. The species has made it this far and you know there's going to be ups and downs and I think it is cyclical. If you ask us I think nature has a lot more to do with it than the policies of man. Those who fish vehemently disagree. Why aren't those people in jail? If I have to set fire to a forest and burn the forest down I go to jail. The Bureau of Reclamation set fire to the Clameth River and burn to fish. I'm using jail. 200 attended a public hearing last week in Cuse Bay, Oregon to testify on the various options for a restricted salmon season. None of your options are any good. If I had to support any option I'd say option too but it's pretty disgusting.

Many asked why they are paying for a problem caused by others up river. It makes me wonder what what's the federal government doing? The river gets the fish get disease. They penalize our fishermen. So what's going on? Why are we stopping fishermen when you got dams on the river killing the fish? I mean come on. You wouldn't like to have somebody come up to you and say hey you're off six months but I'll see you. You'll be devastated. I mean come on. We've got a problem. Let's fix it. You have a problem in the river fix it down river blow it up get rid of it but fix it. In the meantime fishing towns are bracing for hard times. One Oregon coastal community says it will lose $350,000 a loan when it cancels its annual salmon celebration. Some idle fishermen say they'll try fishing for lower value fish like tuna from their boats. But that season won't begin until later in the summer and restaurants and supply shops are suffering now.

Dan Morris owns basin tackle in Charleston. Was it ain't no sense in buying any trolling wire or who cheese or anything if there's not going to be a season? There's no reason to do it. They need supplies. Yeah, but they can't they can't go fishing. So why buy the supplies? The US Fish and Wildlife Service announced last week it will recommend the electric utility that operates the four climate river dams install fish ladders. Salmon could then access 300 miles of river that have been blocked for 50 years. Anything that could help the fish we're not opposed to that would be good. But fishing advocates say it will take much more to resolve the water woes on the over-subscribed climate. And until they're fixed there will be only more Pacific fishing season closures. Now Major League Baseball's opening day steroid jitters, Ray Suarez has that story.

Two on two out and a count of two and two and a one run game. The Major League Baseball season swung into full action today with 13 games played across the country. In Cincinnati, President Bush threw out the first pitch in the open of between the Reds and the Chicago Cubs. And tonight the player under the heaviest scrutiny this season, San Francisco's Barry Bonds, returns to the plate after missing most of last season due to injury. It could be a historic season for Bonds. He's chasing the all-time home run record entering the year with seven hundred eight, trailing only Baybrough with seven hundred fourteen homers and record holder Hank Aaron with seven hundred fifty five. But for all the attention at the plate, Bonds and the sport are facing problems off the field over new allegations of steroid use. Although Major League Baseball has toughened its policy on steroids in the past two years, a new book says Bonds and other players were able to get steroids for several seasons through a San Francisco area lab known as Balco. That prompted Baseball Commissioner Bud Sealy to launch a new investigation last week.

The evidence revealed in a recently published book have convinced me that Major League Baseball must undertake an investigation of the allegations that players associated with Balco have used illegal performance enhancing substances. The book, Game of Shadows, details Bonds alleged use of performance enhancing drugs. It was written by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters, co-author Lance Williams. There's no other conclusion you can draw from the evidence that we laid out in our book, but that he knowingly used drugs from ninety nine through the two thousand and three season. We've got considerable government documents from the Balco steroids conspiracy case. We've also got a recording of his trainer describing the undetectable steroids giving the bond so he can beat Major League Baseball's test in 2003. Mark Finaruwada said steroids helped Bonds become a better hitter in his late thirties, an age when most players declined. The numbers are pretty dramatic if you look.

We did a study that looked at the numbers pre steroids as the numbers post steroids and he turns into really a better hitter than he's ever been in his life. The home run numbers obviously explode. He hits them at a rate almost twice as much as he has previously. Bonds have said that if he ever used steroids it was unknowingly as part of a supplement or shake. As for the book, Mann says he won't read it and on Saturday he refused to comment on the new investigation. So absolutely no reaction to the investigation. Why not? Because I'm an adult and I don't have to react to anything if I choose not to. Leading the investigation is former Senate majority leader and a current director of the Boston Red Sox, George Mitchell. He's also chairman of the Walt Disney Company, the parent of ESPN, a national broadcast partner of Major League Baseball. Those allegations require close scrutiny. At the same time, the individuals who are alleged to abuse these illegal substances are entitled to a deliberate and unbiased examination of the facts that will work with basic American values of fairness.

The probe launched Thursday will initially be limited to events after September 2002 when the sport banned performance enhancing drugs. Now two views on the implications of the steroid controversy. Steve Hurt is the executive vice president of the Elias Sports Bureau, the official statisticians from Major League Baseball, and Bob Costa, the sports broadcaster for NBC and HBO. Bob, with the Mitchell investigation with the new testing regimen, is Major League Baseball finally coming to grips with what steroids have meant to the game? Pretty clearly they are coming to grips with it, Ray. Some of it comes too late because it's unclear to me and Steve as a keeper of the stats might be able to address this with more credibility. But it's unclear to me what they can do about what most knowledgeable baseball fans already acknowledged was a steroid era in baseball. So even if they clean it up from this point forward, they'll never clean it up 100%, they'll always be some undetectable substances. But even if they dramatically diminish the use of performance enhancing drugs, and it's less of a factor in the game going forward than it has been in the past,

they're still left to grapple with what has happened over the past 10 plus years and how the record book has been poisoned by it. Steve Hurt has baseball opened this season under a cloud, even with the changes it's trying to make? Well, I think certainly in the minds of some people that this is the book itself is kind of new and very detailed evidence. But strangely, when you look at the overall numbers such as the attendance in the ballpox last year, the fans seem to look past this of a certain degree, especially once the game starts. So this has been a very big story in the run up to the season in the first week, and we'll probably continue to be so early in the season here. Let's see what happens as the investigation gets underway. There's probably going to be a quiet period here where we don't hear much from Senator Mitchell and his colleagues. And we'll see how the season plays out. But respond to what Steve Hurt just said about the fans not seeming to be all that caught up in the steroid controversy,

baseball continuing to set attendance records. Now, I think that fans are able to accommodate both thoughts. They don't want inauthentic performances to be honored. They want the game to be played on the up and up. They want the integrity of past performances to be respected. They don't want Hank Aaron to be overtaken by somebody who was a great player, but then became a superhuman player under very unusual circumstances. But they still love baseball and they still love the pennant races and all the other things that are appealing about the game. So I don't think that you can infer from soaring attendance figures and other measures of the game's popularity that people don't care about the dark side of the game. I think they're able to accommodate both thoughts. Well, Steve Hurt, what about Bob Costa's suggestion that baseball has to sort of wall off the 90s as a steroids era? I think fans have already done that to a great degree. Baseball fans are very used, very used to making these sorts of arguments.

Their entire television shows devoted to it. Their entire radio stations devoted to it, to arguing which performance is better than another. And statistics are used to put some performances in perspective. But baseball fans are very used to and very accomplished at arguing mitigating circumstances on a particular performance or another. Even outside the realm of steroids, it's done all the time with respect to certain eras that players played in. Certain ball parks they played in. A couple of very good hitters, Larry Walker and Todd Hilton always have their accomplishments mitigated by the fact that they play the home games in Denver. Whether the air is very thin and the ball travels farther. So baseball fans have not ignored this. And in a lot of cases, they've already placed a mental asterisk next to some of these performances. Bob Costa is a mental asterisk so you don't need an official one? I think, I first heard this suggested by Marty Appell, a former official with the New York Yankees who's been around baseball for a long time. And I agree with it.

I think what baseball ought to do at the very least is have a page at the beginning of the record book that says that, well, baseball has greater historical continuity than any other American team sport. There have often been disruptions and changes in the game. And so even as we compare these statistics across the eras, which is part of the appeal of baseball, we have to take into account those changes. Dead ball, lively ball, segregated, integrated, entirely day ball, primarily night ball, trained travel, traveled by air, the advent of reliance on relief pitching. And certainly, one of the major disruptions is the steroid era. And one of the things that has to be said about the steroid era, it didn't evolve. It erupted. And you had players who were already in the big leagues in the late 80s and early 90s who never approached what they did from the mid 90s on. That's what made it so suspicious. Well, Steve Hurt, as someone who is a historian and a keeper of the stats, would that kind of disclaimer that Bob Costa suggests? Be a helpful tool added to the tools for assessing baseball's past. I'm not diminishing what Bob says as being true.

I'm just saying that most fans over the age of 12 already know that. And they know that there have been different eras in baseball. You look at the home run records and none of them were set before 1920 because the ball was mushy and lies were similar to a soft ball today. Lou Gehrig never played a game against an African-American or any other person of color. And, you know, the 1919 World Series itself was one in which players on one team, the White Sox, conspired with gamblers to lose. If you look in the official record book, it'll merely say that Cincinnati defeated Chicago in that World Series. But any good baseball fans knows about the backstory, knows the movies that have been done, the books that have been done about that. You know, I find it interesting that in all of this talk, people immediately zero into the statistics. Have you heard word one about the results of games that might have been altered by players who, assuming the worst, might have been on some sort of illegal substances? What about the championships one, the penance one? Statistics are a subordinate issue in sports to the winning and losing of games and championships.

You don't hear one word about how to rectify those. Bob cost a slow down point. Go ahead, how to respond. Very briefly, that's why it's a true Pandora's box because you don't know how you should discount a performance. Is 60 to be discounted to 45. And as Steve said, how did it affect the outcome of games? We don't know how many pitchers may have been using these performance enhancing substances. Or fielders who got to balls that they wouldn't ordinarily have gotten to because they were less fatigued as the season went along because they were using some kind of illegal substances. There's no way to sort through it all. And so there's a mental asterisk that's placed next to the era by fans who make their own judgments. But very clearly, something fishy was going on for the past decade that rendered the game to a large extent in authentic. Well, mental asterisks may be placed or not placed at the discretion of the fan. But what about the Hall of Fame? In five or so seasons, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro will both be knocking at the doors. What do you do?

Mark, well, why are sooner than that? Mark, well, why are sooner than that? Good point. What's your call? Bob? I think what will happen with someone like Maguire who would have been prior to the revelations or assumptions of the last year or so, a near unanimous first ballot Hall of Famer. I think Maguire will probably be denied on the first ballot. It'll be a way for the writers to register some sort of protest, but eventually he will get in. I think with others, it'll be more problematic. Sammy Sosa has virtually the same number of lifetime home runs as Frank Robinson. I don't know any knowledgeable baseball fan who thinks that Sammy Sosa's remotely as good as Frank Robinson. And Frank Robinson never hit 50 in a season, and Sosa hit over 60 three times. I don't think anybody thinks Rafael Palmeiro's better than Mike Schmidt or Mickey Mantle. You know, and these things like to be taken into account when it's time to vote for the Hall of Fame. Steve Hurt? I would agree with Bob's assessment that Maguire will probably be denied entry in his first time out of the box. We have to separate here, and I think most fans do, having the most is not the same as being the best. And those two terms sometimes get thrown around interchangeably as if who holds a particular record means that you are the best in that category.

It just means you had the most. Numbers and statistics reflect what happened on the field on particular days. And if you went back and tried to make some effort to rewrite history, that's a dangerous precedent. It would be like denying that Aaron Burr was the vice president because he killed Alexander Hamilton during his term. And then went back to Washington and presided over an impeachment trial of somebody else. But you can't deny that the facts that certain things happened. I agree with what Bob has said that a mental asterisk has already been placed there, and that's where I think it will lie. But the five-year waiting period for a whole of famers will provide some perspective and context in this case to the careers of Sosa and Paul Merrill and others. Steve Hurt, Bob Costis, gentlemen, thank you both. Thank you, Ray. And finally tonight, what Iranians and poor rural villages want from their government? Lindsay Hillson of Independent Television News reports.

The flock penned in for the night is released to graze on the pasture beneath the snow cap mountains. But this way of life is dying. Iran's countryside is emptying out young people want jobs and the excitement of the city. But 19, Ali Reza Abdul Ali, is the last young man left in the village. He works on the only large farm in the area. I'd like to go to a big city, have a good job. If everything went well, I get married. I really love football. My dream is to become a football player. He can't practice here. There aren't enough young men to make one team, let alone two. We don't get much chance to play football, unless it's new year when people come home. Right now, there's no one to play with.

The village of Collage, or is in ruins silent and orbit deserted. The rich were the first to leave. The poor then followed. There's no cottage industry here. The old Great Pressing plant was abandoned decades ago, and left to rot. As we wander through lanes, strewn with the rocks of tumble down walls, Hodgson, Mobini and his friends recount tales of those who left the village long ago. Their memory is still vivid. There was a fellow called Alacana used to live here many years ago. Their house was beautiful. Look, they even had reception room for guests. Their children have all gone to Tehran, or Qum, or Kashan. Tony Assal, chaps left. There's no one here younger than those who were me. 70, 80, 90 years old.

No young people live here anymore. In our cases, again, just in the beginning. Successive governments promised rural regeneration. The reformists who governed for eight years under former President Rata Mi talked with democracy. But the man elected President last year, Mark Muldar-Medina-Jad, said he would bring wealth. The people here say they voted for Al-Medina-Jad because he's poor like them. They thought he'd understand. And eight years of reform had done nothing to stop the decline here. We drove to the village of Carver a few miles away, past orchards of almonds and apple trees, and a wasteland of plastic bags to try to serve the modern world. In Carver, we come across 85-year-old side Mohammed Jafri, and his 64-year-old son Abbas, making a wooden plow. They're using an electric drill where 10 years ago they would have had only a hand drill,

or maybe a chisel and mallet. But the design of the plow hasn't changed in 4,000 years. It's the oldest piece of far machinery on earth. Abbas says nonetheless that this time of year is better than his tractor, which gets stuck in the mud. He shows us the yoke where he hitches the donkeys, the gap between these people and the reformists in Tehran with their talk of freedom and human rights is huge. This is a village. Look how we don't talk about things like human rights. We don't know what they want to do, but it just muddled everything up. He didn't do the right thing. Abbas says if the next generation is to stay in the countryside, the government must give farmers the same benefits as urban employees. Because we're farmers, we get no social security.

After you're 60, we can't work properly anymore. We had social security, young people would stay. But because there's none, they go to the cities and end up selling cigarettes when they could be working here on the land. The mast on the hill, maybe it's television which is given young people the longing for another easier life with no jobs, the advent of electricity, telephones, and this year piped gas is not enough to tempt them to stay. On the street, my translator and I meet Ruhirahimi on her way to the village shop. She can buy most of what she needs here. Candles, foodstuffs and other supplies. She pays for some of her shopping in walnuts, which she's harvested from the trees on her farm. The shopkeeper says at different times of year he accepts wheat or almonds instead of money. The shopkeeper's wife invites us in to tea.

Her three daughters went to university in Tehran and will never come back. She doesn't really want her to sons to return from school in town, because in the village there's nothing to do with smoke opium and many here become addicts. They're situation is terrible. I really don't know where they get the stuff from. Maybe there's a group of people selling it, I don't know. The addicts are in a very bad state. Their wives and children suffer and society in general is upset. It disturbs the whole community. The addicts and the poorest of the poor have to take whatever work they can find. One of the most dangerous jobs is stoking the furnace, which heats the water for the hamam, the communal bath. Abbas Rahimi is covered in bitumen. For the equivalent of a couple of pounds,

he's agreed to go down the hole to loosen the noxious fuel, so it flows more easily through the pipe to the furnace. Sometimes the bitumen is so hard, you have to be careful. If you get stuck, they can't even pull you out. But I needed the money. I was asked if I would do it and I said, why not? I have to bring home the bread. The local primary schools out for the day. The children walk home past the mosque. Soon they'll leave the village for secondary school in town. Inside, the old men say they're prayers. Islam isn't political here like it is in Tehran, but religion is the essence of life. Despite their relative poverty, many villages have been on pilgrimages to curbler in Iraq and other Shia holy shrines. They're not calling for an end to the rule of the mullahs, but simply for a better life.

They're still hoping that the new government of President Ahmadinejad will be the one to bring it. Again, the major developments of this day, Sakharius Musawi, was found eligible for the death penalty in the 9-11 attacks. The U.S. military reported 13 Americans were killed in Iraq over the weekend. Secretary of State Rice, ended a visit to Baghdad, pressing the Iraqis again to form a new government, and the death toll rose to 27 and a wave of tornadoes across the U.S. South and Midwest on Sunday. A reminder, you can download audio versions of our reports and listen to them on your computer, iPod, or other MP3 player to do so, visit the online news hour at PBS.org. We'll see you online and again here. Tomorrow evening, I'm Jim Lara. Thank you and good night. Major funding for the news hour with Jim Lara has been provided by

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. . . . . Good evening, I'm Jim Lehrer. On the NewsHour tonight, the news of this Monday, then analysis of the political standoff

in Iraq, a NewsHour report on the problems facing the salmon industry in the Pacific Northwest. An opening day look at the steroid clouds over baseball, and an independent television news report from a remote region of Iran. A major funding for the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer has been provided by the U.V. You've worked hard over the years creating a good life for yourself and for your family. At Pacific Life, we understand the importance of building a legacy that will stand the test of time. For over 135 years, Pacific Life has provided millions of Americans with the power of choice, a wide array of solutions to help them meet their financial and estate planning goals. Pacific Life, the power to help you succeed. Sometimes success needs to be nurtured, sometimes it wants to be pushed, sometimes success takes everything we can give and then demands more, and sometimes all it takes is someone

who sees what you see. At CIT, we're in the business of financing great ideas so you can take yours all the way to the top. And by the Archer Daniels Midland Company, Toyota, and the Atlantic philanthropies, and this program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you. Well, thank you. Saccarias Musawi was found eligible for the death penalty today in the 9-11 attacks, a federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia reached that verdict in its fourth day of deliberations. Moments later, a court spokesman read the key findings of fact to reporters outside the courthouse.

The defendant intentionally participated in an act defined as line to federal agents on August 16 to 17, 2001. The jury answered yes. At least one victim died on September 11, 2001 as a direct result of the defendants act. The jury answered yes. As to count three, conspiracy to destroy aircraft and count four, conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. The same questions were asked. And the jury answered them the same way they did as to count one. By this verdict, the jury has found that death is a possible sentence in this case. Musawi is the only person charged in the U.S. and the 9-11 attacks. After the verdict today, he told the court, you'll never get my blood. God curse you all. The jury must now decide whether he does receive the death penalty. The court will hear testimony from families of the 9-11 victims among others. The U.S. Supreme Court today refused to hear a challenge to the president's powers in the

war on terror. It came from Jose Padilla and American citizen. He was held more than three years without access to the courts. But late last year, he was m-