The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Good evening. I'm Elizabeth Farnsworth. Jim Lehrer is on vacation. On the NewsHour tonight: The earthquake in Turkey, report and a debate about Iraq under U.S. bombs, the winners of the national poetry slam, and a Jim Fisher pay about a river ruined by bureaucracy, it all follows our summary of the news this Tuesday.

NEWS SUMMARY

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Desperate rescue efforts were underway in Western Turkey today after a massive earthquake struck during the night. Its epicenter was 56 miles East of Istanbul. Turkish officials put the death toll at more than 2,000. Nearly 11,000 people were injured. The quake flattened hundreds of buildings and cut off power and water to millions in Istanbul and four other cities. U.S. experts said it registered 7.8 on the open-ended Richter Scale. Rescuers dug through with their bare hands in search of survivors. In Washington, President Clinton extended his sympathy to the Turkish people. He spoke at a White House event.

PRESIDENT CLINTON: We've already released aid for the Turkish Red Crescent. We're sending a team to Turkey to help with search and rescue today. Our Energy Secretary, Bill Richardson, and General Hugh Shelton, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are actually in Turkey, and they have personally conveyed our willingness to provide additional assistance. General Shelton has met with his Turkish counterpart to offer the military's help with disaster relief. And we will continue to determine what further help is needed.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: We'll have more on the earthquake right after the News Summary. Retail-level inflation was up last month. The Labor Department reported today its Consumer Price Index showed a 0.3 percent gain. The reason was higher costs for gasoline, airline fares, and tobacco. The increase came amid speculation the Federal Reserve will bump up interest rates 1/4 point next week. Chairman Greenspan has said that would happen at the first hint of inflation. Overseas, the U.S. military said today Air Force and British jets struck an Iraqi radar site in the Northern no-fly zone. But the official Iraqi News Agency reported the raid was more widespread. It said civilian targets were hit and that 19 people were killed and 11 others wounded. We'll have more on Iraq later in the program tonight. Ethnic Albanians were the main suspects today in the latest attack on Serbs in eastern Kosovo. NATO officials said two Serbs in their early 20's were killed when nine mortar rounds hit the village of Klokot last night. It is in the U.S.-patrolled sector about 25 miles southeast of Pristina. Five people were seriously wounded. Hundreds of Serbs gathered for the victims' funeral, which was heavily guarded by KFOR troops. The soldiers have been unable to stop attacks against Serbs in the region. Israeli troops tangled with Hezbollah guerrillas today in Southern Lebanon. Two Israeli soldiers were killed and four others injured. Israeli jets retaliated and fired two missiles inside a suspected Hezbollah position. No casualties were reported. The combat came a day after a car bomb killed a senior Hezbollah commander. And back in this country federal agents arrested 70 people today in drug raids in 14 cities. The FBI said it broke up one of the nation's 20 largest narcotics rings. The Bureau said that during the yearlong probe, agents confiscated three tons of cocaine, two tons of marijuana, weapons, and more than $1 million in cash. This San Diego-based gang smuggled the drugs from Colombia into the southwestern states and then to the East Coast. And that's it for the News Summary tonight. Now it's on to the devastation in Turkey, Iraq under U.S. bombs, the champs of the National Poetry slam, and an essay about a once-beautiful river.

FOCUS - DEADLY FORCE

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: The devastating earthquake in Turkey is our lead tonight. We have two reports from Independent Television News. The first is from Julian Manyon in Turkey.

JULIAN MANYON: The earthquake is one of the most powerful of recent years. He's struck at the worst possible time, in the early hours of the morning when people were asleep in bed. Apartment blocks were reduced to piles of rubble, with survivors desperately searching for families, friends, and neighbors, who had been buried alive. Incredibly, under fallen rooftops and tons of masonry people were clinging to life. Water was offered to one survivor still trapped amid the devastation. And a young woman who had first appeared dead moves her eyes, giving the rescue teams hope and inspiration to carry on digging. Even in areas where whole neighborhoods were flattened, they've been bringing out survivors, many of them children. The earthquake was centered on the industrial city of Izmit, but it caused buildings to collapse and claimed lives in several towns and cities, including Istanbul -- reveal the scale of the destruction, throughout the day, casualty figures have mounted as rescuers clawed at the rubble of the multistory apartment blocks which crashed to the ground. In some cities, whole neighborhoods have been destroyed. Building were simply shaken until they collapsed, burying their occupants. In other areas, the damage and deaths seemed a more random affair. One block toppled while those around remained intact. The earthquake has also cut major roads, in one place causing sections of a motorway bridge to fall on top of a bus, inflicting still more casualties. Until the early hours of this morning this was a working class district on the outskirts of Istanbul. Then the earthquake struck and as if in some giant Lottery some buildings swayed and survived, while others collapsed. According to local people, this one here may have fallen because the top two stories were jerry built without official permission. And now they're bringing out the bodies, ten of them so far, from beneath the rubble. Turkey's Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit has declared a state of emergency and is appealing for international help. In Izmit, medical resources are so over stretched that hundreds of injured people are being treated the hospital car park. Many have to wait in long queues, while the most critical cases receive attention. All day the frantic search has continued, uncovering more victims and more survivors to join the hundred being treated in the hospitals. There are people whose last memory was wishing their families good night and going to bed before their world's turned upside down. This evening the desperate search continues amid the rubble. Here a man is trapped in his bed by a fallen ceiling. His leg is damaged, but he will survive. Turkish soldiers have been using heavy lifting equipment to reach another victim who used his free arm to signal that he is still alive. And the rescuers are still being inspired by moments like this, when a baby boy was recovered alive in tears. The child returned to the arms of a grateful father, but tonight it is clear that many parents have not been so fortunate.

ANDREW VEITCH: The Mediterranean is hit by hundreds of earthquakes each year. It marks the border between two of the Earth's massive tectonic plates, the Eurasian Plate and the African Plate: Chunks of the Earth's crust floating on top of semi-molten rock. The African Plate is moving Northwest, squeezing Turkey like an orange. The result is the Anatolian Fault. It stretches right through the country. Most of the cities are built on top of it. Today's quake was centered on Izmit, but it affected Istanbul, 55 miles to the West, and Ankara, 275 miles to the East. The U.S. Energy Secretary was amongst those in Istanbul when the quake struck.

BILL RICHARDSON: We were out on the 12th floor of a 13-story hotel building. And we were able to experience it. The ground was shaking. The walls were shaking. I think we were very lucky.

REPORTER: What do you think about this? Is there any American aid going to them?

BILL RICHARDSON: Yes. The United States is prepared to help. We're working with the Turkish government to ensure that they get enough technical assistance, earthquake relief.

AMERICAN TOURIST: We were very scared, but we didn't know what to do or where to go. So we just hung on to each other.

AMERICAN TOURIST: The bed was going like this, and I had to stand up - it's the truth - stand up like this. I'm going back and forth, and back and forth, back and forth, and it went on for at least 45 seconds. It was a very long time, very scary.

ANDREW VEITCH: Tens of thousands have been killed by earthquakes in Turkey over the last 60 years, 145 died last year alone, and there was a quake in Cyprus just four days ago.

DR. ROGER MUSSON, British Geological Survey: In a country like Turkey there's an awful lot of building that goes on which really isn't strictly controlled. People are moving in from countryside to urban areas looking for jobs, and they're building any sort of houses that they can in any sort of place that they can. And often these buildings are badly constructed and very dangerous places.

ANDREW VEITCH: Germany, France, and Italy are rushing experts to the area, and the country's old enemy, Greece, is offering aid. The Turkish air force is flying in tents for the thousands left homeless. Relief agencies say that survivors need shelter away from the collapsing wreckage, and above all, clean water to prevent disease spreading through the cities.

UPDATE - INSIDE IRAQ

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Next, the Iraq story and to Margaret Warner.

MARGARET WARNER: An international campaign to contain Iraq through U.N. sanctions and U.S. and British air power has been underway for nine years. Tonight we examine its impact, beginning with this report from Iraq by Zachary Fink of New Jersey Network News, a nightly public television news program.

ZACHARY FINK: It's a familiar sound to Iraqis living in the Southern and Northern no-fly zones -- air raid sirens warn of approaching U.S. or European warplanes. Often, the planes on routine patrol drop bombs, and strike what the Defense Department says are military targets. Such raids have intensified since Operation Desert Fox last December. According to military officials, there have been 49 strikes in the Southern no-fly zone since the first of the year, and 72 incidents in the North over the same period. Each strike consists of multiple targets. U.S., British, and until last year French, warplanes have been flying over Iraq since the end of the Gulf War in 1991. After the conflict, the U.N. Security Council passed Resolution 688, which ordered Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to stop repressing Iraq's civilian population. The Northern no-fly zone was set up by the allies to protect the Kurdish population there. And the Southern no-fly zone was established a year later by the Bush administration to protect the Shiite Muslims in that part of the country. U.S. officials say the intensified raids have come in response to Iraqi challenges to allied planes patrolling the no-fly zones. The Iraqis claim U.S. fighter jets have dropped bombs on civilian areas. The United States says when there are strikes, it relies on precision-guided munitions. Last month, New Jersey Network News traveled to Iraq with members of Voices in the Wilderness, a Chicago-based political action group whose members refer to themselves as non-violent war resisters. Voices has been working since the Gulf War to end the U.S. economic embargo against Iraq. Delegation members have been to the country 27 times since 1996 to deliver food and medicine in violation of U.S. law and U.N. sanctions. Voices in the Wilderness has continued to make these trips, despite repeated letters of warning from the U.S. Government threatening imprisonment and hefty fines. I accompanied the last delegation using a small digital camera. We were able to travel to cities across the southern part of the country, areas where movements are normally restricted. We traveled with an official from the Iraqi Red Crescent. While we were there, several towns in the Southern no-fly zone were hit by U.S. fighter jets. We arrived in the governate of Najaf a few days after a July 19th bombing rate. Najaf is an area of about 900,000 people two hours South of Baghdad. According to eyewitnesses, at least one bomb hit the center of the road near an area where automobiles are repaired. A second bomb struck about 50 yards away from a grain silo. The force of the second explosion shattered windows of the living quarters where many of the factory workers sleep. Workers held up pieces of the bomb, and described the bombing as a large explosion followed by smaller explosions. Pockmarks were found on the building and shell casings for bomblets were found on the ground. Doctors and Red Crescent officials said there were casualties.

MAZIN ABDULLAH, Iraqi Red Crescent: A big explosion happened in the middle of this road - was taken from Najaf to Duwanea. And there is a lot of casualties, about now we have serious casualties in the hospital, in the main hospital in Najaf, 18 persons, and we have 14 people killed.

ZACHARY FINK: The Iraqi News Agency put the death toll at 17. Defense Secretary William Cohen offered this response: "We have no evidence that any civilians were killed by this particular operation. We have no information that would indicate the missiles fired went astray, so I can't really confirm or reject what has been suggested. We have seen no evidence of it." Inside this Iraqi hospital we were told a different story. Mohammed Nadar, a 31-year-old cab driver, says four passengers were in his taxi when one of the bombs exploded; three passengers were killed, one was injured. This six-year-old boy had to have his right arm amputated after his tissue was severely burned. This man, Abdullah Shakur, was working as a mechanic in one of the nearby shops. He said he remembers the explosion, but his next memory is this hospital bed. Shakur says he is a poor man, and now that he is crippled, he worries about providing for his family. One thing we are not allowed to videotape are the many military checkpoints scattered throughout Iraq, especially in the southern part of the country. Vehicles are routinely stopped and searched. There were what appeared to be military installations about three miles from the area in Najaf, where the U.S. bombs landed. Iraqis reject U.S. claims that allied pilots do everything they can to avoid civilian casualties. If civilians are killed, U.S. officials put the blame squarely on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi leader has offered a reward to any soldier who can shoot down an American or allied aircraft, although no planes have actually been hit. While U.S. officials say that allied planes are defending themselves against Iraqi challenges in the no-fly zones, the Iraqi government blames the U.S. for what it says is aggression. In an interview

Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said Iraq has a right to defend itself.

TARIQ AZIZ: You know, they fly over our air space, and they blame us for challenging us that this an Iraqi provocation as if they are flying over Florida or Texas. And this is the logical power, you see, as you know. It's not a humanitarian or a legal logic - and all honest people in the world - see that this is an intrusion on the sovereignty of Iraq and the provocation to the Iraqi people and the government.

ZACHARY FINK: Najaf is not the only city that has been bombed. Our delegation also visited the neighborhood of Jamarya, in the southern port city of Basra. Jamarya was hit by U.S. cruise missiles last January. Sadiq Akbar lives in Jamarya with his children and grandchildren. Akbar once worked as an engineer, but now he's retired. His brother lives in the United States working as a taxi driver in Philadelphia. Akbar said he was fishing with some friends the day he heard the missile strike. He immediately rushed to the scene.

SADIQ AKBAR, Retired Engineer: I saw ambulances; I saw fire trucks and many people running here and there. What I saw, like hell. It was a mess - small children - women - men - people wounded in the street. I saw a child that - not more than three or two and a half years - near torn to pieces. The house with two families inside was completely crushed on them. People were doing their best to bring out the - rescue the people who were buried under the debris. I began to cry and what can I do?

ZACHARY FINK: Akbar said his home was far enough away from the explosion to avoid any major damage. But his walls still show cracks from the impact.

SADIQ AKBAR: There's nothing in this area which can be a target. There's no army targets; no - nothing.

ZACHARY FINK: The Iraq Government said 11 people were killed and 59 injured. The United States later admitted that an errant missile may have killed civilians. Iqbar Fartus, an English teacher, lives a bit closer to the scene of the strike. She approached members of Voices in the Wilderness while they were visiting a nearby hospital. She agreed to share her story with us but did not want to speak into a microphone. Fartus lost her three-year-old son in a January missile strike and her other son, Mustafa, was severely injured by the shrapnel. Fartus said Mustafa hides when he hears the air raid sirens.

FARTUS: Every day of the month - every day or evening -

ZACHARY FINK: Many Iraqis said they get used to the sound of warplanes and a constant threat of air strikes. This restaurant worker, who spoke only a little English, asked the question that many people pose to us.

KHASSAM SHEPEB, Restaurant Worker: I don't know why America hate Iraq, hate children of Iraq, why?

ZACHARY FINK: After visiting several Iraqi homes and talking to a few dozen people, it was apparent that most Iraqis do not easily have access to any news beyond their state-run media. It was nearly impossible to find English-speaking newspapers. And none of the homes we visited had cable or satellite television. Voice of America broadcasts can be heard throughout the country but more than one Iraqi told us they regard VOA as American propaganda, not legitimate news. Iraqis we spoke with said they don't understand the politics which have brought air strikes, and nine years of punishing economic sanctions. They told us the bombings and sanctions will not persuade people to overthrow Saddam Hussein, which the Clinton administration says is a prerequisite for a change in U.S. policy.

SADQI AKBAR: They want the right - not just by talking - by bombing - sending bombs - embargo is more stronger to our great leader because he is fighting for us; he is working day and night for us.

ZACHARY FINK: Back in Najaf, Iraqis were busy repairing the damage from U.S. bombs. Some buildings and bridges are still bearing scars from the Gulf War, but when the damage is minor, it can usually be prepared in a few days. Although the threat of air strikes never subsides for Iraqis life goes on.

MARGARET WARNER: And as we reported earlier, there were new bombing raids today. Iraq's News Agency said 19civilians were killed.

For more, we turn to Kathy Kelly, who helps coordinate Voices in the Wilderness, the private anti- sanctions group featured in the tape we just saw. She travels frequently to Iraq. Retired Air Force General Richard Hawley-- until last month, he was commander ac the air combat command, which trains and organizes the Air Force. And Ambassador Robert Pelletreau, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs during the Clinton administration's first term. He's now a lawyer in private practice.

Ambassador Pelletreau, is this bombing campaign becoming counterproductive? Are too many civilians being killed?

ROBERT PELLETREAU, Former State Department Official: Nobody knows how long this bombing campaign is going to go on because nobody knows how long Saddam Hussein and his regime are going to continue to be challenging planes flying in the no-fly zone. I don 't think it's becoming counterproductive, because the purpose is to continue to contain a regime that is continuing to repress its own people, continuing to defy the United Nations, and continuing to pose a threat to its neighbors.

MARGARET WARNER: Are the civilian casualties then, in your view, just an unfortunate but necessary consequence?

ROBERT PELLETREAU: Every time you see a picture of a civilian casualty or children suffering because they haven't been able to get enough food, that is a tragic situation. That is not the situation that the United States or the United Nations ever wanted to produce. But we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that the cause of those tragic incidents, the cause of the underlying conflict that is the continuing intransigence of the Iraqi government.

MARGARET WARNER: Kathy Kelly, do you believe that the Iraqi government bears at least some responsibility for this?

KATHY KELLY, Voices in the Wilderness: With regard to the no-fly zones, I think that the Iraqi government deserves to be mystified. I mean, why would it be that United States would be flying bombing raids over the North and the South of the country in order to protect the Iraqi people and then bomb the Iraqi people? And it seems to me if the no-fly zones didn't exist, then there wouldn't any cause for provocation, and the Iraqi government wouldn't be focusing its radar on American planes.

MARGARET WARNER: What about that, Ambassador?

ROBERT PELLETREAU: Well, the no-fly zones were put in place because of threats which the Iraqi government posed both to its own people and to its neighbors. If those zones were removed, it would in a sense be an invitation to the Iraqi government to again resume its aggressive activities.

MARGARET WARNER: General Hawley, your view of these no-fly zones and of the impact of this bombing campaign.

GEN. RICHARD HAWLEY (RET.), U.S. Air Force: Well, the no-fly zones have the great merit of providing internationally sanctioned military presence in the region that we can use to contain Saddam's aggression. We have to keep in mind he invaded his neighbor, Kuwait, in 1990, and from that all this has flowed. But is a policy that is very expensive in a number of ways. First, it does tend to enhance Saddam Hussein's individual stature in the region, because standing up to the world's greatest superpower. It also puts some stress on friendly governments in the region, particularly Saudi Arabia, because they are hosting many of these forces and dissident elements within Saudi Arabia tend to view that as caving in to western influence. Then, of course, there's the impact on U.S. forces, because this year after year requirement to sustain this effort puts great strain on the forces and is one of the major contributors to at least the Air Force's difficulty in retaining its air crew members today. And then, of course, there's the monetary cost. Last year this effort cost us about $2 billion. It will probably cost about the same this year. That is coming at the expense of other much-need programs in the Department of Defense.

MARGARET WARNER: So, Ambassador, another critique from a different perspective, which is that the costs are too high in another way.

ROBERT PELLETREAU: But the costs are not as high as mobilizing a major force to beat back an Iraqi aggression once it has occurred. They're nowhere near as high as the cost of the initial mobilization in 1990 or the additional mobilizations we had to conduct a couple of years later, and then a third time when Iraq again began to challenge its neighbor. So, yes, there is a substantial cost. But an American military presence, an American military surveillance, and an active and assertive no-fly zone are all part of a larger picture containment that is frankly required as long as we've got this rogue regime in place.

MARGARET WARNER: Kathy Kelly, respond to a point that Ambassador Pelletreau made earlier, well, both Ambassador Pelletreau and General Hawley, that without these -fly zones, Saddam Hussein would be free to resume repressing both the Shiites in the South and the Kurds in the North. Do you question whether that's the case? What's your view of that?

KATHY KELLY: Well, again, I feel that it's important for us to have been to Iraq many times to listen to what we hear Iraqi people say to us, and we hear again and again from Iraqi people that they're afraid of invasions from their neighbors, you know. Turkey has invaded Iraq numerous times and set up occupation camps three times the size of the territory of Kuwait. And I think there's also legitimate fear that people express to us a civil war if the current government were to go out of existence and there were a terrible power vacuum. And I think that it's also clear that if you look at the countries that are among the top ten consumers of U.S. weapons, we're looking at Iraq's immediate neighbors among them and so I think that it's fair to try to understand how Iraqi people might feel particularly vulnerable, not so much with regard to what might become to them by their own government, but by what's constantly being done to them by some of the most powerful countries in the world, the U.S., and the U.K.

MARGARET WARNER: So are you saying then that the people - that the Kurds and the Shiites in these two regions that your group has seen don't express any fear of Baghdad or of the Iraqi regime.

KATHY KELLY: Well, I would want to say that we're coming from the country that has been constantly waging a war on two fronts. And I don't know that people feel so very secure telling us exactly what their fears are. But I can say that I have not myself heard that.

MARGARET WARNER: General Hawley, picking up on a threat from a couple of you earlier, does the no-fly zone become - it starts out to protect people on the ground, but then does it become a situation which in a way the countries enforcing the no-fly zone have to become involved in protecting themselves more, in other words, projecting their position in the air, which is why we had this tit for tat between the Iraqis on the ground and the U.S. and British flights.

GEN. RICHARD HAWLEY (RET.): Well, the difficulty of course is that we are enforcing a United Nations sanction against Iraq. And so as we enforced the no-fly zones and Iraq refuses to comply with all of the conditions of the U.N. mandates that follow the Gulf War in 1991, our offices have to protect themselves. And when they are continually being fired on by Iraqi antiaircraft positions, then they have to retaliate, and that's just natural to protect our own forces. Failure to do that would be irresponsible. So the difficulty is how to come up with a policy that allows us to contain Iraq without the requirement to expose our forces daily to these threats from Iraqi defenses and still achieve the objective of containing Iraqi aggression. Iraq has been an aggressor several times in the past two decades, and certainly has demonstrated its willingness to pursue the development and use of weapons of mass destruction, nuclear, chemical, and biological. And that is a real threat to its neighbors and to international peace and security in the region.

MARGARET WARNER: So what is your suggestion? How would you - what would you change?

GEN. RICHARD HAWLEY (RET.): Well, as we have advanced our capabilities to respond quickly to aggression in any part of the world, one alternative might be to rely more heavily on our ability to project power rapidly from long distances. The growing capabilities of our bomber forces that were recently demonstrated in Kosovo, and of course the ongoing capabilities of our naval carrier battle groups -

MARGARET WARNER: I'm sorry -

GEN. RICHARD HAWLEY (RET.): -- a great capability to respond on short noticed to Iraqi actions.

MARGARET WARNER: So are you saying, in other words, stop with the no-fly zones and just wait until Saddam Hussein does something?

GEN. RICHARD HAWLEY (RET.): Well, it certainly would be an option to reduce our force presence in the region and rely more on our long-range power projection capability and our unmatched capability to deploy forces quickly when needed in response to crisis, whether it be in Iraq or anyplace else.

MARGARET WARNER: Kathy Kelly, what would your group advocate - to end this stalemate that both the U.N. and Iraq and the West seem to find themselves in?

KATHY KELLY: Well, we would certainly advocate that we pursue peace-making policies, that we recognize that we've been waging a war on two fronts against Iraqi people, and that the warfare of economic sanctions has been a discriminate form of warfare. It discriminates directly against the most vulnerable people in Iraq, the elderly, the sick, the poor, and then so tragically, the children. And we believe that if we were to end these economic sanctions and let Iraq live, then not immediately, not like a vending machine transition, eventually the Iraqi people would be able to move perhaps toward more democratic governing structures and that we would find that there's tremendous friendship to be built between the Iraqi people and the U.S. people.

MARGARET WARNER: What about that, Ambassador, that maybe a different policy would actually be more effective, both the sanctions and the bombing front?

ROBERT PELLETREAU: Nothing that we have seen Saddam Hussein's conduct leaves us to believe that he would do anything except, if the sanctions were removed, rebuild his army, recommence his weapons of mass destruction programs, and before long , once again, be an immediate threat to his neighbors. He has shown time and time again that he is - the welfare of the Iraqi people is relatively low on his priorities. I would agree, however, that the oil-for-food program is something that should be continued, that should be expanded if necessary to allow the purchase of sufficient food and medicines to relieve the suffering of the Iraqi people.

MARGARET WARNER: Would you agree with the point, both that someone in the taped piece said and also Kathy Kelly has said that the current policy does perversely have the impact of actually strengthening Saddam in some way within his own country?

KATHY KELLY: I don't really agree with that. I've heard that argument made over six or seven years. Iraqis are thoroughly intimidated. This is a very repressive regime. And as our other speakers have stated, Iraqis will not easily and openly speak to anyone who comes to the country because they know that somebody is watching them, and Big Brother has the ears and eyes and will retaliate.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Well, thank you, Ambassador, Kathy Kelly, and General Hawley, thank you all three very much.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And still to come on the NewsHour tonight, poetry slam champions and a Jim Fisher essay.

FOCUS - POETRY SLAM

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Next, a look at the national poetry slam.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: More than 200 poets from dozens of U.S. cities gathered in Chicago last week for the Tenth Annual National Poetry Slam. The idea of poetry performance as competition goes back to the mid 1980's, when a Chicagoan originated the word "slam" to refer to what some people call poetry as a contact sport.

BOY: Stop tormenting your sister, boy, Little Cass. You will never be bigger than Big Cass.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Slammers mix verse and performance art. They are usually, but not always, young.

GIRL: Don't let me keep achieving -- harder bricks stacked up - then leaving because the levels keep on rising until it's hard to e inside what I've done.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Poems can't be longer than three minutes, and contestants are judged numerically, like Olympic ice skaters. Teams from San Francisco and San Jose tied for first place in Chicago. San Francisco's Ariana Waynes' poem started out critical of the United States.

ARIANA WAYNES: To the patriots and the activist poets, I sit here in the audience, reeling from the words of the soft-spoken revolutionaries, wondering if I should hate my country as I am strangled by my stars and stripes, Mexican, Armenian, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Yugoslavian, Bosnian children cry for inclusion. Would you have me forget that the blessed first amendment of these United States that I can raise my voice to shake the world, or at least the trembling foundations of this atrocious, ferocious land that I love, but have never been exactly proud of. Would you have me forget that when I come up on the box, check if you are black but not Hispanic? Would you have me forget that I am African and Cuban and Jamaican and native American and Chinese. Would you have me forget that I am all of these, that I am none of these, that I am more than the sum of the Census Bureau statistics or the stereotypes held against me, that I am the product of my everything?

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: But she ended on a different note.

ARIANA WAYNES: Would you have me forget - is nevertheless one of the few - in which I can speak my mind or pray to whatever God or goddess I choose or choose to refuse without being mutilated or murdered for it? Would you have me forget that in a large Asian in Southeast Asia the lips of my labia would have been sewn together with a white, hot needle when I was 12? Would you have me forget that in the mid-sized nation in Central Africa I would be the property of my husband, lord and master? Would you have me forget that in the modern industrialized nation in Western Europe I would have to flee the country to have an abortion or a divorce? Would you have me forget that I could be shot as a matter of course for raising my voice?! And I pray to a God that I gave up with Santa Claus to thank her for birthing me here, where the sidewalks are paved with potholes of potential - and where else would you rather be? I sit here in the audience reeling from the weight of internal contradictions and hysterical afflictions of patriotic asphyxiation for loving a broken nation that it's up to us to fix. Power of the people. Remember? At least it doesn't take a military coup. Ask not what your country can do for you, because you I am tired through and through of waiting, of hating my home. I still love my country. I guess it's like my mama says, I yell because I care. (cheers)

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: New Yorker Roger Bonair-Augard Bonair won the individual competition. Here he is reading a poem that compares his grandmother to Mary Magdalene.

ROGER BONAIR-AUGARD, Poet: It's short for Magdalene, one of the enigmas of biblical law found religion. I have often questioned her motives, this love of Jesus Christ, this holy supplication to the son of man and I think about Lena, my grandmother, great big woman, skin of ash of city, and hair, whitened with the burden of conviction - and I wonder about this business of weeping and foot washing. But I can only remember her iron hand and rigid schedules - the admonition on catching me lounging on the outhouse roof. Get down off that thing, boy, you have your book to study. What kind of man do you intend to become? I recall her jacking up of my equally stern grandfather, informing him of the folly of any repeated attempts to hit her -- never does Mary Magdalene come to mind. Not in the helpless, weeping for the crucified way, not in the convenient Catholic depictions of feminine frailty, of morals and spirit. I know of a Magdalene with fight. More Joan of Arc than Maid Marian, more sojourn of truth than damsel in distress. And I want to tell the withering two dimensional ghost crouched and crumpled at the foot of the cross, get up and fight, woman. Wake up and live, if you love him. Jack up the Pontious Pilate and refuse surrender. (cheers) One day, if I am worthy of her expectations, I will become a man worth crucifying and all her beatings, her lessons, her Puritanism and superhuman rage will have taught me that surrender is not an option. On that day, I expect to see standing at the foot of whatever urban crossly fashion, all 5'10" of Lena, pointing one huge gnarled finger at me, the shining authority of her eyes coming from the white forest of her hair, the white forest of her hair, lips trembling in rage, get down off that thing, boy, and fight! What kind of man do you intend to become?

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And Roger Bnaiaugard joins us now. He lived for 18 years in Trinidad and came here to attend Hunter College. A collection of his poems will be published next month. Ariana Waynes is with us too. She's a junior at the University of California- Berkeley, and is majoring in creative writing. Congratulations to you both and welcome.

ARIANA WAYNES: Thank you.

ROGER BONAIR-AUGARD: Thank you. Thanks for having us.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Mr. Bonair-Augard, tell me why the use of the word "slam."

ROGER BONAIR-AUGARD: You know, there are a number of -- there are a couple of legends told about how the word "slam" came about. The originator of the slam, Mark Smith, is the one who came up with the word, and the legend that I think sounds most believable is that he was being interviewed one day about hat he would call this new performance style, this competitive style of performance poetry, and that he had been looking at a baseball game, and he thought, you know, all of a sudden, you now, slam was a good word for it. So from what I understand it, you know, something that happened quite by chance.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: How did you get started slamming?

ROGER BONAIR-AUGARD: I first started with the Nuyorican poet's cafe in late '97. I had been writing -- before that, I had been writing poetry, and I walked into the Nuyorican poet's cafe one day and -

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: This is a caf in New York City?

ROGER BONAIR-AUGARD: That is correct. And I slammed for the first time. And eventually, I won a prelim, and then I won some semis. Then I ended up on the Nuyorican team for that year, for the '97 Nationals which were in Middletown, Connecticut.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And then it just went on from there?

ROGER BONAIR-AUGARD: Yes. But from then on -- what I did after that is the very next year, I coached the Nuyorican team, which won the entire nationals. I was in Austin, Texas, last year. And then I moved on this year to another New York venue called Bar 13, where I was coach and a slammer.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And Ariana Waynes, how did you get started slamming?

ARIANA WAYNES: Well, I was on campus one day shortly after the movie "Slam" came out, and I saw flyers that Tower Records was holding some sort of slam. I didn't know what it was or what it was out, but I thought that I would check it out. I only told maybe two people that I was going, and I ended up winning. And that encouraged me to see other slams. And I stumbled entirely accidentally into the San Francisco Bay area spoken word scene, and I met a lot of people who encouraged me to continue participating in the slam and invited me to lots of different events. And I ultimately ended up trying out for the San Francisco team - and making the team and going to nationals.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Who are your models? Are your models written poets that you've studied or the slammers that you've watched? Who?

ARIANA WAYNES: For me, both. Definitely I am very influenced by some contemporary writers like Sandra Cisneros, June Jordan. Maya Angelou is probably the first poet that I ever actually heard perform, and I wanted to be just like her. So -- and now absolutely slam poets and performance poets in general have greatly influenced my work and what I want to do with it, absolutely.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And Mr. Bair-Augard, who are your models?

ROGER BONAIR-AUGARD: A number of people. They run the gamut. My mother introduced me to poetry from a really early age. And the first people I remember reading are people like Camil Brafit and Kwesi Johnson and Sonya Sanchez. But they run the gamut all the way from, you know, your Shakespeares and your Coleridge and whatever up to very -- you know, the contemporaries. And there are a lot of people on the slam scene, and I'll probably leave out some names, but people like the bogeyman from Cleveland, Renegade, D.J. Renegade, from D.C.; Patricia Smith, who has won the individual competition four times; and a number of other people who buy the quality of their work, you know, have inspired me, and whose work I hope in style and form to be able to incorporate in mine.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And Ariana Waynes, what are the other influences on slam besides poetry?

ARIANA WAYNES: Well, there is definitely standup comedy. There's theatrics. Anything involving performance has been incorporated in slam and has helped shape what slam has become. There are a lot of movement-oriented people. Lots of people that I'm familiar with are dancers, and so they know how to use space well, and so when they're reforming a poem, they're very spatially oriented.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Yes.

ARIANA WAYNES: There are people who incorporate sign language. It's amazing. Any type of performance art has helped shape what slam has become.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And Mr. Bonair-Augard, what do you say to the people who say "this isn't really poetry?"

ROGER BONAIR-AUGARD: I really don't give too much credence to people who criticize slam as such. Within slam, one of the big criticisms of slam, as with a lot of performance poetry, is that it is not well translatable to the page. And I have always been an advocate of the fact that I think the best writers are the ones who will most consistently win the slams, because those are the things that will translate well to the stage, so that -- and for that matter, you have page poets, so -called, who are not good either, so that it is a kind of a hierarchy, I think, that people tend to try to set up between writers who write for the page and people who write for performance, or people who write for the slam. And slam has its flaws. It is difficult, I think, to bring it out like poetry and incorporate competition judged by random members of the audience and not have it flawed, but I think what it has definitely done is brought poetry back to people in a way that not many gimmicks have done before.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And Ms. Waynes, , do you agree with that?

ARIANA WAYNES: Absolutely, absolutely. The poetry slam puts poetry in a context which laypeople can grasp and enjoy. It felt like poetry was getting -- was really being taken out of the mainstream, and still is rather out of the mainstream. And this has been a mechanism for bringing it back and creating a dialogue between the audience and the performer. It's like in the coffee shops and academic cafes and all sorts of poetry readings, there was never such a dialogue between the audience and the poet. The audience was to sit still, be quiet, you know, clap quietly after it was all said and done. And now the audience gets to influence what's going on, and respond and react to it and not just accept what is given. They can make a decision for themselves whether they like and understand and appreciate what they're seeing.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: And what's it like, Mr. Bonair-Augard, that audience, to be up there performing in front of them with all the yelling and screaming and everything?

ROGER BONAIR-AUGARD: It's -- I think it's a very electric feeling, especially like these last finals. It was a 3,000-seat theater. And it's difficult to explain how charged that can become. But, you know, the whole idea of the audience and what slam has created is in a kind of a way, it's made the artist accountable to the people whom he is giving his word to, accountable to the society he is trying to represent. And when you go there and you deliver your work, and it is well received by judges and/or audience, apart from the euphoria that, you know, feeds our egos and so on, there is also the feeling -- there is also a certain amount of vindication that, well, you know, I am doing the right thing and I am reaching the people who I want to reach.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Well, thank you both very much for being with us, and congratulations again.

ARIANA WAYNES: Thank you very much.

ROGER BONAIR-AUGARD: Thank you.

ESSAY - LOGJAM

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Finally tonight, essayist Jim Fisher considers a river blocked by bureaucracy.

JIM FISHER: The Midwestern River, edged by the ripening bounty from adjacent fields. It offered a wistful memory for those with rural childhoods, of bridges crossed, riverside picnics; of fishing holes. But not Missouri's South Grand River -- a seven-mile stretch screened by willow, cottonwood, and ash, has been transformed from what once was a sure river into an unimaginable ugliness. Logjams: Essentially massive landfills in a river channel; five in a seven-mile stretch near the little town of Urich; the biggest, almost half a mile long. You name it, the refuse is here-- refrigerators, propane tanks, tires, plastic debris, and-- likely as not-- human remains that'll never be found; the refuse of our disposable society tangled among thousands, some say millions, of logs. The logjams have become so fundamental to life here that they are now referred to in the singular as the Urich logjam. The river has become a nightmare for Bill Kelsay, a farmer whose land abuts four of the five logjams. In June, he was flooded again.

BILL KELSAY: They just keep getting bigger each year, because the logjam keeps the water from flowing downstream, and it covers more farmland. When I first started farming here 25 years ago, there, why, you would get in April, get your crops planted, and get them up. But now, then, you got to wait till the land gets dried out good-- sometimes the last part of June, the first part of July.

JIM FISHER: The cause of this mess? The Dutch Elm disease of years ago, fewer people on the land, logging for shipping pallets, and above all, illegal dumping to avoid ever-increasing landfill fees. But what's in the river is only half the story. These logjams ha been around for 30 years, not just flooding the land but ruining crops, closing roads, and causing the abandonment of thousands of acres of prime agricultural land. People here have been complaining to anybody and everybody for years. But nobody will do anything, not the county-- no money; not the various state agencies-- "not our responsibility"; nor anyone in the federal government-- Corps of Engineers, Fish and Wildlife, E.P.A. - Ditto the explanation. - Vicky Hartzler is a Missouri state representative from a district abutting the South Grand River.

JIM FISHER: Farmers just don't have the clout anymore, do they?

VICKY HARTZLER: Well, there's not very many of them, and there's fewer and fewer every year. So we have to stick up for them and do what we can to keep the family farmer viable. They just cannot afford to keep this logjam here. They need their government to step in-- which was designed to serve them-- and to start doing that, instead of being a bureaucratic logjam, which it has been up to this point.

JIM FISHER: In the larger scheme of things, what's clogged in a small Missouri River probably doesn't count for much. But added to all the other things-- winter potholes still around in summer, bombs falling on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, nuclear secrets flying out of the laboratories like so many Domino's Pizzas, the tainted meat of the week-- and you have to ask who's in charge here? Obviously not bad people. But has government-- local, state, and federal-- become so big, so parochial, so muscle- bound, so complicated with rules and regulation, that it's impossible to get anything done?

WOMAN: We have to keep in mind that we're all here together for one reason: To solve the problem, not to argue.

JIM FISHER: And the Urich logjam? Well, folks here have finally gotten wise. There's now a study, a word bureaucrats dearly love; a meeting recently heard an update, and that other word functionaries swoon over: Remediation. - How to fix it. Years ago, farmers used sacks of fertilizer and dynamite to blow the logjams to smithereens. Not now. Environmental rules, toxic waste rules, wetlands rules-- you name it, there's a rule against it. And the South Grand? It remains choked, ugly, loathsome, smelly in the heat of summer, and hardly a place for a fishing hole. I'm Jim Fisher.

RECAP

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Again the major story of this Tuesday, rescue workers raced against time to save victims of last night's powerful earthquake. The death toll was 2,000 and rising. Nearly 11,000 people were injured. And in this country, retail level inflation was up .3 percent last month. We'll be with you online and again here tomorrow evening. I'm Elizabeth Farnsworth. Thank you and good night.