captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. new names have been added to the terror watch list and no-fly list after the failed bomb plot on christmas day. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. on the newshour tonight, u.s. officials demand stringent new security for international travelers as passenger screenings are ramped up at airports here, but not everywhere around the world.

>> woodruff: what to do about yemen, an impoverished nation now labeled a major terrorism threat. >> the instability in yemen is a threat to regional stability and even global stability. >> ifill: then, new political turmoil in afghanistan. margaret warner talks with the afghan ambassador to the united states. >> woodruff: a jeffrey brown profile of the dancer who has been at the helm of the alvin ailey company for two decades, and is now stepping down. >> people don't remember me for how high my legs were. they remember me and any other dancer because something touched them inside. >> ifill: and the gadgets that have changed our lives, and what the next decade holds. >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's "pbs newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour is provided by: >> what the world needs now is

energy. the energy to get the economy humming again. the energy to tackle challenges like climate change. what if that energy came from an energy company? every day, chevron invests $62 million in people, in ideas-- seeking, teaching, building. fueling growth around the world to move us all ahead. this is the power of human energy. chevron. >> we are intel, sponsors of tomorrow.

and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. 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. >> woodruff: there was more fallout today from the attempted christmas day attack on an airliner about to land in detroit. u.s. officials expanded lists of potential terror suspects, and new threats kept western embassies closed in yemen. president obama flew back to

washington from hawaii today amid reports that dozens of new names are now on a list barred from flying into the u.s. umar farouk abdulmutallab of nigeria was not on the no-fly list before he allegedly tried to blow up northwest flight 253 on christmas day. the president ordered reviews of the list after the failed bombing. and shortly after his return to the white house today he met with john brennan, his top counterterror advisor, for an update. mr. obama had already said over the weekend that militants in yemen were directly linked to abdulmutallab. >> it appears that he joined an affiliate of al qaeda and that this group al qaeda in the arabian peninsula trained him, equipped him with those explosives and directed him. >> woodruff: the u.s. and british embassies remain closed after that same al qaeda off-shoot issued new threats on sunday.

other western embassies curtailed activity. and yemeny security forces killed two militants in a raid outside the capital. back in washington, secretary of state hillary clinton said the american embassy would reopen as conditions permit. and she said the situation in yemen is a top concern. >> the spillover effects from instability directly impact the neighbors. obviously we see global implications from the war in yemen and the ongoing effort by al qaeda in yemen to use it as a base for terrorist attacks far beyond the region. >> woodruff: on sunday brennan, the president's deputy national security advisor, said the u.s. will help yemen deal with al qaeda. >> we're not going to let al qaeda continue to sort of make gains in yemen because we need

to take whatever steps necessary to protect our citizens there as well as abroad. >> could that mean u.s. troops on the ground in yemen? >> we're not talking about that at this point at all. >> woodruff: in the meantime, the u.s. government is trying to make it tougher to get a bomb on a plane. as of today, travelers bound for the u.s. from 14 countries will face full body patdowns and increase luggage screening. no exception. the list includes countries accused of sponsoring terror: cuba, iran, sudan, and syria, as well as yemen and nigeria plus afghanistan , algeria, iraq, lebanon, libya, pakistan, saudi arabia, and somalia. secretary clinton said today her department was reviewing its own security. >> we're looking to see whether those procedures need to be changed, upgraded, and that is, you know, my goal as

secretary to do everything i can to make sure that not only american citizens but, you know, all people traveling on airlines of any nationality can arrive at their destination safely. >> woodruff: but a number of reports from europe said many airports were not yet following the new rules. and flights in and out of newark, new jersey, were still running behind schedule today after a major security snafu last night. >> as you can see, it's absolute chaos. >> woodruff: a man had by-passed a security check point triggering an alert. officials made all passengers in the terminal go back through screening, a delay that lasted up to six hours. we get more now on the latest efforts to strengthen air security from independent airline analyst david field. >> thank you. >> woodruff: will it be different for air travelers and which travelers?

>> the people who will feel the greatest effects from steps announced yesterday and today are going be to people coming into the u.s. from overseas destinations, the countries mentioned in the report. you'll also see increased screening at major european gateways such as heathrow, paris, charles de gaulle. >> woodruff: it's not just those 14 countries where the plans will change. >> it is primarily those 14 countries but you have to bear in mind that very few of those countries have flights had that come non-stop into the u.s. they have to go somewhere else and change. places like frankfurt, places like london, places like paris. >> woodruff: what is going to be different though in terms of each... is it going to be every single passenger? we mentioned they were saying no exceptions. do you think they literally mean that? >> i think they literally mean that. i think one of the reasons why you're going to see increased security at european gateways is just in case they don't do it. just in case they don't keep their word on it. every passenger. >> woodruff: today it was reported that some of these

european countries were not yet implementing these new procedures. what does that mean? how much leverage does the u.s. have on these other countries to do what we're asking them to do? >> the u.s. statutely has a lot of leverage but it's not leverage we're willing to use because it hurts us more than it hurts them. if we restrict the number of flights coming in from france just imagine the repercussions, imagine the economic effects. what we're going to have to be doing is jaw boning the european authorities. >> woodruff: to what extent is it your sense that authorities want to keep travelers off guard? they're announcing full-body patdowns. they're announcing we're going to go through your carry-ons. but how much are they going to keep unknown and .... >> one of the good things that the transportation security administration has been doing for the last three or four years is active chaos theory where particularly for domestic flights they'll change the routine and the protocol day by day or even hour by hour so that the bad

guys in case they're observing will be kept off guard. you're going to see that i think in a lot of u.s. domestic airports. you're going to see that at newark. saw it yesterday. you're going to see it at de los and j.f.k.. >> woodruff: it's not just international flights coming into the u.s.? >> it's primarily international flights but because of the need for the tsa to assert itself and reassure the public you will see increase of body scans and so at domestic flights at u.s. airports. >> woodruff: david field, what frame of mind should travelers be in in this new set of circumstances? >> bear your cross proudly. it will be more hassle. you're going to have more time devoted to getting through the airport and getting up to the airplane, particularly for international flights and particularly for flights leaving the u.s. even though they are not on the list. let's say you're going to london to take in a couple shows and do some shopping, you're going to have to spend four and five hours at the airport rather than the three or four that you spend now.

certainly for the first couple of months. >> woodruff: and from the people you're talking to, what are the opinions out there about how much more safer they think air travel will be as a result of this? >> there's no way to tell how much more safe you are because we don't know what the threat is. unfortunately the tsa tends to react to past events rather than future events. i'm not really sure there's any other way to do it. it's very hard for us to tell what the bad guys are thinking, what the bad guys are planning, what the bad guys might do. you have to go by past events and just try to keep current with them. >> woodruff: we know if nothing else passengers will be more vigilant. it was passengers after all that stopped this last one. >> thank goodness. >> woodruff: david field, thank you very much. >> my pleasure. >> ifill: now, for the other news of the day, we go to hari sreenivasan in our newsroom. hari? >> sreenivasan: five americans held in pakistan today denied having ties to al-qaeda.

they also insisted they had not been plotting attacks there. the suspects arrived for their first court appearance amid tight security. they wore handcuffs as they entered the building. the five young muslim men are from the washington, d.c., area. they were arrested in early december. four u.s. troops were killed on sunday in afghanistan in a roadside bombing. they were the first american combat deaths of the new year. a british soldier died in a separate attack. and it turns out the suicide bomber who killed seven c.i.a. employees in afghanistan last week was a jordanian. reports today said he had been recruited to try to infiltrate al-qaeda. prime minister nouri al-maliki vowed today to keep the heat on private guards who worked for blackwater u.s.a. five guards were accused of killing 14 civilians in baghdad in 2007. but last week, a federal judge in washington threw out the charges. today, maliki promised lawsuits in both american and iraqi courts. >> for our part, we have done what is necessary to protect our citizens and to punish those who committed the crime. we have formed committees and

filed a lawsuit against the black water security firm. both in america and iraq. we won't abandon our right to punish this firm. >> sreenivasan: the blackwater guards claimed they were ambushed. prosecutors and many iraqis said the guards use of machine guns and grenades was unprovoked. the first business day of the new year saw a surge in stocks and the price of oil. wall street surged on encouraging news about manufacturing in the u.s. and china. the dow jones industrial average gained nearly 156 points to close just under 10,584. the nasdaq rose 39 points to close at 2308. and oil closed above $81 a barrel for the first time in nearly three months, as frigid weather gripped the eastern u.s. and drove up demand. the number of bankruptcies in the u.s. rose 32% in 2009. the associated press reported today consumers and businesses filed more than 1.4 million bankruptcy petitions. the number of cases fell sharply in 2006 after congress overhauled u.s. bankruptcy laws, but they've been rising ever

since. the tallest building on earth formally opened today in dubai. we have a report narrated by sally biddulph of independent television news. >> a celebration which measured up to the size of the building. ♪ fireworks and fanfare heralded the official opening of the world's largest tower in dubai. the surrounding sky scrapers and every other famous building across the world. you need three ifill towers end to end and nine big bens to even get close. it's more than half a mile tall. well, 828 meters to be exact. it has enough steel to span halfway around the globe. thundered by dubai's financial boom years the tower is opening against a back drop of bust. >> the message is that we build for years to come . crises come and go.

the world has gone through two years of difficult times. we have hope and optimism. we must move on. >> reporter: it is home to more than a thousand flats, a hotel and offices but not all of them are occupy. what's more, the tower isn't even finished. these pictures show parts of the inside on new year's eve. since then there's been a mad rush to get things ship ape. there wasn't even a hint of last-minute touches at the opening ceremony. dubai knew the world was watching and it put on quite a show. this wasn't just about the building. it was about how the city wants to be viewed. powerful and opulent, an oasis in the desert. >> sreenivasan: the new tower in dubai far outsizes the tallest building in the u.s. the burj khalifa is nearly 300 meters taller than chicago's willis tower, formerly known as the sears tower. it's also more than twice the height of the empire state building in new york city. a huge oil spill in china has

forced more than 800,000 people to stop drinking water from the yellow river. last wednesday, a broken pipeline dumped 100 tons of diesel fuel into the wei river which feeds into the yellow. the yellow river is the main water source for millions of people. china's waterways are ranked among the most heavily polluted in the world. those are some of the day's main stories. i'll be back at the end of the program with a preview of what you'll find tonight on the newshour's web site. but for now, back to gwen. >> ifill: and still to come on the newshour, the afghan government in disarray; celebrating decades of dance with the alvin ailey company; and the technology that will change your life in the next decade. that follows a closer look at why yemen is home to the latest al qaeda threat. for most americans the small country of yemen south of saudi arabia was relatively obscure until october of 2000. that's when two suicide bombers attacked the u.s. navy destroyer cole in the gulf of aden. 17 americans were killed.

now yemen is in the cross hairs once again after an al qaeda off-shoot there claimed responsibility for the attempt to bomb a u.s. passenger jet on christmas day. >> the situation in yemen is a top concern. >> ifill: secretary of state clinton summed up the situation today after meeting with the prime minister of katar. >> the instability in yemen is a threat to regional stability and even global stability. we're working on ... with katar and others to think of the best way forward to try to deal with the security concern. >> ifill: part. challenge is that yemen is the arab world's poorest country. more than a third of its 23 million people are without work. the country has also suffered a decades-long civil war involving periodic rebellion and insurgency along the border with saudi arabia and the frontier between the once

dif divided north and south. the situation grew worse when two dozen terror suspects escaped from a high-security prison in 2006. since then, al qaeda's yemen arm has claimed responsibility for trying to kill a member of the saudi royal family last august and for attacking the u.s. embassy in 2008. 19 people were killed. the u.s. stepped up military and intelligence aide to 67 million dollars last year and planned to double it this year. over the weekend, u.s. general david petraeus met with yemeny president. he praised last month's raids that killed 60 militants? >> indeed there has been sharing of intelligence, of information and so forth two ways. it's a two-way street because the intelligence sources of yemen are very, very good as well. >> ifill: president obama also pledged his support to drive al qaeda from yemen in his

weekly radio address. for more on the al qaeda threat in yemen, we turn to richard barrett, the coordinator of the al qaeda monitoring team at the united nations. he returned from yemen in mid- december. and gregory johnsen, a yemen scholar at princeton university. he travels to the country frequently and was last there in the summer. professor johnson, what do we know, if anything, about the nature of this threat that was suspected involving the embassy closures? >> well, we don't know a great deal. it's being reported that the gem yemeny military lost about six trucks. there's a concern that al qaeda militants may have captured these trucks which held munitions and arms. this is something that al qaeda has done repeatedly when general petraeus last visited the country in july of 2009 i was in the country at the time in yemen and general petraeus really brought the message to the president there that you need to take the fight to al qaeda.

the president responded quite quickly. he dispatched military to file al qaeda. the army performed poorly and al qaeda took trucks that time as well. >> ifill: mr. barrett, explain to us exactly what the history is of why it is that yemen, of all places, would become a hot bed for suspected al qaeda terrorism. >> well, as you said in your earlier report, it's been associated with al qaeda for some years. indeed, the attack on u.s.s. cole in 2000 was a pretty seminal event for al qaeda. that was a big network behind that. and many yemenis have gone to afghan , pakistan border area to find. indeed eye rook as well. in particular. it started in 2004- 2005. one of the reasons for that is the yemeny authorities relied on some sort of association with the tribes to manage the country. there are many weaknesss in the country as you pointed out earlier. without a close association to the tribes it's difficult for

the central authorities to sort of deal with any of them. so the al qaeda groups have been able to form alliances themselves with the tribes. some of them are members of these tribes too. in a way sort of take advantage of the hospitality offered by the tribes. in particular since the saudi authorities have been so successalful in pushing al qaeda out to saudi arabia, yemen has become a sort of focus for regional activity. i think that the joining of al qaeda in saudi arabia with al qaeda in yemen in january 2009 really gave the groups there a real boost to think, yes, they could perform acts outside the territory of yemen. >> ifill: professor johnson, how many people are we talking about? hundreds? thousands? dozens? >> it's really difficult to tell. the estimate of about 300 individuals or around that number is fairly accurate but the problem with that number is that it's a little misleading. so this nigerian individual who, the would-be bomber who attempted to bring down the

airliner. he wouldn't have been among these three 300 individuals. the two suicide bombers in yemen that carried out attacks in march of 2009 would not have been among the number in the low hundreds. you really have a problem where you have individuals who self-identify as al qaeda as well as a great number of people around them who are easily radicalized, easily recruited to be suicide bombers and offer material support to al qaeda. >> ifill: let me ask you about the u.s. role. we saw general petraeus go there this weekend and we know that there have been lots of conversations and encouragement from the u.s. toward the yemeny government. are they stepping up to do what the u.s. would like to see them to do to eradicate this? >> we're talking about al qaeda in yemen, i think it's important to remember that we're dealing with really the second incaration of al qaeda there. the u.s. and yemeny governments cooperated quite closely after september 11 and did a very good job of destroying the organization.

but really last vigilance by the yemeny as well as the u.s. government allowed al qaeda following the prison break that you talked about in your report to really rebuild and essentially resurrect itself up from the ashes. >> mr. barrett, we talked about lapsed vigilance. also we have heard about people who not only have broken out of prison but detainees from guantanamo who were released back to yemen. six of the 97 who were being held there. has that also served to make al qaeda flourish? >> well, indeed. one of the senior sort of theologians if you can grace him with that title is somebody who he was in guantanamo. two of the saudi arabians who joined with the yemeny branch in january of last year were ex-guantanamo. one of them now has gone back to saudi arabia and given himself up. so clearly there are these people who are prepared to continue the fight. but i think when you look at all the people who have been through the saudi program and indeed all the people who have come out of guantanamo still fairly low number that have

gone back to support terrorism. i think now there's a challenge though. of course with the 90-odd people that remain in guantanamo who are yemeny, as to what will happen with them when the facility there is finally closed. >> ifill: professor johnson, does this sound familiar to you at all to what we're going through with pakistan which is trying to get the government to cooperate in rooting out cells and whether the government cooperates depends a lot on how much ud aid is coming their way? >> yeah, i think that's a very good parallel. i think it should be pointed out that there are no easy or obvious solutions when it comes to dealing with al qaeda in yemen. the united states shouldn't be under any illusions. it's not going to defeat al qaeda there today, tomorrow, next month or even next year. al qaeda there just too strong and too entrenched there's really no magic missile answer to the problem of al qaeda. it is going to take a great deal of patience. it's going to take a very knew understanded localized and a multifaceted response by the united states.

>> ifill: mr. barrett, we had a former ambassador to yemen on the program last year. she said we needed to get ahead of the failure curve. can you define for us what you think that might mean. >> yeah. i think that there's still a problem in exposing al qaeda for what it is truly is. it's just really a criminal organization that exploits people's sense of lack of justice or whatever grievance they have. to say that all muslims are underattack from the west. when you look at the facts it's pretty clear immediately that in fact most of the victims of al qaeda-related terrorism are muslims in muslim majority countries. between 2006-2008, 98% of victims of al qaeda-related terrorism were muslims in muslim-majority countries. we need to get ahead of the failure curve by trying to undermine the appeal that al qaeda still has. i mean it's all very well to

kill some of the leaders and stop suicide bombings. i think that's excellent work. at the same time you have to stop the generation, if you like, of new al qaeda supporters and leaders coming through. >> ifill: professor johnson, are we being serious enough and paying attention to the warnings? we know there was a previous bombing of the u.s. embassy. we know there was an attempt on the saudi royal family. we know that there have been these prison breaks. has the u.s. been paying close enough attention since the cole bombing to the threat there? >> u.s. attention there has really waxed and waned. it's something that immediately after september 11 it's a great priority and the u.s. puts a lot of aid in. after november 2003 when it looks as though the problem has been defeated, u.s. aid sort of retreats and goes elsewhere. after the embassy bombing in 2008, u.s. aid is there once again. when i was in yemen and talked to a number of different individuals from the government, from journalists, tribesmen, everyone really told me the same thing.

that is there is a great and growing fear in yemen that if the al qaeda problem were to go away, u.s. aid and u.s. interest in yemen would also go ahead. >> ifill: gregory johnson at princeton and richard barrett of the united nations, thank you both very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: now a political storm in afghanistan. >> woodruff: now, a political storm in afghanistan, and to margaret warner. >> warner: saturday's vote in the afghan parliament was a stinging rebuke to president hamid karzai, rejecting 17 of his 24 cabinet nominees. the prize move caused new disarray. two months after karzai was declared winner of a presidential election plagued by fraud. today karzai ordered parliament to cancel its winter break so it vote on a new list of nominees that he's now preparing. he's under pressure to show progress in governing by january 28 when an international conference on the afghan mission convenes in london. among the rejected nominees

was influential word lord khan and the only woman karzai had named. lawmakers criticized many on the list as unqualified political cronies. several holdovers in vital posts were approved. among them the defense minister and the minister of interior. along with the ministers of finance, education, and agriculture. i spoke to afghan ambassador today and asked him how big a setback this was to karzai. >> it may be a temporary setback for the president but it's a step forward for the democracy in afghanistan. it's really happy for the parliament of afghanistan to do their job the way they are supposed to be doing. >> warner: that seems like a strange reaction. a setback for the president but you think it's a good thing? >> we are building institutions. we are building state in afghanistan. we have to keep focus on the long-term prospects of democracy and pluralism in afghanistan.

we will have setbacks in our way forward, both for the president and for the parliament. but if you keep focus and have the institutions do their jobs the way they are supposed to be doing, the country will be better off. >> warner: why do you think so many were rejected? what message was parliament trying to send? >> frankly i was surprised at the rejections because a number of the ministers who are rejected belong to individuals or powerful fractions that have also strong presence in the parliament of afghanistan. the message of the parliament is sending is that they would like to see qualified afghan occupy these jobs at the afghan cabinet. >> warner: do you think some of them were in fact unqualified and were just chosen because they were either of president karzai's political base or were essentially, some have said, puppets of other powerful figures that had helped him in the election or whose support he thinks he needs now? >> the nomination of those ministers to the parliament was not different from anywhere in the world.

we have people who are truly qualified for these jobs and we have people who have strong political influence. all have contributed to the country like anywhere in the world. this is the standard case in afghanistan or anywhere else. but the parliament chooses to be strict and approve only those who met the criteria of merit. which is a good step for afghanistan. >> warner: now, there is a theory that president karzai is actually relieved that he went ahead and made these appointments that he felt he had to, to pay off people who had helped him. the parliament then essentially did the dirty work of rejecting the unqualified ones and now he can go back and appoint others. >> this is the reality of afghanistan as i mentioned. now the president once again has a chance to introduce those who are considered to be better qualified to do the job. >> warner: where does this leave the government in the meantime?

the departing head of the u.n. mission said at least afghanistan is still without a functioning government which has been going on for way too long. >> i think the key ministers of ... that are in charge of the security, defense, agriculture, education, and finance have been approved. so they will carry on their duties. as far as the other ministries, these are more technical jobs that could be carried out by the vice ministers or deputy ministers. i do relate to the concern that i have indicated. he would like to see things moving much faster. but i think if we start the right way even if it takes a bit longer, in the end we will be better off. >> warner: the president is now working on a new list. >> yes, he is. that list will be ready by sunday. >> warner: what kinds of people is he going to name this time? will they be a new sort or will he just reshuffle the old names? >> it will be the same way that's been done everywhere in the world.

there will be people appointed based on merit. but the political realities of afghanistan are also something that the president and the rest of the international community in afghanistan has to deal with it. so there will be people that will be probably renominated or newly nominated because of their political influence. and it will be up to the parliament to decide which way they want to take the country. >> warner: so people who are expecting a radically new approach in the next list are going to be disappointed? >> no. it is easy to come up with a very radical list but it will not be effective in afghanistan. afghanistan, we're not dealing with... to revolutionize the states in afghanistan. we are building the state institutions in afghanistan with the limited constraint... with the constraint that we face as far as shortage of capital, limited enforcement capability against undesirable elements so that all of that will be part of the equation that we'll be dealing with in afghanistan for many years to come. >> warner: the president is...

president karzai is going to this london-afghanistan conference at the end of this month. the international donors of troops and money were hoping that he would come with a new team with plans and, in fact, progress already underway in making this a more competent and effective government. what are they going to see now? >> afghan people parliament of afghanistan is serious about seeing reform being implemented in afghanistan. i think this is the kind of message that they would like to here. >> warner: mr. ambassador, thank you. >> thank you. my pleasure. >> ifill: next, a remarkable dancer, and the remarkable company she helped build. jeffrey brown has our story. ♪. >> brown: from the beginning

51 years ago the alvin ailey american dance theater has been a celebration of african- american culture and black dancers and choreographers who found few opportunities elsewhere to work. ♪ on a recent night at the city center theater in new york, the celebration continued. now focused on the woman who has long been the face of the company, judith jamison, dancer, choreographer and artistic director who has just announced she's stepping down next year. >> what we tried to do is express our humanity as we're showing you these not just steps but we're showing you parts of life. our movement to what we're doing.... >> brown: you're showing parts of life. >> we are. in its abstract form. >> brown: jamison grew up in philadelphia, her father a

carpenter, her mother a school teacher. she began to dance at age 6. her first stage was a sheet on a backyard clothes line. at home she learned her mantra for success. >> prayer, prepare and proceed. >> brown: prayer, prepare and proceed. >> there's always a lot of prayer in my house. preparing, gosh, if you start dancing when you're six years old, you know, i think that's preparing. >> brown: and then proceed. >> proceed means when the curtain goes up, you go for it with excellence. with confidence. i mean the curtain goes up on your life everyday, you open your eyes and the curtain is up. >> brown: she made her debut with the american blue jay theater in 1964 and then met the man who would change her life alvin ailey, the founder of the company and the creator of such landmark works as revelations. for 15 years jamison, 5'10"

tall, full bodied, fearless on stage, was the most famous dancer in the company and one of the most famous in the world. her signature piece, a 16-minute solo core yog raf by ailey was titled "pride." when ailey died in 1989, jamison succeeded him. she had stopped dancing the year before. she talked to the newshour's charlayne hunter-gault then about her goals. >> mr. ailey was so specific about his african-american heritage that what he had to say through movement became universal because it spoke to the human condition. if revolutions was done in russia, toledo or tokyo, everyone understood what that message was about. what i'd like to do in the ailey is continue that history but not make the alvin ailey american dance theater a museum. >> brown: 20 years later at age 66, she says this.

>> the changes have been that i've made my selections, my choices on what ballets would come in and who the dancers would be. but still adhering to that initial vision that said we should celebrate the african- american cultural expression and experience in the modern dance tradition of our country. >> brown: i was reading your memoir. you say in there that alvin ailey used to speak of what he called blood memory. what does that mean? >> that means look to your ancestors before you look ahead. it informs you. it gives you a root. it gives you a basis to stand on. you know where you come from. it gives you... you're not sanding on stand. you're standing on rock, on solid ground. >> brown: five years ago the company built its own office and rehearsal space in midtown manhattan, eight floors, 77,000 square feet, said to be the largest building dedicated

solely to dance in the u.s. thousands of children and adults take classes there. classical ballet. african. and the horton, a style of modern dance named for ailey's mentor. jamison has helped make ailey an international brand. 30 professional dancers tour constantly. to date the company has performed in 71 countries for an estimated 23 million people. >> please welcome the alvin ailey american dance theater. ( applause ) >> brown: and last year they appeared on the popular abc prime time show dancing with the stars. jamison was skeptical at first but then came around. >> the world is full of ways for people to dance.

when we get our opportunities, there we are. >> brown: i often find when i'm talking to people that dance for many people seems the hardest one to get. the least accessible. >> yes. >> brown: they don't get it. >> that's okay. >> brown: that's okay? >> yes, just fine. all we want you to do to ... is get in the theater. there's nothing like live performance. >> brown: you have to remember that there's no test at the end of it. it's like looking at a painter, you know. you look at a painting. you get something from it. or you don't. it moves you or it doesn't move you. there's nobody strapping you in your seat and saying you've got to get this. >> brown: amid the current celebration tore jamison, the search for a new leader for alvin ailey continues. she says she's confident about the company's future. >> we will continue to be inclusive and to engage the community and the world toward us understanding that we're

all the same under the skin. >> brown: i'm wondering about the young dancers who come to you now. do they know the past? do they care in the same way about the mission you were talking about? >> they do. they have to. they have to otherwise what are they dancing here for? there's no point. if you're just here to see how many pirouettes you can do or how high you can raise your leg or how high you can jump, that's not what gives memories. people don't remember me for how high my legs went even though went up very high and how many pirouettes i did, they don't remember me for that. they remember me and any other dancer because something touched them inside. it's an indelible memory on the heart and in the mind. >> brown: judith jamison won't say what's next for her but promises more surprises. the alvin ailey american dance theater will celebrate her legacy throughout the coming year.

>> woodruff: finally tonight, ray suarez looks back and ahead after a decade in which technology transformed our lives. >> suarez: back in 2000 fewer than half americans were online. today 77% of adults are. last year more than half used wireless internet. according to the pew research center, desktop computers were increasingly replaced by laptops. smart phones like the black berry and i-phone allowed users to access information and each other instantly. the decade saw the rise of search engine google, apple transformed the music industry with the i-pod. media from music to newspapers to television became available on demand giving consumers more control over what they saw and when they saw it. social networks such as face book and twitter created virt

qal spaces for people to connect with one another. cell phone videos and on-line communities have helped spread news from closed societies such as the recent anti-government protests in iran. now for a look at the impact of the technological shifts, we're joined by jaron lanier, a computer scientist and author of the forthcoming book, "you are not a gadget." esther dyson, chairman of edventure holdings, which invests in technology start-ups. and paul saffo, a technology forecaster and consulting professor at stanford university. ester dyson, the tools we use to communicate have gotten smaller and faster and smarter. as you look back at the last ten years what was the biggest development or the biggest change? >> the biggest one was not just the internet but the internet becoming accessible everywhere, whether it was wi-fi at work, on your cell phone, as you traveled. people had it at home with broadband. there was a big change.

it used to be people used the internet primarily at work because that's where they had a good connection. now they're using it at home. and the second big change is they used it not just to get information but to communicate with one another. so it became not simply an information exchange but a personal exchange, communication mechanism. people started talking and sending out information as well as receiving it. >> suarez: professor saffo, the biggest change or advance in the last ten years? >> i think ester got it right. it's just the sheer magnitude of what happened. it really came down to search, social media and smart phones. the fact that search was free and that social media was everyone talking to everyone else. don't underestimate the phone size. remember, in 1999, there were 500 million cell phones on this planet. today it's at 4.5 billion. that number looks to grow at about a billion a year.

all of them will be smart. >> suarez: finally jaron lanier what stands out for you when the last ten years? >> technology now is equalized in the sense that what people can do themselves when they make a video it looks about the same on the screen as a video that comes from a traditional television source. so there's this sense in which everyone has become part of the conversation. that's extraordinary. >> suarez: but by everybody being in on the conversation, does it become harder to consume if everybody is is a film maker, a music video producer, a desktop publisher, does the tube become too stuffed with tough? >> well, you know, when it was all getting started at least what i hoped is that everybody would turn out to want to be a creator, which did turn out to be true. many people thought that wouldn't hatchen. i think that's the happiest surprise.

but on the other hand, the inner sort of consumer identity got the best of people. everybody just wants things for free. that's created this strange kind of cheapness to everybody, where everything becomes throw- away and people i think have started to undervalue things maybe because there's too many, maybe because it's too easy to make. i think mostly just because somehow that's the pattern that got set. i think that's regrettable. >> suarez: ester dyson, peril or promise in a world where more and more people are creators? >> it means that if the past decade was the decade of searching and finding and looking for stuff, this coming decade will be the decade of filtering and going to your friends for recommendations. people are going to have to create smart defaults so that other people still have a choice. but if they find it all too confusing or they just want someone else to make a choice there's a default that works

pretty well. this concept of libertarian paternalism. it's handy. people need to understand that the technology is for them. it's not to them. it's not over them. people still sometimes want to be led a little too much. they have to understand that they can reject it. they can turn off their cell phone. they can stop looking at their email. it's there if they want it. it's not being forced on them. seeing it as a tool not as an overwhelming obligation. i just spent seven days answering all my emails so i shouldn't be talking. that's what you should do. >> suarez: professor saffo, is that the way it's working out? do people feel they can turn everything off or is it changing the way we live and interact with the tools and the machines we use? >> well, what's really going on here is this is a media shift.

it's comparable to what happened in the 1950s and the birth of electronic mass media back then. this is the birth of a new kind of personal media. instead of we're all watching one program. we're all watching each other. the history of media makes it really clear. whenever we have a big innovation the first wave of stuff we do is pretty crummy. the printing press gave us pornography, cheap thrillers and how-to books. television gave us the vast waste land and this new area of personal media has given us a vaster wasteland. lucky for us there's really wonderful stuff in it. if history is any guide as the media matures the quality will continue to go up. >> jaron lanier there is a shakeout along with the cheapness you mentioned and the transition that professor saffo mentioned , where's the end point? do we reach it in the next ten years? >> you know, i'd like to see us shake in instead of a shakeout in the sense that

it's true that there's a lot of junk online and we have to filter in and so forth. you know the thing that really disappoints me is that we didn't create enough jobs just to be very blunt about it. ten years ago what i thought was that the internet was becoming a major new american industry. what that would bring with it was in a way a replacement for the fading american industries like our auto industry and our display industry. and we've reconceived of it as something that is in a sense economic. we treat it as this sort of frivolous way to send things around for free. it's all in the service of advertising. >> suarez: but you keep using the word for free. isn't that why it didn't create any jobs. if you turn people into unpaid journalists, photographers, painters, music video producers, that's it. it's unpaid. how could it create a job. >> bloggers or popular tweeters for that matter. i think we really made a

mistake in separating the internet from capitalism in a certain way that is bad for our country. remember just before that we had made sort of a national decision that we wanted to be this intellectual property country where we would have things manufactured in china but we do the design and the creative stuff. now what we've done is we've forgotten that that's what we wanted. we're making the intellectual stuff more and more free. we're sort of left with less and less. it's just not tenable. we have to decide one way or the other and really do something to earn our keep. i think that's a huge problem right now. >> suarez: ester dyson for government s that want to do so, is it possible to shut off the flow of information or is information going to squirt out from every knock and cranny no matter what totalitarian or authoritarian government wants to do. >> let me answer that question as no governments can't stop it. but they can try hard.

let's go back to what jaron was saying. i want to respectfully disagree. the internet is an incredible business tool. first of all, the internet slashed the cell phone. the cell phone is just another way to get at it. i think it's having a huge impact in africa in particular where it enables people, suddenly they know crop prices. they can communicate. it makes their lives more efficient. it's not that you have jobs on the internet, but the internet makes it possible for more people to build their own jobs. what it does , it erodes the power of institutions. it used to be you needed an institution to have a job. if you look at the three of us on this show i don't think any of sus really employed by an institution. we run our own lives. we make bookings through email. the internet has given each of us the power that you needed three secretaries to have. and an institution behind you.

and it's not just if you're a pundit. if you're a carpenter, you can go online and find customers. if you are making jams at home, you can go online and sell them to people. the great thing is it allows you to create your own job. not just look for jobs other people are going to give you. that combined with the american spirit i think is going to help us come out of the recession faster than other countries. i think it's going to help africa come out of, you know, a century of slump. >> suarez: jumping off.... >> could i respond? >> suarez: we have about a minute-and-a-half left. let's lean forward and look at the next ten years. professor saffo. >> well, the revolution in this decade has been the arrival of censors. we invented our computers in the '80s, networked them in the '90s. now we're giving them eyes, ears and sense ory organs.

we're asking them to manipulate the world on our behalf. next five years will be robots. in the same way that the web amaced people in the early '90s and the p.c. amazed people in the '80s there's a robot brewing just over the horizon. >> suarez: jaron lanier? >> i think this will be so fun. if you think about the avatar movie which many people are enjoying, imagine in ten years you'll be able to make up stuff at that level of intensity yourself. i think in ten years no kid who can't make up something like avatar in an afternoon is going to be able to get a date. that will be just great. >> suarez: and finally ester dyson. >> i think what paul said is right but a lot of those sensors will be on us. we'll be monitoring our own blood pressure. i hope instead of needing health care, we will at least some of us be able to manage our own health and reduce the need for health care rather than try and fight the costs of it. >> suarez: ester dyson, jaron lanier, paul saffo, thank you all.

>> thank you. >> thanks. >> ifill: again, the major developments of the day. u.s. officials expanded a watch list of terror suspects and a list of people barred from flying into the u.s. the u.s. and british embassies in yemen were closed for a second day after new threats from al-qaeda. and wall street got off to a good start for 2010. the dow jones industrial average gained nearly 156 points. the newshour is always online. hari sreenivasan, in our newsroom, previews what's there. hari? >> sreenivasan: you can hear an interview with sibba audi, a senior anchor for the al-arabiya news network, about the opening of the world's tallest skyscraper in dubai. we have a closer look at the embassy closures in yemen from a global post reporter stationed there. and you can watch more of jeff's interview with judith jamison, plus her 1990 conversation with former newshour correspondent charlayne hunter gault. that's on our art beat page, where we also have performance clips from the alvin ailey american dance theater.

all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. judy? >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. we'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. thank you, and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour is provided by:

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