CBS Evening News open - 2004-12-24

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] Queens.

[0:01] >> From all of us at News Channel 5, happy

[0:04] holiday.

[0:08] Tonight, guess who came to dinner. The

[0:11] defense secretary makes a surprise trip

[0:13] to Iraq to show the troops he cares. The

[0:16] Christmas Eve crunch, whether by land or

[0:19] by air, it's a struggle for many headed

[0:21] home for the holiday. What's in your

[0:24] computer? Online identity thieves may be

[0:27] in there fishing for your secrets. It's

[0:30] Friday's consumer alert. And he may not

[0:33] look much like Santa, but he's giving

[0:35] plenty to American troops spending

[0:37] Christmas hospitalized in Iraq.

[0:48] This is the CBS Evening News with Dan

[0:51] Rather.

[0:53] >> And good evening. Dan is off tonight.

[0:54] I'm John Roberts. If terrorists in Iraq

[0:57] were out to make a point this Christmas

[0:58] Eve, they did so in spectacular fashion.

[1:02] A bomb planted in a butane tanker truck

[1:04] exploded in a huge fireball tonight in

[1:07] an affluent West Baghdad neighborhood.

[1:09] At least three Iraqis were killed and

[1:11] more than a dozen hurt, most of them

[1:13] suffering burns. The blast occurred just

[1:16] hours after Defense Secretary Donald

[1:18] Rumsfeld left Baghdad. He was in Iraq

[1:20] for a tour of US bases. A tour kept

[1:23] secret until it was underway.

[1:26] Correspondent Kimberly Dosha reports.

[1:30] >> It was a welcome surprise for American

[1:32] troops under siege.

[1:35] >> A whirlwind tour of Iraq's hotspots by

[1:38] the US Defense Secretary, starting with

[1:40] soldiers in Mosul still reeling from

[1:42] this week's deadly suicide attack.

[1:45] you've seen the the evil up close and

[1:48] personal, so you you know the the danger

[1:52] that that poses.

[1:54] >> He told them there had been setbacks,

[1:56] but that the insurgency can be beaten.

[1:58] >> There is no doubt in my mind, but that

[2:00] this is achievable.

[2:02] >> And the man accused of overlooking the

[2:04] needs of his soldiers made sure no one

[2:06] got left out. even though you up there

[2:09] who I keep forgetting to look at and I

[2:12] want to include because I'm deeply

[2:14] grateful to all of you.

[2:15] >> It was also a chance to honor the troop

[2:17] sacrifices and show military families

[2:20] that he does care. After the controversy

[2:22] over his failure to personally sign

[2:24] letters of condolence for the fallen of

[2:26] Iraq,

[2:27] >> God bless you. Thank you. Last time

[2:29] Rumsfeld met with troops in Kuwait, one

[2:32] soldier prompted by a reporter asked

[2:34] that question why many of their trucks

[2:36] still aren't armored.

[2:38] >> As you know, uh, you go to war with the

[2:40] army you have.

[2:42] >> This time it was a smaller group of

[2:44] soldiers and there were no sticky

[2:46] questions.

[2:47] >> How do we win the war in the media? How

[2:48] do we win the propaganda war?

[2:50] >> That does not sound like a question that

[2:52] was planted by the press.

[2:55] But the issue of whether the troops have

[2:57] what they need won't go away as patrols

[3:01] keep taking hits.

[3:02] >> Keep going. Keep going.

[3:03] >> It's given one National Guardsman who's

[3:05] a full-time artist back home a lot of

[3:07] material to work with.

[3:09] >> It was a good way to

[3:11] good way to release some tension, I

[3:13] guess.

[3:14] >> The caption on this one with Rumsfeld

[3:16] standing behind an armored podium reads,

[3:18] "What are you chicken?" In another, an

[3:21] Iraqi says, "I hate American." The

[3:23] soldier comments at least their English

[3:25] is starting to improve. The secretary is

[3:28] here to tell soldiers like Sergeant

[3:30] Brokhaw he understands it's a tough

[3:32] uphill fight.

[3:34] >> What you're doing is important. I think

[3:36] the American people get it.

[3:38] >> This was a chance to show the men he

[3:40] commands that he gets it too.

[3:42] >> Kimberly Doer, CBS News, Baghdad. This

[3:45] will not be a joyous Christmas for the

[3:47] families of 18 Americans, most of them

[3:50] US Army troops killed in Tuesday's

[3:52] suicide bomb attack on their base near

[3:54] Mosul. Correspondent Jerry Bowen has

[3:56] that story.

[3:59] Grief hung as heavy as the Christmas Eve

[4:01] fog along the main road to Fort Lewis,

[4:03] Washington, home base to nearly half the

[4:05] soldiers lost in the Mosul explosion.

[4:07] 23-year-old Staff Sergeant Robert

[4:09] Johnson of Castro Valley, California,

[4:11] was among them. It was his father who

[4:13] got the awful news at the family home.

[4:17] >> And I just

[4:20] screamed out, "No, no, no." And I I just

[4:25] ran upstairs and just hoping for it to

[4:27] go away. And it and it didn't. across

[4:30] country.