CBS Evening News Online Edition - 2004-11-08

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] Hello, I'm Dan Rather and welcome to the

[0:02] CBS Evening News online edition. Just

[0:04] ahead, the furious fight for Fallujah.

[0:07] We'll take you right into what could be

[0:09] the biggest battle of the Iraq War with

[0:11] reporters following US Marines into the

[0:13] city. Also, possibly good news for

[0:16] African-Americans with heart failure. An

[0:18] experimental new drug could help. We'll

[0:20] give you the inside story. And sexual

[0:22] harassment in the workplace. What do

[0:25] women really face? CBS's special Eye on

[0:28] America series, Women's Work, begins

[0:30] tonight, and it's all starting now on

[0:32] the CBS Evening News online edition.

[0:36] The fight for Fallujah is on. Weeks of

[0:39] warnings, troop buildups, air strikes,

[0:41] and civilian evacuations climax today

[0:44] with an allout attack. Thousands of US

[0:47] Marines and Army troops, plus Iraqi

[0:49] special forces, launched Operation

[0:52] Phantom Fury, likely to be a tough

[0:54] house-to-house battle against a dugin

[0:57] enemy. Fallujah in the Sunni triangle

[0:59] west of Baghdad is the heart of the

[1:02] insurgency and a safe haven for foreign

[1:04] terrorists until now. CBS's Elizabeth

[1:08] Palmer is in Fallujah with the US

[1:10] Marines. Kirk Spitzer is with US Army

[1:12] special forces and Kimberly Doer is in

[1:14] Baghdad. They all contributed to this

[1:17] report despite severely limited

[1:19] communications from the front lines. CBS

[1:22] News national security correspondent

[1:24] David Martin narrates our coverage.

[1:28] Parts of Fallujah lie in ruins as

[1:30] Operation Phantom Fury unleashed the

[1:33] firepower of the United States military

[1:35] on the town they believe is terror

[1:37] central. Initially, resistance was

[1:40] light. Iraqi commandos and US special

[1:42] forces secured the main hospital, which

[1:44] they believed was being used as a

[1:45] staging post for terrorists. But after

[1:48] the Iraqi commandos raised the new

[1:50] national flag, the insurgents opened up

[1:52] with a devastating attack.

[1:54] >> CBS News reporter Kirk Spitzer was

[1:57] there.

[1:58] >> The fighting that I saw this morning was

[2:00] remarkable for both how long it went on

[2:02] and for the devastating firepower the

[2:04] Americans brought to bear. It's not

[2:07] clear how many fighters the insurgents

[2:10] might have lost, but the long line of

[2:12] flattened and smoking buildings along

[2:14] the Fallujah Riverside suggest that the

[2:17] toll was not light.

[2:19] >> CBS correspondent Liz Palmer reports

[2:22] from the battlefield.

[2:24] >> These men believe that the battle for

[2:25] Fallujah will be decisive for the future

[2:27] of Iraq. As one Marine said, "It's

[2:30] either the beginning of the end for them

[2:32] or the beginning of the end for us."

[2:34] >> Call and ask him, "Do you want to fire

[2:35] for effect? If you want continuous

[2:36] smoke, ask him.

[2:40] >> Oh, damn. That was a loud one.

[2:43] >> What do you think about the the fight?

[2:46] >> I feel bad for them, but they brought it

[2:48] on themselves.

[2:50] >> The battle for Fallujah is shaping up to

[2:52] be the toughest fight American forces

[2:54] have faced. Not since the invasion of

[2:56] Iraq, but since the Vietnam War. For

[2:59] many of these young Marines and

[3:00] soldiers, it's their first taste of

[3:02] combat, and the adrenaline is pumping.

[3:05] We're going to stay until it's done.

[3:06] Either we kill them all or we drive them

[3:08] out. We find them out in the open or we

[3:09] find them in another town. But we're not

[3:12] pulling back.

[3:14] >> The dirty business of urban warfare

[3:16] began as the main force entered

[3:18] Fallujah. Nobody realistically expects

[3:21] Abu Musab al- Zarqawi to be found behind

[3:23] one of these doors. He's most probably

[3:26] fled to fight another day. And that

[3:28] means the fight for Fallujah won't be

[3:30] the last battle for a stable Iraq. David

[3:34] Martin, CBS News.

[3:36] >> It could be a turning point not only in

[3:38] treating heart failure, but for the

[3:40] overall approach to developing

[3:41] medications. Doctors report success

[3:44] today in saving lives with a heart drug

[3:47] tested on a specific group of people,

[3:50] African-Americans. CBS's Wyatt Andrews

[3:52] gives you the inside story.

[3:56] >> Carol Proctor, a 61-year-old heart

[3:58] failure patient, did not know he was

[4:00] making medical history. He did know his

[4:03] heart medicine improved his life.

[4:05] >> What was better about being on that

[4:07] drug?

[4:09] >> Be able to do things that you couldn't

[4:10] do before,

[4:11] >> like walking, riding a bike, spending

[4:14] more time with your grandchildren.

[4:16] >> Which is why the heart drug he took,

[4:18] Bidle, could soon become the nation's

[4:20] first black drug. Today, researchers

[4:23] announced that Bidle, which never worked

[4:25] in the general population, worked

[4:27] spectacularly in African-Ameans. We saw

[4:30] a 43% improvement in survival, a 33%

[4:35] decrease in hospitalization rate, and a

[4:38] significant improvement in quality of

[4:40] life.

[4:41] >> The drugs maker Nitromed does not claim

[4:43] that vital can't work in white or in

[4:46] Asian heart patients, only that it does

[4:48] work in blacks who suffer far more heart

[4:50] disease than whites.

[4:52] >> One size doesn't fit all, and we have to

[4:54] understand the different risks and

[4:56] benefits for different populations. But

[4:58] could this launch an era of medicine in

[5:01] black and white? Critics warned that

[5:03] raceonly drugs, which might be good

[5:05] therapy, could also feed the disease of

[5:08] racism.

[5:09] >> It's a me a message that translates into

[5:11] saying these this is there's a

[5:14] biological basis for race.

[5:16] African-Americans are inferior to other

[5:20] groups, ethnic and racial groups.

[5:22] >> Ethnic medicine or not, Carol Proctor is

[5:25] for it. Most of the black people have

[5:27] heart condition more than whites. So

[5:29] really is a chance to make things better

[5:32] for some blacks.

[5:33] >> Approval for vital as a heart treatment

[5:35] for African-Ameans is now up to the FDA,

[5:38] but is expected by early next year.

[5:41] Wyatt Andrews, CBS News, Washington. And

[5:44] there may be another new option for

[5:46] heart failure patients as well. Put a

[5:48] sock in it. It's an experimental mesh

[5:51] wrap, a kind of sock that covers a

[5:53] portion of the heart. In test patients

[5:55] with heart failure, this sock appears to

[5:58] help their hearts pump more efficiently.

[6:00] All this week, we have a special Eye on

[6:02] America series, Women's Work. Women now

[6:05] account for well over half the US

[6:07] workforce. A big change since the 1970s.

[6:10] What has not changed in many ways is

[6:13] sexual harassment. It's still around,

[6:15] especially in one form that's hard to

[6:18] prove in court, but women know it when

[6:20] they hear it. And CBS's Bill Whitaker

[6:23] got an earful when he investigated for

[6:25] IO America.

[6:29] >> Lori says she's a typical American

[6:31] working woman. She has children,

[6:33] grandchildren, and she's been sexually

[6:35] harassed.

[6:36] >> The comments were pretty graphic.

[6:39] >> From the factory to the office, reports

[6:41] of sexual harassment are up, but working

[6:43] women say the statistics don't begin to

[6:46] tell the story. The world would be

[6:48] amazed at how many people and how many

[6:51] women are sexually harassed.

[6:52] >> We spoke with five women, a gardener, an

[6:54] airline employee, a receptionist, a

[6:56] project manager, a waitress. They asked

[6:59] that we just use first names.

[7:01] >> At first, it was just comments like, you

[7:03] know, kind of smuttalking.

[7:05] >> All say the harassment started with

[7:06] talk.

[7:07] >> Talk which got worse and worse.

[7:09] >> And all say it's a fact of life for

[7:11] working women.

[7:12] >> You're supposed to almost put up with

[7:14] it. It's done all the time. What do you

[7:16] say to the guys who would say, "Oh, come

[7:18] on. It's just talk."

[7:20] >> I'm not a sensitive person. I was a

[7:21] bartender before I worked in an office.

[7:23] It's not just for fun or it's not just

[7:25] smut talk. It's It's scary.

[7:27] >> These women aren't talking about crude

[7:29] guy talk or even sexually tinged office

[7:32] humor. What they mean is graphic,

[7:34] unwanted sexual language directed at

[7:37] them. when somebody's telling you that

[7:40] there are things that they would like to

[7:41] do to you, um which way they would like

[7:43] to do it, where that's crossing the

[7:46] line,

[7:47] >> he would um make reference to, you know,

[7:49] let's have sex in the hot tub or, you

[7:52] know, let's pull over at a park and have

[7:53] sex in the car and

[7:54] >> why didn't you speak up?

[7:56] >> Women fear retaliation.

[7:59] >> They know you need your job and they use

[8:02] that power

[8:05] to intimidate you. I reported it to a

[8:09] supervisor who I thought was going to

[8:11] take care of the situation and I ended

[8:12] up getting suspended.

[8:14] >> In fact, all five women were fired or

[8:16] suspended after finally complaining. So

[8:18] now they're taking their complaints to

[8:20] the courts.

[8:21] >> Is it hard to prove sexual harassment?

[8:24] >> It's very hard.

[8:25] >> Trisha Knight is one of a handful of

[8:27] attorneys who specializes in sexual

[8:29] harassment law.

[8:30] >> It is a he said, she said type of

[8:33] situation. It's very, very hard for a

[8:35] woman to win a sexual harassment case.

[8:38] >> But these women say it would be harder

[8:40] to stay silent. Li spoke up when her

[8:42] daughter joined her office and was

[8:44] sexually harassed by the same man.

[8:46] >> And I wasn't going to do this, but I

[8:48] just thought to myself, you know what?

[8:50] This man has to be stopped. And it won't

[8:53] stop until somebody

[8:55] makes him realize that he's a pig. Five

[8:59] typical American working women saying

[9:01] enough is enough in Milwaukee. This is

[9:04] Bill Whitaker for Eye on America.

[9:06] >> More stories are just a click away, but

[9:08] don't forget to join me on television

[9:09] for the on air edition of the CBS

[9:12] Evening News. On Tuesday's broadcast,

[9:14] America's working women. Hundreds left

[9:17] the workforce to raise a family. Now

[9:19] they want back in. How they're doing it

[9:21] and would it work for you? Find out when

[9:23] our Eye on America series continues for

[9:26] cbsnews.com.