The Early Show (CBS) snippets - 2004-11-11 (Yasser Arafat death / Fallujah battle)
Channel: malgent
Transcript
Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)
[0:04] First though, we want to get right to
[0:06] our top story, and that is the death of
[0:07] Yaser Arafad. For nearly 40 years, he
[0:10] was the face of the Palestinian movement
[0:12] and an enemy of Israel, a master
[0:15] terrorist, who later won a Nobel Peace
[0:17] Prize. Arafat will be buried in his West
[0:19] Bank headquarters. CBS News
[0:21] correspondent David Hawkins is live in
[0:23] Ramala with more. David, good morning.
[0:27] >> Good morning, Renee. Palestinians woke
[0:29] up today to the news that the only
[0:31] leader most of them have ever known died
[0:34] overnight in a French military hospital
[0:36] from a still undisclosed illness. To
[0:39] some, he was the father of the
[0:40] Palestinian cause. To others, he was the
[0:43] face of Palestinian terrorism.
[0:46] That face is being pasted up on walls
[0:48] all over the West Bank and Gaza today as
[0:51] his people begin to mourn his passing,
[0:53] not only with sorrow, but with symbols
[0:55] of defiance. Young men set car tires on
[0:58] fire in the streets and fired weapons
[1:01] into the air.
[1:03] >> His unshaven face and headscarf became
[1:05] the most recognizable symbol of the
[1:07] Palestinians often violent struggle for
[1:10] a homeland. Throughout the 1970s, Arafat
[1:13] and the PLO were synonymous with
[1:14] terrorism, conducting several
[1:16] sensational hijackings and murdering
[1:19] Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich
[1:21] Olympics. But in 1974, when Arafat
[1:25] addressed the United Nations, he spoke
[1:27] of carrying a freedom fighter gun in one
[1:30] hand and an olive branch in the other.
[1:33] When Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982,
[1:36] Arafat and the PLO were kicked out of
[1:38] Beirut, this time fleeing to Tunis. 5
[1:42] years later, the first Palestinian
[1:44] uprising, the Inifata, erupted in the
[1:46] West Bank and the Gaza Strip. But in the
[1:48] early 1990s, secret peace talks resulted
[1:51] in a historic agreement. In return for
[1:54] recognizing Israel's right to exist,
[1:56] Palestinians got limited self-ruule.
[1:59] Arafat returned to Gaza triumphant, one
[2:02] step closer to his dream of an
[2:04] independent Palestinian state. But the
[2:06] peace process received deadly blows.
[2:09] Palestinian militants continued
[2:11] terrorist attacks against Israel. and an
[2:14] Israeli radical assassinated Prime
[2:16] Minister Yitsak Rabbine. In response to
[2:18] Palestinian terrorism, Israel reoccupied
[2:21] Palestinian territory and gave up on
[2:24] Arafat as a peace partner and
[2:26] effectively locked him up in his
[2:27] demolished West Bank headquarters.
[2:30] Although he never achieved his dream of
[2:32] founding an independent Palestinian
[2:33] state, Yaser Arafat died as he lived,
[2:37] combining wy diplomacy and violence to
[2:40] the very end.
[2:42] After a ceremony in Paris today and a
[2:45] funeral in Cairo tomorrow, Arafat's body
[2:48] will be brought back here to Raala for
[2:50] burial. Bulldozers are at work clearing
[2:52] away debris from his grave site. The
[2:55] place that was once his prison will
[2:57] become his shrine. Renee,
[2:59] >> CBS's David Hawkins in Ramala. David,
[3:01] thanks.
[3:10] Yaser Arafat's death will obviously have
[3:13] a major impact on life in the Middle
[3:15] East. Fouad Jami is a CBS news
[3:17] consultant and a Middle East expert.
[3:19] Good morning.
[3:20] >> Good morning, Hannah. Thank you.
[3:21] >> Uh Mr. Arafat brought worldwide
[3:23] attention to his people's plight, but he
[3:25] did not bring them statehood. He did not
[3:27] bring them peace. What will his legacy
[3:28] be?
[3:29] >> Well, I think that's a good question.
[3:31] That's the fundamental question about
[3:32] Yasarafat. I'm not even sure he really
[3:34] wanted statehood. This man harks back to
[3:36] the 50s and the 60s when he was shaped
[3:38] and formed. He thought of himself as
[3:40] this great revolutionary. And when
[3:42] statethood was offered to him, it was
[3:44] really offered to him on a gold platter
[3:46] in the summer of 2000 at Camp David. 14
[3:49] days. Bill Clinton in Audak diplomatic
[3:53] negotiations uh with the Assaraf. He was
[3:56] offered statehood. He turned it he
[3:57] turned it down and went back to the West
[3:59] Bank in Gaza and started an an
[4:01] insurrection against Israel.
[4:03] Fundamentally, I think he was a man
[4:05] uncomfortable with order, uncomfortable
[4:07] with institution. He was a gypsy. He was
[4:09] a vagabond. That really was his legacy.
[4:11] He thought of himself as this great
[4:13] revolutionary figure.
[4:15] >> President Bush called for the
[4:16] Palestinians to replace him as their
[4:18] leader a couple of years ago. And and
[4:19] the president said yesterday this was a
[4:21] significant moment in the Palestinians
[4:23] history. And Israeli Prime Minister
[4:24] Chiron really echoed that, calling this
[4:26] an historic turning point in the Middle
[4:28] East. So what are we looking at now? a
[4:30] real diplomatic opening here, an
[4:32] opportunity.
[4:33] >> Well, I think there's a kind of irony
[4:34] here, Hannah, because in fact, President
[4:36] Bush may uh really get what he wished
[4:39] for. Uh because so long as Yas Arafat
[4:41] was on the scene, the Bush diplomacy
[4:43] could be in obeyance. We could just
[4:44] simply say, look, we have put on the
[4:46] table a proposal for the Palestinians
[4:48] and the Palestinians should renounce
[4:50] terror and change their leadership. Now
[4:52] that Arafat is gone, the pressure will
[4:53] be on on President Bush to come forward
[4:56] with a decent proposal for the
[4:58] Palestinians today. Today, President
[5:00] Bush will be visited by Prime Minister
[5:02] Blair, his stalwart ally in the war in
[5:05] Iraq. And Blair will be making the push
[5:07] for an Israeli Palestinian peace process
[5:10] for which I'm I'm afraid President Bush
[5:12] may may not even be ready. But so long
[5:14] as Yas Arafat was there, he was a kind
[5:17] of solution. He was an odd kind of
[5:19] solution. Now, we will face a moment of
[5:21] truth here.
[5:22] >> Uh the militant Islamic group Hamas has
[5:24] vowed that Arafat's death has
[5:26] strengthened their resolve to attack
[5:28] Israel. What are we going to see in the
[5:30] short term here? Are we going to see
[5:31] these moderate and radical factions
[5:33] vying for power? Are we going to see
[5:34] more violence?
[5:36] >> Well, this is the heart of the problem.
[5:38] I mean, in fact, Arafat leaves a void
[5:40] behind. It's the void he wanted. He
[5:42] wanted no powerful contenders. Now, the
[5:45] Hamas people are in the wings. The Hamas
[5:47] people are in the street. There's a
[5:49] culture of violence that has taken root
[5:50] in the West Bank and Gaza. and Hamas
[5:53] will step into the breach because you
[5:55] will have a struggle of some kind
[5:56] between Hamas and Islamic Jihad, these
[5:58] terrorist organizations on the one hand
[6:01] and some of the lieutenants of Yas
[6:03] Arafat, a man like the prime minister
[6:05] Ahmed Kuray, a man like the former prime
[6:07] minister Abu Mazin, a man by the name
[6:10] Mahmud Abbas. So there will be a
[6:12] struggle and it is an opening for for
[6:14] Hamas. But you know, let's face it,
[6:16] Hamas has had the run of the territories
[6:18] even when Arafat was on the scene.
[6:19] Arafat was an odd creature. He was both
[6:22] firemen and arsonist. He posed both
[6:24] ways. He he swung both ways and we will
[6:27] see that same play uh in the West Bank
[6:30] in Gaza in the days to come.
[6:31] >> He has no clear successor. Fat Jami,
[6:33] thank you so much.
[6:35] >> Thank you.
[6:41] This Veterans Day, American troops are
[6:42] on the verge of gaining control of
[6:44] Fallujah, the Iraqi city that had been
[6:46] the last main stronghold for rebel
[6:48] insurgents. General Richard Meyers is
[6:51] the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
[6:52] Staff and he joins us this morning. Good
[6:53] morning, General.
[6:55] >> Good morning, Harry.
[6:56] >> Can you give us a brief progress report
[6:58] on Fallujah and especially this area,
[7:00] this Jolon area?
[7:02] >> Well, things are going, I think, as
[7:04] planned. It's been several days now.
[7:06] We've got about 70% of the city under
[7:09] under control. Uh the the fighting I
[7:12] think by many has looked easy, but it's
[7:14] only easy because we've got very
[7:15] professional armed forces members
[7:18] conducting that operation, both Marines
[7:20] and United States Army and others. Um
[7:24] there have been hundreds and hundreds of
[7:26] insurgents who have been either killed
[7:28] or captured. Um, we hope that in, you
[7:31] know, the next few days we'll be able to
[7:33] return Fallujah to the citizens there
[7:35] without the intimidation that the
[7:36] insurgents brought and that as we go to
[7:38] elections in Iraq here in January that
[7:42] the citizens of Fallujah can participate
[7:43] in that event as well.
[7:44] >> This looks almost like one of those
[7:46] carnival games though over there in Iraq
[7:48] where you hit the head of one and it
[7:49] goes down and something else pops up.
[7:51] Over the last 24 hours, you've got a
[7:53] continued uh horrible explosions in
[7:55] Baghdad, Rammani, Tree, Samara, Mosul
[7:59] has turned into a no man's land all of a
[8:01] sudden.
[8:03] Police there are working with the bad
[8:05] guys. How do you gain control of this
[8:07] entire country?
[8:09] >> Well, just just one correction there.
[8:11] Mosul is not a no man's land. Uh there
[8:13] are some issues, as you mentioned there,
[8:15] and um and they're being addressed by
[8:16] the Iraqi government. Well, the way you
[8:18] do it is is the way we've we've been
[8:20] doing it. Uh coalition forces on the
[8:22] security side, coalition forces help the
[8:24] Iraqi forces uh provide security for
[8:26] their own citizens. And as we build up
[8:28] their security forces, which is a major
[8:29] part of our effort, that's one piece.
[8:32] There's a political dimension and that's
[8:33] what the interim Iraqi government is
[8:35] doing in terms of the political solution
[8:37] in Fallujah in Mosul and trying to put
[8:40] people in those positions either in uh
[8:42] chief of police or as governors or or
[8:45] mayors of those uh cities and towns
[8:47] >> uh to bring back control and there's
[8:49] also an economic piece and you're going
[8:50] to see that work here in Fallujah
[8:52] >> fairly shortly because all that's going
[8:54] to come together here in Fallujah but
[8:56] >> uh there are some tough challenges ahead
[8:58] as you mentioned all the car bombs going
[8:59] off these are the extremists killing ing
[9:02] their fellow Muslims, killing Iraqis.
[9:04] There are a lot more Iraqis that have
[9:05] been killed by these extremist than
[9:08] coalition forces over the over this over
[9:10] this fight.
[9:11] >> General, on this uh Veterans Day, we
[9:13] can't let the this opportunity to talk
[9:15] to you go without paying homage to these
[9:18] very brave men and women who are serving
[9:20] overseas.
[9:21] >> You bet. Uh this is the the newest,
[9:23] greatest generation, if you will, that
[9:25] are serving overseas. Afghanistan,
[9:26] Djibouti, uh the Philippines, Iraq, uh
[9:30] many places around the world, all sworn
[9:32] to uh support and defend the
[9:34] Constitution of the United States and
[9:35] and wanting to put their lives on the
[9:37] line for uh the freedom of this country
[9:40] and the values that we hold dear, just
[9:41] like their their fathers did and their
[9:43] grandfathers and and those before them.
[9:45] It's u it's a great legacy. Uh they're
[9:48] bringing hope to millions of people. I
[9:50] think what's happening in Afghanistan is
[9:52] a real tribute
[9:53] >> to United States armed forces. I mean
[9:55] the fact that uh u you know almost 10
[9:58] million people showed up and voted h
[10:00] almost half of them women and they seem
[10:03] to be on a path towards democracy is a
[10:05] real tribute to the men and women in
[10:06] uniform. General Myers, we General
[10:08] Meers, we thank you so much for your
[10:10] time today
[10:11] >> and thank you for the opportunity,
[10:12] Harry.