CBS Evening News Online Edition - 2005-09-29

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] Hello, I'm Bob Schaefer and welcome to

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

[0:04] Just ahead, our top commander in Iraq

[0:06] says the number of Iraqi battalions able

[0:09] to operate alone is not increasing, it

[0:12] is decreasing. Also, John Roberts took

[0:14] the oath today as the 17th Chief Justice

[0:17] of the United States after the Senate

[0:20] confirmed him. Plus, the campaign to

[0:22] recover historical treasures lost in

[0:24] Hurricane Katrina. It's all starting now

[0:27] on the CBS Evening News online edition.

[0:30] We are putting Iraq first tonight

[0:32] because it's been another awful day in

[0:34] the war. There's news that five more

[0:37] American soldiers have been killed by a

[0:39] roadside bomb and 60 Iraqis were killed

[0:42] and 70 more wounded by suicide car

[0:45] bombers. We'll get to that shortly, but

[0:47] we're starting on Capitol Hill where our

[0:50] top generals had some depressing news

[0:52] today. The number of Iraqi battalions

[0:55] able to fight without US support is not

[0:57] increasing, it's going down. Here's

[1:00] national security correspondent David

[1:02] Martin.

[1:04] One of the keys to American withdrawal

[1:06] is for Iraqi troops to take over the

[1:08] fighting. But today's hearing of the

[1:10] Senate Armed Services Committee revealed

[1:12] that the number of Iraqi units capable

[1:14] of operating on their own has actually

[1:17] decreased.

[1:18] >> Previous report was you had three

[1:19] battalions. Now we're down to one

[1:20] battalion.

[1:21] >> Right. and and things change in the

[1:23] battalions. I mean,

[1:24] >> that would only be about 700 soldiers.

[1:27] But General George Casey, the senior

[1:29] commander in Iraq, insisted many more,

[1:31] roughly 20,000, can carry out operations

[1:34] backed up by American troops and pointed

[1:37] out that in the recent assault on

[1:39] Talifar, Iraqi soldiers outnumbered

[1:41] Americans for the first time.

[1:43] >> So, have we lost ground? Absolutely not.

[1:47] President Bush, who met with Casey

[1:48] yesterday, has cited the buildup of

[1:50] Iraqi forces as one of the principal

[1:52] signs of progress.

[1:53] >> Now, the increasing number of more

[1:54] capable Iraqi troops has allowed us to

[1:56] better hold on to the cities we have

[1:58] taken from the terrorists.

[2:00] >> But when committee members pressed Casey

[2:02] on when American troops can start coming

[2:04] home, the answers weren't reassuring.

[2:06] >> The next 75 days are going to be uh

[2:10] critical in in what happens after that.

[2:13] >> Two months ago, he sounded much more

[2:15] confident. I do believe we'll still be

[2:17] able to take some fairly substantial

[2:18] reductions after these elections in in

[2:20] the spring and summer next year.

[2:22] >> Today, despite repeated attempts to pin

[2:24] him down, Casey remained vague on when

[2:26] and how many troops might come home.

[2:29] >> Are you planning on troop withdrawals

[2:32] for next year? I just said that,

[2:35] Senator. Yes. I mean, yes or no.

[2:39] >> Yes, Senator. I do believe that the

[2:41] possibility for troop co conditionbased

[2:45] reductions of coalition forces uh still

[2:47] exists in 2006.

[2:50] >> Bob Casey pointed out that the average

[2:53] insurgency lasts for 9 years and he said

[2:56] there's no reason to believe the

[2:58] insurgency in Iraq will take any less

[3:01] time to deal with. All right, thank you

[3:03] very much David. Now today's other big

[3:06] story is expected. John G. Roberts was

[3:08] sworn in as the new chief justice after

[3:11] being confirmed by the Senate by a huge

[3:14] margin 78-22.

[3:16] And who better to tell us about that

[3:18] than our own John Roberts.

[3:21] It is one of the most important

[3:23] appointments a president can make. And

[3:25] today, President Bush stood by his man

[3:28] sworn in as the 17th Chief Justice of

[3:30] the United States.

[3:35] The president made special mention of

[3:36] Robert's son, Jack, who stole the show

[3:39] back in July at the nomination

[3:40] announcement.

[3:41] >> We extend a special welcome to his wife,

[3:44] Jane, their daughter, Josie,

[3:48] and son Jack,

[3:51] a fellow who's comfortable with the

[3:53] cameras.

[3:57] >> Roberts himself couldn't resist joining

[3:59] in. We found a way to get Jack into the

[4:02] committee room,

[4:04] introduced introduced to the committee,

[4:06] and back out again without any serious

[4:09] crisis.

[4:09] >> But on a more serious note, the

[4:11] Conservative Chief Justice said he will

[4:13] remain faithful to the Constitution.

[4:15] >> With the help of my colleagues, I can

[4:17] pass on to my children's generation a

[4:20] charter of self-government as strong and

[4:22] as vibrant as the one that Chief Justice

[4:25] Ranquist passed on to us. Now the

[4:28] attention turns to who's next to fill

[4:30] the critical swing seat being vacated by

[4:32] Sandra Day Okconor. Consultants to the

[4:35] White House say don't expect another

[4:37] Okconor.

[4:38] >> I think at the end of the day we're

[4:38] going to see a conservative appointed

[4:40] the court for the seat of Justice

[4:41] Okconor. And that is going to shift the

[4:42] balance on the Supreme Court. But that's

[4:43] the prerogative of the president

[4:45] >> and it's the prerogative of the

[4:46] Democrats who see this nomination as

[4:48] even more important than Chief Justice

[4:51] to fight that notion.

[4:52] >> This is a time when America is divided.

[4:56] If there was ever a time when we needed

[4:58] a consensus nominee, it is now.

[5:01] >> They're warning President Bush that he

[5:03] and the Republican party don't have the

[5:05] same strength they did when Roberts was

[5:07] nominated. Some potential nominees have

[5:09] even drawn threats of a filibuster. The

[5:12] White House doesn't seem worried.

[5:14] >> They were saying that before and it

[5:16] didn't happen.

[5:17] Whomever the nominee is, they got some

[5:19] support from Justice Ruth Bader

[5:21] Ginsburg, who said John Roberts was

[5:23] correct to not answer a lot of questions

[5:24] posed to him by the judiciary committee.

[5:26] She says it's not appropriate for a

[5:28] nominee to talk about how they would

[5:30] rule in a case that may come before the

[5:32] court. Bob, thank you very much, John.

[5:34] And finally tonight, Hurricane Katrina

[5:37] took hundreds of lives and caused

[5:39] billions of dollars in damage. But as

[5:41] people have come back to the coast,

[5:43] they've discovered the hurricane also

[5:44] took with it a lot of history. Jill

[5:47] Maccasta reports.

[5:50] In the mountains of debris piling up in

[5:53] Mississippi are some of this state's

[5:54] greatest treasures.

[5:57] Literally consigned to the ash sheep of

[5:59] history. All along the Gulf Coast,

[6:02] mansion after glorious mansion lies in

[6:05] ruins. Like this home which predates the

[6:08] Civil War. All that's left is the palm

[6:11] tree. Another antibbellum gem sits

[6:14] beneath the casino barge.

[6:16] >> The storm was truly a monster. It just

[6:18] ripped off the front porch and just

[6:20] scattered it.

[6:20] >> Bovois, the last home of Confederate

[6:23] President Jefferson Davis, survived the

[6:25] Civil War, but lost the Battle of

[6:28] Katrina.

[6:29] >> Just literally my mouth was just hanging

[6:31] open cuz I just couldn't believe it.

[6:34] The museum's director, Patrick Hotard,

[6:37] spends his days digging through the

[6:38] rubble,

[6:40] salvaging artifacts like this

[6:42] Confederate bullet or mini ball.

[6:44] >> That's a example of sort of the small

[6:46] items that we have to look for amongst

[6:48] all this rubble and debris. It's

[6:50] extremely uh trying on the soul.

[6:53] >> Bvois's rebel uniforms and rifles are

[6:55] drying out inside a climate controlled

[6:58] facility. With all of this devastation,

[7:00] Katrina herself has made American

[7:02] history, leaving the South with its

[7:04] largest reconstruction project since the

[7:07] reconstruction.

[7:09] >> We had a garden.

[7:10] >> Also wiped out by a runaway casino barge

[7:13] was this house built by Beluxy's freed

[7:16] slaves.

[7:16] >> They just took my heart.

[7:18] >> The Pleasant Reed home was one of the

[7:19] region's only links to its African-Amean

[7:22] heritage.

[7:22] >> But that history, that piece of history

[7:25] has been lost.

[7:27] It's been lost, but it's still in our

[7:28] hearts and in our minds.

[7:30] >> James Crowell, a museum board member,

[7:32] pledges all of it will be rebuilt.

[7:34] >> And this was a dream that the community

[7:36] had. And we cannot let that dream die

[7:40] just because of this catastrophe.

[7:42] >> Now, the state with such a turbulent

[7:44] history has a common dream.

[7:46] >> And years from now, people will be able

[7:47] to come back to this site and see the

[7:49] house, and they'll say, "This is like

[7:51] how I remembered it." making sure

[7:53] Mississippi's rich past has a future.

[7:56] Jim Costa, CBS News, Buxy. More stories

[8:00] are just a click away, but don't forget

[8:02] to join me on television for the on air

[8:04] edition of the CBS Evening News. On

[8:06] Friday's broadcast, personal bankruptcy,

[8:09] a new law might make life even more

[8:12] difficult in the hurricane zone. For

[8:14] cbsnews.com,

[8:16] I'm Bob Schiffer.