CBS Evening News Online Edition - 2005-12-14

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 in the last of a series of

[0:06] speeches on Iraq, President Bush says

[0:09] much of the pre-war intelligence was

[0:12] wrong. Why this turnabout, John Roberts

[0:14] has details. Also, CBS News uncovers

[0:17] some surprising documents that may

[0:20] explain why New Orleans levies failed.

[0:23] And we'll give you a look at the genius

[0:25] of Benjamin Franklin as we tour a major

[0:28] exhibition here in Philadelphia. It's

[0:31] all starting now on the CBS Evening News

[0:33] online edition.

[0:36] The president said it today in a way he

[0:38] has never said it before. We went to war

[0:41] in Iraq on the basis of bad

[0:43] intelligence. But he again described

[0:46] tomorrow's elections in Iraq as a

[0:48] watershed moment. and he said, "We

[0:50] cannot and will not leave until victory

[0:53] is achieved." The declaration came in a

[0:56] Washington speech and John Roberts has

[0:58] our report.

[0:59] >> Scholars,

[1:00] >> it was the final Iraq speech in his

[1:03] campaign to regain the public trust and

[1:05] President Bush saved his biggest miaulpa

[1:08] for last

[1:08] >> and it is true that much of the

[1:09] intelligence turned out to be wrong. As

[1:12] president, I'm responsible for the

[1:15] decision to go into Iraq. It's a

[1:17] remarkable turnaround from the days when

[1:19] the president could neither admit nor

[1:21] even find errors in his Iraq policy. But

[1:24] for the past two weeks, he has been

[1:25] uncharacteristically frank, talking

[1:27] about mistakes and lessons learned.

[1:30] First about the training of Iraqi troops

[1:32] >> task and it always hadn't gone smoothly.

[1:35] >> Then reconstruction

[1:36] >> has not always gone as well as we had

[1:38] hoped

[1:39] >> and political progress.

[1:40] >> Well, things did not always go as

[1:42] planned. The new course of concession

[1:44] and recalibration is meant to silence

[1:46] the president's critics at a crucial

[1:48] moment in Iraq's history. Many Democrats

[1:51] still see more spin than leadership, but

[1:53] others at least appreciate the new

[1:55] cander.

[1:56] >> I did detect a bit of a pivot today from

[1:58] uh from mission accomplished to this is

[2:00] going to be a tough mission. Uh and and

[2:02] for me at least uh that was a

[2:04] significant change in tone uh by the

[2:07] White House and I'm grateful for that

[2:09] sense of reality. That sense of reality

[2:12] also extended to tomorrow's elections.

[2:14] President Bush warned they won't end the

[2:16] violence and that it will take time to

[2:18] put a government together. But his

[2:20] critics aren't in a patient mood. 40

[2:22] Democratic senators today sent a letter

[2:24] urging the president to lean on Iraqi

[2:26] leaders for a sustainable political

[2:28] settlement essential for defeating the

[2:30] insurgency.

[2:31] >> The Iraqis have to get their political

[2:33] house in order. They don't have that in

[2:34] order. They've got to do that. They have

[2:37] to do that. Of course, part of the White

[2:39] House strategy is to lower expectations

[2:41] here, particularly for the election in

[2:43] the post-election period. That way,

[2:45] things could go much better than

[2:47] expected with the White House hopes

[2:49] President Bush getting all the credit.

[2:51] Bob,

[2:53] thank you very much, John. In Missouri,

[2:55] the wall of a reservoir gave way today

[2:57] without warning. For reasons still not

[2:59] clear, the retaining wall failed at this

[3:02] power plant reservoir in a rural county

[3:05] south of St. Louis. It spilled 1 billion

[3:08] gallons of water. Authorities evacuated

[3:10] a nearby town as the water washed over

[3:12] roads and homes. Three children were

[3:15] critically injured. Louisiana Governor

[3:18] Kathleen Blanco was a key witness today

[3:20] as Congress continued its investigation

[3:22] of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. One

[3:25] of many points of contention is the

[3:27] catastrophic failure of the levy system

[3:30] in New Orleans. Well, CBS News has

[3:32] obtained documents that could shed some

[3:35] light on that. Here's Gloria Bourer with

[3:37] our inside story.

[3:42] >> It's been over a 100 days since

[3:44] Hurricane Katrina hit and New Orleans is

[3:46] trying to move on.

[3:49] But in Washington, congressional

[3:51] investigations into what went wrong

[3:53] can't get past the fingerpointing.

[3:55] >> When the federal government offered the

[3:57] military assistance, you didn't want the

[3:59] federal response. certainly wanted every

[4:02] own national guard to be taken out of

[4:05] sir.

[4:06] >> Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco

[4:08] defended the city's evacuation plan

[4:10] before a house committee today, choosing

[4:12] instead to spread the blame elsewhere.

[4:15] >> Now, we're not going to sit here and be

[4:17] accused of not doing everything in our

[4:19] power. There are always people who

[4:21] believe that they're tougher than

[4:22] storms. And you know what? They were

[4:25] right. If the levey hadn't failed, they

[4:28] wouldn't have been in any trouble and

[4:30] all those people in the dome would have

[4:32] walked home.

[4:33] >> But who was watching the leveies?

[4:35] According to new documents obtained by

[4:37] CBS News, no one with any professional

[4:40] expertise.

[4:42] >> The only qualification was that you had

[4:44] to be a resident of Louisiana.

[4:48] You didn't have to be an engineer. You

[4:49] didn't have to know anything about

[4:51] levies. Collins committee was told there

[4:53] were no formal records of levy

[4:55] inspection and maintenance in New

[4:57] Orleans. Instead, handwritten logs show

[5:00] that while levy landscaping was tended

[5:02] to regularly, the engineering was not.

[5:06] It was more to make sure that the levies

[5:08] looked good, that the grass was mowed,

[5:10] that the trash was picked up. There was

[5:13] no examination that we can find, no

[5:17] serious inspection to ensure that the

[5:19] levies were sound. Another point of

[5:21] controversy, when did the White House

[5:24] know about the levy breaks? One report

[5:26] sent to the White House situation room

[5:28] at 10:30 the night of the storm clearly

[5:31] mentioned a quarter mile breach in the

[5:33] levy, that 2/3 to 75% of the city is

[5:37] underwater, and that hundreds of people

[5:40] were looking for rescue.

[5:42] Democrats want to subpoena White House

[5:44] documents, including the emails of White

[5:47] House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. But

[5:50] this administration is not likely to

[5:52] comply. Bob,

[5:54] >> well, Gloria, it's well and good to find

[5:56] out whose fault all this wasn't. But

[5:58] what about the people down there?

[5:59] Whatever happened to all that money

[6:01] Congress was going to send down there?

[6:03] >> Well, Bob, $60 billion has already been

[6:07] approved. There's another $18 billion in

[6:10] the pipeline. But what we're hearing up

[6:12] here on Capitol Hill is that you can't

[6:14] just throw money at the problem. You

[6:16] have to make sure you don't make the

[6:17] same mistakes.

[6:20] Okay. Well, thanks, Globe. Finally,

[6:22] tonight, we are in Philadelphia because

[6:24] the National Constitution Center is

[6:26] opening a major exhibit to honor Ben

[6:28] Franklin, whose 300th birthday comes

[6:31] next month.

[6:33] Of all the founders, it was Ben

[6:35] Franklin, his wit, his charm, and that

[6:38] practical side which produced so many of

[6:40] his inventions who would have been most

[6:42] at home in modern America. But he was

[6:45] such a practical person, an inventive

[6:47] person, ingenious person that he really

[6:50] was able to apply science and make our

[6:52] lives better.

[6:53] >> Biographer Walter Isacson says Franklin

[6:55] approached science as he did everything

[6:57] else with gusto. The remarkable thing is

[7:01] he came up with so much that we are

[7:03] still using two centuries later.

[7:05] >> He would say, "What's hard to do?" And

[7:07] he'd say, "Okay, let's make glasses

[7:09] better. Let's make a Franklin stove so

[7:11] we can eat our houses better." He even

[7:13] invented a device that could take down

[7:15] books from a top shelf with a little

[7:17] hand on it cuz he was always looking for

[7:19] ways to make life uh more useful,

[7:22] practical, and better.

[7:23] >> In science, his greatest contribution

[7:26] was his groundbreaking work on

[7:27] electricity.

[7:29] >> The electricity experiments were

[7:30] awesomely important. They were to that

[7:33] century, to the 1700s, what Newton and

[7:36] gravity was to the century before.

[7:38] Franklin proved that electricity came

[7:40] from mixing positive and negative forces

[7:43] which he then harnessed in a laden jar.

[7:46] Work that led to the modern-day battery,

[7:48] a word he actually coined. This is a

[7:51] battery.

[7:51] >> This is the first real type of battery.

[7:54] What it does is each one of these laden

[7:56] jars collects a bit of electricity. They

[7:58] get it from the electrostatic machine

[8:00] and they sort of tie them all together

[8:02] and soon you have a very big charge. It

[8:04] laid the groundwork for perhaps the most

[8:06] important find of Franklin's life.

[8:10] Lightning was the most destructive force

[8:12] of his time. He designed the famous

[8:14] experiment using a kite and a key and

[8:16] string to prove that lightning was not

[8:19] an act of God as many believed but

[8:22] actually pent up electrical current. To

[8:25] this day, the lightning rod is a

[8:27] critical part of everyday life. And it

[8:29] makes him not only a great hero in

[8:31] America, but all over Europe where they

[8:34] first did the lightning rod experiments.

[8:36] He's the most famous American because he

[8:38] tamed lightning.

[8:39] >> But for all his scientific work to

[8:41] Americans, his greatest work is what he

[8:43] did to help shape the American

[8:45] Constitution.

[8:47] >> He realized when he wrote the

[8:48] Constitution that compromisers may not

[8:50] make great heroes, but they do make

[8:52] great democracies.

[8:53] >> They also made a pretty good government.

[8:55] >> They sure did. It held together for

[8:57] centuries. More stories are just a click

[8:59] away, but don't forget to join me on

[9:01] television on the on air edition of the

[9:03] CBS Evening News. On Thursday's

[9:05] broadcast, Hollywood's Bad Year. Why

[9:08] weren't movie goers buying tickets?

[9:10] We'll take a look at Tinsel Town's

[9:12] troubles. For cbsnews.com,

[9:15] I'm Bob Sheeper.