CBS Evening News Online Edition - 2004-11-11

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, Fallujah is falling, but the

[0:06] fight continues and violence explodes

[0:08] elsewhere in Iraq. We'll give you a look

[0:10] at what this means for US troops and the

[0:13] life, times, and impact, past and

[0:16] future, of a terrorist peace prize

[0:18] winner turned politician. The inside

[0:20] story of Yaser Arafat. Also, women who

[0:24] are fired for having a baby. What you

[0:26] don't know about maternity leave could

[0:28] kill your career. CBS's special Eye on

[0:31] America series, Women's Work, continues.

[0:34] And it's all starting now on the CBS

[0:37] Evening News online edition. To Iraq and

[0:41] the ongoing fight for Fallujah, where US

[0:43] commanders estimate 600 enemy fighters

[0:46] have been killed in the past 4 days.

[0:48] American casualties are also on the

[0:51] rise. The Pentagon says officially at

[0:53] least 18 US Marines and Army troops have

[0:56] been killed and at least 178 more

[0:59] wounded. Many of the most seriously hurt

[1:01] flown to Germany for treatment. CBS News

[1:04] combat correspondent Elizabeth Palmer is

[1:06] with the Marines in Fallujah.

[1:10] >> The Marines are taking Fallujah one

[1:12] house and one street at a time. See the

[1:14] big open way?

[1:21] They're aggressively hunting down small

[1:24] groups of insurgents

[1:28] >> and at the same time doing their very

[1:30] best to spare the lives of civilians

[1:34] over there, but we don't see anybody

[1:35] yet. We have any

[1:38] open fire.

[1:39] >> When the insurgents attack, they have

[1:41] the advantage in neighborhoods they know

[1:43] well.

[1:48] HEY, IS THAT FLEY'S ON THE ROOF?

[1:49] >> ON THE ROOF.

[1:51] >> These small foot patrols are dangerous,

[1:54] but it's the only way to clear this maze

[1:56] of streets.

[1:57] >> Hey, he's wounded in between these two

[1:59] houses.

[2:01] >> The offensive so far has been aimed at

[2:03] driving the Iraqi gunman from the heart

[2:05] of the city down toward the south, where

[2:08] another wall of US firepower is waiting

[2:10] to cut off their escape into the

[2:12] surrounding farmland. That phase of the

[2:15] action began at first light.

[2:18] >> Been shooting them up all morning, all

[2:20] night.

[2:23] >> Even when the insurgents abandon their

[2:25] positions, they often leave behind

[2:26] deadly explosives which the Americans

[2:28] have to destroy.

[2:36] >> And there have been more disturbing

[2:38] discoveries. The Marines found one house

[2:40] where they believe terrorists may have

[2:42] executed hostages.

[2:43] >> The room was small. There were two thin

[2:47] mattresses

[2:49] and straw mats

[2:52] uh covered in blood.

[2:54] >> Another Marine unit entered a building

[2:55] where they found the bodies of five men.

[2:58] Each had been executed with a shot to

[3:00] the head. The men who pulled the

[3:02] triggers here have already run away, but

[3:04] Marines guarding the southern edge of

[3:06] Fallujah believe they can seal off a

[3:08] main escape route for the gunmen who

[3:10] once controlled this town. Elizabeth

[3:13] Palmer, CBS News, with the Marines near

[3:16] Fallujah.

[3:16] >> Commenting today on Yaser Arafat's

[3:18] passing, Germany's foreign minister may

[3:21] have recalled Munich in 1972 when PLO

[3:24] terrorists murdered 11 Israeli Olympic

[3:27] athletes. Arafat's life, he said,

[3:30] mirrored the quote varied and tragic

[3:32] history of the Palestinian people whose

[3:35] hopes for peace led only to quote

[3:38] disappointments and setbacks. To be

[3:40] sure, Arafat played a leading role in

[3:42] creating the Middle East of today. CBS's

[3:45] Mark Phillips gives you the inside

[3:47] story.

[3:50] >> He was born 75 years ago in Cairo or

[3:53] Jerusalem or Gaza. There are as many

[3:56] conflicting versions of Yaser Arafat's

[3:58] birthplace as there are opinions about

[4:00] the man. He was a freedom fighter who in

[4:03] his ever-present military uniform and

[4:05] kafia was the champion of his

[4:07] downtrodden people. He was a terrorist

[4:10] whose chosen tactics left a trail of

[4:12] innocent blood.

[4:14] He may have embodied the aspirations of

[4:17] the Palestinian people, but by the end,

[4:19] imprisoned in his Ramala compound, he

[4:22] had become disconnected from his people.

[4:24] the nominal head of a Palestinian

[4:26] authority known more for cronyism and

[4:28] corruption than for any efficient

[4:30] pursuit of the Palestinian cause.

[4:34] >> Yaser Arafat's battle in support of that

[4:37] cause had been nothing but consistent,

[4:39] too consistent, as critics say. From his

[4:41] formation of the militant Fata wing of

[4:44] the PLO in the 1950s to the present, he

[4:47] had inevitably fallen back on the

[4:49] violent option.

[4:52] From airplane hijackings to the murder

[4:54] of Israeli athletes at the Munich

[4:56] Olympics to his losing battles with

[4:58] first the Jordanian and then the Israeli

[5:01] military, the PLO became the template

[5:03] for modern terrorism.

[5:06] When he famously appeared at the UN in

[5:08] 1974 to offer, he said, the olive branch

[5:11] in one hand or the gun in the other, it

[5:14] was the gun he chose time after time.

[5:18] Faced with stagnation and movement

[5:20] toward Palestinian statethood, he

[5:22] sanctioned the first inifat

[5:25] even after he had shared the Nobel Peace

[5:27] Prize with his sworn Israeli enemies

[5:29] following his official renunciation of

[5:31] terrorism. When the potential country he

[5:34] was being offered was something less

[5:36] than he felt Palestinians could or would

[5:38] accept, he sanctioned the second Inifata

[5:41] and couldn't or wouldn't reign in the

[5:43] suicide bombers who terrorized Israel's

[5:45] cities. The Israelis dismissed him as an

[5:48] unreliable partner and with America's

[5:51] help isolated him. He died with his

[5:54] dream unfulfilled and left behind the

[5:56] worst possible legacy in the Middle

[5:58] Eastern tinder box, a political vacuum.

[6:01] Mark Phillips, CBS News, London.

[6:04] >> Tonight, CBS's special Eye on America

[6:06] series, Women's Work, focuses on working

[6:09] moms. The government reports more than

[6:11] 70% of women now in the workforce have

[6:14] children under 18, but that does not

[6:17] mean they have an easy time of it. CBS's

[6:20] Cheryl Atkinson reports tonight on women

[6:23] who joined the ranks of motherhood only

[6:25] to be forced into the ranks of the

[6:27] unemployed.

[6:31] When Karen Dehonoring gave birth to a

[6:34] dangerously premature baby, she learned

[6:37] how hard things can be for a working

[6:39] mom, especially if your boss sees

[6:42] motherhood as a liability. How is it

[6:44] that you found out you've been fired?

[6:46] >> I was in the process of closing on the

[6:48] refinance of my home and the mortgage

[6:50] company told me that they were notified

[6:51] by my job that I stopped working there.

[6:54] >> So, what were they accusing you of?

[6:56] >> Just job abandonment.

[6:57] >> Abandoning your job.

[6:58] >> Yes. Diana Rain was stunned her boss had

[7:01] fired her from her claims processing job

[7:03] after she was out just 3 weeks despite

[7:05] assurances her job was safe and while

[7:07] her baby was still in the hospital on a

[7:09] ventilator. Until then, she says she'd

[7:12] gotten only glowing job reviews, she'd

[7:14] even fielded work calls from the

[7:16] hospital. Deon Rain may have been struck

[7:18] by what some call the maternal wall.

[7:21] It's when working women are suddenly

[7:22] viewed as poor employees with no future

[7:25] just because they become mothers. One uh

[7:27] woman's supervisor looked straight at

[7:30] her belly. She was eight months pregnant

[7:32] and said, "I was going to make you head

[7:34] of the office, but look at you now."

[7:36] >> Professor Joan Williams has identified

[7:38] more than 100 cases where women facing

[7:41] the maternal wall have sued and won

[7:43] verdicts or settlements. And with so

[7:45] many women now in the workforce, you

[7:47] might think the maternal wall would be

[7:48] on its way to becoming a thing of the

[7:50] past. Wrong. Most of the cases have been

[7:53] filed since 2000.

[7:55] Da Rain's former employer didn't answer

[7:57] our calls to explain why he gave her the

[8:00] axe. But even Joan Williams admits many

[8:03] women simply are not as dedicated to

[8:05] their careers after they give birth.

[8:07] You're not saying that women who clearly

[8:09] aren't performing as well as they used

[8:11] to and are clearly absent on the job

[8:14] because of their children should be

[8:16] treated just like they were before.

[8:18] >> I'm not defending any employee who

[8:20] doesn't do their job. What I'm saying is

[8:23] that employers may not make unjustified

[8:27] assumptions that every mo every woman

[8:30] once she has a child will not be a good

[8:32] worker. The good news is little Razia is

[8:35] thriving at 10 months. The same can't be

[8:38] said for her mom's career. Karen

[8:41] Deonrain is still looking for work and

[8:43] has filed a legal claim against her ex-

[8:45] boss. And now when she goes on job

[8:48] interviews,

[8:48] >> they don't ask and I don't tell. She's

[8:51] careful not to bring up the baby in

[8:54] Upper Marboro, Maryland. I'm Cheryl

[8:56] Aerson for Eye on America.

[8:59] >> More stories are just a click away, but

[9:01] you're invited to join me on television

[9:02] for the on air edition of the CBS

[9:05] Evening News. On Friday's broadcast, 911

[9:09] calls are supposed to save your life,

[9:11] but when crews go to the wrong address,

[9:13] it's usually too late. So, what's being

[9:16] done to fix our nationwide emergency

[9:18] system? We'll give you some of the

[9:20] answers for cbsnews.com.

[9:22] I'm Dan Rather.