CBS Evening News open - 2004-12-22

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] From all of us at News Channel 5, happy

[0:03] holiday.

[0:07] Tonight, how did a suicide bomber pull

[0:10] off the deadly lunch hall attack in

[0:12] Iraq? We'll look at the threat US troops

[0:14] face from spies and infiltrators as the

[0:17] wounded fly out for treatment anxious

[0:19] relatives back home. Hear about who

[0:21] lived and who died. The inside story,

[0:25] the battle over samesex marriage moves

[0:27] to a new court. Will judges change the

[0:30] law? And a fallen hero, a son and their

[0:34] dream. How good people are coming

[0:36] together to keep the dream alive.

[0:47] >> This is the CBS Evening News with Dan

[0:50] Rather.

[0:52] >> And good evening. Dan is off tonight.

[0:53] I'm John Roberts. It wasn't a rocket

[0:55] attack after all. Investigators in Iraq

[0:58] now believe that somehow a suicide

[1:00] bomber got inside a crowded messaul tent

[1:03] on an American base yesterday. The blast

[1:06] killed 13 US military personnel, five

[1:09] American civilian contractors, three

[1:11] Iraqi soldiers, and one other person,

[1:13] probably the bomber himself. The

[1:16] lunchtime attack at the base near Mosul

[1:18] also wounded nearly 70 people, most of

[1:20] them American troops. Correspondent

[1:22] Kimberly Doer begins our coverage.

[1:26] US troops sealed off much of Mosul

[1:28] today, vowing to find those responsible

[1:30] for the devastating attack at forward

[1:32] operating base Maris.

[1:34] >> It's a feeling of resolve. We are not

[1:36] going to be intimidated by these thugs.

[1:38] We are going to get the job done.

[1:40] >> In the wreckage of the mess tent, FBI

[1:42] investigators believe they found the

[1:44] remains of a suicide bomber's torso

[1:46] attached to some sort of belt or

[1:48] backpack. At this point, it looks like

[1:51] it was an improvised explosive device

[1:54] worn by an attacker.

[1:56] >> There were also metal pellets scattered

[1:58] around the tent which were apparently

[2:00] packed around the explosive designed to

[2:02] tear through the crowd. Militant group

[2:04] Anser Alsuna had claimed one of its

[2:06] operatives carried out the attack. That

[2:08] means a bomber managed to get past

[2:10] stringent security, reaching the most

[2:12] vulnerable and crowded spot on the base.

[2:15] The mestet was always an area of

[2:17] concern. Chief medical officer Major

[2:19] John Nelson told embedded reporter Bill

[2:21] Nemitz he was so convinced it would be

[2:23] hit, he designed a mass casualty plan.

[2:26] >> It was a very extensive, very detailed

[2:28] plan that dealt with every level of

[2:30] response. Rather prophetically, Major

[2:33] Nelson looked me in the eye and said,

[2:35] "It's not a question of if it happens,

[2:36] it's a question of when it's going to

[2:38] happen."

[2:39] >> Over the past year, US bases across the

[2:41] country have been replacing their tent

[2:43] style dining facilities with concrete

[2:45] and steel buildings. But the pace of

[2:47] construction has been left to individual

[2:49] commanders, according to their

[2:50] assessment of the threat. At Camp Mez,

[2:54] contractor delays and a shortage of

[2:55] concrete slowed completion of a new

[2:57] hardened facility. But if this does

[3:00] prove to be the work of a bomber who set

[3:01] off an explosion inside the messaul, the

[3:04] delays could be a blessing. The tent

[3:07] roof allowed much of the force of the

[3:08] blast to escape. A closed concrete

[3:11] facility would have trapped and

[3:12] concentrated the explosion, making the

[3:14] blast even deadlier. Kimberly Doer, CBS

[3:18] News, Baghdad.

[3:19] >> If, as it now appears, the Mosul attack

[3:22] was the work of a suicide bomber, the

[3:23] big question is how could it happen in

[3:26] the middle of a base filled with

[3:28] well-armed American soldiers? CBS News

[3:30] national security correspondent David

[3:32] Martin has been digging into that for

[3:34] some answers.

[3:37] Investigators think they know the

[3:38] identity of the suicide bomber who

[3:40] managed to infiltrate the base at Mosul

[3:42] and blow up that mestant. They are now

[3:45] trying to match their suspect to the

[3:46] human remains found on the vest in which

[3:49] the bomber carried the explosives. It's

[3:51] not the first inside job pulled off by

[3:54] the insurgents. In October, two rebels

[3:56] managed to infiltrate the heavily

[3:58] guarded green zone in downtown Baghdad,

[4:00] where both the US and Iraqis have their

[4:02] headquarters. They set off two bombs

[4:05] that killed 10 people, four of them

[4:06] Americans. Tens of thousands of Iraqis

[4:09] have been hired, both by the American

[4:11] military and defense contractors, as

[4:13] laborers, soldiers, and policemen. And

[4:16] the US has no choice but to keep hiring

[4:18] them since they are a key part of the

[4:20] strategy for defeating the insurgency

[4:22] and rebuilding the country. And the

[4:25] threat of infiltration goes beyond

[4:27] suicide bombers. Spies who tip off the

[4:30] insurgents to upcoming military

[4:31] operations, or sympathizers who lay down

[4:34] their arms when attacked can