CBS Evening News Online Edition - 2005-12-13

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

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

[0:01] the CBS Evening News online edition.

[0:04] Just ahead in a rare on-camera interview

[0:07] and a rocky insurgent leader tells what

[0:10] he's fighting for and how he sees the

[0:13] upcoming elections. Lara Logan will have

[0:15] details. Also, the boom in internet

[0:18] shopping. We'll take a look at why it's

[0:20] so popular this year and you'll meet a

[0:22] real average Joe. In fact, out of 280

[0:26] million Americans studied, he is the

[0:29] winner. It's all starting now on the CBS

[0:31] Evening News online edition.

[0:37] Most Iraqis will vote Thursday, but the

[0:39] absentees, the Iraqis who live in the

[0:42] United States and 14 other countries

[0:44] around the world cast their ballots

[0:46] today and without incident. If all goes

[0:49] as expected on Thursday, millions more

[0:51] who live in Iraq will vote there. That

[0:54] is the good news, but in Iraq, no day

[0:56] passes without bad news. Four more

[0:59] American soldiers were killed by a bomb

[1:02] near Baghdad. And as our Lara Logan

[1:04] reports, in this complicated place,

[1:06] nothing, especially an election, comes

[1:09] easy.

[1:12] The election has dominated Iraqi TV.

[1:15] Glossy campaign ads offering a better

[1:17] future. But today, this shocking

[1:20] internet video released by Al-Qaeda

[1:22] showed a very different image of Iraq.

[1:26] Masked gunmen executing police recruits

[1:28] in broad daylight, mafia style. One man

[1:31] tries to escape, but is pursued and

[1:34] brutally shot before the gunmen returns

[1:36] to make sure the others are dead. This

[1:39] has all the hallmarks of, on its face, a

[1:41] legitimate Zarkawi insurgent video.

[1:45] What's their intent do you think when

[1:47] they release a video like that? Firstly,

[1:49] it's it's to strike terror, but it also

[1:52] serves many other purposes. Among them

[1:55] as recruitment aids.

[1:57] This is an inspirational video.

[2:00] Michael Ware is the only Western

[2:02] journalist in regular contact with

[2:04] insurgents and in 3 years, they've given

[2:07] him hundreds of videos. That's how he

[2:09] can tell this video showing two Iraqi

[2:12] women hostages is more likely the work

[2:15] of groups seeking to exploit the current

[2:17] chaos in Iraq than members of an

[2:19] organized terrorist group. The women are

[2:22] seen there pleading for their lives

[2:24] moments before being executed.

[2:27] enough video on one level.

[2:30] But by the same token, this also works

[2:33] to intimidate or to establish a sense of

[2:35] power amongst those who who have

[2:37] perpetrated this for whatever reason.

[2:40] Ware talks to different insurgent groups

[2:42] from the religious extremist of Al-Qaeda

[2:44] to Iraqi nationalist fighters. He

[2:47] persuaded one of the leaders to do

[2:49] something insurgents rarely do, an

[2:51] on-camera interview. This is a

[2:54] relatively senior commander and

[2:57] top-level strategist

[2:59] for one of the largest, if not the most

[3:02] dominant, Ba'athist insurgent

[3:05] organization. He is also a former

[3:07] top-ranking military officer in Saddam

[3:10] Hussein's army, but says he is not

[3:12] fighting to return Saddam to power.

[3:16] Saddam is a man whose time is gone.

[3:18] But the country who gave birth to him

[3:20] will give birth to others like him,

[3:22] hundreds or thousands.

[3:24] He revealed their strategy to fight with

[3:27] both bullets and ballots.

[3:30] As a resistance, we hope to participate

[3:32] in this political process.

[3:35] He says he and his men will be voting on

[3:37] election day, but they will not lay down

[3:39] their arms.

[3:41] The resistance will finish when the

[3:43] occupation is finished. After that, the

[3:45] weapons will be dropped.

[3:47] Ironically, this insurgent commander is

[3:49] exactly the type of military leader that

[3:52] the US once turned away, but is now

[3:55] reaching out to, hoping to lure them

[3:57] back into the Iraqi army that's

[3:59] desperately short of experienced

[4:01] leaders. Well, Lara, do you think these

[4:03] people would be willing to come back?

[4:05] They might, Bob. They certainly might on

[4:07] the right terms. That would mean having

[4:09] their old jobs back, having some kind of

[4:11] amnesty. And, you know, these are the

[4:13] kind of people that have a vision for

[4:15] Iraq, which is very much in line with

[4:17] the US vision as secular democratic

[4:19] country. And they're exactly the kind of

[4:22] people that the US needs if they're

[4:24] going to hold Iraq together. All right.

[4:26] Well, thank you very much, Lara, and

[4:27] we'll talk to you again tomorrow. There

[4:29] is one place that holiday sales are up,

[4:32] way up, and that's the internet. Here's

[4:34] Anthony Mason.

[4:36] Do you have an order number? You can

[4:38] hear the bustle of holiday business at

[4:40] Michigan-based Moosejaw Mountaineering.

[4:43] Moosejaw. So far, business has been

[4:45] amazing. Moosejaw sells outdoor clothing

[4:48] and gear in seven stores, but owner

[4:50] Robert Wolfe says the place he's moving

[4:52] the most merchandise is on moosejaw.com.

[4:55] We're up about 75% this year online

[4:58] compared to 2004. This holiday season,

[5:00] many shoppers are skipping those crowded

[5:02] stores and like Kevin Brown, doing much

[5:05] of their shopping online. You do it at

[5:07] home, you get what you want, and you get

[5:09] it quickly and cheaply. So, just how

[5:12] much are we actually spending on the

[5:14] internet? $18 billion

[5:16] this holiday season, according to one

[5:18] projection. That's up 25% over last

[5:21] year. You can see the surge at

[5:23] barnesandnoble.com.

[5:26] We're tracking all that, constantly

[5:27] tracking all that. CEO Marie Toulantis

[5:30] took us to the website's operations

[5:32] center.

[5:33] What we're seeing here is as the day

[5:34] progresses, I mean it's 12:30 now New

[5:36] York time, and you see that the search

[5:38] rates are going up, the order rates are

[5:39] going up.

[5:40] >> barnesandnoble.com was handling well

[5:42] over 100,000 searches an hour in what

[5:45] will be the busiest week of the year.

[5:48] We could see a spike of a four to five

[5:50] times our ordinary traffic in this

[5:53] particular week. Of course, that means

[5:55] many people will be shopping at the

[5:57] office. Mondays are always the busiest

[5:59] day at moosejaw.com.

[6:01] And our theory is that the last thing

[6:03] people want to do when they get to work

[6:04] is work. So, the first thing they do is

[6:06] start playing online. Wolfe says

[6:08] Moosejaw is now doing 65% of its

[6:11] business over the internet. Uh which

[6:13] color are you looking for that in? A

[6:14] while ago, the internet was really just

[6:17] a bonus to our business and now it

[6:18] really drives the entire business. In

[6:20] the hectic holiday search for that

[6:22] perfect gift, more and more shoppers are

[6:24] finding it's right there at their

[6:26] fingertips.

[6:27] >> We can look it up by style number,

[6:29] that's no problem. Anthony Mason, CBS

[6:31] News, New York. The humorous Garrison

[6:34] Keillor often talks about a town called

[6:36] Lake Wobegon, a town where all the women

[6:39] are beautiful and all the children are

[6:41] above average. That's funny because

[6:43] nobody likes to be called average. Well,

[6:46] check that. It turns out there is one

[6:48] person who does and it's a good thing

[6:50] because he is certifiably average.

[6:54] Richard Schlesinger found him.

[6:57] You're just a regular celebrity now,

[6:59] aren't you?

[6:59] Bob Burns may be one of the most

[7:01] sought-after men in the world.

[7:03] >> All right, I'll be right up. Pitchmen

[7:05] want to pitch him. Okay, yep. Pollsters

[7:08] want to poll him.

[7:10] Not because of who he is,

[7:11] >> Bob Burns at Windham Tech, but because

[7:13] of who he isn't.

[7:15] >> Everyone dreams about being a rock star

[7:17] or maybe an astronaut, you know.

[7:20] But Bob Burns is a 53-year-old building

[7:23] maintenance supervisor in Windham,

[7:25] Connecticut.

[7:26] And according to one study, of all 280

[7:30] million people in the US, he is the one

[7:33] perfectly average American. Average I am

[7:36] and average I will be. And

[7:39] I'm happy with that.

[7:41] Burns was discovered by author Kevin

[7:43] O'Keefe, who made it his mission to find

[7:46] the average American and then wrote a

[7:48] book about his search. I used to ignore

[7:50] people that I considered to be average.

[7:53] O'Keefe studied reams of census data,

[7:55] interviewed people from Maine to Hawaii,

[7:58] and developed 140 characteristics that

[8:01] everyday Americans told him define the

[8:04] average American. Most Americans are

[8:07] happy most of all of the time. Most

[8:09] Americans go to church at least once a

[8:10] month. Um most Americans have fired a

[8:13] gun at least once in their life. Most

[8:16] Americans live within 20 minutes of a

[8:18] Walmart and 3 miles of a McDonald's.

[8:21] It took him more than 2 years, but

[8:22] O'Keefe narrowed his search down to this

[8:25] town, this house,

[8:27] and this man. Thank you. You know,

[8:29] regret not being a corporation president

[8:32] or Because, you know why? I know my

[8:34] limitations.

[8:36] All of O'Keefe's data led him right next

[8:38] door to the town he grew up in, to a man

[8:41] he already knew. It turns out Bob Burns

[8:45] was a custodian at O'Keefe's high

[8:47] school. That's very average. O'Keefe

[8:50] ended his search in his own backyard and

[8:52] learned lessons about life that hit

[8:54] close to home. It's all about family,

[8:56] it's all about community, and that may

[8:58] sound cliche, but I'm getting it for the

[9:00] first time. In a world obsessed with

[9:02] celebrity, Bob Burns knows while he is

[9:05] average, Turn the store's closing. he's

[9:07] anything but ordinary. It's great

[9:10] feeling. It's great to be average,

[9:11] believe me. Take care. Richard

[9:13] Schlesinger, CBS News, Windham,

[9:15] Connecticut. More stories are just a

[9:17] click away, but don't forget to join me

[9:18] on television for the on-air edition of

[9:21] the CBS Evening News. On Wednesday's

[9:23] broadcast, some things you may not know

[9:25] about one of America's favorite founding

[9:28] fathers, Benjamin Franklin. The CBS

[9:31] Evening News goes to Philadelphia for a

[9:33] special exhibition. For cbsnews.com,

[9:36] I'm Bob Schieffer.