To the Point

The Battle for Fallujah

In Fallujah, US troops are engaged in the battle Secretary Rumsfeld says will -tip- Iraqi opinion toward democracy once and for all. But while the US wants an Iraqi face on the action, Iraqi troops are already defecting, and Sunni clerics have called for a boycott of January-s elections. Did the rebel leadership slip away while the US waited for Americans to go to the polls? Will they return to Fallujah when the battle is over or move to other places? Will there be peaceful elections or civil war? We hear from reporters in Iraq, military experts and counter-intelligence strategists, Iraqi oil industry watchdogs, a former state department official and foreign policy aide to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Making News: Brain Hemorrhage Complicates Arafat's Condition In Paris, Palestinian authorities say Yasser Arafat is still alive, but suffering from a brain hemorrhage. At a news conference, Foreign Minister Nabil Sha-ath said that Arafat is in a coma, not suffering any pain, and that he would not be subject to euthanasia or the withdrawal of life-support. Ken Ellingwood, who is in Ramallah for the Los Angeles Times, updates Arafat's condition as well as preparations for the inevitable. Reporter's Notebook: Was the Election Tainted? Since President Bush was re-elected last week, the Internet has come alive with claims that the vote was manipulated in several states. Congressional Democrats have called for the General Accounting Office to investigate reported irregularities. Were voting machine failures and other irregularities enough to change the outcome? We ask Avi Rubin, technical director of the Information Security Institute at Johns Hopkins University.