>> glor: tonight, the wikileaks fallout. newly released iraq war documents turn the spotlight on sectarian violence, prisoner abuse, and unaccountable private contractors. i'm jeff glor. also tonight, cholera outbreak. a deadly epidemic moves closer to millions of people in haiti's earthquake-ravaged capital. shark attack-- the death of a california surfer closes beaches and triggers a search for a suspected great white. and the art of detection. police officer in an unconventional crash course to sharpen their powers of observation. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with jeff glor. >> glor: good evening.

we begin tonight with the aftermath of the release of hundreds of thousands of iraq war documents by the by the wikileaks web site. the pentagon is condemning that unthrlzed release while defense experts all around the world are combing those pages for insight. we begin tonight with our national security correspondent david martin. >> reporter: wikileaks documents containing reports of torture in iraqi prisons have opened old wounds in baghdad and could damage prime minister maliki's attempts to form a new government. some of the abuse occurred while he was in power. and he accused wikileaks of deliberately timing the release of the 391,000 documents to sabotage his reelection. in the u.s. and great britain, the same documents raise questions about why american soldiers reported abuses such as the beating of prisoners but did not step in to stop it. >> u.s. and u.k. forces cannot turn a blind eye on the basis it wasn't their slrnls doing the torturing, and that's what's happened as revealed in these logs.

>> reporter: another old wound it's still-unfolding tragedy of iraqi civilians who lost their lives in the five years covered by these documents. >> we estimate when fully analyzed these logs will bring to the public knowledge more than 15,000 previously unreported civilian deaths. >> reporter: u.s. officials did not contest the accuracy of the documents, but instead tore into wikileaks for making them public. on his twitter site, the chairman of the joint chiefs called the leak irresponsible and said it puts lives at risk and gives adversaries valuable information. wikileaks' founder insisted he bent over backwards to delete sensitive information. >> what has been down is now far too redacted. it is, in fact, i would say, a bit of a travesty how over-redacted this material is. >> reporter: pentagon officials were especially concerned

asange would revool the name of some 300 iraqis who helped the americans and might be subject to reprisal. >> we still reviewing what he post on the internet and it does look as those he redacted many names. >> reporter: in one document, wikileaks deleted name of a private security contractor accused of shooting its civilians. the "new york times" posted the same document without dleeght the name of the now-infamous blackwater. high-tech weapons were supposed to spare civilians, but in iraq that turned out to be a false promise. jeff. >> glor: so, david, we saw this first dump of documents from wikileaks relating to the afghan war to begin with, then the iraq war. any idea what comes next from wikileaks? >> reporter: they say they have 15,000 more documents on the afghan war, and although that would be by far the smallest batch of documents that they've released, it could be the most sensitive because these are said to be state department cables in which american officials are expressing candid opinions about

afghan leaders. >> glor: david martin at the pentagon tonight. david, thank you very much. an american-born al qaeda spokesman is making new threats against the west in a just-released video. speaking in arabic in a 48-minute video, adam gadan said it's the duty of muslims to carry out attacks and criticized efforts by moderate muslims. he was raised in california and moved to pakistan in 1998. the death toll from a cholera outbreak in haiti passed 200 tonight, and thousands more are sick. the outbreak began this week in central haiti but now cases have been reported in the capital, and in camps crowded with earthquake refugees. our cbs news medical correspondent dr. jon lapook is there in haiti tonight. jon, i know this was a big concern when i was on the ground nine months ago right after the earthquake. you just got to port-au-prince. what are you hearing right now? >> reporter: well, we landed a few hours ago to the reports of the first cases of cholera in the capital of

port-au-prince itself. we went to the largest tent camp in haiti where i'd been last april. there were 50,000 people there last april. clearly, there are more than that now. there were more than 100 people bathing outside, washing their clothes, kids who were swim and splashing about in these little canals filled with water. clearly, a setup for disaster if cholera should strike. i spoke to the head of the camp, and he told me yesterday a teenaged girl was hospitalize wade suspected-- not confirmed -- case of cholera. so everybody in the camp is very, very concerned. >> glor: jon, medically speak, for those not familiar with you talk a little bit about why cholera is so dangerous. >> reporter: cholera is so dangerous because you can get severe dehydration very quickly. it can kill you within hours. it can be easily treated with hydration either orally or intravenous, but the problem is there's no infrastructure here in haiti. so getting it to where it needs to very quickly is a problem. cholera has not been

seen in haiti for at least 50 years. so people don't have any underlying immunity to it. and then there's another thing which is that this bug has an ifng bation period of up to five days. people can be infected and not know it. and they can travel long distances and spread the disease there. so to my mind, as a physician and a gastroenterologist if this thing really starts to go big in port-au-prince, we are in for it. >> glor: jon, we certainly hope it does not get as bad as you think it might. dr. jon lapook joining frus porta pribs haiti tonight. thank you. >> reporter: thanks a lot, jeff. >> glor: we turn now to campaign 2010 and signs key congressional and state house races may be tightening. president obama is campaigning in minnesota today trying to keep the land of 10,000 lakes blue. our chief white house correspondent chip reid is traveling with the president as well. >> reporter: dpfg, jeff. for the president it's like the 2008 presidential campaign all over again, racing from state to state, one

adoring crowd after another, but the big question is how much of a difference will this make on election day? ( cheers and applause ) on his way home from a west coast campaign swing, president obama today stopped in minneapolis to give one last burst of energy to the campaign of democrat mark dayton who gnarly leads in race for minnesota governor. >> i need you to keep fighting. i need you to keep working. and i need you to keep believing. >> reporter: the president also campaigned this week for gubernatorial candidates in california and oregon. if they win, they could give the president a big boost when he runs for reelection in 2012, but the president's immediate and top priority on this trip is the u.s. senate, keeping it in democratic hands. republicans need a gabe of 10 seats to take control of the senate. the president is hoping to build a western firewall in three states, washington, california, and nevada, to make sure that doesn't happen. >> let's get patty murray back into the united states senate. i want to have a partner in the united states

senate named harry reid. >> reporter: tay backyard chat in seattle thursday, the president admitted he's fallen short in selling his policies. >> it was very difficult for us to spend a lot of time doing victory laps and advertising exactly what we were doing because we had to move on to the next thing. >> reporter: for example, the president says he's failed to convince many americans that 95% of them got a tax cut in the stimulus, but now some analysts say voters in the battl battleground states where he's been campaign regular finally listening. >> he's talking directly to those democratic voters in all those states, and you're starting to see the polls move in those states. it makes it look like this is really working. >> reporter: the white house says the size and energy of these crowds shows that the president is closing the enthusiasm gap, but republicans say if you want to see enthusiasm, just wait until they go to the polls on election day. jeff. >> glor: chip reid traveling with the president in minnesota. chip, thank you. sarah palin campaigned in florida today for republican senate candidate marco rubio.

at a rally in orlando this afternoon, pailib said the election posed a choice between the status quo and more taxes on one hand, and on the other, a checkthat would put florida and the country back to work. to help us put the campaigning and the rest of the week in focus now, we're joined in washington by political analyst john dickerson. john, good to see you. some new polls showing some of these congressional races are really tightening up, i know. much has been made of the republicans trying to take both the house and senate back and democrats, of course, trying to keep it. are the tides shifting here at all? >> well, it still looks like it's a long shot for republicans to take the 10 democratic seats they'd need to control the senate. they have a much better chance of taking the house because polls still show that likely voters favor republicans much more than they do the democrats. in some specific races in the senate, there is tightening. in colorado and pennsylvania, democrats are doing a little bit better. in california and washington state, republicans are doing a little bit better. in those states that have early voting, democrats are pointing

to their voters and saying they're turning out. what we don't know is how independents are voting. polls show independents by a pretty good majority favor the republicans. >> glor: jon, these are midterms. the president still has two years left on his term. if we assume the republicans do take control of the white house, what happens to the obama agenda in the second two years then? >> well, there's so much left to be done on energy, immigration, tax cuts, and on the growing budget deficit, but any progress is likely to be modest. the white house recognizes the president can't be as ambitious as he would like to be. republicans, on their side are, going to have to deal with these new insurgents that are likely to come to washington. there is a chance both parties could recognize the voters don't like either one of them and come together and actually try to accomplish something. but before they can do that, they're going to have to overcome this amazing amount of distrust that exists on both sides. >> glor: both sides coming together that would be interesting. john dickerson joining frus washington, thanks very much. >> thanks, jeff.

>> glor: gunmen have attacked a house party in mexico on the border with texas. officials say at least 13 young people were killed and 20 others wounded in last night's attack in a city where drug violence has been rampant. still ahead on tonight's cbs evening news, shark attack. violent death that has the west coast on alert

>> glor: beaches remain closed in santa barbara county, california, tonight, 130 miles northwest of los angeles as experts try to figure out what kind of shark killed a surfer there yesterday. but all signs point to a great white. tony guida has more. >> reporter: lucas ramson's body board is grim testimony that the attack was swift and deadly. 19-year-old ransom, a life guard, and his

college roommate were in calm waters 100 yards near surf beach friday morning. six-foot barrel waves, no wind, a perfect day for surfing. >> saw his friend go underwater for a brief moment, came up, something was wrong. noticed that he had been attacked by a shark. >> reporter: "help me, dude." that's all ransom said as the 18-foot shark hit, according to his friend, matt garcia. "it was really fast. you just saw a red wave and this water is blue and it was just red, the whole wave." ransom's left leg was severed at the pelvis. he died before his friend could get him to shore. >> i ask you to bow your heads. >> reporter: at ransom's old high school there was a moment of silence. >> great life guard. great friend, and i was-- yeah, it was heartbreaking to hear. >> reporter: shark attacks are exceedingly rare, 91 in the past 90 years in california by great white sharks, 13 people killed. authorities believe this was another great white attack. the last fatality, two years ago, when a

66-year-old triathlete bled to death off san diego after a great white took his legs. those who know these waters in santa barbara are not surprised by this attack. >> it's scary. i mean, that can be anybody's kid, you know. i'm sure they're out there. >> reporter: for anyone who isn't sure, a sign on a closed beach. tony guida, cbs news, new york. >> glor: three men were arrested today after a drug lab was discovered in a freshman dorm at prestigious georgetown university in washington, d.c. hundreds of students were evacuated after a strange odor was reported early this morning. two of those arrested were students. just ahead on tonight's cbs evening news, who's paying for the political ad onslaught.

>> glor: with just 10

days to go now before election day, the airwaves are full of ads for and especially against candidates for office. and you may have heard that spending, particularly by independent groups, is reaching new heights this year. cynthia bauers tonight is following the money. >> i hope you will stand with me and vote for me on november 2. >> reporter: florida democrat suzanne kosmas is running for a second term in congress but none of the ads running against her on orlando tv stations are paid for by her opponent, sandy adams. instead, independent groups with conservative leanings, such as the business-backed u.s. chamber of commerce, have spent more than a million dollars on advertisement depicting cosmoss as a liberal tool of nancy pelosi. >> i was in fact ranked one of the 10 most moderate members of the u.s. house of representatives. >> reporter: central florida is typical of the unprecedented spending by outside groups this campaign year. on track to total $500

million. >> it's very clear that the conservative groups have the upper hand by more than two to one margin. >> reporter: democrats do have three big-spending unions on their side with an $88 million campaign budget, afscme tops all independent spenders with ads such as this one, targeting sharon angle, the challenger to senate majority leader harry reid. >> sharron, you're too dangerous to have real power. >> reporter: one of the most active groups is american crossroads cofounded by karl rove. planning to spend $65 million to target democrats. >> the operating principle this year is any dollar you spend on positive advertising is a dollar wasted. >> reporter: as a political action committee, american crossroads is required to disclose its donors. other groups that are nonprofits are permitted to keep their donors secret, like american action network, whose ad mocked incumbent washington senator patty

murray, a democrat famously elected in 1992 as a mom in tennis shoes. >> then you wore your tennis shoes out on our backs. >> the biggest change this year is that for the first time ever, we don't know the identity of people giving millions. >> reporter: that change troubles campaign watchdogs who say disclosure is key to knowing who is trying to influence politicians. >> more and more of the money appears to be kind of under the water, under the radar, away from our ability to scrutinize it. >> reporter: one winner of these ad wars may be tv stations, charging a premium for air time. >> they were charging in september what they normally would get the week before election day for advertisements. >> reporter: advertisements we can tune out in 10 days. cynthia bowers, cbs news, chicago. >> glor: we'll be right back upon

>> glor: the public got its first look today at itemes from the archives of former president george w. bush. they exhibit at southern methodist university include the bull horn he used at ground zero after the 9/11 attacks and the pistol taken from saddam hussein after he was captured. s.m.u. is the site of the future bush presidential library. if spellcheck existed in jane austin's time the great british novelist could have used. according to an oxford university researcher, catherine sutherland found many misspellings and grammatical errors. souther land believes an editor corrected early drafts of her novels "emma" and "persuasion." russ mitchell was big man on campus today in colombia, missouri serving as the grand marshal. he anchors the sunday

edition, of course, of the "cbs evening news." up next on tonight's cbs evening news, new york's finest learning detection skills from the masters.

>> glor: finally tonight, a different kind of c.s.i. everybody knows police detectives have highly developed skills of perception. but as seth doane shows us tonight, even the best of them can always use some brushing up. >> follow me into this gallery. >> reporter: they're never given much time to evaluate a scene. >> you can all step in. it's a large painting. >> we were taught from the academy how to observe and look a little deeper than what meets the eye. >> reporter: but he's not talking about art academy. rather, police academy. >> they're often wearing their weapons. >> reporter: in the museum? >> in the museum, and it's become an issue for should museums. >> reporter: amy herman teaches the art of perception, a course she designed to use fine art to sharpen the observation skills of her students who are members of the c.i.a., secret service, and on this day, the

n.y.p.d. at new york's metropolitan museum of art. >> we're getting them off the streets and out of the precincts and it refreshes their sense of inquiry. they're thinking how am i doing my job and it forces them to think about how they communicate and see the world around them. >> reporter: to encourage them to describe and communicate better, pointing is not allowed. >> the brown to the left... >> interesting, yes, and remember, no pointing. >> reporter: it's not about recognizing artists or techniques, but fine tuning attention to detail. inspector kenneth mckeel runs the n.y.p.d. realtime crime lab. >> we always teach step back, look at what you you have at the crime scene. there's more a picture than meets the eye. do cops make good art critics? >> they're terrific. they're so smart and so observant. they do it every day, and often they see things that art historians don't always notice. >> reporter: or in some case they may just see things a bit differently. >> the female sitting up

on top actually has her hands behind her and almost looks like she was handcuffed. >> reporter: fg, siegz up a sergeant is not their usual task. this is not at all a realistic scene of something you will see on the beat. >> oh, no, it's getting our mind evaluating, annualing different things, looking deep into things. >> reporter: already in its fifth year, herman credits the course with helping to solve at least a couple of cases. as detectives have combed crime scenes more carefully or reexamined evidence. >> it gives us some extra culture. >> reporter: seth doane, cbs news, new york. >> glor: that is the cbs evening news tonight. i'm jeff glor. cbs news in new york. good night. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

when the biggest part of the storm will hit heavy rain moving into the bay area. the problem is already happening. and when the biggest part of the storm will hit. the flaring has stopped at the conoco refinery in rodeo. what happens next. getting to the bottom of the san bruno gas line disaster. why two employees on the job that night have not talked to investigators. cbs5 eyewitness news is next. ,,