a family spending new years rounding the volcanic wide island off new zealand's coast. january 1, 2010. this girl, then 15, decided to spend the morning alone in her cabin. and the trip of a lifetime turned to terror as her locked door to cabin 3073 suddenly clicked. >> i didn't hear the card key go in, but i did, hear, like the door open, and, like, the lock like -- yeah. and i thought it was my brother or sister at first. and then when i saw the guy come in, i didn't recognize the bartender uniform. i just -- it was someone working on the ship so i thought it was a room attendant that was going to clean my room because i didn't put the sign like, oh, don't disturb or whatever. >> reporter: it wasn't a room attendant. it was a crew member. in a bartender uniform. threatening the girl not to say a word as he forced the teen to perform oral sex. at her family's request, we are not showing her face. you were 15. >> yeah. >> reporter: scared. you didn't tell you family. >> no. i at the time on the cruise i didn't want to ruin the vacation for them 'cause i -- it had already been ruined for me. >> reporter: up on deck, her mother says the girl's demeanor instantly changed. she was clingy. never left her side for the rest of the cruise. it wasn't till two months later the secret broke. do you feel the person who attacked you, this is the first time he attacked anybody? >> no, because the way he did it, he walked in like he already knew what he was doing. >> reporter: do you feel he was a predator? >> yes. >> reporter: randy jakes has a very strong opinion about the likelihood of criminals on board. >> every single cruise that leaves the port of miami, port ever. grades, port canaveral, here in florida, has a minimum of one perpetrator, weather it be passenger or crew, onboard its vessel each wake. >> reporter: jacques is a former ships security officer. he now investigates on-board crimes for victims and lawyers who may want to file civil lawsuits. he says there is no doubt cruise ships have become magnets for predators who feel safe at sea, far from police jurisdictions. given the nature of cruises with lots of alcohol, parents who leave children unattended, the predator passengers and, yes, predator crew members, he says, feel they can get away with almost anything. >> yes, this is true. there are a considerable amount of male perpetrators out there that are passengers and crew that get onboard these vessels with the -- only one thing in mind, and that is to accost as many female passengers as they can. whether by getting them overly intoxicated or by using date rape drugs. >> reporter: they're rapists? >> yes, they're rapists. >> reporter: according to jacques, who worked for two cruise lines, crew members are often complicit, even using onboard computers to spot their prey. you know this. >> yes, i know this for a fact. >> reporter: hard to believe? we thought so too. till we met laura haynes who worked for 17 years as an agent with customs and border protection. her main job, she says, was dealing with passengers and staff on cruise ships. and she shares the same opinion and concerns. so your estimate of ships that go out to sea, loaded with passengers, that may have at least one predator onboard -- >> yes. >> reporter: is -- >> 85%. >> reporter: you heard right, 85%. crimes are rarely reported. and in many instances, even if caught, crew members could still end up on another ship. >> and the cruise lines say that doesn't happen, and i know for a fact it does, because i've seen it. >> reporter: the cruise line international association disputes her assertion. in an e-mail to cnn, a spokesman told us it is disconcerting that this individual would irresponsibly offer such inflammatory and unfounded accusations. the safety of passengers and crew are the cruise industry's number one priority, and no one is served when broad and alarming statements are made that have no basis in fact. the cruise industry points to a law passed by congress as recently as 2010 that, for the first time, called for the public reporting of all crimes onboard american cruise ships at sea, and cites only a handful of millions of passengers where the victims any kind of crime. critics say that's because most crimes aren't even reported. and even fewer, especially sexual assaults, says randy, are ever solved. >> the criminals know this. the passengers -- the passengers that are criminals know this. the crew members that are criminals know this. >> reporter: and now this teenager knows this, too. when she finally reported her crime to the fbi, two months after the event took place, an fbi agent in riverside, california, took the report, found her story to be credible, and forwarded the information to police in australia and new zealand in an attempt, he wrote in this report, to identify a possible child predator on board a royal caribbean cruise liner. the girl's family sued the cruise line, which settled the case. but the family says it never heard from police in australia or new zealand. >> we had no one to contact over there that was getting our report. it was just sent over there and then it kind of disappeared. >> reporter: in a statement, royal caribbean says once it was informed of the assault, it notified the fbi, new zealand authorities and interpol. it also said it provided the fbi with 50 to 60 pictures of crew members but, quote, unfortunately, the guest was unable to identify the crew member in question. royal caribbean insisted it continuously supported law enforcement during the investigation of this incident. additionally, the cruise line says its security personnel have been trained by the fbi and use fbi procedures. it's been more than two years. there has been no arrest. in effect, the person who assaulted you did get away. >> yeah. >> reporter: and could very well still be floating around somewhere? >> yes. >> drew, i find this report amazing. where are the police in all of this? >> these cruise ships are floating cities. everything both good and bad goes on in a small city can happen at sea. the fbi isn't onboard. the answer, there is no fbi to call. which is why this former on-board ship security officer tells us so hard to retain evidence and investigate any crime on board a cruise ship. >> the industry says it's extremely rare. out of all the millions of passengers who sailed it is a tiny fraction that run into problems like this. right? >> and with the records they have, that is true. but we don't know what is and is not reported. we don't know if what is reported to a cabin boy, a bartender or somebody else on that ship eventually goes into the data file of the criminal records. it's -- the experts tell us, look, we're not trying to frighten anybody, anderson, but think of it this way. if you went to the mall with 4,000 people or took your family to a huge hotel with an amusement park, what kind of safety efforts would you take? a lot of that breaks down on these cruises. and that is what makes predators so tempted to get on these ships, along with all these other people who let their guard down, have a party atmosphere and know that in many cases they can get away with it. >> yeah. it's really a shocking report, drew, appreciate it. thanks very much. a follow-up. let us know what you think. we're on facebook. follow me on twitter. tweeting about this now. a lot of people are talking about president obama's new push for tax cuts for most americans. eliminate them for high earners above $250,000. some, though, are calling it a political ploy. others, though, say he's just trying to keep a promise he made during his first campaign. join us next. presidential elections happen every four years but deja vu is forever. president obama's announcement he's seeking to extend the bush era tax cuts for a quarter million dollars or less. >> i'm not proposing anything radical. just proposing that i believe anyone making over $250,000 a year should go back to the income tax rates that we were paying under bill clinton. back when our economy created nearly 23 million new jobs. the biggest budget surplus in history. and plenty of millionaires to boot. >> now, if it sounds familiar to you, it should. here's senator obama four years ago on the campaign trail. >> i can make a firm pledge under my plan no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes. >> well, that promise to extend the bush tax cuts except high earners helped sweep him into office. he could not fulfill it despite democrats control both the house and the senate. republicans oppose letting any of the cuts expire. so did a number of democrats. the process dragged on, as you know. then the 2010 election came along. the tea party election. a lot of people calmed it. republicans took over the house. president obama settled for passing a two-year extension to all the tax cuts during the lame duck session. in exchange, he got additional jobless benefits and payroll tax cuts, but now that two-year extension is nearly up, and once again, republicans are calling any tax increases economic poison and politically motivated. mitt romney made no appearances today. his spokeswoman did say this. quote, president obama's response to even more bad economic news is a massive tax increase. she goes on -- it just proves again that the president doesn't have a clue how to get americans working again and help the middle class and, quote, the president's latest bad idea to raise taxes on families, job creators and small businesses. keep them honest. a lot of policy wonks are fighting over all that. the bottom line, just like last time, this may not be settled till after the election. till then for both sides it's a campaign issue. the question is, who exactly benefits? raw politics now with democratic strategist and obama 2012 pollster cornell belcher. also republican strategist and senior romney adviser bay buchanan. her new book out about raising boys as a single mom. the president is just trying to call them on the carpet, diverting attention from friday's poor job report. are they wrong? >> yeah. i think they are wrong. i think what you see here is the president is doing something what the vast majority of americans want to do. the national journal poll had two-thirds of americans wanting to extend the bush tax breaks only for those under $250,000. >> but by a lot of accounts, this proposal stands virtually no chance of passing congress. some democrats may even vote against it. if that's the case, if it's about politics or not, why push it now? >> well, i think it does set up a nice contrast. look, i'm not going to silt here in washington as a political consultant and say politics doesn't play into what happens here in washington. it does set up a nice contrast. the contrast, you know, obama sort of fighting for the 98% of americans who would benefit from this tax cut. and the pivot is why do republicans continue to hold the 98%, hold the middle class hostage to the wealthiest 1% or 2%? particularly when, again, two-thirds of americans want this extended owned for those making under $250,000 a year. >> they would have had it. just said it. look at the polls. most americans do support letting tax cuts expire on the wealthiest americans. why not make that deal as a republican? >> the key is, it is increasing taxes on a million, about 1 million small businesses. that's the engine that drives the economy. that's who creates jobs in this country, is small businesses. the president himself said a little over a year ago -- or this was even a little bit further ert back than that. he made it very clear that you never raise taxes on businesses in a recession, because it's harmful to the economy. >> bay, over the weekend, democrats turned up the volume of their attacks over romney's tenure. "the washington post" said he was a major outsourcer of jobs. when rung at factcheck.org found evidence that was not true. the campaign is saying surrogates like yourself would start shying away from the word using the word "lie" in tv attacks. are you, in fact, prepared to call the president a liar? >> i find it an outrage that you have a president of the united states who's been there 3 1/2 years. 8%, over 8%, unemployment, for 41 straight months. and what's he doing? what's he running on? is he's trying to destroy the reputation of a good and decent american who just happens to have a different plan for america than he does. that's all. and so his attack on bain is unjust -- >> isn't that what politics has become? >> if you look -- if you had noted, romney campaign, we're focused on the economy, on this man's record, on decisions he's made about policy, regulatory, fiscal. whatever it be. we take him on his positions and on his record. we call him out on it. what's he call on us? he's making stuff up, anderson. he's sending out innuendos and kind of suggestions that's something wrong with mitt romney's reputation. his reputation is stellar. and so is bain. bain is the most respected private equity firm in the country. >> i don't think factory workers who lost their job think bain's reputation is stellar. look, the fact of the matter is, bain did come in. they have leveraged companies, they have cut jobs, they have cut benefits and walked away even with those companies going bankrupt. they've walked away with a lot money. >> what about the outsourcing report? factchecker.org says it's basically false. >> look i think when you look at sort of -- some of the companies that he invested in were at the very vanguard of outsourcing. now, that's a fact. i mean, so we can't remove that from the fact. again, we shouldn't be surprised that, quite frankly, mitt romney's, some of the companies he's involved with, involved in outsourcing. vanguard. this is a guy with accounts overseas. he's got companies in bermuda. the outsourcing thing shouldn't be a surprise to any of us. >> it shows the lack of understanding of the business world by cornell and by the president and his friends. there are no foreign accounts. what he has is foreign investments. just as if you owned some stock in toyota, you would have a foreign investment. these are not accounts. and the governor has paid every dime. as if these investments were u.s. investments. he's paid every single dime. so -- and he doesn't have a swiss account. that's been closed for years. so, you know, let's get to the truth of the matter. mitt romney has invested wisely. he was a terrific businessman. he's done well. and he has paid every bit of his taxes. there is a man who's living by the law. that is it. and you should not ever suggest otherwise. >> all right. we've got to leave it there. cornell belcher, appreciate it. bay buchanan, thank you very much. some of what bay and cornell were debating out of romney's personal finances led us out of fairness to reach out to the romney campaign. we got the statement quote a moment ago -- governor romney's assets are managed on a blind basis, so a trustee, not governor romney, makes investment decisions. statement went on to say -- furthermore, the trustee does not decide where funds he invests in are domiciled. the sponsors of the funds do. the sponsor of funds organizes overseas, it's the same tax result. the difference is like if they choose to write the document in times new roman or ariel. mitt romney has paid every dime of taxes he owes. tonight chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta reports on a desperate race right now to solve a deadly medical mystery. dozens of kids have already died. doctors don't know what is killing these little children. his report ahead. ♪ why do you whisper, green grass? ♪ [ all ] shh! ♪ why tell the trees what ain't so? ♪ [ male announcer ] dow solutions use vibration reduction technology to help reduce track noise so trains move quieter through urban areas all over the world. together, the elements of science and the human element can solve anything. 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[ female announcer ] the travelocity guarantee. from the price to the room to the trip you'll never roam alone. picker this -- you're in a kayak for the very first time, you've just figured out how to paddle. turn around and see a shark's dorsal fin. what happened next and how common is it, ahead on "360." dad, i think he's dead. probably just playin' possum. sfx: possum hisses there he is. there's an easier way to save. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. welcome back. up close tonight -- a desperate race to figure out what is killing young children in cambodia with the speed and efficiency of an assassin. dozens of children have died from an unknown illness. it ravages their bodies. without knowing the killer, it's hard to save the sick or prevent new cases. the world health organization is on the case. so is cnn's chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta. he flew to cambodia. tonight he reports on the latest from there. we want to warn you, some of the images from his report are hard to watch. [ crying ] >> by no means is it the conclusion of our investigation. >> reporter: an investigation into the mystery of what's killing some of cambodia's children at a frightening pace. >> the majority of these cases, mostly under the age of 3, were seriously ill and many of them had died within 24 hours of admission. >> reporter: i mean, that's pretty frightening, i think, for people to hear. >> absolutely. >> reporter: i mean, there's a lot of diseases in this part of the world. many parts of the world. but to kill that quickly. the backdrop is important here. this hospital treats thousands of children suffering from dengue fever, malaria and that tuberculosis every year. still, right away, this doctor knew it was different. >> it's a new picture for us. we never seen this in cambodia before. >> reporter: he is the head of the hospital. he allowed us into the icu where the patients are treated. to give you an idea of how busy this is, even as we were talking, there's another child in shock. that's the emergency right now. the doctor says 66 children came to this hospital with the mystery illness. for 64 of them, it was 24 hours of hell before they died. you heard right. all but two died. many of these children, it started off rather mild. a mild fever. but then things progressed quickly from there. for example, in this child's case, who's 2 years old, we don't know what's causing his encephalitis but this is typically what happens. the fontanel starts to bulge. it becomes merciless. and the eyes bulge as well. from the head to the brain to the lungs. merciless. >> you see this lungs, 8:42 and five hours later, the lungs. >> reporter: in the last few hours of life, this unknown illness completely destroyed the child's lungs. and there was no way to stop it. i've never seen anything like this before. >> no. this is the first time at the end of april. and this make us worry. >> reporter: something called enterovirus 71 typically associated with hand, foot and mouth disease, was found in more than a dozen patients. but that's only adding to the mystery. would the enterovirus lead to this? >> never, never. >> reporter: so it has to be something else? >> i think so. we must look for. >> reporter: that's where the investigation goes next. cambodian health officials and w.h.o. say they're looking into whether expired medication, the wrong medication or inappropriate medication such as steroids could be to blame. >> steroids can also make a relatively harmless infection suddenly much more severe? >> yes, that is a possibility. >> sanjay joins us