yelling at us, and worse. other people are calling and wanting to buy a ticket. >> an uproar in arizona, a county republican party looks to raffle off a handgun very similar to the one used in the mass shooting that wounded congresswoman gabby giffords. and a cnn exclusive, documents found in libya that could prove damaging to the u.s. and speaking of libya -- >> instead of saying gadhafi, gadhafi all of the time, especially to avoid attracting attention between the local libyans, between ourselves we called him daddy. >> one of moammar gadhafi's former nurses shares details about her life with the deposed leader only to cnn, and this. >> if there is something anti-mexican about what i said, then i apologize for the anti-mexicanness of it. >> was that an apology? comedian cat williams trying to explain his rant targeting mexicans. i'm susan hendricks at cnn world headquarters in atlanta in for don lemon. great to see you. you are in the "cnn newsroom." >> wow. look at that. this is tropical storm lee as it slams into the mississippi coast. a group of people trying to keep that boat from being battered to pieces against the pier. it was a no-go losing battle. the waves were too rough, too big and by morning the vessel looked like this, upside down with huge holes in the bottom, but the men are okay, the men who tried to save the boat. tropical storm lee is slightly weaker tonight, and topping winds of 50 miles an hour. it is packing a lot of rain and hardly moving at all and slow going. right now it is hovering over the coastline of louisiana and mississippi. nearly 40,000 customers were without power earlier saturday, but two-thirds of them have electricity again. the governors of mississippi and louisiana have declared states of emerging si for several parishes and counties. parts of jefferson parish in new orleans are under a mandatory evacuation order because of the flooding threat. the mayor of new orleans has warned the residents to be based for a long ordeal from the storm. up to 20 inches of rain could overwhelm the rain. an ireporter who lives near lake pontchartrain sent us this video. >> here on lake pontchartrain in mandeville, louisiana, you can see that the water is topping the seawall and the yards are starting to flood in the low-lying areas. of course, everybody on this stretch of lake anticipating the flooding, and all of the houses are razed 15 feet above sea level. we expect to see a lot of water. >> and yes, water and lots of it. ed lavandara is at the place that was almost wiped off of the map six years ago by hurricane katrina. >> residents of the gulf of louisiana here in waveland, mississippi, feel like they have taken on the worst of tropical storm lee. this is the gulf of mexico, and you can see how choppy and churned up tropical storm lee has made the gulf waters. that is a dangerous and treacherous situation out there in those waters, so emergency officials urging people to stay out of the water and don't get out on boats, and no reason to do that. you can see how powerful the storm surge was a few hours ago. this is the beach front road, and all of the sand was on the beach, but pushed up here by the storm tide a few hours ago. but some of the good things that we have seen in the various low-lying areas that we have seen gathering is that the water is dissipating. we were a few miles away in the town of bay st. louis, where we are told that thigh-high water had reached in some areas underneath people's home, but in the course of several hours that dissipated. so that is the good news, but this is a slow-moving storm, and any time you talk about the storms coming through the gulf coast, it is an emotional thing. this is waveland, mississippi, where we are, and absolutely devastated almost six years ago to the day that hurricane katrina blew through here and changed this town forever. some residents are telling us that one-third of the population has ever returned here back the waveland after hurricane katrina. in the grand scheme of things they also know that this storm is nowhere close to the power and the fury that katrina brought here, and they are taking it in stride, but they took their preparations, and considering ate rainmaker. it is pushed inland and the officials say that flash flooding exists over the course of the next 24 hours further inland and north and not the gulf coast shore, but up to louisiana and mississippi as well. susan? >> ed lavandara in mississippi. jacqui jeras in the weather center with what this is expected to do overnight, and as ed said, it is a big rainmaker. >> yes, and it is not moving a lot. that is a struggle with trying to pinpoint where the worst conditions are. most of it offshore in terms of the heavy downpours, but several areas in the mississippi river valley, where there is dry air moving into the storm all day long coming in from texas, and that is what is weakening the storm today, too. so that the winds are down a little bit 50 miles per hour, but still a tropical storm. silt -- it is expected to drift northward and towards the east. you will see it is going to take a couple of days to get out of the lower mississippi river valley and up to the appalachians. and we have been waiting for a cold front to pick it up, but it looks like the timing may not be great and this may go behind the cold front to make it sit there once again and not move a whole heck of a lot out of the southeast. all right. let's talked about some of the rainfall reports because they are incredible today. in pascagoula, nearly ten inches. and in gulfport, mississippi, 6.78 inches. this is is a forecast animation to show you how much more rain to expect. in the purple area, that is 6 to 10 inches more potentially, so a lot more rain to come. to threat of tornadoes continues in the right quadrant of the storm, and the cold front should be sliding through, so that all of the moisture, susan, is going to get into the northeast, and we are worried about additional flooding in upstate new york and vermont who have already been devastated from irene, and they could get another 1 to 3 inches of rain from the cold front and we will have to wait to see what happens with lee as the moisture comes this way. >> they don't need it. president obama will be in new jersey tomorrow because of irene. thank you, jacqui. appreciate it. and now a cnn exclusive. the collapse of moammar gadhafi's regime is revealing secrets to the world, and including supposed acceptance of prisoners. and authorities left stacks of documents behind when they fled tripoli, and ben wedeman looks at the documents and explains what they saw. >> reporter: they didn't have much time to shred documents in the head of libya's spy agency, and most of the contents of the building are in tact. it amounts to a treasure trove of information about the shadowy world of cooperation between the world's spies. we are in the basement of the libyan external intelligence agency, and it is like being in the basement of the cia, and here we have access to all sorts of documents, letters, faxes, and other communications between the cia and its libyan counterparts. top secret documents, and secret documents with names and dates and all sordid details that some people probably don't want to be made public. and that relationship was, it appears, cozy. peter bukart of human rights watch photographed hundreds of documents from the external leadership and from moussa koussa who fled last spring. >> there is christmas greetings in here. there's documents says thank you for the oranges you sent skwlr the u.s. and libya were at odds for years, but the relations warmed dramatically after libya renounced the program for weapons of mass destruction in late 2003 when moussa koussa then started corresponding. then libya eagerly signed up for the war on terror, but how clear is made certain by the documents uncovered. >> we have been saying for a long time that the cia was capturing and rendering people to libya so they could be interrogated by libyan security, and we have the cia questions that they sent to be asked to these suspects that they rendered to libya. >> reporter: one of those sent by u.s. officials to libya was alleged libyan islamic militant also known by his abdullah al sadc, and by documents the u.s. detained him and then headed him over to libya. he now heads the military council in tripoli. u.s. rights groups in the state department regularly accused libyan security services of torture. and he was not part of the extraordinary program, but he experienced that torture first hand. [ speaking foreign language ] >> reporter: he showed us how he was beaten to his knees in tripoli's infamous prison where he was held from 1984 to 2001. a cia spokeswoman declined to comment on the specifics of the documents in tripoli, but did add that quote, it can't come as a surprise that the central intelligence agency works with foreign governments to help protect our country from terrorism and other deadly threats. amongst spies, there is no such thing, it seems as a strange bed foal low. -- bedfellow. ben wedeman, tripoli. >> thank you, ben, for that exclusive report. coming up the gop contenders hit the trail this weekend along with a former governor who is not in the race officially, but knows how to draw a crowd. yes, we are talking sarah palin. and a handgun raffle that has a lot of people upset. we will tell you why. that is next. 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[ding] [fans whirring] announcer: chill raw and prepared foods promptly. one in 6 americans will get sick from food poisoning this year. check your steps at foodsafety.gov. welcome back. an uproar in arizona over the raffle of a handgun. it is very similar to the model used in the mass shooting that killed six people, including a 9-year-old girl and wounded congresswoman gabrielle giffords and wounded several others. the glock revolver is for a fundraiser for republicans, but others call the idea in insensitive. we are told to our reporter randi kaye that people should be focussed on the gunmen and not the weapons. >> first of all, it was the actions of jared loughner who was involved in the tucson shootings, and he could have chosen any weapon and it was a glock 19 and we are raffling a glock 23 which is a slightly different weapon. >> but they look very similar and the same republican official insists that the raffle will go forward as planned, but he also told the affiliate that if the event would have stirred such a strong reaction, he would have taken that into consideration before holding that raffle. the last time we saw congresswoman giffords she made a surprise appearance at the important house vote to keep the government from defaulting and getting a standing ovation and much deserve and now she is traveling more spending the labor day weekend at home with family in tucson, and she has been living in houston while recovering from the near-fatal shooting in january. let's talk presidential politics. front-runner rick perry is surging ahead with the surging campaign. he spoke to potential supporters at a house party in manchester, new hampshire, and the latest poll gives perry the lead among the gop hopefuls. he said a matchup between himself and president obama would offer voters an obvious choice. >> as we consider this economic misery that is spread across the country by the obama administration, we don't need a nominee who's going to blur the differences between themselves and barack obama. we're going to have a nominee who draws a clear contrast. >> republican jon huntsman is also in new hampshire trying the light a fire under his campaign so to speak in the state that hosts the first presidential primary. that is him in concord working the show at a gun show. the polls show that he trails rick perry and other gop hopefuls by a wide margin, and that brings us to the republican with the real star power, and she is not a presidential candidate at least not yet. sarah palin was the main attraction todayt an iowa tea party rally. she took shots at the new party's front-runner and others, but peter hamby was there. >> reporter: former alaska governor sarah palin delivered a series of sharp attacks against barack obama and her potential presidential rivals at a tea party rival here in iowa tea party rally. while she not expected to declare a presidential bid, she drew a sharp line in the sand with one opponent, front-runner texas governor rick perry. >> some of the gop candidates raise mammoth amounts of cash and we need to ask them, what if anything do their donors expect in return for their investments? we need to know this, because our country cannot afford more $1 trillion thank you notes to the campaign backers. >> reporter: and perry has been long been stated to pay back donors and with contracts. palin made it clear she will not cede any ground to the gop, and as an outsider, from the tea party, and we will be watching her as she drops for the clues about what the message might be if she decides to run for president. peter hamby, cnn, indianola, iowa. >> if she does, and we don't know. and there is no question that moammar gadhafi lived a life of luxury and now we hear from a former nurse about the ousted leader. the story in her own words next. moammar gadhafi is now in hiding as his regime collapses ] what's for breakfast? um... try the number one! 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[ woman announcing ] new beneful healthy fiesta. another healthful, flavorful beneful. moammar gadhafi is now in hiding as his regime collapses in libya. much has been said about the fallen leader's odd tendencies including surrounding himself with all female teams of bodyguards and nurses. now one of the nurses is revealing details about her life with gadhafi in an exclusive conversation with cnn's correspondent. >> reporter: we were the personal nurses of gadhafi and his large family with all of the children and grandchildren and we always accompanied him on his foreign trips. we would regularly measure his blood pressure and take blood samples and give him pills and vitamins. we were divided in shifts the five of us. we drew our timetable ourselves and decided who worked when as well as who traveled with him. everyone gets sick once in a while, but generally, he was in excellent health. i wish everyone had the kind of health that gadhafi had. i don't know who created this image of his nurses and his female bodyguards, but how could anyone in their right mind assume that we could have any intimate relationship with gadhafi. his wife, children, grandchildren, officials, they were around him all of the time. none of us had ever been one-on-one with him. rules were strict. we dressed formally and wore no flashy makeup or lipstick going to his house and likewise, he never made any passes at us. gadhafi was quite considerate, and i don't know much about the way that the nannies wither treated in his family, but for us, he treated us very well. he never shouted at us, and always calm and friendly. every year on september 1st, gadhafi presented us with souvenirs like this medallion with his picture, and this watch with his picture, too. he gave those kinds of presents not just to the nurses, but everyone who worked in his inner circle. instead of saying gadhafi, gadhafi all of the time to avoid attracting local attention from the libyans, between ourselves we called him daddy. daddy gave us jobs and a good life. we would love to be able to return to libya, whether it is ruled by gadhafi or someone else. but we were there for one reason and one reason only, simply to make money. compared with libya, life here in the ukraine is very difficult. >> coming up with sexual assault charges against him dropped dominique strauss-kahn takes flight. where is he headed now? and rumors off a new iphone would not be complete without the prototype being left in a bar. yes, it happened again. we are back in two minutes. i'm good about shing my face. what's left behind? 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[ female announcer ] new purifying facial cleanser from the new line of neutrogena naturals. who need female announcer ] new purifying facial cleanser imagine... one scooter or power chair that could improve your mobility and your life. one medicare benefit that, with private insurance, may entitle you to pay little to nothing to own it. one company that can make it all happen ... your power chair will be paid in full. the scooter store. hi i'm doug harrison. we're experts at getting you the power chair or scooter you need. i didn't pay a penny out of pocket for my power chair. with help from the scooter store, medicare and my insurance covered it all. call the scooter store for free information today. call the number on your scre any questions? no. you know... ♪ we're not magicians ♪ we can't read your mind ♪ ♪ read your mind ♪ we need your questions ♪ each and every kind ♪ every kind ♪ will this react with my other medicine? ♪ ♪ hey, what are all these tests even for? ♪ ♪ questions are the answer ♪ yeah ♪ oh checking the headlines now. president barack obama will travel to new jersey tomorrow to see firsthand the damage caused by the remnants of hurricane irene. the president will visit paterson, new jersey, which what was is a slammed by the storm and the passaic river that runs through the city reached the highest level in more than a century, and the mayor says that 6,000 residents were affected by the flood. he wants to hear how the white house will help. dominique strauss-kahn is headed home to paris two months after he was hauled off of a plane and charged with attempted rape. the former imf director's flight comes two days after sexual assault charges were dropped against him. he denies the charges, and that may have ended his ambitions of becoming france's next president. and a baseball team is paying tribute to military members who were killed in a accident. they wore camouflage jerseys each bearing the name of a fallen soldier or jersey or airman. the jerseys were given to the families as an appreciation of their loved ones sacrifices. 11 service