today with different messages. a few hours ago, alri tv broadcast a defiant audio message from saif gadhafi saying his father and closest followers are hiding in tripoli suburbs and their morale is high. listen. >> the leadership is fine. the leader is fine. and we are fighting and we are drinking tea and coffee and we are sitting with our families. >> saif gadhafi also had a message for people he calls his brethren in tripoli and alibya. >> reporter: we're saying to everyone move now. everyone has to move now to attack all these gangsters of the rats. >> the people he's calling rats are the rebels who drove the gadhafis from power. just a few hours before that fire and brim stone message, another of gadhafi's sons contacted cnn's senior international correspondent nic robertson. nic joins us now from tripoli, a city, by the way, dangerously close to run out of water. nic, first, what was the message from the other gadhafi son? >> reporter: he was saying he is talking to the national transitional council military leaders about the possibility of a ceasefire. he says scotching rumors that he's about to surrender, he says he's not going to surrender, that this government of the national transition council has destroyed the country. but the very fact that he's saying he is talking to them and wants a ceasefire to avoid bloodshed is just such a variance with his brother. this is the first time we've heard either of them talk publicly since the fall of tripoli. and this is the first time we've seen really a division in the family. and perhaps an indication that the family really is beginning to crumble. their backs are to the wall. and of course, saif's speech went out several hours ago despite that gunfire going on behind me which issel bra story gunfire, there has been no rising up in this city in the gadhafi loyalists. his message clearly falling at least here very, very flat, candy. >> right. and the truth is, it sounds kind of delusional what saif is saying. that they must be in a bunker somewhere and either not understand the reality or they're just whistling in the wind. >> reporter: they're whistling in the wind. they're whistling at whoever they think is still their loyalists. they are living in their own sort of deluded situation, certainly not living as anyone can see he's not living in a suburb of tripoli. he would have been picked up by now. what he's trying to do is just rally anyone else that's willing to fight for the gadhafi regime, perhaps give them cover and time to get out of the country. particularly the key towns in the south right now. sirte that rebels have surrounded, given them a deadline until saturday to put their weapons down and another city 30 miles southeast of tripoli it's believed quite possibly that's where gadhafi could be or other members of his family could be. that town surrounded by the rebels, holding out, also on a deadline to put down his weapons until the weekend. so perhaps it's a rallying call to anyone he this can support them there. but certainly i don't think anyone rational here really believes what he's saying, that he was in the -- that he was in his father's main compound in tripoli in the last few days. i don't think anyone buys that. utterly ridiculous, candy. >> so where are we now in terms of what gadhafi could actually mount? i know it's hard to know how many soldiers would still stick with him, but here in the u.s. there's been all this talk about the mustard gas depot, about these shoulder to air missile launchers that are all over the country. does gadhafi have anything left in his arsenal not to win, not to take back libya, but to do serious damage? or is he out of ammo as well? >> reporter: you know, it's interesting you mention water at the beginning there. and that is perhaps one of his strongest weapons to undermine the national transitional council. hundreds of miles south of here in the desert are the wells, hundreds of wells that are used to sort of feed water into this city. this city normally uses 4 1/2 million liters of water a day, a massive amount of water. and right now 60% of the city is cut off. so hey, what he is doing by cutting that water off and that's the assessment of the national transition council, the european union, is using that water as a weapon of war to undermine morale in the city and undermine the national transitional council, trying to form a government. he's said that they have 20,000 men with weapons in sirte. i don't think anyone in their right mind believes that, either. do they have weapons like mustard gas sunny think most people think probably not. it's an open question. but they also think that he would have used them already. a lot of the key oil faciliti are on the coast here. the rebels control them already. could gadhafi's loyalists damage oil fields further south in the country? there's a possibility of that, 10 to 15% of the oil production facilities in the country already damaged according to a government minister. but i think he's probably played out the best of his weapons arsenal that he has already candy. >> thanks so much, nic. the libyan rebels delivered their own ultimatum to gadhafi's fighters even before his sons surfaced today. they have until saturday as you heard nic say to surrender. cnn's frederik pleitgen is with the rebels forces in misrata east of tripoli. fred, my first question to you is that for so many weeks you and i have talked with nic, and we always think that it's on the edge. libya's on the edge of getting rid of the gadhafis. and it hasn't happened. but listening to nic tonight, and i want to get your take on this, do the rebels feel that they are very close to having the gadhafis or at least a going into these last bastions that are there? do they believe they strt strength and that saturday will be the end of it at least so far as territory is concerned? >> reporter: well, i'm not sure they really believe it saturday is going to be the end of it, candy. but i certainly do get the feeling they believe that they are very close to ousting completely the gadhafi forces from the town of sirte and from the town of baniwalid one of the few strongholds the gadhafi forces still hold. now, talking to the rebels on the frontline, they say they don't want to do that, go into these places, but they say they will if they have. to they certainly believe they have the forces that they need to accomplish that as well. they're moving onto sirte from two sides from the east and from the west. they are amassing a lot of gun trucks there, rockets, also multiple rocket launchers. they have some artillery they'll be bringing to bear as well. they say they don't want to use that. they say they believe there is going to be a battle for sirte it will be more bloody than the tripoli area. it's not something they want to do but they believe they have the strength. they say if they get the order from the national transitional council they will noouch there from two sides. so it seems right now everybody is looking towards saturday, seeing whether or not a large scale assault is going to happen. it might not happen on that day but certainly could happen in the days following saturday. what we're hearing from the national transitional council, candy, is at this point in time the negotiations that they had going with the tribes in the sirte area are not getting anywhere, candy. >> and let me ask you, fred, this is about as blunt as i can put it. do the rebels want gadhafi on trial or do they want him dead? what best suits the need to move forward? >> reporter: that's a very good question. it certainly varies depending on who you talk to among the rebels. if you talk to the guys in the frontline, which is what we did today, obviously these are fighters who have been through a lot. they've been through a lot of battle, a lot of combat. so they tell us if they find gadhafi they're flat out going to kill him. they said we're going to burn him up. they'll kill him if they find him. that's what they feel is the best thing to do. if you move along the frontline you'll see almost everywhere these gadhafi dolls hanging in a noose. and i mean, they just say they're going to flat out kill him. if you talk to politicians or people from the national transitional council, they'll tell you they'd rather have gadhafi alive. what they want to do is put him on trial here in libya. they say they might at some point hand him over to an international court, but certainly they want him and his sons tried here in libya to then have a verdict against them inside a libyan court. so it's a very different picture depending on whether you're talking to the politicians in all this or you're talking to the frontline guys. so it's really anybody's guess what would happen if in fact you would have these guys closing in on gadhafi and there would be some sort of fire fight which way that would then in effect go, candy. >> thanks so much, fred pleitgen in misrata for us tonight. in a minute we're going to turn our attention to presidential politics. john huntsman unveiled a jobs plan this afternoon. among other things it overhauls the tax code and eliminates popular deductions, even the ones for home mortgage interest. we will talk with him next. 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[ male announcer ] ask your doctor if cialis for daily use is right for you. for a 30-tablet free trial offer, go to cialis.com. for a 30-tablet free trial offer, or creates another laptop bag or hires another employee, it's not just good for business -- it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities, so we're helping them with advice from local business experts and extending $18 billion in credit last year. that's how we're helping set opportunity in motion. it's a lifetime. gone. we'll make it right, john. when the unthinkable happens, we're right there with you to help you get your life back on track. nationwide is on your side. the president's former am bass for to john huntsman rolled out a jobs plan in new hampshire. want to welcome you, governor, to the show. i want to give the audience a quick couple of bullet points from your plan. you propose creating three tax brackets from the current six. 8%, 14%, 23%. you would eliminate taxes on capital gains an dividends. you would eliminate the alternative minimum tax. and you would reduce the corporate tax rate to 25%. >> correct. >> let me zero in on the lowering of the corporate tax rate. because here's what i think people don't understand. you would bring down the corporate tax rate by 10% and close some of the loopholes dealing with corporations. but i want to show your audience, and i'll try to describe it to you, just a grfic that shows on the left-hand seed on the screen is the growth in jobs over the last eight quarters, two years. and then you see the growth in corporate profits. and people look at this and see jobs flat lining and corporate profits up by 40% and think, seriously? we're going to lower their taxes? >> candy, first of all, thank you for having me. i would remind you that timing is everything to your earlier comment. our tax code, the individual tax code and the business tax code, they are broken. they are absolutely not 21st century competitive. they are perpetuated by people who can afford the lobbyists and the lawyers to keep their tax breaks and loop holes and corporate welfare. all i'm saying it's time to stop. it's time to end it all. it's time to appropriate for the 21st century. we're there and we've got to recognize we're behind in the game. when it comes to the corporate tax. i'm guessing that most people aren't paying the top corporate tax rate of 35%. why? because they can afford to have people lobby on their behalf and basically find loop holes or deductions of various kinds. all i'm saying is wipe it all away. get rid of it. let's clean out the could be webs and establish a rate that's 25%.l >> they're not doing it today because there's nod predictability or confidence in our economy and there's no ability to see around the corner long term what taxes are going to be.l >> to the question, governor, it's just that corporate profits are up 40% in two years.l and i think people look at this and think right now with the country in so much trouble we're hearing now that fema may not have enough money to help rebuild some of these devastated places after the hurricane.l >> we need jobs in this country.l we need the revenue flow that will come from jobs.l we need more taxpayers in the system that will come from increased jobs.l we're just not going to get jobs which ultimately are going to allow states to rebound and this company to rebound until such time as we have a 21st century competitive tax code.l >> college graduates stayed.l we took unemployment down to unprecedented levels.l our revenue increased and we were able to pate bills unlike any other time.l that meant we could pay teachers what they were worth.l it meant we could expand infrastructure for roads for the fastest-growing states in america.l >> let me read you something that caught our attention.l it's from your brother peter huntsman ceo of the family business, hunts corporation.l >> that's always dangerous.l >> you know brothers in which he said to bloom berpg, mid june, we, meaning huntsman corporation, now employ more people between china and india than we do in north america, which is really quite phenomenal when you consider that about 930% of our associates ten years ago were in north america.l in your plan, does huntsman corporation begin to lower that ratio and bring back american workers? and where is that in your plan? >> grouft to meet the needs of your customers wherever they exist around the world.l it would be great to do that from the united states.l but many companies of course are finding that they have to be closest to wherever their customer base is.l it isn't necessarily they're manufacturing abroad and sending back here.l they're simply selling to a much larger consumer base in parts of the world that even a few short years ago didn't exist, but what this tax code begins to do is create a competitive dynamic in this country.l if we can combine that with regulatory reform which we also talked about today we can create what made in america used to mean to so many people.l we were in awe of it here.l so was everybody around the world.l nobody did it better than workers in the united states of america.l we've got to get back to those days.l >> i don't know if that's pre-secession texas or post-says section texas.l >> we have no good ideas that are being circulated or talked about that will allow this country to get back on its feet economically.l >> the democrat national committee is responsible for the content of this advertising.l >> governor, the dnc quoting you.l that's all of you talking about your opponents.l it says at the end don't take it from us but from one of their own.l you have gone from the candidate who was going to be positive and who wasn't going to go on the attack to the candidate that's now being quoted by the dnc.l what is your tactic here? is it to try to get out of that 1%? i'm assuming yes.l but it doesn't seem to -- it attracts the-nc.l does it attract republicans? >> listen, nobody worries about the numbers at this point in the game.l because if we used a similar barometer in '08 and '04 you would have had a much different outcome.l numbers are meaningly at this point in the game.l this is a point in the campaign where you begin to draw out differences in the various candidates.l so when asked a question, i'm a straight up, common sense, practical person.l i'm going to give a straight up answer.l >> so you don't feel you broke your i'm going to have positive campaign with all these comments? >> there's nobody more positive than me.l i'm a blue sky optomist.l but when you're asked to compare and contrast your differences you're going to have differences with your opponents.l and that's okay.l i believe that a sense of respect can coexist with the facts.l and that's the way it's always going to be with me.l you just rely on the facts and somebody's record when asked a question.l you answer in an honest and straight up fashion.l that's what campaigns are all about.l but ultimately they forgot to play the part about my comments regarding the president much he's had 2 1/2 years to do what the american people felt so strongly he needed to do on day one.l and that is to expand this economy, create jobs and get us prepared for the 21st century.l we are behind in the game, candy.l and we've got to get going again.l >> somehow i don't think going to put that in one of their commercials but thank you so much for the time tonight, republican presidential candidate jon huntsman, we appreciate it.l in flood-drenched new jersey tonight, thousands of people still can't go home.l major roads remain closed.l the governor says we're not out of the woods yet.l we'll take you there next.l ♪ okay, so who ordered the cereal that can help lower cholesterol and who ordered the yummy cereal? 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[ crunching, sipping ] be happy. be healthy. can i try yours? president obama travels to new jersey this sunday to look over damage caused by hurricane irene.l there is plenty to see.l tonight at least 18,000 people can't go home, mostly because of flooding.l 147,000 utility customers don't have power more than 3 days after the storm made landfall.l governor chris christie showed federal officials around some of the hardest-hit areas today.l >> the rivers in new jersey have crested and are beginning to recede.l the passaic river at pine brook and at little falls may remain above major flood stage until friday morning, though, so we're clearly not out of the woods yet.l >> cnn national correspondent susan candiotti joins us now from little falls, new jersey, susan, just start with what you have seen today.l >> reporter: well, we've seen a lot of flooding in a lot of areas.l you mentioned the n