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not what he portrayed in these videos that you see where he clearly dyed his beard and perhaps his hair. i'm candy crowley in washington. >> and i'm fionnuala sweeney in atlanta. barbara star was called in for the briefing today when officials released these videos. you were talking about the u.s. wanting 0 to control the message and the image of osama bin laden by releasing these videos. my question is, what is the mood in the pentagon now about anticipating any possible backlash? >> well, you know, that was addressed today. somebody asked, are you worried about potential attacks against u.s. troops across the border in afghanistan or perhaps anywhere or attacks against the united states. that is what they are looking for in scrubbing through all of this intelligence are there any clues about any potential attacks that might be coming. what the sense of it right now is that at least right now, al qaeda is disrupted. what will happen in the coming
he was in pakistan for some time, years. now people i've spoken to here both political figures and people on the street have said that this is really calling into question just how much pakistan knew and just how committed they are to this fight against terror whether in afghanistan, they think they have a partner for peace in pakistan. that's certainly going to also come to the fore. >> this is fionnuala. tal ban and al qaeda are often regard intertwined by people in afghanistan because precisely of osama bin laden's connected with that country. how would you assess the status of the tal ban at the moment but also specifically al qaeda at all in afghanistan? >> yeah, a very good question, fine knew la. we see bin laden as this larger than live figure, a figure who has dominated the headlines and seared into our consciousness and we imagine him as being the dominant partner here, and
wants nato to stop the air strike, and simply that, and the state department says it is not taking the letter seriously, and no question of a cease-fire at all. but speaking of the air strikes, the rebels in the eastern part of the country says that nato is not doing enough with the air strikes and it is not helping them. >> it is amazing to me that gadhafi still even in this position is making demands of president obama and the white house. >> well, he is a man who has stayed in power for many, many years and people like that in those situations don't stay in power without a great deal of cunning. >> and we do want to mention before we move on to the ivory course for welden's mission on libya, you can catch an entire interview with him on the "situation room" with wolff blitzer today. he will interview welden and that starts at 5:00 p.m. right here oncnn, so catch that. and fionnuala, is gbagbo still in his bunker? >> well, there are more than
now, needing to vent some of that radioactive steam. we have a concern with that now because we have had a north westerly or offshore flow blowing any radioactive steam or anything that's on the ground here to the pacific. well, now we have an onshore flow and whatever is coming out of that plant is going to be blown into the populated areas here. what will happen with surface winds, unlike the upper-level winds, these change with frontal passages and areas of low or high pressure. now we're going to get this onshore flow. in fact, eventually we're going to get a bit of a northeast wind. worst case scenario here because things will be blowing down towards tokyo. we'll watch that rather closely here. we have been talking about that and we're certainly running out at this point of time across the region as far as that beneficial offshore flow. now we're getting onshore flow. look at this, fionnuala, incredible stuff as far as how many tremors we've had since the
sweeney. some tough talk today. what's your vantage point? unfortunately we just lost fionnuala. we're going to try to connect with her in a few moments. we did learn, by the way, that switzerland is now freezing the assets of moammar gadhafi in switzerland, putting the financial squeeze on gadhafi and his entire family. they've stolen billions of dollars. we're watching that story. ben wedeman is in libyan. we'll check in with him, we'll check in with all our correspondents. stand by for that. here's a question, is saudi arabia the next domino to fall? one of the world's largest oil providers, so everyone is watching very, very closely. the king of saudi arabia is proposing dramatic changes to avoid an uprising. plus rescue operations continuing in that massive earthquake in new zealand, but hope is fading fast.
thousands. blood will flow, rivers of blood, in all of the cities of libya. >> foreign journalists are banned from libya, and the libyan government continues to ignore requests from cnn for access. fionnuala sweeney doing her best to cover this story from cairo. what are you hearing now, fionnuala? >> reporter: just to update you on the death toll, the human rights watch, as you reported, saying 233 people have died but we are now hearing reliably from benghazi, that the death toll there alone stands at 300. there were clashes there beginning last tuesday. we're hearing in tripoli, the capital, as gadsfy was making a speech, 73 people were taken to the hospital, and the hospitals we are trying to get through to, when we do pick up, they say they haven't received any bodies at all, but the expectation in
and safeguarding the right of peaceful demonstrators and call upon the libyan government to uphold that commit many. >> so far strongman moammar gadhafi himself has been silent on this issue but his son is calling to enforce security at any price and warning of a civil war if the uprising doesn't end. >> he told the libyan people in that address. cnn's fionnuala sweeney is joining me from cairo and fionnuala, if you listen to that speech by saif gadhafi, it's straight out of the playbook of dictators clinging to power, blaming foreign forces and blaming journalists. it wasn't very reassuring if this was meant to calm the nation. >> reporter: well, he was essentially holding out the specter of civil war. one kept wondering what he was going to offer in terms of a carrot as opposed to the stick went on for nearly 40 minutes and perhaps a third of the way
unfold from neighboring egypt. fionnuala? >> reporter: well, what we have heard on the ground coming from the ground in lynn ya is that benghazi has fallen. these are unconfirmed reports, as you know, but the military camp that had had been the focus martin, of much of the violence throughout the day has gone to the demonstrators and also hearing and i have to stress unconfirmed media reports that there are clashes in triply, which would be extremely significant to put it mildly, that is is the strong hold of colonel moammar gadhafi. the ambassador to libya to the arab league resigning because he said he couldn't stand the mass killings and that the people wanted freedom and it was only right that they should have some rights. this i think a very significant development and i think the news that perhaps this clashes and series of demonstration and riots are heading westwards toward tripicallily itself monitored throughout the night but certainly, fast-developing
situations in libya. >> and fionnuala, i knee there are some who represent the oppositioning that are in egypt and i'm wondering what's their reaction to the news they have been hearing from inside the country they had to flee years ago? >> they are all united in opposition and united in one theernlg the overthrow of colonel cad calf name is very, very clear it may be too early to turn to what happens after moammar gadhafi, he still is in control of triply. i have to stress these are unconfirmed reports we can't get in there on the ground.
regard it as a provocation. egypt today saying that it would receive requests through the iranian embassy to the defense and foreign ministries t. but under maritime law, egypt will let any ship pass through, as lot as it is not at war with the country. >> fionnuala, thank you. next chris lawrence is live at the pentagon. i understand the defense sect threw a bit of a wet blankets on the plans today. >> if you believe the defense secretary, he says the chances of closing guantanamo bay prison are, quote, very, very low. the reason he says is baufz consequence. he says there's not enough support in congress right now. >> what happened to the president's promise to close