-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com right now, in just hours, man knox takes the stand. what the american college student says could set her free or send her away for murder for decades. and wall street in chaos. >> all day, all week -- >> hundreds of protesters arrested, police cracking down. it's spreading across the country. is your town next? then, fickle politics. first they loved bachman, perry, then cain. now christie? >> and book controversy. why is it wrong to learn that our heroes are the people we' idolize have shortcomings and

faults? >> and a new book tainting the legacy of walter payton. we talk to the author, right here, right now on cnn. hello, i'm don lemon. you know near the cnn newsroom. we'll start with a word that you may find uncomfortable. it is a controversy that's putting a hopeful into an uncomfortable position. governor rick perry has to respond to his association with the most poisonous word in the english language. perry and his family it is reported that they leased a hunting camp that went by the head nigerhead. it was painted on a huge rock by the entrance. the name has been changed and the rock painted over and obscured, but when it was painted over is a matter of dispute between perry's people

and "the washington post," which published its lengthy article just today. the word niggerhead sounds backward today. and herman cain, the only african-american among the hopefuls didn't care for the connotation in any form. here's what he told fox news. >> my reaction is that's just very insensitive. that is a vile, negative word, the n word, for him to leave it there for as long as they did, before they painted over it, it's just plain insensitive to a lot of black people in this country. >> i spoke about this with cnn contributor will kane and a senior writer, and i asked how much of a problem is this for the perry campaign? >> i think it's huge.

i don't see how you can stand on a stage across from president obama, the first african-american president, with nigger hanging over your head which is what this story will be for him. this is the reason why this is among other reasons why chris christie is still trying to be wooed because rick perry has a lot of the skeletons in his closet and the gop knows once he gets out in front of president obama this will derail this campaign. >> we have said that in the context of the post it was used for rock formations and it's part of history and there were other names that that word was used in. i'm wondering how does a candidate recover once they have been associated with a controversy over the word nigger? >> i don't know if they can, don. that's why we have to be careful here. it's so powerful. that in 2006 when george allen was running for senator of virginia, he used the word

makaka. it's a french derifsation that has the same connotation. i think we need to be very careful, very responsible how we treat this story. you know, that "washington post" story was full of anonymous sources, full of speculation. i don't know that i want to be a pundit that speculates about this any further. i think these are questions for rick perry to answer at this point. >> i think that's a good point of you to have. but the question was, even -- i said being associated in a controversy, whether it's true or not, i mean, that's tough to recover from. >> it's so tough to recover, don, that it might not be able to be recoverable. we need to be careful about associating. >> well, perry said his father painted over the rock some time in 1983 or 1984. but "the washington post" cites a number of sources, some of them anonymous, who claimed to have seen the word at the camp

long after that. in other news, monday is judgment day for man knamanda k the 24-year-old will find out whether her conviction is overturned on appeal. she pleaded for mercy and it's no exaggeration to say her future depends on that speech. matthew chance has more from italy. >> reporter: well, don, this is likely to be the speech of amanda knox's life, for that 15 minutes the 24-year-old from seattle will have to stand up in this italian court and make an appeal. in her own words, to the judge and jury, to overturn her murder conviction and to set her free. knox's parents tell us that the daughter has been working on what she's going to say for months. she's learned to speak italian fluently in her four years in prison here, so she'll likely make the address in her italian

language. and the boyfriend who was also convicted will also have the opportunity to speak. although it's not altogether clear that these will. the jury will retire, consider all of the evidence in this case. returning with their decision we expect monday night local time. so obviously, a great deal of anticipation here and around the world as we await the outcome of one of the more lurid, scandalous and closely watched murder cases of recent years. back to you, don. >> thank you, matthew, chance. a fledgling movement known as occupy wall street has hit a nerve. boston, seattle, denver, los angeles, albuquerque all have taken up this banner. the demonstrations began in new york in july, but why, what do they want? our susan candiotti has been at lower manhattan and she is

asking that very question. >> reporter: don, this protest has been set up in a public park for three weeks now and they're trying to keep it as organized as possible. for example, there's this food line that's been here for several days where people have been donating food, people who live in the neighborhood, even businesses. so that's where people come to get some water, to get some food. but you also have some impromptu security here. people pitching in to kind of watch here. i want to show also -- you see a lot of this going on. we have guitars, saxophones, we have folk groups and people just expressing their views. there is no again clear-cut goal for what is happening here, but many people have told us they're content to wait until that happens. we even ran into for example a group of teachers today who sat around grading papers, saying that they're here because they want to in their -- do their part to try to protest cuts to education.

you can see that's one example of many people who are represented here as this protest goes on. a pretty quiet day on sunday. they are planning a huge protest in the middle of the week, a march on city hall. organizers say they could have as many as 20,000 people here. don, back to you. >> susan, thank you. susan candiotti in lower manhattan. first it was michelle bachman, and now they're looking at a presidential hopeful who say he is not running. and a hijacker captured after nearly 40 years on the run. tonight, two passengers who are on that flight and the memories his capture brought back. each lh for up to 3x more volume. new lashperfection. wrap it up. easy, breezy, beautiful covergirl. at aviva, we wonder why other life insurance companies treat you like a policy, not a person.

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it is time now to talk some politics with political anchor for new york one errol lewis. good to see you. i want to talk about the republican field in the 2012 battle for the white house. it would be easy to get whiplash if you're following this race closely. even if you're not following it that closely. in a very early days, we heard a lot about how mitt romney was a candidate to beat. but then congresswoman michelle bachman won the iowa straw poll and she got a bump. the same weekend, rick perry jumped in the race and he was a front-runner. then last weekend, herman cain won the straw poll in florida and now he's on the rise and that's not stopping the controversy of chris christie or sarah palin jumping in the race. i want you to hear to nicole wallace. this is how she put it today. >> the republican party is as you said, lurching from one crush to another and it's resembleable a dysfunction dating pattern.

we pine for the ones we can't have and those who are available to us emotionally and otherwise are not available to us. >> i won't talk to chris christ christie. back to mitt romney. a man a lot of pundits still believe will get the nod. so are gop voters having a hard time committing to him because they have a problem with him and if so, what is it? >> well, that's right. they're having a hard time committing to him in part because there are a lot ofme movement conservatives who don't him, and there are existing elected officials, people i have talked to in fact who don't like the guy personally. the movement conservatives have, sort of an ideological grudge against him. you know, they note things that most of us never knew or didn't pay much attention to. things like catholic charities in massachusetts, in boston, stopped doing adoptions in 2006. why? because they allowed same-sex

adon'ti adopti adopti adoption. they blamed that on romney. there are some politics who don't care for the guy. there is the shadow of possible religious antipathy out there among some members of the evangelical establishment. there are 30% who say it matters to them and they have a hard time voting for him because of that. there were comparable numbers let's be clear, over 40 years ago, for president kennedy as a catholic. >> yeah. >> it's a hurdle he might have to overcome. >> yeah, it's interesting because in most polling he is at the top of most polling. and just i don't understand why republicans can't commit to him. so thank you very much for answering that. i want to talk about president obama's speech in front of thousands of gay activists at last night's human rights campaign. he scolded the gop candidates for not standing up for a soldier who was booed. >> we don't believe in the smallness that says it's okay for a stage full of political leaders, one of whom could end

up being the president of the united states, being silent when an american soldier is booed. we don't believe in that. >> so playing to the base this? >> oh, absolutely. look, it's a wee bit unfair. you know, you have been at the debates there's sound bouncing always over the place. you don't know if it's a small boo or a big boo. to put that standard on people, you know, it sort of reminds me of something fairly minor would happen, the president bows to a japanese dignitary and the right-wing media runs off with it saying, he's always bowing to the foreign dictators. it's a little bit of silliness, but this is why they call politics the silly season. >> they have been criticized too after founding out after it for their slow response. but i want to play some of what the former vice president dick cheney said early on cnn's state of the union about president obama's stance on gay issues.

>> i think it was the right decision to repeal don't ask don't tell. i suspect there are a lot of people who are watching the speech in the room last night wondering if they could believe what he was saying. his position on the issues hasn't that been that different. he hasn't come out and advocated gay marriage, for example. i think this was sort of one more example where he's trying to have it both ways. >> so does cheney and the person there with cheney, do they have a point? some gay activists they might agree? >> yes, perhaps. it's extraordinary to hear her say that though, sitting next to her father. >> right. >> the architect of a very divisive strategy in 2004 where they put all kinds of anti-same sex referenda all across the country in order to win that re-election. i mean, it's a tough issue. >> but it does say something because lynne cheney is there with her father and she is making a point. she is making a point. and she -- and quite frankly she

has a good one to make. >> well, look, she's absolutely right. she's absolutely right. the president has said i'm evolving on this. he's not going to come out and talk about same-sex marriage a day after the election of the country. they have made sort of comparable sort of calculations about where they can say and where the country is. you know, you might say that that's weakness or you can say that it's cowardice or say it's trying to take the country in a particular direction. >> let's move on. i want to talk about the occupy wall street protest. you live in new york. when was the time you saw something like and it's spreading across the country. >> the last time i saw something like this was 1999. i went and got myself arrested

with about a thousand other people down around one police plaza. that was over a specific policy involving the mayor at the time, rudy giuliani and the killing of the man where the cop shot him 41 times. it was a really tense time in the city. what's really different about this and noteworthy, don, there's no specific policy, the there's no specific person being called out. 700 or 800 people got arrested yesterday. something very interesting going on here and i'm going to poke around in person and try to see what the heck is going on down there. >> yeah. hey, thank you. i misspoke. i said liz cheney, lynne cheney, i got their names confused. always good to see you. have a great week. coming up after the break here on cnn, holly hughes on what's ahead in the involuntary

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testimony resumes monday in the involuntary manslaughter trial of dr. conrad murray. he was with michael jackson when he died and he's blamed for his death. i spent the last week in the courtroom there. legal analyst holly hughes there's a good reason for it being like a hollywood production. >> a streytrial is the show and most important people are sitting in the jury box. you want to them not just be confident in your performance, but if they trust you and they think you're together, they'll

trust your witnesses and your evidence. >> what about do they ask everything, what kind of medication did you observe? when he went to the doctor, straightforward questions and then the defense comes back and i think he's a matlock type. >> what the prosecution is doing is making a mountain, piling up all the things that they hope will prove guilt. what flanagan is doing is he's mining that mountain for nuggets. when he weaves all those little things together in the closing argument you're going to go i never thought of it like that. that's what he's doing. >> if you mess up some word during your testimony or pretrial, he takes it all. here's the thing. he's kind of trying to knock down the time line. you could not do that in this amount of time. >> right. >> get up to that bedroom and be on the phone with, you know, amir. he was doing that -- >> absolutely. >> here's the thing. how do you think the defense is doing? because i have noticed there's

been some back and forth with ed chernoff and the judge they don't get along that well. they've been butting heads. >> when you have an attorney as good as chernoff, you need to be careful because it looks like the judge is beating up on the defense. like he's taking sides. a judge is supposed to be neutral. it does look like he's getting beaten up, but he doesn't blink, yes, your honor, hes right on. >> you wrote an article, what was it called? >> it's called "the state of the case." it's up on my facebook page. >> something that i noticed that people at home didn't notice, talking about the nation of islam. the prosecution keeps saying, objection, and then the judge sustains it. what they're trying to say is that the nation of islam was involved in jackson's security and they had a way to cover up

or set up. not that any of that is true, but little things like that, you don't see that at home. here's the family reacting again, amir, are you referred to as brother amir. what does that mean? >> yes. you're right. because then you take all the little nuggets that you had mined. you weave them into the fantastic closing argument and you say, this is a conspiracy, they are hanging this man out to dry because something much more powerful is at play here. >> because they had their own interests at heart. people at home are going to go, what the heck? but when you're sitting in the courtroom you notice all the little things, all the body language. what i have been saying all along is that not -- not saying anything about conrad murray's guilt or innocence, but can you imagine having to listen that tape and seeing their loved one up on the gurney? >> it's so cold and clinical and what the prosecution is doing as

they should in every case is painting the picture. a lot of people were upset about showing michael in the bed. you have to. it's they're burden to prove that he has passed away and they're bringing it home for that jury. making them feel it. like you felt it. >> the family is sitting in the jury. they want the jury to see that. >> criminal defense attorney, holly hughes. a hijacker's 40-year run from the law comes to an end and it brings back a flood of memory for a couple who was on board that flight. they share their memories after this break. o0 c1 2 o0 [ telephone rings ] aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa auto repair.

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in portugal, an extradition hearing two weeks from now will begin the lengthy process of trying to return long-time american fugitive george wright back here to the u.s. wright now 68, had been on the run for more than 40 years after allegedly helping to hijack a delta airliner back in 1972. he was picked up a week ago in this picturesque portuguese town by the ocean. a man and his pregnant friend was on the plane and she noticed something odd about the passenger who turned out to be wright. >> i only thought after we had gotten on the plane and he stood up. and i thought, that's strange, he didn't look like a priest. i didn't know what a priest always looked like, but he -- it was something just very strange.

he was surveying the passengers on the plane and i said to my husband, i said, that doesn't look right. so he made some kind -- >> what did you say? >> he said relax. >> well, when she said it to me, he doesn't really look like a priest, i said, you're just pregnant, don't worry about it. we'll be okay. then she said to me, there he goes up to the cockpit. and i said, well, they'll let anybody go up to the cockpit because back then, pilots, they'd let children come into the cockpit. they used to give them the little wings when they flew. i thought he was somebody inquiring about the plane. he went into the cockpit with her and then i started to join her in feeling that something was wrong. when the plane landed, we didn't go into the terminal. we stayed out on the tarmac, and eventually, the pilot came on and told us that he had two young men who wanted to go to algeria and that he was going to

take them to algeria, but the problem was they wanted $1 million in $20 bills. >> we were all looking around, puzzled and really terrified, to tell you the truth. >> did you think you were going to survive it? >> we weren't sure. i wasn't sure. but i was trying to keep my daughter calm and trying to entertain her and have her not know how frightened we all were. >> we must have stayed sitting on the tarmac for about two hours. >> yes. >> at least. >> and then we saw people coming to the plane who i presume to be fbi agents. coming to the plane in bikini bathing suits and they were bringing the million dollars out to the airplane. they foisted the money up on the rope into the plane and then they let us out on the tarmac. back then, they gave us the sign and the plane took off.

>> well, they said after more than 40 years they had almost forgotten about the hijacking until news broke that wright had been found living in portugal. your top stories are straight ahead. the death toll rises from the batch of tainted cantaloupes. should the man who tried to kill president reagan get more freedom? the request tonight coming from an interesting place. ♪ [ male announcer ] we're not employers or employees. not white collar or blue collar or no collars. we are business in america. and every day we awake to the same challenges.

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we want to check some headlines for you. the death toll is claiming from the listeria from the tainted cantaloupes. 84 people in 19 states have gotten sick. the melons from colorado from the jensen farms. the cdc says there could be more people affected since there's a lag time between eating the bag cantaloupes and actually becoming ill. six supreme court justices were among the dignitaries at the annual red mass today. it is held every year before the opening of the supreme court's term. it is called the red mass because of the color of the

robes worn by clergy. hundreds of washington dignitaries were at the service. critics say their attendance is inappropriate and an unhealthy mix of politics, law and religion. a new law will prevent local governments from banning male circumcisi circumcision. it's in response to a group that has been trying to get a proposal on the ballot outlawing circumcision in san francisco. the california court has ruled the state not municipalities regulates it because it's a medical service. possible freedom is on the front burner for john hinckley, jr. the state mental hospital where he has spent the last 30 years is asking a federal court to allow him to go live near his aging mother. the 56-year-old hinckley was found not guilty by reason of

insanity in 1982. the national park service has halted work assessing earthquake damage to the washington monument. live pictures tonight, beautiful look at it. officials are waiting for high winds to subside after a gust blew a worker 30 feet. he is okay. it will be monday at the earliest before teams can work again. the quake hit the monument on august 23. for the first time in 15 years, tiger woods has fallen out of the top 50 in the world golf rankings. this ends his streak of 778 consecutive weeks in the top 50. woods hasn't won a tournament in two years, while battling personal and professional problems. also some injuries. let's look ahead to your monday morning commute. so not a great outlook for those

traveling in the northeast and the northwest, book ending it for the travelers. >> really the coast of the country that leads off the work week. if you're in the middle, you're okay. the upper low is sitting here, bringing you the dreary weather. lots of rain and just overcast conditions. that's going to be there again tomorrow. but the west coast, you guys have a series of storm systems, this is going to be an active week. this is really the first big one that we have seen so far this season. look at how that's wrapped up out there off the coast and bringing in all this moisture already into the pacific northwest. that's going to be the first storm. the second one comes in late tuesday into wednesday. as we look at the outlook for the week, there you have the low in the northeast and then the low in the northwest, nice and warm in the middle. eventually we'll see this shiftshift and we're concerned we might se.

make sure you have the chains ready. we'll start you off with number five, and a lot of these cities are going to be in the northeast and northwest. d.c., low clouds and afternoon showers. it will be a rough morning commute. the you're at the airways, do expect to have some delays at both of the airports in the d.c. area. probably baltimore too. new york city, best chance of rain will be in the afternoon, but the cloudiness is going to linger into the morning hours. number three, we'll go with cleveland. you have been dealing with the low, overcast conditions as well. you'll start to dry up from the lake shore and then finally making its way off to the south and to the east. city number two, portland and seattle. we are giving you a tie here, since you're going to see the same thing with rain and low clouds in your area. the worst location in the nation, there it is -- >> you need a drum roll. >> i know. san francisco, low clouds and the rain and a wet forecast over the next couple of days. across -- maybe even san diego will get in on the wet weather, don. last thing i want to show you, take a look at this. just for none, some snow video.

yeah, it's snowed the first weekend in october. this is in pennsylvania. they got a nice little dusty and there was snow in west virginia and into the higher elevations of north carolina. so, you know, we turned the calendar, we're getting closer to winter and there's your first snow. you look pained. >> yes. you know how i hate to see summer end. i love, love, love summer. i like the heat. >> it's going to be 80 in minneapolis tomorrow. >> you know what they say, you know why i love the summer? you don't have to shovel sunshine. >> but this will melt off quickly. >> thank you, jacqui jeras. we appreciate it. i want to go back to the big stories of the week ahead from the white house to hollywood. our correspondents tell you what you need to know. we begin tonight with the president's plan for the week. >> i'm at the white house and president obama heads to texas on tuesday to tout his job's plan. he'll do some fund-raising in

missouri. then the back half of the week is all about sports. he'll be welcoming the 2011 the ncaa basketball champs the texas a&m women. i'm kate baldwin on capitol hill. the house early this week is expected to take up that short-term spending bill that threatened a government shutdown here this past week. the senate has already approved that measure. the senate is likely to focus on china and trade with many lawmakers accusing china of manipulating the currency, making exports cheaper, thus giving china an unfair advantage. the senate will take up a bill that attempts to crack down on chinese currency manipulation. in the house, house republicans will continue their efforts to roll back what they view as

burden some regulations that hinder growth. i'll be in los angeles covering the jackson death trial and the debate over the mj tribute concert. is the timing all wrong with this? i'm going to ask jackson's friend cedrick the entertainer how the family is doing right now. catch it exclusively weeknights at 11:00 on hln. >> thank you. this is really a big week here at cnn, we're excited to welcome erin burnett to the fold. her show debuts monday at 7:00 p.m. eastern. howa howard kurts asked her about the new gig and moving exclusively about reporting on business to anchoring a new show. >> by doing a more general show here at cnn, are you giving up your business brand? you were so closely identified with being a market reporter, you worked at goldman sachs. is that a difficult transition for you? >> well, the first answer to

that it's still important for me in the sense that the election is -- the economy is the most important issue in the election and i believe in general that money and where money is going and who is getting money is central to every story. >> you're not walking away from that? >> no i think that's a important angle we can give to a lot of stories. but a lot of the things i love in the foreign reporting and that has a financials a peblg a i did at cnbc, is at the score and i think it's a perfect fit. >> erin burnett "out front" debuts here on cnn. she has an exclusive with leon panetta. the legend of an american sports icon could be tainted by a new book. did the running back named sweetness have a dark side? we'll talk to the author of the book on walter payton.

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he was known as sweetness, one of the greatest football players ever to play the game. and a chicago icon long before michael jordan came to town. but there was another side to hall of famer walter payton that was carefully hidden from the public. a side that jeff pearlman spent 2 1/2 years uncovering. his new book is called "sweetnes "sweetness," and i asked him what was the biggest surprise in researching the book. >> i suppose once i started to get to understand him, and know him, i'm being honest, it was --

you know, sort of after his career ended. you know, he retired and he was really looking for meaning in his life and he was looking for something to do. like a lot of former athletes do. he became the front man in an effort to bring an nfl expansion franchise to st. louis, and he spent basically 2 1/2, 3 years working on this effort. he wanted to become the first minority owner in the nfl and it completely fell through. when that happened and it wasn't his fault at all, he got extremely depressed, extremely despondent. started to question his purpose in life. there's a sort of image of walton peyton, as a gregarious, happy-go-lucky guy and he had the occasional heart break that we all had. i pictured him as a happy, upbeat guy and to hear he was a human being who hurt and who had the feelings and he was really crushed after this happened to him, i actually -- i know it sounds basic, but it's

remarkable for me. >> i want to ask you because he's been gone for 12 years. did you find people still trying to protect his image, because you highlight his shortcomings in the book. you talk about his womanizing, out of wedlock son, depression, suicide abuse of pain medication. you talk about those things, so i'm wondering are people still trying to protect him even 12 years after his death? >> oh, i mean, from the reaction in chicago i would have to say yes. it's been pretty -- you know, as "sports illustrated" ran an excerpt pertaining to his years after retirement, and people are very, very taken aback by it. i understand it on the one hand. i really do. because he was a beloved figure and there was a sort of image of walter payton who was cultivated and he's a myth across the board. i come from the sort of perspective of why is it wrong to learn that our heroes, the people we idolize, are humanis,

with failings and faults? he was separated from his wife with the last ten years of his life, and he was a drug addict, but the truth of the matter is, if you poll the former hall of famers from that era, how many of those guys need pain killers to get through the day i think you'll find an enormous percentage. i think some of the negatives have been hyped up. but the guy was so beloved. rightfully so. >> compare this to writing a biography about barry bonds, roger clemens. how did this one compare? >> it's totally different. you know, when i wrote the barry bonds biographies years ago, i was begging for someone to tell me a positive story about barry bonds. >> wow. wow. >> looking for a nugget of gold in a toilet. you can't find it. and walter payton, he was an amazing man. again, i understand why people are so protective because he was

amazing. his goodness was incredible. >> hey, jeff, the final question then. there's one incident that jumps out to everyone. it occurred at the hall of fame induction. tell us about that. >> well, hall of fame is the biggest moment in a football players life. and he was miserable. he was four days of misery. he had his wife connie, she was in the first row of the induction. and his girl friend was in the second row. connie had known about the girlfriend, but there was a real tension in walter for the entire time. he kept worrying, are they going to meet? and they did meet at the end later on. it wasn't actually nearly the big deal that walter payton thought it would be. primarily because he wasn't with his wife, you know, wasn't living with his wife at that point. but it kind of ruined the four days, the amazing four great days of his life.

>> the book is called "sweetness". the pictures are amazing. thank you for coming on, jeff pearlman. former vice president dick cheney praises a move by president obama, but don't think he's a fan now of the president. that story is just ahead. [ oswald ] there's a lot of discussion going on about the development of natural gas, whether it can be done safely and responsibly. at exxonmobil we know the answer is yes. when we design any well, the groundwater's protected by multiple layers of steel and cement. most wells are over a mile and a half deep so there's a tremendous amount of protective rock

between the fracking operation and the groundwater. natural gas is critical to our future. at exxonmobil we recognize the challenges and how important it is to do this right.

a vote of confidence for the obama administration from an unlikely source. ever since former vice president dick cheney left office in 2009, he's rarely had anything nice to say about the current white house. but on cnn's state of the union with candy crowley, he backed president obama's decision to

kill anwar al awlaki in yemen. >> no weekend qualms about a u.s. drone strike into yemen that killed the top al qaeda operative who was also an american. thumbs up from the former vice president. >> i think the president ought to have that authority to order that kind of strike. even when it involves an american citizen. and there's clear evidence he's part of al qaeda, plan and cooperating, supporting attacks against the united states. >> okay by the former head of the cia. >> we're a nation at war and we have a right to kill or capture enemy combatants trumps the fact that one or another of those combatants might have u.s. personhood wrapped around them. >> and the former ranking democrat is in too, but she wants the obama administration to be transparent about its legal justification for killing an american without due process. >> i believe there is a good case, imminent threat beyond our ability to arrest him. the authorization to use

military force against al qaeda, he was come policeant with al qaeda. but i think the justice department should release that memo. >> in fact, two americans were killed in the u.s. attack. the target, anwar al awlaki, linked to several plots against the u.s. including the ft. hood shootings and samir khan a propagandist. and despite that, something eats at dick cheney, and it's about the reaction to the 9-11 attacks. >> the fear and anger it provoked was understandable. but in some cases it led us to act contrary to our traditions and our ideals. we're taking concrete actions to change course. i have unequivocally prohibited the use of force. >> and now the president should

rethink the suggestion that the bush tactics were un-american. >> they said we had walked away from our ideals or taken policy contrary to our ideals when we had enhanced interrogation techniques. they clearly have moved in the direction of taking robust action when they feel it's justified. >> you'd like an apology it sounds like. >> i would. not for me, but i think for the bush administration. >> still, the larger picture is worth noting again, asked if the obama administration is waging a successful war against terror, cheney says yes. candy crowley, cnn, washington. >> thank you. loss, a man missing and tripped for nearly a week after his car plunged down a ravine. he is found and he's alive to tell what happened. "hey wrinkle face!" that's what people could say

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a story determination, survival and luck, has thrust a california family into the national spotlight. the dad was missing somewhere in the thousands of square miles in the angeles national forest and his four grown children found him. plus, they may have helped another family in distress. >> reporter: two cars, mangled at the bottom of a ravine. that was the site of a family reunion unlike any other, one that's likely solved a missing person's case and saved a father's life. the worry began when the man being air lifted did not call his kids. >> my dad would never not call

his kids. that's four of us. by the time the fourth day, the fifth day, the sixth day we knew something was wrong. >> so the children started to search on their own, pinpointing an area in california's angeles national forest. after detectives helped them track their dad's cell and credit card activity. then the brothers and sisters with other family and friends began driving. >> we stopped at every ravine and looked over every hill. >> all of a sudden, i thought i heard a cat or a dog, enough, where i said hello. it echoed down. >> sean found his father thursday. 200 feet down the ravine. the 67-year-old man had been missing for six days. >> i hugged him. we both cried. and i said, you know, how did you make it? he said i drank the water in the river and i ate leaves and bugs. >> he was heading in this direction and the other car was headed towards him. had bright lights on, so he flashed the lights of the car. i believe he swerved and went off the road.

>> he ended up right near another wrecked car with a decomposing body inside. as his children worried about him, he worried about how his kids would find him. he wrote on his car's dirty trunk "i love my kids, dead man was not my fault, love dad." it is likely to be ivan gelfad who has been missing since april. >> we tried to prepare for the worst. but hope for the best. >> authorities have yet to confirm the body's identity. what is certain, david lebeau raised some determined kids. >> you cannot write that if you were writing a hollywood script. we're glad he is okay. we're at least glad the other family found out about their loved one. thank you so much for watching. have a great evening, a great week. see you back here next week. good night.