matter of time until it exploded. >> cook reveals everything about what he did and why he did it. the candid and chilling hour, he gives his opinion on why he thinks other young deranged men commit mass shootings, it's a fascinating interview. that's the piers morgan live special friday night. that is all for us tonight. anderson cooper starts right good evening, everyone. a lot happening tonight. two major breaking stories. a new string of tornadoes hammering the central plains and two potentially lethal letters, one sent to new york mayor michael bloomberg. early testing points to them containing one of the deadliest materials to man, ricin. deb feyerick is joining us now. what do officials know? >> anderson, right now they believe both were sent by the same person. the postmark was the same, they contained the same kind of substance, and they also both threatened mayor michael bloomberg for his positions on the gun -- on guns, specifically

those illegal guns. the mayor reacted just a short time ago. >> let me tell you, we have confidence in the nypd and the fbi and their procedures. we take a lot of security measures, as you knowknow. the men and women that open the mail, for example, even are well trained and we have procedures for this kind of thing. this isn't the first letter that was ever sent to anybody. in terms of why they've done it, i don't know. the letter obviously referred to our antigun efforts, but there's 12,000 people that are going to get killed this year with guns and 19,000 are going to commit suicide with guns and we're not going to walk away from those efforts. >> and anderson, a police spokesperson tells us that in fact, the two letters contained a pink-orange, oily substance. initial tests on that substance initially were negative, but then a second test was found to be positive. and so, now that substance is

being analyzed by the national bioforensic analysis center in maryland, and the results of those tests should be definitive in the next day or two, anderson. >> was anybody actually exposed that we know about? >> a couple of people. the mayor was not one of them. the ones in new york went to a mail facility. the one in washington went to his organization, mayors against illegal guns. new york emergency services unit, the police who respond to that, they did initially develop some symptoms, some intestinal symptoms, but after about a day or so, those went away. and clearly, they're being monitored just protectively, anderson. >> and obviously they'll be looking at the letters for any dna or trace evidence that may be there. >> absolutely. and right now, investigators from the fbi and the jttf, joint terrorism task force as well as the nypd are looking in a very specific location. the postmark on those letters clearly giving them indication as to where the person who sent them might live. anderson? >> deb feyerick, thank you. joining us is national security

analyst and former homeland security adviser fran townsend. also on the phone, dr. sanjay gupta. they mentioned the gun debate, the joint terrorism task force is investigating. it could be more of a political threat than a terror threat, really. >> that's right, anderson, but as you've mentioned, that's not really at the moment the most relevant piece to the investigators. they don't much care about motive at the moment. they want to know who. and so, to determine the who, they will look for the forensics. they'll look for things like saliva, hair, fingerprints on the letter or on the envelope. they'll analyze, ultimately, the handwriting. but all these things take time, which is why the first thing they're going to focus on is, one, the lab analysis. you heard deb feyerick, the first field test was negative, the second was positive. oftentimes, these field tests are wrong, which is why they're getting a real thorough lab result. that will take a little bit of time, but that will tell them something. they'll expand the strength of the compound, how competently it

was mixed. they'll analyze whether the two letters, whether it was from the same batch of the mixture of the compound of ricin. all those things will help investigators lead down the path to who. and once you determine the who, you'll be able to understand the why. >> right. so, how dangerous is this stuff, ricin? >> well, it can be very dangerous. it's a very potentially toxic substance. a couple of things that are important to note is that in and of itself, this is a poison that comes from caster beans, as a lot of people know, and you can get that ricin, that poisonous substance out of caster beans without a lot of difficulty. the challenge is to actually turn that into something that can actually get into the lungs and actually make someone sick or even kill them. that's a much more difficult thing to do, which i think what fran is alluding to, this weaponizing, so to speak, of ricin, is a fairly difficult thing to do. you just heard deb feyerick's description of the substance. she said it was an oily sort of

substance. that doesn't sound like a highly weaponized thing. usually when it's weaponized, there are very small particles that can penetrate into the lungs, very different than what deb described. >> what happens when a particle goes into the lungs? >> well, this particular poison works at sort of what we call the cellular level, so the most basic level. the cells all over the body are constantly doing things, performing metabolic functions. ricin sort of interferes with that. it breaks down some of that machinery at its most basic level, and what happens if someone inhales it is that they will have difficulty breathing, some of the earlier symptoms. ultimately, their lungs will just start to fill with fluid in response to that poisonous insult. the lungs will try to respond, and that ultimately is what can cause death. >> if you know what you inhale, though, is it treatable? >> there is no particular

anecdote for ricin. we say that people are treated systemically. for example, if you knew someone inhaled it and were developing systems, you might put them on a breathing machine, try to support their breathing for them, give them a lot of fluids, because you lose a lot of fluids in a situation like this. if it was inhaled or injected, both of which can also be deadly, you would also treat them systemically, but there's been various talk of an anecdote that they worked on, but there is none available now. >> and if these letters do indeed have ricin, could the ricin have spread with other pieces of mail that they came in contact with through the regular sorting process? >> it could, and remember we talked about this with regard to anthrax several years ago, but this is a little different, again, because in order for it to spread, the same sort of thing would apply here, it would really probably have to be pretty sophisticated in terms of how it was weaponized, to actually go from envelope to envelope and possibly be poisoning other people.

it can happen, but again, based on what deb is describing, this sort of oilier substance as opposed to these very small, almost granular spore-type things, it sounds unlikely. >> fran, in the world of, you know, terror and people who follow and track this stuff, how high is ricin on the list of things people are concerned about? i mean, is it difficult to obtain? is it difficult to break down and weaponize, as you say? >> well, the component pieces to a ricin compound are actually readily available. sanjay mentioned caster beans. that's the basic component and you crush it down and you grind it. in the terrorism context, the way we saw it was as a contact poison as opposed to aerosolized, which will be highly weaponized, aerosolized, which sanjay described.

it would be something to ingest, get into your bloodstream and cause digestive problems, but it could also be lethal. when they analyze, they'll look at this compound and try to understand what was the intent, how was it intended to be weaponized and ingested and what kind of effect was it intended to have? it does sound by the description of -- sanjay's quite right -- by deb's description, this sounds like a crude compound that wasn't even terribly well executed as a contact poison. >> we'll learn more obviously in the days ahead. fran, appreciate it, sanjay as well. quick update on the murder connected to the boston bombing suspect. this is the man, ibrahim tad shetar shev, who implemented tamerlan tsarnaev in the triple killing murders. now law enforcement officials are telling "the washington post" that this man was not armed with a knife when an fbi agent shot him dead last week. the incident is currently under investigation by an fbi review

team. now to our other breaking news, the dangerous weather. the forecast this morning calling conditions ideal for tornadoes. the reality tonight, a tornado outbreak. here to tell us where they're being reported, who needs to be especially careful, cnn's indra petersons in the weather center. what's it like out there now? >> we've already had a dozen reports of tornadoes this evening, 11 of those in nebraska and one in the texas panhandle. and unfortunately, in my opinion, we're going into the most dangerous time of the tornado outbreak, simply because it's going into the evening hours, it's dark. people go to bed, stop paying attention. the map behind me shows you where 60 million people are still under the threat for severe weather this evening. the bull's eye similar to last week, unfortunately, right around oklahoma, texas and the panhandle. about 2 million of you in this area. we're not only talking about tornadoes, but also large hail, strong winds are out there. i want to show you how many watches are currently up. one of the things we're watching, where are the tornadoes forming? it's the warm, moist air along the dry air. so where they're converging along the dry line storms are

kicking up. we also have a solid stationary front in the area. and along the warm sector, there's a lot of humid air out there so we have storms kicking up in the last several hours. these are the tornado watches in effect, stretching from the dakotas all the way down through texas, and even in new england we're seeing a lot of severe weather, reports of damage in the new england area as well. taking you into some of the warnings, notice we're starting to see very severe weather developing, especially in through oklahoma city. unfortunately, very heavy rain kicking through the area. something i want to point out, yes, the threat for tornadoes are still there, but when you start talking about heavy cells developing, we're talking about straight-line winds. that means we're talking about winds 50, even 60 miles per hour that could pick up the debris that is already on the ground. also, a lot of the cells that have developed have been rain wrapped, so that means you're not going to be able to see them. add that to the darkness and of course a very dangerous situation. even reports of golf ball-sized hail and even hail as large as 2 1/2 inches in the oklahoma city area. so, tough evening in store this evening.

>> wow, golf ball-sized hail, amazing. and this goes into tomorrow, right? >> yes, the threat for tomorrow for 35 million of us. so we have to pay attention not only overnight, but continuing through tomorrow evening. a long road ahead. >> indra, appreciate it. thanks. you can follow me on twitter tonight @andersoncooper. let me know what you think. up next, the arizona mother in mexico for a funeral, arrested and thrown in jail on drug charges. her family calls it a shakedown. she's now speaking out from behind bars. hear from her next. and one of the best known congresswomen and tea party members in congress, has a multimillion war chest as well and is already running campaign ads, so why has michele bachmann decided not to run again? we'll try to solve the mystery ahead on "360." can acne cleansers be tough on breakouts and be good for your face? [ female announcer ] now there's new neutrogena® naturals acne cleanser. acne medicine from the wintergreen leaf

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welcome back. it's a woman we remember from the amanda knox trial, a woman kept for a crime she did not commit. now the arizona mother of seven in jail in mexico accused of drug smuggling is speaking to us from behind bars. rafael spoke with yannira maldonado and joins us now. you were able to speak to this woman. how does she look? how's she doing? >> reporter: considering that she's been in jail for more than a week for a crime that she says she did not commit, she is not doing very good, anderson. and let me tell you, when she first saw us at the prison, we were essentially the first outsiders, other than her family, that she had seen in a week, and she started crying. she was very emotional and just

very sad about her situation and telling us repeatedly that she's innocent, that she had nothing to do with those bundles of marijuana that were found under her seat. so, we wanted to ask her the question, how are you holding up, how are you doing after being a week in jail? and this is what she had to say. how are you holding up? >> reading the scriptures, reading the book of mormon, praying, fasting. i know the support i've been getting from my family, my husband, my children and everybody out there reaching out to help. i'm innocent. i'm innocent and i'm a good mom. i'm very -- i love the gospel. i'm lds, and we work hard to have what we have, you know.

we're not rich, but we're very honest and we always do our best to help other people. >> reporter: now, yanira maldonado is an american citizen who lives near phoenix, arizona. she was in mexico because an aunt of hers died in a state just south of the state of sonora where nogales is. on her way back, they decided to take a bus, and at a military checkpoint, where they're routinely checking buses and just any kind of vehicle, that's where they got stopped. so, i wanted to know, i asked yanira, how exactly did it happ happen, and this is what she had to say. >> at the checkpoint, they asked us to get off the bus, and they were checking for drugs or i don't know what else, and they say they found something under the bus seat, but i never saw

anything, they didn't show me anything. it's just amazing all that, what they did. >> so, let me understand this, were drugs actually -- >> reporter: they're telling me that -- >> sorry, were drugs found in her bags or just in another package underneath her seat? >> reporter: it was in packages underneath her seat. and what a local official was telling me on condition of anonymity, is that it is very unlikely that anybody can get on the bus carrying 6 kilos of marijuana and no one notice without being busted by authorities. they were the only foreigners on that bus, so the suspicion is that someone who was on the same bus might have framed them because they knew that they were the only foreigners and they would not be as visible as maybe a natural would be. the bags were placed under there so they would be blamed if the authorities stopped them. >> got it.

>> reporter: and that was indeed what happened. >> rafael romo, thank you very much. coming up, minnesota republican michele bachmann announces that she will not seek re-election in 2014. we'll take a look at what is behind her decision and what will her congressional legacy be. that's next. also, what senator john mccain saw in his trip inside syria and the action he thinks america should take right now. it's his first interview since leaving syria. he joins us.

minnesota congresswoman michele bachmann has announced she is not seeking re-election in 2014. in a nine-minute video on her website, she said her decision was not impacted by inquiries into her 2012 campaign and she

doesn't plan to fade from public view. last november, bachmann beat jim grieves by under 500 votes. he's running again in 2014, but bachmann said in her video she is sure she would win again. >> be assured, my decision was not in any way influenced by any concerns about my being re-elected to congress, and rest assured, this decision was not impacted in any way by the recent inquiries into the activities of my former presidential campaign or my former presidential staff. >> congressional correspondent dana bash is joining us now. she's saying it had nothing to do with the inquiries into the campaign finances, has nothing to do with her showing at the last election, so why is she leaving? >> let's start just with the whole question of the legal issues. i don't actually sense a real alarm from people close to bachmann who i talked to today that she is in imminent legal trouble, but there are problems bubbling in several areas on a legal front, including an accusation from her own former

staffer that she illegally used campaign funds. there is a preliminary congressional probe going on right now which may wrap up soon which will determine whether the house ethics committee should investigate her campaign finance activity. and i talked to a senior republican source just before coming on with you who knows bachmann pretty well who told me privately that she's been complaining about the potential congressional investigation. and anderson, the way it works is if she's gone from congress, the ethics investigation would just stop. >> it all stops. you're on capitol hill every day. you've covered bachmann extensively, including the time she tried to out-run you in the capitol hallway when you were asking her a factual question based on something she had said. how much of the decision do you think was a political reality that she might not win? >> well, you played that video where she explicitly said no, but i talked to some republicans today who think that the lady may be protesting just a little bit too much, because as you mentioned, she won her last race by just 2 percentage points. it's a very republican district she's in in minnesota. she was already airing campaign

ads and it's pretty early to do that. and i spoke to a senior democrat tonight who has access to internal polls. he told me that democrats already had her opponent up by two percentage points. >> so, she was already running ads and now she's decided not to go for it. >> mm-hmm. >> i mean, what's the reaction on capitol hill, her republican colleagues? i saw a bunch of statements that were sort of muted saying, you know, she made an impression, or you know, her legacy is, you know, related to the tea party. but in terms of legislation, are people going to be sad to see her go, republican colleagues? >> well, let me put it this way, i don't think michele bachmann would win any popularity contests among her republican colleagues in congress. many say her repeated comments like the ones that you refer to that turn out to be flat wrong, like the president saying, the president has a dog walker, which is not true, that that was a distraction from the gop message. but i can tell you, anderson, despite that, talking to her colleagues, if they're being honest, they do admire her political savvy, because especially when it came to the tea party, she got it. she got the power of the tea party before any of they did. she latched on to the movement

and made it her own. she started a tea party caucus, which didn't do anything or mean anything, but it propelled her to confidence in a way many of her rank in file colleagues can only dream of. >> dana, appreciate it. in her video, bachmann says she will not abandon the causes she fought for in congress, traditional marriage and family values. she made as dana referenced several memorable and frankly, factually incorrect statements on everything from president obama to the hpv vaccine. on this program, she made a claim about the price tag for a trip the president was taking that was pure fiction. take a look. >> the president of the united states will be taking a trip over to india that is expected to cost the taxpayers $200 million a day. >> no one really knows the cost, because for security reasons, they don't disclose the cost. so the idea that it's $200 million or whatever is simply made up. >> well, these are the numbers that have been coming out in the press. >> turned out, the only press in which this story was coming out was an indian press report, and

that $200 million-a-day figure, where'd that come from? well, that was a quote from an alleged indian provisional official reported by india's trust. >> i had a mother come up to me here in tampa, florida, after the debate. she told me that her little daughter took that vaccine, that injection, and she suffered from mental retardation thereafter. >> what you're doing, going after -- >> i can't do it right now. there are five chefs on "air force one." we are also the ones who are paying for someone to walk the president's dog. >> we talked about the excesses that he's engaged in, the fact that he has a dog walker, which is not true. >> the big point in my speech was about benghazi. >> if that's your focus, why did you bring up the other things? >> dog handlers and there's four americans killed? >> but congresswoman, you're the one that brought it up. >> that was an amazing interview because she brought up the dog

walker thing and then she turned it on dana bash saying you're bringing up a dog walker when people americans died in benghazi. joining me, john king and david gergen. john, when congress bachmann says her decision has nothing to do with the questions about her presidential campaign or what would likely be a tough re-election campaign, how believable is that? >> to borrow a phrase from bill clinton, that dog won't hunt. now, on the one part, she can say it's about something else and she can say, anderson, truthfully, that this is exhausting. when you run for president, then come back into congress, that she's tired. she can say and she might even have convinced herself it doesn't have anything directly to do with those things, but here's a key fact. number one, she won by fewer than 5,000 votes last time. a lot of people, including a lot of her republican friends, thought she was going to lose this time. the democrats have a long-shot chance of taking back the house. guess what? the republicans win today by having michele bachmann step aside. that is probably the most republican district in the state of minnesota. she was perhaps, many republicans believe, likely to lose it. so, the republicans gain today. and make no mistake about it,

the national republican party quietly told people, this is not a place you want to put a lot of money in. you wanted her to get the message that she should not run, because they would prefer, despite any public statements you saw today, the leadership would prefer a different candidate. >> david, as a political celebrity, she certainly commanded attention, she generated headlines, she drove fund-raising within certain quarters of the republican party. as a legislator, was she successful at all? >> no, she had a very thin legislative record. she wasn't taken as seriously as many others were, as dana bash reported, but she did make an impact politically on the country. it wasn't that she was just a shooting star that went across the sky, and you know, she was a front-runner briefly for the presidential nomination in the republican party and then everything collapsed on her. but anderson, she had an enormous impact on the tea party movement and helping to bring it to life, articulating a lot of it, being a champion of it. and her efforts had a lot to do with building up public opposition to obama care, and that opposition, as you know, is

very, very strong today. so, she left a lasting impact. i want to go back to what john was saying. her calculations here i would assume are this. look, she's got these ethics clouds that are continuing to hang over her head and are very likely to go all the way through the election. if she loses the election, she is no longer a political celebrity. >> right. >> and she loses her speech fees, she loses a lot of time on television, a lot of the kind of things that make her life now work, might well disappear if she lost. so, it wasn't just a question of going out of congress, it was a question of actually badly damaging her career. this way, i think she has -- she can keep things alive. she's very smart about that. >> yeah, no doubt she's incredibly smart, but john, in a way, it's kind of sarah palinesque in terms of keeping her celebrity alive without having to kind of get mired in all the details of, you know, ethical questions or governance. >> and she's often compared to sarah palin, and she doesn't

like it, governor palin doesn't like it either. i will tell you this, i know sometimes congressman bachmann does not come across as the sharpest tool in the shed and she's said some controversial and at times things that appear to be just plain crazy, but if you ask her what she reads every day, a question sarah palin didn't do too good at, she will tell you the "financial times," the "investors business daily" and the bible. that would be her answer to that question, so she would have an answer. david's right, she can still be part of the movement, she's very visible. she was the leading -- once governor palin stepped aside, the leading female republican conservative voice in the country. the tea party movement itself is at a very interesting point right now. you can make the case that it's lost influence in washington. joe walsh, allen west, now michele bachmann fading from the scene, some of the more vocal, and again, very controversial faces of the early phase of the tea party in washington have moved on. the republican leadership is quite happy about that. the democrats won't like it because they raise money off people like that nationally. the question, anderson, is a lot of movements go through these transitions. let's watch 2014.

obama care will be implemented. we will see the tea party try again in some republican primaries. if you look at the states of florida and ohio, in the medical spending battles, you have tea party fighting republican governors. so the tea party movement isn't gone, but you could argue its most vocal voices in washington at the moment are missing. >> also, david, if she continues on the lecture circuit, as you said, she's very intelligent, she's a former attorney. she can be a strong presence without, you know, once she's no longer in a legislative position. journalists aren't going to be calling her, as we did, on her factually incorrect statements. >> absolutely. absolutely right. and she can be out on the circuit, the political circuit, the lecture circuit, the punditry circuit and put together a good life and make a good income, more money than she would make in congress, i can guarantee you, and she can have a continuing influence on the tea party. i want to go back to this point john was making about 2014. what we don't know yet is how much the irs scandal or controversy is igniting and

bringing the tea party back together and whether, in fact, will make it more of a force in 2014. she may well be out on the circuit with a lot of tea party folks in the next few months. >> david gergen, john king, thank you for being on, appreciate it. new outrage tonight about what's happening in syria. what you need to know about a brutal assault that's been raging for about a week and what senator john mccain saw in syria, his first visit since leaving there. also, an update on a newborn baby rescued live from a sewage pipe in china. how the baby's doing çñ

hey, welcome back. senator john mccain joins us shortly, his first interview since a brief but symbolically serious visit inside syria, the first u.s. senator to set foot in the country since the civil war began. he came back more convinced than ever that america should play a greater military role in support of the syrian opposition. others worry that the wrong opposition forces may come out on top and the deeper american involvement could backfire, legitimate concerns. before you decide for yourself, it's best you ought to know what's at stake on a human scale because syria's not just a geopolitical puzzle for the world to solve, it's a place that's home to 22 million people, many of whom have been living and dying in terror for more than two years.

that's an air strike today on the city of 'cuof qusair, a fig jet bombing syrians in syria. they've been at it for more than a week with the help of hezbollah gunners who are siding with the assad regime, pouring in artillery fire from all directions. and as always, the youngest pay heavily. these are the faces of the city, wounded child after wounded child. even kids who escape serious injury are being punished to the breaking point. the psychological states of children are terrible, this doctor says, "fear, terror, wetting themselves, loss of balance, hyperactivity. they'll either be wounded," he says, "die or go crazy." and the people there young and old are trapped, same as the people of homs were when the regime leveled it, same as the people were who may have come under chemical attack, or the people in the suburbs of damascus. it's the same terror and helplessness in cities and towns all across syria. more than 80,000 people killed

so far, according to the u.n. today in geneva, the u.n. human rights commission condemned the siege of qusair. monday the european union lifted the arms embargo on the syrian opposition with russia objecting to both moves, threatening to send sophisticated antiaircraft missiles to the assad regime, upping the ante in case the obama administration decides to order air strikes or set up a no-fly zone. senator mccain thinks the obama administration ought to be more. he says his trip was funded by the administration and the senior senator from arizona joins us tonight. you're the first senior senator to visit syria since the conflict began two years ago. what was it like to be there? >> it was a very moving experience to meet these fighters who have been struggling now for over two years, and they're very aware of the battlefield situation and they're very disturbed about the dramatic influx of hezbollah

fighters, more iranians, and of course, stepped-up activities of bashar al assad. >> which rebel group or groups did you meet with and what specifically was their message to you? >> general idris, who as you know is the overall commander of the syrian resistance, was my escort, and we had a long meeting. they selected the people that we met with, which was a group oft fighting as far away as aleppo and around syria. their message was, to be frank with you, they do not understand. they do not understand why we won't help them. >> in terms of arming the rebels, though, as you know, one of the concerns certainly that the administration has is that weapons will fall into the hands of terrorists or extremists who are there now. house intelligence committee chairman mike rogers told wolf blitzer on tuesday that he says every flavor of terrorist is operating in syria right now.

you know there's the al nusra front, one of the most well equipped groups tha that is aligned with al qaeda in iraq. how do you prevent weapons from falling into their hands? >> well, by identifying those people who are on our side. general idris has a very sizable force. he has battalion commanders that he's in communications with. is it a perfect organization? of course not, because they're fighting as an insurgency. no insurgencies are perfect. there is a point that congressman rogers has, and that is, every single day, more and more extremists flow in, whether it be from iraq, whether it be from yemen, whether it be from libya. they're flowing in all the time, these extremists, but they still do not make up a sizable portion. for example, there's about 7,000 al nusra. there's about 100,000 who are fighting as we speak in syria. so, we can identify who these people are. we can help the right people. is there some risks involved?

absolutely! but is the status quo acceptable, bashar al assad with the russians' equipment and the hezbollah leader announcing that they are all in? and, of course, the iranian revolutionary guard on the ground not only supplying them, but training syrians in iran and sending them back. this is a terrible, unfair fight. >> there are a lot of people who watch this, as you know, and who say, look, this seems like another iraq, this seems like it could be a quagmire, another afghanistan. to that, you say what? >> no one that i know, including general idris and his battalion commanders, are asking for american boots on the ground. in fact, they believe it would be counterproductive to do so. second of all, i think that you can look at a national security aspect of this. general madus, head of our central command, once stated that the fall of bashar al assad would be the greatest blow to the iranians in 25 years.

and believe me, i just iranianse they are doing a lot of mischief and are trying to destabilize other nations. finally, everybody talks about iraq and afghanistan, and that's a legitimate concern. i'd also like them to consider that we went into bosnia and we went into kosovo, and we were able to, without too much difficulty, to be able to stop genocide in those places. >> has being there, has, you know, shaking these people's hands, looking them in the eye, being on syrian soil, has it changed or intensified your feelings in any way? >> it's intensifientensified, b when you look at the faces of these people and hear their stories, so many of them have lost family members, so many of them lost friends. this is a pretty bloody, bloody business that they've been in, and of course, it's been, as you

mentioned, intensified because these are human beings that are trying to achieve the same thing that we have shed american blood and tasure for for well over 200 years. >> finally, just on a lighter note, i know your trip was a surprise to a lot of people, your daughter included. on twitter, she said "nothing quite like finding out via twitter that my father secretly snuck into syria and met with rebel leaders." i think she even called you a bad ass, which for a child to call a parent that is a high compliment indeed. you didn't even tell your daughter? >> i think one of the prerequisites of a trip like this is not to tell anyone, as you know, because it just is -- being, having it compromised. but i've seen a lot and done a lot, and i'm not so important, but you know, there was a lot of men and women that worked for our country, that helped out, as well as syrians that we would have put their safety in jeopardy if it had leaked out.

and so, i'm grateful for all of them. and again, i would like to thank you for your coverage of this massacre and tragedy. and i believe that the united states can still intercede with our allies, and i think we can get rid of bashar al assad and give these people a chance. >> senator john mccain, i appreciate your time and i'm glad you made it back okay. >> thank you. >> well, we had to edit that interview for time, but if you want to see the full version, go to ac360.com. as senator mccain addressed himself, not everyone agrees on this. his colleague senator rand paul of kentucky, for one. he calls helping the opposition a dangerous risk, part of a history, he says, of america taking sides in the middle east to its own detriment. you can read that post at cnn.com. just ahead tonight, he doesn't have a name yet, but he's known around the world already. a newborn chinese baby flushed down a toilet. he somehow survived. we'll tell you how he's doing

tonight and what his mother has been telling police.

welcome back. tonight, new details about that newborn baby rescued from a sewage pipe in china. it's an incredible story, the images hard to forget, his little body lodged inside that narrow, filthy pipe.

surgeons had to pry the pipe apart piece by piece to free him. the good news is the baby appears to be doing well, doesn't have a baby at the hospital, simply known as baby 59. his condition is said to be stable. today, local police released new information about the baby's mother and her explanation of how her newborn son ended up inside that pipe. david mckenzie joins us now. first of all, what are doctors saying about the baby's condition, david? >> well, anderson, it's pretty extraordinary, this child that spent more than two hours in this tiny sewage pipe, as you describe, had to be clawed out of there in eastern china. the doctors saying, miraculously, that the baby's going to be fine, recovering in hospital. and the latest information i have for you is that state media's saying that a person claiming to be the father actually picked up the child and took it home. so, that's a positive development but does leave a lot of unanswered questions still in this incredible tale. anderson? >> so, they allowed the person who says that they're the baby's

father to take the baby home. what about the mother? i mean, what is her story? how did she say the baby ended up there? >> well, it might be difficult to believe, but police telling us that they are not going to charge this woman as of yet. they're still investigating, but here's what they say they believe happened, that the mother was heavily pregnant, went to the bathroom, was in a panic, and basically, they say that the baby slid out into the toilet. the mother tried to save the baby, according to police, even used the stick to try and fish it out, bring it out. she went and called the landlord, they called the firefighters, and this set the chain of events that really gripped the world's attention. still more details coming up, but at this stage, it's believed that the mother will not be charged. >> that doesn't make any sense to me, though. i mean, she had to have flushed the toilet, didn't she? >> well, the kind of toilet it is, it's pretty basic stuff.

she didn't flush the toilet. if you look at that footage, there's that incredible moment where you see the toilet and you actually see in the state media footage two tiny feet wedged down, upside down. what seemed like happened is that the baby kind of -- she gave birth, it slipped in, she panicked. she said there was a lot of blood around, according to police, but still many unanswered questions in the story, not entirely unprecedented that this sort of thing will happen in china and elsewhere in the world, though it might be hard to believe. right now, police say they are continuing investigations. the latest is that the child's father appears to have taken him away. this hasn't gotten a huge amount of press here in china partly because i believe the chinese government doesn't want to get this out too widely in the media here, but certainly an extraordinary story. >> all right, david, appreciate the reporting. david mckenzie. obviously, more we need to know there. there's a lot more happening tonight.

susan hendricks is here with the "360 bulletin." anderson, president obama is prepared to tap a new fbi director, james comey. comey is a former federal prosecutor who worked in new york and virginia. he served as deputy attorney general in president george w. bush's administration. the world health organization today called a new sars-like virus recently found in humans a threat to the entire world. the new coronavirus first surfaced in saudi arabia last year. 49 infections have been confirmed worldwide. of those, 27 have been fatal. a deadly attack today on a red cross building in afghanistan. government officials say militants stormed the building in the city of jalalabad, then engaged in a gun battle with police. two attackers and one security guard were killed. looks like nasdaq will pay a $10 million fine for its handling of facebook's initial public offering a year ago. the ipo was beset by technical

problems and the securities and exchange commission accused nasdaq of violating security laws. and armed with a big smile, you've got to see this one, one of the victims of the boston marathon bombing threw out the ceremonial first pitch last night at fenway park before the red sox took on the phillies. he was on the field with the man who saved his life that day. so inspiring. jeff bauman lost both of his legs in the attack. anderson, back to you. >> susan, thank you. coming up, the ridiculist.

time now for "the ridicul t ridiculist" and the continuing saga of the woman affectionately known as the hot dog hooker of long island. katherine scalia has been arrested again for driving her hot dog truck to a hotel and allegedly giving an undercover police officer a massage without a license as well as offering another service for an undetermined amount of money. she says she keeps getting framed and she only offers stripping and lap dances and hot dogs. >> get a little wiggle with your weiner. >> catchy slogan there. look, she's a people person, just trying to make an honest living selling hot dogs and topless dances. what could possibly be more american than that? >> i like doing the hot dogs, you know, i like conversating with people. >> she likes doing the hot dogs. the last time she was arrested a spelled it out -- there's a big difference between prostitutes

and strippers. she made that point very, very clear and very, very graphic. >> the cops [ bleep ], charging me with prostitution, when i'm not even a prostitute! i plead guilty to stripper, a stripper, not prostitution. prostitution is sex, sexual acts. [ bleep ] up the [ bleep ], that's prostitution. showing your [ bleep ] is indecent exposure. >> wow! now you know the difference between stripping and prostitution. you're welcome. you've got to give it to her. she does have a certain je ne sais quoi when it comes to speaking with the media. >> who wants to get a lap dance? i'll show you what it looks like. >> and it sounds like she has quite a rapport with law enforcement as well. >> when the cop asks me for a [ bleep ], i was laughing. i thought it was so funny, because i'm telling them on the phone, it's just a topless lap dance, and then he's asking for more. >> the alleged hot dog hooker was arraigned over the weekend, disputed all the charges, similar to the last time she was arrested.

>> don't listen to the judge and the courts and everything. you've got it, show it off. you only live once. >> it's a pretty inspirational message from a very unlikely place. that's it for us. thanks for watching. thanks for watching. "early start" begins now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com may is for mayhem, weather wreaking havoc tras the country, tornadoes, dust storm, heat wave. we'll tell you when and where to prepare. a shocking arrest in the explosion that rattled disney's toontown. a park employee now behind bars. and tears, disbelief and rage. the american grandmother jailed in mexico, accused of drug smuggling, speaks out from behind bars, first on cnn. and high-flying descent. incredible video this morning as a b.a.s.e. jumper leaps off mt. everest. >> oh, my goodness!