cnn.com/thelead. that's it for "the lead." i'm jake tapper. i turn you over to my good friend rihanna keiller in the situation room. >> thanks, jake. >> people close to the nsa leaker say he is in lockdown. and a storm system slams the area around the nation's capital. we'll tell you what lies ahead. wolf blitzer is off today. you're in "the situation room." >> this is cnn breaking news. >> we begin with breaking news. congress has been notified that the united states will acknowledge syria has used chemical weapons multiple times. that's been the red line for the obama administration, and that red line has now apparently been

crossed. let's go straight now to cnn pentagon correspondent barbara star. what's developing? >> this story has been brewing behind the scenes in washington all day. now at this hour wouhite house officials briefing reporters is about to tell them that syria has used chemical weapons. this dates back to two incidents in march when it's believed small amounts, relatively small amounts of sarin was used against civilian populations in syria. this puts the president in a difficult position because it's been his position that it will be his job to act when the red line is crossed. but congress is getting more

concerned about all of this. the ranking republican member of the senate republican committee talk about it a short time ago. >> we now know that chemical weapons have been used for almost a year by the syrian regime. we've done nothing. so i think it's time that we act in a very serious way. if a no-fly zone is what they decided to do, i'm sure our military has taken preparations for carrying out a successful operation and i support that. >> barbara starr, we're going to have you stand by at the pentagon. let's go to the senate floor where senator john mccain is talking about this. >> it's terrible. ism -- i applaud the president's decision, i applaud he's acknowledged what we knew, that bashar al assad is using chemical weapons. we've got to change the equation on the battle ground and if i might say, i have seen and been

in conflicts where there was gradual escalation. they don't win. if all we're going to do is supply weapons, then there will be a commensurate resupply by the iranians and the russians and others. so i thank the president for acknowledging that the syrians are using chemical weapons in massacring their on people, and i applaud his decision to provide additional weapons. i do not -- every ounce, every bone in my body knows that simply providing weapons will not change the battlefield equation and we must change the battlefield equation. otherwise you are going to see a regional conflict, the consequences of which we will be paying for a longer long time. and i yield to my colleague from south carolina. >> thank you. i would like to add my voice to the president's decision to act. because i think action by the united states and the international community is required. what does it matter to the average american that we contain

this war in syria and that it ends sooner than later? the chemical weapons that now have been acknowledged to be used by assad against his own people, my message to our allies around the world, if we don't stop the war, the chemical weapon caches, the numbers in the hundreds of thousands of weapons that could be used could be deployed that could kill thousands of americans or israelis or people that are aligned with us. so really the president's decision to intervene comes from an escalation of the use of chemical weapons by assad. as senator mccain has indicated, the threats to our country are not just from the chemical weapons -- >> let's get now to our chief congressional correspondent dana bash. she's there on capitol hill watching what we just saw, dana, senator john mccain, senator lindsey graham. what is the congressional

reaction to this news that the u.s. government is acknowledging that syria used chemical weapons against rebels? >> you just heard it realtime. two of the most hawkish senators when it comes to senators waited about a nanosecond between this becoming public and going to the senate floor and saying that this is just the latest example from their perspective of why the president and why the administration has to be much more aggressive when it comes to helping the syrian rebels and getting more involved in this conflict and not doing it piecemeal, as senator mccain was just saying. i should just update you. as we're talking, as we're learning this information, our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin is getting information and she's reporting a senior official is saying a chemical weapons used on a small scale is sarin gas in syria and this intelligence official says 100 to 150 people have died as a

result of this gas. this is more information we're getting on the disclosure of how much of these chemical weapons were used and of course the deadly impact of the chemical weapons. >> dana, stand by for us. we're going to go to the pentagon now, back to barbara starr. barbara, tell us what are you hearing there? we had to cut out from you a little earlier to get a quick reaction from congress. what else are you hearing? also, if you could sort of talk a little bit more about some of these details we're just getting into the situation room about how many people may have died because of the use of chemical weapons? >> well, these two incidents back in march in which sarin gas was suspected to have been used have been looked at bit intelligence community in washington and intelligence services around the world for the last many months trying to determine what happened. we now know that they feel very comfortable saying that sarin was used. but i think one of the real bottom lines here for the president and for the united states and congress is beside the humanitarian disaster, as

bad as that is, why is this also important? you heard one of the senators there talking about the concern that these chemical weapons as syria implodes, becomes more disorganized, could the chemical weapons wind up in the hands of al qaeda and become a terrorist threat? there is a much deeper, believe it or not, concern as well. iran. in the last several weeks iran has considerably stepped up its power influence and operations inside syria. we talked to people today who tell us there are at least three iranian militia training camps inside syria, perhaps thousands of iranian and hezbollah fighters. why is that so key? as iran extends its influence and looks for more power, more influence in the region, there are economic concerns. this could embolden iran. many people worry in regards to the persian gulf oil shipping

lanes could make iran much more bold. that begins to affect the world economy. >> barbara starr at the pentagon. let's go back now and listen to something president obama said about syria and exactly what would be a red line in terms of use of chemical weapons. this is what he said back in august. >> we have been very clear to the assad regime but also to other players on the ground that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. that would change my calculus, cha change my equation. >> it does appear that reaction is starting to come in. dana, we had a sense obviously a couple of months ago that it appeared a red line may have

been crossed and the administration was very careful about describing exactly what had happened, clearly wanted to have the time to be able to calculate a response to this. but talk a little bit about what you're hearing there on capitol hill. we just heard from senators john mccain and senator lindsay graham. how much impact that they're calling for, how much impact is that going to have on what president obama may ultimately do? >> i think that the impact is going to be the news of this information. now, obviously it probably should go without saying that there is skepticism, widespread skepticism and it certainly is included here on capitol hill since what happened with the iraq war, when americans were told that there were kwchemical weapons and it turned out not to be true, that the u.s. is not involved in. having said that, we just went back and looked at a poll that was done just last month asking

this question, whether or not u.s. military action would be justified in in fact the syrian government used chemical weapons in its country. 66% said yes. so that should give supporters of more action based on this news a lot of support from the american people if this poll is to be believed. having said that, i will just tell you that, you know, this has already been a debate here on capitol hill between those who are much more hawkish, like the ones we saw on the floor, senators mccain and graham and those who are really, really reluctant and know there is a lot of fatigue out there for the u.s. getting involved in any more conflicts. >> dana bash on the hill. listen to what john mccain said on the senate floor moments ago. >> also we will be assisting the

syrian rebels in syria by providing them with weapons and other assistance. i applaud the president. >> that was senator john mccain, as we head to the white house to talk to our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin. we've seen this back and forth before as the situation has evolved in recent months. the white house has taken a much more cautious approach, certainly than senators mccain and graham are calling for. >> reporter: absolutely. as you well know, briana, yet this is the game changer. the president has said his red line will be crossed if they find evidence that chemical weapons have been used. and the white house is about to announce, i'm on hold for a conference call in which they're going to do it, that they have evidence that chemical weapons were indeed used. and so that changes the calculus

from here. the next question is what does the president do? there's three options. there's the option of a no-fly zone zone. realistically there's not an expectation that the president is backing that at this point. there's a possibility that there could be some very serious heavy weaponry put into the effort to back rebels there, that the u.s. would really get behind surface-to-air missiles and bolster that, the rebels in that way. that is unlikely. what, you know, informed experts believe will happen, if anything now, is some form of supporting the rebels either through arming them, training them or enhanced intelligence engagement in the country. and by that i mean sending more cia operatives into the country, more intel support. and the president clearly is not going to come out and announce that. that's just something that would happen, if it does happen. so i don't expect you to see the

white house coming out and making an announcement to say we're going to do covert operations there. what we do expect is for the white house to announce this chemical weapons discovery and perhaps that's all for today. and we'll learn more about next steps in the coming days and weeks. >> and, jessica, we're hearing from senator mccain. he's talking about how from his perspective that he knows as fact that the administration will be arming the rebels. you talked about obviously a lot of other type of aid that has already been provided to the rebels. do you think this may be something that we could hear coming up in this information that we're expecting to get any moment now from the administration? >> we -- yes. it's possible. and there's different interpretations of what arming the rebels means and to what extent. the big questions will be how much, in what ways and is it

going to be enough to satisfy john mccain? it may be that senator mccain has one notion of what arming the rebels means and the white house might be doing it in a different way. keep in mind the president is going overseas to meet with european leaders at the g8 in just a few days where he has to come in and will face enormous pressure to talk about syria, have a public position on it and that might be also a motivating factor to come out with information before he goes to europe to meet with them. >> i think we're getting a preview certainly of what senator mccain thinks as he's on the senate floor there calling for even more just moments ago. jessica yellin at the white house, thank you for that. we have much more coming up this hour on the breaking news. the white house says that syria has used chemical weapons. senator saxby chambliss will

join us in a moment. >> plus thousands are without power right here in the washington, d.c. area. we'll have the latest on the wild weather that is hammering the region. [ male announcer ] you know what happens when we take away the late fees and penalty rate? no one misses them. the citi simplicity card is the only card that never has late fees, a penalty rate, or an annual fee. ever. go to citi.com/simplicity to apply.

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this is cnn breaking news. >> we have breaking news here in the situation room. the u.s. government now says that syria has crossed that red line that president obama delineated last august by using chemical weapons, confirmed, against the rebels on a small scale but still a very significant development. let's play some sound from senator john mccain. he was on the senate floor just moments ago talking about how the u.s. will now be arming rebels, but he clarified that. let's listen. >> it's my understanding that the president has not made the

final decision on arming, but here has made the decision that chemical weapons have been used. >> okay. so we heard senator mccain clarifying there. it seemed to be backtracking a little bit on the next step for the u.s. government. we are at this point awaiting information, a conference call that the obama administration will be having in moments. and our white house correspondent, our chief white house correspondent is monitoring that. we'll be getting details to you as soon as possible. in the meantime we have senator saxby chambliss, vice president of the senate intelligence committee, on the phone. senator chambliss, your reaction to the news today? >> i think it's time that the president came out and said that we now know and because we validated it over the last several monies that bashar al assad has in fact used chemical weapons against his own people in syria, as well as against the

opposition rebels. when the president said that was a red line, i wish that as soon as that had been validated that he would have stepped up and said the united states is not going to stand by and see more innocent people in syria get slaughtered, but i am glad that he's stepping up right now. and as senator mccain said, maybe the final decision has not been made relative to arming the rebels. that has to be done very carefully, but we have a pretty good idea of who the folks are that we want to keep armed o out -- arms out of the hands of, brianna. the intelligence community knows who those are, the military community knows. if the decision is to put lethal arms in the hands of the rebels, it can be done in a very juice dish -- judicious way. >> senator mccain said more

needs to be done than that. >> well, senator mccain has been advocating a no-fly zone for months. i've been skeptical of that for weeks. it's pretty obvious is strong action is not taken, then bashar al assad is going to remain in power for months, maybe for years. the iranians are arming him, the russians are arming him. hezbollah has complete run of the country of syria now. so we've got terrorists who are fighting with the assad regime. the united states has never stood by and seen innocent people slaughtered to the extent that's happening in syria. the united states does not need to be the world's policemen but it does need to step in when a

power like this kills innocent people on a regular basis. maybe a no-fly zone is the way to go. in the president decides that's the way to go, would go, i woul that. >> and you are critical of what has evolved from the defense secretary chuck hagel and how he was talking about some degree of certainty but the idea of the red line being crossed was not definitive. but today it is definitive. although there were terrible atrocities being committed in syria, the administration was i guess trying to consider its options and make sure that they did something in a very precarious situation, that they did the right thing and didn't complicate matters further. but do you think it should have been sorted out before now or do you think it's important to have had this time to figure that out? >> well, the president stated months ago that his red line was

the use of chemical weapons by the assad regime. we've known that they've been using chemical weapons for almost a year now against the opposition and against his own people in some cases. the president has taken his time and as a result of taking that time, thousands more innocent people have been killed. so i've been critical, i think, for the right reasons, just like senator mccain has. but i'm supportive of the commander in chief's decision if it is now to take appropriate action, and i'm sure that whatever that action is, it will be appropriate and it will be forceful. and hopefully it will bring about the removal of office from president assad because if we don't remove him from office, then innocent people in syria are going to continue to be killed. we're going to see refugees flood into jordan and other

areas in the middle east and they're simply overrun in that country now. the situation in syria has been boiling over way too long. and it's an opportunity for terrorists both from the standpoint of operations as well as training. >> senator, you will be awaiting to see what the administration's reaction is. thank you for joining us here in the situation room. >> good to be with you. >> and on the ground in the syrian capital, our correspondent will join us next. and we'll break down the chemical weapons used and why they're so dangerous. the great outdoors, and a great deal.

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our breaking news in the situation room, the white house notifies congress that syria has used chemical weapons multiple times breaking that red line set by the administration. officials say sarin gas was used leading to the deaths of 100 to 150 people. let's go inside of syria. fred, i understand as you await to be in touch with rebel leaders there, you have been able to get in touch with the syrian government. how are they reacting to this development? >> reporter: the syrian government for a very long time has been selling me they were not the ones who used chemical weapons, they claim it was the rebels who used chemical weapons. they said they were to go to the unions. they also said they wouldn't let

inspectors into the country to actually see if those claims were real or not or at least not give them blanket capability to go into the country and check out these claims. the rebels the last couple of weeks have been claiming again and again that chemical weapons have been being used. i was in touch with these people via social media while they were saying they were being attacked by some sort of chemicals. some were saying that there was proof, others were saying there was not. from the past couple of times i've been here, i've been talking to government officials and time and again they promised to take me to places where they claim that chemical weapons were used by the rebels and they never came through on those promises, they never showed us any of the alleged victims of all of this. it really has been claimed and counterclaimed but the government has been very adamant saying it did not use chemical weapons and at no times did use chemical weapons in the battle

here. >> fred there inside of syria. thank you for that. let's get a closer look at syria's chemical weapons, including the extremely dangerous sarin gas, which the obama administration says has been used multiple times causing 100 to 150 deaths. tom sp. >> we are talking about sarin now. it's an extremely dangerous and potent weapon. it was developed as an insect i side and then turned into a chemical weapon. how do you deploy this sort of thing? sarin can be launched toward a target by an artillery shell or

by a missile. it's a liquid ard turnd is turno a vapor very quickly. it's much, much more lethal than si cyanide. you can have blurry vision, rapid breathing, heavy sweating, confusion, headaches, nausea, convulsions, paralysis and even death as it shuts down your body's ability to control your breathing functions. in a heavy dose of this, death can occur within minutes. and people who pass through an area with sarin gas, it can get con it and in their clothes and

pass it to people nearby. that's why people banned this as a weapon and now there's going to be so much concern now that the u.s. is saying it has in fact been used there. >> and why president obama said this was the red line. we'll be staying on tom of this breaking news. when we come bark a friend of-- friend of nsa leaker edward snowden and the message she is sending him. through all of our energy operations, we invest more in the u.s. than any other place in the world. in fact, we've invested over $55 billion here in the last five years - making bp america's largest energy investor. our commitment has never been stronger. for all those who sleep too hot or too cool,

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her 11-year-old daughter. wolf blitzer is off today. i'm brianna keilar in "the situation room." >> the government's secret surveillance perhaps are getting a strong endorsement from top security chiefs visiting capitol hill. fbi director robert mueller met with the house panel and for the most part he was preaching to the choir with key lawmakers defending it. >> key lawmakers defended it by sayi using 9/11 saying they could have sniffed out the dangers. that did not move the committee's tom democrat. >> i am not persuaded that that

makes it okay to collect every -- every call. >> reporter: in fact, john conyers revealed he had been briefed on the secret programs and has concerns. >> it's my fear that we are on the verge of a surveillance state. >> reporter: the outgoing director repeatedly said collecting outgoing records keeps them safe and disclosure of the information has already caused damage. >> every time we have a leak like this, there are persons who are out there who follow this very, very, very, very closely and they are looking for ways around it. >> reporter: but countless attempts this week to explain to congress the extent of data collection has hardly cleared things up. like when this republican asked about his cell phone. >> if you're going to follow what this telephone number is, where it is, is that or is that not content? >> i think that's a very -- i

tell you i think it's a very difficult question and i'd want to think about it. >> reporter: still, there is significant bipartisan support for the secret programs. advocates emerged from classified briefings trying to clarify. >> monitoring wrong word, not happening. surveillan surveillance, wrong word. not happening. you ought to strike that from your vocabulary if you want to accurately describe it. >> the privacy of americans is protected under these procedures. it is misunderstood that americans' private information, telephone calls and e-mails, are being rummaged through by the government. that is not true. >> reporter: now senator nelson was speaking at a briefing for all senators that just wrapped up about an hour ago. all senators were invited. 47 attended. afterwards the chairman woman said senate initials are working

to declassify the idea that terror plots were actually stopped and they hope to do that even by monday, brianna. >> it certainly would be proof that would help them if they can detail that. dana bash for us on capitol hill. >> coming up, a friend of edward snowden is going public to defend him. the message that she's sending him just ahead. and more on the breaking news that the white house said syria has used chemical weapons. does that mean the white house will send planes over syria. more in a moment? o you want to take your business? i need help selling art. [ male announcer ] from broadband to web hosting to mobile apps, small business solutions from at&t have the security you need to get you there. call us. we can show you how at&t solutions can help you do what you do... even better. ♪

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congress has been notified that the u.s. will acknowledge definitively that chemical weapons have been used in syria by the syrian government. let's head straight to the white house where our chief white house correspondent, jessica yellin, is standing by with the latest. what can you tell us? >> the white house has now officially acknowledged that they found chemical weapons were used and in a statement this, quote, has schangchanged the president's calculus on syria. in an ongoing conference call, the national security official said that the white house has made a determination they will provide military assistance to some forces inside syria but will not specify beyond that what the scale, the scope or the nature of that military assistance is. so that will be the next question we will be asking and i'm sure your next guest will have plenty of questions on his own on that.

the next question is chemical weapons that cross the red line and now he's stepping into military aid. brianna? >> and joining us with more, republican senator john mccain, a member of the senate armed services committee. senator mccain, thanks for being with us. first off, let me ask you this. you were just on the senate floor and you talked about how the administration was going to be arming the rebels. you sort of back pedalled on that. maybe you didn't want to get ahead of them there. i'm not sure if that's what it was. but now they've come out, we understand, and they've said that they will be giving military assistance to some forces. not a lot of specifics here, and i know that this isn't going to be enough for you. >> well, it can't be enough. the russians are providing the most sophisticated equipment, missiles, airplanes and we have so far only seen light weapons come in, and in our case perhaps

flak jackets and mres. i have been told as i mentioned on the floor that there would be military assistance. they need a lot more than military assistance. we need to establish the no-fly zone. we need a safe zone within syria. every time we have escalated our bid, the russians and hezbollah are all in. you have to change the equation on the ground and you can't do it with half measures. you can't do it with just supplying weapons. assad is far too successful for that to be effect of now. >> i know you're advocating a no-fly zone. we heard from senator saxby chambliss who said he wouldn't want to go that far. why do you think that's a good idea? and also if you can speak to the fact that obviously a lot of americans and certainly this administration is war weary and is fearful of getting involved to such a agree in another, i

guess, war in this region. >> well, first of all, the president of the united states needs to go and tell the american people why we are going to take action that i am advocating. second of all, this is now a regional conflict. this isn't just a civil bunch of demonstrators being beaten up. this is a regional conflict. it spilled over -- jordan is destabilized. lebanon is about to erupt into sectarian violence. jihadists are flying in from all over the middle east. this is erupting into a regional conflict where the united states' vital national security interests are at stake. if bashar al assad goes, it the greatest blow to iran in the next 25 years. if they succeed in keeping him, that will be a great victory to iran. no, we don't want boots on the ground, and, yes, we should be able to establish a no-fly zone

relatively easily. if we can't, we are wasting hundreds of billions of dollars of american taxpayers' money on defense. >> there are certainly complications of arming the rebels. we've seen that in the past with other conflicts. can you speak to that and perhaps what some of your concerns are. and also in a way how the u.s. can make sure that arms don't fall into the wrong hands, considering, you know, all of the rebels aren't necessarily i guess the good guys. and you look at a conflict like this and it gets very complicated, it not as clear as those are the good guys and those are the bad guys. >> it was a lot less complicated a couple of years ago and it was a lot less complicated a year ago when every member of the national security recommended the president give arms to the rebels and he turned that down. there are no good options. there is a chemical weapons quash which has to be secured, which if they spread around

could have catastrophic consequences. but all of the options that i'm talking about, how difficult they are, i'm talking about establishing a safe zone, it's neutralizing bashar's air power, which is a decisive factor now in this conflict, as opposed to doing nothing. look what the consequences of doing nothing are. they are catastrophic in a regional conflict. i don't say it's easy, i don't say they are good options. i know the worst option, which is what we've been doing the last year, which is nothing. >> can you give us a sense of how you found out that the u.s. would be arming the rebels? >> i had heard that from a reliable source that i'm sure would not like for me to give you his name, brianna, and i'm sure you understand that. >> i certainly understand that. >> but the president, what he just said i think corroborates that. the question is what kind of weapons. they have enough light weapons. they have enough a.k.-46s.

a.k.-47s don't do well against tank. they need anti-tank and anti-air weapons. >> senator john mccain, thank you so much for joining us here in the situation room. we will continue to follow this breaking news. the u.s. government now acknowledging that syria has used chemical weapons on a small scale but causing between00 to 150 deaths, we are told, by sources. this is that red line that president obama outlined last summer and it has now been crossed officially according to the obama administration. this is . mom always got good nutrition to taste great.

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our breaking news, the white house notifies congress that syria has used chemical weapons multiple time, crossing the obama administration's red line. the nerve agent sarin gas was used, killing up to 150 people. joining me now to talk about this is gloria borger, john king, and our chief political correspondent, candy crowley, the anchor of cnn's "state of the union." first off guys, let's talk about the coming of this. it's been a long time coming, obviously. >> we do know that they have been talking in the last week, two weeks a the the white house and elsewhere about -- hezbollah is really what sort of brought them back to the table discussing how can we help here with the increasing evidence that hezbollah is now in there fighting along with iran and other folks we don't like. so there was that. i -- john and i disagree on

this. it was interesting to me that last night it leaks out from somewhere that bill clinton supported john mccain and a forum that wasn't opened to reporters and said i think we should go farther in helping the syrians and today, here they are. i think it's coincident tal. >> this was been an issue since last april when defense secretary chuck hagel came out and said, look, we understand there was reports of use of sarin gas, we're not sure of the -- >> some degree of reliability? >> some degree of reliability. we're not sure of the chain of custody of this. they need to do their own investigation. clearly they have done their own investigation and they are now saying, yes, a red line has been crossed, as they said in april, but now ben rhodes, who is part of the national security apparatus, a senior adviser to the president on the record came out and said the president has made a decision about more

support, which includes military support but he can't provide the detail but he said it is different in scope and scale from what we have seen. >> that leaves a lot of questions and you have senator john mccain who wants to see a no fly zone going much farther than even some republicans. what are the risks here of the white house getting involved in this, providing arms to the rebels, and what could follow from there? >> one of the reason that the president has been so deliberate and cautious and reluctant is because once you say you're in, you can say we're in on a limited basis. we're going to arm a certain rebel group. but then you are in. and the situation on the ground has changed dramatically from a couple weeks ago, a couple months ago. assad is now winning. there was stalemate before and it looked like the opposition was winning. with the help of iran, with the help of hezbollah, the fighters from iraq, the regime is now winning. the united states is going to make an investment, is going to step up and say the red line has been crossed.

it will start with limited assistance to those in the opposition that it trusts. the president is right, the choices go from bad to worse. those who have no affinity or love loss for the united states of america. the choices ared b bad. if the regime continues to win on the ground, do you have a responsibility to -- >> long term the other thing is, even if you never step foot in there, which there is no intention of doing, even if you can do a no fly zone and everything works out, where do those weapons end up? that's always the long-term problem. are you arming the wrong people here and they will turn them against you eventually. >> let me also just say that ben rhodes said no decision on a military operation, like a no fly zone, has been made. you just spoke with john mccain. that's exactly what he wants. he believes this may be a step in the right direction but clearly believes it is not

enough because he believes if assad wins -- >> he wants them to take out their air space. >> what are the complications with the chemical weapons that you see? i mean, this is the main concern when you're being looking at syria. there are caches of chemical weapons stored all over the country athey are very dangerous. >> it would take 20,000 troops if you went in there. that's why the president doesn't want to put troops on the ground. he doesn't think the country is ready to support that, that the military wants that, that's why you have urgent conversations with the brits, the allies, what will you do? if we come in and arm the rebels, and maybe put some covert operatives on the ground to locate things to try to make sure -- which they would never announce or discuss -- if we do these things, will you do more? as the president crosses that red line, assad has crossed it.

you can start off on a limited way. you better line up your ducks. once you are in, you are in. >> and here's the important thing that bill clinton said last night in this closed session that turned out to not be so much off the record. he was talking about the arab spring and said this could all be thrown away if this thing in syria goes wrong and he said i don't think syria is necessarily iraq or afghanistan, telling the -- the message being, we don't need to put troops on the ground there. >> and it won't be ten years. >> exactly. >> i think a lot of americans look at this situation and we hear the administration talking about national security concerns for the country but i think that doesn't necessarily connect with a lot of americans. what are the national security concerns that really can hit them on a very personal level here? >> oh, my goodness. you know, with iran in there with hezbollah in there, this is -- the whole middle east has always, as long as i've been

alive, has been a tender box. syria right now could set everything else on fire. similarly, the u.s. could make it worse. i mean, this is so many bad options here. but the fact is, the middle east, shall i mention that we still get our oil from there? the middle east in turmoil, a, grows more terrorists. b, that's still where much of our oil supply is. there are many, many u.s. strategic reasons to have syria calm down. >> and let me just say that this discussion of arming the rebels is something that has caused some consternation in the administration in the past. for example, hillary clinton and former cia director secretary petraeus and leon panetta were all for some form of arming the rebels at one point and that went by the boards. and so this has been an ongoing discussion in this administration and it appears that, as of today, the

president -- >> look at the map. it's the most complicated neighborhood in the world and every time you think it can't get worse, it does. >> john king, candy crowley, gloria borger, thank you so much for this. our breaking news will continue right now with jim acosta. jim? >> thanks, brianna. a game changer in syria's civil war. the white house confirms that the assad regime has used chemical weapons more than once. what president obama will do. plus, a raging colorado wildfire. now residents of a major city are at risk. and a stunning confession by a man who says he killed more than 30 people since he was 16 years old. wolf blitzer is off today. i'm jim acosta. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. you're in "the situation room." the breaks news this hour, the obama white house now says

president obama's red line in syria has been crossed. the intelligence community has concluded that sarin gas was used by the syrian regime and 150 people have died. the president has decided to provide more support to the rebels, including military assistance. let's go to jessica yellin who is at the white house. ben rhodes just wrapped up a conference call with reporters. what did he have to say? >> reporter: jim, ben rhodes confirmed that the intelligence community has determined that the use of sarin gas has occurred on multiple occasions, has been deployed by the syrian regime and has killed 100 to 150 people. that this is -- this has crossed the president's red line and this is changing the president's calculus on syria. the president has decided to

change his response to the syrian crisis and has agreed to engage in some sort of military support for the syrian rebels there but ben rhodes, one of the president's senior officials and his national security council, would not specify exactly what they will be doing next. that leaves open the option of directly arming the rebels there, providing training to the rebels, or perhaps offering even more aid. we'll have to see in the coming days. jim, one of the reasons this might be happening right now is because in just a few days the president leaves to go to europe and meet with the leaders of france and england, the g-8 leaders who will be pressing him on syria, the next step in syria. he can discuss this with them there. jim? >> jessica, thanks. let's bring in cnn pentagon correspondent, barbara starr. i was listening in on that conference call with ben rhodes

and it started off in a coded fashion. he didn't come out and say, we're arming the rebels. he talked about providing military assistance in such a way to make the rebel opposition more effective in their fight against the regime. barbara, what, if anything, can you tell us about what they are talking about? >> well, jim, what a senior administration official is telling me is that the president has not made that final decision yet about what option he wants to go for. there's some things that i think reasonably are going to be taken off the table. no u.s. ground troops in syria. the president also not anxious, not really looking at putting a no fly zone into place, though senator john mccain wants that. the most likely option, potentially arming the rebels. let's remember that this is something that mccain himself has been pushing for for quite a bit. listen to what he had to say a short time ago. >> i applaud the president's decision. i applaud the fact that he has

now acknowledged what the french and others and the rest of us knew, that bashar al assad is using chemical weapons. >> mccain wants to see the next step of arming the rebels. what could that mean? the u.s. either supplying directly or going to some third-party supplier in eastern europe, desperately needed, mortars, rockets, machine guns. it gets into very dicey territory very quickly. are you going to give the rebels shoulder fire anti-tank weapons, anti-air weapons? because the concern always remains with syria, so unsettled. could that kind of weaponry get into the hands of al qaeda there or into the hands of other militant operating around syria? they've been reluctant to do that because of that but this is now the step they may take. >> talking about the fact that the white house, the obama administration may be working through allies, ben rhodes

talked about international partners when it comes to this operation but those details are still developing. let's bring in host of ammanpour. christiane, he talked about the fact that the u.s. has reached this assessment and use by the syrians. barbara said this can be dicey. how dicey is this on the international stage? >> well, look, jim, i think this is really interesting. senator mccain said the president has now come to the same conclusion that allies have come to many weeks ago, notably france and britain, that they have a high level of confidence that chemical weapons have been used against the rebels and the rebels have not used them and

it's not in their hands. some 100 to 150 people have been killed. this is something that we've been reporting, i myself have had this confirmation from the chief of the syrian opposition on the ground and doctors belonging to them. they told me all about the human samples, the air samples, the ground and other such, tissue samples and blood tissues that confirmed that chemical weapons had been used. what you're seeing is a gradual upgrade of what the u.s. administration is prepared to do. i was also on that call, struck by how ben rhodes was not going to tell us in detail what kind of military support was going to be given to the opposition, although clearly saying that the president's red line had been changed. this changes the calculus. a lot of that has to do with really big moves on the ground. a very important rebel stronghold near homs has been

taken by assad. we have just been in touch with the general who told us that they are very, very concerned that assad forces are preparing a major offensive against aleppo. this would deal an almost fatal setback to the opposition. so all of this stuff on the ground is obviously playing into what the administration is saying and the way it's going right now. no mention at all, as you've also reported, about there being any decision on a no fly zone. we are being told by those on the ground that they absolutely need that. i've interviewed all of the leaders in the region over the last several months. all of them want the u.s. to help put up a no fly zone in areas just inside the syrian border, a limited no fly zone that can provide a sanctuary, a safe haven from what the assad regime is using, which is by and large, heavy artillery, the rebels on the ground are heavily outgunned and outmanned and this

could tip the balance of what's going on right now. of course, that does worry the u.s. and the rest of the allies. >> and christiane, what is your sense about how degraded this operations right now? do you have a sense as to whether or not this action is being taken perhaps at a critical moment for the rebels and perhaps at a moment that perhaps this should have happened sooner? >> well, certainly it should have happened sooner. there's no doubt about that, according to all of the people that i've been talking about. military commanders on the ground, u.s. allies in the region from turkey, to jordan, not to mention western european allies. certainly a program should have been implemented before now. because right now you have a balance of power on the ground where there is an arms embargo, generally speaking, and that is cemented the upper hand militarily which -- who had most weapons and that was the state, the assad regime.

all of the kinds of things that he has, he's had the advantage in that regard. just to give you an example of how desperate the rebels have been, and i've been in touch with general idris with my team and he's basically saying that we're fighting with small weapons, with ak-47s, rpgs against air power and heavy artillery. that's something to be considered. the u.n. said, look, 90,000 people now at least are confirmed dead in more than two years of fighting and also very interestingly, jim, president clinton is reported to have said that you can't look at polling when you're deciding about issues like this. this has to be an issue that the united states takes as a matter of national security priority and not according to what the polls say. he said he would never have entered bosnia or kosovo if he was listening to polling. >> and he was essentially

agreeing with john mccain. >> indeed. >> bill clinton was when he made those comments. >> indeed he was. >> let's bring in our national security analyst fran townsend. fran, we were just talking about this a few moments ago with christiane, is arming the rebels going to be enough to turn the tide in syria? because as christiane just mentioned, if the opposition is using ak-47s and military assistance may be going to those rebels, that's just not going to get the job done. >> it's not, jim. this has been a debate inside the administration and a debate between the administration and congress about arming the rebels before they confirmed this use of sarin gas. this is an exponential escalation, the sort of thing that naturally is going to precipitate the discussion about a no fly zone. there are two potential effects. one is to create a safe haven inside syria for not only the

rebels but for innocent civilians, jim, who have really been bearing the brunt of this and the casualties, and it also, frankly, limits the ability for the assad regime to continue and use again these chemical weapons. look, this is a big undertaking, right? you have to destroy the air defenses. you'd have to have some limited no fly zone capability. the question is who provides that? what coalition forces will provide that? we know from the military engagement in libya, the administration prefers to have sort of arab support and capability and so we'll have to see, this will require a real diplomatic effort to put this in place. >> i want to turn now to retired general wesley clark, the commander of nato. he joins us now, a senior fellow at ucla's berkeley center for international relations. and general, we talked about bill clinton a few moments ago, someone you know well.

he made some comments apparently up in new york. essentially agreeing with john mccain that more needed to be done. those comments were made when there was a decision made by the white house today. you were heavily involved in what happened in bosnia. some say that may be a template for what happened in syria. is that realistic? what do you think could be done? is arming the rebels going to be enough? >> well, every situation is different. we have to learn from every one of them. in this case, arming the rebels with rpgs is not going to be significant. we're starting to move towards a full-scale proxy war with iran here. iran's engaged. they've got people in there. hezbollah's fighting hard and bashar al assad regime is willing to use chemical weapons. they simply don't want to lose. so i think if the administration

now has concluded is that they have chemical weapons indeed have been used, i think this is more than just a red line. it also gives us greater diplomatic throw weight in the united nations. we need to go back to the russians and chinese. we need to say we're going to provide more active assistance. and there's not necessarily a stopping point once we start this and so, therefore, you need to put your efforts with us behind a diplomatic solution. maybe we'll get something out of the united nations. because one thing we know is, when we start putting the weapons in and restore the balance, the other side is going to put more weapons in and try to unbalance it again. we're in for tit for tat escalation once this starts to go. i think we need to do more but i think we need to do more in a way that plays two lines of approach, both assisting, strengthening the resistance,

and also going after it diplomatically. if there's one lesson we learned from the balkans is, you have to be able to operate both militarily and diplomatically and you have to do it simultaneously. >> general clark, one thing that you mentioned is where do we see the end in all of this? it seems to me that the end game for the united states, for its allies, if they are going to start this, is bashar al assad and how do you accomplish that without any u.s. military personnel ever getting involved? do you think that that is ever going to be entertained as an option in any of this? >> it all depends on the course of the fighting and how it is escalated. russia has said they are going to put these missiles in and they didn't and some people said they are already there. we know the iranians are moving across iraq with supplies and

assistance. we know that there have been iranians killed there. so as we put more strength in to help the rebels, we have to assume that the other side is going to also escalate. and so where are the final end state depends on the will of both parties. it's how far we are willing to go and how farther willing to go and the time to start down the diplomatic path on this is right now. we've got to go back to the united nations, make a decision and say, we're in on this now. it's not just russia. russia says, okay, we are doing it now. you want to keep this thing going, more innocent people will die and the end result will be worse in the region than if we have a u.n. security effort to stop it. >> but general clark, to go this -- to go to this measure as the president is doing now, he has to be prepared, don't you think, to go further, that this may not be as far as the united states will go?

doesn't he have to -- even though they say all options are on the table, they've essentially said, we're not going to put boots on the ground. we're thinking about a no fly zone. the president has to be prepared for further options. isn't that right? >> i think it certainly is a consideration. whether the president wants to do it or not right now i think there is the expectation that if you start to add weapons to this and you're the united states, then where do you stop? now, in the 1980s, president reagan put advisers into lebanon. we added weapons, trained the lebanese forces and brought the battleship new jersey in there and then we pulled out. and so there's a precedent for not getting all of your objectives accomplished. in the clinton administration, the objectives were accomplished. we'll just have to see how this works. >> general clark, thanks for that perspective. we're continue to following this breaking news and go live to our reporter in damascus later in this hour. next, a mandatory evacuation for colorado's second largest

city threatened by a large fire. and in louisiana, an explosion at a plant and there are dozens of casualties. g big p our country in the lead. ♪ load! we keep moving to deliver what you need. and that means growth, lots of cargo going all around the globe. cars and parts, fuel and steel, peas and rice, hey that's nice! ♪ norfolk southern what's your function? ♪ ♪ helping this big country move ahead as one ♪ ♪ norfolk southern how's that function? ♪ i am an american i'm a teacher. i'm a firefighter. i'm a carpenter. i'm an accountant. a mechanical engineer. and i shop at walmart. truth is, over sixty percent of america shops at walmart every month. i find what i need, at a great price. and the money i save goes to important things. braces for my daughter. a little something for my son's college fund.

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so beautiful. avo: more travel. more options. more personal. whatever you're looking for expedia has more ways to help you find yours. wildfire in colorado's history and it's threatening the state's second largest city. the black forest fire rages uncontrolled. it's already destroyed at least 360 homes and consumed 15,000 acres of forest and acres. that's almost the size of manhattan. victor is on the ground in colorado springs. victor? >> reporter: jim, roughly 3,000 people in the northern part of colorado springs are being told to get out of the way of the black forest fire now. another 6,000 people are being told they should leave. that's a first for the city that brings the number of people evacuated in this area to 41,000 and a lot of those evacuees are watching and waiting to find out

if their house has survived. dana hood is looking for something she does not want to find. >> my hands are shaking. >> her address on the list of homes destroyed by the black forest fire in colorado springs. >> we've been kind of not knowing for a few days. yesterday we got an aerial view of the house and showed that it wasn't burned. >> reporter: on tuesday, they received a reverse 911 call alerting them of a mandatory evacuation. they packed up a few important things and left. >> we loaded that stuff up, got the dogs, got their food and got them out of town. >> it's you and your wife and how many kids? >> five. >> reporter: the seven of them, their st. bernard jack and black lab boris are living in a camper in the parking lot of walmart outside of town. they listen for updates on their neighborhoods with their new neighbors. the hood family is in this

parking lot with more than a dozen other families and campers and there are parking lots like this scattered across colorado springs. but there is some help. there's a company offering free wi-fi, use of cell phones, offering hot showers, whatever support they can. dana does not find their address but she finds their street. >> the only house listed are on the total loss. >> how many? >> one, two, three, four, five, six. >> well, we were optimistic. now we need to start looking in a different direction. >> reporter: alex won't tell his kids but it's tough to hide his feelings. >> don't assume. all right? >> reporter: your wife looked at the list and it's hard to keep her from crying and i'm sure it's hard to keep yourself from crying. >> yeah. >> reporter: how do you do it? >> i'm dad. that's what dads do. >> reporter: still no

confirmation on their home but there are no fatalities, no injuries, and the only missing person that was reported has been found safely. that's it for good news. you can see the wind has picked it up. there's a thunderstorm in the forecast. no inra, at learain, at least j opposite of it. thunder and lightning. which is what the opposite of what firefighters need. >> victor, thank you. at least one person is dead and dozens injured after a massive explosion and fire at a louisiana chemical plant. we'll go there for a live report coming up in just a few. ♪ ♪ fly me to the moon ♪ let me play among the stars ♪ and let me see what spring is like ♪ ♪ on jupiter and mars ♪ in other words [ male announcer ] the classic is back. ♪ i love [ male announcer ] the all-new chevrolet impala.

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murder. an alleged hit man's startling confessions about killings for the cartels. i'm jim acosta. wolf blitzer is off today and you're in "the situation room." our breaking news, the white house says syria has used chemical weapons multiple times crossing the obama administration's red line. the intelligence community has determined that the nerve agent sarin was used by the syrian regime killing up to 150 people. president obama has decided to provide more help to syria's rebels, including military support. let's go live now to frederick pleitgen. this is just breaking. what are you hearing? >> reporter: yeah, it's very limited at this point in time. of course, they are all hard to get in touch with. i've been talking to very syrian

people over the last couple of weeks and they consistently have been saying that they never used chemical weapons and if anyone used chemical weapons, it would have been the opposition who used chemical weapons. they had one incident in the town of aleppo where they say the opposition was using chemical weapons. they believe at this point in time that they have the momentum on the battlefield. i was on the front lines a couple of hours ago and you can see the syrian soldiers are more confident than ever before but one of the things that they are worried about is the u.s. getting more involved in the conflict via through a no-fly zone, especially at this sensitive point in time where they have been making these gains in the town and of course as senator mccain said earlier, many people believe that the syrian army issen oh the move towards aleppo. that would be a striking blow to the opposition but the syrian government is very concerned if america gets more involved in this conflict. >> fred, thank you.

we're joined by democrat of maryland, the ranking member of the house intelligence committee. you just heard freder frederik pleitgen's report. it sounds like it's at a critical time for the opposition. what do you make of the decision and do you feel like this is overdue? >> no. the first thing is, we have to get proof and the proof is -- and our intelligence community has confirmed that chemical weapons were used. that's a red line. we have to be involved. we have to stop it. we have to do what we can do to help train and assist the rebels. that does not mean that we are putting boots on the ground. that does not mean that we're going to do the things that we've done in iraq and afghanistan. >> congressman, are weapons going to be enough? is a no-fly zone in order? >> well, right now there's a lot of momentum. no question going with the assad re regime. one of the main reasons is hezbollah. they have made a difference so

far. i'm not going to discuss this because we're evaluating. syria is a lot more sophisticated than what we did in libya. we are the strongest country in the world. we can coordinate and show leadership with the other countries that are involved. we know that there is a lot of concern from the arab league and countries and they are looking for coordination and leadership and that's something that we can provide. we have the best intelligence in the world and we know how to train people. >> congressman, let me switch over to the issue of the national security agency, general alexander, head of nsa, has been on capitol hill briefing members of congress. are you satisfied -- i know you're on the intelligence committee so perhaps you're privy to things that your colleagues are not -- but do you get a sense that your colleagues are more comfortable with the information that is being shared? >> the most important thing that we can do is we are going to try to give as much information to the public and to our members of congress so they know why we are

doing what we do. we are not breaking any laws. we are following the law. it's a dangerous world out there. the cyber world is dangerous and we know that if we're going to stop terrorism, if we're going to protect our country, we have to use unique resources in the cyber realm. so the news information came out and of course most people who are not aware are thinking the government is listening to me. that's not the case. there's no names involved. it's just a large inventory of phone numbers without major addresses and once we have information that there could be a connection with terrorists and if it's going to be in the united states, we turn that over -- the intelligence community turns it over to the fbi and then the courts get involved. so we need to educate and we need to educate who is following the law, following the constitution, and that there is no invasion of privacy whatsoever. it's a dangerous world out there. >> congressman, i know that you and chairman rogers were talking about edward snowden and said

that he cannot be regarded as a hero. does that mean that he should be regarded as a traitor, in your mind? >> i'm not going to say what i should say? >> why not? >> because i think he's done a terrible thing. he's put lives at risk not only now but in the future. if he didn't like the way things were happening, he could raise his hand and he could say i don't like what is going on and there are whistle blower laws that protect him. what did he do? he goes to china who we know has been cyber attacking us, stealing information from our businesses, costs us close to $4 billion. he's working with china and hiding in china. i just don't have a lot of respect for what he did and how he did it but the investigation is continuing to go on to see whether we can bring him back and hopefully bring him to justice. he broke the law. when you break the law in our country, you need to be held accountable. he needs to be proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and that's our system. >> congressman, thank you during

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an explosion and fire at a louisiana chemical plant killed at least one person and sent at least 75 others to area hospitals. the plant is south of baton rouge. people in the area were told to stay indoors and avoid exposure to potentially toxic smoke. for the latest, let's bring in our affiliate wafb. karen, what can you tell us right now? >> reporter: jim, the scene here is still very active.

if you take a look behind me, you do not see smoke any longer and that disappeared just about 15, 20 minutes ago. earlier today, let's fill you in with what happened. one of the units at the plant in geismer caught on fire and exploded. one fatality so far, more than 70 people were taken to area hospitals. eight are being treated at the baton rouge hospital burn center. crews did get the fire under control before noon today but do continue to do continued flaring. shut-down valves were closed off and the fire was contained to one particular unit. the plant helps make plastics and fibers. the department of environmental quality came out here and tested the air and so far no harmful levels have been detected. as far as shelters, a two-mile radius was under a warning.

all of those have been opened besides one of the roadways in front of the plant. we're told about 600 people were inside the plant at the time of the explosion. all 600 are accounted for. as for that fatality, state police just released the name of that person. he is 29 years old. he's out of louisiana, zachary green. a very tragic day here and now crews will shift gears and start looking into the exact cause of what happened now that the fire is out. for now, we are live in st. gabriel, jim, back to you. >> thank you, karin. next, the nsa leaker, edward snowden. some want to know if he's a spy. lets you connect up to 25 devices on one easy to manage plan. that means your smartphone, her blackberry, his laptop, mark's smartphone... but i'm still on vacation... ...still on the plan. nice! so is his tablet, that guy's hotspot, the intern's tablet. the intern gets a tablet?

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fbi director robert mueller is promising that he had wahe h snowden will be brought to justice. here is our justice correspondence, joe johns. >> how much damage he could do to the u.s. intelligence community. >> the fbi director on capitol hill thursday framed the snowden case as extremely serious business. >> as for the individual who has admitted making these disclosures, is he a subject of an ongoing criminal investigation. these disclosures have caused significant harm to our nation and to our safety. we're taking all necessary steps to hold the person responsible for these disclosures.

>> members of congress were wondering whether snowden was a crack pot. >> i think he was lying. >> or even a spy. >> he's obviously now decided that he wants to relay information about collection on forei foreign -- foreign type collections which goes beyond his original at least stated intention. there is a long list of questions we have to get answered about does he have a relationship with a foreign government. >> the other question seems to be, could he have acted alone? a u.s. official tells cnn there are no signs or indications that he had accomplices but they will continue to look at whether someone tried to recruit him. the official tells cnn there's nothing to indicate that he was trying to sell secrets. there have been fears that because snowden was in hong kong, chinese intelligence would be eager recipients of whatever secrets he wants to share. the u.s. government was taking a close look at snowden and said we're going to great lengths to

make sure we have all of the facts regarding the suspect's history. a former director of the white house intelligence advisory board wonders whether snowden exploited weakness in the nsa system to get the information in the first place. >> efforts to break into a system are normally tracked by nsa itself. so, again, we're left with a question about how he could have gone about even breaking into the system to get to these documents without somebody at nsa not noticing. >> a u.s. official tells cnn's barbara starr that authorities actually were able to hone in on snowden very quickly as the source of the leaks right after "the guardian" newspaper went to the administration initially to tell them what they had. at that point, security officials began to figure out who had access to that type of document, what had been downloaded but apparently they were a little too late. >> still many questions about edward snowden, why he did it and how he did it. we'll be looking at that. joe johns, appreciate it. when we come back, a break

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now we turn to a break in a cold case in florida that's exposed a murder-for-hire scheme, a hitman claims he killed 30 people decided to open up. cnn's john zarrella has the details. john? >> reporter: jim, a florida connective from here in marion county went to alabama to interview a suspected murderer. what he came back with was far more than he ever expected.

their bodies were left in the back seat of a pickup truck on a rural stretch of road in central florida, shell casings scattered around. javier and gustavo had been shot to death. for more than half a dozen years, the killings had gone unsolved. >> it was a cold case. >> reporter: no leads? >> no leads until we picked it up and started going back through the case. >> reporter: that was a year and a half when detective t.j. watts took a look at the evidence. a cigarette butt was the gotcha moment. dna was tested and linked the cigarette to this many, jose manuel martinez. he was awaiting trial for murder, captured in arizona crossing the border from mexico.

he confessed to the florida killings right away and there was more. detective watts says martinez told him he had killed more than 30 people since he was 16 years old. why? it that's how he fed his family. that's how he explained it. if he didn't do the job, someone else would do it. >> he was a debt collector for the mexican car tells. he pocketed 25% of what he collected from the overdue dealers, then he would kill them. he told please he made $210,000 just from the florida hits. >> throughout my career, i've never sat across from a guy like martinez. he's definitely a cold-hearted killer. >> in the florida case, authorities say reef is was his friend and may have tragically been in the wrong place at the wrong time. besides the florida killings,

authorities have linked him to at least 11 killings in california, one in alabama, and possibly one in chicago. there may be more. according to watts, martinez is still talking. now, police say they believe martinez finally came clean because he knew they had him this time, and he wanted to get it off his conscience. jim? john, interesting story. thank you. let's turn back to the world stage as voters in iran get ready to elect a new president. cnn's erin burnett has been allowed inside the country. at the top of the hour, she's going "out front" obviously syria is the big news today. what do you have tonight? is. >> well, you know, jim, it's actually amazing. we were looking at the campaign posters, and one says the hezbollah, and council for

hezbollah shorts sigh yield jalili. of course, and the u.s. now accuses -- chemical weapons, that is something to be proud of. obviously a very crucial part of the story here. jim, that campaign poster, though, one of thousands. they have been littering this city. the campaign action though, today technically they had to rip all the signs down as they come into the final hours before the election in which six people were running, originally 686, but the supreme council, the guardian council weeded it out, and all approved by the supreme leader, and they are returning tomorrow. they range from hard line where i heard chants at a rally of "death to america," "death to israel" to a more moderate candidate, where i was at the campaign headquarters, it felt more like a western campaign center. they were also talking about how that candidate would be willing

possibly to have conversations and be open to talking to the united states. so it's been fascinating here in the streets. >> erin, as we know, the administration ratcheted up sanctions against iran. what are you noticing on the ground in that country. are they having an effect? >> you know, it's amazing, you look at sanctions used for a decades against cuba, used against north korea, where nuclear weapons program has stilled moved ahead. it's a fascinating story here. they are having an impact. there's no question about it. we're going to take you to show you what regular people are doing, people hurt the worst. they've seen prices surge, but yet you can still buy a mercedes, you can still buy a lexus. we went to dealerships today, they're coming in in defiance of sanging. the u.s. brags about how these are the toughest sanctioning in the world. are they working at their goal, getting the iranian people to

say this is so painful? some are hesitant to talk, some are happy to answer our questions, i think it's something that u.s. politician definitely neat to hear. back to you, jim. >> erin burnett with a rare and live look inside iran. it sounds like it will be fascinating action and we'll be tuning in at the top of the hour. the countdown has begun for the all-new morning show, chris cuomo will be joined by indicate bolden and mikhaila pereira. that's starting monday and every weekday morning right here on cnn. we'll be right back. the kyocera torque lets you hear and be heard

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...and we inspected his brakes for free. -free is good. -free is very good. [ male announcer ] now get 50% off brake pads and shoes at meineke. we're going to lighten things up. a strange idea that's taking off. flying bicycles. here's jeanne moos. >> reporter: bike riders sick of sharing the streets with cars. maybe this will give you a lift. >> oh, my goodness. a flying bicycle. >> reporter: okay. so it didn't fly high. it didn't fly far, it didn't fly long. >> you could tell it's phony. >> reporter: it's what's? >> it's phony. it ain't real.

>> reporter: oh, it's real. the public debut took place at an exhibition hat in the czech republic capital of prague. there was a nonhuman on the bike, but it wasn't e.t. avoiding a roadblock. instead of being silhouetted against the sun, the flying bike stayed low, a total of six propellers that looked like fans. provide the lift powered by batteries, it was operated by remote control. >> translator: i have to say that it is already good to control. i can fly it without problem. >> three czech companies collaborated. it was a sight to warm the heart of a window washer. >> that's what we need to clean windows. that would be great. i'm going to talk to my boss. if they can buy some of those nice bikes, we can be flying. >> reporter: one tiny problem. flight time is limited to five minutes. that's when the batteries run out.

new yorkers were skeptical. >> it doesn't even look safe. >> those propellers are kip of big. >> now you fly above, where are you going to land or park it? >> reporter: and how do you lock it up like a regular bike? the lead company says that battery capacity will improve enough for the bike to be used for sports or tourism, but some don't see the point. >> what issues doing see with it? >> that it's insane from the very beginning. >> it's like, what do they call the segways? like everybody was going to be on segways, didn't happen. same thing with that. >> reporter: oh, yeah? tell that to e.t. jeanne moos, cnn. i guess it will sell well to extraterrestrials. >> reporter: new york. we're going to fly out of here as well. remember you can follow what's going on in "the situation room" on twitter. just tweet the show avmt cnnsitroom.

"out front" starts right now. i'm erin burnett live from tehran tonight. the presidential election we're in the final countdown. plus a mistiery ayatollah how maini. he's the supreme leader, saying this election is crucial to, quote, dash the enemies' hopes. plus breaking news on syria from the white house. a significant development tonight. from where i'm standing right now, obviously this is a front and center story. a whole new view on syria from here in iran. let's go "out front." i'm standing live in the center of tehran, of course, the capital of this country which is