i got lucky twice. >> everybody thinks charlie een is the big trailblazer but you were doing this 20 years ago. >> i have tiger blood. winning! >> jerry, there's no better way out than that. it's been a pleasure to meet you. >> thanks for having me. >> that was jerry weintraub. we now go to anderson cooper and "ac 360." good evening. breaking news, everyone. tonight, with signs of gadhafi's inner circle splitting, late word that colonel gadhafi might be looking for a way out. the regime has sent one of saif gadhafi's most trusted aides to london for confidential talks. the paper sourcing british government officials, a british foreign office spokesman saying the envoy was told that bottom line, gadhafi has to go and he

will be held account an by international courts. on the battlefield, in libya, opposition fighters fired rockets outside brega. however, they are still largely regrouping and waiting for the weather to clear, which would allow greater allied air support. for now, it's a strategy of shoot and run. take a look. >> intense fighting outside of brega and also in the surrounding city of misurata further to the west. for days the gadhafi regime has been saying that misurata is under their control. they even took our nic robertson there, drove in a mob of pro-gadhafi people to hold a fake rally. but the fighting continues and

now for the first time, we're seeing for ourselves what's really going on in misurata. cnn was able to send a correspondent in there and he got remarkable access to opposition forces still fighting in that city. here's what he saw. >> reporter: weeks of urban combat have taken their toll on misurata. badly damaged buildings, streets littered with wreckage. libya's third largest city is under siege by pro-gadhafi forces. we're extremely close to the front line right now. we're with a couple of the fighters from the opposition forces and this is in downtown misurata. there's a lot of destruction everywhere. most of the buildings here have some sort of damage to them, pock marks, destroyed cars, as well. we can also see that the people we're with, the fighters we're with are very, very tense at this moment. a celebration on a destroyed armored vehicle, a step too far

for pro-gadhafi forces nearby. and the scene turns ugly. >> as you see, buildings, gas stations, school, police station, even firestation, they have destroyed it. >> reporter: most residents have fled downtown misurata as pro-gadhafi forces have positioned snipers on tall buildings and used tanks and artillery in the city center. the anti-gadhafi fighters badly outgunned fight back with the few weapons they have. they provided us with this video saying it shows a man disabling a battle tank with a rocket-propelled grenade. [ explosion ] >> amazing stuff. fed rick is now on his way to malta and joins us from the

mediterranean. and ben wedeman joins us from ajdabiya in eastern libya. fred, those images, it seems like sheer utter chaos, and yet it does push against and show that what the libyan government has been saying, that they're in control of lz is simply not true. >> reporter: absolutely, anderson. the libyan government is by no means in control of misurata. you have a front line that goes right through the center of the city. when you go to one street, you'll be inside opposition controlled territory. they'll have their check points. and you go a couple streets further on, you'll have bullets whizzing by. the government has positioned snipers on tall buildings to fire at people out in the streets. the opposition, anderson, is really very much still holding their territory in the city of misurata. however, they are very badly outgunned. some of them have ak-47s, some have rocket-propelled grenades. but a lot have makeshift weapons they've made themselves.

machetes, some have tried to make their air rifles a little higher powered. the sense we got is that they are holding not only a large part of the center of the city, but also other key installations in misurata like the port through which we got in with the ship and at least some aide is also getting in, although it's very, very little. >> i want to talk to you about what you saw in the hospitals. but ben, when you were on the front lines with the opposition today, i want to play some of what you saw today. let's take a look. [ speaking foreign language ] >> reporter: this is useful they say, giving me his antiquated soviet made machine gun, adding it's only good for pigeon hunter. the fighters fire their weapons all day long, but by afternoon they start to run out of ammunition, which, of course means they have to retreat. >> what are their supply lines like? what kind of -- you've been

following them now for weeks. have they -- has the force evolved? is this a learning army? what we see, anderson, is still this sort of ad hoc, rag tag group of people trying to fight their way toward the west, toward they say tripoli. but in fact there doesn't seem to be any emerging leadership on the battlefield. there doesn't seem to be a plan. there doesn't seem to be really any vision as to how they're going to overcome the army of moammar gadhafi. their tactics haven't changed. whereas we've seen on the libyan army side, the tactics change quite rapidly. they no longer depend on heavy armor. they're driving around in civilian vehicles. they no longer depend on a large group of people. they really operate like a guerrilla army against the

opposition. and you see the effects, the results every day on the front. they get beaten back very easily, retreating more often than they're advancing. so not really much progress at all, anderson. >> frederick, what are the hospitals -- or the hospital like in misurata, i mean, do they have supplies? >> reporter: we were in one of the few hospitals that's still functioning in misurata. the situation is so dire that they're having to operate on people in the hospital corridor, some people are being treated in the parking lot of the hospital. the emergency room is actually in a tent that's outside of the hospital and the supplies are really a very big issue. they lack anesthetic and operating tools. one of the things you'll have, you'll have someone who has a gunshot wound to the leg where that could be treated quite easily. however, now they have to push that patient back because they have so many coming in and they have to operate on legs and

other limbs that they normally wouldn't have to. the boat we're on carried some supplies into misurata under a lot of danger, because the port is still under artillery attacks, but it's by no means enough to meet the needs of the hospital and the doctors say they're working 24-7. they stay at the hospital all the time. they don't go home because they're so overwhelmed with the casualties, anderson. >> ben, now that this has been taken over by nato, have there by fewer air strikes since it's been handed over, is that because of the handover or i saw there was bad weather? >> reporter: certainly with regards to the air strikes, we haven't seen very many today, just an hour or so ago i did hear planes overhead. but no air strikes. and yesterday, there was a fairly intense sandstorm so that might explain the lack or the reduction in the number of air

strikes. but today, it was quite clear, quite basically there was no sandstorm, good visibility but still no -- no air strikes that we saw. that may be because it's much harder to find actual targets to hit as to the libyan army is operating in small groups and civilian cars. probably nato aircraft are a bit hesitant to hit cars that may in fact contain civilians. anderson? >> that goes to the point that you raised last night, ben, about lack of communications that the opposition forces have. they're using cell phones in some cases and not able to coordinate, i assume, in any realistic battlefield realtime way with aircraft overhead. fred, we look forward to seeing more with your reports. thank you very much. ben, as well. join us on facebook and twitter. i'll be tweeting tonight.

up next, moussa koussa, he's in london talking to authorities. wait till you hear what a gadhafi spokesman is saying about him. and new details what happened to eman al obeidy, the woman dragged off. i talked to a british reporter who tried to help her and got punched in the face for it. and the four "new york times" journalists captured, beaten. tonight, they'll tell us what happened and how they managed to preserve enough humanity in the eyes of their captors to save their own lives. >> you could only work them if you're looking in their eye. >> if you're showing your back, you're easier to kill? >> you can't be talking with them, you can't be pleading with them if your back is turned to them. they're not going to have any compunction about shooting you. they're going to enjoy it. >> let's check in with isha sesay. >> more troubling news from japan where workers are

scrambling to cool down reactors at that damaged nuclear power plant. now there's word about radioactivity being found in beef. i'll have the latest. ♪ hello sunshine, sweet as you can be ♪ [ female announcer ] wake up to sweetness with honey nut cheerios cereal. kissed with real honey. and the 100% natural whole grain oats can help lower your cholesterol. you are so sweet to me. bee happy. bee healthy. >> announcer: this past year alone there's been a 67% spike in companies embracing the cloud-- big clouds, small ones, public, private,

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more on our breaking news.

new word tonight of a fresh crack in gadhafi's inner circle. a former foreign minister now in cairo denouncing the regime. the most recent foreign minister, moussa koussa, this man, is in britain. officials say he's talking to them and no deal was made to secure his cooperation. they say he's as close to gadhafi as someone can be without being family. to hear the regime tell it, his departure was no big deal and neither is he. listen. >> well, mr. moussa koussa asked for a sick leave because he was exhausted physically and he had diabetes and high blood pressure. the government or the authorities gave him the permission to leave the country to look after himself, because he was in bad need for intensive medical care. and we -- since he arrived in

tunisia a day after, we didn't have any communications with him. we understand now that he resigned from his position. that's his personal decision. other people will step in to do the job. >> the question was -- [ inaudible ] do you feel this is a big blow? >> colonel gadhafi is surrounded by many, many people who admire him and are prepared to work with him under his leadership. it's never depended on one person. >> the spokesman saying a sick old man who is not very important anyhow asks in the middle of war for a little time off. then in the heat of battle, he decamps to one of the foreign countries that happens to be bombing his homeland and starts talking to that country's intelligence service. happens every day. it runs hard into a freight load

of facts. moussa koussa was old and sick, ill and exhausted. well, for starters, he's several years younger than moammar gadhafi. as for his health, during his last news conference two weeks ago, his hands were trembling a bit. here's a frame taken from the video a moment ago from his interview in february with nic robertson. seems to be in good shape there. here he is last october meeting and greeting hugo chavez. nothing unusual about his appearance and he was healthy enough to travel. this is moussa koussa in beijing, china last may. he was in brussels in march and in madrid in february. he was in italy two months ago and at the u.n. six moments ago. a heavy schedule for a sick old man. what was he doing with all those world leaders? before that, what was such an insignificant and replaceable figure such as himself doing as head of libyan intelligence for 15 years? what was he doing allegedly overseeing the pan-am 103

bombing as well as assassination campaigns targeting dissidents overseas? what was he doing so close to gadhafi since day one? yet today, the spokesman said his departure would have little impact on the regime. if that sounds familiar, that's not the first time moussa inbrahim has been confronted. take a look. the claim i find hardest to understand is this claim that libya's youth are being given hallucinatory pills and brainwashed to attack. what drugs are being used? specifically what hallucinatory pills? >> actually, the leader did not specifically accuse the united states of america. he really said that al qaeda, very highly trained individuals who now look more secular than the dwellers of the caves in

afghanistan, they were trainers and jeans -- >> i'm asking you what hallucinatory pills. >> we did indeed capture young people using these pills. >> what pills? are you talking about meth amphetamine, lsd, what are you talking about? he departmeidn't have an answer. joining us from tripoli, nic robertson. also with us from berkeley, california, bob baer, co-author of "the company we keep." and ann marie slaughter. you say that the defection of moussa koussa is a big deal, it's actually a success of the coalition strategy. >> and i think it's proof that the strategy is working. the strategy from the beginning

has been to isolate gadhafi, to pressure him and convince the people around him that their days are numbered. this is a really significant demonstration it's working. >> bob, you're not convinced it's the beginning of the end for gadhafi in any way, right? >> no, i don't think so. he was forced out of the intelligence service in 2009. gadhafi's sons all fought with him. he was on thin ice three or four months ago. but it is important in the sense that it gives a morale booster for the rebels and the united states and the west. i think what we should hope for is a snowballing of this and see somebody truly from the inner circle, his brother-in-law, for instance, leaving and then we would know it was the end. >> you say you've been hearing for several weeks he was looking for some sort of a deal. >> i know the intermediary that was dealing with european governments trying to get him out.

they were putting out messages that moussa koussa was plotting against gadhafi, thought he could get some people together and decapitate the regime. i don't know if that's true, but he was looking for a way out. they were looking for american channels but it ended up in a european country and went to the british. >> nic, this report now about an emissary of saif gadhafi's going to london, you actually heard about that before he left. >> reporter: yeah, if we can just back up and talk about moussa koussa. i can tell you pretty assuredly that moammar gadhafi actually was rattled and is rattled by his departure. and it is something that is going to get over for sure. i can tell you for a fact it has gotten to him. the intermediary that is working for saif gadhafi, i met with him. i've known him for ten years now and i met with him just a few days before he left for london. he told me that he was going and he told me that he was going for

family reasons and i said, well, it's always good to have discussions and he said, yes. and he said, what do you mean, "discussions," am i going to be interrogated? i said, i don't believe so, why would i know that? but the very fact that this man was going, this is somebody who has worked very, very closely with saif gadhafi for a long time. he's done a lot of things for this regime. i first met him on the border of afghanistan right after 2001. he had come there to escort all the libyans who were in afghanistan with osama bin laden out of the country. he was trusted by the regime and has paid a high price for it over the years. knowing he was going to london seemed to open the possibility that if anyone was going to talk on behalf of saif gadhafi, this is a man who would do that. he was somebody who would be known there, have a track

record, somebody that they would recognize as a real genuine potential intermediary, if that were the case, anderson. >> professor slaughter, do you think this is still the best hope of trying to get this into the next chapter? >> i do. you're certainly getting evidence that there are lots of tensions. no matter which version of the story you take, there's a lot of tension within the inner circle. i agree that he is close to saif. i think talks in britain where saif had spent a lot of time are significant. i think overall, people are looking at this and trying to figure out what the endgame is for them. each person that leaves, that makes it a little scarier for the people still remaining. and you may at some point get a tipping effect. i think this is evidence that this combination of force and diplomacy is working. >> british authorities have made

it clear he was not offered any kind of immunity deal, moussa koussa. >> yes. that's interesting. and also it's been reported today that any discussion of whether gadhafi would leave, he would not get any kind of immunity. you know, it sort of depends on where these people end up. if they end up in countries that don't have extradition agreements, are not subject to icc jurisdiction, they're not going to get immunity but won't get prosecuted. >> bob baer, when you look at the amount of times gadhafi's kids have spent overseas, whether in europe or jetsetting around the world, it would seem the idea they're going to be stuck in libya the rest of their lives, that doesn't seem a very attractive thing for them. >> you know, anderson, you're absolutely right. they're soft, if you like. they don't want to follow the same fate that their father is going to follow. that's exactly what i would like to see is one of these kids defect and other members of the clan come out. and then i would really feel

confident we're within days of seeing his departure. >> i remember one of these kids saying to christiane amanpour that he was upset because he had to get a lawyer because he likes to go on safari in africa and he couldn't believe he wasn't going to be able to do that. >> absolutely. crack that clan and he's done. those elite units will fall apart. the tribe will defect. and it will all be over. >> nic, very briefly, only about 30 seconds left, has saif gadhafi appeared -- i know i saw his daughter potising with troo in some areas. is he still around? >> reporter: we believe he is. certainly there are other members of the family around. again, these are details i don't want to go into. but there are other members of the family around. and i can say recently, assuredly that they haven't

given up hope. they still believe in their father, and they're saying pretty much what they were saying before, anderson. >> nic robertson, thank you very much. b bob. coming up, the latest on eman al obeidy. what the libyan government is saying about where she is now. new information about that and what her family is saying. and you'll hear in reporter jonathan miller. he's on the left in that video, trying to help her. he got punched in the face. he tells me what he saw up close that day. later, an exclusive with the four journalists held captive by gadhafi's troops for nearly a week. the only woman in the group told the tale about being punched and groped. she told me about one chilly moments when one of the troops started stroking her hair. >> i tried to put my head down and he picked it up and kept caressing me in this weird sort of tender way and he was say thing phrase over and over and i

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new video tonight. take a look of a weddinger is moan wri in eastern libya. it's up usual because it takes place during wartime, but the bride is missing. the bride is eman al obeidy. she's not at her wedding ceremony, which is being held as

a public aftfirmation of her honor. plain clothes officialed,hugs dragged her away, and ever since authorities have been blowing smoke about what's become of her. first they said she was released and with her family. today, the spokesman said he didn't know her immediate whereabouts. and he said that he would be made available on saturday for an interview with two female parents. when reporters tried to pin him down on her location, he said this -- >> the only place other than her family's house, we have usual usually -- how to say this in english, like a place for a woman who has been raped or some sort of shelter. it's a social shelter for women who have been traumatized or raped or kidnapped and they have

social stigma against them, they are in danger of any sort, it's a social care place for women, especially for women. it's a major place in tripoli and maybe she is there to look at her psychologically and make sure she is fine. >> late today, we checked again with her parents. they told us they're yet to hear from their daughter. as for the facility that guy is talking about, according to a 2006 human rights report, there is no limit on the length of time the government can hold women there. even if eman were home safe right now, everything about the rest of her experience shocks the conscience and has taken itn's jonathan miller. he was in the hotel that day. i spoke to him earlier. i think everybody who has seen the incident with eman al obeidy in the hotel has been disturbed by this, and the reason we're doing this is because we think it's important to continue

focusing on her in order to get information about what has really happened to her. explain where you were when she came in, how did you first get involved with this? >> well, i had just inadvertently walked back into the dining room and i found myself ten yards behind her as she stopped and brought the whole place to a halt. there was an electrifying silence as people just stopped what they were doing. most were just eating breakfast, a group of journalists, government minders and they turned around and stared at this woman. i think some feared at first she might be a suicide bomber. she shrieked out and was drawing up her coat and exposed a gash on her leg, a long deep scratch. and what she was screaming in arabic was "look what gadhafi's militia have done to me." it was really shocking and she was very quickly shepherded away

over to the side and surrounded by a handful of journalists, me among them, and some serving staff, some waitresses and waiters, who tried to shut her up. i said, be quiet, who on earth do you think you are, you're betraying gadhafi. we just couldn't believe our ears. these people who had been serving us coffee and cold drinks were suddenly trying to silence this woman and within minutes, when the cameras began to arrive, pushing them out of the way, and so a number of journalists realized what was going on and we became quite irate at the way which these serving staff intervened. but by then, the government minders had arrived. >> you got punched in the face, right? >> i did, yes. i wasn't the only one, though. i watched as a fellow british correspondent was dragged away. he lashed out and said "leave her alone, let us hear her story." it was like a barroom brawl. but what happened to the journalist, the kicking that they got, the tackles and it all

spilled out into the lobby. >> i want to show our viewers those final moments where we see her being put into the car. you appear and try to intervene, sort of a last-ditch effort to get between her and the minders in that car and you're demanding to know where she's being taken. i just want to show our viewers that moment. >> where the hell are you going with her? >> how frustrating is this? not just as a reporter but as a human being to be in this situation where you've been lied to for all the time you've been there. you've been tightly controlled and to see somebody like this being manhandled and taken away to who knows where, and not being able to do anything about it? >> you know, we feared for this woman's safety terribly. it was a remarkable thing to have happened, though. for all those weeks that you

have described the journalist being in tripoli locked down in this hotel, unable to really talk to ordinary libyans, to hear their perspectives, only being taken out on these shepherded tours and government buses to meet people who love gadhafi and demonstrators who shouted and ranted and raved. we couldn't get the story. we couldn't hear what ordinary people wanted to tell us. they did not dare stick their heads above the parapit. but this courageous woman, was besmirched as a drunk, then possibly as a prostitute, she had the courage to come in to the journalists and she brought the story to us. to there we were in our bubble, held under virtual house arrest in that tripoli hotel. but she dared to come in and tell us what was really going on, and it was a very shocking,

very striking incident. i join with all the other journalists and saluted her courage in doing so. >> jonathan miller, i've enjoyed following your reporter. thank you for being with us. still ahead, my primetime interview with four "new york times" journalists held captive in libya. they describe why the ordeal was terrifying. you really thought you were going to die? >> yes. when they demanded we lay on our stomachs, we were all begging, no, we don't want to, we're sorry, we're begging not to go on our stomachs. we felt they were going to start shooting. also ahead tonight, new worries over tainted food in japan. high levels of radiation have been found in beef. that development ahead. ocid most calcium supplemts...

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tonight a "360" exclusive. the first interview with four "new york times" journalist who were held captive by the gadhafi regime. they were threatened with death. steven, anthony, tyler and lindsey are shown here with the turkish ambassador who helped secure their release. someone is missing, their driver who was captured with them. all four of them are tough, seasoned war correspondents. tyler is on the far right, lindsey is in the far left. as you can see, they're used to

being in the thick of it. all four have been in dicey situations before, but this time was different for all of them. here's what they told me earlier tonight. you guys were driving out of ajdabiya because you knew gadhafi forces were moving in, right? >> yes. we had been treating this in the same way that we had with other cities that had fighting in them, like brega, ras lanuf. so as gadhafi forces were bombing from the west of the city inwards, we were kind of pulling back slowly as that add vance was coming. >> and you're all in one vehicle, you have a driver, a guy named mohammed. and you're driving to the east gate of the city? >> that was i think the haunting -- one of the things that played over in my head that creeping realization of what we were up against. lindsey was the first to realize it was a government checkpoint. as we got closer and closer, we saw the green military uniforms, the military vehicles, and

almost -- i mean, almost instantly we realized we were at a government checkpoint and we had no options. >> that's got to be the worst feeling to see the green vehicles and see that these are gadhafi's people. >> and you current turn around and go back, because you assume they would open fire. you look more suspicious if you try to run away. we made a decision to go forward and at some point, it's so chaotic, you don't know what the best option is. we were saying don't stop, don't stop, because we just wanted to coast through and hope they didn't recognize we were foreigners. but at the same time they knew we were. they saw tiler in the front piece. >> and the risk is if you don't stop they'll open fire. >> right. it's kind of a no-win situation. our driver jumped out and said, journalist. >> all hell broke loose? >> yes. >> and you find yourselves laying on your stomachs, bound.

and you hear one of the soldiers -- you speak arabic, correct? you hear one of the soldiers say "shoot them." >> that's right. we were put on our knees first and i remember one of the soldiers was yelling at we, you're the translator, you're the spy. then they forced us on our stomachs. i remember looking up at a tall soldier and saying, shoot them. it felt like a lot of time elapsed and another soldier said to him, you can't, they're americans. >> i want to read something that you wrote about that moment. you said at that moment, though none of us thought we were going to live, steve tried to keep eye contact. the rest of us felt the powerless of resignation. you feel empty when you know it's almost over. what do you mean? >> i don't know how my colleagues felt, but it wasn't panic necessarily.

it wasn't that kind of desperation of flailing about that you're about to be killed. it was almost that, it's hard to describe other than calling it resignation or emptiness that the moment is drawing near and you're waiting for it. >> you really thought you were going to die? >> yes. when they demanded we lay on our stomachs, we all were begging no, we don't want to, we're sorry, we're begging not to go on our stomachs. we all felt when we were on our stomachs they were going to start shooting. i was just waiting to hear gunfire. and it was really a sinking and empty feeling. >> is that why you wanted to maintain eye contact? >> yeah. it's never over until it's over. and i've been in this situation before. >> you were taken hostage in iraq. >> and in iraq in 2004. >> are you lucky or incredibly unlucky? >> both. i mean, there was no real point

of making a run at that point because you're surrounded. if you present your back to these guys, they're going to shoot you and enjoy doing it. >> if you're showing your back, you're easier to kill? >> you can't be talking with them or negotiating or pleading if your back is turned to them. they're not going to have any compunction about shooting you, they're going to enjoy it. i was throwing what arabic i had at them. you just push every button you can, as quickly as you can in the seconds you may or may not have. journalists, that wasn't working. americans, that did seem to hit a cord. they were saying "get down" and we all went halfway. it's crazy, like compromising with nothing, no cards to play. you're trying to play them, get down, i'll go on my knees, just not all the way down because then you've lost everything. >> you think it's the fact they

viewed you as americans? >> i think the idea of executing three americans and a british journalist was -- would have had implications and there was going to be repercussions of basically executing us there at a checkpoint, that we were somehow worth something. >> did -- they don't shoot you. you find yourself in a vehicle battling continues to go on. how violent were they with you? it seems like you met lots of different groups of soldiers and each time you met them early on, they wanted to exert dominance over you. >> that's right. i think it was always the first moments. we always experienced that. when i was getting loaded in, there was a head butt. >> they head butted you? >> in the very beginning. others of us were getting slaps and hits to the back of the

head. this was a pattern. as time wore on, in each of these occasions, you know, the society's deeper instinct for hospitality would show through, but that initial rage and fear, i think it says something about the government that's been in place for so long. that was what we met with initially. >> when you are captive in this situation, it's extraordinary how you resist change. to you, you are bound, your feet are bound, you're in a car, but i'm not dead. please just don't change that. i'm not dead here and now and i don't know what will happen. >> and lindsey, you weren't spared any different treatment because you were a woman? >> i think i was spared. i was punched in the face twice. >> while you were bound? >> yeah, while i was bound. the first time was right at the beginning when they took us, they put stevand i in one car,

and they lifted me up first, two men picked me up and put me in the car. this was before steve got in, and i remember i was sitting in the car, and i'm bound and they had bound my hands so tight they were starting to go numb. and i'm sitting there, and my hair was falling in my face and you can't do anything. it was really irritating me. and this guy came up to me, and my instinct was, oh, he's going to help me, and he just punched me in the side of the face. to me i've never been punched in the face before. i was really surprised. i thought, wow, that's really strange. i started crying, because i thought it's only going to get worse. this is just -- you know, we're in the first 15 minutes. this could last months. >> what happened when you started crying? >> he started laughing. >> as a woman, you mentioned early on, you were afraid about being raped. they would come and sort of grope you, right? >> they came and groped me from

the minute we were taken from when we were put on the ground face down and started searching our pockets. a guy flipped me over and immediately started touching me. for me, i've never been touched like that in the muslim world and i've been working 11 years in the muslim world. that's when i said, oh, god, i don't want to be raped. for me the entire time this went on, my one fear was that i was going to get separated from this group, because i kept thinking they might drag me off. so every time i was blindfolded for moved somewhere, i kept saying are you there, are you with me? we were all very scared about being separated. but i wasn't. there was one time in the prison where someone came up and picked up my leg and tried to drag me out and i squirmed up and i literally spooned anthony. you were like asleep or something, and the guy put my leg down and picked it back up and started pulling out again

and i basically just laid next to anthony and he left. he sort of gave up and said okay. >> there was another moment where somebody was stroking your hair. >> yeah, it was twisted. i was sitting next to anthony, and we were all put in the back of a land cruiser. i was on the end, and, again, blind folded and hands tied behind my back at this point. i was sitting like this, and a guy reached over from the front seat and started caressing my hair like either -- like a mother would a son or a daughter, and then he started touching my face, very sort of gently and saying this phrase over and over. and i sort of tried to put my head down and he picked it up and kept caressing me in this weird sort of tender way. he was say thing phrase over and over and i said to anthony, i said, what is he saying? anthony said, he's telling you you're going to die tonight.

i mean, what can you say? there >> just incredible. that was just the beginning for them. they were held for some seven days. i talked to them, i interviewed them for about 50 minutes today, so there's extensive interviews today. more tomorrow night. that was about ten minutes or so. more tomorrow night and next week, as well. still ahead tonight, new information about the spreading threat of japan's nuclear disaster. high levels of radiation have been found in beef near the damaged plant. isha sesay has that, next. i think it can. one of the challenges for kayla being gluten-free is actually finding choices the whole family will love. then we discovered chex cereals. five flavors of chex are gluten-free, including the honey nut flavor, and that's amazing to a mom like me. as a parent you don't want to have to tell your kids "no" all the time. it's nice for me to be able to say "yes" to something that they want to eat. [ male announcer ] chex cereal. five flavors. gluten free.

i should put out we're going to put together an hour special with those journalists next week. we'll give you programming information on that when we have

it. part two tomorrow night. let's check the latest with isha sesay with a "360" news and business bulletin. new worries in japan. radioactive cesium higher than the legal limit has now been found in beef from near the stricken fukushima daiichi nuclear plant. the meat will not be sold. this comes on the heels of the highest radiation spike yet in seawater near that plant where workers are trying to cool damaged reactors. today, rains and winds around the complex to keep radioactive particles from spreading. in new orleans, a judge faif two former police officers stiff sentences in the killing of 31-year-old henry glover days after hurricane katrina. david warren shown here on the right, received 25 years for the shooting of glover, who was unarmed. greg mcrae received a 17-year

sentence. the dow today lost its best first quarter since 1999. the index gained 6.4% or 742 points in the first three months of the year. the jig is up for the bronx zoo cobra that's been awol since last weekend. the 20-inch snake has been found. she turned up inside the reptile house, which she apparently never left. she did manage to acquire nearly 200,000 twitter followers while missing. not bad, i say. according to "people" magazine, no wedding ring for the future king of england. prince william is opting to keep his ring finger bare after tying the knot next month. kate middleton will have a wedding band, made from welsch gold. my husband to be will be wearing a ring as big as my head. >> are you excited about the wedding? >> i'm very excited about the

wedding. very excited. >> me, too. it will be fun. we'll be covering it. are you going to be there? >> i am hoping to be by your side. >> i hope that, as well. >> we will see. >> a note about news. we want a peabody award for our coverage of the gulf oil spill. it was the worst oil spill in u.s. history. for three months, cnn had teams reporting on the damage, the wildlife and the coast. we did our program from there for about two months. 11 workers died. the survivors told us what happened that horrific night. we'll have more of their stories. a lot more ahead. stay with us.

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good evening. breaking news, everyone. tonight, with signs of gadhafi's inner circle splitting, late word that colonel gadhafi might be looking for a way out. britain's newspaper reporting tonight that the regime has sent one of saif gadhafi's most trusted aides to london for confidential talks with british officials. the paper sourcing saying the envoy was told that bottom line, gadhafi has to go and he will be held accountable by international courts. on the battlefield, in libya, opposition fighters fired

rockets outside brega. however, for the most part, they are still largely regrouping and waiting for the weather to clear, which would allow greater allied air support. for now, it's a strategy of shoot and run. take a look. >> intense fighting outside of brega and also in the surrounding city of misurata further to the west. for days the gadhafi regime has been saying that misurata is under their control. they even took our nic robertson there several days ago, drove in a mob of pro-gadhafi people to hold a fake rally. but eyewitnesss have told a different story. the fighting continues and now for the first time, we're seeing

for ourselves what's really going on in misurata. cnn was able to send a correspondent in there and he got remarkable access to opposition forces still fighting in that city. here's what he saw. >> reporter: weeks of urban combat have taken their toll on misurata. badly damaged buildings, streets littered with wreckage. libya's third largest city is under siege by pro-gadhafi forces. we're extremely close to the front line right now. we're with a couple of the fighters from the opposition forces and this is in downtown misurata. there's a lot of destruction everywhere. most of the buildings here have some sort of damage to them, pock marks, destroyed cars, as well. we can also see that the people we're with, the fighters we're with are very, very tense at this moment. a celebration on a destroyed armored vehicle, a step too far for pro-gadhafi forces nearby. and the scene turns ugly.

>> as you see, they destroyed all this, gadhafi forces. buildings, gas stations, school, police station, even firestation, they have destroyed it. >> reporter: most residents have fled downtown misurata as pro-gadhafi forces have positioned snipers on tall buildings and used tanks and artillery in the city center. the anti-gadhafi fighters badly outgunned fight back with the few weapons they have. they provided us with this video saying it shows a man disabling a battle tank with a rocket-propelled grenade. [ explosion ] >> amazing stuff. frederick is now on his way to malta and joins us from the mediterranean. and ben wedeman joins us from ajdabiya in eastern libya. fred, those images, it seems like sheer utter chaos, and yet

it does push against and show that what the libyan government has been saying, that they're in control of misurata is simply not true. >> reporter: absolutely, anderson. the libyan government is by no means in control of misurata. what you have is you have sort of a front line that goes right through the center of the city. when you go to one street, you'll be inside opposition controlled territory. they'll have their check points. and you go a couple streets further on and you get what happened to us in that report. you'll have bullets whizzing by. the government has positioned snipers on tall buildings to fire at people out in the streets. the opposition, anderson, is really very much still holding their territory in the city of misurata. however, they are very badly outgunned. some of them have ak-47s, some have rocket-propelled grenades. but a lot have makeshift weapons they've made themselves. machetes, some have tried to make their air rifles a little higher powered.

but they are very badly outgunned. the sense we got is that they are holding not only a large part of the center of the city, but also other key installations in misurata like the port through which we got in with the ship and at least some aide is also getting in, although it's very, very little. >> i want to talk to you about what you saw in the hospitals. but ben, when you were on the front lines with the opposition today, i want to play some of what you saw today. let's take a look. [ speaking foreign language ] >> reporter: this is useless, he says, giving me his antiquated soviet made machine gun, adding it's only good for pigeon hunter. the fighters fire their weapons all day long, but by afternoon they start to run out of ammunition, which, of course means they have to retreat. >> what are their supply lines like? what kind of -- you've been following them now for weeks. have they -- has the force evolved? is this a learning army?

>> reporter: no. what we see, anderson, is still this sort of ad hoc, rag tag group of people trying to fight their way toward the west, toward they say tripoli. but in fact there doesn't seem to be any emerging leadership on the battlefield. there doesn't seem to be a plan. there doesn't seem to be really any vision as to how they're going to overcome the army of moammar gadhafi. their tactics haven't changed. whereas we've seen on the libyan army side, the tactics change quite rapidly. they no longer depend on heavy armor. they're driving around in civilian vehicles. they no longer depend on a large group of people. they really operate like a guerrilla army against the opposition. and you see the effects, the results every day on the front. they get beaten back very

easily, retreating more often than they're advancing. so not really much progress at all, anderson. >> frederick, what are the hospitals -- or the hospital like in misurata, i mean, do they have supplies? >> reporter: we were in one of the few hospitals that's still functioning in misurata. the situation is so dire that they're having to operate on people in the hospital corridor, some people are being treated in the parking lot of the hospital. the emergency room is actually in a tent that's outside of the hospital and the supplies are really a very big issue. they lack anesthetic and operating tools. one of the things you'll have, you'll have someone who has a gunshot wound to the leg where normally that could be treated quite easily. however, now they have to push that patient back because they have so many coming in. >> fred, thank you very much. ben as well. stay safe, be careful. join us on facebook and

twitter. up next, moussa koussa, the top official, remember him? he fled tripoli, he's now in london apparently talking on some degree with authorities. wait till you hear what gadhafi's spokesman is saying about him, we're keeping them honest. new details on what happened to eman al obeidy, the woman dragged off saying gadhafi thugs had gang raped her. we'll talk to a british reporter who tried to help her and got punched in the face for it. later, the four "new york times" journalists captured and beaten. they say they never expected to survive. tonight, they'll tell us how they managed to preserve enough humanity to save their own lives. >> you could only work them if you were looking in their eye. >> if you're showing your back, you're no longer a person, you're easier to kill? >> you can't be negotiating with them and pleading with them if your back is turned to them. they're not going to have any compunction about shooting you. they're going to enjoy it. >> that's ahead.

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and along the way we'll prove we're not just building a bigger airline we're building a better one. more on our breaking news. a gadhafi envoy traveling to london. new word tonight of a fresh crack in gadhafi's inner circle. a former foreign minister now in cairo denouncing the regime. the most recent foreign minister, moussa koussa, this man, is in britain.

officials say he's talking to them willingly and that no deal was made to secure his cooperation. they say he's as close to gadhafi as someone can be without being family. to hear the regime tell it, his departure was no big deal and neither is he. listen. >> well, mr. moussa koussa asked for a sick leave because he was exhausted physically and he had diabetes and high blood pressure. the government or the authorities gave him the permission to leave the country to look after himself, because he was in bad need for intensive medical care. and we -- since he arrived in tunisia a day after, we didn't have any communications with him. we understand now that he resigned from his position. that's his personal decision. other people will step in to do

the job. >> question was, for colonel gadhafi, is this a big blow? >> colonel gadhafi is surrounded by many, many people who admire him and are prepared to work with him under his leadership. it's never depended on one person. >> the spokesman saying a sick old man who is not very important anyhow asks in the middle of war for a little time off. then in the heat of battle, he decamps to one of the foreign countries that happens to be bombing his homeland and starts talking to that country's intelligence service. happens every day. keeping them honest, even if that scenario weren't absurd, it runs hard into a freight load of facts. claim one -- moussa koussa was old and sick, ill and exhausted. well, for starters, he's several years younger than moammar gadhafi. as for his health, during his last news conference two weeks ago, right after the u.n. authorized using force against libya, his hands were trembling a bit. here's a frame taken from the

video a moment ago from his interview in february with nic robertson. seems to be in good shape there. here he is last october meeting and greeting hugo chavez. nothing unusual about his appearance and he was healthy enough to travel. this is moussa koussa in beijing, china last may. he was in brussels in march and in madrid in february. more recently, he was in italy two months and at the u.n. a little over six months ago. a heavy schedule for a sick old man. as for the claim his departure is not so important because he wasn't so important, what was he doing with all those world leaders? before that, what was such an insignificant and replaceable figure such as himself doing as head of libyan intelligence for 15 years? what was he doing allegedly overseeing the pan-am 103 bombing as well as assassination campaigns targeting dissidents overseas? what was he doing so close to gadhafi since almost day one? yet today, the spokesman said his departure would have little impact on the regime. if that sounds familiar, that's

because this isn't the first time that moussa ibrahim has been confronted with the facts that contradicted his story. take a look. the claim i find hardest to understand is this claim that libya's youth are being given hallucinatory pills and brainwashed to attack. again, gadhafi said it was americans doing this first. now he says it's bin laden. what drugs are being used? specifically what hallucinatory pills? >> actually, the leader did not specifically accuse the united states of america. he really said that al qaeda, very highly trained individuals who now look more secular than the dwellers of the caves in afghanistan, they were trainers and jeans -- >> i'm asking you what hallucinatory pills? >> we did indeed capture young people using these pills.

>> what pills? i'm asking. are you talking about meth amphetamine, lsd, what are you talking about? he didn't have an answer. gadhafi's authorities eventually showed reporters a shipment of drugs. they were pain pills that don't cause hallucinations, they cause constipation. joining us from tripoli, nic robertson. also with us from berkeley, california, bob baer, co-author of "the company we keep." and ann marie slaughter, princeton university, and before that, the obama administration where she headed up the state department's policy planning staff. you say that the defection of moussa koussa is a big deal, it's actually a success of the coalition strategy. >> and i think it's proof that the strategy is working. the strategy from the beginning has been to isolate gadhafi, to pressure him and convince the people around him that their days are numbered. this is a really significant demonstration it's working. >> bob, you're not convinced

this guy's defection is the beginning of the end for gadhafi in any way, right? >> no, i don't think so. he was forced out of the intelligence service in 2009. gadhafi's sons all fought with him. he was on thin ice three or four months ago. but it is important in the sense that it gives a morale booster for the rebels and the united states and the west. i think what we should hope for is a snowballing of this and see somebody truly from the inner circle, his brother-in-law, for instance, leaving and then we would know it was the end. >> you say you've been hearing for several weeks he was looking for some sort of a deal. >> i know the intermediary that was dealing with european governments trying to get him out. they were putting out messages that moussa koussa was plotting against gadhafi, thought he could get some people together and decapitate the regime. i don't know if that's true, but he was looking for a way out. they were looking for american channels but it ended up in a

european country and went to the british. >> nic, this report now about an emissary of saif gadhafi's going to london, you actually heard about that before he left. >> reporter: yeah, if we can just back up and talk about moussa koussa. i can tell you pretty assuredly that moammar gadhafi actually was rattled and is rattled by his departure. and it is something that is going to get over for sure. i can tell you for a fact it has gotten to him. the intermediary that is working for saif gadhafi, i met with him. i've known him for ten years now and i met with him just a few days before he left for london. he told me that he was going and he told me that he was going for family reasons and i said, well, it's always good to have discussions and he said, yes. and he said, what do you mean, "discussions," am i going to be interrogated? i said, i don't believe so, why would i know that?

but the very fact that this man was going, this is somebody who has worked very, very closely with saif gadhafi for a long time. he's done a lot of things for this regime. i first met him on the border of afghanistan right after 2001. he had come there to escort all the libyans who were in afghanistan with osama bin laden out of the country. he was trusted by the regime and has paid a high price for it over the years. i won't go into all the details. knowing he was going to london seemed to me to open the possibility that this was a man if anyone was going to talk on behalf of saif gadhafi, this is a man who would do that. he's very well known and familiar with officials in london. he was somebody who would be known there, have a track record, somebody that they would recognize as a real genuine potential intermediary, if that were the case, anderson. >> nic robertson, thank you very much. bob baer as well, professor slaughter, appreciate it. coming up, the latest on

eman al obeidy, last seen saturday screaming she had been gang raped by gadhafi troops. what the libyan government is saying about where she is now and what her family is saying. and you'll hear from reporter jonathan miller. he's on the left in that video in the blue shirt trying to help her before she was driven away. he got punched in the face. later, a "360" exclusive with the four "new york times" journalists who were held captive by gadhafi's troops for nearly a week. the only woman told the tale about being punched and repeatedly groped and told me about one moment when one of the troops started stroking her hair. >> i sort of tried to put my head down and he picked it up and kept caressing me in this weird sort of tender way. and he was saying this phrase over and over and i said to anthony, i said, what is he saying? and anthony said, he's telling you that you're going to die

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new video tonight. take a look of a wedding ceremony in eastern libya. it's unusual because it takes place during wartime, but it's really unusual because the bride is missing. the bride is eman al obeidy. she's not at her wedding ceremony, which is being held as a public affirmation of her honor. she was last seen on saturday when she stood up in a hotel in tripoli and said she had been gang raped by gadhafi troops. plain clothes officials, thugs dragged her away, and ever since authorities have been blowing

smoke about what's become of her. first they said she was released and with her family. her family says that's a lie. today, the spokesman said he didn't know her immediate whereabouts. then even though he doesn't know where she is, he said that she would be made available on saturday for an interview with two female reporters. when reporters tried to pin him down on her location, he said this -- >> the only place other than her family's house, we have usually -- how to say this in english, like a place for a woman who has been raped or some sort of shelter. it's a social shelter for women who have been traumatized or raped or kidnapped and they have social stigma against them, they are in danger of any sort, it's a social care place for women, especially for women. it's a major place in tripoli and maybe she is there to look

after her psychologically and make sure she is fine. >> late today, we checked again with her parents. they told us they're yet to hear from their daughter. and they remain in the dark as to her whereabouts. as for the facility that guy is talking about, according to a 2006 human rights report, there is no limit on the length of time the government can hold women there. even if eman were home safe right now, everything about the rest of her experience shocks the conscience and has shaken itn's jonathan miller. he was in the hotel that day. i spoke to him earlier. i think everybody who has seen the incident with eman al obeidy in the hotel has been disturbed by this, and the reason we're doing this is because we think it's important to continue focusing on her in order to get information about what has really happened to her. explain where you were when she came in, how did you first get involved with this? >> well, i had just inadvertently walked back into the dining room and i found

myself ten yards behind her as she stopped and brought the whole place to a halt. there was an electrifying silence as people just stopped what they were doing. most were just eating breakfast, a group of journalists, government minders and they turned around and stared at this woman. she was dressed in a black coat. i think some feared at first she might be a suicide bomber. she shrieked out and was drawing up her coat and exposed a gash on her leg, a long deep scratch. and what she was screaming in arabic was "look what gadhafi's militia have done to me." it was totally electrifying. it was really shocking and she was very quickly shepherded away over to the side and surrounded by a handful of journalists, me among them, and some serving staff, some waitresses and waiters, who tried to shut her up. i said, be quiet, who on earth do you think you are, you're

betraying gadhafi. we just couldn't believe our ears. these people who had been serving us coffee and cold drinks were suddenly trying to silence this woman and within minutes, when the cameras began to arrive, pushing them out of the way, and so a number of journalists realized what was going on and we became quite irate at the way which these serving staff intervened. but by then, the government minders had arrived. >> you got punched in the face, right? >> i did, yes. i wasn't the only one, though. i watched as a fellow british correspondent was dragged away. he lashed out and said "leave her alone, let us hear her story." it was like a barroom brawl. i've seen nothing like it. but what happened to the journalist, the kicking that they got, the tackles and it all spilled out into the lobby. it was absolutely extraordinary. >> i want to show our viewers those final moments where we see her being put into the car. you appear and try to intervene, sort of a last-ditch effort to

get between her and the minders in that car and you're demanding to know where she's being taken. i just want to show our viewers that moment. >> where the hell are you going with her? where are you going with her? >> how frustrating is this? not just as a reporter but as a human being to be in this situation where you've been lied to for all the time you've been there. you've been tightly controlled and to see somebody like this being manhandled and taken away to who knows where, and not being able to do anything about it? >> you know, we feared for this woman's safety terribly. it was a remarkable thing to have happened, though. for all those weeks that you have described the journalist being in tripoli locked down in this hotel, unable to really talk to ordinary libyans, to hear their perspectives, only being taken out on these

shepherded tours and government buses to meet people who love gadhafi and demonstrators who shouted and ranted and raved. screaming they had screen blood flowing through them, not red. we couldn't get the story. we couldn't hear what ordinary people wanted to tell us. they were too frightened. they did not dare stick their heads above the parapet. but on saturday woman, this courageous woman, eman al obeidy, who was besmirched over the next couple of days, first as a drunk, then as someonementally unbalanced, then as possibly a prostitute, she had the courage to come in to the journalists and she brought the story to us. so there we were in our bubble. held under virtual house arrest in that tripoli hotel. but she dared to come in and tell us what was really going on, and it was a very shocking, very striking incident. i join with all the other journalists and saluted her courage in doing so. >> jonathan miller, i've enjoyed following your reporting. thank you for being with us.

still ahead, my primetime interview with four "new york times" journalists held captive in libya. they describe why the ordeal was terrifying than any close call they've had in their long careers. you really thought you were going to die? >> yes. when they demanded we lay on our stomachs, we were all begging, no, we don't want to, we're sorry, we're begging not to go on our stomachs. we felt once we were on our stomachs, they were going to start shooting. also ahead tonight, new worries over tainted food in japan. high levels of radiation have been found in beef. that development ahead. ♪

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tonight a "360" exclusive. the first interview with four "new york times" journalist who were held captive by the gadhafi regime for nearly a week. they were threatened with death. and fully believed they could be killed at any time. steven, anthony, tyler and lindsey are shown here with the turkish ambassador who helped secure their release. someone is missing, their driver who was captured with them. his name was mohammed. no one knows exactly what's happened to them. all four of them are tough, seasoned war correspondents. in this photo, tyler is on the far right, lindsey is in the far left. as you can see, they're used to being in the thick of it. all four have been in dicey situations before, but this time was different for all of them. here's what they told me earlier tonight. let's just start at the beginning. you guys were driving out of ajdabiya because you knew gadhafi forces were moving in, right? >> yes. we had been treating this in the

same way that we had with other cities that had fighting in them, like brega, ras lanuf. so as gadhafi forces were bombing from the west of the city inwards, we were kind of pulling back slowly as that advance was coming. >> and you're all in one vehicle, you have a driver, a guy named mohammed. and you're driving to the east gate of the city? >> that was i think the haunting -- one of the things that played over in my head that creeping realization of what we were up against. lindsey was the first to realize it was a government checkpoint. it must have been seconds but it felt like minutes. as we got closer and closer, we saw the green military uniforms, the military vehicles, and almost -- i mean, almost instantly we realized we were at a government checkpoint and we had no options. >> that's got to be the worst feeling to see the green vehicles and realize there's a level of organization here, these guys aren't the opposition

forces, this is gadhafi's people. >> and you can't turn around and go back, because you assume they would open fire. you look more suspicious if you try to run away. we made a decision to go forward and at some point, it's so chaotic, you don't know what the best option is. we were saying don't stop, don't stop, because we just wanted to coast through and hope they didn't recognize we were foreigners. but at the same time they knew we were. they saw tyler in the front seat. >> and the risk is if you don't stop they'll open fire. >> right. it's kind of a no-win situation. and then our driver, when he stopped the car and jumped out and said, journalist. and then it was chaos. >> all hell broke loose? >> yes. >> and you find yourselves laying on your stomachs, bound. and you hear one of the soldiers -- you speak arabic, correct? you hear one of the soldiers say "shoot them." >> that's right. we were put on our knees first and there was a lot of slapping, emptying our pockets. and i remember one of the

soldiers was yelling at me, you're the translator, you're the spy. then they forced us on our stomachs. i think with all had that sinking feeling that this is it. i remember looking up at a tall soldier and saying, shoot them. it felt like a lot of time elapsed, but i think it was just a matter of seconds. and another soldier said to him, you can't, they're americans. >> i want to read something that you wrote about that moment. you said at that moment, though none of us thought we were going to live, steve tried to keep eye contact until they pulled the trigger. the rest of us felt the powerless of resignation. you feel empty when you know it's almost over. explain that. what do you mean? >> i don't know how my colleagues felt, but it wasn't panic necessarily. it wasn't that kind of desperation of flailing about that you're about to be killed. it was almost that, it's hard to describe other than calling it resignation or emptiness that the moment is drawing near and you're waiting for it. >> you really thought you were going to die? >> yes. when they demanded we lay on our

stomachs, we all were begging no, we don't want to, we're sorry, we're begging not to go on our stomachs. we all felt when we were on our stomachs they were going to start shooting. as soon as i went on my stomach, i was just waiting to hear gunfire. and it was really a sinking and empty feeling. >> is that why you wanted to maintain eye contact? >> yeah. it's never over until it's over. and i've been in this situation before. >> you were taken hostage in iraq. and in afghanistan in 2004. >> are you lucky or incredibly unlucky? >> both. i mean, there was no real point of making a run at that point because you're surrounded. if you present your back to these guys, they're going to shoot you and enjoy doing it. you can only work them if you're looking at them, if you're looking in their eye. >> if you're showing your back, you're no longer a person, you're easier to kill? >> you can't be talking with them or negotiating or pleading

if your back is turned to them. they're not going to have any compunction about shooting you, they're going to enjoy it. anthony was working. i was throwing what arabic i had at them. you just push every button you can, as quickly as you can in the seconds you may or may not have. journalists, that wasn't working. americans, that did seem to hit a chord. they were saying "get down" and we all went halfway. it's crazy, like compromising with nothing, no cards to play. you're trying to play them, get down, i'll go on my knees, just not all the way down because then you've lost everything. >> you think it's the fact they viewed you as americans? that's what made the difference? >> i think the idea of executing three americans and a british journalist was -- would have had implications and there was going to be repercussions of basically executing us there at a checkpoint, that we were somehow -- i try to say this

without reading value into it, but we were somehow worth something. >> did -- they don't shoot you. you find yourself in a vehicle battling continues to go on. how violent were they with you? it seems like you met lots of different groups of soldiers and each time you met them early on, they wanted to exert dominance over you. >> that's right. i think it was always the first moments. i think we all experienced that. when i was getting loaded in, there was a head butt. >> they head butted you? >> in the very beginning. others of us were getting slaps and hits to the back of the head. this was a pattern. as time wore on, in each of these occasions, you know, the way i tried to describe it to someone else is, you know, society's deeper instinct for hospitality would show through, but that initial rage and fear, i think it says something about the government that's been in place for so long.

that was what we met with initially. >> when you are captive in this situation, it's extraordinary how you resist change. to you, you are bound, your feet are bound, you're in a car, but i'm not dead. please just don't change that. i don't want to be moved to another car. i don't want to meet another group. i don't want to go anywhere. i'm not dead here and now and i don't know what will happen. >> what the next group will be like. >> exactly. >> and lindsey, you weren't spared any different treatment because you were a woman? >> i think i was spared. i was punched in the face twice. >> while you were bound? >> yeah, while i was bound. the first time was right at the beginning when they took us, they put steve and i in one car, and they lifted me up first, two men picked me up and put me in the car. this was before steve got in, and i remember i was sitting in the car, and i'm bound and they had bound my hands so tight they were starting to go numb. and i'm sitting there, and my

hair was falling in my face and you can't do anything. it was really irritating me. and i was sitting there, sort of blowing the hair out of my face. and this guy came up to me, and my instinct was, oh, he's going to help me, and he just punched me in the side of the face. to me i've never been punched in the face before. i was really surprised. i thought, wow, that's really strange. i started crying, because i thought it's only going to get worse. this is just -- you know, we're in the first 15 minutes. this could last months. >> what happened when you started crying? what was his reaction? >> he started laughing. >> as a woman, you mentioned early on, you were afraid about being raped. they would come and sort of grope you, right? >> they came and groped me from the minute we were taken from when we were put on the ground face down and started searching our pockets. a guy flipped me over and immediately started touching me. for me, i've never been touched like that in the muslim world and i've been working 11 years in the muslim world.

so i said -- that's when i said, oh, god, i don't want to be raped. for me the entire time this went on, my one fear was that i was going to get separated from this group, because i kept thinking they might drag me off. so every time i was blindfolded or moved somewhere, i kept saying are you there, are you with me? we were all very scared about being separated. but i wasn't. there was one time in the prison where someone came in and picked up my leg and tried to drag me out and i squirmed up and i literally spooned anthony. and i think you were like -- you were like asleep or something. and the guy put my leg down and then he picked it back up and started pulling me out again, and i just squirmed back up and i basically just laid next to anthony and he left. he sort of gave up and said okay. >> there was another moment where somebody was stroking your hair. >> yeah, it was twisted. i was sitting next to anthony, and we were all put in the back of a land cruiser.

i was on the end, and, again, blindfolded and hands tied behind my back at this point. i was sitting like this, and a guy reached over from the front seat and started caressing my hair like either -- like a mother would a son or a daughter, and then he started touching my face, very sort of gently and saying this phrase over and over. and i sort of tried to put my head down and he picked it up and kept caressing me in this weird sort of tender way. he was saying this phrase over and over and i said to anthony, i said, what is he saying? anthony said, he's telling you you're going to die tonight. i mean, what can you say? >> just incredible. that was just the beginning for them. they were held for some seven days. i talked to them, i interviewed them for about 50 minutes today, so there's extensive interviews

ahead. we'll have more tomorrow night. that was about ten minutes or so. more tomorrow night and next week, as well. still ahead tonight, new information about the spreading threat of japan's nuclear disaster. high levels of radiation have been found in beef near the damaged plant. isha sesay has that, next.

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i should point out we're going to put together an hour special with those journalists next week. we'll give you programming information on that when we have it. part two tomorrow night. let's check the latest with isha sesay with a "360" news and business bulletin. new worries in japan. radioactive cesium higher than the legal limit has now been found in beef from near the stricken fukushima daiichi nuclear plant. japan's he will ministry has

ordered more testing and said the meat will not be sold. this comes on the heels of the highest radiation spike yet in seawater near that plant where workers are trying to cool damaged reactors. today, rains and winds postponed plans to spray a resin mix to keep radioactive particles from spreading further. in new orleans, a judge gave two former police officers stiff sentences in the killing of 31-year-old henry glover days after hurricane katrina. david warren shown here on the right, received 25 years for the shooting of glover, who was unarmed. greg mcrae received a 17-year sentence. the dow today with its best first quarter since 1999. the index gained 6.4% or 742 points in the first three months of the year. the jig is up for the bronx zoo cobra that's been awol since last weekend. the 20-inch snake has been

found. she turned up inside the reptile house, which she apparently never left. though she didn't get far, she did manage to acquire nearly 200,000 twitter followers while missing. not bad, i say. according to "people" magazine, no wedding ring for the future king of england. prince william suspect keen on jewelry and is opting to keep his ring finger bare after tying the knot next month. kate middleton will have a wedding band, made from welsch gold. she's a better woman than i am. my husband to be will be wearing a ring as big as my head. that's all i'm going to say. >> are you excited about the wedding? >> i'm very excited about the wedding. very excited. >> me, too. it will be fun. we'll be covering it. are you going to be there? are you going to come? >> i am hoping to be by your side. >> i hope that, as well. we'll see what we can do. up next, "perry's principles." growing concerns that gifted students are being left behind

in the classroom. ♪ i thought it was over here... ♪ [car horn honks] our outback always gets us there... ... sometimes it just takes us a little longer to get back. ♪

>> announcer: this past year alone there's been a 67% spike in companies embracing the cloud-- big clouds, small ones, public, private, even hybrid. your data and apps must move easily and securely to reach many clouds, not just one. that's why the network that connects, protects, and lets your data move fearlessly through the clouds means more than ever. no child left behind act requires that all students pass reading and math tests by 2014. as a result, a lot of schools are spending money and time

helping kids reach that goal and perhaps pushing aside the needs of gifted kids. steve perry explores the possible consequences in tonight's "perry's principles." >> what do lady gaga and facebook founder mark zuckerberg have in common? they're alums for cty, the 32-year-old organization that seeks out and identifies kids who are academically advanced. >> sometimes the teachers don't know who they are, because they may be the ones who sit in the back of the room who become behavior problems because they're bored. we look in every neighborhood, whether poor urban schools or around the world, and after that, we start developing programs that really challenge them. we never underestimate them. >> at baltimore's mt. washington elementary school, gifted students are solving advanced math problems at their own pace. the online program, which enrolled more than 10,000 students last year, offers a variety of courses where kids around the world interact with

teachers through the internet. what happens to kids when they don't have this in the school? >> it's very frustrating. when these children have that kind of ability and we don't do anything to nourish it, they will never make it to the potential they're capable of without help. it's like an athlete. what would have happened to our great football players without a coach? >> this is a program that one could argue 90% of the population doesn't participate in. >> uh-huh. >> does it benefit the whole school? >> well, the way we have it organized i think it does. the times when the children are pulled out to participate in the cty program, the rest of the class size is reduced. and so the classroom teacher has that opportunity to work with a smaller number of kids in the classroom in math, and the range of skills is decreased. >> you spend so much money on public education, and gifted and talented programs are the first

to be cut. >> they are. because of the no child left behind legislation, we collectively decided to put more of our resources into the remedial side, into helping children who really needed a lot of help. but one of the costs for that was that we started to neglect the ones at the top. we're paying a price in losing these kids. they get bored, they might drop out of school, they might never become the great innovator or inventor or entrepreneur they might have become. >> the cure for cancer is in the minds of one of these students, and we're missing the boat if we don't nurture that talent. >> powerful words there. how does america improve their national academic standing? >> we have to begin to accept the fact that talent is a good thing. we can't bemoan the fact that children are doing well. some children are traditionally gifted. so we have to fund programs that respond to those children's needs. i've seen a lot, anderson, about those children who are