whole lot more. he is pretty passionate about one specific thing. we're going to get to that tomorrow. be there. anderson cooper 306 starts now. we begin with breaking news from mississippi. a judge issued a temporary injunction a short time ago to keep pardoned prisoners behind bars for now, in response to a move by outgoing mississippi governor haley barbour. hundreds of criminals from shoplifters to rapists and murderers granted pardons. he approved full pardons for 199 people, including 14 convicted murderers. he declined invitation to be on the program. mississippi attorney general jim hood will be on tonight. went to court to block some of the pardons. he says they're a slap to the face of everyone in law enforcement, he will be with us with jeff toobin in a bit. first, four of the convicted

murderers that got pardons were released sunday, according to department of corrections. one link between them, they all worked at the governor's mansion on a work release program. one of the men is david gatlin. the shooting victim he left behind and family of the victim that didn't live to tell the story are in a word scared. martin savidge joins me live. martin? >> reporter: it has been a chaotic last couple hours as the legal wrangling is under way to try to bring to a halt in some way the pardon process that was brought about as a result of former governor haley barbour. as you point out, there has been success on the part of the mississippi attorney general. they have that temporary injunction. what that means, those in prison, 21 that have not been released will stay in prison. as for the murderers, they are out, but ordered now to report through department of corrections on a daily basis. but right now, they are still essentially free. and what that means for the families of victims, they're not going to sleep until those men

are back behind bars. i went for a strange drive with randy walker. >> you're feeling the butterflies. >> a little bit. i don't know why. >> reporter: we ended up at a trailer park. how does it feel to be back in neighborhood. >> it is a little weird. >> reporter: this is where he nearly died. july 2nd, 1993, the same trailer park, that's randy on the stretcher. >> i heard the first gunshot. he stepped up to tammy with her holding that baby in a cradle position, shot her with that baby's head no more than 8 inches from where he shot her, just real close. he came around the edge of the bed, put the gun between my eyes. turned my head sideways, instead of shooting me in the forehead, shot the side by my eye. >> it was a bloody scene. two people shot in the head. very horrific. >> got to my mom's house, and she came up to me and hugged me

and she said he killed her, tiffany. and i knew immediately that it was david gatlin. >> reporter: he shot his estranged wife tammy as she held their six week old son in her arms. then shot her friend, randy walker. walker survived, ellis didn't. david ruth was the first police officer on scene, and has never forgotten what gatlin did. >> i think he is a barbaric individual to shoot someone like that, especially holding his child, his own child, and him leave that child laying on the floor. >> reporter: the governor saw him differently. the confessed murderer worked in the governor's mappings. he called him diligent and dedicated. barbour cancelled gatlin's life sentence, setting him free. as of early this week, david gatlin, convicted murderer, is a

free man. >> a full and unconditional pardon. >> yeah. >> which means -- >> which means he has the same rights you have. he has the same rights i have. >> including to carry a gun. >> yeah. >> do you worry about david? >> yes. >> are you afraid of david? >> i am afraid he will come after my family, randy's family, and like randy says, finish what he started. >> she also fears gatlin will try to contact the son he left in his dead mother's arms, who is now 18, and the family is desperately trying to protect. with a simple swipe of the pen, barbour triggered a strange role reversal. gatlin goes free while his victims say they are now sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in fear, and it is not just gatlin. victims say they have the same fears for the dozens and dozens of violent convicted criminals he turned loose in his last days, including other convicted murderers. >> how is the state of mississippi better off?

how is the country better off? all these guys aren't staying in mississippi. they're going to be all over the united states. >> reporter: do you feel betrayed in. >> i feel the system worked for the victims in this family. but i feel that the governor at that time is the one that let this family down, not the system. >> reporter: governor barbour. >> yes. >> in my heart i would like to think he didn't know, because if he did, we've had a monster for a governor, you know, a nonhuman feeling person. >> cnn senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin joins me along with attorney general jim hood. thanks for being with us. the court issued a temporary injunction which you saw it, blocking release of any of the pardoned prisoners until a hearing takes place. is it the sheer number of pardons you take issue with? other mississippi governors pardoned convicted murderers

before. >> that's correct, but in this in stance he didn't follow what's required by the constitution. i got out of the courtroom, the court issued a temporary injunction because our constitution expressly says in order for a pardon to issue, the person who is applying for it has to publicize in the local paper for 30 days prior to grant of the pardon. we have already found that wasn't done on many. the court ordered the 21 presently being processed by department of corrections, she has made department of corrections stop processing those until a hearing week from monday. five, four murderers, one armed robber are out and they have to report back to the department of corrections daily. i wish we could have gone out and arrested them, but the law wouldn't allow me to do that on those five. we are doing the best we can there. as far as the other pardons he issued, we have to go through those to see if there's any publication. >> if there was no publication in newspapers 30 days before,

and the folks are out already, have already been released, do you want to -- would you call for them to come back to prison? that's correct. they will have to report to the court unless they can show it was published. >> all of the pardons would be null and void? >> right. they'll have to go back and serve their sentence. former governor barbour ran the state and governor's office like boss hog. he didn't follow the law. this is a simple constitutional provision, and governor barbour just didn't even follow it. it is very clear he had to have this information. he didn't obtain it before he signed the pardons, and that's caused a public safety issue. these families are afraid out here, the victims have been through a terrible amount. it is a slap in the face to all of the law enforcement, jurors, i was district attorney, some he cut loose, haven't had a chance to check the list for those, my former customers he prosecuted years ago.

so you know, this is a significant problem, but i think we're going to get a handle on it. i think the evidence we've already seen, he violated the constitution and many if not most of those so-called pardons he gave will be held null and void. >> mr. hood, can i ask about the provision requiring publication in a newspaper of application for a pardon 30 days before the pardon is granted. in your experience has this ever been done, in earlier pardons, earlier inhale ee barbour's term or previous governors, had this been honored, requirement to publish news of application for the pardon? >> yes. i mean, when you apply, parole board sends a packet telling the lawyer, whomever wrote the lawyer for you, what you have to do. many of them have followed it, and in fact, you know, just two years ago because of some of governor barbour's actions, we had to pass legislation requiring him to give notice to the victim an opportunity to be

heard before he issued a pardon. so we passed a law and he signed it, he completely violated that. he never sent information to victims and gave them a chance to respond. so it is apparently something that there again, he tried to rule the state like boss hog and he didn't think the law applied to him. certainly now wave having to clean up the mess he's made. >> attorney general, a lot of folks may not know, you are the only democratic holding statewide office in mississippi, obviously governor barbour is republican. some folks may say your actions are politically motivated. >> no. there are so many upset law enforcement officers that are republicans, this isn't a partisan issue. either you followed the constitution or you didn't. the judge found the constitution is clear, it appears the governor didn't follow it in many instances. i think by entitleme-- you can

the constitution and you would agree. >> i have to say, i was unfamiliar with this provision. most states, and certainly the federal government, does not have this provision. the president can pardon anyone he wants and it has been controversial. president clinton pardoned mark rich at the end of his term. this requirement is straightforward. you don't have to be a lawyer to understand it. it says no pardon can go into effect without -- >> you think they can be overturned? >> i think they will be overturned unless you can prove the applications were made in the newspaper. >> governor barbour has issued a statement. i want to read you part of what it says. he says, quote, approximately 90% of these individuals were no longer in custody, and a majority were out for years. pardons were to allow them to find gainful unemployment and acquire professional licenses as well as hunt and vote. my recommendation was based on recommendation of the parole board in more than 90% of the cases. how do you respond, mr. hood? >> you know, the statistics

excuse the situation. i am not talking about those that are ill, that we released on medical release or suspended sentences. only ones that we're dealing with are those that got full pardons. i think there's somewhere in the neighborhood of 175 of those, of the 216 total that he issued. so we're going to deal with those on pardons. some may have been entitled to a pardon. i mean, may have been grandfather done things right out there. still have to follow the constitution. the governor didn't do that. he didn't get the assurance that publication was done before he signed the pardons. now you see the results of it. >> jeff toobin, like the man convicted of murdering that woman while she was asleep, trying to shoot the other guy, is this as if that never happened now if he is pardoned? >> that's the thing about pardons that are so extraordinary. it goes back to before the american revolution. it goes back to the power of kings. it's at -- as if he wasn't

arrested. if you are a felon, you can't get a gun, run for office. if you get a pardon, all of that is out the window. you can buy a gun tomorrow, do something. it is a powerful tool. >> there's a long history of convicted prisoners working at the mansion. my dad wrote a book about growing up in mississippi, at that time when i was a kid in '74 and '75, convicts were working in the mansion. do you think this is just because governor barbour met people, knew the people that he felt he would make these pardons? attorney general hood. >> i'm sorry. traffic on the street here. >> there's a long history of convicted murderers working in the governor's mansion. it is part of the program. i stayed in the governor's

mansion in the '70s once because my dad wrote a book in mississippi under governor finch. do you think this is because governor barbour knew these guys that he decided to pardon them? yeah. i mean, you know, there is a history for that. but you know, you still have to follow the law and you know, he failed to do that, and do it in a proper manner. he had the department of corrections try to publish notices for the five recently released. the ones that worked at the mansion. but they didn't get them done in time. they began publication, one in particular on december 15th, and the governor signed pardons on january 6th. so that's not 30 days. it is out of compliance with the constitution. it is not the convict's fault, but nevertheless, the law is the law and we have to follow it. >> attorney general hood, thanks. jeffrey toobin, thanks. follow me on facebook or twitter. up next, the latest from south carolina. could be the last chance for the rest of everybody else to stop

mitt romney. and shadowy super pacs paying for the attack ads. while the election watchdog can't seem to do is job on campaign anything. and the mysterious death of a journalist in syria. nic robertson was there moments before it happened. dictator launches more violence to his people. he seemed to be falling asleep in court the other day, couldn't stop yawning. joran van der sloot managed to stay away long enough to enter a plea in the murder case against him. that and more when 360 continues. ♪ ♪ baby, baby, come along ♪ baby, baby, come along with me ♪ [ air horn blows ] ♪ i love you and i need you ♪ just to hug and squeeze you

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in order to make your money his money. [whoosh, clang] you need lifelock-- the only identity protection company that now monitors bank accounts for takeover fraud. lifelock-- relentlessly protecting your identity. call 1-800-lifelock or go to lifelock.com today. keeping campaign trail. the big reason the republican battle between mitt romney and newt gingrich has gotten nasty, not surprisingly has to do with money, with a system that allows people and companies to donate unlimited dollars with no accountability and almost no one there to make sure they obey what few rules there are. it is turning south carolina into armageddon. that's where all of the major candidates were. mitt romney trying to make it three in a row after his victory last night in new hampshire. he finished fourth in south carolina in 2008. this time, rick perry standing

by his attacks, calling bain investments get rich quick schemes. newt gingrich echoing that, slamming romney in an ad as someone that governored proabortion and quote can't be trusted. for ron paul, came in second, last day campaigning, taking the next four days off. the rest, a nonstop scramble. last night he talked to piers morgan. >> they will come in here with everything they've got, every surrogate, every ad, every negative attack. at the same time, we're going to be basically drawing sharp contrast tweep a georgia, reagan conservative and massachusetts moderate who's pro-gun control, pro-choice, pro-tax increase, pro-liberal judge, and voters of south carolina have to look and decide. >> see all of that interviews on piers morgan tonight. those ads are the kinds that tore him to pieces in iowa and

supported the super pac. spent $4.5 million on anti-gingrich mailings and advertisements since beginning of the election cycle. before you feel sorry for speaker gingrich, the super pac supporting him, winning our future, hopes to spend $3.5 million in south carolina, including a half hour documentary titled when mitt came to town, running infomercial style on local stations. super pacs are new things, product of a supreme court ruling that allows people, corporations, labor unions, anyone to make unlimited political donations. super pacs and campaigns aren't allowed to collaborate, but restore our future is run by old friends. while gingrich rails against fat cat donors, his pac has a billionaire, sheldon aid ellison. he has written winning our future a $5 million check. it is difficult to know who is

donating what. they require super pacs disclose donors monthly or quarterly. many timed it so they won't have to name names until the end of the month. by then, the race may be close to decided. keeping them honest gets worse when you look at the federal election commission. a coalition of watchdog groups is going after it. the fec is without question one of the most dysfunctional agencies in the federal government. this from a letter the group sent to president obama last spring. they say it is unacceptable the only agency charged with enforcing campaign financing rules on our nation's highest elected official is largely awol. each are appointed by party leaders. that political deadlock stopped a number of potential investigations recommended by nonpartisan fec staff from going forward. right now, the standoff prevepts them from revamping rules to take the new super pacs into account. the house held hearings on the fec dysfunction last fall, but only lasted one day.

members only questions the six fec commissioners, not outsiders that may have more ideas. joining us to talk about that and the free for all in south carolina, ari fliesher. and cornell belcher, and erick erickson. eric, the rules state super pacs can't have contact with campaigns or the candidates. is there any chance that someone like this guy sheldon aid ellison would fund a 27 minute anti-romney film if newt gingrich didn't want him to do it? >> probably not. they take their queues from candidates on the campaign trail. i think the issue of money and politics is overwraugt by a lot of people. most voters don't care. the adds come one way or the other. the only thing sillier getting money out of politics is assuming we're going to have peace in the middle east. >> it might hurt romney. could it end up hurting gingrich

as well? >> i think the bain attacks are going to hurt newt, could also hurt romney. there's a rally against romney because attacks on bain are seen as attack on profit and loss and that which makes capitalism work. i have to remind everybody. the reason we have super pacs is campaign finance reform. the parties used to basically be the policemen, and they were unheard of when the parties were in charge. they banned soft money and money flowed elsewhere, where? to millionaires with the money. >> cornell, isn't there a chance bain attacks may be coming too soon from a democratic perspective? they might be old news to voters by the time the general election hits? >> no, it reinforces a narrative that will happen anyway about sort of, you know, in perry's words this vulture capitalism. so from a democratic stand point, you know, they can't come

soon enough. it doesn't stop what we're going to do. still going to follow this narrative about whose side mitt romney is on. i think it is interesting that republicans are now sort of latching onto that populism. if you look at a state like south carolina, twice the unemployment as in new hampshire, more down ward scale, you have that populism strain there i think is a place where a perry or newt can take advantage. you see a main street grass roots versus wall street conservatism that says you can't question authority and can't question the rich and powerful. it is an interesting divide in the republican party and perry and newt are crazy like foxes to go after it. >> are you surprised the field is this crowded, that everyone got a ticket out of new hampshire? >> to a degree, i am surprised

by huntsman moving on. i think what a lot of people miss, anderson, is this year isn't like prior presidential election seasons because the republicans changed the calendar. up until about april 3rd, pretty much all of the delegate races are proportion a it isn't until april that winner takes all. someone could ride the wave and try to -- 60% of delegates for the convention aren't decided until after april. a lot is up for grabs. we picked 2.01% as of yesterday. >> but south carolina, that's the last retail politics stop before florida. florida, you need big money. >> and south carolina is not even retail any more, anderson. this is ad wars. we are at the phase where the old fashioned tv campaigns and show up in the state to get on tv. iowa and new hampshire are over. each candidate is hoping to be

the last man standing because mitt romney is vulnerable if someone can get him one on one. i think newt is the only one left that has a chance and he has virtually no chance at all. i am shocked huntsman is staying in. he looks like he could be dressed in a red sox uniform in the bleachers at yankees stadium. that's how much he fits into south carolina. his base is not a republican base. rick perry isn't doing well, he is not credible. rick santorum, i don't see him having the money and credibility. newt gingrich could be the last one standing, get him one on one. because of proportion at rules, it could go a long way. newt has to decide it. he can do tremendous damage and never win the presidency. he has to make a judgment call what does he want out of being in this race. take down the likely nominee and hand the election likely to

barack obama or stand in and make a point. >> cornell, the fact that romney is doing so well in south carolina, in a state of conservative voters, does that surprise you? does that concern you as a democrat? >> no. i mean, democratic side, i mean, states that i've done a lot of work in, the thing interesting about south carolina, you have 60% of the electorate is evangelical, and it is more down scale. if you get in the numbers, mitt had problems with conservative evangelicals, he had problems with voters that have more blue collar, more down scale. i wouldn't look at the polling numbers as they stand tonight and take them as fact. i will look at those polling numbers after my colleagues have said the barrage of campaign, millions of dollars of attacks happen there. and i think there is an opening there for a main street conservative versus wall street conservative there, but i agree

with those guys, perry doesn't have it. newt gingrich does have it, especially if big money backs him up. push back quickly on one of the things my republicans attack me on, i don't see as ideal that mitt romney is such a great general election candidate. i think newt gingrich is doing you a favor. i think he is fundamentally flawed. i think perry and newt point out some of his fundamental flaws. establishment is pushing it and grass roots is pushing back a little. >> i think mitt romney is disastrous as a general election candidate. >> do you? >> i do. for the reasons that perry and gingrich are highlighting. he has been suffering these a few days now. romney can't come up with a good response. best responses's got is to defend barack obama on the gm bailout, something republicans loathe. >> i have to go for time. ari, cornell, erick.

nearly 13,000 people were killed in mexico by suspected drug violence in first three quarters of 2011 according to new data by the country's attorney general who said numbers showed rate of killings is slowing. joran van der sloot pled guilty to all charges against him in killing of a peruvian woman and then apologized. the 24-year-old dutch man will be sentenced friday. he faces 30 years in prison. his lawyer asked for a reduced sentence. u.s. food safety officials say they're testing shipments of imported orange juice for traces of fungicide. they found low levels in the juice. the company hasn't been identified. and anderson, try to wrap your head around this. an international team of astron misses calculated on average there's more than one planet per star in the milky way. that adds up to a grand total of 100 billion planets in all. their findings were published in

"nature." >> when i think about the size of the universe, my head explodes. >> you have such a pretty head. >> i cannot wrap my head around it. >> keep your head as it is. >> it is crazy. it will drive you insane to think about it. >> so let's leave it there. >> i don't know. i was thinking about this the other day. >> you were? for breakfast? >> i was worrying about the ever extending universe. >> that's what's keeping you up at night. we'll check back later on. how many delegates did mitt romney win and how many people came out to vote. will it mean big turnout in the general election this fall? john king crunches numbers. and inside syria chaos after mortar strikes in homes. nic robertson was nearby, he joins me ahead.

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raw politics. new numbers. cnn predicts mitt romney took seven of new hampshire's 12 delegates with 39% of the vote. ron paul picked up three, huntsman two, leaving gingrich with none. you need 1144 delegates for the nomination. for the number of voters, it was a record. does the turnout in new hampshire and iowa signify success? >> there were two contests into the republican race. one of the big debates in american politics, are the republicans showing the necessary intensity to beat barack obama. let's look at the iowa caucuses and republican turnout there. if you look from 2000 to 2008 to 2012, numbers go up, but democrats look at that compared to that and say that's not so great. if you want to beat our president, you need more compassion than that.

republicans say see you in november. new hampshire, the same conversation after last night. again, look at the statistics. in 2000, 2008, 2012, sure, that's a new record, republicans say. democrats come back and say a lot of those voters were independents, a record number of independents voting in the republican primary. republicans shouldn't be proud about that number. where do you go next? south carolina. this will be a red state in november by all accounts, but will we see republican intensity. the 2000 number was not matched in 2008. turnout went down. what will we get in 2012? that's the question we'll answer in ten days. among factors there, look at this. darker the area, higher the number in this screen of voters that are evangelicals. are they excited about the possibility of a romney nomination? excited about the possibility of stopping him? we'll watch that vote. another vote, strong tea party state in 2010. darker the area, higher the percentage of tea party voters, will they come out. south carolina will add to the

debate about republican intensity. but republicans say democrats are overstating any problem, and the reason they say that is look at this. a new poll in florida just today, despite all of this conversation about intensity, shows governor romney in one of the biggest fall battle grounds ahead. statistically in a dead heat with the president of the united states. the cbs news poll, romney slightly ahead. that's a dead heat. republicans say maybe we have room to improve, need more passion and intensity, but at this point in the race, if romney is the nominee, we would be in pretty good shape. they think if any republican could beat him, numbers would look similar. this debate will continue from now until november. >> john, stick around. i want to bring in gloria borger. you saw what john outlined. if romney can harness anti-obama intensity, will that be turned over in terms of the primary?

>> it would be important for him. intensity is what mitt romney has never had before. voters in the republican primaries and caucuses have been looking for the anti-romney. and what we saw in new hampshire was 61% of the people that voted said you know what, it would be fine if mitt romney were the nominee. if he can finally focus that intensity and get people enthusiastic, he is on wait to the nomination. >> as long as santorum and gingrich and perry split that other vote, romney has to feel secure. >> feels secure in getting the nomination. still underscores the challenge of unifying the party going ahead. doesn't have the ring to no drama obama in the last campaign. but he is a no drama candidate. he likes to stay calm, be cool, collected. you have an evangelical base, tea party base that's anti-obama. they want more red meat, more

passion. plus they have policy questions. a fractured field in south carolina helps governor romney. if he wins there, then he has to go on, the exclamation point being florida. there's a challenge for those not for him now to be there for him in november even if they have reservations. >> i don't think that's what they want to do. that never works. hillary clinton was the air of inevitability, it didn't work out so well. it is generally the media that makes a candidate inevitable. we tend to talk that way. what they want to advance is the notion of electability. if he goes up against barack obama, he can beat barack obama, and his challenge in terms of enthusiasm is to get those people that really want to beat barack obama enthused about mitt romney, if he is the nominee, his vice presidential nominee and get them out to vote.

john mccain had to pick sarah palin to get the base to turn out at the polls. >> you mention polls show romney doing well against obama in florida. we all remember the 2000 election in florida, obviously crucial. what do the numbers tell you? >> the numbers are more reflection on a vulnerable incumbent. he will be able to raise money, has a great campaign team. not having an opponent allows them to watch the republican race and learn valuable lessons. but he will be running with unemployment in the ballpark of 8%. as we have this conversation if it is romney, make it a capital if, see what happens, say some tea party voters and evangelicals stay home. republicans argue guess what, maybe african-american turnout won't be as high because it won't be a history making election. maybe latino vote is down or republicans get a slice of that. maybe some liberals don't like that gitmo is open or his record on gay rights. maybe democratic turnout is down. as we watch for intensity on the

republican side and it is an important conversation to have, there's still a huge question mark come november about intensity on the democratic side as well. >> john king, gloria, thanks. >> sure. two dozen more deaths in syria, including a french journalist at a pro-government rally in homs. nic robertson was there, we will talk to him and find out what he saw next. search for a missing toddler focuses on a river in maine. d sr prescribed lipitor, i won't go without it for my high cholesterol and my risk of heart attack. why kid myself? diet and exercise weren't lowering my cholesterol enough. now i'm eating healthier, exercising more, taking lipitor. numbers don't lie. my cholesterol's stayed down. lipitor is fda approved to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients who have heart disease or risk factors for heart disease. it's backed by over 19 years of research. [ female announcer ] lipitor is not for everyone, including people with liver problems and women who are nursing, pregnant or may become pregnant. you need simple blood tests to check for liver problems. tell your doctor if you are taking other medications,

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tonight, a new sign of growing danger in syria. the u.s. state department ordered a number of state department employees to leave the country as soon as possible. opposition groups reported 24 people were killed today, including 10 in homs, where a pro-government rally was targeted by a mortar strike. the attack caught on video. take a look. a french journalist was among those killed in the attack. he is the first western journalist to die in syria's ten month old uprising. the rally was part of a government authorized trip. after the strike, the scene was chaos. the next video is hard to watch. you see the french journalist's girlfriend rushing to the car where he has been moved.

he was a veteran war correspondent and prize winning reporter. nic robertson was nearby when the mortar hit. he is safe tonight and nic joins me on the phone. you were in homs, left the area less than ten minutes before the attacks happened. what did you see out there? >> reporter: the government minders escorting us said there was a pro-government rally. they told us that they would like us to go in cover, we said we have seen enough government rallies, and as we were driving away from the area, the exact area of the strike where the incident happened where we had been filming in the past hour, we saw gil and the other reporters following the small government crowd. less than ten minutes later, we were getting phone calls to say gil and the others were hit. this was an area that just

before had been bustling with people. at the time, it was close to the front line. a few minutes to the frontlines. wounded soldiers were in there in an ambulance a few minutes earlier. >> do you know whose responsible for the attacks? >> i would say it is impossible to find out. the government blamed the opposition. they said the opposition knew that foreign journalists were going there, that's why they targeted it. i can tell you a lot of journalists on the bus with me would question that assessment. it doesn't add up. and it doesn't make sense. we may never know who fired the mortar rounds. >> most opposition groups are desperate for journalists to come tell their story. >> reporter: absolutely. and only yesterday, the president of syria came on the television and absolutely blamed the very same western reporters who were caught up in that

attack today for being responsible for the opposition, for making the opposition bigger than they were. he spent several minutes of two hour speech vilifying western reporters and others. yet as you rightly say, the opposition have looked for journalists like us to come and cover them because their message for the most part is almost impossible to hear and impossible to get out. so it doesn't add up that they would be the ones killing these. >> were you able to go, you're under tight control by the government. you were able to go to anti-government protesters. i want to play a clip of what you saw on the streets. >> reporter: the level of anger and passion here is absolutely palpable. we are just a few miles from central damascus. this is a crowd here -- thank you. thank you. this is a crowd of perhaps several thousand people. they are putting rocks in the road to prevent the police coming in. >> look at him.

32 years, only because he said -- >> who killed him, who is responsible? >> the government is responsible. >> i am afraid there, when i am talking to you now. why? because i am going to lift this scarf and go into my home and i am not 100% sure that i'm going to be safe because if not today, if not tomorrow, they will arrest me. >> and so many have been arrested. it is amazing people were willing to talk on camera, while admitting they're afraid of what might happen. they know you're under observation. >> you can see the fear in their eyes. they're so desperate to get their message out. they feel they're completely cut off from any means of telling their story of what's happening to them on a daily basis. we only got into that situation because a couple of arab league monitors went to find out details how the man was being buried in that protest, which

was also a funeral, find out details how he was killed. i was told by one of the protesters if the monitors hadn't been there, they would have been too afraid to be out on the street. they were grabbing an opportunity, even though they knew it might cost them their freedom. and this all happened what you saw there, happened just less than 15 minutes drive from the center of damascus. that gives you an idea of what's going on outside this capitol that at times looks fatal. >> you spoke to pro-government supporters also on the street. i want to play that. >> this opposition is not legal. >> not real. >> not legal. >> how do you mean not legal or real? >> i think it is fake. >> how tightly are you being controlled? >> we couldn't go to homs today, for example, without government permission. and we went on a bus that was organized by the government, and there were government minders with us. they don't interfere and stop

what we do, but at the same time, we go to locations of their choosing. we wanted to go to areas where opposition was strong in homs. they wouldn't let us. it is not that we are trying to admit it, they are dangerous areas. we were able to roam around and get to that rally. the government has controls on our movement and controls our time in the country. the reason i am talking on a telephone is because they banned us from bringing into the country any live broadcast equipment. they're making it very tough for us to work. our visas short and extending only a short time. they're keeping us on an incredibly short leash that you can imagine will be yanked if they feel we -- i have already told the lady of administrative information that handles us is upset. that's just another message of

intimidation that you have to follow the government line. our reporting will be independent. but that's the kind of atmosphere we work under here. >> nic, stay safe. thank you for doing what you do. nic robertson in syria. up next, latest in the disappearance of 21 month old ayla reynolds. rolling hot dogs bag of ice anti-freeze wash and dry diesel self-serve fix a flat jumper cables 5% cashback right now, get 5% cashback at gas stations. it pays to discover.

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tonight, we add makers of a product called the shake weight. that's right. the shake weight. not since the thigh master has there been such suggestive exercise equipment. think back to the first time you saw the shake weight commercials. perhaps you were in the living room and this came on the screen and you wondered is this for

real. >> this is a revolution, shake weight for men. it is going to kick your butt. >> you just shake it, back and forth. there's no motor, no batteries, and you get the results you want. >> i have nothing disparaging to say, members of the shake weight are on the ri dick list. they had to know there would be parodies. here is one from "saturday night live." >> until now, seeing the shake weight commercial is inconvenient. you never know when it is on. sometimes you only catch the end of it. now there's a convenient way to see the shake weight commercial every day. introducing the shake weight commercial dvd. a light weight dvd featuring the commercial three times on a loop, then some static, then nothing else. >> this is great. you can show your friends this commercial.

>> i have been shaken to the core by the shake weight. way on andy cohen's show. he made camille and i play a game. here is what happened live in the final category. take a look. >> camille, anatomy and physiology. show me your best dance moves, i'll award the point. hit it, maestro. >> you want me to dance? what am i could go, what do i do. >> there you go. >> she gets the point. she gets the point. thank you very much. anderson cooper, show me how to use this shake weight and you get the point! he kind of gets the point! >> so camille won the game, but i like to think i won on principle. there are some things i won't do on tv, i won't dance, sing, or get tricked into using the s