"erin burnett outfront" starts right now. >>> good evening, i'm erin burnett. breaking news, the president on a surprise visit to kabul. he announced he's handing off security to hamid karzai and the specific road map for troops to come home from the more than decade long war. >> last year, we removed 10,000 u.s. troops from afghanistan. another 23,000 will leave by the end of summer. after that, reductions will continue at a steady pace with more and more of our troops coming home. as our coalition agreed, by the end of 2014 the afghans will be fully responsible for the security of their country. >> the trip fell on the one-year anniversary of the day that the president ordered navy s.e.a.l.s to take out osama bin laden. >> over the last three years, the tide has turned. we broke the taliban's momentum. we built strong afghan security forces. we devastated al qaeda's leadership, taking out over 20 of the top 30 leaders. one year ago, from the base here in afghanistan, our troops launched the operation that killed osama bin laden. the goal that i set to defeat

erin?o you, reza. >>> and now to afghanistan, while military officers are saying a military officer who died last month while skyping with his wife was not shot and they do not suspect foul play. they were video chatting while her husband slumped forward in his seat. she says she spotted a bullet hole behind him. nick paton walsh is in kabul. >> reporter: it's hard to imagine anything more traumatizing than seeing your spouse die while talking to them over skype. but they can now positively say that this captain was not shot. in fact, there are only minor abrasions to his body and possibly a broken nose. there are toxicology tests that have to be performed to be absolutely sure. but at this point, investigators are saying it's unlikely that it's foul play. there are others suggesting that suicide is highly unlikely as well. and the most probable cause in this circumstances is national causes. erin? >> thanks, nick paton walsh. >>> now let's check in with anderson for a look what's coming up

erin? let me -- she talked about her son and the version she told you is very different than what you're reporting from his prior record. i mean what kind of person did she say that he was? >> reporter: well, she said he was a good person, person, a good season, who respected the family and she was just completely startled that something like this could happen. and she refused to believe it and she went on to say that she felt the police should not have shot him, although they say they had no choice, they should have used a taser on him. but it completely took her offguard and that's why she wanted to go on camera and talk about the developments in this case. >> what about the whole conversation about drugs. because what happened here with the whole sort of superhuman powers is bizarre. you have talked to other people who knew rudy eugene. you talked to his some his friends, did he use drugs? what have you been able to find out? >> reporter: one of his close friends said that he had been sm

erin? >> all right.o. >>> now let's check in with anderson cooper. >> back page, probably know about this. not backing away from a small but profitable corner of the internet when ads like these have drawn attention of 51 attorneys general who want them off-line. taken down. literally thousands. you'll hear from the company which said there's nothing illegal about it. critics say they are helping the sexual trafficking of young women. "new york times" columnist has written about human trafficking for greyears. >>> also tonight, the killing of om a taser camera. an ailing 68-year-old african-american man tasered, shot to death by a white police of artm c the sty in tonight's ridiculist at the top of the hour. >> thank you. see you in 15 minutes. >>> "vogue" magazine says models that are too young and too thin are no longer in. at statement came out by the parent company that commitment to the health of e models who appear on their pages, and the well-being of their readers." it's part of a six-point pact

erin? >> thanks very much to dan.ris with five days left before the presidential election runoff. now, nicolas sarkozy is facing off and both men today held rallies in deciding votes though may not come from the voters but from supporters of the far right candidate who is actually eliminated in the first round. she also had a rally today and i asked jim bittermann what her supporters or who her supporters are going to vote for. >> erin, of course, she is not in the presidential election, but she managed to capture 18% of the vote. the two leading candidates are now going into the runoff, and they would love to have them. but she sort of frustrated them today because she told her followers she personally was going to cast a blank ballot. she's going to the polling place and slip a white piece of paper into the envelope and vote for neither one of them. doing her civic duty, but making it into a protest. we talked to the people at the rally today that follow her and they said they would do the same thing. so even though

i'm erin burnett. crack down in china. just as a breakthrough appears possible in the case of blind chinese activist chen guangcheng the chinese government is clamping down harder on other voice of dissent. there's word of the government cracking down on those who criticized the government's authoritarian role. human rights in china said they haven't heard anything from activist for several days. you're looking at an active tweeter, and she announced she was under house arrest. a human rights lawyer was reportedly detained an beaten. he tried to visit chen in the hospital thursday evening. then that's one known by her english name, pearl. she's the woman who helped chen escape his house arrest in the dead of the night, took him to the embassy. she was detained herself. we were told that she was released yesterday. take a look at this man. an unnamed supporter of chen's who actually would not allow cnn to identify him today. as you can see the pictures from me hind him, his computer, but not his face. why? he says he fears

"erin burnett outfront" starts right now. have a great weekend. >>> "outfront" now, a blind activist may soon be free, but others may pay an extreme price for that. >>> we hear from the colombian escort at the center of the secret service scandal. >>> and certain models being banned from the pages of vogue? tyra banks comes "outfront." >>> well, good friday night to you. i'm erin burnett. crack down in china. just as a breakthrough appears possible in the case of blind chinese activist chen guangcheng the chinese government is clamping down harder on other voice of dissent. there's word of the government cracking down on those who criticized the government's authoritarian role. human rights in china said they haven't heard anything from activist for several days. you're looking at an active tweeter, and she announced she was under house arrest. a human rights lawyer was reportedly detained an beaten. he tried to visit chen in the hospital thursday evening. then that's one known by her english name, pearl. she's the woman who

erin? >> all right. there in cairo. >>> now let's check in with anderson cooper. >>> "vogue" magazine says models that are too young and too thin are no longer in. at statement came out by the parent company that says, "vogue editors around the world want the magazines to reflect their commitment to the health of the models who appear on their pages, and the well-being of their readers." it's part of a six-point pact pledging not to use models 16 or younger or who appear to have an eating disorder and asked casting agents to check i.d.s and create healthy backstage working conditions. one woman knows so much ar the fashion industry's. at the center of this, talking about power of images, body image, supermodel tara banks. she's "outfront" tonight. thanks for coming on and talking about this. we saw this today. i'm thrilled to have you here. >> thank you. >> the first question on this, why did it take so long for them to do it? >> you know, i think the question is not so much why did it take so long. i th

. >> let me go to you, erin.seems not only was he not adroit, i thought he made a very good pro-romney argument. i think he came on as a surrogate for romney. he basically said romney has done a good job. he said cutting jobs was a good thing for those purposes. he said it's wrong to be doing what obama is doing. he gave the case for bain and for romney, just short of saying romney ought to be president. >> and i talked to some republican national committee officials yesterday who said they were popping champagne corks after "meet the press" yesterday, because yes, indeed, mayor booker made their points to him. when mitt romney campaigns, he talks about his private sector experience, that he spent 25 years doing that, but he doesn't talk a lot about what he did exactly. he'll mention a couple things like sports authority and the office supply chain staples and domi domino's, to say that here are some very successful companies that, with my leadership at bain, we helped make successful. but that's the extent of it

>> reporter: publicly, erin, no.rces are telling us this is part of the deal that was on the table. a lot of reporters have actually known about these negotiations for months, but they weren't reporting it because they didn't want to jeopardize any potential negotiations. now that the parents themselves have gone public, you're getting sort of a peek behind the curtain at this covert diplomacy. one official tells us the way the swap might have worked is that the u.s. would not have released, say, all five of these taliban prisoners from guantanamo at once but they may release two. and then if the taliban release mo berkdahl then maybe they would work out an arrangement to transfer the other three to a third country like qatar. of course now that deal has sort of fallen apart because the negotiations have stalled, but pentagon officials say they still are paramount in thinking of getting him back home. >> if you go to the centcom command center, their conference room, there's about a four-by-six foot poster of bo burg

see, erin, it doesn't matter who's president. will work passionately with whoever the president if they start that -- with that premise. so if president obama were to come to me today and say that he wanted to adopt 9-9-9 i would work with him. i am on a mission to replace the tax code for the good of the american people and for the good of this country. >> and i want to ask, you made a few endorsements since you dropped out. i was there with the day when you talked about the american people. i wanted to play something for you. >> my unconventional endorsement is the people. we the people of this nation are still in charge! that's who i'm endorsing. i hereby officially and enthusiastically endorse newt gingrich for president of the united states! i would support whoever the nominee is, and it looks like mitt romney is going to be the nominee and we need to get behind him. >> before you respond i want to play this what you said about mitt romney's tax plan which it does have a nine in it as in 59 points. here it is. >> the 9-9-9 p

i'm erin burnett. five stories outfront tonight. dozens of exotic animals shot down after being released from a farm in ohio. the survivors now going back to that farm. and a crisis in america's relationship with rising superpower china. president obama puts osama bin laden outfront. and a year later, al qaeda has new plans for terror. a special report. but first, tonight's enron. the persons "outfront" tonight is billionaire aubrey mcclendon. he's the outspoken, charzmatic scion of one of america's founders and a founder of chesapeake. chesapeake could be the next enron, or worldcom. chesapeake energy is second only to exxonmobil in drilling for natural gas in this country. more than 13,000 americans work for mcclendon, enjoying perks, which according to reuters includes on-site botox treatments. chesapeake also boasts a campus with three restaurants and a 70,000-square foot facility with a rock climbing wall. it may have been among the first signs that something doesn't end up. mcclendon has often made grandiose promises that aren

erin? >> thanks to nina. >>> now to london. elizabeth ii marking 60 years at a jubilee for being on the throne. i asked max foster who the problem was. >> well, erin, the queen invited every monarch in the world, and it's a very exclusive club, but within it there are controversial figures. the king of bahrain, king of swaziland, for example, both have been accused by activists of human rights abuses. also, a glaring mission of the table, it felt, the queen of spain. she turned down her invitation on the advice of her government. spain and britain are in a dispute over the island of gibraltar. so there was some small demonstrations, but overall, the event went as planned. erin? >>> last, the most annual watched sporting event in the world. not the super bowl. the champion leagues. we call it soccer. between chelsea and bayern munich tomorrow. i asked why is champions league the number one watched in the world? >> erin, quite simply, because when it comes to sports, we all like to see the best of the best play each other, and th

erin. >> thanks very much to matthew chance. view of what can happen in bad economic times. austerity in greece as, well, put us in a very tough position. you can see real radicals rising and that brings us to our fifth story outfront. herman cain. what does he have to do with this? heas a strong position on debt and he is the former presidential candidate. before we get to the serious part, i wanted to show you a little of what he's been up to. he's been putting up some eyebrow raising ads, here's a couple. >> this is the average american taxpayer. this is an average american taxpayer feeding big government. [ screaming ] >> he's also out with a new book about his famous 9-9-9 plan, here it is and of course herman cain is out front today. good to see you, mr. cain. >> thank you, erin. the last time i saw you it was at a presidential debate. it's good to see you again. >> yes, it was. let me ask you, sir, about these videos. obviously you're trying to uses humor or shock to make a point. we've also showed the stuffed rabbit bein

>> thanks, erin.ngs today is that the justice department received enough information, enough complaints, heard enough allegations and did enough of their own research through records that they believe an investigation is warranted. we're doing everything we can to cooperate with that investigation. i have nothing but faith in my police force. those men and women are committed to serving the community, but i can tell you we can always get better. if there are problems with the way we're doing business we're very interested in understanding what those problems are and remedying those problems. >> there are reports women have said that women have complained that they have come into the police station with a rape allegation and been handed a pamphlet that says, look, it's a crime to falsely report rape and that was a standard -- appears to be standard reading material. have you been able to find out whether that is true? >> you know, in fact it's not true, erin. the fact of the matter is that in that part

"erin burnett outfront" starts right now. >>> good evening, everyone. i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, the debt. tonight $15.6 trillion. so you may say how did we get here? well, check out the top three reasons. number one, the price tag for the bush tax cuts. $1.8 trillion. number two, the cost of the wars in iraq and afghanistan. $1.3 trillion at this moment. a distant third, the president's stimulus plan, $831 billion. never thought $831 billion would look cheap. well, here's another powerful number. right now this country is paying $224 billion a year in interest on our debt and that number is mushrooming. it becomes an exponential problem. by 2020 we will be paying $544 billion in interest alone. if you want to see something really scary, let's compare that $544 billion to medicare. by 2020 in the year we're paying $544 billion in interest, medicare will cost a mere $279 billion. we'll be paying almost double that just in interest on our debt. now, you may say that's clearly foul and bad and terrible things, but some people believe that spending more is the bes

>> that's correct, erin. happened here coming out $38 a share is good for the company offering at that price, but investors don't feel great about it because -- another problem, too, that 30-minute delay. 11:00 our time and didn't come out until a half hour later. when it came out at $38.42, started falling down. people said, it's not supposed to do that and you lost the momentum on the stock. >> another thing that a lot of people may not realize is that, i mean, it theoretically and most people say would have gone bethat offering price, would have been the first of major ipos to ever do that on its first day. if it weren't for the underwriters, jpmorgan, morgan stanley coming in and buying, buying, to try to hold that price? >> and exactly correct. i was receipt reiding t ireadin thing. they didn't want to fall below $38. they did that today. what about monday? tuesday? they won't be there forever. a nice decline, 20 more, underwriters can't keep putting money in to keep the stock up. that's a problem. >> ho

erin? >>> now to mexico where authorities captured one of the main suspects in the kill of 49 people whose bodies were discovered dismembered gruesomely last week. ramirez daniel elizando known as "the madman" will be detained for 40 days as prosecutors build their case against him. i asked rapheal romo what mexican authorities know about the suspect and the reason for the murders. >> reporter: erin, he was the leader of the drug cartel in that part of northern mexico near the border where the bodies were found. "the madman" was described as one of the suspect responsible for last week's killings, the massacre of 49 people whose bodied were beheaded and mutilated. officials say this was part after strategy to blame the actions on opposing criminal organizations to cause confusion among authorities and public opinion. he is an extremely dangerous individual, erin. officials say as mexican soldiers were closing in on him, the madman hurled the grenade and fired the troops with a rifle. >> all

unfortunately last i checked erin was not on the itunes top 100 download.t so many fans. we'll wait to see if she moves forward. >> tough competition and great entertainment. thanks a lot, stephanie. >>> another big night on nbc. tonight "the biggest loser" is crowned. three contestants are finalist. kim kneelson and brother and sister team jeremy and conda. the person who has lost the most since they left the ranch weeks ago will be named the winner. tonight that winner will take home $250,000. the live finale starts at 8:00 right here on nbc 4. it's down to the wire there. >>> you don't owe these people any more. you've given them everything. >> not everything. not yet. >> we're getting a first look at what's expected to be one of the summer's biggest blockbusters. the third trailer for ""the dark knight" rises" was released last night. to tease the final installment of the critically acclaimed "batman" trilogy. that hits theaters july 20th. >> after ryan o'neal appeared the "today" show this morning, he's battling prostate cancer. >> in an emotional inte

sflur's right, erin. the u.s.day increasing the proposed sanctions so you're iran and you want relief from what is becoming a crushing sanction regime that's really killing the iranian economy and the price of oil has dropped so they're not getting as many revenues, you want something from the west, from the partners there, what can they give? they can give a delay in future sanctions. you might be able to see the european union to lay the old embargo which has not yet gone into effect. you could see the president relax some sections for humanitarian reasons on some banks. that's what iran will be looking for, that's the most politically sensitive part of these negotiations. >> i don't even know what that would do in tel aviv. okay, thanks to both of you. okay. >>> now something almost no one expected. today daryn harun ravi was venty the judge for bullying his gay roommate. he could have don't ten years. he got 30 days. his roommate tyler clementi committed suicide by jumping off the george washington bridge afte

erin? >>> and now our fifth story outfront.f florida mother, michelle parker. a so-called smart panel is looking at the case. parker vanished in november after leaving her 3-year-old twins at her former fiance's house in orlando. that's the same day that the couple appeared on "the people's court" in a dispute over the engagement ring. that former fiance dale smith has been someone that the police are looking at, but it's six months and there are no arrests and no michelle. her family has been relentless in its search for answers and today made this emotional appeal. >> i'm a mother. this is my first born child and i don't know where she is. and i don't know who did it for sure. i don't know where they put her. i want my baby back. and if somebody never goes to jail, i don't really care. i just want my girl. >> michelle parker's mother yvonne stewart is outfront tonight along with her sister, lauren erikson and their attorney. i wish you weren't back on this show, because i wish this had ended before and that we knew where she

erin. >> all right, thank you. soledad who's in for anderson with a look at what's coming up on 360. >> good evening to you. more on syria tonight on 360. the options and consequences for stopping the slaughter. pictures are now emerging of another brutal slaying, this one in the eastern province called dare azur. 13 bodies all with their hands tied behind their backs. tonight i'll speed with fareed zakaria on why the world cannot seem to find the courage to intervene and former cia officer bob baer will join me with syria's scary stockpile of chemical weapons. >>> and the birther denials that won't go away. donald trump continues to wheel out birther talking points even though the president has shown the world his long form birth certificate. if you need more proof than that, we have it ahead on 360. we sent gary tuchman to hawaii to once and for all put doubts to rest. hawaii to put doubts to rest. >>> stories of how latino voters could be the swing vote come november, that and much more tonight, erin, become. >>

. >> here's the other thing, erin. when the highest point of your moral compass is that you are challenging the letter of the law, right? in other words, you're going to push the envelope of the letter of the law as far as it'll go, that's your moral compass, excuse me, you're going to get in trouble. that's bad stuff. never mind the spirit of the law. there's no spirit of the law here at all. >> we'll leave it as that as the bottom line. thanks very much to both of you. we'll keep following this. tomorrow we'll get earnings from chesapeake. >>> all right, "outfront" 2 is next. >>> still "outfront," pushing forward. >> i believe america is on the way up. >> al qaeda's secret stash. >> only the beginning. >> all this "outfront" when we come back. sarah... will you marry me? i think we should see other people. in fact, i'm already seeing your best friend, justin. ♪ i would've appreciated a proactive update on the status of our relationship. who do you think i am, tim? quicken loans? at quicken loans, we provide you with