troops continuing in the south of the capitol wednesday and gadhafi himself still at large, the rebel administration is not in the clear yet. in tripoli several foreign journalist held under house arrest by the libyan government have been released. some 35 reporters from the bbc, cnn and other media were kept for five days in a government-approved hotel for foreign journalists. at least two politicians were also among the captives. remaining at the hotel even after his military compound was seized on tuesday, reporters were released unhurt. the reason for their detention is unknown. but there is speculation that a key government official was in the hotel and that he planned to use the journalists as human shields against rebel attacks. >>> the u.n. security council has discussed a u.s. proposal to release $1.5 billion in frozen libyan assets for humanitarian assistance in the country. the council held an informal meeting on wednesday on a draft resolution to unfreeze the assets of gadhafi and others and make them available it libyan citizens. nhk obtained a copy of the draft calling for assets to be

continuing in the south of the capital on wednesday, and gadhafi himself still at large, the rebel administration is not in the clear yet. >>> in tripoli, several foreign journalists held under house arrest by the libyan government have been released. some 35 reporters from the bbc, cnn, and other media were kept for five days in a government-approved hotel for foreign journalists. at least two foreign politicians were also amongst the captives. gadhafi's troops remained at the hotel even after his military compound was seized by rebel forces on tuesday. the reporters were released unhurt on wednesday. the reason for the detention is not known, but there is speculation that a key government official was in the hotel, and that he planned to use the journalists as human shields against rebel attacks. >>> fighting is intensifying in yemen between government forces and al qaeda militants. 42 people have been killed in the past two days. the local al qaeda affiliate has grown while government forces are preoccupied, cracking down on protesters demanding that the president resign. fighting has continue

the white house. obama administration has recognized the rebels in libya as the true government. now, the latest from washington. >> reporter: six months after the libyan revolution begin, it looks like moammar khadafy's reign is close to an end. the libyan dictator is under siege where they are preparing for a final showdown. some neighborhoods are reportedly in government hands and rebels are in control other areas and rebel forces have taken over government buildings. the supporters are celebrating in the square and unimaginable sight just jaus week ago. destruction in the capitol is evident and his son was arrested. khadafy still claims to be in control. >> dictator delivered a series of angry audio messages. he dismissed the rebels and urged the libyan people to fight on. i am with you in tripoli. don't allow them to put a foot on our land. i am with you as i always promised you. we will never surrender. >> in benghazi supporters of opposition forces celebrated in a fight that had been deadlocked for months. president obama issued a statement, tripoli is slipping from the gr

the weapons? plus, libya's rebels are on the brink of victory. senator john mccain is standing by live. we'll talk to him. he's slamming the obama administration more to help the rebels earlier on. stay with us. you're in "the situation room." [ male announcer ] members of the american postal workers union handle more than 165 billion letters and packages a year. that's about 34 million pounds of mail every day. ever wonder what this costs you as a taxpayer? millions? tens of millions? hundreds of millions? not a single cent. the united states postal service doesn't run on your tax dollars. it's funded solely by stamps and postage. brought to you by the men and women of the american postal workers union. ♪ until i tried this. nothing helped me beat arthritis pain. of the american postal workers union. it's salonpas. pain relief that works at the site of pain... up to 12 hours. salonpas. stay with us. he d re copd. my son and i never missed opening day. but with copd making it hard to breathe, i thought those days might be over. so my doctor prescribed symbicort. it helps significantly improve my lung function, starting within 5 minutes. symbic

were close to gadhafi, they were reaching the gadhafi folks, reaching out to the obama administration right up until the rebelsed taking and claiming tripoli. i was talking to mike baker, former cia ops, he said no way in terms of negotiations, that window has to have closed. do you think they were hoping to negotiate or salvage some sort of safe-haven for gadhafi? >> officials think more, brooke, that they were trying to buy time. stave off what they call the inevitable. you mentioned that this was occurring until the last minute. it was literally the last minute. because some state department officials are saying that about six officials been gadhafi's government were reaching out saturday night making multiple outreaches, phone calls, trying to get in touch with u.s. officials. they said everything they talked about and everything that they were still saying was still somewhat defiant. they never got to the point where they were saying yes, gadhafi will step down. so u.s. officials said it never even approached our benchmark for what we would have to have to enter into any negotiations. that's why they thin

the white house in washington, d.c. this morning. obama administration have recognized the rebels in the country as the government. >> reporter: six months after the libyan revolution begin, it looks like moammar khadafy's reign is close to an end. he is under siege in the capital city of tripoli where rebels are preparing for a final showdown. some neighborhoods are reportedly in rebel hands and rebel forces have taken over government buildings. the supporters are celebrating in the square, symbolic part of khadafy veem and unimaginable sight just a week ago. the destruction in the capital is evident and one of his sons was arrested but he still claims to be in control. dictator delivered a series of angry audio messages. he dismissed the rebels and urged people to fight on. i am with you in tripoli. don't allow the occupiers to put a foot in our land. i am with you in this battle as i always promised you. we will never surrender. in the rebel stronghold of benghazi supporters of the opposition forces celebrated. president obama issued a statement late sunday night from vacation

the rebel forces. we have now taken sides as a result of the obama administration policy and now we need to maximize ournfluence within this group. so, hopefully hopefully that is going on right now. hopefully we are developing relationships and building bridges to the rebel regime and when they come into poured concreter that we will have some influence and ability to be able to work with them to establish a stable regime in libya. >> bret: let's talk politics. the last time you ran for office as an incumbent from pennsylvania you spent $26 million on that race and still lost by 18 points. this year an underdog with relatively little money, that is fair to say, for republicans whose main concern is to defeat president obama in 2012, aren't there other candidates who realistically stand a better chance than you do? >> the last race i ran was a miserable year for republicans. we lost the house of representatives by the worst margin since the great derex. it was a meltdown in pennsylvania i as it was in a t of the mid atlantic states. george bush was 36% favorable on election day in pennsylvania that day.

just five months ago, senator graham criticized the obama administration's strategy for helping the rebels>> the strategy's confusing to the american people only 21% believe president obama has a clear view of how to handle libya. it's demoralizing to our allies, particularly people often the ground we're trying to help. i think it's encouraging to our enemies. this strategy is going to lead to a stalemate. >> where do they stand tonight? >> they want to criticize obama for leading a successful campaign, with a minimum of blood and treasure. it's baffling to me you couldn't embrace this as a good outcome. >> tim dickinson, rolling stone magazine, good to have you with us tonight. thanks so much. >>> consistency is not one of mitt romney's strengths, but this time his flip-flopping went too far. psycho talk is next. r livingsocial, i started getting hooked up with deals all over the place. ♪ now i get the star treatment everywhere i go. ♪ surprise yourself at livingsocial.com. sign up for free to save at least 50% on the best of your town. >>> while many along the east coast brace for a vis

the protests. reporting live in san francisco, david stevenson, ktvu. >>> there is celebration in libya after rebels take over gadhafi's main military compound. at this time there's no word on colonel gadhafi's whereabouts. the obama administration is urging him to give himself up and prevent further bloodshed. >>> sarah sidner was in the middle of all the chaos today in tripoli. she was inside gadhafi's compound as the rebels rushed in. >> the whole place has been secured by the rebels. and there are cars driving in and out easily. but there is still quite a bit of gunfire. that gunfire is celebratory gunfire. and clearly there is extreme excitement here in tripoli. >> sidner and her camera man were forced to back away repeatedly and take cover behind barricades to keep from getting hurt. both got out safely from the compound. >> today ktvu spoke to one libyan living in exile who says he is now excited about the future of his homeland. >> we've been waiting for this day when libya is free of gadhafi. we have to go back and contribute. this is a time of need, help. >> he's been in exile ever since he left for college in the states more than 40 years ago. he says he expects many like himself to return home and help rebuild the ne

. >> warner: the rebels' recent military gains, which obama administration officials applauded today,e after setbacks, including the killing last month of the rebel military commander abdul fattah younis, apparently by his own men. that was the most visible sign of disarry in the rebel movement, headed by the transitional national council, or t.n.c.. for more, we go to brian conley, who recently returned from his second trip to eastern libya, where he is training local journalists. and dirk vandewalle, a professor of government at dartmouth college and author of "a history of modern libya." welcome, gentlemen. thank you both for joining us. professor vandewalle beginning with you, what do you make of these rebel advances? is is this a sign that regaining some momentum or just another flip of the see-saw? >> as your reporter indicated, we have seen these battles rage back and forth. we have seen a number of cities, miss rat a and all along the eastern coast, being taken by rebels and being taken back by government forces. and indeed going back and forth a number of times in the case of

drones at least i mean a lot of what is there in the obama administration distancing itself from these rebels we've heard secretary think clinton to say hey guys or whatever it was paraphrasing say a lot with the revenge like don't go out killing everybody now. anything you correct about the restrictions actually better because because now even reuters is running stories of massacres on both sides and today this was on the cover of the york times as well write this the so you think that the obama administration is distancing itself from their entire conflict after that situation out there now they're saying look this is a gnc war in conjunction with nato and we have nothing to do with it it's not true of the. because all the surveillance satellite information the best qualified information comes from different they're going to be in naples right and then you leave and then you mentioned i'm sorry i missed out on your time but you mention the reports that are coming out that don't look make the rebels look so good there's been reports of slaughter gadhafi supporters and what looks like a tent

drones that we know of what yes what is the is the obama administration distancing itself from these rebels we've heard secretary of state clinton to say hey guys are what and i'm paraphrasing say hey what's with the revenge like don't go out killing everybody now. anything effective oh the restrictions are extremely barriers because because now even reuters is really stories of mesic risible suds and so they this was on the cover of the york times as well right so this mean so getting that the obama administration is distancing itself from the entire complex yes it definitely is not it now they're saying look this is a. war in conjunction with me we have nothing to do with it it's not true obviously because all the surveillance satellite information the best qualified information comes directly from the pentagon the need to. be seen in the people's right and then give you and then you mention a sardinian step on your time that you mention the reports that are coming out that don't look make the rebels look so bad there's been reports of slaughter gadhafi supporters and what looked like a t

the capital city of tripoli. one rebel unit says it is 15 miles from the gadhafi strong whole. breaking news, the associated process rebel troops have captured a military base seizing large amounts of weapons. the obama administration says gadhafi's days are numbered. i'm shannon bream in washington. we begin with dominic di-natale in tunisia with the latest. hello dominic. >> reporter: yes, we are hearing from rebels they believe the fall of colonel gadhafi after 40 years of dictatorship be 72 hours away. they say they've got as many as 15,000 troops on the outskirts of the city, close as 15 miles, ready for a final push in the capital. in the past 48 hours we've seen them take key towns, an oil refinery town on the coast. also another key town to the east of the city. bear in mind, with 15,000 troops, they will be taking on the capital, which is larger than any city that they've taken so far. there is a real sense of momentum behind the rebels' approach. there was fighting overnight, in coordination say the rebels, with nato strikes. explosions and gunfire were heard across the city. that has continued throughout today. we believe that key neighborhoods, there were groups and citizens waiting for the rebels to co

i guess the obama administration said that rebels now control about 90% of the country, but there's stillired by those gadhafi loyalists last night. not sure what damage it may have done. but again, the fight ain't over just yet. >> some serious weaponry still in his arsenal. >> should be a fascinating end to this little chapter. >>> as the next libyan leadership begins to take shape there are some growing calls to send lockerbie bomber abdelbaset al megrahi back to prison. al megrahi had been freed by a scottish court back in 2009, because he claimed to be dying of cancer. but in recent monthshs he's been alive and well and appearing in fact at pro-gadhafi rallies. >>> and now to a stunning about-face from new york prosecutors investigating the dominique strauss-kahn sex case. they are expected to request that all charges be dropped during a hearing later this morning. >> this after they announced monday that they no longer ç believed the hotel maid accusing the former imf chief of assault. abc's scott gorborg has the latest now from new york. good morning, scott. >> reporter: good morni

the rebels. simply refusing to give them weapons, he argued, would lead to a stalemate. a direct quote -- the obama administration a nice compromise. we're in, but we're not in. there's tough rhetoric, but no men on the ground. we're helping the rebels, but not giving them weapons. it's a formula for stalemate and more rebel debts, unworthy of our country. well, that was flat wrong. whatever you think of the rebels and this nator air campaign, it didn't end in a stalemate. gadhafi is out. what did abrams make of that news? he just wrote a new piece. the grouchy headline was not obama's win, and it goes downheld from there. abrams actually contradicts himself further. now he says there was no question whether the operation would bring down gadhafi, it was only a matter of climb. that claim is the opposite of the stalemate if you look at the pundits who backed the iraq war or the neocons who advocate intervention and complain there isn't enough troops on the ground, it seems the records have no impact on their influence. like bill crystal who said we would be greeted as liberators, or sean hannity who said we would

the obama administration is urging libyan rebels to secure the depots and cautioning nearby countries for smuggled weapons. >>> mayor gwinnett quan disagrees saying many of the suspects recent murder cases are adults. >>> a standoff between a cass tre valley man and the sheriff's department ended. the manager of the trailer park tried to e fix the one of the tenants. the man was holed up inside. deputies tried to contact the man but help wouldn't talk to them. the sheriff's dog burst through the screen door and started biting the man who later surrendered. >>> someplacer county residents said they'll do things differently next time there's a massive evacuation with five minutes to pack. >> literally grabbed the dog and left. >> thousands of residents returned home. a dangerous thanker fire and huge exploasmghts residents were told to evacuate but they had no idea they would be gone for two days or that the evacuation might have been extended for two weeks. >> i would have packed different clothes. >> reporter: if you had known you would be gone for two weeks -- >> i with have packed a

one of gadhafi sons says the rebels are losing every belgts. a senior u.s. administration person says obama has been briefed on the situation in libya from his vacation spot. >> the raising of the white flag we will not talk about, and it's nauz because of islam, this is rejected by the people of libya. >> i want to get the detail from our man on the ground, our international correspondent with cnn. matth matthew, what else are we hearing from the libyan government? >> reporter: we had a press conference in the last couple of minutes with the spokesperson saying eventually that nato has been stepping up the air campaign in tripoli and on the outskirts of tripoli for rebels to enter the city, and he warned tripoli was protected by thousands upon thousands of soldiers, and there's interesting overnight from lib raw television, the state's television, one of the state television channels here in the country. you see one of the anchors of an overnight television broadcast bran dishing a gun, and there were reports that there was gun fire outside of the headquarters of that tel

the rebels have won. evan, who can take credit? >> everybody will until it turns bad. i been a critic of the obama administration for working -- intervening on this, and it turned out better than anybody expected because gaddafi is gone. there could be civil war that comes out of it, but look, it is better than gaddafi. the west can generally take the credit, a brief people who overthrew him to take credit -- brave people who overthrew him can take credit. >> how about nato? >> they came through with the air cover and the air strikes. they had to learn how to do this thing. i think the u.s. -- our better position is that we've not lost a cell in the fight. >> does the president get advantage in this politically? >> not if the republicans have their way. as someone who was a critic of the intervention myself, basically because it was not done legally and congress was mute in its usual self, the fact that there were 17,000 sorties flown in to powers did a difference. the question has become, is this a human rights intervention to save a massacre, does that make invasion of iran that much easier? >> charles? >> wel

. >>> the obama administration asked to unfreeze gadhafi funds and give them to the rebels. the u.s. ambassador plans to request a vote by the council tomorrow at noon our time. >>> police say two men involved in today's botched armored car robbery were brothers. tonight, one of them is dead, the other is behind bars. police say the attempted robbery occurred this morning just off of interstate 80. according to police, 25-year- old pierre daniel and his brother, freddy daniel, tried to rob an armored car. the female guard put up a fight and a gun battle broke out. >> all of a sudden, i heard a couple of shots, and i seen a guy with red shoes and a black cap running across. >> pierre daniel was killed. police say his younger brother was involved in the shootout, and suffered a superficial wound. the guard underwent surgery, her condition has not been released. police had warrants issued for the two daniel brothers in connection with a similar robbery back in may at another bank about a mile away. >>> oakland police are asking the public to help them identify an african americ

. >>> the obama administration asked to unfreeze gadhafi funds and give them to the rebels.he u.s. ambassador plans to request a vote by the council tomorrow at noon our time. >>> police say two men involved in today's botched armored car robbery were brothers. tonight, one of them is dead, the other is behind bars. police say the attempted robbery occurred this morning just off of interstate 80. according to police, 25-year- old pierre daniel and his brother, freddy daniel, tried to rob an armored car. the female guard put up a fight and a gun battle broke out. >> all of a sudden, i heard a couple of shots, and i seen a guy with red shoes and a black cap running across. >> pierre daniel was killed. police say his younger brother was involved in the shootout, and suffered a superficial wound. the guard underwent surgery, her condition has not been released. police had warrants issued for the two daniel brothers in connection with a similar robbery back in may at another bank about a mile away. >>> oakland police are asking the public to help them identify an african american

the rebels now. the obama administration is also debating how to track down libya's vast stockpile of weapons beforee hands of terrorists. a bizarre twist now this morning in the case of a missing utah woman. nearly two years after her disappearance, susan powell's husband now saying that she might have run off with another man. josh powell who is a person of interest in this case watched as police were searching his home for eight hours yesterday. he says that susan's diary is proving that she was straying from their marriage. in another salacious twist, josh's father, her husband's father, steve powell, says that he had an intimate relationship with susan as well. susan's family says these are all lies. and former pga champion and ryder cup captain paul azinger firing a zinger at president obama. here's what he wrote on twitter. he's played more golf than me this month. i've created more jobs than him this month. >> oh, boy, oh, boy! >> he's recently been working as a broadcaster in developing golf apps for smart phones and he led the u.s. to its first ryder cup win in nearly a decade back in 2008

experimental cures are in jeopardy and the obama administration a stock pile of crucial cancer medications and overseas, major developments from the month lines of libya, rebel forces making big gains and closing in on the capital city of tripoli reportedly taking full control of the key oilsy of brega, and gaddafi is planning to leave the country. i'm jamie colby, keep it right here on fox. have a good day. >> european market meltdown not helping to calm down our markets. major bank stocks plummeting there. fears that it's growing over here and whatever is ailing them is going to be a big, big problem here. the whole contagion, how real is it? >> i don't think we're in 2008 area right now. i think our banks are much better capitalized and we don't have triple-a mortgage backed securities and mortgage backed securities rated triple-a and considered on our balance sheets and something else that's modern day nefarious. >> if you have a big french bank that goes down, i'm sure we hold that paper here, could a big french bank go down. yes, here is the thing, if france gets downgraded and bonds will get downgraded and people won't be buying french bonds unlike u.

been discussing, there is great concern within the obama administration tonight when you talk to senior officials about what will happen next, and the rebels govern themselves will there be chaos or will they be able to bring some order in the days ahead and you see some euphoria here in the early stages and heard a lot about gunfire and you worry about looting and what might come next, they're certainly keeping a close eye on that and the final point i'd make, there's also a lot of eyes within the american government taking a look at the situation, with oil reserves there in libya, obviously, the last thing, world markets need right now is another shock to the system and now we have been talking throughout the president's working vacation here in martha's vineyard how the stock market has been going through a wild ride and a concern about the jobs situation and the stock market has been gyrating in part because the jobs crisis, and we've seen oil prices going up and down and now what happens because of these changes in libya and what happens in the asian markets over the next couple of hours and what happens in the u.s. markets tomorrow.

both make sure that the main credit went to the rebels on the ground who bore the brunt of the fighting, but some of the credit washed over on to the administration. there was an unmistakable desire there to say, we told you so. people thought the administration was doing too much, too little, it would never work. well, it appears to be working out on balance not too badly. >> nancy, help me understand something that's really hard to understand from reading the papers. what exactly was the u.s.'s role here? on the front side we know there were air strikes, but in the end game, assuming the tide has turned, were there special forces on the ground? did we provide weapons? >> the most important role was the use of predators, and those predators helped nato go about their air campaign. it began with striking gaddafi's air support, his compounds. from there, the commanding control sector and ledge the logistical support. they continue to play a key role. we heard from the brits that the nato role has been stepped up to help the rebels finds gaddafi, those predators are being used to gather intelligence and try to spot him. it's not the traditional rol

if the rebels are successful in taking out gadhafi, what are the implications for the obama administrationyou'll recall the spike in the president's approval rating following the death of osama bin laden. even that proved to be short-lived. lieutenant colonel anthony shaffer is still with us to talk about the politics of this. he's got new information. plus, we bring in the special monday megapanel. political commentator sam steeter. washington examiner's tim kearney. and msnbc contributor imagene lloyd webber. tony, tell us what you've learned about what congress does or doesn't know about what's going on right now. >> the president may be getting daily briefings. apparently no one on the hill is. i was talking to not so secret sources, staffers involved in the oversight process. there's no oversight process. there's really big questions which are being left unanswered relating to the appropriation process and the fact that there's been no money appropriated for the libyan conflict. no matter how you feel about it, right or left, republican, democrat, there's pretty clear indications that

but the obama administration has been working on this for some time. therve pressuring the rebel leaders to reach out to opposing tribes and try to create a more broadly based government that can prevent retaliation and establish order. the point man for all of this from the u.s. in benghazi at rebel headquarters has been assistant secretary of state jeff feldman. he talked to me from a stop over in cairo about the challenge for the new governing group. >> i was encouraged by what i heard from benghazi. first of all, the amount of communication was far greater than i knew. i sat with one official who said in one hour another neighborhood is going to start the uprising in tripoli. he sort of predicted what was going to unfold over the next 24 hours and it did almost as clock work as preducted. which told me there's more indications of what's going on. i'm encouraged by the amount of effort they put into trying to make sure that the widespread looting, the type of retribution you might expect in this situation is prevented. risk are downplayed. i'm hearing that there are check poin

the rebels have made significant gains in their battle against libyan government forces. >>> a white house call for serious president to step down could happen today. the obama administrationreportedly expected to make a statement later on and that would also include new sanctions on president alastkpwhropb's re jet stream. he accused syrian troops of killing more than 1800 civilians since the uprisings began there in march. >>> today president obama head out on a 10-day family vacation at martha's vineyard in massachusetts. that's after wrapping up his three-day trip through the midwest where he urged people to put pressure on congress to work together for the good of the country. >> i need you to send a message to your members of congress, to your representatives that we're tired of the games, we're tired of the posturing, we don't want more press releases, we want action. >> the president ended his midwest bus trip in illinois. during that tour he made several unscheduled stops such as this one at a county fair in illinois where he took time out to talk with people and pose for some photographs. >>> the top republican presidential candidates, in the meantime, continue t

the pot. qaddafi appears not ready to leave? >> i think it looks at this point he will and rebels will succeed in deposing him . happen after that period of chaos and instability and put pressure on the administrationo engage . i admire bill's optimism. it is a proxy conflict with iran and great to force assad out of there. libya was a unique experiment and the white house made it clear it is not going to replicate that in syria. president assad knows that . i think you have a dynamic where we -- he's going to have -- can he take credit if qaddafi is deposed. obama said given the situation in syria which is comparable but doesn't appear he will amass a coalition and also use military strength and repliicate the libya operation. i don't think he will. i think he made it clear he won't . so it is a tough moment even if qaddafi is desupposed. >> post qaddafi libya raises question marks. >> of course, there are. there are elements of the libya opposition is unsavory. we don't know what the u.s. position will be going forward in lib yampt having said that one thing we shouldn't do is avoid trying to influence the outcome. to the extent that we have a say in the kind of opposition and what it looks like

. >> the obama administration also said it will soon release about a billion dollars in frozen libyan assets and give it to the rebels. the money would be made available to the transitional national council for immediate humanitarian need. cnn reporter sarah sidner who you might remember as a former ktvu reporter, is in the very center of tripoli. she was there when shots were fired celebrating. >> reporter: the sun is setting in this area, it's starting to become darker. over here you're seeing them, these are cars that belonged to the gadhafi regime. they are sitting, they are blowing off rounds from the top of them. that is obviously a security -- [gunfire ]. i'm going to try not to get hit by any of those rounds. you see the people streaming through the main gate. that's all the way into the compound. so you see -- [gunfire ] a lot of smoke coming from the compound. you see these huge walls. these were supposed to be protective walls. this gives you a sense of power of the gadhafi regime [gunfire ] this honestly is the nicest part of the city. you're seeing these nicely -- [gunfire ] i'm going to back up. let's p

the rebels need to stand up a police force. they need to restore basic order. what model does the obama administrationtart to draw from in trying to provide that support and how do we harness the nato allies to come together to provide what's necessary to make this happen in a way that avoids the problems that we started to see in iraq in 2003 and 2004 and over the years in afghanistan? >> how important is it for the national transitional council to get from benghazi to tripoli. >> it's important to transform the power seated in benghazi into tripoli and take over control which is now dominated by a group of very diverse malitias which don't have a common agenda. there are 140 tribes and clans in libya. 30 of which are important. the rivalries that play out on the ground have tremendous potential to derail the process. so that they need to get there. they have taken some important steps. in the last two days, transitional national council has expand from 40 to 80. they announced who their members are. they said they want to be inclusive. this is not benghazi. this is a country that's historically been

the obama administration. mocked, it will never work. the rebels are disorganized.have to put ground troops in, overthrow gadhafi. not one american fighting man or woman got hurt. it worked to a t. it's better than getting rid of gadha gadhafi. >> michael steele? >> great victory. >> all the talking heads, republicans and democrats. it reminds me of the reaction of bill clinton in kosovo when everyone said that would not work. we overthrew a tyrant. score one for the president. you know, i'm not someone who always says the president is doing a great job, but score one for the president. >> richard haass. >> too soon to take out the champaign. yes it's important getting rid of gadhafi. >> everyone mocked him saying it wouldn't work. >> history is going to debate the wisdom of this intervention. it's going to depend on what happens after. wars don't have chapters, they have narratives. if you have chaos in the street, if you have a radical islamist regime, people are not going to say this is a great idea. things can get worse. i hear what you are saying. people were c

when the rebellion itself from the rebels themselves engaged in horrific activities which will tell you about in a second, when washington's administration came west to 13,000 engaged in acts of -- the aggregated civil liberties in a way, warrantless searches of teachers, detentions without trial, detentions without charge, et cetera, et cetera, the kinds of things that give civil libertarians the willies. and i should at all so this is 1791 to 1794. those of you upon constitutional history know that that means this is a federal government that was barely in existence, has just been formed. some of such media today when i was talking about these the fabrications of civil liberties in which the federal government, executive ranch indulged in 1794. she said i guess that was par for the course at the time though. not really. and you think about it, the ink was barely dry on the bill of rights, were those liberties were launched, were pioneered so, their number of interesting conflicts in this story come interesting themes in american history that i think i've given that the whiskey rebellion has not been -- usually hasn't been part of the m

the next hour. rebel troops right now making dramatic advances on the capital. tripoli also, thousands of americans are being declared dead by the social security administration duel errors. and the latest fallout from christine o'donnell's walking out on her interview with cnn's piers morgan. you're in "the situation room." . >>> these members of congress are among the wealthiest lawmakers in washington right now. that may or may not help them politically at a time when so many americans are hurting, but financially they're in great shape. and one of them is suddenly a lot wealthier than he was before. kate baldwin has been looking at a new ranking of the richest members of congress. kate, what are you finding out? >> a pretty interesting list. roll call has put out the 50 richest members of congress and here you can see the top five. let's run through them. at number five, you have senator mark warner. a democratic senator from virginia. his minimum net worth, $76 million. it comes largely from the cell phone business. he co-founded the company that eventually became nextel. senator jay rockefeller, his minimum net worth, almost $82 millio million. coming from

. >> reporter: during the six-month-old civil war rebel leaders have been setting up a transitional government in benghazi. members of that new administration have started moving to the capital city of tripoli. janelle wang, nbc bay area news. >> the revolution continues. >>> still to come at 6:00, the alarming new research on teenagers and facebook. >>> and good evening, i'm chief meteorologist jeff ranieri. we did have some more cooling for some of us here across the area. instead of 90s in san jose, we had 84. also 65 in san francisco with that fog starting to roll back in. on hl owveore on h hot th wowgsinill stay for tomorrow coming up. [ female announcer ] at the jcpenney as big as it gets sale, find 50% off all arizona tops and bottoms for back to school! check out our biggest 4 hour steals this saturday! save 50% on flannels for guys, jeans for kids, tops & bottoms for juniors, plus schoolbags, too! the savings get even bigger with jcp cash! earn $10 off when you spend just 25! no exclusions! unlike other stores, we don't make you come back to save! go to jcp.com to see everything on sale. we make back to school style affordable. yo

the administration in the days ahead. one little hint we got at the end of the president's statement last night. he had a message for the rebels a smooth and quick transition to democracy as possible, this administration keeping that close eye on what that transition is going to be like and making sure that this is not chaos for an extended period of time. jenna:ed henry thank you very much. reporting live from martha's vineyard today. jon: for more on the developments that the president is money erring while on martha's vineyard, developments in libya we are joined by elliott abrams, former national security adviser to george w. bush, also a senior fellow at the council on foreign relations. you have been critical of the way mr. obama has handled this libya situation so far. now it appears that the united states and nature tore on the verge of success in toppling this guy. does the president get to claim the credit? >> well the president gets to claim a little credit, beating moammar qaddafi is something the united states and nato were always going to be able to do, the problem is it's taken a longtime to get there, a lot of

the obama administration says he was killed this past week in a pakistani tribal region. with rebels now in control of most of libya, we're getting a glimpse of the privileged life enjoyed by moammar qaddafi's inner circle. kids swam inside a ransacked villa owned by one of the libya's leader's daughter. qaddafi remains at large. while many of us are worrying about hurricanes, in phoenix yesterday the issue was dust. a huge dust cloud enveloped parts of the city. it's caused by dry, hot conditions and desert sand. now the rest of today's weather. the southwest continues to bake under bone dry triple-digit heat. some storms of the non-named variety will pop up in the plains. the week ahead shows dryer weather following irene in the northeast though more rain is expected down south. next, we've got our eye on the storm. and later,. >> the explosion at 3:45 this morning ripped through sterling hall. >> m,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, >> mason: irene is is not the fastest or the strongest storm we've seen. in fact, we've just learned she's now lost her hurricane strength winds. still from the caro

that the rebels have had a couple of months now to get organized politically and work with the international community. as jeffery mentioned, tunisia, the neighbor just recognized them. the administration feels they made progress. look, there are a lot of gadhafi supporters in tripoli. just because gadhafi leaves doesn't mean all of a sudden libya becomes a peaceful place. >> there's a lost fighting among the rebels as well. there's nothing guaranteed here. david kerley, we appreciate your reporting this morning. thank you very much. >>> a lost other headlines, let's go straight to ron claiborne who has the news for us. >> good morning, dan, good morning, everyone, we begin with two american hikers.the case of sentenced to 8 years in prison in iran for illegally entering that country. abc's lama hasan has the latest from london. lama, good morning. >> the chief prosecutor said the two american hikers josh fattal and shane bauer have been sentenced for eight years in prison, five years for allegedly spying for the united states and three years for illegally entering iran. the two were arrested by iranian security forces in 2009 along with their f fend, sarah shourd, who was also with th

the obama administration. it second guessed this rebel yon and for five long months refused to recognize them. >> they weren'trly organized at first, they didn't have any weapons to fight, there were no trade military leaders. there was a lot to criticize there fairly. >> that's more of a tribute to them, they were people who got up and, you know, students, x-ray technicians, economists, pharmacists, they got in the back of their toyota corollas and rushed to the front to claim their country and to fight this man and we discovered something about tyranny. gadhafi at the end had these mer sen naries, from chad, from algeria. what he missed was only his four ukrainian nurses who traveled with him, the voluptuous nurses were the only ones missing in the standoff. it's a terrible nightmare that the libyans have been in and it's one celebrates their freedom, i was giddy watching the coverage. >> we're going to sarah sidner in tripoli. apparently some new violence there. sarah, what's going on. >> we can hear gunfire and i heard a loud blast, sounds like perhaps artillery fire. we know now we have to leave this are

the obama administration undertook worked. it was a six-month-long squeeze play with a combination of freezing their assets, isolating the regime, and recognizing the rebelsributing some of america's critical military assets, but with no boots on the ground, and with no american troops at risk or lost ultimately succeeded. >> thank you, senator, reacting to two big breaking stories that we are following. libya the international story, but we have to get back to the earthquake and i want you to be safe you and your staff and there are a lot of evacuations so please be careful, sir. we are following breaking news out of washington, d.c. where a magnitude 5.3 earthquake has been felt this thed.c area, and the pentagon has been evacuate and we were talking to senator coons who was slightly shaken by the tremors they felt, and the senator el thie telling me live ground shook beneath him literally as well and andrea mitchell who would be with you now was interrupted with her show, and andrea is on the phone, and can you tell us about what you are feeling from the washington bureau? >> well, i have never felt anything like this, and we were on the air and everyt

rebels in tripoli. it looks like gaddafi is on his way out. it looks like both of these were big morale boosters to the protesters. >> the obama administration hasrozen the assets of syria's foreign minister and two other senior officials. does this make a difference? these are symbolic sanctions, but does it make a difference to the regime, and isolating them? >> no, but it is generally a message. it sends a message to those not only pulling the trigger, but those justifying the massacre but i do not think it will change anybody's actions right now. >> there are a series of things that the u.s. administration and european allies could do to try to change the situation in syria, to try to topple assad. what is the most critical of them? >> the starting from a, the energy sanctions. europe gets the vast majority of serious exports in or health. -- syria's exports in oil. if these are cut off, it will end at $7 million to $8 million per day that the assad regime is using to buy bullets and tanks to massacre the people of syria. it will draw them down faster and hurt the regime. >> but you are right that is not just going to be a financial issue. t

interesting developments where we hear of another defection from the senior ranks of the administration of gaddafi. we also hear that the rebelorces could be having internal pressures, disputes themselves. what is your read on the military campaign in libya and whether gaddafi is any closer to being driven out? >> i spoke to commanders within the area in the past few days. the indication is, yes, there are concerns about the opposition, but we have had those concerned for a period now. the fact is, the opposition is moving in the west towards the coast line, moving in that direction. the opposition in the east is moving to brega, moving in the direction of tripoli as well. that is having an impact. the regime forces are weakened. this latest defection is another example of how weak they have gotten. i think, considering how difficult the situation has been, the fact is, the combination of nato forces there, what the opposition is doing with sanctions, international pressure, the work of the arab league, all of that has been helpful to move this in the right direction. i sense that gaddafi's days are numbered. >> i would like

the big question now is what will happen next? the administration very cognizant of the fact that there are still a lot of uncertainties with the rebelwhich the u.s. is backing. i don't know if we know this yet, but do we know if anyone has reached on the with the rebel forces, as this is unfolding? >> we don't know what the latest is on that. that is one of the questions we will ask in an off-camera briefing taking place in a little less than a half hour. i think the situation in libya is still so fluid that they want to be very careful about the message they put out on camera, but those are some of the questions we'll be posing to him during that briefing. >> what i'm hearing is we probably won't see the president later this afternoon? >> reporter: perhaps. i'm not going to say we won't see him. we simply don't know. right now there's nothing on the president's schedule. up to this point they have been careful about not weighing in too heavily. it's always possible he coot come forward, but at this point we know nothing of what's on the schedule. >>> leaders around the world, with the exception of hugo chavez are calling on moammar