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Panda Cub Born in National Zoo; Chicago Seeks End To Teachers Strike; Wisconsin Bargaining Law Struck Down; Six U.S. Troops Killed In Afghanistan; Obama On Romney; Exposing The Filmmaker's Shadowy Past; Protesters Arrested On Wall Street; Boy Scout "Perversion files" Found; Campaigns Battle over China; Substance Abuse on Rise in Military; Syrians Fight to Live Normal Lives.

Aired September 17, 2012 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: There's a new giant panda cub at the national zoo in Washington. Zoo keepers, they're watching the panda cam. This is pretty cool, monitoring this new cub since it was born late last night. Check it out. Its mom, Mei Xiang, was artificially inseminated in April. It is her second birth. U.S. and Chinese scientists study panda breeding habits for years now, and you can actually download the national zoo app or watch the Web site to see the little tiny cub.

I'm Suzanne Malveaux. This hour in the CNN NEWSROOM, demonstrators launch a new round of protests around the world over an anti-Islam film. And striking teachers in Chicago are going head-to-head with the mayor. I want to get right to it.

A fight between striking Chicago teachers and the city is now taking a new twist. Just the last couple of hours, the city said it is going to go to court to get an injunction to end this strike now in the second week. Mayor Rahm Emanuel, he is calling the strike illegal. One hundred forty-seven so-called children first centers, they are expected to open today. Those are the places to help out parents that are trying to juggle their jobs and child care and everything else. It's all happening with a tentative agreement that is place between the two sides. I want to go to Kyung Lah who's in Chicago. Describe for us where we are because we thought, this morning, it looked like this had been settled. Now, the teachers are saying they need more time, essentially, to look over the offer.

KYUNG LAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They are saying that what they want to do is go out to their membership and make sure everyone is agreed on this complicated contract. But clearly, this has made some people with the city not very happy, namely, mayor Rahm Emanuel, familiar to many of us for his fiery personality. So, he instructed the city's corporate council to go ahead and file an injunction -- seeking injunctive relief, a temporary restraining order against the union, calling the strike illegal and saying that it's endangering children now.

Well, we've just gotten a response from the Chicago's teachers union and they have called this relief -- asking for this relief some six days later appears to be, quote, "a vindictive act instigated by the mayor and the union, again calling mayor Emanuel a bully." So, the war of words now in the -- in the legal system, as well as the war of public opinion, what does this mean for the 350,000 students? Well, they're left scrambling along with their parents -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Explain to us, how soon could the kids get back into the classrooms? What is the -- what is the greatest outlook, the cheeriest scenario in all of this?

LAH: Well, the scenario is that after the House of Delegates meets with their various members -- what we saw in the picket line today is that they were actually sharing this document, making sure that all their members took a look at it. And once this is all done, tomorrow night they're going to meet and actually decide whether or not to lift the strike. That vote is going to happen tomorrow. And if they decide to lift the strike, students could be back in school as soon as Wednesday. Now, if they decide to have the strike continue on, well, we just don't know what happens on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and the days following.

MALVEAUX: And we keep hearing about these children first centers that they're being called here. First of all, what are those, and how is this putting the pressure on some of the churches, the social organizations, the YMCA, the boys and girls clubs that have been taking in a lot of these kids?

LAH: Well, I'm actually standing at a school, it's an elementary school here in the south loop neighborhood of Chicago. It's an elementary school, and what they've done is they've brought in volunteers, people from the community as well as non-union personnel to accept students, and they are doing arts and crafts, doing some computer classes, they're actually providing a full school day from 8:30 to 2:30 central time so children have a place to go, so parents who don't have any daycare or child care can bring them somewhere. And here is what one parent told us as he was dropping his two daughters off here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: What was your reaction when you heard what happened?

LEO POST PARENT: A little bit of disappointment, but, you know, I mean, I understand why they're holding out, so, you know, I definitely still support the teachers in holding out, so.

LAH: Are a lot of parents in the city, you think, still supporting the teachers?

POST: I think a fair number are, I mean, you know, it seems to be kind of split between, you know, people that I talk to, maybe 50, 50.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: So getting back to your other question, Suzanne, how much pressure is this putting on the rest of the community? All those support staff, sure it's putting pressure on everybody. And you think about 350,000 school children now having to find an alternative place to go, that's a lot of people in the city of Chicago trying to take care of children.

MALVEAUX: It really is incredible what they are doing and actually what they are able to do just within the last week or so. Kyung Lah, thank you so much, we appreciate it. Give us an update if there's a breakthrough, of course. Remember that Wisconsin law that caused an uproar by limiting the rights of public unions. Well, it was struck down by Wisconsin circuit court judge. Now, he ruled that eliminating collective bargaining rights violated workers free speech. When the law was passed last year, it sparked, of course, the recall election of Governor Scott Walker. Well, he survived that. Now, the state plans to peel this ruling.

To the war in Afghanistan. Six more American troops were killed over the weekend. Four of them in the latest apparent insider attack by Afghan forces. Such attacks, they're also known as green on blue because the uniforms worn by NATO and Afghan troops. There have been more than 50 NATO troops killed in such attacks this year alone. U.S. Marine Greg Buckley, he was one of them. He was killed by those he trained in Afghanistan in an attack earlier this month. Also, David Ariosto reports Buckley actually told his family it would happen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE):

DAVID ARIOSTO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This was the game Greg Buckley Jr. was supposed to see back home on leave from Afghanistan where he helped train Afghan forces. The 21-year-old Marine had only two days left before heading home to see his brother play varsity high school football for the first time. But before getting word that he was to go home early, he phoned his dad.

GREG BUCKLEY SR, PARENT OF FALLEN MARINE: He told me that I have to stay here until November. He says, I'm not going to come home. And I was -- I don't understand. He goes, I'm going to -- you have to be able to tell my mom and Jesse and Shane, you know, that I'm going to be killed over here. I said out in the field? You know, or whatever? He goes, no, in our base.

ARIOSTO: Then it happened. Greg was gunned down August 10th by the very forces he was training. Like he said, it happened inside the base. And by his phone calls and letters, he knew it was coming. And on one particular night on guard duty, he had a run-in with a trainee.

BUCKLEY: The guy turned around and said to Greg, you know, we don't want you here, we don't need you here, and Greg said, what are you saying? He said it again, and Greg turned around and said to him, you know, why would you say that? You know, I'm here, you know, giving my life for you guys to help you, you know, to make better for yourselves, and the guy just started tormenting him all night.

ARIOSTO: His dad says Greg spent the rest of the night with the trainee.

BUCKLEY: Pitch black out, and all he kept on saying over and over again is, we don't want you, we don't need you, we don't want you, we don't need you. ARIOSTO: Building up local security is considered the lynch pin of NATO strategy for withdrawal, but attacks by trainees have become disturbingly more frequent. Families like the Buckley's say it's a sign America's longest war has gone on long enough.

BUCKLEY: I basically collapsed and his mother collapsed, and we were both on the floor bawling.

ARIOSTO: But Greg's two brothers refused to cry, at least during the day.

BUCKLEY: One night, I went into Shane's room, and he was on the bed, and his head was hanging over the end of the bed. I thought he dropped water on the floor and he was just bawling. My heart broke for him. And later on that night, I heard noises from Justin's room, and I went inside and he had a pillow over his face at 4:30 in the morning screaming at the top of his lungs. Heart wrenching. And I explained to Justin, you know, why don't you guys cry during the day? And they both turned around at the same time and said, we can't, we have to take care of you and mom.

ARIOSTO: With the community behind them, the Buckley family is now coping as best they can, and Justin, Oceanside's star running back wearing camo with his team to honor Greg, made sure to salute his fallen brother each time he scores.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (on camera): Yes, Justin! Yes, baby!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir. Whoa, whoa, yes, he can.

ARIOSTO (on camera): Greg was supposed to be home for this game. What would you tell him right now?

JUSTIN BUCKLEY BROTHER OF FALLEN MARINE (on camera): I would tell him I love him and I miss him. That's about it.

ARIOSTO: Thank you.

JUSTIN BUCKLEY: You're welcome.

ARIOSTO (voice-over): David Ariosto, CNN, Oceanside, Long Island, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: We wish the very best for the Buckley family.

President Obama is campaigning in the battleground state of Ohio today. He is at an event in Cincinnati. We heard from him in the last hour. We're going to listen to what he has to say about Mitt Romney's experience with China.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But he's right -- he's has been running around Ohio claiming he is going to roll up his sleeves and he's going to take the fight to China. Now, here's the thing, his experience has been owning companies that were called pioneers in the business of outsourcing jobs to countries like China. He made money investing in companies that uprooted from here and went to China. Pioneers. Now, if you can't up to China when all you've done is sent them our jobs. You can talk a good game but I like to walk the walk not just talk the talk.

MALVEAUX: Here's what we're working on for this hour.

(voice-over): The man who made the anti-Islam film that sparked worldwide protest faces questions from the feds, but not about the film. We'll explain.

Protesters are marking today's first anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement with more protests. Hear what the movement by the so- called 99 percenters did and did not accomplish.

And you got to love him. "Saturday Night Live's" new President Obama.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: New protests unfolding right now in the Middle East ignited by the anti-Islam film. This is a scene in Afghanistan. Thousands also packing the streets in Lebanon, Pakistan and Indonesia. In a rare T.V. appearance, Hezbollah's leader called on supporters to start even more protests. About an hour from now, Muslim and Coptic Christian leaders are going to come together in Los Angeles. They want to condemn the violence that is happening now in the Middle East as well as the deadly attacks that happened last week. Well, now, we're learning more about the man that federal authorities say is the key figure behind that movie that sparked more details on how this was made.

Our Miguel Marquez, he is the first to bring you these new pictures of the man and more details on how this movie was made.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Do you like Hollywood?

LILLY MARLEN, ACTRESS: Yes, I do. Yes.

MARQUEZ: Lilly Marlen had been in Hollywood a week when she answered an ad on Craig's List for an action adventure film called "Desert Warrior."

MARLEN: First job. First week in L.A. Just moved out here.

MARQUEZ: She met this man, Sam Bacile, seen here for the first time on U.S. television. She says he was in charge of everything.

MARQUEZ (on camera): Was it your sense he was the writer and producer?

DIONNE: Yes. Yes, I really believe he was the writer. He definitely was the producer. He was the one writing the checks, handing out the money. He was running the show. MARQUEZ: Under the name Sam Bacile?

DIONNE: Uh-huh.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): The shoot, a little weird, but never heard any talk of politics or religion. The actors thought they were making a low budget, cheesy film with little plot.

DIONNE: We did wonder what it was about. He kept saying -- they kept saying George. And we're like, this is the Middle East 2,000 years ago. Who's George? But, you know, we don't really ask questions.

MARQUEZ (on camera): George turned out to be the Mohammed's character?

DIONNE: He did.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): The script handed out piecemeal, sometimes late at night, the day before a shoot. Lily had no lines, but was asked to come in after the shooting was done to dub her voice over that of another actress. Other actors, she says, went to the same sound studio, also after the shooting was done, to record the words that sparked a firestorm.

DIONNE: They brought the actors in, in post, and had them say specific words like Mohammed, for example. Then they took -- it was isolated. It wasn't in context, OK? So they said, say Mohammed. They're like, say Mohammed, why?

MARQUEZ: She says Bacile, we now know his real name is Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, was engaging in cheerful on set. There was no indication of the film's real intent or story.

DIONNE: So, like, I was shaking with when I found out.

MARQUEZ (on camera): Really?

DIONNE: I was -- yes. I mean, I had no idea. This was a movie that I thought was never -- nobody was going to ever see.

MARQUEZ: You were shaking when you heard about the Ambassador's death or what --

DIONNE: Yes.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Dionne feels betrayed by a man who pretended to be a filmmaker and a friend, Sam Bacile, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a convicted fraudster and identity thief who put all his skills together to pull off the role of a lifetime.

DIONNE: And he had a vision, OK? Him and the directors would get in arguments. He wanted things a certain way. He knew what he was doing. He was playing us all along.

MARQUEZ: In this town, a common experience. But the making of this film, the deception, its dark motivation. It would be Oscar worthy if hateful were a category. (END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Miguel Marquez, he's joining us from L.A.

I know a lot of people find it hard to believe how little these actors really knew about the film itself. Do they -- is this typical in Hollywood in terms of how films are made, or nobody really seemed like they were taken aback too much?

MARQUEZ: Yes. Well, one thing they will say is that, look, no film set is normal. This young woman just -- this was her very first film in Los Angeles, which you find kind of amazing. But they said it was weird. The entire thing was weird. The script was weird. The direction was weird. The process was weird. And some little voice inside said there might be something strange about this film, but it didn't overwhelm just the overall cheesyness and weirdness of the film, so they never really understood the full picture.

Also, Sam Bacile kept this thing -- all the information very compartmentalized. This is a guy who knew what he was doing, set out to do it, and seemed to have fooled everyone until now.

MALVEAUX: And, Miguel, what more do we know about the filmmaker? I understand the feds actually visited him this weekend and they've got more information?

MARQUEZ: Yes. Federal probation officers wanted to talk to Mr. Bacile because he is under five years probation. L.A. County Sheriff's Department did it around midnight on Friday night, early Saturday morning. They took him for about a half hour to talk to probation officers. You know, there are 26 different conditions of his probation. One of them is about not being able to access the Internet or have devices that access the Internet without permission of his probation officer. But more worrisome perhaps for him is that another one is that he cannot use any other name than his legal name, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, without written permission of his probation office. That is a big question that we have asked probation officials, but they have not gotten back to us yet.

MALVEAUX: And, Miguel, what do we expect out of this news conference in the next hour?

MARQUEZ: This will be Muslims and Coptic Christians from across southern California coming to the steps of city hall, which are right behind me here, right in front of me here, and they want to condemn the violence. Both sides are shocked by the outrage, this convulsion of violence that's been produced by this crudely produced piece of anti-Islamic propaganda, and they both want to come out and, you know, talk about the violence and talk about the fears, especially on the Coptic Christian part. Not just here in southern California, necessarily, but for their family members in Egypt.

Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right. Miguel Marquez. Thank you, Miguel, appreciate it. The tents from Occupy Wall Street, they're gone now. The leaders say that just means that the movement is different, not dead. We're going to tell you what Occupy planned for its first anniversary today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: In New York, 99 percent, they are back. Dusted off the protest signs for the first anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement. So, this was the scene just hours ago as protesters, they were hoping to form a human chain around the New York Stock Exchange. Police stopped them. Several protesters were handcuffed, taken away. Poppy Harlow, she's been following the movement over the past year.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Some folks think this movement has fizzled. That you guys are done for.

JUSTIN WEDES, OCCUPY ACTIVIST: They've been writing that obituary since day one.

CROWD: People power! People power!

HARLOW (voice-over): It started with this one year ago.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's our duty as Americans to fight for our country and to keep it, you know, true to serving its people.

HARLOW: A grassroots movement that made the 99 percent and the 1 percent part of our lexicon. Occupy. In a Brooklyn workspace, Justin Wedes is keeping Occupy alive today.

WEDES: What's changed is that people now recognize that the game is rigged. And as we organize and as we evolve and grow, we're going to continue to resist. That's the impulse behind Occupy Wall Street.

HARLOW: That impulse grew in New York's Zuccotti Park, that took over stoops in Brooklyn.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want the banks to stop foreclosures.

HARLOW: Spread from Oakland to Berlin to Hong Kong. We saw thousands of arrests and got people talking.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All great movements start with just a few people.

HARLOW (on camera): Police are trying to clear us all off the street right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Show me what a policed state today looks like?

CROWD: This is what a policed state looks like.

HARLOW: Around 1:00 a.m. on November 15th, cops surrounded Zuccotti Park and evicted the protesters who had been camping out here for two months. They didn't go calmly, and they vowed to keep the movement alive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And this is it. It's a continued stand.

HARLOW (voice-over): For a few months they worked out of an office. Ironically, right off Wall Street.

HARLOW (on camera): And when you walk in, you get a name like this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is some of our working space. You can see lots of Occupiers working here.

HARLOW (voice-over): Hoping to reinvigorate the movement, May 1st, a day of action around the globe, but it wasn't sustained.

HARLOW (on camera): Do you think it's relevant today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the message has got diluted.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't see any reason that it would have diminished in importance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They just seem to me to be a rag-tag bunch of people.

HARLOW: Stronger? Weaker?

MARK BRAY, OCCUPY ACTIVIST: Different. I think that there are things that are stronger. I think our connections to actual organizing issues are definitely stronger.

HARLOW (voice-over): Occupy says it has about $40,000 left in the bank and has formed groups focusing on specific issues, like student debt and housing. There from the beginning, Mark Bray says, give it time.

BRAY: If you look at all the social movements in history, whether it be the civil rights movement, the feminist movement, it takes decades before you get going.

HARLOW: Zuccotti Park is no longer occupied, but it is still surrounded by police barricades. A reminder of the past year.

BRAY: We don't need to sit in the park. We've got your attention. Now what we need to do is actually follow through.

HARLOW: Poppy Harlow, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Occupy Wall Street collected $600,000 in donations. That was last fall. And organizers say they have about $30,000 to $40,000 left in the general fund.

Leaders of the Boy Scouts of America say they take child abuse seriously. Hear their responses to a detailed report about how the group allegedly protected child molesters.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: This just in out of Chicago here. As you know, the teachers have been on strike. Kids have been out of school. They've been trying to have negotiations taking place between the teachers, as well as school, city officials. Well, the city, the mayor, Rahm Emanuel, as well as Chicago school officials, essentially went to a judge, a Cook County judge, to ask the judge to hear the argument that essentially would have forced -- forced the teachers to go back to work. What has just happened now, we have learned, that the Cook County judge has declined to hear that argument. So essentially it means that the city, the school officials, Chicago school officials, and the mayor, they have essentially lost out on their case, their argument, to force the teachers to go back into the classrooms and teach. What does this all mean? It simply means that the kids are still going to be out of school, the teachers will remain negotiating with city officials to try to come up with some sort of reasonable way to end this strike. But, so far, the mayor's last move to force the teachers back in the classroom has been rejected by this Cook County judge. We're going to have more as soon as we can get those details.

Millions of parents are trusted this organization for years, right? But the Boy Scouts of America now at the center of a scathing accusation of children being raped, molested, and decades of alleged cover-ups. In fact, "The Los Angeles Times" got a hold of more than 1,000 confidential files known by Scout leaders as, quote, "Perversion Files".

One of the journalists that reported the stories says the files were detailed accounts of sexual abuse in the organization. The documentation was an effort, he says, to keep track of those abusers who should be kicked out of the organization.

Earlier today on CNN the reporter talked about whether or not these recent changes in policy have helped change the culture.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON FELCH, REPORTER, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES: There's no doubt that the Boy Scouts of America has implement aid number of policies over the years that are intended to protect kids from sexual abuse. The question that we are not able to answer that I don't think anybody can able to answer is, are those policies working? The Boy Scouts continue to keep these Perversion Files. They are detailed accounts of sexual abuse in the organization, but they're confidential and only the Boy Scouts has them. The Scouts have not reviewed their own Perversion Files. They've never been reviewed by an outsider. Until those files are reviewed, we really don't know if things have improved.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Boy Scouts responded to our question with a response with this statement, saying, "The Boy Scouts of America believes that one instance of abuse is far too many. We regret there have been times when, despite the Boy BSA's best efforts to protect children, Scouts were abused. And for that, we are very sorry, and extend our deepest sympathies to the victims." That from the Boy Scouts.

So in the southeast, they're delaying the final flight of the shuttle "Endeavor." It had been scheduled to begin its multi-leg trip to L.A. today, but bad weather now delaying that takeoff until tomorrow. Shuttle is actually not flying. It's going to be piggybacking on a Boeing 747 on the way to the final stop on display at the California Science Center.

Forecast storms pushing "Endeavor's" final flight back a day, and NASA still hopes to deliver the orbiter to Los Angeles. That's going to happen by Thursday. The shuttle has made 25 space flights between 1992 and 2011. Bad weather delays. "Endeavor's" last trip as well.

President Obama getting tough on China, saying the country illegally helps its car companies at the expense of American companies. Hear what he is doing about that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Imagine being able to go to an Ivy League college for free. Believe it or not, it is actually happening.

CNN's Christine Romans has the scoop.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITCHELL DUNEIER, SOCIOLOGY PROFESSOR, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: I'll be offering an on-line course called "Introduction to Sociology." My name is Mitch Duneier, and I'm a sociology professor here at Princeton.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUNEIER: There were 40,000 students enrolled in the class this summer from 113 different countries.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You heard right. 40,000 students took Professor Duneier's massive open on-line course, or MOOC, for free, thanks to a partnership between Princeton University and Coursera, an education start-up founded by two Stanford professors in 2011.

ANDREW NG, CO-FOUNDER, COURSERA: If they're working professionals, it's tough to go back to school every Tuesday and Thursday to take classes, but with on-line education, now it's much more convenient.

ROMANS: MOOCs are catching on. Coursera has now partnerships with 16 top universities, some of them in other countries. A separate partnership between MIT, Harvard, and Cal-Berkeley called EdEx, launched earlier this year.

Who is taking these free classes? What are they doing with them?

MEGHAN WILKER, COURSERA STUDENT: I think it will help lend credibility to some of the concepts I am talking to my clients about.

ANDREW WOODWARD, COURSERA STUDENT: To better help my customers better, I need it to provide -- to get a depth of knowledge in a subject area.

CYNDI ZAINO, COURSERA STUDENT: It's actually a really great thing to add to my profile or my resume that I took a course in computer science from Stanford.

ROMANS: Coursera's survey found that a majority of students taking a machine learning class last summer who are working professionals, hoping to improve their skills for their current job or get themselves a better one. Only 3.5 percent were unemployed.

DEBRA WHEATMAN, PRESIDENT, CAREERS DONE WRITE: There is a gap between training and unemployment that can be addressed. I think that if you are unemployed, a good way to spend some of your time is conducting some training so that you maintain your skills and also develop new skills.

ROMANS: For now, you can't get a degree from Coursera. You don't get college credit.

And Coursera students admit that's not all that's missing from the free classes.

WILKER: I wouldn't want to give up the experience you have of going to a college and having actual classmates.

DUNEIER: That's the kind of experience that somebody that's taking an online class, unfortunately will not have. Many of the people that I have had in my class this summer were not choosing between a Princeton class and an on-line class. They were choosing between an on-line class and no class at all.

ROMANS: Christine Romans, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: President Obama is getting tough on China, saying the country legally helped its cad companies at the expense of American ones. Hear what he says he's going to do about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Too little, too late -- that is how Mitt Romney slammed President Obama today. Romney is responding to the administration's decision to file a trade complaint against China. Both the president and Romney are out on the campaign trail today. And, of course, we've heard the president just the last hour in Ohio. We'll hear from Romney in about two hours from now in L.A.

I want to bring in our White House correspondent, Brianna Keilar, to talk a little bit about the significance of this.

Brianna, so we know the World Trade Organization is focusing on China's auto industry. No surprise that you look at the battleground states, that's where all of this is this all playing out, how the car manufacturers have been doing? Do we think that either Mitt Romney or the president -- is there anything they can really do before the election regarding the auto industry or is this just some way -- or regarding China and the trade impact?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're certainly trying and that's because manufacturing is a big deal in a number of swing states. And the auto industry is a big deal in a number of swing states. Just where President Obama is today. He's in Ohio. He has had one campaign event and will have another. One in eight jobs in the all-important state of Ohio, tied to the auto industry. And Romney has criticized President Obama on trade, on China very recently. So this is President Obama saying that he is standing up for American manufacturing and for the auto industry.

Here is some of what he just said in Ohio.

All right, I guess we don't have that sound ready. But the case he was trying to make is that he has stood up against China, and he -- the thing that he has been saying, Suzanne, is that he has done a lot more than Mitt Romney is giving him credit for. And he is referencing as well some action that he took back in 2009. Because what we've heard from Mitt Romney recently, you mentioned -- and actually, you know what, I think we have the sound. Let's listen.

MALVEAUX: OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Who brought more trade cases against China in one term than the previous administration did in two?

(CHEERING)

OBAMA: And every case we brought that's been decided we won.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: When Governor Romney said that stopping unfair surges in Chinese tires would be bad for America, bad for our workers, you know, we ignored his advice.

(LAUGHTER)

And we got over 1,000 Americans back to work, creating tires right here in the United States of America.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now, Mitt Romney, for his part, his campaign and Republicans are saying that this is blatantly political, that this isn't coincidental, that President Obama is making this announcement today as he is in Ohio, and he called it too little too late. In response to that, as I mentioned before, Suzanne, President Obama is saying, you know, I have been doing things for a while, pointing back to 2009, an action that he took on tire imports from China, so trying to make the case that, no, this is something that he has steadily been doing.

It really is an issue that matters, and, obviously, you know, in a state like Ohio and other manufacturing states, this is something that is on the mind of voters.

MALVEAUX: Sure. And, Brianna, do we know how it's playing out in Ohio? I know that there's a new poll numbers that are out as well.

KEILAR: Yes, there are some poll numbers out. It's kind of a mixed bag because one of these polls -- and NBC News/"Wall Street Journal"/Marist poll -- and I should mention that awful these were taken after the convention -- show that President Obama is ahead by seven points in the state of Ohio, so that's very good news for President Obama. That's outside the margin of error. But on the flip side, another poll done as well last week by the American Research Group shows things tied up, Obama at 48 percent, Romney at 47 percent. This is why you have this going back and forth, Suzanne, because obviously a mixed bag here, but certainly some concerns that things are very tied up. They're very close, even if President Obama does have an edge.

MALVEAUX: Brianna, I admire the fact you can get through all that with that crane in the back --

(LAUGHTER)

-- there of that tree, but I know --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: American manufacturing.

(LAUGHTER)

MALVEAUX: At its best, I guess.

Thank you, Brianna.

This complaint with the World Trade Organization, it is the fourth since the president came into power. This time, China is now accused of illegally subsidizing auto parts that are bound for the United States.

Alison Kosik is watching all of this from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Alison, give us a sense of whether or not this will make a difference. We still have a huge trade deficit with China.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. We certainly do. You know, you've got the Obama administration, President Obama, coming out today and saying China is violating trade rules. And that has really been what gives China or their goods an unfair advantage over ones made by American companies.

Now, China, no doubt about it -- China is America's most important trading partner. It's a very important relationship between the U.S. and China. But there's also a huge imbalance. Look at this. As of July, our trade gap with China is more than $29 billion. Here's why. It's because the U.S. exports to China were $8.5 billion. But look at how much we imported from China, almost $38 billion worth of goods. You know, we just keep buying stuff from there. We keep buying clothes and text times and shoes and technology from China, because they're cheaper than U.S. versions. And this is a danger because it's costing U.S. jobs. In fact, there's one study, Suzanne, that says that 1.2 million jobs have vanished. They've gone away since 2001 because of the U.S. trade deficit with China. Beefing up U.S. exports and cracking down on Chinese trade advantages would means more U.S. jobs -- Suzanne?

MALVEAUX: All right. Alison, thank you. Appreciate that.

We are going to go to a study that says one out of every five people on active duty in the U.S. military drinks heavily. We discuss if the Defense Department is actually doing enough about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: This just in. We're getting a report -- this is Louisiana State University, or LSU -- that this campus is being evacuated here, that it is a campus-wide alert to student and staff to leave the campus here. This is coming from Sergeant Glen Murray, a university spokesperson, who issued this campus alert to all the student and the staff to evacuate the campus. He is telling us, and this is his quote, "Our SWAT team has gone to the campus to assist with evacuations, and they have bomb dogs, if needed, to be utilized on site." They're not telling us why they're evacuating the campus, but it is out of abundance of caution that they have issued this alert. You might recall it was just last Friday that the University of Texas and North Dakota State both issued campus-wide alerts after threats on those campuses. Those threats were found to be unfounded. Out of an abundance of caution, LSU, Louisiana State University, now issuing a campus-wide evacuation alert because of some unspecified threat. We now have more information as soon as it becomes available.

A new report now recommends changes in how the military treats and prevents substance abuse. It says that binge drinking and prescription drug abuse, they're both on the rise.

Elizabeth Cohen joins us to talk a little bit about why this is such a big problem.

What are we seeing?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is interesting, elicit drug use seems to be going down in the military. As you said, binge drinking, prescription drug abuse up.

Let's look at the numbers to try to put this in some context. When they looked at this back in 1998, they found that 35 percent of active military had engaged in binge drinking, which means five or more drinks at a time over the course of the past month. And then in 2008, that number went up to 47 percent. So almost half of the people included in this study had engaged in binge drinking in the past.

MALVEAUX: Why do they suppose this is happening? Why is this getting worse?

COHEN: They're seeing prescription drug abuse also going up. They think the reason why, not just this report, but the reason why, there is more stress, there are more overseas commitments now. The numbers from 2 percent to 11 percent for prescription drug abuse. More overseas commitments leads to more stress, time away from your family, all of that. And a lot of people point to that as the reason behind these numbers.

MALVEAUX: Does the report recommend anything that can be done?

COHEN: They do. There are two specific things they recommend. The first is more confidential treatment options. Because, you know, if a military person goes to their doctor, that doctor is going to report that to the commanding officer. So more confidential treatments. And also, long-term use of methadone. Right now, TRICARE, the insurance, doesn't cover long-term use of methadone as a maintenance medication. And so it was recommended that they start doing that.

MALVEAUX: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you.

COHEN: Thanks.

MALVEAUX: For more about dealing with substance abuse issues, go to CNN.com/empoweredpatient.

Politics, of course, serious business, but "Saturday Night Live" is not. They got a new guy playing the president and "SNL" puts him to the test.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: And I can prove it. Ah.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: People in Syria are trying to get on with their lives while a civil war is raging.

Our Nic Robertson is in Damascus. He explores all of it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Driving back into Damascus after an absence of eight months, clouds of black smoke signal conflict is closing in on Syria's capital. But first impressions are deceptive. At the city's heart, its fabled mosque. All appears tranquil. No one flinches when artillery shells explode just a few miles away.

Nearby, the ancient bazaar is teeming, stores all open, shelves well stocked, supplies are plenty.

(on camera): We have tried talking to several store keepers here, but they all tell us they're too afraid to talk on camera, worried about what the government might say, worried about what the rebels might do to them. They all tell us that despite the abundance of people here, business is down. And when I asked them about the shelling that we can hear in the background, they tell me they're worried, afraid. Afraid because they think the war is getting closer.

(GUNFIRE)

ROBERTSON: And they are right. 10-minutes' drive away, destruction while government forces chase the free Syrian Army. On many days, the death toll around the capital, far higher than for other cities.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

RAMA HAMDI, SYRIAN RESIDENT: But where they can, people are trying to hold on to their old lives.

For Rama Hamdi, that's a few minutes at the beauty salon. It may look like normal life, but it's not.

HAMDI: Every day we hearing this boom, boom. Everything else. There is a life going on.

ROBERTSON (on camera): You don't worry about it?

HAMDI: I worry. I'm worried sick about it.

(LAUGHTER)

But there is nothing we can do.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): She tells me she hates the killing, supports neither government nor rebels, wants them to talk, feels stuck in the middle.

So, too, the salon's owner.

RAUDA ALAITA, BEAUTY SALON OWNER: I cannot go to the country side without being worried somebody will stop me. Is it the real army or the other Army stopping me? What answer I should answer if they ask me with whom I am? So it is really difficult now because we are really stuck in the middle.

(CROSSTALK)

ROBERTSON: At a news conference, under the banner of unity, an array of anything but united opposition figures, call for talks with the government. Reality is, none of the armed opposition, like the Free Syrian Army, are here. They would be arrested. The groups gathered here are the ones the government tolerates. They know they are powerless.

With nightfall, the city looks serene. But, like daytime, it is deceptive. The shelling continues. The only talking now is with guns.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Damascus, Syria.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: CNN NEWSROOM continues now with Brooke Baldwin.

Hi, Brooke.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Suzanne. Good to see you.

And good to see all of you here. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

We begin with this. Seven weeks and one day until the election. 50 days remaining here. Mitt Romney is tweaking his message. Romney is responding to GOP fears supported by his polls that he's losing ground in the presidential race. Here he is, six points behind the president. This was before the conventions even.

So cue the new ad out from Romney. Here is a quick look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY, (R), FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My plan is to help the middle class. Trade has to work for America. That means crack down on cheaters and China. It means open up new markets. Next --

(END VIDEO CLIP)