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Jihadist Bought A Fake Bomb; Tension High At European Summit; From Child Soldier to Famous Rapper; Syrian Rebels Gaining Strength; Cafe Sells Customers Cuddles
Aired October 18, 2012 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL. As Ashleigh said, I'm Michael Holmes. I'm in for Suzanne. We're taking you around the world in 60 minutes, like we do every day, and here's what's coming up.
Authorities said he wanted to destroy America. The story behind the Bangladeshi man who tried to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Protests turned violent in Athens. More budget cuts are looming. That's what's behind it.
And at first glance, you may wonder, what's going on here. Well, it's not what you think. Just a little companionship for a price in Japan.
First, though, to that amazing story out of New York today, frightening in terms of what might have happened. It also throws a light on some pretty good police work as well. As self-described jihadist meticulously planned and then tried to carry out a terror attack almost to the explosive end -- except for one thing. Undercover cops were on to the guy the entire time.
And this is who we are talking about. His name is Quazi Mohammed Ahsan Nafis. He is from Bangladesh, as I said. He lives in the U.S., though. Prosecutors say he hatched a plan to set off what he thought was a huge bomb in the middle of Manhattan's financial district. He didn't make it. He's in jail.
A couple more pictures for you. This is his family in Bangladesh today getting the news that their son is a suspected terrorist in the United States. We've confirmed, by the way, that Nafis, 21 years old, was indeed a registered student at Southeast Missouri State University.
And, briefly, we also know this. He bought what he thought was a half ton of explosives, fertilizer bomb. It wasn't. It was a phony bomb supplied by the FBI. Now, what he wanted to do was blow up one of the Federal Reserve Banks, in his words, according to prosecutors, "to destroy America". You'll hear from the police commissioner in a minute and his message of vigilance to New Yorkers.
But let's get live to New York now, talk to our Maggie Lake. She's staying on top of this investigation as the details come in. Maggie, an unbelievable story in many ways. An angry extremist buys a fake bomb. Very serious stuff. Police taking it seriously, that's for sure. How did they even find out about this guy?
MAGGIE LAKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is an extraordinary story, Michael. And they found out because he reached out. As you mentioned, he came on a student visa. He was supposed to be studying in Missouri, but he was most recently living in Jamaica, Queens. Authorities believe he came with the intent of planning this attack and, indeed, reached out to people to recruit them to help using both social media, et cetera.
And one of the people he reached out to was actually an informant for the FBI. That man then put him in touch with an actual FBI agent who was working undercover posing as an al Qaeda operative. They monitored him along the way, supplied him with those fake explosives, all the way up to the point that he drove that van to the New York Federal Reserve yesterday, checked into a hotel across the street, and then tried to detonate it, Michael.
So, thankfully, in his lone wolf type situation, it was that initial reach-out that helped authorities key in to him.
HOLMES: Yes, another extraordinary point about this is,we're told that most of his plans, communications and the like, are actually recorded on video. A confession, if you like. A suicide message. He contacted the FBI informants himself. He played perfectly into police hands, in a way.
I'm curious, are they thinking that he was, I don't know, the real deal or was he an amateur who basically did everything wrong?
LAKE: You know, it is interesting, and certainly he made a lot of mistakes, which would lead people to sort of question whether this was serious or not. He wasn't as well-informed. Even when you look at the target that he chose in terms of the New York Federal Reserve, he said he wanted to destroy America's economy. The New York Federal Reserve, certainly a large gold vault, certainly an important regulator -- bank regulator, but not critical to sort of the day-to-day operating of the economy.
However, when you look at what happened and when you listen in to the New York Police commissioner, they very much think that he was a real threat. Listen to what Ray Kelly had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAY KELLY, NEW YORK CITY POLICE COMMISSIONER: We're still very much a coveted target by terrorists who said New York is the top of the terrorist target list in this country and I think this just reaffirms that. I think it shows, again, that law enforcement is vigilant. Certainly we understand that the public can become complacent. We've had no successful attack here in 11 years, but law enforcement can't be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAKE: So, Michael, again, they believe he was working alone. They are still looking into every detail to make sure that is the case. But even one suicide bomber in a crowded city like New York, which has seen its share of terror threats, is a very serious problem as far as they're concerned.
HOLMES: It is extraordinary how often the cops seem to get on to these guys before they do anything, thank goodness. Maggie, as always, thanks. Maggie Lake following things in New York.
Want to take you actually to Manchester, New Hampshire, now. The U.S. President, Barack Obama, speaking there. Let's listen in for a second.
(BEGIN LIVE COVERAGE)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Nineteen days, New Hampshire. Nineteen days. In 19 days, you're going to step into a voting booth, and you've got a big choice to make. It's not just a choice between two candidates or parties, it's about two different visions for this country that we love. You know, Governor Romney's got a sales pitch. He's been running around talking about his five point Power Point plan for the economy. But as we saw the other night, it's not a five point -- what he's selling is not a five-point plan. It's really just a one-point plan. Folks at the top get to play with a different set of rules than you do.
Don't boo now. Vote.
They can pay lower taxes. They can keep their money offshore. They can buy companies loaded up with debt, lay off workers, strip their pensions, send their jobs overseas. They can still make money doing it, turning a big profit. It's the same philosophy that's been squeezing middle class families for more than a decade. It's the same philosophy that got us into this mess.
For the last four years, I've watched the American people with their resilience and resolve, overcoming the pain and struggle of dealing with the consequences of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. We've worked too hard to let this country go down that path again.
CROWD (chanting): Four more years. Four more years.
OBAMA: New Hampshire, we cannot grow this economy from the top down. This economy grows from the middle out when everybody has ladders of opportunity. If they work hard, they can succeed. They can get ahead. That's how we move ahead. And when workers are -- have a decent living, have a little money in their pockets, that means they're out there as customers buying goods. And that means businesses do better. That means businesses make more profits. Then they hire more workers. That's how you grow an economy. That's why we can't go backward. That's why we've got to move forward. That's why I'm running for a second term as President of the United States.
(END LIVE COVERAGE)
HOLMES: U.S. President Barack Obama there speaking in Manchester, New Hampshire. Some familiar things coming out from all of the candidates now, of course.
Now, let's move on, meanwhile. A quarter of the population out of work. You think unemployment's bad in this country. The threat of a new round of spending cuts looming. That is the reality in Greece right now. In fact, unemployment among the youth, 50 percent. Tens of thousands of Greeks are furious about all of that. Just listen.
Demonstrators hitting the streets for a two-day strike protesting the European Union bailout terms that demand severe budget cuts. More budget cuts. The demonstration in Athens, as is perhaps predictable, turned violent at one stage. Their protests, as you see, throwing bottles. They threw firebombs -- you see one there -- at police officers responding with tear gas. Familiar -- sadly familiar scenes. A 65-year-old man actually died after fainting and having a thought -- what was thought was a heart attack during the protest.
Well, today was the deadline for the Greek government to show European creditors how it is carrying out those economic reforms. Most but not all of the details were nailed down in Athens. Now, though, European leaders are gathering in Brussels to deal with the debt crisis, the overall crisis. Also, the future of the euro. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Francois Hollande, and the Greek Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras. They are all there for this meeting. CNN's Fred Pleitgen joins us now from the German capital Berlin to talk about it.
Good to see you, Fred. There is no love lost, of course, between Merkel and Hollande, not seeing eye to eye on a key banking issue. Tell us what it's about.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes, the key banking issue is a common bank regulator for all banks within the European Union. That's certainly something that the French want, but something that the Germans say shouldn't happen too quickly here especially for the Eurozone. They, of course, fear that banks could be bailed out by this common regulator and that then more German tax money would go to bailing out banks in other countries.
One of the things that the Germans are saying needs to happen is that they want more oversight by the European Union over national budgets within the E.U. And they want one single entity to have the oversight over that. Listen in to what Angela Merkel had to say today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANGELA MARKEL, GERMAN CHANCELLOR (through translator): The E.U. needs a real power over national governments. I know some states are not ready for that. I also say that it is a pity. But that changes nothing in the fact that we will fight for this. And then, of course, you would need someone in commission that will be strong enough to enforce this principle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PLEITGEN: Now, Michael, let's just think about what something like that would mean for America. For America, I've been thinking about the best example. And just imagine if NAFTA, for instance, could veto America's national budget or if Mexico could veto America's national budget. That's the scope of what Angela Merkel is talking about. Needless to say, that there are some countries that are not very fond of that idea. France and Spain being two of them. So certainly there are a lot of points of contention here at this Eurozone Summit, but it is a very, very important one for the future of the common European currency, Michael.
HOLMES: Right. And you make a good point. It's worth getting that context from you, Fred. You know, it is an interconnected world. We've already seen the European economic crisis affect China's economy because Europeans aren't buying as much from China. And, of course, Europe is the U.S.'s biggest trading partner. How does all of this flow on through the world markets? The U.S. economy?
PLEITGEN: Oh, I mean it's huge. It would be huge for the U.S. economy, obviously, if one of these European countries would fail. I mean Greece would obviously be bad enough. But if a country like Spain were to go bankrupt and if the Eurozone would fall part, obviously that would have massive repercussions that would really make the Lehman catastrophe look like a mild fall storm. So certainly it is something where the European leaders are trying to get together to solve this problem long-term.
And one of the things that the Germans keep saying is that the only thing that will solve this are these measures where countries cut their budget deficits, where they get in line long term where they do these structural reforms that are so important, and then they can get back to being competitive, and then they can have growth, and then they will have jobs again. So it is something for the European Union. And it really goes against what a lot of analysts have been saying where they're saying, you know, you need to pump more money into the problems. The Germans are saying, no, what we need is austerity. We need to fix this problem long-term.
It is a very, very difficult road for a lot of countries, as you've just seen with the example of Greece, where you have those strikes, where you have that massive unemployment of more than 25 percent, more than 40 percent for young people. But it is something where the European leaders now are banding together and they know they have to solve this problem long-term, Michael.
HOLMES: The austerity versus stimulus. The debate goes on. Frederik Pleitgen. Good to see you, Fred. Thanks.
PLEITGEN: A big debate, yes.
HOLMES: Uh-huh.
All right, let's stay in Germany where Twitter has blocked messages from a Neo-Nazi account. German police had demanded the account be closed, but Twitter's general counsel, Alex MacGillivray, tweeted this. Quote, "never want to withhold content, good to have the tools to do it narrowly." This is the first time Twitter has used its censorship policy, which does allow for blocking content that violates local laws. Blocking it in that country specifically. People outside of Germany can still see those neo-Nazi tweets.
All right, just ahead here on NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL, one Senator thinks Mitt Romney missed a big opportunity during Tuesday's debate.
One Prime Minister takes a misstep in India.
And one incredible rapper with an even more incredible life story. Wait until you hear it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Welcome back, everyone.
President Obama and Mitt Romney will be sharing the stage again tonight, but the tone sure to be a little more light-hearted than Tuesday night's debate. They will be attending the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner.
Now, this is an annual event. It actually raises money for needy children. The dinner has been a ritual for the presidential candidates since it started back in 1946. Four years ago, then- candidate Obama and Senator John McCain took a break from their intense campaign to poke fun at one another. We'll see what happens.
Well, Mitt Romney and President Obama are going to be tackling foreign policy issues when they meet in their third and final debate on Monday. Let's call it round three. And the attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya, almost certain to come up.
Again, in Tuesday night's debate, you'll remember Romney went after the President over his administration's response to the attack and the explanation about what was behind it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY, (R) REPUBLICAN NOMINEE: But I think it's interesting that the President just said something which is that, on the day after the attack, he went in the Rose Garden and said that this was an act of terror.
You said in the Rose Garden the day after the attack it was an act of terror? It was not a spontaneous demonstration? Is that what you're saying.
OBAMA: Please proceed, Governor.
ROMNEY: I want to make sure we get that for the record because it took the President 14 days before he called the attack in Benghazi an act of terror.
OBAMA: Get the transcript.
CANDY CROWLEY, DEBATE MODERATOR: He did, in fact, sir, so let me -- call it an act of terror.
OBAMA: Can you say that a little louder, Candy?
CROWLEY: He did call it an act of terror. It did, as well, take two weeks or so for the whole idea of there being a riot out there about this tape to come out. You are correct about that.
ROMNEY: The administration indicated that this was a reaction to a video and was a spontaneous reaction.
CROWLEY: It did.
ROMNEY: It took them a long time to say this was a terrorist act by a terrorist group.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Well, Mitt Romney's supporters say he should have pushed President Obama harder on the administration's handling of the Benghazi attack and, Senator John McCain, he agree with that.
He talked with our Anderson Cooper about the Libya attack, the crisis in Syria, and what he calls a failure of American leadership. Here's part of that interview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER 360": On Benghazi, last night there are certainly big questions to be asked and still that need to be answered. Why wasn't there more security for the ambassador? Why did the administration's narrative change so many times, and still what really happened there?
The direct question I'll ask and I didn't exactly get directly answered, but by focusing on that Rose Garden statement and the use of the word "terror," do you think Governor Romney missed an opportunity?
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) ARIZONA: I think so in a way he did because I think that when you look at the President's Rose Garden statement, that it really wasn't talking about that act.
And the reason why I don't think he was because he later went on "The View," went on "Letterman" and others and kept repeating what they had sent his U.N. ambassador out to say and say this was a hateful video that's triggered this demonstration or we don't know what caused it.
Look, we knew within hours, Anderson, that this was a coordinated attack with heavy weapons and we now know that one of the leaders of one of the al Qaeda-related groups was even there. It was obvious that this was not a -- there was no demonstration whatsoever and, when they keep saying, well, we'll wait until we have a full and complete investigation, some facts are obvious now.
And I would like to mention one other aspect of this, if I could. Back in April and June, there were attacks on the U.S. embassy, one, an IED, very serious. The British ambassador was attacked. The British closed their consulate. The Red Cross left.
Was the President briefed about the danger there? I don't expect him to know whether 16 people stayed or went, but shouldn't he have been briefed about the deteriorating situation in Benghazi where it was obvious that al Qaeda were coming in across the border? That's what we need. The question should be, what did the President know, when did he know it and what did he do about it? Obviously, not much.
COOPER: I want to ask you, also, about Syria tonight. "The New York Times" reporting Sunday that most of the weapons flowing to Syrian rebels from Saudi Arabia and from Qatar are actually going to Islamic jihadists.
Why is it that we've not been able to identify more moderate groups, or, I mean, have we been able to identify and just because the folks sending the weapons are, you know, have sympathies maybe with jihadists? They're sending them to these groups that they are?
MCCAIN: It makes me so sad.
COOPER: Because you predicted this. I mean, you were talking about this before anyone else.
MCCAIN: Yes. Yeah and it's so sad because there are legitimate elements that you and I had even met, both inside and just outside of Syria and there has been a flood of these jihadists into Syria as this thing has dragged out for now 18 months and over 30,000, and it's a failure of American leadership.
You know and -- well, let me just say. It's well known that over the years that the Saudis have supported Salafists and other extreme groups.
COOPER: Sure.
MCCAIN: So has Qatar. So, it's not surprising. But where is American leadership to say to them, by the way, stop that and we'll do the job. We will make sure that those weapons get in.
That's what American leadership is about and I could go on and on. The tensions on the border, as you know, of all of those countries has dramatically increased. The slaughter goes on. The Russians continue to step up their arms supplies.
The Iranians are overflying Iraq with supplies of arms and it's -- the tragedy goes on and it cries out for American leadership and it's just not there. I don't know what the Turks are going to do, but I know that the Turks are crying out for our leadership.
COOPER: Governor Romney has been critical of the Obama administration for not acting sooner, for calling Assad a reformer early on, but recently, he called for arming the rebels, but he stopped short of saying the U.S. should provide them weapons. His staff said the governor would rely on allies to do that, which is unnamed allies, but it's basically on what the Obama administration is already doing, isn't it?
MCCAIN: I don't think they're doing it. They say they are, but we know the facts are that they're not doing it because the arms are going into the wrong people, as we said at the beginning of our conversation. Obviously, I support strongly providing them with weapons. I hope that Governor Romney will agree with that position, but ...
COOPER: You think the U.S. should directly supply them with weapons?
MCCAIN: I think -- you know, I've always said that and I think that Mitt Romney is right, that we should play a much greater and stronger role in making sure that those weapons go to the right people which is obviously not the case now because of a lack of American leadership.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Senator McCain and our Anderson Cooper there.
We're going to have a lot more politics ahead in the next hour of NEWSROOM. Former President Bill Clinton campaigns for President Obama in Ohio and rocker Bruce Springsteen appears with Clinton at an Obama rally in Parma, Ohio.
We're also going to focus on the fight for the female vote as the candidates' wives hit the airwaves. Michelle Obama appears on "Live with Kelli and Michael" and Romney visits "The View."
Well, he was forced to be a child soldier in Sudan. Now Emmanuel Jal is a world-famous rapper. He is with us right here in the studio to talk about his story. Stay with us. Don't miss it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: A catchy tune with important lyrics. Many of you already know him. For those who don't, he is Emmanuel Jal, a former child soldier turned humanitarian activist and hip-hop star. There singing his hit, "We Want Peace." A simple message, the video includes appearance by Ringo Starr. Right there, Alicia Keys. George Clooney pops up. Kofi Annan and many, many more.
And guess what? He's here with us, live. As I said, great song, powerful message. You call yourself a "war child" and you are, quite literally, born in Sudan during the country's brutal civil war, became a child soldier when you were just eight-years old.
Just describe that to us. I mean, that's incredible for most people who are listening?
EMMANUEL JAL, MUSICIAN/FORMER CHILD SOLIDER IN SUDAN: I call myself "war child: because all I saw was war, seeing people die and then the war reaching the core of my family and then I became a child soldier when we were promised we were going to go to school, so we walked for hundreds of miles and that's how I call myself a "war child."
HOLMES: It's extraordinary. One very chilling part of your story, you were tempted to apparently eat your best friend. How did that situation even arise?
JAL: It happened when we plan an escape and only a few of us survived on that journey and, so, we ran out of food. So, we were depending on snails, vultures and anything we could find. So when we ran out of food completely, so my friend was dying and my senses changed. So, that's when I was tempted to eat my friend.
HOLMES: Yeah. I can't imagine how much that affects somebody. I mean, you know, those sorts of experiences. You sing about it. You've written about it. Tell us about how it still impacts you to this day, those experiences.
JAL: Well, the experiences, the trauma has cooled down because I have put all my energy into music, so -- and the effect, any negative energy that had influenced me at that time, I take the energy and convert it and try to use it for positivity. And I'm telling the story for social and emotional learning to reach out to more human beings who are all empathize for all the pain for all the people and that's why I'm use it for the campaign for peace.
HOLMES: You've got another music video out. It's called "Kush" about pride in your ancestry. I want to just play a little bit of that. You performed that song on Capitol Hill. I think it was just last week. You and the Dalai Lama were together on stage at the One World concert, which was at Syracuse University. ou performed with the hip- hop producer Swizz Beatz. You've gotten support for your efforts, as we said before, huge names. Kofi Annan, Alicia Keys, George Clooney, Jimmy Carter, the list goes on.
Are you optimistic about peace, not just in the world, but for your people?
JAL: Well, peace is when conflicts are managed in a mature manner that the violence can be reduced and, so, my album that came out recently, "See Me Mama," is -- I'm using that to create celebration. And as I reach out to as many people as is possible. You know, if we learn from American history, European history, they came up with the formula to manage the conflicts and that's why there's peace.
So -- and I'm hoping. Now, we've been pushing for peace in South Sudan. We have peace now, but there's doubtful. There is Nuba Mountains. There is Somalia, all those places.
HOLMES: Mali.
JAL: And, so, as we keep pushing -- you know, like the advocacy plays a part in helping peace come.
HOLMES: Yeah, well, you know, your education has also become one of your main focuses and I know it changed your life. You owe it to a British aid worker, Emma KcCune, her name, and she rescued you and many other child soldiers.
Do you see education as the key to ending poverty and, well, education is the key to just about everything. It's knowledge. Knowledge is power.
JAL: Knowledge is power. Emma KcCune gave me something that I don't know where I would have gotten. So she smuggled me, put me in school and, seeing I was trained to kill as a child, even when she took me, I wanted to go to school and steal a plane and come back to war.
But in the process as I read and get to know more about what's going on around the world, I was transformed by education, and so education has given me many ways to reason and discover the truth, and that's why I'm able to do what I'm doing now.
HOLMES: Well, it's terrific to have you here and congratulations on all your work, a powerful message. And I got a couple of presents. Thank you very much.
JAL: Thank you.
HOLMES: I appreciate it. Good to see you.
JAL: Thank you, sir.
HOLMES: Thank you for coming in, Emmanuel Jal.
JAL: Thank you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: In the biggest county in Arizona, dozens of voters have been given the wrong election date. Maricopa County election officials handed out about 50 voter registration cards in Spanish that say the election is on November the 8th. Of course, it's really on November the 6th.
Latino groups and the county government have already had a lot of tension lately and often clash mostly about immigration issues. County officials say the error has been fixed. The local rights group says the damage has already been done. Pretty extraordinary, isn't it?
Stay with CNN. We're all over the voter card mistake story, live from Washington in the next hour with more reaction from Latino groups in Arizona and how the county is explaining exactly what happened there.
Well, the U.S. "needs Mexican resources," words of advice from across the border to the men hoping to be the next U.S. President. There is also some concern about U.S. immigration policy. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The new president has to be able to recognize that the country needs Mexican resources. This money that could be received in the United States can come here and benefit a lot of people and, especially, the Mexican economy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (via translator): The President must have a little more conscience in working for the laborer. Can he help them? Just that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (via translator): In the United States, they treat badly those who cross without papers and that's wrong. I don't agree with that. UNIDENTIFIED MALE (via translator): The relations should be more about respect, a lot of respect between the two countries.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (via translator): The United States sees Mexico like one more, but not like a brother. No. For convenience only.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is supposed to see people the same and give them opportunities.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (via translator): I think that it should be a little more friendly and support Mexicans. More in terms of the issue of immigration. Make a law so that Mexicans there have a better opportunity in life and in work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: All right. Now, we see political missteps all the time, most of them, of course, verbal, but here's one case where the stumble was literal. That's the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard taking a pretty hard fall. This happened in New Delhi. It was at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial.
As you can see, up again in no time. No damage done and later explaining with some grace what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JULIA GILLARD, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: Oh, you know, I'm fine. For men who get to wear flat shoes all day every day, if you wear a heel, it can get embedded in soft grass and then when you pull your foot out, the shoe doesn't come and there, you know, the rest of it is, as you saw.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: She's an Aussie. She can take that.
At many cafes, of course, order a coffee, of course. Maybe a pastry. Perhaps check your e-mail. Well, in Japan, we've got a cafe for you that doesn't have any of those things, but it sure is bringing in the customers and don't read too much into that picture there. We'll explain.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Some 28,000 Syrians have been kidnapped by government forces, just snatched off the streets. That's a claim, anyway, by an activist group that says it does have video, also testimony, from family members of the missing. The group plans to present the material to the U.N. Human Rights Council.
Meanwhile, U.N. peace efforts are set to begin in the Syrian capital amid ongoing attack there. You see that smoke rising over the city today and this happened as the international mediator, Lakhdar Brahimi, is due to arrive. He is going to trying to broker a ceasefire during the Muslim holiday of Eid Ul Adha which is next week. He stopped first in Lebanon, though, to discuss the plan which calls for a self-imposed truce, no monitoring required. A lot of people not too confident about that. The Syrian rebels, meanwhile, are seeing more successes in their battles against government forces. Nick Paton Walsh now gives us a close-up look at the frontlines.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A scene becoming more common in Syria, rebels assaulting the once impenetrable walls of regime bases.
Flourishes of rebel success in the past week that have kept coming, like this bid to cut off the main arterial road north, isolating the main cities of Idlib and Aleppo, leaving some observers asking whether the rebels are finding new ways to hit a weakened enemy harder and perhaps just maybe break a long stalemate.
JOSHUA LANDIS, DIR., MIDDLE EAST STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA: We've seen the Syrian opposition getting stronger and stronger. It is getting new techniques for taking down Syrian airpower. What we have seen is take the insurrection, as they call it, which is hit and run strikes, terrorism, assassinations. The Syrian free army, or the militias, have not yet been able to take on the Syrian army head-to- head. But that day, I think, is coming closer all the time.
WALSH (voice-over): A time, perhaps, heralded by these. Jets brought down apparently by rebel fire. Helicopters too. This one over Idlib. Activists say their estimates show that over half the aircraft found in this war were in the last month. This isn't just about rebel morale. Control of the skies is key to holding on to Syria itself.
It's unclear whether these are behind their new luck. Probably a Russian-made SA-7 surface-to-air missile. Rebels have long begged outsiders for these, but may have instead had more luck looting them from captured bases. One commander in the besieged southern city of Homs envies rebel success in the north.
"In the north, Assad has his arms cut off," he says. "Idlib is mountainous with trees. Rebel can use anti-aircraft weapons with ease. They can hit tanks as the ground there is helpful to them."
You can hear the bombardment behind him. The pressure's still on. But scenes of success, which used to be so rare and short-lived, are now more common, as are questions as to how long the regime's military supremacy will last.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Beirut.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right, let's take you now live to where Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan is speaking. He's in Ocala, Florida. Let's listen in for a minute. (BEGIN LIVE COVERAGE)
REP. PAUL RYAN, (R-WI) VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We're going to go over to the West Coast to see my aunt Sue who's a Floridian. Now, I wish my mom was here, but she's got a wedding she had to go to today.
So what my mom would always ask me is, I worked hard. You know when my dad passed away, my mom went back to school in her 50s. She got a skill. She started a small business. She had a few employees. She paid her payroll taxes all those years based upon the promise that the government would keep its promise to her so that she could retire, she could move here in the winter. It's a little cold where I come from in the winter. She could come here and enjoy her retirement because Medicare and Social Security made a promise to her. She paid her taxes all those years. She's retired. And she deserves to have this promise kept for her.
Now, you can see this Jumbotron here. I think there's some other monitors around here. I'm going to pull up a slide here. I want to be very clear about exactly what we're proposing to do here.
Now I'll -- for those of you -- because I can see, people over there, you may not be able to see it. There is a really clear choice. I mean of all the issues in front of us, nowhere is the difference more stark than with what President Obama is proposing to do with Medicare. What his law already does to Medicare and what we're proposing. And so you'll see all these ads. You see, the reason these problems have grown so much, the reason politician have failed to confront America's problems, is because if they actually propose a solution, the other side will turn it into a political weapon and try and ruin their re- election.
And so what we have here is decades of politicians from both political parties making lots of promises to people to get elected but having no way of keeping those promises. And if we have a debt crisis, if we stay on the path we are on, as you can see, that debt clock, it's running about $2 million of on new debt every minute. If we stay on this path, all these empty promises that our moms and our dads organize their retirements around, they become broken promises.
We have got to get ahead of these problems. We've got to run to these problems to solve these problems to prevent that from happening. That's the kind of leader that Mitt Romney is. That's exactly what we're going to do in 2013 to guarantee the promise of these programs.
So here is what we're saying. We are saying, don't change Medicare for people who are already are on the program. Don't change it to people who are about to get on the program. So if you're 55 and above, on our plan, we say you've already retired, you're about to retire, and you're doing so based on the promise that government's made to you. So preserve and protect it. Don't disrupt the program and keep it intact.
The best way to do that, to make that guarantee, is you have to reform it for my generation. Here's what the President does. Don't forget that Obamacare also rewrites Medicare. And in two very dangerous ways. What Obamacare does is it takes $716 billion from the Medicare program to pay for the Obamacare program. You can't -- you remember when we pay our payroll taxes, they're supposed to go to two programs. Your FICA taxes goes to Medicare and Social Security. You work hard, you pay your taxes, it goes to those two programs. Well now, because they're raiding Medicare to pay for Obamacare, those payroll tax dollars also go to Obamacare.
Another thing is that the President puts in place -
(END LIVE COVERAGE)
HOLMES: Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan there speaking in Florida. You'd think there was an election on because the Obama campaign, as we said, is bringing out some heavy hitters in Ohio today. The Boss and the former Commander-in-Chief campaigning for the President there in Parma, Ohio. We're going to listen in to The Boss.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Welcome back.
Before we go, we're going to take you to a rather new kind of cafe that's in Tokyo, in Japan, and it has only one thing on the menu -- cuddles. Here's Alex Zolbert.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALEX ZOLBERT, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER (voice-over): A frenetic capital city -- one of the largest and most densely populated anywhere in the world. Also famous for its tireless workers or salarymen. And here in Tokyo's Akihabara district, a place that's known for quirky ideas, one former salaryman himself has come up with a very unique business: a co-sleeping specialty shop.
"Yes, people come here to cuddle," Masashi Koda tells me.
Before you let your mind run wild, he says, yes, it is just cuddling. Nothing more. Customers pay about $40 to sleep next to a girl for 20 minutes. Some customers are young men looking for simple companionship. Twenty-one-year-old Luha Hiroki (ph) visits the shop almost every day. He tells me, "I like coming here. It's unique and relaxing. I try to stay awake because I enjoy talking with the girls."
(on camera): So do you have a girlfriend?
(voice-over): "No, I don't," he says. "I never had a lot of chances to meet girls, so this is refreshing for me."
Nineteen-year-old Hena (ph) is a student. She works here part-time. She says most guys come here to relax and rest after working hard all day.
(on camera): They've clearly hit a nerve. It's about 9:00 on Thursday night right now and just about every room is taken. And you can see the place is not big. It's about 400 square feet in total. (voice-over): There are added services as well. But again, don't get any ideas. One thousand yen, about $13, if you want to rest your head on the girls' knees for three minutes. Another $13 for a five second hug. Masashi says he is surprised at all the attention his business is getting.