night from here in washington. the national defense university. the president will be splang to the -- explaining to the american people what the goals are of this mission. >> as you mentioned, msnbc will offer live coverage tomorrow evening 7:30 p.m. eastern time. let's go now to the situation on the ground in libya where rebel forces are breezing through cities held by gadhafi's forces as recently as yesterday. the rebels now hold the strategic oil towns of brega and ras lanuf. they are pushing westward getting a bit closer to tripoli. let's go live to tripoli and jim maceda who joins me on the phone from there. jim, let's talk about how much the rebels now control versus gadhafi's forces. can you give us an overall view of that? >> reporter: sure. hi, alex, i can. and just as you're speaking, it's become clear that the rebels have not only taken ras lanuf -- brega and ras lanuf, two very important oil and