0 all those school kid kind of pranks and i fell for it and it was yuck, terrible. you have a great day. >> you, too. >> thanks so much. here is what we've got this hour. president obama weighing a critical decision today, what to do in syria. and a briefing is expected at the united nations today after inspectors gathered evidence to determine if there was a chemical weapons attack. we have reporters in new york, washington, and, of course, around the world. and investigators are digging into a dark path at an old reform school in florida. they're exhuming unmarked graves, and we'll have more on the disturbing story straight ahead. and three weeks after 16-year-old hannah anderson was rescued, she appears to be recovering from her terrible ordeal, but there are still so many questions. we hear from a family member who wants to know why this happened. united nations inspectors have left syria with bags of evidence and stories from witnesses about a deadly chemical weapon attack. as the world waits to hear what they found, the united nations appears to be getting ready -- rather, the united states appears to be getting ready for a strike. u.s. secretary of state john kerry and president barack obama making the case to take action yesterday. we're covering every angle of the crisis in syria. barbara starr at the pentagon, jill dougherty at the white house, nick payton wash at the united nations in new york and fred pleitgen joining us from beirut, lebanon. let's begin at the pentagon. barbara, what moves has the military already made to get in place for any possible strikes? >> well, fred, by all accounts everything is in place. it's simply awaiting a decision from the president to execute an order to strike. there are still five u.s. navy warships in the eastern mediterranean, about 40 tomahawk cruise missiles on each of them. these are very precise weapons guided to their preplanned targets by satellite coordinates, 1,000-pound warheads on them, so very lethal. the target list, by all accounts, will include command and control centers, regime elements, weapons delivery systems areas, that sort of thing. anything they can get after that they can tie to potential chemical weapons attack or the regime itself and its efforts to engage in chemical weapons attacks. so that's what we're looking at. but still, at this hour it awaits officially a decision from the president. he has to sign an execute order, it has to come to the pentagon, and then things will get moving if that happens. >> barbara, as you know, the uk said no to any involvement, but could the u.s. get help from other countries if, indeed, there is a strike? >> well, there's hope and there's help. there's no indication at this point of any other country at the moment in a major way participating in this openly, publicly, with its weapons systems. that's not on the table publicly at least at the moment in any way. but make no mistake, in that region the intelligence services of both israel, jordan, turkey, even some of the lebanese intelligence services element are very active in the region, have a lot of especially the israelis and the jordanians, a lot of shall we say covert capability to understand what is going on inside syria, help collect intelligence, and pass it on to the united states. so there certainly is that level of effort still going on by all accounts, fred. >> thanks so much, barbara starr. keep us posted from the pentagon. let's go to the white house now where senior obama administration officials are holding a conference call with top senate democrats and republicans today. jill dougherty is live for us there now. jill, what is on the president's agenda? we understand that a number of people, including the vice president as well as chuck hagel, all at the white house now, right? >> reporter: well, yes. and we do know that that meeting -- i should say that conference call is going to be taking place with senior administration officials and members of congress, but we've also been monitoring the driveway here next to the white house where all of the important vehicles of officials pull up, and we have seen defense secretary chuck hagel coming here, general martin dempsey, who is the chairman of the joint chiefs, and also vice president biden, and interestingly, vice president biden, according to his schedule, was supposed to be in wilmington, delaware, so they arrived. we asked why are they here right now because the understanding was that call with the congress was supposed to be taking place this afternoon. time not specified, but they're not explaining. so anyway, they are here, and the call that will be taking place will have all, as you can imagine, the senior officials, susan rice, the national security adviser, secretary of state kerry, chuck hagel, defense secretary, and vice chairman of the joint chiefs and the director of national intelligence. mean while, susan rice has been tweeting, and one of the tweets that is kind of significant gives the reason. she says, quoting secretary kerry, the core of the decision is u.s. security and preventing attacks on innocents using the word's most heinous weapons. so that really in a nutshell is the core argument of why the united states, president obama, would say that he has to take some type of action. fred? >> all right. jill dougherty, thanks so much. at the white house. keep us posted. let's go to new york where the lead u.n. weapons inspectors have arrived from syria. the team is carrying crucial cargo, data from the sites of those alleged chemical weapons attacks. these he can clue sif images from jfk airport upon that arrival. our nick paton walsh joining us right now from the united nations with the very latest. when might we hear publicly more details of the bags of evidence that were collected by these inspectors? >> reporter: well, we are supposed to hear from the u.n. spokesman in the next hour and a half or so, but it's no the quite clear how much we'll reveal. just to clarify, the samples taken from alleged chemical weapon attack sites in syria, they have now gone on a german foreign ministry charter plane from laeb lebanon to the hague in the netherlands where testing will take place. angela cane, who headed the u.n. inspections mission to syria, she's come back here to meet the u.n. secretary-general ban ki-moon. quite possibly that meeting is going on somewhere other than this building. we haven't seen anyone come in here just yet, but that will be updating him on her team's activities. there had been expectations that he would then go and talk to the security council about those initial reports. he himself said that. that has since it seems changed according to a western diplomat that spoke to me. they're going to wait for the fuller report which will contain the results of those lab samples being tested at the moment in the hague, but there is still, of course, a lot of scrutiny now at what will happen here at the united nations, how quickly will this report come forward, what will angela cane tell ban ki-mo ki-moon. the u.s. has put forward its intelligence. they are clear the regime was behind a chemical weapons attack. what the u.n. inspectors will find out under their mandate is whether or not chemical weapons are used. they won't apportion blame. >> nick paton walsh, thank you so much from the u.n. in syria today it is a waiting game, waiting to see what the u.s. might do to punish the assad regime for allegedly using chemical weapons on its own people. the last of the u.n. weapons inspectors left syria today. they got a firsthand look at the places the rebels say were hit with chemical weapons and they talked with survivors as well. the u.n. is asking washington to hold off on any military action until their report is filed. our fred pleitgen is monitoring the situation from beirut. are you getting a sense people on either side of the border are nervous or anxious about a strike? >> reporter: i would say they're nervous. i wouldn't say it's so much fear. i would say it's more nervous. that's absolutely right, fredricka. also, there's different reactions when you look at the syrian military and you obviously look at syrian civilians. the military came out in the form of a navy commander who talked to a lebanese tv station. he said that the syrian navy was ready to blow anyone out of the sea, that the sea would become a graveyard for anyone who attacks syria. obviously referring to those american destroyers that are in front of the syrian coast. the syrians generally, the government has been saying that it is ready for any sort of attack. it has not said how it plans to do anything except that it's also readying its air defenses as well. the situation on the ground is very different. there's a lot of syrians in the government controlled part of damascus and other places who are really nervous about what's going to happen. i wouldn't say they're totally in fear. when i was in syria two days ago, i didn't see people massively leaving the country, but they were stocking up on food. they were stocking up on other things as well just waiting to see what happens and, of course, the things they would be afraid of is if the assad regime is destabilized by american strikes, whether or not potentially damascus could become a battleground if the rebels then move in. that's what the people there are afraid of. of course, on the other side of the front line in the rebel-controlled territories, many people are hoping this military action would be more expansive than what the obama administration is talking about, things like limited strike. they obviously want something bigger, fredricka. >> thanks so much fred pleitgen. keep us posted. back here in the u.s. there is some progress to report in that massive wildfire in and around yosemite national park. firefighters are gaining some ground. the fire is now 35% contained. the u.s. forest service says it now expects to have the fire fully contained in about three weeks. almost 200,000 acres have been burned so far. and parts of the country have been sweltering this week. earlier this week record-breaking temperatures forced some schools in the midwest to cut back on sports programs, and some of them even had to close, but now a cold front is marching across the country, so how will it affect the holiday weekend? let's bring in our meteorologist karen maginnis in the cnn weather center. what can people expect? >> well, it will take a little bit of doing, but a frontal system is expected to move across the northern tier states, but look at the high temperature for today in minneapolis. around 90 degrees. so still kind of sweltering but not like those triple digits we've got in the south central united states, but that front moves through, yes, you will have to deal with some thunderstorms, but after that, those temperatures expected to be in the 70s. so some pretty nice weather. not for everybody, especially across the southeast. we'll start to see some thunderstorms develop here, monsoonal moisture just kind of pouring in across the desert southwest. but what about those hot temperatures? well, we'll find them all the way from kansas city to st. louis down to ft. smith. triple digits, but it will feel like between 100 and 100 degrees. you combine the temperature with the high humidity. so take it easy. over the next 48 hours, some pretty good thunderstorms rumbling around the ohio river valley, but not just there, across the southeast as well. if you're heading to some beach areas, maybe atlantic city, maybe you're going to coastal north carolina, maybe down towards the gulf coast, i think you'll see more dry weather than thunderstorms, but can't say the same on labor day. on monday. >> okay. it always seems to be the case, right on the holiday, monday. thanks so much. appreciate that, karen. all right. so if the u.s. does strike syria, what would it look like? what would be targeted? we dig into what could happen with retired army major general next. and a family is asking why after two alleged murders and an abduction. the family of hannah anderson with lingering questions. 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