0 lots of good opportunities there to do the right thing. i want you to do it. cnn.com/impact. that's it for me. thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer reporting from oklahoma. erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. >> "outfront" next, president obama gives a major speech on terrorism. gitmo, drones, al qaeda. but do his claims add up? >> after a british soldier was hacked to death in broad daylight, authorities arrested two more men. how did police track them down so quickly. and an emotional reunion between students and teachers from plaza towers elementary. they meet for the first time since the tornado. let's go "outfront." good evening, everyone. i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, confronting president obama. so today the president delivered what had been billed as his first major speech on counter-terrorism of the second term. and we were prepared to hear layout policy on drone strikes. we were prepared to hear him discuss his long time promise to close the military detention facilities at guantanamo bay. now he did do these things. >> given my administration's relentless pursuit of al qaeda's leadership, there is no justification beyond politics for congress to prevent us from closing a facility that should have never been opened. >> not everybody bought. that and neither we nor he were prepared -- get ready, everybody -- for this -- >> today -- so today -- >> there are 102 people on hunger strike. these desperate people. >> you have to listen, ma'am. you have to let me speak. i'm about to address it. >> you are our commander in chief. >> can you close gouantanamo today. >> why don't you let me address it? why don't you sit down and i'll tell you exactly what i'm going to do today. >> that includes 57 yemenis. >> thank you. >> she wasn't done yet. >> ma'am, let me finish. we went -- >> is that the way you treat a 16 beyond all doubt-year-old? that will make us safer here at home. i love my country. >> part of free speech is you being able to speak but you also listening. and me being able to speak. >> all right. there she is. as you might expect, that woman was finally escorted from the hall. i have to say i was kind of surprised. that went on for a while. and then it happened again a few minutes later. and we were surprised it took them so long to remove her. the president also at moments, i would have to say is he had a glare on his face. he appeared frustrated, too. she did leave behind some pretty important questions as the president acknowledged. one of the president's first acts after taking office on january 22nd, 2009, he signed an executive order to close guantanamo bay within a year. he has reiterated that promise throughout his time in office. so why is the facility still open? chris lawrence recent lly traved for an exclusive look at the detention facility here. chris, 16 0 detainees at goo guantanamo. 67 have been cleared to be released and they have not been released. >> the u.s. government doesn't feel the security situation in their home countries like yemen was sufficient enough to send them back there. they were scheduled for tran transfer, not necessarily release and go out and have a great life. they wanted to make sure that if they went back to the countries there was a security system in place they could eep an eye on them. to date big announcement is president obama saying he's going to lift that moratorium on yemen. that's going to affect dozens of prisoners who now these officials can go back and take a look at their cases and see if perhaps they may be able to be transferred out back to their home country. i spoke with one of the attorneys for one of the men on the hunger strike. she said nobody's going to stop hunger striking until they start seeing some of these prisoners actually leaving. and i've got to say the bottom line is this hunger strike appears to have worked. as much as president obama talked about guantanamo bay early on in the administration, there had been little to no movement at all until now this hunger strike seems to have caught the president's attention. >> fair point. of course, the big question with those detainees that are eligible for transfer, as you say, they haven't transferred is what if just one of them did something against the united states? that would be something that would be absolutely horrible for this president. chris, i know you were just there. you saw some conditions that were horrific. for those you hadn't heard you report on it. i want to give you a chance to tell what it's like. there. >> it's tough on both sides, the captors and the captives. on the prisoner side, when you see this process of being fed by tube, you can see even with the lubricant, you know, even with being able to choose a smaller hose, the idea of a hose being snaked up your nose and down your throat and into your stomach and being shackled down for an hour or two to make sure you don't vomit it up, it's not an easy process. and then on the other side, we spoke with some of the prison guards who talked about just the abuse that they suffer from some of the detainees there. look at what one young guard described some of the names that she has been called during her time there. >> the most common one is whore, slut, they say i'll piss all over your face. they'll say you've been disrespected. nobody wants you. you're trash now. >> yeah. i mean it was tough to hear that. and then when you also hear from the attorneys about what they say some of the pain that the detainees are in, it's just not a very good situation for those on either side of that -- of those gates. >> no, it isn't. thank you very much, chris lawrence. and what chris saw there, as he said, on both sides pretty horrible to comprehend. "outfront" tonight, peter brooks, former deputy assistant of secretary of defense and seth jones. obviously there is a complicated situation with gitmoment . we all know it. why hasn't the president been able to close it? and even on the detainees, he says he's going to send back. i mean it is fair to say that he has had deep concerns that if even one of these people is not secure and tries to strike the united states that is an unacceptable outcome for him? >> yeah. i mean i can't chabl the preside -- channel the president, obviously. he's worried about these people. the recidivism rate, the idea that they'll return to the battlefield and end up with american blood on their hands again. so he's very concerned about that. he's had a bad track record with benghazi and with boston. i think the president had to talk about this. i think in terms of closing gitmo, it goes in a sense against the public will. i mean you can change the zip code of the facility and move it somewhere to the united states. but there is a tremendous amount -- my sense is, anyway, erin, against moving these people to the united states. and then if you release them, i'm not even comfortable with them going to yemen. there have been jail breaks before for al qaeda where these people have been able to return to the battlefield. a lot of al qaeda in the arabian peninsula came out of saudi arabia. there is a lot of concerns here, especially what we've seen in london, boston and, of course, benghazi is still around. >> this is very inextricably linked with the hunger strikes. he has had the advantage of drone technology to perhaps kill some militants that otherwise might have in the prior administration ended up in guantanamo. and the president did talk about drone strikes. i want to play a little clip of what he said and then ask you about it. here he is. >> for the record, dmoit belii believe it would be constitutional for the government to target and kill any u.s. citizen with a drone or with a shotgun without due process. nor should any president deploy armed drones over u.s. soil. >> he also defended the decision to kill an american with a drone without due process. this all doesn't add up. >> well, look. i can say from sort of firsthand experience that he was involved in plotting attacks against the united states. so i mean this in this case there was somebody involved in plotting tt was directly involved in the plot to take down an airliner that is landing in detroit in 2009. now, does that make him legally justifiable to kill him in yemen? that's a very, very difficult question. but i will say this. he was definitely involved in targeting and involved in terrorist attacks in the u.s. so i think this did save lives in the end. >> right. that, of course, is -- that's the tough thing here. there is no easy answer. we know what the president knows. the polling, i want to ask each of you this before we go. approving of drone strikes, 65% of americans say, yes, go ahead and drone them overseas. suspected people by the way. in other words, no due process. 41% say go ahead and drone an american citizen abroad who is suspected of terrorism. only 13% say drone a suspect on u.s. soil. the numbers should be the same. the difference is geography. >> right. well, the citizenship, too. i think that's an important thing. the president didn't get into the moral side of. this i'm not a lawyer. i can't, you know, go on about those sort of things. i think what american people are fundamentally concerned about is the security of american people, security of american interests overseas overseas. if this saves a lot of lives, they're okay with. that it does complicate the question when you talk about american citizens. but an american citizen who is a terrorist or part of al qaeda is in a different category for me personally. >> yeah, it's going to be interesting to see what people think. i think this is a line. that line is just one that it would seem over time is going to become incredibly difficult to keep. still to come, an emotional reunion in oklahoma. students and teachers at plaza towers elementary reunite for the first time since the tornado. a remarkable beginning to a new life. a woman gave birth during that tornado. we're going to meet that new family. and yesterday a director from the irs pleaded the fifth before congress. her job status changed but her pay status has not. we'll tell you why. and brad pitt's medical drama. we now know something about his very rare disorder. i am an american success story. i'm a teacher. i'm a firefighter. i'm a carpenter. i'm an accountant. a mechanical engineer. and i shop at walmart. truth is, over sixty percent of america shops at walmart every month. i find what i need, at a great price. and the money i save goes to important things. braces for my daughter. a little something for my son's college fund. when people look at me, i hope they see someone building a better life. vo: living better: that's the real walmart. so you can capture your receipts, ink for all business purchases. and manage them online with jot, the latest app from ink. so you can spend less time doing paperwork. and more time doing paperwork. ink from chase. so you can. as part of a heart healthy diet. that's true. ...but you still have to go to the gym. ♪ the one and only, cheerios