flaring and deadly political upheaval. we re learning more about who these young men are and why their families are so frightened. i m wolf blitzer ayou re in th situation room. we re coming to you from washington s historic constitution hall, the scene of tonight s cnn republican presidential debate in which we ll focus on national security and foreign policy. in just under four hours, the candidates will walk on stage. it s been ten days since their last face-off an in that time, there have been some dramatic changes in the race. newt gingrich is now at the front of the pack according to our new poll. in this statistical dead heat with mitt romney. and while his new top tier status puts gingrich in the spotlight, romney is always getting a lot of attention for his first television campaign commercial. an ad that s misleading at best. democrats are calling it quote, dishonest. and deceitful. cnn s joe johns is working the story for us. what is this all about? this is a
the cost of our inclusion with what took place in libya, $1.1 billion in aid to the rebels who took down gadhafi. democratic congressman welch wants the president to demand reimbursement from libya. is that something you agree with? i think our top priority in libya has to be making sure that those weapons are secured and they don t get into the wrong hands. and we need to be working with our nato partners to ensure that there is a stable transition in libya to a democratic government. and just like when saddam hussein invaded kuwait, kuwait who is an oil-rich country reimbursed us, i hope libya will reimburse us. but our priority is to make sure weapons are secure and we allow them to stand up a stable government that will allow them to be in a position to reimburse us. new hampshire senator kelley ayotte thank you for coming on this morning. just when you thought the debate over whether president obama was born in america had you been put to bed, rick perry
today i can report that as promised, the rest of our troops in iraq will come home by the end of the year. after nearly nine years, america s war in iraq will be over. over the next two months, our troops in iraq, tens of thousands of them, will pack up their gear and board convoys for the journey home. the last american soldier will cross the border out of iraq with their heads held high, proud of their success, and knowing that the american people stand united in our support for our troops. that is how america s military efforts in iraq will end. but even as we mark this important milestone, we re also moving into a new phase in the relationship between the united states and iraq. it cost the united states a foreign in blood and treasure. thousands of american lives, hundreds of billions of dollars. now after nearly nine years, the end of the iraq war is in sight. the united states and iraq were unable to reach an agreement on immunity for u.s. forces going forward so p
the arab league came out and issued it, saying the international community, the united nations must do more to get involved to prevent the slaughter. that s what happened. when that got to the level of being an international conflict, the united states took the lead, the united nations passed a resolution that allowed or authorized the protection of civilians by any means necessary. and in this case, the only international organization that can do that is nato and the united states. and that s what happened. that s what led the united states to get militarily involved in this operation. are we going to do anything in terms of egyptian decision making with regard to mubarak? are we going to get involved? will we let them execute, if it comes to that? this will be interesting to watch. the united states has tremendous influence over egypt because of the $2 billion of tax money that goes through the military, and more importantly, because of the relationship between the two militaries
it is disturbing and it is not appropriate for all viewers. in the video which we are going to show you now, several fighters are seen surrounding the corpse shouting slogans. they re shouting allah akbar, god is great. others saying the blood of martyrs are not in vain. he has wounds on his face including one on his forehead. gadhafi was reportedly killed by a bullet to his head near the hometown of sirte. we ll show you another video taken as he was dying or after he died. this is also gruesome. the transitional council released this information. he was captured wearing an undershirt and trousers and they took a dna sample while they say his blood was still hot. hair samples were taken as well. some of the hair, though, was found to be artificial. samples from his face and armpit were taken to prove to the national transitional council that it was, indeed, gadhafi. gadhafi s was a journey from revolutionary hero. many in libya cheered him. he became a despotic strong man