immigration. we ll show you the old clip making new headlines. wolf blitzer is off. i m joe johns. you re in the situation room. we begin with breaking news. american students caught up in the bloody cairo protest are finally on their way out of a nightmare experience in egypt. let s go straight to cnn s senior international correspondent, ben wedeman in cairo. earlier today we heard the three american students would be released on saturday. now we re hearing it s already happened. why? what we understand is that yesterday the prosecutors ordered their release but it took for today to get released. they have been released and they are on their way to the airport. they were attending the american university in cairo and according to the egyptian police, they were involved in attacks on security forces during the demonstrations. of course, their lawyers and their parents deny that they could have done that sort of thing and clearly the fact that the egyptians who shadly s
let s get you up to speed on this tuesday, november 22nd. a million man sit-in is taking place on tahrir square as violence erupts around it. security forces are using tear gas and rubber bullets against protesters armed with rocks and molitov cocktails. you re looking at live pictures right now of tahrir square. 24 have been killed, many injured. they have a new demand, this time aimed at egypt s military leader. we have a crowd here angry, young, furious at the loss of life here over the course of the past three days, demanding that the supreme council step down. mr. ivan watson, national security takes center stage at the presidential debate tonight. the stage is set just a few blocks from the white house. wolf blitzer will nar rate. a new cnn poll shows the former house speaker leading the republican pack for the first time with 24%. mitt romney follows with her man cain in third place. the cnn national security debate with the republican presidential candidates. that
republican candidates gather in the shadow of the white house tonight for the big cnn national security debate. it is the first test for newt gingrich as front-runner. cairo bracing for a million-man sit-in. police beating demonstrators on the fourth straight day of violence, and now late word three americans have been arrested. is there anybody out there? nasa relaunching a program to listen for alien life, searching for signs, on this american morning. captions by vitac www.vitac.com good morning. it s tuesday, november 22nd. ali and christine are off this morning. i m alina cho along with carol costello on this american morning. so glad you re with us. glad you re with us. up first this morning, breaking news out of cairo. three americans arrested outside the interior ministry in tahrir square accused of throwing molotov cocktails. thousands of demonstrators are packed into the square for a million-man sit-in. a short distance away, our reporter says soldie