forces in libya are free tonight. late word of a new kidnapping and last ditch battles that may be linked to moammar gadhafi s escape plan. and cnn goes inside the virginia nuclear power plant near the epicenter of that historic quake. we have a lot of questions about nuclear safety and whether the east coast is prepared if another big one hits. wolf blitzer s off today. i m joe johns. you re in the situation room. hurricane irene is bearing town on the bahamas with winds of up to 120 miles an hour right now, and the national weather service warns this category 3 monster could be upgraded, upgraded to a category 4 tomorrow. that means irene could be capable of catastrophic damage when it slams the east coast in the days ahead. the storm has been pounding the turks and caicos and other islands and gaining strength along the way. there are reports of damage but so far no serious injuries. we do have a view from space that gives you an idea of just how big the storm is. it
i m nina dos santos. good afternoon from cnn hong kong. i m andrew streechbs. you re watching cnn s coverage of the battle for libya s future. opposition leaders claim rebel forces now control 90% of libya. they also say think ooer planning to move some of their power base today from the eastern city of benghazi to the capital tripoli. meantime, the last vestiges of moammar gadhafi s power base appear to be crumbling. after hours of fighting, rebels finally over ran his heavily fortified compound on tuesday, carting out weapons, knocking over statues and raising their flag. there s no sign of colonel gadhafi at the compound nor anywhere else. but libya reportedly heard from its embattled leader in an audio broadcast directed to his supporters. his exact whereabouts remain unknown. residents turned out on tuesday to celebrate the rebel takeover of the gadhafi compound. the gadhafi loyalists still control libya s rixist hotel. they re preventing people from leaving it, incl
the only thing right now is there is not a lot of time. they want a cease fire. it doesn t seem to be holding. that could speed up the process if gadhafi does not stop his attack. and i think it s fair to say, gloria, based on everything i m hearing, they don t expect gadhafi to say, you know what, it s over. i see the handwriting on the wall. i m leaving. they think he ll fight. will his military leave with him, or will all of these actions convince the top military branch, those killing libyans right now, you better stop or you re going down, too? and if you talk to people at the white house, they say take a look at what s happened over the last five weeks. they started out by trying to isolate gadhafi, to try to say, okay, we re going to freeze finances. people are going to be held accountable in the international court if you support gadhafi.
fuel and workers to get the americans out. neil: are there difficulties because qaddafi has targeted americans, yesterday saying american military planes were killing libyans, and does it make machines more of a target? guest: we have not seen that yet. probably for a good reason that most americans that have been working in libya know to keep a very low profile which was different than the folks in egypt. but, so far we have not seen the personal targeting of americans that we have been charged to try to get out of the country. neil: a lot of people are grateful for your work, charlie. now, saudi arabia. you heard me right. new reports already suggesting that the oil rich nation could be next. there is a facebook campaign calling for a day of rage across
dictators has promised to set everything on fire. so, i want to focus if i could on no-fly zone. what that means is, we want to prevent qadhafi from using his helicopters and airplanes from killing libyans. i think we can do it. i think we should do it. if the united states policy is articulated by the president today and the secretary of state that qadhafi must go. it seems to me that we should prevent and take steps to prevent from qadhafi from being able to continue to kill people from the air. greta: what he said today among other things with the press conference he says going forward we will continue to send a clear message the violence must stop. qadhafi has lost legitimacy to lead and he must leave. where did he get this legitimacy to leave? he took over in 1969 in a