this case are no longer able to speak publicly about any of this. the information we ve been getting is going to slow to more of a trickle as the hearings go on. people here got a bit of a surprise when christian bale, the actor who plays batman showed up here. it was a surprise to just about everybody. he visited patients in the hospital at the bedside. after that he came to this make shift memorial here and joined a prayer circle and prayed with people. it was all unannounced, they had no cameras with him and didn t want media coverage. our affiliate happened to be there and caught him. and it exploded on twitter and facebook, people pretty excited he took the time to come and visit. i ll bet that helped folks trying to recoup rate in the hospital. thanks, jim. the rest of the day s top stories, let s get right to christine romans. good morning. good morning, soledad, syrian forces stepping up attacks to regain control of aleppo, targeting rebel strong holds in syria s
the region. these are not far fetched scenarios. two years ago, president assad is believed to have transferred rockets and scud missiles to hezbollah in lebanon. shep: all this talk of a government collapse. do we know anything about these rebels? do we have some sort of diplomatic channels with them or relations or anything? we do. a state department official said today that u.s. diplomats are engaged in, quote, intense and ongoing dialogue with the syrian opposition. top rebel commander told reporters today that the revolution was an orphan where the west is concerned. so the spokesman here reminded the rebels that the millions of dollars in communication equipment and other nonlethal aid that washington has provided them. the ranking democrat on the house armed services committee today rejected suggestions from republican lawmakers that president obama should have done more. there are no great option in syria. what could we do at this point? there are many different faction
korea plans to launch a long-range rocket. why tensions are soaring ahead of a world nuclear summit. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. captions by vitac www.vitac.com on this, the eve of a key gop primary in louisiana, rick santorum is charging hard. polls show him as a double digit favorite there, but santorum is also on the defensive today. he s taking a lot of heat from his rivals for hinting that reelecting barack obama might might be preferable to electing mitt romney. listen to this. you win by giving people a choice. you win by giving people the opportunity to see a different vision for our country, not someone who is just going to be a little different than the person in there. if they re going to be a little different we might as well stay with what we have instead of taking a risk of what may be an etch a sketch candidate for the future. strong words. let s go live to our senior correspondent joe johns. he s in louisiana. joe, i take it s
out of here with as many if not more delegates than governor romney has. that is a huge, huge unde undertaking. we can go into ohio, we ll do extremely well there. we re doing battle. we ll be there a couple of times this week. we ll be in tennessee, oklahoma, washington state and georgia, we re going to compete and do exceptional lee well on super tuesday. we ll show that we are the alternative if you want a conservative that will go up against barack obama, rick santorum is that guy and we can stand up to it, we can take the beating that the media and governor romney can give, give their best, and we can keep on ticking and keep sticking to our message of creating jobs and opportunity in america. martha: all right. we know you ve got a busy scud today. you re headed to tennessee today. we look forward to talking to you throughout the process. as we head towards super tuesday we hope you join us again. thank you senator santorum. thank you, martha. bill: so kick the buckeye state
north korea tonight. some of them bizarre, others terrifying. if you want to see what sets the kingdom apart from the rest of our socially networked planet, consider this, king jong eel died two days ago. that s how tightly controlled the media is. when word did arrive the dear leader was dead, his brainwashed followers mourned him like the god they ve been told he was. the grieving is intense for a leader they were told walked at three months of age, talked at two weeks. those who are not overcome were simply dumbstruck on receiving the news. like this gathering for example. they, like most north koreans, not likely aware their fallen ruler scarfed lobster and swilled fine cognac while an estimated million ordinary koreans starved to death during the famine his economic policies created. the mourners who made their way by the massive statue of king il sung did not know how isolated the north korea he created and his son ran for 17 years actually is. when kim il sung died,