>> reporter: randy jakes has a very strong opinion about the likelihood of criminals on board. >> every single cruise that leaves the port of miami, port ever glades, port ka nafrl, here any state of florida, has a minimum of one perpetrator whether it be passenger or crew on board its vessel each week. >> reporter: jacques is a former ships security officer. he now investigates on-board crimes for victims and lawyers who may want to file civil lawsuits. he says there is no doubt cruise ships have become magnets for predators who feel safe at sea, far from police jurisdictions. given the nature of cruises with lots of alcohol, parents who leave children unattended, the predator passengers and, yes, predator crew members, he says, feel they can get away with almost anything. >> yes, this is true, the -- there are a considerable amount of male perpetrators out there that are passengers and crew that get on board these vessels with the -- only one thing in mind, and that is to accost as many female passengers as they can. whether by getting them overly intoxicated or by using date rain drugs. >> reporter: they're rapists? >> yes, they're rapists. >> reporter: according to jacques, crew members are often complicit, even using on-board computers to spot their prey. you know this. >> yes, i know this for a fact. >> reporter: hard to believe? we thought so too. till we met laura haynes who worked for 17 years as an agent with customs and border protection. her main job, she says, was dealing with passengers and staff on cruise ships. and she shares the same opinion and concerns. so your estimate of ships that go out to sea, loaded with passengers, that may have at least one predator on board -- >> yes. >> reporter: is? >> 85%. >> reporter: you heard right, 85%. crimes are rarely reported. and in many instances, even if caught, crew members could still end up on another ship. >> and the cruise lines say that doesn't happen and i know for a fact it does because i've seen it. >> reporter: the cruise line international association disputes her assertion. in an e-mail to cnn, a spokesman told us it is disconcerting that this individual would irresponsibly offer such inflammatory and unfounded accusations. the safety of passengers and crew are the cruise industry's number one priority and no one is served when broad and alarming statements are made that have no basis in fact. the cruise industry points to a law passed by congress as recently as 2010 that, for the first time, called for the public reporting of all crimes on board american cruise ships at sea. and cites only a handful of the millions of passengers were the victims any kind of crime. critics say that's because most crimes aren't even reported. and even fewer, especially sexual assaults, says randy, are ever solved. >> the criminals know this. the passengers -- the passengers that are criminals know this. the crew members that are criminals know this. >> reporter: and now this teenager knows this too. when she finally reported her crime to the fbi, two months after the event took place, an fbi agent in riverside, california, took the report, found her story to be credible, and forwarded the information to police in australia and new zealand in an attempt, he wrote in this report, to identify a possible child predator on board a royal caribbean cruise liner. the girl's family sued the cruise line, which settled the case. but the family says it never heard from police in australia or new zealand. >> we had no one to contact over there that was getting our report. it was just sent over there and then it kind of disappeared. >> reporter: in a statement, royal caribbean says once it was informed of the assault, it notified the fbi, new zealand authorities and interpol. it also said it provided the fbi with 50 to 60 pictures of crew members but, quote, unfortunately, the guest was unable to identify the crew member in question. royal caribbean insisted it continuously supported law enforcement during the investigation of this incident. additionally, the cruise line says its security personnel have been trained by the fbi and use fbi procedures. it's been more than two years. there has been no arrest. in effect, the person who assaulted you did get away. >> yeah. >> reporter: and could very well be floating around somewhere. >> yes. >> drew, i find this report amazing. where are the police in all of this? >> these cruise ships are floating cities. everything both good and bad goes on in a small city can happen at sea. outside the 12 mile limit it's the fbi that has the official jurisdiction. of course the fbi isn't on board. so the answer is there are no cops to call. which is why this former on-board ship security officer tells us so hard to retain evidence and investigate any crime on board a cruise ship. >> the industry says it's extremely rare. it is a tiny fraction who run into problems like this. >> and with the records they have, that is true. but we don't know what is and is not reported. we don't know if what is reported to a cabin boy, a bartender or somebody else on that ship eventually goes into the data file of the criminal records. it's -- the experts tell us, look, we're not trying to frighten anybody, but think of it this way. if you went to the mall with 4,000 people or took your family to a huge hotel with an amusement park, what kind of safety efforts would you take? a lot of that breaks down on these cruises. and that is what makes predators so tempted to get on these ships, along with all these other people who let their guard down, have a party atmosphere and know that in many cases they can get away with it. >> yeah. it's really a shocking report, drew, appreciate it. let us know what you think. we're on facebook. follow me on twitter. a lot of people are talking about president obama's new push for tax cuts for most americans. some, though, are calling it a political ploy. others, though, say he's just trying to keep a promise he made during his first campaign. join us next. energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy development comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing generations of cleaner-burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self-contained well systems. and, using state-of-the-art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe and clean for our communities and the environment. we're america's natural gas. i have to know the weather patterns. i upgraded to the new sprint direct connect. so i can get three times the coverage. 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[ chirp ] presidential elections happen every four years but deja vu is forever. he's seeking to extend the bush era tax cuts. >> i'm not proposing anything radical. i just believe anyone making over $250,000 a year should go back to the income tax rates we were paying under bill clinton. back when our economy created nearly 23 million new jobs. the biggest budget surplus in history. and plenty of millionaires to boot. >> now, if it sounds familiar to you it should. here's senator obama four years ago on the campaign trail. >> i can make a firm pledge under my plan no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes. >> well that promise to end the bush tax cuts except for higher earners helped sweep him into office. he could not fulfill it despite democrats control both the house and the senate. republicans oppose letting any of the cuts expire. the process dragged on, as you know. then the 2010 election came along. the tea party election. republicans took over the house. president obama settled for passing a two-year extension to all the tax cuts during the lame duck session. in exchange, he got additional jobless benefits and payroll tax cuts. but now that two-year extension is nearly up. republicans are calling any tax increases economic poison and politically motivated. mitt romney made no appearances today. his spokeswoman did say this. quote, president obama's response to even more bad economic news is a massive tax increase. it just proves again that the president doesn't have a clue how to get americans working again and help the middle class it the president's latest bad idea is to raise taxes on families, job creators and small businesses. keep them honest. a lot of policy wonks are fighting over all that. the bottom line, just like last time, this may not be settled till after the election. till then for both sides it's a campaign issue. the question is who exactly benefits. raw politics now with democratic strategist and obama 2012 pollster cornell belcher. also bay buchanan. her new book out about raising boys as a single mom. the president is just trying to call them on the carpet, diverting attention from friday's poor job report. >> i think they are wrong. the president is doing something what the vast majority of americans want to do. the national journal poll had two-thirds of americans wanting to extend the bush tax breaks only for those under $250,000. >> by a lot of account, this proposal stands virtually no chance of passing congress. some democrats may even vote against it. if that's the case, if it's about politics or not, why push it now? >> well, i think it does set up a nice contrast. i'm not going to sit here in washington as a political consultant and say politics doesn't play into what happens here in washington. it does set up a nice contrast. the contrast, you know, obama sort of fighting for the 98% of americans who would benefit from this tax cut. and the poivot is why do republicans continue to hold the 98%, hold the middle class hostage to the wealthiest 1% or 2%? particularly when two-thirds of americans want this extended only for those making under $250,000 a year. >> bay, what about it? cornell just said it. you look at these polls. most americans do support letting tax cuts expire on the wealthiest americans. why not make that deal as a republican? >> the key is, it is increasing taxes on a million, about 1 million small businesses. that's the engine that drives the economy. that's who creates jobs in this country, is small businesses. the president himself said a little over a year ago -- or this was even a little bit further back. he made it very clear that you never raise taxes on businesses in a recession. because it's harmful to the economy. >> bay, over the weekend, democrats turned up the volume of their attacks over romney's tenure. "the washington post" said he was a major outsourcer of jobs. factcheck.org found evidence that was not true. the campaign is saying surrogates like yourself would start shying away from the word "lie" in tv attacks. are you, in fact, prepared to call the president a liar? >> i find it an outrage that you have a president of the united states who's been there 3 1/2 years. 8%, over 8%, unemployment, for 41 straight months. and what's he doing? what's he running on? is he's trying to destroy the reputation of a good and decent american who just happens to have a different plan for america than he does. that's all. and so his attack on bain is unjust -- >> isn't that what politics has become? >> if you look -- if you had noted, romney campaign, we're focused on the economy, on this man's record, on decisions he's made about policy, regulatory, fiscal. whatever it be. we take him on his positions and on his record. what's he call on us? he's making stuff up, anderson. he's sending out enu endos and suggestions that's something wrong with romney's reputation. his reputation is stellar. so is bain. bain is the most respected private equity firm in the country. >> i don't think factory workers who lost their job think bain's reputation is stellar. they have leaveraged companies. they've walked away even with those companies going bankrupt, they've walked away with a lot money. >> what about the outsourcing report? factchecker.org says it's basically false. >> i think when you look at sort of some of the companies he invested in were at the very vanguard of outsourcing. now, that's a fact. i mean, so we can't remove that from the fact. again, we shouldn't be surprised that, quite frankly, mitt romney's, some of the companies he's involved with at v ed witd outsourcing. this is a guy who has companies in bermuda. the outsourcing thing shouldn't be a surprise to any of us. >> it shows the lack of understanding of the business world by cornell and by the president and his friends. there are no foreign accounts. what he has is foreign investments. just as if you owned some stock in toyota, you would have a foreign investment. these are not accounts. and the governor has paid every dime. as if these investments were u.s. investments. he's paid every single dime. so -- and he doesn't have a swiss account. that's been closed for years. so, you know, let's get to the truth of the matter. mitt romney has invested wisely. he was a terrific businessman. he's done well. and he has paid every bit of his taxes. there is a man who's living by the law. that is it. and you should not ever suggest otherwise. >> all right, we got to leave there. cornell belcher, appreciate it. bay buchanan, thank you very much. some of what bay and cornell were debating out of romney's personal finances led us out of fairness to reach out to the romney campaign. governor romney's assets are managed on a blind basis, so a trustee, not governor romney, makes investment decisions. furthermore, the trustee does not decide where funds he invests in are domiciled. the sponsors of the funds do. it's the same tax result. the difference is like if they choose to write the document in times new roman or ariel. mitt romney has paid every dime of taxes he owes. tonight, sanjay gupta reports on a desperate race right now to solve a deadly medical mystery. dozens of kids have already died. doctors don't know what is killing these little children. his report ahead. there are a lot of warning lights and sounds vying for your attention. so we invented a warning you can feel. introducing the all-new cadillac xts. available with a patented safety alert seat. when there's danger you might not see, you're warned by a pulse in the seat. it's technology you won't find in a mercedes e-class. the all-new cadillac xts has arrived, and it's bringing the future forward. those little things for you, life's about her. but your erectile dysfunction - 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