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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

More Airstrikes in Libya; U.S. Weighing Options in Libya; New Leadership in Libya; Break in Civil Rights Era Cold Case

Aired March 03, 2011 - 23:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Good evening, everyone.

Tonight, President Obama says it is time for Moammar Gadhafi to go. The U.S. military has now joined efforts to evacuate refugees from the overcrowded border with Tunisia.

But Gadhafi is hanging on, using the same weapons he has for the last four decades: terror and lies.

For his own people, terror -- new reports of kidnappings in Tripoli; people suspected of taking part in demonstrations or talking to the media, taken from their homes, disappeared.

As for the other weapon: lies. As always, we're "Keeping Them Honest". Today Libyan authorities showed off what they say was a massive shipment of pills they intercepted. They say al Qaeda was trying to smuggle in 37 million pain killers to alter the minds of young people so they would join the fight against Gadhafi.

Remember, this has been Gadhafi's claim from the beginning, the most bizarre perhaps of all his claims. I asked a top government Gadhafi spokesman about that claim on the program last night. And as you'll notice, he's clearly not interested in answering specific questions about this pill-popping theory.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: The claim I find hardest to understand is this claim that Libya's youth are being given hallucinatory pills and then brainwashed to attack. Again, Gadhafi said it was Americans doing this first, now he says its bin Laden. What drugs are being used, specifically what hallucinatory pills?

MUSA IBRAHIM, LIBYAN GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN: Actually, the leader did not specifically accuse the United States of America. He really said that al Qaeda are very highly trained individuals, who now look more secular than the dwellers of the caves in Afghanistan. They were trainers in jeans --

(CROSS TALK)

COOPER: I'm asking you what pills, what hallucinatory pills? IBRAHIM: And they're trying to -- this young people to join them against -- we did -- we did indeed capture young people using these pills --

(CROSS TALK)

COOPER: What -- what pills? No, I'm asking. I mean, meth -- are you talking about methamphetamine? Are you talking about ecstasy? Are you talking about LSD? Are you talking -- what are you talking about?

IBRAHIM: We --

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, he couldn't answer that question last night.

Now today, suddenly a few hours after that interview, the big drug bust by Libyan authorities and the drug they claim as being used is Tramadol. The problem is Tramadol is not a -- a hallucinogenic drug. It's a moderate to severe painkiller used in hospitals.

The two most common side effects, by the way, are drowsiness and constipation. If this is what the Libyan government was hoping would make its case, they need to find a new prescription.

Last night, when I continued to press Gadhafi's spokesman on what drugs his boss was talking about, here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IBRAHIM: I'm not an expert. We are really now dealing with -- with the matter from all sides. Let me just --

(CROSS TALK)

COOPER: But no -- but wait, sir, let me -- let me just go on. I -- I've got to ask this, because you are basing your entire argument, your leader is basing the entire -- his entire explanation, he says this every time on these -- these hallucinatory pills. You're -- you're -- it seems to defy logic.

You're saying that a small band of terrorists have been able to manufacture, import, distribute large quantities -- huge quantities of hallucinatory pills across vast areas, hundreds of miles apart to various cities, and then have been able to continually drug tens of thousands of Libyan young people so that they will fight? Does that make any sense to you at all?

IBRAHIM: No, this is not the story. Anderson, this is -- this is not the story we are putting forward. This is one element of the story.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: All right. So he's saying it's just one element. He went on to say that I was sensationalizing things, focusing on one minor point his leader had mentioned as part of a much larger explanation. The truth, however, is that completely unproved theory of Gadhafi's is the one he and his son put forward all the time. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MOAMMAR GADHAFI, LIBYAN LEADER (through translator): Kids, 16 or 17 years old, they give them pills at night. They put hallucinatory pills in their drinks, their milk, their coffee, their Nescafe, and then they tell them after they have taken the pills, and say come on, go attack.

SEIF GADHAFI, MOAMMAR GADHAFI'S SON (through translator): There were many units that we have uncovered, Libyans, Arabs, using drugs.

M. GADHAFI: These people have been drugged, children who have been drugged.

S. GADHAFI: Some of them were on drugs.

M. GADHAFI: They are on hallucinogenic drugs.

They are giving them those pills.

There are given pills, take the pills.

Those pills. The pills. Those hallucination pills.

Those who offer pills to your children, arrest them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Those are just some of the mentions of these pills. What makes Gadhafi's al Qaeda pill popping theory even harder to understand and even more impossible to believe is that it contradicts the other central argument he and his government spokesman and his son make, that Gadhafi has made Libya a bastion against al Qaeda.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IBRAHIM: Libya is the only country free of al Qaeda in the region.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: All right. Well, if that's true, then, how can you claim that al Qaeda has been smuggling in all these pills, distributing them, infiltrating all these coffee shops and continually drugging all these people? How can you claim that if you believe this Gadhafi spokesman?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IBRAHIM: Libya is the only country free of al Qaeda in the region. (END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: So to sum up, Gadhafi and his son and his spokesman want you to believe that al Qaeda, which does not exist in Libya, is maintaining a major drug smuggling operation and at the same time recruiting and running a massive army of unknowing stoned kids who are killing troops and policemen while rampaging and tripping on pills that don't actually make you trip or rampage.

If that's not a logic-defying lie, I don't know what is. The Libyan leader and his spokesman also continue to claim the government doesn't target civilians. Pictures show otherwise. This is video from last Friday in Tripoli, people leaving a mosque unarmed heading to join other protesters and being fired upon.

Another video: protesters in a funeral march, being fired upon.

And here is an air strike yesterday in the desert outside of Brega, the only target within miles, about 250 people, armed volunteers, Libyans heading to Brega to defend it from attack.

Our own Ben Wedeman was with them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We are outside the town of Brega where this ongoing battle is happening. And we watched this Libyan air -- air force plane flew overhead.

Now I can tell you exactly what the target was, it was us. It was us and the people all around us, which was -- I would say about 250 individuals, most of them volunteer fighters getting ready to move ahead forward into Brega to engage the Libyan forces.

So I guess, yes, we were the target, nothing else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Again, some of the people armed and belong to anti- government forces. The government claims they are al Qaeda operatives and that they're only targeting ammunition dumps. There were no ammunition dumps where that bomb fell, only people.

And Ben Wedeman says there may have been hard core Islamists in the mix in Benghazi, but the vast majority are Libyan civilians, untrained and poorly equipped.

A bit later in the program we're going to hear from a Libyan doctor in another town held by anti-Gadhafi Libyans, a doctor who has seen dozens of dead and wounded and says there are -- they are just young people who want freedom.

First, I want to get the latest from our Nic Robertson in Tripoli and also with him is Marie Colvin of "The Sunday Times" in London.

Nic, tomorrow or a few hours from now in -- in Tripoli is going to be Friday prayers. And after that last Friday we saw what happened. People were called to come out and protest after Friday prayers. They did that, shots were fired and people were killed. And we've seen multiple videos of that.

Is there an anticipation that people will actually come out on the streets in a few hours and protest?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I talked to a man earlier this week who said he's been involved in some of the Gadhafi protests here and he said this Friday, today, they planned more -- they planned to gather in the mosque after the noontime prayers and this will be the safest way, he said, that they can protest.

He said he hoped there would be women there as well, because he believed that the government wouldn't shoot on women.

But this -- he said now it's become the only way for them to voice their grievances with the government, because if they go out on the streets they'll get run off the streets.

So I -- I think we can -- perhaps similar scenes that we've seen in Tripoli tonight, a real tightening of security around the city; heavy armor, ringing the city on the (INAUDIBLE) soldiers with bayonets on their weapons. The government is bracing itself for whatever may come -- Anderson.

COOPER: Marie, I spoke with someone from the Libyan opposition earlier and I asked him what he expected from -- from -- from any protest tomorrow. I just want to play that for our viewers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was in the protest of the 20th and 21st. And we went to the Green Square, which we called Mortar Square and we were attacked by Gadhafi's battalions with live ammunition. They killed people. I spent, with some people, including my sons the night, in hiding in the old town of Tripoli. And the viciousness the Gadhafi regime is using against unarmed people would scare anybody.

I think in some areas people will go out, maybe they're not going to go to the Green Square. But they will go out and it's not going to stop. People lost their sons. So many people were killed and blood brings blood.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Blood brings blood.

Marie, do you think tomorrow is going to be a big test or a few hours is going to be a big test?

MARIE COLVIN, FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT, "THE SUNDAY TIMES": I think a big test in several ways. When I spoke to Gadhafi earlier this week, a bit like what you were saying about the drug-addled youth, he said there was no army in Libya and there have been no protesters. Well, we know there are both.

People are much more frightened this time, because Gadhafi's army or security forces, they are opening fire on protesters. The protesters from last week who I spoke to are scared. They are going to gather in the mosques. They are probably going to try to march on Green Square, but there could be an overwhelming show of force, because Gadhafi knows they're going to try to do this, as well.

COOPER: Marie, I was just talking to Fouad Ajami before I went on air. He said he felt that in listening to Gadhafi's speech yesterday, that Gadhafi seemed different in a way. I've heard you say he seemed more focused to you yesterday. And you've talked to him a lot over the years.

COLVIN: Well, it's hard to -- I mean, when you listen to Gadhafi, it's -- it's -- it's hard to say he's focused at all. But he has his own coherency within his own mental universe. He spoke to the points he would make both to Libyans and to the international world. The Libyan streets, Tripoli streets are empty. People are home listening to him on television.

And they -- they could hear that this man plans to stay -- so I started hearing the wall of fear has descended yet on Tripoli. People who were speaking openly to me a week ago have now stopped speaking.

I mean, I think the way that Gadhafi ended his speech put a chill through everyone. He started addressing the leaders of the world. He said, you will be serving Europe as president and you will retire and I will still be leader of the revolution. He means to try to scare.

COOPER: Nic, I -- I -- I've talked to somebody today who was talking about people disappearing, people being taken from their homes and -- and -- and actually security forces there looking for people who they had videotaped at last Friday's prayers. Have -- have you heard those reports, have -- have you been able to confirm any of that?

ROBERTSON: No, we don't have any specific confirmation of that. Just anecdotal information and from the gentleman who told me about the -- the protest plans for today, and a couple of others I talked to on the streets that approached us, because they know we're international journalists. And they really hope we can get their story out and their message out.

And -- in some ways they feel emboldened by the fact that we're here and we're doing that. They've been very, very afraid to -- to speak to us, because they're aware there are often government officials close to us they are aware who are watching us and we're talking to. I'm in communication by the phone and other means here with -- with some other people who share those views. They've pretty much closed down on me, too.

So -- so the fear is real, and it's palpable. I mean, I felt painful and sorry at one I was talking to on the street, because I could see in his eyes that he was shaking and I -- and I could tell that he wanted to say these things. And I almost felt that I shouldn't be standing there, talking to them and listening I thought no, it's my duty and he wants to do it, he wants to get this message out.

So it's a very, very real fear.

COOPER: Marie Colvin and Nic Robertson; thank you both and stay safe. Be careful.

Let us know what you think on Facebook or follow me on Twitter right now @Anderson Cooper. Well, I'll be twitting, I'll be actually live tweeting throughout this hour during commercial breaks.

Up next, President Obama weighs in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Colonel Gadhafi needs to step down from power and leave. That is good for his country. It is good for his people. It's the right thing to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Right thing to do, but what are his options if Gadhafi clings to power? A panel joins us, including a former U.S. Ambassador with deep experience in the Arab world and Professor Fouad Ajami.

And later, who is the Libyan opposition and what do they want? They're starting to organize. Tonight, a possible leader is surfacing, the latest on that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, after days of seeming to say as little as possible about the crisis, and letting his secretaries of state and defense take the lead, President Obama today laid down his bottom line.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Colonel Gadhafi needs to step down from power and leave. That is good for his country. It is good for his people. It's the right thing to do.

Those around him have to understand that violence that they perpetrate against innocent civilians will be monitored and they will be held accountable for it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: The President also authorized airlifts to transport Egyptian refugees trying to flee Libya and said he wants to make sure America has full capacity to act if needed to head off a humanitarian crisis.

Some critics would say the crisis is already here. Supporters say the President has very few good options where Libya is concerned. Let's talk about it with foreign affairs correspondent Jill Dougherty; Christopher Hill, former U.S. ambassador to Iraq and currently dean of the School of International Studies at the University of Denver; and Professor Fouad Ajami of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the Hoover Institution.

Jill, the administration insisting all options are on the table. Clearly, though, from what Gates has said -- Secretary Gates, and Hillary Clinton have said, there doesn't seem to be any appetite right now for implementing a no-fly zone.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yes and so that raising the issue, what -- what is the effect of this kind of limbo of not using it yet and maybe never, who knows?

I mean, on the one hand, it could give Moammar Gadhafi the idea that he has basically carte blanche within the borders of his country to do whatever he wants.

Now, it -- it could also -- let's say he carries out repressions from the air. That could certainly turn people against him within his country.

But then it also could undermine the belief that those people have that the West and outside intervention could ever come, that they would -- that the West, in other words, would follow through.

COOPER: Yes.

DOUGHERTY: So it's a problem.

COOPER: Fouad, what do you make of Secretary Gates and -- and Clinton?

FOUAD AJAMI, PROFESSOR OF MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES, JOHNS HOPKINS SCHOOL OF ADVANCED INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Well, look, Secretary Gates is playing the Scrooge in the story, if you will.

What's he's saying -- in fact, he doesn't even name Libya as a country. He says a third country. He's talking about the wars in Afghanistan and the war -- and the war in Iraq. Now, we know that Secretary Gates opposed both wars.

So, the message he's putting out is that look, this is a very difficult operation. It would -- I think I'm using his words directly -- this would be a big operation in a big country.

(CROSS TALK)

COOPER: Right. He said it's not just instituting a no-fly zone. It's, you have to take out anti-aircraft batteries on the ground.

AJAMI: That's right. And he has insisted and he has also put the word through General Mattis, the head of CENTCOM, that this is a war, if you will. If you want to enforce a no-fly zone, you are engaged in a war. So the -- the stakes have escalated. And then you have Secretary Clinton, who is pouring cold water on these poor people in Benghazi. She says -- and I think I have her words -- she said, there's a lot of uncertainty about the motives and opportunism of people who claim to be leaders right now.

If people are fighting for their freedom and you're second- guessing them and you are calling them opportunists, that's not exactly the right message to send.

COOPER: Ambassador Hill, what do you make of the message that is being sent?

CHRISTOPHER HILL, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ: Well, first of all, I think it was very significant that the President got up and said very clearly that Gadhafi is well past his shelf life and has got to go. So I think the U.S. has a very clear policy that we want to see the guy gone.

Now, the second question is, how do you do it? And of course a lot of people want to see him move into a no-fly zone, but I think the President has appropriately, first of all, laid out the policy, we want him gone; secondly is working on humanitarian issues.

And, thirdly -- and I suspect there's an awful a lot of this going on right now, is -- is a diplomatic strategy to work with allies, to work with the Russians, to work with other stakeholders in this and see what can be done to -- to get that policy implemented, that is, get the guy gone.

COOPER: Fouad?

AJAMI: I don't know what Ambassador Hill, who is an accomplished diplomat, means by stakeholders. I mean, we are going to work with the Russians?

The Russians have said a no-fly zone is superfluous; they are not really ready to commit to us. You have even some of -- you have a key country like Turkey in the neighborhood that's dubious about any intervention against Moammar Gadhafi.

I think his -- the Ambassador is right. The President is testing the waters and he's going to respond. And I think the response of the President is going to be related to the catastrophe that would unfold in Benghazi. If this thing gets worse on the ground for the Libyans, I think then the President may have to do things he really didn't want to do all along.

COOPER: What about that, Ambassador Hill? I mean, if -- if Gadhafi starts using the air force more aggressively against those forces on the road outside Benghazi or even in Benghazi, or goes to wipe out the -- the forces who are badly armed, does that change the dynamic for the administration?

HILL: Well, I suspect it could. And I mean one of the big questions you have to look at is, is this a long-term scenario? Is this something that's going to go on and on months, years? So, that's one kind of response. You've got to look at whether Gadhafi has somehow stabilized himself.

Or is this a kind of a short-term thing; that if we kind of press the thing that somehow Gadhafi can -- can be pushed over?

I think it's very important, though, for the administration to work with countries like Russia. After all, the administration does not want to take actions without -- actions that are not supported in a U.N. Security Council resolution. So obviously they've got to do some work with the Russians.

Now, at the end of the day, they may not bring them along. But, at -- at a certain point, no one can argue that the administration hasn't tried to work this diplomatically.

So I think it's very important to lay out this diplomatic track and I think that's what the President started today.

COOPER: And -- and Jill, besides I guess the no-fly zone, are -- are -- are there other viable options for the administration as far as they see?

DOUGHERTY: Well, it depends on how you define viable. But one of course would be to arm the rebels, arm the opposition. You could also give them anti-aircraft capability.

You know, Anderson, we're back to that same issue, which is Gates and Clinton still say it's unclear who the opposition are, what are their aims, and what are their -- what's their competency.

So that -- that I think is the essential thing. They don't know totally what the rebels really want. Or at least they say they don't.

(CROSS TALK)

COOPER: We're -- and we're hearing information that in a few hours, the -- the -- the group in Benghazi that set themselves up may try to make an announcement about kind of organizing to I guess address some of these concerns made by Clinton --

(CROSS TALK)

AJAMI: Well, look, if we don't want to intervene, if we don't want to help them, we will raise the bar.

There is a national council in Benghazi -- 30 prominent Libyans lead it. And we know what they're about, the former justice minister, lawyers, professors, et cetera. To the extent that this country has a professional class, this is the professional class. What do they want? Freedom from this man, freedom from this tyrant.

And the problem with this kind of stalemate is, remember the Stockholm syndrome, the Stockholm syndrome. Gadhafi has been the jailer of these people for a long time. If he suggests to them that no help is on the way, that no cavalry is coming to the rescue, that they are fighting alone, that the Arabs can't help them, and of course the Americans are not coming, and the Europeans are played by Gadhafi to perfection, at some point --

(CROSS TALK)

COOPER: Marie -- Marie Colvin in Tripoli earlier in the program was saying that's how a lot of people in Tripoli were interpreting Gadhafi's message yesterday, that -- that -- that it put a chill through them.

(CROSS TALK)

AJAMI: Absolutely.

We were talking before we got on air. I -- I listened to the speech. I read the speech and listened to it and what -- you could see the message. The message is, "You folks have rebelled and you are alone. It's you and I, the people of Libya." And if we -- if we maintain this, if this holds, I am very, very worried about the prospects of this successful revolt in -- in Libya.

COOPER: Ambassador Hill, do you think -- the experience in Iraq has made any type of intervention tougher to sell?

HILL: Well, I think to be sure, we went into Iraq with very, very dubious understanding of the situation on the ground. And so I think there is some concern about whether refugee reports are entirely accurate in a sort of macro sense, whether any grade type reports are accurate. And I think that does go back to Iraq.

But I think what the President is trying to do, is be little deliberate here, to try to build diplomatic support and see where we can go with this.

And I think it would be highly problematic if he just jumped into something and had all the Europeans opposing him and had the Russians and others opposing him. I don't think that's sustainable, and I'm not sure it would really achieve the -- the objectives.

You know if Gadhafi had spent half as much time caring about his people as he does holding onto power, we wouldn't be in this situation.

(CROSS TALK)

COOPER: Yes.

HILL: But this is someone who is absolutely tenacious in wanting to hold onto power. And so we've got to respect that and figure out how to deal with it. The policy is clear: we want the guy gone.

COOPER: Final thoughts, Fouad?

AJAMI: Well, Lyndon Johnson once said, "Don't tell a man to go to hell unless you intend to send him there." If we want to send Gadhafi to hell, we have to have a coherent strategy, and thus far we really don't.

We're playing for time. I mean, it's understandable. We want to see how this thing unfolds. But I fear that the Libyans are alone. People have not embraced the revolt. They haven't accepted the legitimacy of it and the meaning of it.

Fouad Ajami, Jill Dougherty, Ambassador Christopher Hill; thank you very much, interesting discussion.

Still ahead, inside Mesrata, where opposition forces control much of the city's center but not the outskirts; you're going to hear from a doctor in that town who paints a very different picture than the official one in Libyan is spinning.

Plus, as Jill Dougherty mentioned, who exactly are the Libyans who want Gadhafi to go? Opposition is starting to take some key steps as they organize their ranks. A look at that ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: U.S. military aircraft and French charter jets have joined the effort to evacuate tens of thousands of people trying to get out of Libya, many of them foreign workers.

Here's what Becky Anderson found at the border with Tunisia today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well -- they may have got some food, but as you can see, very few people have got any accommodation. There's been 100,000 people over this border since February 20th. They've got some 20,000 here, and as far as the eye can see. The U.N. has set up tented accommodations further down the road, but these guys really have got very little at this point. And they are still getting, they say, some 10,000 a day coming through.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: All together some 180,000 refugees have crossed into Tunisia and Egypt from Libya. The U.N. is saying the situation is quickly nearing a crisis. Meantime, the bloodshed inside Libya continues tonight.

The city of Mesrata sits on the coast between Tripoli and Sirte, Mohammad (SIC) Gadhafi's hometown. While opposition forces control the center of Mesrata, militias loyal to Gadhafi control parts of the outskirts and are preventing medical supplies from getting in.

Earlier, I talked to a doctor in Mesrata. It's not safe for him to use his name but he wanted to tell us what he was seeing and dealing with.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: How many people have you treated since this began? How many dead have you seen, how many wounded in Mesrata?

UNIDENTIFIED LIBYAN DOCTOR: Really in our city Mesrata, we treated more than 300 injured, shooted patients in the head and the chest, and around 40 persons were murdered.

COOPER: The majority of the people you're seeing have been shot in the head and chest?

UNIDENTIFIED LIBYAN DOCTOR: Yes, yes. More than 90 persons were shooted in the head and chest, and the murdered persons shooted in the head and chest, as well; decapitated patients and patients without parts, you know.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: You're saying they were shot with large caliber weapons?

UNIDENTIFIED LIBYAN DOCTOR: Yes.

COOPER: You've also heard that people are being kidnapped in Mesrata.

UNIDENTIFIED LIBYAN DOCTOR: Yes, yes. We heard about kidnapped persons. They are very young persons, even under 18. They kidnapped them just to take them somewhere. They are kidnapping anybody they can.

COOPER: Let me ask you -- Seif Gadhafi, Moammar Gadhafi's son, says that in Mesrata, the problem is that the city is being held hostage by 40 to 50 armed gunmen and that essentially the population of Mesrata, nearly half a million people, are essentially being held hostage by groups like al Qaeda. When you hear that --

UNIDENTIFIED LIBYAN DOCTOR: No, never. These persons, they don't know what is al Qaeda. They are young. They are university students and teachers and they don't know what's al Qaeda. Just they hear about these things from the TV. It's something really silly. Never have we seen anybody with al Qaeda or with anything.

COOPER: So your city is not being held hostage by gunmen?

UNIDENTIFIED LIBYAN DOCTOR: Normal persons, university students, they protest against what's happening in Benghazi. Just they wanted to stop the bloody crime in Benghazi.

COOPER: Let me ask you this, can your city hold on if Gadhafi forces attack in great number; can Mesrata hold on? Can it repel the attack?

UNIDENTIFIED LIBYAN DOCTOR: Yes, we'll try. We are doing now. We are holding our city. We are trying to protect our city, all of them with our resources which we have, and the solidarity of everybody. We are doing our job in the hospital and trying to treat everybody.

This morning, they shoot at our ambulances. One of them exploded and the other one just shooted, and hopefully we can save our personnel. Many time they shoot at our doctors. Even in the first days some patients shooted in the ambulances.

COOPER: One of the claims that Gadhafi and his son keep making is that al Qaeda or groups have handed out hallucinogenic pills.

UNIDENTIFIED LIBYAN DOCTOR: Never.

COOPER: And now today they are claiming that the pills, that they intercepted a shipment and that it's a pill called Tramadol, which is a painkiller. Does that make any sense to you?

UNIDENTIFIED LIBYAN DOCTOR: Something is very silly, you know. It's just a joke between all the persons here.

COOPER: It's a joke?

UNIDENTIFIED LIBYAN DOCTOR: They don't know what's Tramadol. Even Tramadol, it's not available. Never. It's not available to everybody, it's limited. The hospital, even in special hands in the doctors, you know, who specializes in pain management, nobody can -- nobody, they don't know. They are very alert.

COOPER: So you haven't seen any young people being drugged by al Qaeda or by anybody else? Young people on hallucinogenic pills?

UNIDENTIFIED LIBYAN DOCTOR: Never. I can guarantee this not 100 percent -- 1,000 percent. Believe me, never.

COOPER: Doctor, continue your work and stay safe. Thank you for talking with us.

UNIDENTIFIED LIBYAN DOCTOR: Thank you. Thanks indeed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: A doctor in the town of Mesrata.

So who is the opposition in Libya? Forces on the ground say they're willing to die for the cause. They're young, enthusiastic. There's certainly a lack of structure, it seems. That could be changing with the expected announcement of a new national council, including military and political branches.

We'll explain that ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: A lot of people have been asking, just who is the opposition in Libya? And it's a complicated question in a country divided into about 140 tribes, further subdivided into clans. On the ground, in the battle, the opposition is young, enthusiastic. That's what we've seen certainly in Benghazi and Mesrata.

Here's what one man told Ben Wedeman today in Brega.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: "We'll live free, we'll die free. We'll die as martyrs," says Sharif. "We'll fight to the last bullet, to our last drop of blood and God willing, victory will be ours."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: The opposition, the question what a future Libyan government could look like is very much a work in progress. There are some key steps we've heard in the works. We're hearing that the members of a transitional national council could be named as soon as tomorrow representing people from all over Libya.

Joining us live from Benghazi, senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman; and in Washington, joining us again is Fadel al-Ameen, a journalist and Middle East-North Africa expert who has worked for the U.S. State department. He says Gadhafi labeled him an enemy of the state as part of the Libyan opposition years ago and he's written about it for the dailybeast.com where he is a contributor.

Ben, first of all from you, and I know we woke you up early in Benghazi, so I appreciate you've had a long day of reporting already. How -- who is the opposition from what you can see and how organized are they on the ground?

WEDEMAN: Well, actually we're in Az-Dhabi (ph) and no longer in Benghazi, Anderson. The opposition, it depends on where you are. For instance in Benghazi, in the courthouse, which is the nerve center for the opposition, you see an amazing array of people. You see lawyers, judges, human rights activists, businessmen who have all sort of come together to try to organize the new Libya.

But what you're seeing increasingly is also old figures from the old regime, from the Gadhafi regime: the former justice minister, the former interior minister, people from the security services who have defected.

And there's a palpable tension between the people who previously had nothing to do with politics, who just stayed in their careers, in their fields, and these people from the Gadhafi regime. There's some real tensions between them, some real distrust.

In the field, when you're talking to the guys with the guns, the fighters, an odd collection of people; a lot of people who have been in the military before, a lot of Libyans who have come back. I met a man from Norway who has dual citizenship who's joined the fight because he feels it's his duty to come back.

So the opposition is a real hodgepodge of people who -- it's hard to see at this point how they're all going to get along in a single government. But they're certainly making an effort.

COOPER: Fadel, I want to read you what Hillary Clinton said. She said, "I think it's important to recognize that there's a great deal of uncertainty" -- I've started reading on my Blackberry -- "about the motive, the opportunism if you will, of people who are claiming to be leaders right now."

You're hearing from your sources in Libya that tomorrow a transitional national council is going to be named. What does that mean?

FADEL AL-AMEEN, CONTRIBUTOR, THE DAILY BEAST: I think what it means is they already agreed on who should be the head of this transitional -- national transitional council and who's the person who is going to be assisting him. These are two names. We have the Abdil Jalil is the former justice minister, and the second person is (INAUDIBLE) he's the second man.

And tomorrow they try to name some of them, because the total number of this council is around 30 people. Ten of them are from Tripoli. They will not be mentioned because due to -- for their security and safety, because they are in that region. And the rest are from -- seven are from Benghazi, I believe, and the rest are from the other parts of the country.

COOPER: So what about this tension that Ben was talking about between, you know, folks who haven't been involved in the government at all and these people who were very close to Gadhafi for many, many years and seemed fine with whatever he did now all of a sudden switching sides. How does that tension get resolved?

AL-AMEEN: I think they're trying to get along. I think it's very important -- the sources I talk to, the people I talk to, some of them are advising the council, feel that everybody should be included. Everything should be inclusive, because all these figures, regardless if they came late or early, or they started -- all of them they have to find a way to get together to form this council and to form a new representative government that is transitional.

I mean this is a council, it's not a government. But it's a step toward future government in Libya where once it's all liberated. So there is a tension. Some as Ben said, that they just feel that these who came late and they have some blood on their hands. Some are concerned about that.

But the people that you mentioned, including the former justice minister, he's been somebody who is very well respected for a while in Libya.

COOPER: Ben Wedeman, stay safe. Fadel al-Ameen appreciate it. Thank you for joining us.

A lot more happening around the country and the world, including new hope for the family of a retired FBI agent who disappeared in Iran four years ago.

Plus, the miracle puppy who was euthanized, declared dead, came back to life. Incredible details, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: All right. Let's get the latest on some of the other stories we're following. Isha Sesay has a "360 News and Business Bulletin" -- Isha.

ISHA SESAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, the U.S. government says there is new evidence that former FBI agent Robert Levinson is alive and being held in southwest Asia. Levinson disappeared during a business trip to Iran's Kish Island in 2007. A senior diplomatic official said a fresh round of discussions between the U.S. and Iran is underway.

German authorities say the man accused in yesterday's deadly shooting of two American troops in Frankfurt was a recently radicalized Muslim. He was apparently influenced by radical Islamist Web sites. Officials say the 21-year-old suspect claims to have acted alone.

In Wisconsin, police are searching for the owner of dozens of rounds of live ammunition found today outside the state capitol building. Meantime, a judge has ruled that demonstrators may no longer sleep inside the capitol where they've been camping out for three weeks to protest a controversial budget repair bill.

U.S. stocks had their best day in three months, fueled by a strong unemployment claims report and a modest drop in energy prices. The Dow added 191 points.

And Anderson, meet Wally, a.k.a. miracle dog. The miracle is, Wally and his litter mates were left outside an Oklahoma animal shelter where they were euthanized, then put in a dumpster. But as you can see, 3-month-old Wally is obviously a survivor.

COOPER: Wow.

We should just point out in the Wisconsin story we call it a budget repair bill. Certainly the folks who are protesting say this has nothing to do with the budget. They say this is about union busting and trying to destroy collective bargaining rights.

SESAY: Yes, absolutely. Important point to stress.

COOPER: Yes.

Coming up in our series on cold cases, the vicious murder of a wealthy African-American land owner in Arkansas; 57 years later, the murder case is still cold, but there is a new break in the case and what happened to his hundreds of acres of land, which his family tried to reclaim.

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COOPER: Tonight in our series on some of the most notorious cold cases in history, the case of Isadore Banks. Banks, a well-respected African-American land owner was viciously murdered almost 60 years ago in Arkansas. The murder case is still cold but there's a new break in the case of what happened to all his land.

Gary Tuchman reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What happened to Isadore Banks on his last day of life is unspeakable; what's happened to his family since, unbearable. Jim Banks was 11 years old when his father died in 1954.

JIM BANKS, SON OF ISADORE BANKS: It was a nightmare at the time. It was an absolute nightmare.

TUCHMAN (on camera): Isadore Banks was a pillar of the black community. When he was growing up here in Marion, Arkansas the town did not have electricity. But as a young man in the 1920s, he helped bring electricity to the town.

He was one of the wealthiest, if not the wealthiest black land owner in an area with a sinister history of racial tension.

(voice-over): In June of 1954, Banks' picture appeared in a newspaper. But the story that accompanied it was not about his professional successes. He had been reported missing.

(on camera): A few days after Isadore Banks disappeared, his lifeless body was found in this desolate area just outside of town, hanging from a tree. An empty gasoline can was found nearby. The gas had been used to douse his body, burning him beyond recognition. What was done to him was cruel, sadistic, and unpunished. Jim Banks and his mother found out his father was dead when a relative came to their door.

And my mom says, "Where is he?" And my Uncle Norman said, "He's dead." And my mother fainted, she collapsed.

TUCHMAN: The black community was frightened. The local black- owned newspaper, The Tristate Defender" called it a hideous crime, the gruesome work of fiends. Pictures of the victim's body and the murder scene were displayed. There was speculation that the murderers were white, jealous of Isadore Banks' professional success, or perhaps angry by his many extramarital affairs. And that speculation endures.

In over half a century, there has never been a serious suspect. 90-year-old Julian Fogleman's late brother was one of the county prosecutors at the time of the murder.

JULIAN FOGLEMAN, COUNTY PROSECUTORS: I don't recall any discussion with him about it.

TUCHMAN: But Julian Fogleman was aware of the case, too. At the time he was the city attorney in Marion, Arkansas.

(on camera): If this was a white man killed, found burned and on a tree, do you think the police would have worked harder back then to find the perpetrator?

FOGLEMAN: Of course that would be speculation, but I think the tenor of the times, yes, it's possible. TUCHMAN (voice-over): After his death, Isadore Banks' family members tried to take claim of the hundreds of acres of land they say he owned. But authorities declared he owned nothing.

(on camera): What happened to the land?

BANKS: We just don't know. And all records have been destroyed.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): CNN has obtained records from the Arkansas State Land Commission that show Isadore Banks sold a small amount of land before he died. But now nearly six decades after his death, investigators say they have proof he owned land when he died. That's the discovery of a cold case project in Northeastern University's Law School. Jim Banks thinks for all these years authorities have purposely hidden the truth.

(on camera): You believe though there's an active conspiracy to keep the records away from your family?

BANKS: Absolutely. I certainly believe that with all my heart.

(voice-over): This past spring, a ceremony was held in a black cemetery in Marion to honor Isadore Banks' military service during World War I. One of his granddaughters helped organize the memorial after finding Banks' military records.

And now, Marcelina Williams is helping to organize a renewed push to get justice for her grandfather.

MARCELINA WILLIAMS, GRANDDAUGHTER OF ISADORE BANKS: I just don't know how a human being can be so horrible to another human being. I ask you, how would you feel if it was your -- your grandfather?

TUCHMAN: The FBI says it is now aggressively reviewing cold cases from the Civil Rights era, including this one.

STEVE FRAZIER, FBI SPECIAL AGENT, LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS: And as recently as the last couple of weeks, we continue to get leads on people who may have information.

TUCHMAN: Jim Banks' mother passed away in 2008. It broke his heart she never saw justice served. It pains him to think he may not either.

BANKS: I have no doubt in my mind that there are people who are still living who know exactly what happened, absolutely no doubt. I just don't think they'll ever tell. They'll take it to their graves with them.

TUCHMAN: Gary Tuchman, CNN, Marion, Arkansas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Hey, that's it for 360. Thanks for watching.

Piers Morgan starts now.