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No-Fly Zone Approved for Libya; Japan's Nuclear Crisis Escalating; Nuclear Crisis Continues In Japan; Japanese Families Returning to Homes Devastated By Tsunami; U.S. Officials Attempting to Calm Fears of Radiation Exposure From Japan For Those on the West Coast; Some Witnesses Claim Gadhafi is Not Honoring Ceasefire in Libya

Aired March 18, 2011 - 15:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Libya is on high alert. Rebel fighters appear to be outnumbered and outgunned by Moammar Gadhafi's forces, despite his government's call for a cease-fire. We just heard from President Obama from the East Room of the White House essentially saying that the U.S. will help lead the international enforcement of a no-fly zone over Libya.

But he also took some time there outlining what American forces will not be doing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The United States is not going to deploy ground troops into Libya and we are not going the use force to go beyond a well-defined goal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: In moments here, I will be speaking live with Nic Robertson in Libya and also Wolf Blitzer about who makes the next move here. That's in just a moment.

But we're also learning here -- as we're staying on top of the story out of Japan, we're learning that trace amounts of radiation have just now reached the United States' West Coast, all the way from this Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan. So I will be speaking with the mayor of Los Angeles shortly. And we will find out what the new danger rating is right around Fukushima, where that power plant is still out of control here.

It's been one week to the day after the earthquake and the tsunami hit. In fact, look at this video here; this is some video that was flagged for us, showing some of these new views we're getting from the powerful tsunami, shared by a driver who narrowly escaped when his four wheels left the road and floated away. We will play a whole lot more of that video.

But I want to begin here with Libya. It's been a busy, busy and dangerous 24 hours in Libya. Libyan leaders claimed they're observing a cease-fire today, but witnesses on the ground tell CNN attacks are increasing. And that of course is prompting calls from the United States for Libya to end the violence. Here is the map. Libya's cease-fire announcement came just hours after the United Nations Security Council imposed a no-fly zone over Libya. That essentially clears the way for military action. Countries like France, Britain, Spain are all discussing what options they have if Moammar Gadhafi does not stop these violent attacks.

Also ,a senior diplomatic source tells CNN two Arab nations here, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, will support that international effort against Moammar Gadhafi. World leaders will gather at a U.N. summit in Paris tomorrow -- we just learned this here from President Obama speaking at the White House -- as Libya moves to the front burner of all international affairs.

I want to go straight to the ground in Libya to CNN's Nic Robertson in the capital city of Tripoli.

And, Nic, I know we're talking -- you're in Tripoli, but about 120 miles from you is the town of Misrata and we have at CNN are hearing these reports of violence, that Misrata is on fire. What are you hearing?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We're hearing that up to 26 people have been killed, among them children, in some violent shelling according to a doctor and an opposition person inside Misrata. This is a city that is just 120 miles away.

This would take us two to three hours' drive down the coastal highway here. It's not far. It's not hard to get to. The government here, though, despite saying it sanctioned a cease-fire and an immediate cessation of military action, hasn't provided transportation for us to go there, hasn't tried to show the international community how it is abiding by the cease-fire that it is talking about, which tends to sort of give the impression that the government is perhaps not as committed as it wants the international community to think that it is.

That would be a track record that many people would recognize with Libya, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Nic, I know you had a pretty interesting conversation with Moammar Gadhafi's son Saif last night when he called you. What did he say?

ROBERTSON: Last night, I talked with one of his other sons, Saadi Gadhafi. He told me that the government was going to change its tactics, its military tactics.

And this he said was going to take place around the city of Benghazi, a city that now President Obama has said that the Libyans must pull their troops all the way back from there and back from the neighboring town of Ajdabiya.

So he was laying out a scenario for me on the phone, right as the U.N. Security Council was about to vote. Quite literally, he called me at the 11th hour-plus-plus-plus to lay out this strategy. I don't know if he thought it was going to head off intervention, head off the U.N. resolution.

But it seemed to lay out and meet some of the demands of what the U.N. was saying. The army wouldn't go into Benghazi, they would stay outside and help civilians, something that's been on the top of the U.N. resolution agenda here. Civilians must be protected. That's what he was saying.

So I heard also earlier today that the whole Gadhafi family is together. But the other quote that I heard about this family, the leadership family, is they are in a lot of denial right now. That must be a troubling comment for many world leaders who are looking at the situation right now, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Nic, we have talked the last couple days. You have been -- you had been working with some of the -- or been observing, been filming some of the Gadhafi forces there. So you have really sort of gotten this inside look as to how sophisticated, how organized they are. Are they highly sophisticated?

ROBERTSON: Certainly, the weaponry they have at their disposal is sophisticated weaponry. This is a rich country. Per capita, it is the highest income of any country in Africa.

So they have a lot of money and have spent a lot of money on military hardware. The way that the army was laid out showed not only can they buy some high-technology equipment, but they know how to sort of organize an army in a way that you might see a professional army in Europe or the United States, whereby you have a front line, you have your heavy armaments laid out on the front line, and if you go back from the front line, at the very back, you have your ammunition held a good safe distance back from the front line, dozens upon dozens of trucks full of ammunition, from AK-47s to tanks.

Then you have a space in your convoy; then you have your fuel resupply for all your vehicles, for your tanks, so you can get that fuel to the front line fast, and a space again, and then trucks holding water, trucks holding food. So this was sort of laid out in the battlefield, as you would have expect a professional army -- the difference being discipline and coordination and command-and-control perhaps, not as you would see in a Western army generally, certainly not that kind of ill-disciplined fire.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: OK. OK.

Nic Robertson there in Tripoli. And we will just have to see how then they weigh against perhaps France and the U.K. and Qatar and Spain, et cetera, here as we move forward. Thanks to you, Nic.

I want to bring in Wolf Blitzer, because, Wolf, I know you were watching, and as we all were, hanging on the president's every word here to see what direction he would take with regard to his statement on Libya moments ago. Let's just watch together a portion of what he did have to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: If Gadhafi does not comply with the resolution, the international community will impose consequences, and the resolution will be enforced through military action.

In this effort, the United States is prepared to act as part of an international coalition.

American leadership is essential, but that does mean acting alone. It means shaping the conditions for the international community to act together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Wolf Blitzer, I don't think the president could have been more clear how -- he emphasized the word part. The U.S. will act part of a greater operation. Why is the word part so significant here?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Because he doesn't want the United States to act by itself and this simply being seen as a U.S. military operation.

He wants NATO allies directly involved. But beyond that, he wants countries from the Arab world directly involved. The U.S. would not go forward unless the Arabs themselves, whether Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, some of the other Arab countries that have large air forces, mostly U.S. planes, F-15s and F-16s, for that matter -- unless they're directly involved, he didn't want the United States to be involved, so Gadhafi couldn't use this as simply American imperialism or whatever being directed against the Libyan people.

If the Arabs are directly involved, if European countries, whether France, or Britain, or Italy or Spain are directly involved, that it makes it less of a propaganda scoring point for Gadhafi, if you will. It's really critical.

And the point that he made, he laid out four conditions that Gadhafi has to accept right away, a cease-fire immediately. All attacks must stop. He has to pull back his troops, not only from Benghazi, where the rebels are headquartered right now, but he specifically mentioned several other towns.

Gadhafi has got to leave those areas. He has to allow humanitarian assistance to come in. And then the president said, these are not negotiable, these demands. He has to do this. Otherwise, within a matter of, who knows, it could be hours or days, this effectively will be a military action, some could even describe it as a war that this coalition will engage against Moammar Gadhafi and his troops.

And that helps explain, Brooke, why the president was in his own White House Situation Room within the past few hours briefing top members of the Congress, the chairmen and the ranking members of the various committees. This is -- according to the tradition of the War Powers Act, when the United States goes to war -- and effectively that's what the United States could be doing right now -- you have got to bring Congress in and let the leadership of Congress know what's going on.

It's one of the residues, one of the aftereffects of Vietnam, if you will. So this is deadly serious for the U.S. And the president says there's no decision he makes that's more important than sending young men and women into harm's way, and that's what potentially he's doing right now. Let's not kid ourselves about this.

BALDWIN: Yes. Absolutely. And you mentioned of course meeting with members of Congress in the Situation Room. I will be speaking with Congressman Rogers in a couple of minutes about that meeting before we all saw the president speaking from the East Room of the White House.

But I want to ask you about something that I know you're familiar with having covered the Clinton White House through the '90s here. If Libyans are to be slaughtered, the president has to walk a very, very fine line between being passive and being aggressive. And how, Wolf, does that relate to during the Clinton years and Rwanda and the genocide?

BLITZER: This president does not want to see a slaughter in Libya on his watch, while he's in the Oval Office. Just as President Clinton told all of us, and I traveled with him to Rwanda in 1998, he knew -- they were bringing him reports, intelligence reports into the Oval Office in the mid-'90s saying there's a genocide going on. The Hutus and the Tutsis in Rwanda, hundreds of thousands of people are being macheted, they're being slaughtered right now. What do you want to do about it?

And the president didn't do anything about it. And he said he regrets that. He regretted it deeply. And when he went to Rwanda in 1998, I remember he apologized to the people of Rwanda.

This president and certainly this secretary of state, Hillary Clinton -- I just came back from Egypt and Tunisia last night on a trip with her -- they don't want to be accused in years to come, while you were in power, you could have done something, but you didn't do anything and in the process thousands of people might have been killed.

So I know that moral issue weighs very, very heavily on President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton.

BALDWIN: Right. I know you spent the last couple of days traveling with Secretary Clinton through Northern Africa. And we just learned from the president she will leaving to go to Paris to speak with world leaders. And do you think the message that she will be sending is the fact that the U.S., the U.S., we're leaders, but we're not necessarily doers?

BLITZER: Well, right now, the words are tough. The ultimatum has been imposed. The United Nations Security Council passed a new resolution.

So, the words are tough, but if the U.S. and its partners, the European partners and the Arab world partners, don't follow up with action, then that will advertise international impotence, if you will, and encourage people like Gadhafi to just go forward. That's the fear, I can assure you, what's going on in Washington right now.

And so I suspect there will be military action. I don't think Gadhafi necessarily is going to back down. I would be surprised if he did. If he backs down cowardly and says, you know what, it's over, I'm getting ready to leave town and go ahead and have a party, I would be surprised. I don't think he's going to do that. I think he's going to fight.

And he's got mercenaries, he's got his own military who are willing to do in Libya what the Egyptian military and the Tunisian military refused to do, namely kill fellow Egyptians and Tunisians. In Libya, it is a very different story right now.

BALDWIN: Right, a fairly sophisticated military, as Nic Robertson has seen himself.

Wolf Blitzer, all your years covering the White House and your years covering the Middle East, I appreciate your perspective, as always. Thank you.

BALDWIN: And now listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we really need to call this what it is. And we're going to war against Libya.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: But the president says we're not sending any U.S. troops in to Libya on the ground. So what does this really mean for the U.S.? As I mentioned a moment ago, I will be speaking with Congressman Mike Rogers, a Republican from Michigan. In fact, he was just one of the few members of Congress who met with the president in the Situation Room of the White House right before the president spoke in the East Room. He's on the House Intel Committee. Our conversation is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: The president held a briefing, as we just mentioned, with lawmakers earlier today to go over the role the U.S. would play with regard to Libya going forward.

And Republican Congressman Mike Rogers was part of that briefing in the Situation Room in the White House. He's good enough to now join me live from Capitol Hill.

And, Congressman Rogers, let me just begin with, who was in the room, who was in the Situation Room, and who did most of the talking? REP. MIKE ROGERS (R), MICHIGAN: Well, it was the various committee chairs of the relevant committees and then their either minority or majority counterparts, so, Intelligence and Armed Services, Foreign Affairs, those types of folks. The leadership was there, Senator -- or -- excuse me -- Mr. Boehner and Ms. Pelosi. So it was the leadership and then the relevant committees in the room.

BALDWIN: Who did more of the talking? Was it the president speaking; was it a lot of Secretary Gates, Secretary Clinton?

ROGERS: Well, I mean, the president gave some opening remarks and Secretary Clinton gave -- kind of outlined what the situation was at the time.

Admiral Mullen gave some of the more military, functionary issues and along with Secretary Gates, who just kind of laid out what the options were and what the possibilities were and where we were today.

BALDWIN: Did anyone in that room, Congressman, express any concern over what the president would be doing, what he would be saying, or was everyone in support of the mission?

ROGERS: Well, generally, I think everyone was in support of it. I think Senator Lugar had some questions. And I don't really want to disclose what happened in a confidential meeting with the president and the secretaries.

But at the end of the day, I think the president outlined exactly why this was important. And for those of us who have been advocating for several weeks for a no-fly zone, hopefully to get the result of a cease-fire, which happened today, we were -- I was clearly eager to hear what his proposal us.

And I think at the end of the day, you have to support the president in this particular case. I think the way he outlined it, and with his -- he gave Gadhafi a very set of very clear standards to meet, lest there be military action taken on behalf of a very international force, including the Arab League, which is very unusual in a circumstance like this.

BALDWIN: Right. I think the president made it very, very clear that the U.S. is playing a role in part of the operation, members of the Arab states, also Spain, France, U.K., for example.

But one thing he did mention that the U.S. will not be doing, and that was the U.S. will not be sending in group troops to Libya. Was that at all up for discussion during this meeting or that was entirely off the table?

ROGERS: I didn't hear anybody pushing for troops on the ground. The president said he was not going to support putting troops on the ground. And I think we were all in agreement that would have been a very bad idea.

So I think, given what the circumstances are, I think the plan is a good one. We're joining with our European and Arab League allies to enforce this no-fly zone to make sure that Gadhafi doesn't slaughter more people and go into Benghazi, as he has said, house by house and would show no mercy, and we have equities in knowing that the chemical and possible biological stockpiles that are there don't fall in the wrong hands.

So I think it's the right tempered approach to what is a very serious problem and have lots and have lots of countries bought into the solution.

BALDWIN: Congressman Mike Rogers, I appreciate you sharing just a little bit of the color from inside that Situation Room.

Congressman, thank you.

ROGERS: Thanks.

BALDWIN: And we are of course going to keep watching what's happening in Libya and bring you any late-breaking developments as soon as they happen.

But we're also getting word in right now that things are getting worse in the Middle East. A state of emergency has just been declared in Yemen and in Bahrain. We showed you these pictures here, massive protests there, anti-government movement continuing. But do you see the white monument there? Well, the government now apparently has bulldozed it. And it's significant, it's symbolic. We will tell you why and show you what the area now looks like.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: The push and pull between governments and protesters is heating up in the Middle East. But right now I'm talking about Bahrain. It is again cracking down on the pro-democracy movement.

Also, Yemen is under a state of emergency after deadly clashes between anti-government protesters and police there.

CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom watching all of it there from Dubai.

And, Mohammed, I want to begin here with Yemen. We know that the anti-government movement has been happening for weeks and weeks. What specifically has happened today? And President Saleh, who has called for this state of emergency, what does that even mean?

MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, the situation there deteriorating virtually by the hour.

Today, tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators in the streets of the capital, in Sanaa, also in many other cities, but in Sanaa, that's where so much violence happened earlier in the day, clashes between pro-government loyalists and anti-government demonstrators.

You have security forces stepping in. We're told by eyewitnesses that were there the security forces started shooting into the crowd. At least 40 people, 40 anti-government demonstrators have been killed. That's according to doctors and medics at the scene. And they expect that that death toll will rise. Activists saying they consider this to be a massacre.

The president addressed the country. He said that he denied that they had anything to do with this, that his security forces opened fire, he blamed it on clashes between the different factions of protesters and called for a state of emergency. But clearly, the government very worried right now, the fact that they're calling for this state of emergency and the fact is that President Saleh refuses to step down, even though more and more voices there are demanding that he leave office -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: I know, Mohammed, you have been in touch with the Yemen Embassy in Washington. How are they reacting to this?

JAMJOOM: I spoke to the spokesperson for Yemen's embassy in Washington, D.C., Mohammed Albasha. He expressed his condolences to the families of the victims. He said that this was a deplorable act and he said that basically he called on the Yemeni security forces to do all they could to make sure that the perpetrators of this crime were brought to justice -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Want to switch gears and talk Bahrain. And we know similar as to what we watched where the demonstrators gathered in Egypt in Tahrir Square, you have the epicenter of the movement there and that's been Pearl Square. And so security forces in Bahrain tore down a monument there in Pearl Square which has really become a symbol of anti-government protesting. Do we know why that happened?

JAMJOOM: It was incredible to see these images earlier today on Bahraini television. Now, the government through a statement in their official state media said that this was in order to improve the infrastructure and to help the flow of traffic in that part of town.

But we spoke to opposition figures there. And they said that this seems that the government is trying to erase what happened from the history books. And they said that just by bringing down this monument, this symbol of the anti-government movement in Bahrain, that doesn't mean that they will make people forget.

Clearly it seems that the government is trying to make people forget. It looks like they're trying to erase this. But the protesters we spoke with say they will continue their movement despite the fact that this symbol, what they consider to be a historic symbol, has now been wiped from the map of Manama -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: They will continue to demonstrate, even though bits and pieces of Pearl Square are gone.

Mohammed Jamjoom, thank you so much.

And coming up, we're going to take you back to Japan. I know all of you have been following this story so closely right along with us; we're going to talk about the nuclear crisis, how the level has now been raised. What does that mean? We will get an answer for you next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: OK. I want to reset the story for you now here in Japan and I want you to watch some of this video pretty closely with me.

We will show you a circle, and that is what we're seeing there. It's actually here -- here is some of the video here. And there's water that is being sprayed from some of the fire hoses there, now, water being sprayed on reactor number three at the nuclear plant crippled by the quake and tsunami. Remember, this is just one week ago here today.

And they're trying to cool the thing. That's one of the -- one of the end goals here. There it is. It's number -- number three. You see all the damage. But we have got to keep this in mind. They still have problems at reactor number one, reactor number two, and, especially, there, are major problems at reactor number four. I'll go into that in a moment here.

You also need to know this, today the Japanese have raised their estimation of the danger of the crisis, raising it from number four to number five on the international scale of seven. Seven was Chernobyl, five was Three-Mile Island.

Why did the Japanese raise the level now? We don't know. Maybe Robert Alvarez does, joining me once again from Washington from the institute for policy studies.

Robert, looking at the scale here, one through seven, do you have any idea why the Japanese raised the number?

ROBERT ALVAREZ, FORMER DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY OFFICIAL: I think this accident is actually in many respects worse than the Three-Mile Island accident because it involves several reactors that -- where they've not been able to provide adequate cooling, and there's a likelihood that the reactor cores are now at least undergoing at least partial meltdown.

And perhaps even more seriously there are the spent fuel pools in unit three and four. The chairman of the U.S. nuclear regulatory commission announced a couple days ago that the water was lost in pool of unit four and was likely catching fire. That is a very serious matter because there's nothing to contain the radioactivity that will be released if that spent fuel is ignited.

BALDWIN: Let me get to that, because you and I were on the air when we heard from NRC Chair Greg Jaczko. The last we heard was the Japanese was most worried about reactor number three. According to Chair Jaczko it seems to be the U.S. worry, as you mentioned, the spent fuel rod storage pools, that there may be no water there. Which poses the greater risk, number three or number four?

ROBERT ALVAREZ: I don't really know to tell the truth which causes the greater risk. But what I'm sure of is that the spent fuel in unit four is a very, very serious matter, and that I'm sure that, if the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission made this statement, he was making a statement on behalf of the United States government, and I'm sure that they have been able to ascertain probably through thermal imaging with satellite technology what's really going on there.

Now, the spraying of water on unit three, it may have to do with the pool and not the reactor. That's not all clear.

BALDWIN: OK, but what we do know and in looking at this picture behind me, we've been talking a lot about the damage. A lot of people have been reporting that the damage has specifically been a result, not necessarily of the earthquake, but of the tsunami. But, in fact, today there's a report that one of the fuel rod storage tanks may, in fact, have been damaged by the earthquake. So that's new.

I'm just, curious, Robert, what you would make of that, if it's earthquake damage, connect the dots here form us in United States, would that at all be relevant to the fact that we have reactors in the states are built on or very near fault lines?

ROBERT ALVAREZ: Well, we don't know and we probably aren't going to know for maybe years from now or at least a year from now what caused what kind of harm to this -- to these reactors at Fukushima. It's hard to say what damage the earthquake did, what damage the tsunamis did, and then what damage the subsequent hydrogen explosions did.

With respect to earthquake reactors in earthquake zones in the United States, I think it's highly advisable that we -- that these reactors undergo very serious scrutiny by the Nuclear Regulatory commission. And I believe that those reactors that are operating in these zones where we have historical evidence of major earthquakes, that if they are aged reactors at this time and are undergoing any process to extend their operating licenses, is that those processes be stopped.

BALDWIN: We heard yesterday from the president in the Rose Garden. He said specifically he's asked the NRC to take a very close look at each and every one of those plants in United States. Robert Alvarez, always a pleasure to speak with you talking about this issue at Fukushima Daiichi.

ROBERT ALVAREZ: Thank you for having me on.

BALDWIN: Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HIDEMITSU ICHIKAWA, TSUNAMI VICTIM (via translator): I have no words to express my feelings. I lost my mind. We will have to start from zero.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Starting from zero, that is what he has to do after he and his family returned home to find they lost everything. We'll take you there, tell his story as his family tries to clean up and figure out what to do next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Today marks one week after the devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Japan. But it's also a time of heartbreaking discoveries as families return to their ruined homes. One survivor or spoke to our own Gary Tuchman. It's like losing his mind, he says.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is what many families along Japan's pacific coast are coming home to. The Ichikawa family lives two blocks from the ocean where a wall of water devoured their neighborhood. With the help of friends they try to clean up, but the task they have in front of them appears to be overwhelming.

TUCHMAN (on camera): You can see this family's house is off its foundation. How high did the water go? Here is the waterline all the way up there, at least ten feet of water that came down this street. You can see the mud -- it's an insurmountable amount of mud to shovel just to clean up this driveway.

And they don't know if they'll be able to move back into this house. But they want to clean up and get an idea if it's possible to move back. It's so cold right now. The snow has come down again. What they've done is they've put together this portable heater unit so they're going to work into the night and not freeze.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Friends are helping them with the physical work and the psychological support, 17-year-old Ren, his mother and father are in a state of shock.

ICHIKAWA (via translator): I have no words to express my feelings. I lost my mind. We all have to start from zero.

TUCHMAN: The nearby Pacific provides one of the great charms of living in the neighborhood, but now many of the homes are disseminated. The ocean, they say, has turned against them.

TUCHMAN (on camera): The city of Hachinohe has built an enormous amount of money to build these sea walls, 30 feet tall to protect the neighborhoods from flooding. Not surprisingly, when the tsunami came, the walls made very little difference.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): The Ichikawas have no idea how to figure out if they can ever live in this house again.

ICHIKAWA (via translator): This is a nightmare, but we are alive.

TUCHMAN: And for that, they are grateful.

Gary Tuchman, CNN, Hachinohe, Japan.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BALDWIN: You know what? Gary has an amazing tweet I want to share with you. He tweeted this to American parents on "AC 360," "Tell Anderson their children are missing in Japan, we are happy to say we have found them tonight on "AC 360."

Now to this, the president said it yesterday twice that there is no radiation risk on the west coast right now. But the mayor of Los Angeles just held a press conference any way to reassure people who live there. I'll be speaking with him next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: You know, we here at CNN pour through video after video of the aftermath in Japan. We are getting all kinds of amazing pictures from the tsunami. Here is one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So the driver was sitting in the car filming this whole thing, I'm happy to tell you he's OK. The fact it's his voice speaking in Japanese describing what's happening and that's how we know he survived. He said he didn't have any choice but to stay in his car and he keeps driving. When his car, like it is right now, it starts floating, he simply stayed inside until the water went down. Amazing stuff there.

Also, now some of the other top stories you're watching here at CNN. First, former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide is now in Haiti. He arrived there earlier today after seven years of exile in South Africa. His return comes just ahead of Sunday's critical run- off election in Haiti. Some U.S. officials worry Aristide's presence might disrupt voting.

And Wisconsin's controversial new budget law hit a snag. A judge issued a temporary restraining order today. Remember, the law curbs the power of unions, limits many of their collective bargaining right of most state employees and sparked all kinds of outrage, like all the protesters there inside the capital. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker championed the measure. He said he's confident the budget repair bill will become law in the near future.

Uncle Sam will continue running at least for the next couple weeks. President Obama signed legislation to keep the money flowing. The temporary spending bill funds the government through April 8th. The move delays a potential federal government shutdown while Democrats and Republicans are working hard to hammer out their differences and all their spending priorities.

And when we come back, we'll take you back to Libya.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LIBYAN OPPOSITION LEADER: He tells the world that he has declared a ceasefire. Misrata is on fire as we speak. He's bombing the city from three directions. From three directions bombs are coming into the city.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Bombing the city, over and over, you hear him saying, from three directions. Misrata, that's what witnesses in western Libya told us. We'll hear more from him. It is compelling stuff. That is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: President Obama says Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi must stop his aggression immediately. The Libyan government claims it has imposed a ceasefire, but witnesses on the ground tell a much different story. I want you to listen to this. About to hear from a man who lives in the Libyan city of Misrata, will 120 miles away from the capital city of Tripoli. Here is what he told us here at CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIBYAN OPPOSITION LEADER: The murderous dictator started shelling the city at 2:00 last night. He started shelling civilian areas and he will speak after me and we'll tell you about the civilian casualties from last night and more than 20 today.

The dictator is telling the world that he has declared a cease- fire. Misrata is on fire as we speak. He's bombing the city from three directions. From three directions bombs are coming into the city, and he's bombing his way and shooting his way to the center of the city which he hasn't succeeded in doing.

He's trying to take Misrata at all costs. Misrata is the last standing city on the west coast. He will try to take it today at all costs. He is killing people left and right. There is no ceasefire. Please tell the world there is no ceasefire. He is killing people, civilians in Misrata now!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: OK. And we will take a short break. We'll speak with the mayor of Los Angeles here in just a moment about some of these radiation fears hitting a little bit closer here on the west coast. Be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Rather than taking anti-radiation pills, California public health officials essentially people on the west coast to take a chill pill. Today the first small radioactive particles from Japan has hit Sacramento, California but keep in mind they are not considered dangerous.

Best estimates suggest the amount will be less harmful than a dental x-ray. So the biggest impact likely to be psychological, not necessarily medical. But people are still fearful. Some people are overreacting. So I want to set the record straight here with Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. He's on the phone here.

Mr. Mayor, I know you just got out of an emergency preparedness meeting with city officials and I want to get to that in just a moment here. But first, have you -- have any of those radiation detecting monitors detected anything in L.A. today.

MAYOR ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA, LOS ANGELES: Absolutely not. And, in fact, I had a briefing with the preeminent U.S. geological representatives, Lucy Jones, who is here, earthquake expert, tsunami expert, and also Dr. Fielding who is our public health director in Los Angeles County. And he made it very clear after being asked repeatedly, that as you said, there's more radiation in a dental x-ray or an airplane or living in a mile high city than there is currently here in Los Angeles.

And we're asking the media to please communicate that to people who, unfortunately, are fearful that -- that's not the case.

BALDWIN: So you're setting the record straight. I know we took the president live yesterday as he was speaking from the rose garden and actually reiterated, he said that the radiation levels will pose no threat along the west coast, Guam, Alaska, Hawaii, and you here live on CNN are echoing that same sentiment.

VILLARAIGOSA: And I'm echoing it based on the assessment of our public health director here in L.A. County Dr. Fielding, who was emphatic, emphatic, that there is no radiation effect at this time.

BALDWIN: Now, I know you did just come from this emergency preparedness meeting, so that tells me that L.A. is doing something precautionary here. What is your city doing as you move forward?

VILLARAIGOSA: This press conference was some 25 or 30 representatives. It was held at our emergency operations center that we opened last year. Early on I decided that we needed to have a state of the art emergency operation center, and we can do it. There aren't very many comparable anywhere in the United States, not for a city anyway.

And today we announced the development of an emergency management initiative which was a series of executive directives ensuring emergency planning and preparedness efforts are current and up to date, also strengthening our emergency management department as the key city entity for emergency coordination, and then clearly defining roles and responsibility for city employees and disaster service workers in the event of an emergency. All of our employees will be trained to act as disaster service workers that we can employ in the event of a catastrophic event.

BALDWIN: OK. So they are prepared but you're not too worried is what I'm hearing you say.

VILLARAIGOSA: You know, we're very fortunate here in L.A. for a number of reasons.

BALDWIN: Yes.

VILLARAIGOSA: In addition to this emergency operation center which is state of the art, the county also has one very comparable. We have a fire department and police department that are known around the country for their high-level standard of professionalism.

BALDWIN: Right, I know, you've got some fine folks in L.A. before I let you go, just about the top of the hour. I want to ask, I do have a pretty large Japanese population in California, in L.A. is the city doing anything at all special to help any of these people locate their loved ones in Japan? Just curious.

VILLARAIGOSA: Actually it's the largest Japanese-American population in the United States.

We're working. We raised money yesterday for the Red Cross, where -- I was at a memorial service for hope for a brighter future for Japan yesterday in Little Tokyo, which is an area of the city with a large Japanese-American population.

And we are reaching out to them on a daily basis. I have been in almost constant communication with the consul general of Japan here. And so you're right. That certainly is...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Yes. Sure, I know it is one of your priorities on the West Coast.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, thanks so much for calling in and just setting the record straight for all of us. We talked about it yesterday. We thought it was important to talk about it one more day.

Thank you, sir. Appreciate it.

VILLARAIGOSA: Thank you.