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Murder in Falcon Lake; William and Kate's Last Appearance; More Remains Found on Long Island; The Big Battle Ahead; Ivorian Strongman Arrested

Aired April 11, 2011 - 16:00   ET

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

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news from the world of politics. Wolf Blitzer is joining us from Washington, D.C., with a very predictable bombshell. Wolf?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": I wouldn't exactly call it a bombshell, but Mitt Romney has done what we've all expected him to do. He's now created an exploratory committee. That's the first official, formal step to running for the Republican presidential nomination. Mitt Romney, no great surprise. He's running for the Republican presidential nomination just as he did back in 2008.

Tim Pawlenty, former governor of Minnesota, he earlier created an exploratory committee, so he's running.

Herman Cain, a businessman, he's created an exploratory committee. Buddy Roemer, former Louisiana governor, exploratory committee.

So there are now four Republicans running. I guess you could have a presidential debate right now since there are four Republicans running. But get ready, though, for many more Republicans are going to be running for the Republican presidential nomination.

Let's get to some other news right now, including the sensitive issue of raising the debt ceiling. If you thought last week's debate over continuing spending avoiding a government shutdown was a big deal, wait in the next few weeks as the government has to raise the national debt ceiling. That's going to be a huge, huge deal and the stakes right now are enormous.

A lot of people are recalling back in 2006 when Barack Obama was a senator from Illinois, he opposed raising the debt ceiling. He didn't like the ground rules at that time.

At the time, he said, "America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America's debt limit."

That's what he said then. Today, the White House Press Secretary Jay Carney came out and said, well, the president now regrets that decision to vote against the debt ceiling back in 2006. It was a mistake. You shouldn't play games with something like this. There could be an economic Armageddon.

Listen to Jay Carney, the White House press secretary. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There is an agreement on Friday to enact the deepest discretionary spending cuts in history has shown that he has committed the deficit reduction. And we do not need to play chicken with our economy by linking the raising the debt ceiling to anything. We should do that right away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: We're going to have a major debate on all of this coming up.

I don't know if you realize it, but Friday night, to get that temporary stopgap piece of legislation through and avoid a government shutdown, there was a formal roll call vote on the floor of the House of Representatives, 70 members of the House, Democrats and Republicans, voted against it. Two of them are going to be joining us in "THE SITUATION ROOM" at 5:00 p.m. Eastern to debate the whole issue.

They voted against it for very different reasons, the liberal Democrat Anthony Weiner, the conservative Republican Jason Chaffetz of Utah. They are going to come on and explain their votes, why they are ready to let the government shutdown. But they have their own specific reasons, very different reasons why they were doing that.

So, we'll have a lot more coming up in "THE SITUATION ROOM" on this and all of the other news of the day, including what's going on in Libya, Ivory Coast -- big stories going on right now.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: Great. Wolf, we look forward to all of that and another update in 30 minutes. Now, watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC)

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Who killed these young women? Could it be a cop?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whatever happens happened fast, so she didn't suffer.

(END VIDEO CLIP|)

GRIFFIN: Find out what we're learning and the profile the investigators are forming. Is there a Long Island serial killer?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They would not allow us to film any of the tanks or military. Instead, our minders brought us to see the nice things in Bahrain.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Our CNN crew gets into a country in the midst of an uprising, only to be told we can't bring you the real story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How can we not shoot this stuff?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: A CNN exclusive, a special investigation into what's really happening in Bahrain right now.

And my special investigation into what really happened on Falcon Lake. Brooke is off. I'm Drew Griffin.

The news starts right now.

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: Well, now that we're past the ugly fight over this year's federal budget, brace yourself, the real ugly budget battle is coming over the federal debt ceiling. Think of it as Uncle Sam's credit limit. And just like so many of us, Uncle Sam is about to hit his credit limit.

Look at this, the difference between the debt ceiling and balance due is $86 billion, a lot of money to us but not to the government. It's only enough to carry the federal government 35 more days. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON (R), TEXAS: Really, the debt ceiling is going to be Armageddon. I mean, that is one where we have got to see reforms.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Armageddon. That's why Republicans seem ready to go bold after the budget cuts they won Friday night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: The president says, "I want you to send me a clean bill." Well, guess what, Mr. President, not a chance you're going to get a clean bill. There will not be an increase in the debt limit without something really, really big attached to it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Democrats painting disaster scenarios.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: If the markets believe we are not going to pay our debts, it could be a formula for recession or worse. So, this is playing with fire. And I would urge both sides to take the threat of not renewing the debt ceiling off the table.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Well, that sure sounds like Armageddon to anyone hoping to retire soon with an already battered 401(k). But will it really get that bad?

Jeanne Sahadi with CNN Money is in New York.

Jeanne, briefly explain this debt ceiling and does it mean Congress has to stop spending money when it hits that limit?

JEANNE SAHADI, CNNMONEY.COM SENIOR WRITER: It means that Treasury will have to stop borrowing. Once we hit it, it's basically a legal limit on how much we're allowed to borrow, but it's an artificial limit that lawmakers set periodically.

Deficit hawks say we'd much better if we came up with a debt limit every time Congress passed a law that increased spending or cut taxes, which is what adds to our debt. So, for people who think it's a license to spend more if we increase it, it's not. We've already committed to spend more. Raising the ceiling is just a technical measure that will allow Treasury to borrow more in the markets.

And if they're not allowed to borrow more, they have got two really bad choices. One, they have to cut spending or raise taxes by several hundred billion dollars just for this year alone or they have to acknowledge that we're not going to be able as a country to pay our bills in full. We'll only be able to pay as much as we get in revenue coming in.

GRIFFIN: But, you know, this debt limit needs to be extended by May 16th, we're told. That is the deadline. So, any kind of lasting large decisions -- I mean, these guys cannot agree on what to put on a pizza, let alone to make a budgetary decision between now and May 16th. So, it seems like either yes or no we're going to increase the debt limit, right?

SAHADI: Yes. The answer ultimately will have to be yes unless we want the country to go into default and neither party really wants that. But that doesn't mean there won't be a lot of chest beating between now and then, and a lot of loud, inaccurate rhetoric that's being thrown around.

Bond markets are not tied to the debt ceiling as the date when we need a long-term fiscal plan in place. They want to see a long term fiscal plan, but they think it's ridiculous that we're making a big deal of this particular day, because no one sees it as a legitimate limit. It's really just a technical measure that needs to be adjusted.

GRIFFIN: All right. Jeanne, we'll watch with you to see what happens this week. Thanks.

Well, now, if it's interesting, happening right now, you're about to see it.

"Rapid Fire" news.

Let's go to Libya. There is a cease-fire proposal but the fighting sides are not on the same page. Rebels are determined to get rid of Moammar Gadhafi, take him out of power. They do not accept the terms of a proposed cease-fire hammered out this weekend between Gadhafi and the delegation from the African Union.

A plane crashes into plane and burst into planes, everybody survives. The small plane hit a storage center in Camarillo, California. All four passengers walked away before the plane exploded. Investigators are still trying to figure out what caused that.

An n embarrassing security breach at Memphis International Airport. This weekend, some people are a bit uneasy and wondering how it could happen. Kathleen Beard (ph) said she didn't realize she had printed out the wrong boarding pass and apparently neither did airport security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The date was wrong, the name was wrong, and the flight time was wrong. He looks at this, looked down at it, looked back up, looked down, looked at me, and I went through.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: And she got on the plane with a month-old boarding pass with her male friend's name for a flight that boarded at a different time. Somebody caught the mistake before the plane took off and pulled her off the plane where they then realized it was just a big mistake.

Well, baseball-sized hail. Weather forecasters love to talk about it. People near charlotte, North Carolina, actually got to see it. It happened over the weekend. Thunderstorms hit the area Saturday night with pounding rain and baseball-sized hail.

Now to west Texas where they are dealing with wildfires -- 16,000 acres burning in Midland County. More than 60 homes in two different communities were destroyed. Wildfires are burning across the state and crews are trying to get a handle on them. But the hot, dry weather isn't helping. A thunderstorm last night gave crews fighting a fire in northern Texas a little bit of a break.

And a dangerous mix-up at a Detroit Applebee's where a small toddler was served alcohol instead of apple juice -- get this -- served in his sippy cup. The child's mother says the boy began acting strange, saying hi and bye to the walls and laid his head down on the table.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAYLOR DILL-REESE, MOTHER: The manager came up to me and he smelled it and he's like, "I am so sorry, ma'am. I just don't know what to do." And I'm like, "Well, you better do something because this is not apple juice and my son is 15 months old."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Can you imagine? Police called, the little boy taken to a hospital. Doctors said if he had consumed the entire cup, he'd be dead. Applebee's responded saying, quite, "Obviously, any situation like this is unacceptable. We are working with local authorities and conducting our own investigation to assess exactly what happened."

Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo is captured and arrested. He is the former president there who refused to leave office losing his election last year. The disputed violent rivalry plunged Ivory Coast into a civil war that's blamed for hundreds of deaths.

For the first time, a CNN reporter is inside the chaotic scene there. He's just getting the microphone on and we're going to take you there live, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Breaking news today in the Ivory Coast. Laurent Gbagbo has been taken into custody and that could end the civil war there. After he refused to leave office last November after beaten in the polls and sparked the civil war, there's been a huge amount of violence.

Well, CNN now has a reporter inside the scene there in Ivory Coast, in Abidjan.

Dan Rivers is joining us live. There's a bit of a delay on his satellite.

But, Dan, brings us up-to-date on what is happening there and whether or not the violence has quelled because of this.

DAN RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly, we are still hearing sporadic gunfire here, but I think the big picture across Abidjan this evening, after Laurent Gbagbo was captured is that it's relatively quiet. That's to say that some pockets of his forces weren't continuing to engage their rivals, Alassane Ouattara, but certainly a day of incredibly dramatic developments. Gbagbo, as you say, was hunkered down beneath the presidential palace where he'd been surrounded for days, steadfastly and defiantly refusing to give up and stand down.

Finally, he was flushed out.

Now, there's a bit of controversy who exactly went in there and got him, whether it was Ivorian or French troops. The U.N. and the French say it was the Ivorians. Gbagbo's side in turn say it was French special forces.

But as soon as he was taken out and taken to a hotel, Laurent Gbagbo very quickly told his forces to give up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAURENT GBAGBO, IVORIAN STRONGMAN (through translator): I hope that people lay down their weapons and return to a normal state of civil rule so that the crisis can conclude as quickly as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIVERS: It's still not clear whether his forces will heed that flee to lay their weapons and the big humanitarian crisis is clearly something that's going to have to be tackled fairly rapidly, there had been shortages of food and water here.

As we drove in this evening, we didn't pretty much see any people out the streets. There was a curfew in place. So, still pretty tense (ph) in Abidjan.

GRIFFIN: Dan, it seemed like a strange comment from a man who virtually started this civil war because he didn't leave office when he was elected out of that position. The authorities seem to be going through great trouble to make sure that the legality of the situation is followed. In other words, they want to bring him to trial. Not bring him any immediate harm.

Is that to try and also convince his followers to also put down their arms, that the ex-president will have his day in court?

RIVERS: Yes, I think so. I think that it was clear that he should be taken alive and the U.N. chief here is talking about is if there is evidence of war crimes, you know, that anyone would have to be put on trial and that includes. His rival is also accused of atrocities during this chaos in the western part of the country, 200 people were killed and reports on the ground there was suggesting that it may have been that.

He's denied that. But it's not completely black and white, the situation. There are allegations and suggestions that both sides here had engaged in some terrible acts of violence on one another and the hope is that perhaps Gbagbo has been flushed out, that he's come out and asked his forces to lay down their arms and perhaps this may be the beginning of a peace. But there is still sporadic gunfire here. Generally I think it's a lot less violent than it was 48 hours ago.

Dan Rivers and CNN in the Ivory Coast, a report on this and we look forward to your reports over the next several days. Dan Rivers on the Ivory Coast.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMBER LYON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Suddenly, half a dozen military police vehicles surrounded us. About 20 men in black ski masks, some wearing civilian clothing, pointed machine guns at us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: A frightening few hours -- Amber Lion and her crew were detained in Bahrain. You'll see what happened to them on the streets when security forces cracked down on protesters. Amber is back in the U.S. and she will join me live in the studio ahead.

And up next, could a former cop be responsible for the string of murders in Long Island, New York? That's what investigators are suggesting. And I'm just getting new information about bones that police found. Stay right there. Be right back in 70 seconds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: This is a mystery straight out of a late night movie. A killer smart enough to dump as many as eight bodies among thick brambles and poison ivy, bold enough to make phone calls taunting the sister of a victim, that is the picture emerging of a suspected serial killer on New York's Long Island, and there is late word that police have just found new bones.

Gil Alba is a former New York police detective. Gil, these latest bones turned up today not far from the area where remains of eight people have been found. The bones have been taken to the medical examiner's office. Are they human remains is the big question.

GIL ALBA, FORMER NYPD DETECTIVE: Yes. They are going to come out with that answer pretty soon about being human remains. And if they are, I'm sure it's the same individual that is involved with this, and it's obviously a serial killer doing this.

GRIFFIN: There's no doubt in your mind that it's a serial killer and one guy, right?

ALBA: I'm not sure. When it's one individual, you know, everything that he's doing so far is really -- if it is one person is not that hard for what he's doing, killing somebody and dragging them off and putting them in the area there where hardly anybody goes walking. So that's not an impossible task for one particular individual to do.

And what tells me about this individual is that a lot of this stuff is premeditated about calling him and killing him and how he's going to kill him. I don't even know what parts of the body -- maybe there are other parts of the body or do they find whole bodies there or anything else at all with that.

GRIFFIN: Let me ask you, I was leading up to this question, the speculation that whoever is behind these killings has a background in law enforcement. You don't necessarily believe that, do you?

ALBA: Well, obviously the police are looking into that, and they are checking people who are in law enforcement. And it's always a possibility. I mean, somebody that has been talking to these people, to these girls or prostitutes, whatever you want to call them, they are human beings, has to be somewhat able to talk to them in a comfortable way.

So they are going to come and accept it. Otherwise, they would run away or call the police. We had no calls like that recently. And I can't believe these are the only people he has -- you know, I hate to say that, but he has killed along the line. I'm sure there are others. And even those in New Jersey I would definitely tie in with them right now to see if they are connected to this case.

GRIFFIN: Yes. And just along the police angle, if it turns out to be a law enforcement officer, or a former law enforcement officer, does that make it more difficult for police to catch it?

ALBA: Definitely not. Just because he's law enforcement, you know, somebody who is doing this is pretty smart and it's beyond just being a police officer is not any harder because they don't know the intricacies of a murder or anything like that. This is a real sociopath and a real killer.

So just the police officer, this is not a normal person. No, the police are not going to have a harder time investigating him as they would anybody else.

GRIFFIN: All right, Gil Alba joining us on the breaking news, more bones found. We're not sure if they are human bones or not. We're waiting for the medical examiner to come through on that. Thank you, appreciate that.

ALBA: Thanks for having me.

GRIFFIN: For months, government overseas has been using deadly force to crack down on protesters, and that includes Bahrain. CNN got a firsthand look at the chaos, and members of our own team were detained for hours. Amber Lion was on that team and now she's back here live in the studio. She talks about her dangerous trip and what happened while she was in custody. We are back in 70 seconds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: CNN is trying to find out what is happening with the activists in Bahrain and experience the crackdown with the government firsthand. Here is Amber Lion's report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LYON: Flying in Bahrain, our plane was largely empty. We are heading into an area of unrest, when you are one of the only people on the plane headed to that country. On the streets, we discovered an eerie silence, almost no tourists in the hotels, a strict curfew in military checkpoints. No signs of protests, but we were to find out that the unrest here has not ended. It's just been silenced.

GRIFFIN: We've come across a lot of military checkpoints, just driving around here, and you see the guys with their guns and wearing masks.

LYON: We arranged interviews but most people disappeared. Family members close to them said that they had been arrested or gone into hiding after masked machine gun-toting security forces raided their homes and threatened them.

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights said that more than 460 people have been detained in recent weeks. Nurses who treated wounded protesters, doctors, bloggers, a poet, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights says that there are fear that these people are being tortured.

NABEEL RAJAB, BAHRAIN CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: There are people who are hanged for a month and are electrocuted and sexually harassed and assaulted. This is the way that they are treated inside Bahrain prisons.

LYON: We tried to arrest these arrests ourselves, but helicopters hovered overhead as we stood in the street. Suddenly, half a dozen military police vehicles surrounded us. About 20 men in black ski masks, some wearing civilian clothing, pointed machine guns at us. They forced us to get on the ground at gunpoint. They erased al of the video they found. Then we were taken to a police station and interrogated for nearly six hours before being released.

Bahrain's foreign minister could not tell us why we were arrested. We asked him about the missing.

SHEIKH KHALID BIN AHMED BIN MOHAMAMED AL KHALIFA, BAHRAINI FOREIGN MINISTER: There were many people who I know personally who have been called in for questioning and arrested. but for a short period of time were questioned. But I didn't hear of any one of them being harmed just for blogging or being active online.

LYON: From this point on, government minders were attached to our team at all times. They would not allow us to film any of the tasks or military. And our minders told us that there were no protests.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are no protesters.

LYON: Instead, our minders brought us to see the nice things in Bahrain. They brought us to the shopping mall to look at the fine selection of Bahraini shoes. Meanwhile, while we were being minded, human rights workers told us that security forces continued to raid homes late at night, taking the opposition away one by one at gunpoint.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is national security.

LYON: But we were warned by government officials not to press any further or we would again be arrested.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are those guys following us all day?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are not following us.

LYON: And this time we might not get out.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: Amber Lyon is joining us now. And you learned something else since you got back from Bahrain. Tell us about that.

LYON: You saw there Nabil Rajab. He's one of the only human rights activists left in Bahrain who hasn't been detained, and we learn now that the government is trying to press criminal charges against him for a tweet. They say that he tweeted a photo of an alleged torture victim and the government believes that he doctored it.

On the other hand, Rajab says that they set him up, that they don't want him out there criticizing and exposing these crimes, and that's why they are going after him now.

GRIFFIN: What is stunning about your report is the arrogance that these Bahraini officials give you. They know that they can get away with this. There is nobody internationally ping up about this. Do the advocates for freedom say, where is the U.S., where is the est?

LYON: Routinely. We heard that all the time when we were there, especially when we went to the villages that have turned into almost jails because people feel like they can't leave and go on to the streets. They want to know, where is the State Department? When the U.S. government criticized Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, they called for a change in government and the U.S. has remained largely silent about this.

GRIFFIN: Bahrain, the government, has won. They've snuffed out these protests.

LYON: They've won, and not only that, they've won the journalists, because you saw with us, once we got a apprehended, we were never told why we were arrested or why I had a machine gun pointed at my head for 30 minutes, never told a reason for that. I believe it's because they didn't want us in those villages seeing what they were doing.

And now when journalists go to Bahrain, they can barely leave their hotel rooms without being attached to a government minder and seeing the country in the view that the government wants the world to see the country, which is not the reality of what is going on there, Drew.

GRIFFIN: If you live in Bahrain, this is the news you get, right?

LYON: Yes.

GRIFFIN: You made news yourself. You were in the "Tribune" after your arrest?

LYON: Just to tell you the accuracy of the state media, I find this paper laying outside my hotel room and front page says, "CNN reporter is arrested." The only thing true is that we were arrested. Everything else says we didn't have identification. We had our passports on us. It says we were picked up at a security checkpoint. We were picked up outside of a home.

It says in here, kind of a warning, which I found quite creepy, it said the journalists were later released after signing an undertaking not to exceed their limits of their mission or violate any rules. And that's the second time we were threatened by the government not to press my further about these 460 people in a country of 500,000 that are missing now, Drew, 460.

GRIFFIN: Good work, Amber. We'll continue to watch and wait for your documentary that you're working on right now. LYON: Yes. That will come out towards the end of May. This was all the start of a documentary and ended up becoming a much bigger story than we ever thought it would be.

GRIFFIN: Amber Lyon, thank you for that.

Back here in the U.S., Wal-Mart declaring war on Target? Find out what the world's largest retailer is doing in an effort to lure you, the shopper.

Also, Gloria Borger is standing by with new information about the world of politics. We can't wait. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: We're hearing that President Obama is going to make a major speech this Wednesday, laying his approach to the nation's fiscal challenges. Gloria Borger is joining us with the latest news from the Political Ticker. Gloria, is this a change for the president's approach?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it is. You know, if you recall, during his state of the union speech we barely heard the president talk about entitlements. He didn't talk much about his own deficit commission. He said they had done a good job, but he didn't get real specific about what he wanted to do.

And in talking to people at the White House, I have to say that since there's a lame duck session, it's very clear to me that this is a president who understands that he has to take a turn. The deficit is very important to American voters, and he knows that he's got to deal with it.

And there are going to be Republican plans, Democratic plans, and then the White House. And the White House and the Democrats may have to part on certain issues because this president wants to position himself very much in the center.

GRIFFIN: It appears that he has to make some major cuts. politically speaking, as a president who now wants to get reelected, with that far left base that is really asking, who is this guy? This is not who we elected?

BORGER: He is already in a bit of trouble with them. First of all, they don't want more troops in Afghanistan. They might have wanted single payer on health care reform. Who is this president?

But I think this is really a moment. It's a moment to redefine liberalism if you will in the context of the need for deficit reduction. And so Obama is going to try to lead the way for that, and he will cut for more cuts in defense spending, I presume, tax cuts on the wealthy.

And it's also a chance for conservatives right now. This is a moment for them too, because they have to define who they are for 2012. What do they want to cut? We've already seen a budget that touches Medicare substantially. Is that the way they want to go?

Right now we're going to have a lot of proposals floating around there. So I think it's sort of an interesting opportunity even heading into an election to get something done on entitlements. I don't want to be too Pollyannaish here, but I do think there's a will from the White House at least and from Republicans.

GRIFFIN: He's had a quite a few photo ops in the wake of this deal.

(LAUGHTER)

BORGER: You think?

GRIFFIN: Yes. I know he's thinking about reelection, but does he need a boost right now just to get to the negotiating table on this?

BORGER: He does. I was just talking to someone at the White House, I was joking about the nice photo op, the president shaking hands with voters. The senior advisor said to me, he's not sitting out there with members of congress. He's out there with the people. He's saying, this is your government and we're glad we could keep it open for you.

Take a look at this poll from our new CNN poll. It shows you where the president is positioning himself. You can see Democrats, 66 percent, that's good for the president, independents, 56 percent, Republicans, 47 percent. It's those independent voters that the president is going after right now. They like the notion of compromise. They like the notion of bipartisanship. They like the notion of getting something done and not shutting the government down. So, sure, the president is out there glad-handing because he had something to crow about, right?

GRIFFIN: Right. Gloria, always great to talk to you.

BORGER: My pleasure.

GRIFFIN: I will see you later.

Well, troubling news out of Japan. New evacuations after a series of aftershocks rock the country. Coming up next, the constant danger of living inside this ring of fire and why the next big one could be just around the corner.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Japan has aftershocks, Wal-Mart goes after its competition. We are playing reporter roulette. We have Jacqui Jeras here. Jacqui, tell us about the aftershocks in Japan. They don't end.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It was incredible. It was a 7.1 magnitude, according to the JMA, and that's a very powerful quake, caused damage and a lot of shaking going on. But it was inland. So that's the good news, no tsunami associated with that one. We're going to see aftershocks for days and weeks and months and likely years. On average, they usually get around 10 around that magnitude. We've had about five, Drew.

GRIFFIN: OK, thanks, Jacqui.

Wal-Mart is slashing prices and bringing back thousands of products. The world's largest retailer is targeting one of its competitors. Felicia Taylor is live in New York. Felicia, what is Wal-Mart up to?

FELICIA TAYLOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Drew, apparently being the biggest just isn't enough. Wal-Mart has to really prove itself as the place to shop for it is consumers. Wal-Mart's strategy is to bring back 8,500 items. For instance, they will have greater fish supplies in Florida, increase their hiking and pool supplies in Arizona.

They are also trying to make prices more competitive by actually checking competitor prices more often, such as at Target, and asking their own suppliers to lower their prices. This will make it easier for price matching which means you will not have to bring in the ad and actually prove that Target has the lower price. They will believe you from here on in because they need to bring back what has been seven straight quarters of losing numbers. So Wal-Mart is trying to get customers to shop there again.

GRIFFIN: Thank you. That is today's Reporter Roulette.

Well, it is a murder that may never be solved, a murder that happened here on Falcon Lake. Up next, what the victim and his wife may have known about the attacks before they took their trip to Mexico. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: What should have been a fun day on a lake turned into a nightmare. A husband dead, his wife says he was murdered by Mexican pirates. Nobody has been charged in this case.

The lead investigator himself was killed. His head delivered in a suitcase to the Mexican military. The whole thing has ratcheted up fears of drug wars on the U.S.-Mexico border. I've been looking into this murder. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN (voice-over): David Hartley had always been interested in visiting the sunken church in Falcon Lake. On Thursday morning, September 30th, a week before he and his wife would fly home to Colorado, David decided they would go.

(on camera): Did you know then what you must know now, that there had been several attacks on that lake, that fishermen don't cross on that lake into Mexico anymore?

TIFFANY HARTLEY, HUSBAND KILLED ON FALCON LAKE: We did know that there were attacks. We didn't know they where exactly.

GRIFFIN: You had no worries whatsoever when you took those jet skis?

HARTLEY: No idea.

GRIFFIN: As tragic as this is, what I think I'm hearing from you is what the Hartley did was incredibly stupid.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Incredibly.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Fishing guide and resort owner Speedy Collett says business on the lake has taken a beating since the Hartley's made what he said a stupid trip to see the sunken church.

He is sick of the media attention and insists that the lake and the fishermen are completely safe as long as they follow the unwritten rules.

ROBERT "SPEEDY" COLLETT, OWNER, BEACON LODGE: This is not a jet ski lake. There's never -- jet skis seen here. They show up with jet skis, they don't see and then they try to approach them and stop them because it's a war over there. There are two cartels fighting over there for control and they don't stop, they take off running.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: There is much more to that story and you can see the full report this Saturday night. "Murder in Mexico. What happened at Falcon Lake?" 8:00 Eastern only right here on CNN.

Well, it's the very last time you're going to see this. Kate Middleton before the wedding. Perhaps the most famous bride to be in the world making her last public appearance with Prince William. Find out where and who showed up to see them next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: All right. This is the last time you're going to see Prince William and his soon to be princess before their big day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN (voice-over): The prince and fiancee Kate Middleton visited a school in northwest England today in the rain and even though it was raining pretty hard 15,000 people turned out to see them.

Then it was on to a park where the weather was a little better. Kate was in charge of dropping the flag to get a 100-meter race started. There she is.

One of our royal watchers says there was tremendous excitement about the event and that Kate looked like a seasoned pro. She better get used to all of that kind of attention.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: We are your destination for your royal wedding coverage. Saturday night at 10:30 and then Sunday, April 24th, we'll take you behind the scene. CNN presents "The Women Who Would Be Queen" and on April 29th, "Celebrate with William and Kate." CNN's royal wedding experience watch DVR participate. Join Anderson Cooper, Piers Morgan, Richard Quest and Cat Dilley as they bring you every unforgettable moment. CNN's coverage of the royal wedding, Friday, April 29th starts at 4:00 a.m. eastern.

Coming up, "THE SITUATION ROOM" with Wolf Blitzer. Here with me now, Wolf --

WOLF BLITZER, THE SITUATION ROOM: Are you going to be at 4:00 a.m., Drew? Are you going to be getting up that early to see the wedding?

GRIFFIN: I'll probably catch the DVR.

BLITZER: You know at 4:00 a.m. that's already mid-morning five hours later in London so normal time over there, not so normal over here. But I'm sure millions and millions of people will be getting up very early there. They are not going to want to miss any of it. We'll be watching every step of the way.

We're getting ready for a big show. We've got a lot of news happening, a lot of political news. Major developments in Libya unfolding right now. Ivory Coast, we got a reporter finally in Ivory Coast.

We're trying to get a reporter, we've been trying now for weeks to get a reporter into Damascus in Syria. The government in Syria not letting any international news organizations send reporters over there.

Drew, you know how frustrating that can be when a government basically shuts down any opportunities to cover the news inside the country. It's a sensitive time throughout the Middle East, North Africa.

We also have a big debate coming up on what to do as far as raising the nation's debt ceiling. We saw something today. We don't often see the White House acknowledging reluctantly that the president of the United States blunder this time by Barack Obama, blundered back in 2006 when he voted against raising the debt ceiling.

Bush was president at that time. So we're going to cover all of the news right here in "THE SITUATION ROOM." It starts in a few minutes.

GRIFFIN: Wolf, I might miss the wedding, but not your show.

BLITZER: Good.

GRIFFIN: We'll see you in just a few minutes.

We have some new developments in on that Long Island serial killer case and it is disturbing. Earlier today there were bones found.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN (voice-over): It appears those bones were human. That's the word we got from the police. They are still being studied at the medical examiner's office, but just within the last hour, another body.

A skull has been found. This according to Nassau County police, Lt. Kevin Smith, 3:30 today police found another set of human remains, what appears to be a skull 100 feet into the thickets off the side of the road.

If this morning's human remains are human, that means these are victims number nine and ten of what is believed to be a serial killer working out in Long Island, obviously a lot more to work on this story and developments throughout Wolf's show as well.

Coming up next though, Arnold Schwarzenegger reportedly says he wants to see violence, specifically, heads coming off. Find out what the former California governor wants to do next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Time now for some political pops and figures from the world of politics getting in the movie making. Joe Johns, what is going on here?

JOE JOHNS, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Drew, starting off with Democratic Senator Jim Webb of Virginia who is retiring from congressional politics and also hosting a new documentary.

Webb is a hosting two-part doc on the Smithsonian Channel based on a book he wrote in 2004 called "Born Fighting." It's about the Scottish Irish people and they shaped America. He himself is Scottish Irish apparently travelled overseas to shoot part of it.

He's really something of a cultural phenomenon if you will. He's been called a renaissance man, highly decorated Vietnam vet, former secretary of the Navy.

He actually written a total of nine books and they checked out his book and actually came to Webb with the idea of putting it on video. So, there, that's going to be on TV.

GRIFFIN: Yes, he was a very successful writer and I guess he's probably going to write some more, too. Meantime, former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, he was pretty successful in movies.

JOHNS: Yes, you might say that. The "Los Angeles Times" reporting that Schwarzenegger is ready for a comeback, apparently looking also at returning to another action hero role. One of the scripts mentioned in the article was about a small-time lawman going up against a Mexican drug kingpin.

And if there is any kind of doubt about the role, he is willing to accept right now a quote, a tribute says, "I can step very comfortably into the entertainment world and do an action movie with the same violence that I've always done and have the same amount of heads coming off or any other body parts. I don't blink." So there you go. Arnold is ready to return to the movies.

GRIFFIN: Well, he knows his genre, that's for darn sure.

JOHNS: I'll be back.

GRIFFIN: Yes, I'll be back, 20 seconds so how much of this is a money thing?

JOHNS: He was governor for seven years. He says he lost something like $200 million during that time. The question now really is whether he has the right stuff to do another blockbuster like "Terminator 3" or if the box office basically has moved on. We'll see.

GRIFFIN: Well, we'll see. You know, there is a whole generation of people who probably never even saw him.

JOHNS: That's right. Absolutely.

GRIFFIN: OK, Joe, you're looking very well rested.

JOHNS: And you, too. You look a little tan.

GRIFFIN: Take care, Joe. We'll see you. "THE SITUATION ROOM" with Wolf Blitzer starts right now.