cnn.com/thelead for video blogs and extras. that's it for "the lead." i'm jake tapper. i now turn you over to wolf blitzer. he is right next door in "the situation room." have a great weekend. wolf? happening now, new fears that a somali terror commander suspected in a bloody mall siege is forming an unholy alliance with an al qaeda affiliate possibly plotting to strike the united states. also, congress wants answers about the obama care rollout but the health secretary, kathleen sebelius, has not yet agreed to testify. i'll talk to a key lawmaker involved in the oversight investigation. he wants answers. and new developments in the case of two murderers who simply walked out of prison. turns out they have done it again. we have details of how they duped authorities not once, but twice. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." we begin this hour with

chilling new developments involving a top terror commander who managed to elude an elite navy s.e.a.l. team trying to capture him. there is fear he could be joining forces with al qaeda in the arabian peninsula to plot against america and it has u.s. officials so concerned, they are taking dramatic action right now to try to hunt him down. let's go straight to our pentagon correspondent, barbara starr. she's working the story for us. officials are obviously deeply concerned. he could have been involved in that attack in kenya. what is the latest? >> the question is could that mall attack have even happened without the help of this terrorist leader. does he pose now a much more direct threat to the united states. the images we are about to show can be very disturbing. at the westgate shopping mall in nairobi, kenya, shoppers ran for their lives when gunmen took over the complex on a shooting rampage.

u.s. intelligence is still trying to figure out what behind the scenes role this man may have played. these tv 2 norway images are rare photos of the alleged terrorist known as ikrima. he is in america's crosshairs. just days after the mall attack, two dozen navy s.e.a.l.s raided ikrima's compound in southern somalia. they failed to capture him. but cnn has learned why president obama risked so much. u.s. sources tell cnn ikrima is now seen as a prominent part of the al qaeda network, with possible information on new attacks being planned. his reach now is far beyond somalia. >> he's really emerged as a key link figure between various al qaeda affiliates, between al qaeda's affiliate in yemen, between al shabaab in somalia and al qaeda central in pakistan. he is somebody who has deep connections to militants in the

west because of the time he spent in the west in recent years. >> reporter: al qaeda in the arabian peninsula based in yemen is now considered the most dangerous of the al qaeda affiliates. cnn has been shown encrypted e-mails through a third party that were exchanged with ikrima. they show contacts between him and the american-born cleric who was killed in a u.s. missile attack in 2011. >> when ikrima starts to work closer with al qaeda in the arabian peninsula which has plotted attacks against the u.s. homeland that means he's crossed a red line. >> reporter: that worries u.s. intelligence that this video may be just a hint of the types of attacks ikrima has planned next. now, ikrima's group, the al shabaab group in somalia and al qaeda have been at odds in the past, but all of this now raising very critical questions in the u.s. intelligence community. what are his contacts with al qaeda, who has he been talking

to, how recently has he been talking to them and again, what they may have planned next. wolf? >> barbara starr with the latest, very disturbing information. thank you. at the same time, president obama is tapping the pentagon's former top lawyer to be the next secretary of homeland security. his name is jeh johnson and his nomination was followed almost immediately by serious questions about some of his positions, his policies, even his qualifications. cnn's joe johns is here in "the situation room" working this part of the story. what are you learning? >> well, he wasn't on everybody's short list for candidates for the job, but probably should have been. jeh johnson has been front and center on some of the toughest national security issues and now has been tapped to take on the enormous problems at the homeland security department. as the pentagon's top lawyer, jeh johnson played a key role in the legal reasoning for u.s. use of drones against al qaeda overseas. controversial because the targeted drone attacks have also killed innocent civilians. johnson laid out his views in

this speech last year. >> how will this conflict end. it is an unconventional conflict against an unconventional enemy and will not end in conventional terms. >> reporter: his role may be controversial to some on the left. at dhs, drones are used mainly as eyes in the sky. >> the only way they use unmanned vehicles is for surveillance purposes, and the rules are very different and they ought to be very different. >> reporter: an issue republican senator rand paul famously filibustered over. johnson's support for national security agency surveillance programs and his criticism of military detention of terror suspects could also come up. he's already being challenged as untested in some areas. >> there are gaps in terms of immigration, first responders, the other parts of dhs, the component operating parts. >> reporter: congressional reaction to the nomination has been favorable on the left but republican texas senator john cornyn said he had grave concerns and questioned

johnson's management and law enforcement qualifications. rather than selecting someone who knows the unique dynamics of our southern border, president obama has tapped one of his former new york fund-raisers. that could be a problem for johnson, too. the center for responsive politics labels him a bundler in fund-raising for president obama, meaning he helped the president raise big money by calling on friends to help. by the way, no word tonight from republican senator rand paul, the drone critic, on what he thinks of this nomination. >> i'm sure we will hear sooner rather than later. thanks very much. up next, republicans badly bruised by the government shutdown. could that give democrats a shot at retaking the house of representatives in the next election? we're breaking down some key races for you. i'll also speak with a republican lawmaker who says the rollout of obama care is not just a bumpy road. he says the bridge is out. congressman tim murphy is part of a team holding hearings next week. he's here in "the situation room" this hour. oil gushing out of pipe.

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the next year's election? our chief national correspondent john king takes a closer look. john? >> yes, wolf, some democrats are dreaming of the return of speaker pelosi in the wake of the government shutdown and debt ceiling debate. is that possible? could democrats do so well in 2014 that they change this map? the results after 2012, possible, yes. probable, that's a different question. let's look at some of the factors as we head into the midterm election season. the current balance of power, republicans with a 32 seat advantage in the house. three vacancies but assume the seats stay with the party that last held them. that means the democrats would need a gain of 17 seats to put the gavel back in democratic hands. there are some factors, no question, favoring the democrats right now. the shutdown damaged the republican brand. we see that in every poll. democrats say as a result, their fund-raising is way up in recent days and the tea party says it will challenge republican incumbents who voted yes. it's possible they could knock off some incumbents and make those districts more open to

democrats. we'll watch that one in the months ahead. however, there also are a number of factors that would make you think no, this year would favor the republicans. why? it's more than a year to election day. will the dynamic in play now be in play next october or november? we can't answer that question. but we do know the president is well under 50% in approval rating. that is a telltale sign that his party would be in trouble in the midterm election. if that number stays in the 40s, the democrats will be in trouble next november, especially because it's the six-year itch election. the second term midterm election, on average the president's party loses more than 19 seats. so history says the democrats will be on the losing end, not the winning end, in 2014. let's take a look at a couple of the races we'll watch just to see if democrats do have a prayer. one of them down here in southeast virginia. scott riggel elected in 2010, won in 2012 by eight points even though the president narrowly won his district but he voted yes on the budget compromise. the big question here, will the tea party try to knock him off with a more conservative primary

challenger and if successful, would that then perhaps open that district to the democrats. we'll keep an eye there. to get to 17, democrats will need a few surprises. another place to watch is another race that could involve the tea party. charlie dent, first elected in 2004, elected -- re-elected by 14 points in 2012. you would say that is a safe republican district. the question is, because he voted yes, there will be a tea party challenge that could cause enough turmoil to put a seat like that into play. democrats need seats like that to have such a big year. you look at the map, you see all this red across the country, a lot of watching. watch primary filing deadlines, watch fund-raising deadlines, watch recruitment. is it possible, yes. is it likely, probably not. >> john king, thanks very much. good analysis. let's get some more with our cnn political commentator, ryan lizza, the washington correspondent for "new yorker" magazine along with molly ball of "the atlantic." is it possible the democrats could take over, become the

majority in the house of representatives? >> i pretty much agree with everything john king just said. we did cross a tipping point in the wake of the government shutdown. we crossed a point where there are enough seats in play where it's theoretically possible this far out, this is pretty far out, over a year out, for the democrats to pick up those 17 seats. charlie cook, one of the best house prognosticators in washington, moved 14 seats this week towards -- in the democrats' direction. and he said that things have moved from republicans likely to take between two and seven seats to republicans likely to arrange where it could shift five seats towards the republicans or five seats towards the democrats. so the bottom line is, the fallout from the shutdown has moved things in the democrats' direction and given them the possibility of taking back the house. we're a long way out. >> i was just about to say, we're still a long way away from the midterm elections in

november of next year. >> yeah. political scientists will tell you these events tend to be short. however, i sat in on a focus group of swing voters the other night and it was amazing how betrayed they felt. >> by whom? >> by washington. and betrayed by the politicians and by the squabbling they saw going on. these were moms and a lot of them compared the politicians to their toddlers or kindergartners. they were really let down. at the same time, people were pretty disappointed in washington. they already had a low approval rating. could it really get worse? will they start to see their individual representatives as part of the problem? the interesting thing about this group was instead of saying they were so turned off they were going to tune out, they were saying they needed to get more involved. they needed to do more to have a say in the political process. >> usually, the argument is that when you ask americans do you like washington, you like congress, they all say no, no, no, no, but they like their individual member of congress. >> and that's the usual -- that is normal. that number, do you like your

guy, is at an all-time low. even your own congressman, even the question of do you like your own congressman is reaching a low point. midterm elections are usually referendum on the president. with obama and the democrats, they need to turn it into a referendum on house republicans. the house republicans gave them a little bit of ability to do that the last few weeks. >> harry reid, the senate majority leader, gave an interview to univision that will be out this weekend. he was asked what he thought about senator ted cruz. i will read to you what harry reid said. in an effort to help him run for president, he has done some stuff that's really damaging to our country, and who has he hurt? he's been attempting to raise money and who has he hurt? he has hurt average americans. what he has done to our country will go down in the history books as one of the most negative approaches to try to change america that we've ever seen. what he did was absolutely wrong. that's harry reid on the texas senator, ted cruz. usually the senators are a

little more polite and gentlemenly but he's blunt in those blistering comments about ted cruz. is that normal right now? >> well, comity is out the window when it comes to ted cruz. we have seen those on the republican side feeling like teeing off on the guy because they feel he breached decorum and broke some of the rules in the tactics he's employed. you can also see in harry reid's comments how happy he is to sort of have a foil. part of the problem democrats have had is they're good at campaigning against a specific republican like mitt romney, but none of the republicans in charge of washington have given them that polarizing figure. >> i was going to say, what harry reid just said about ted cruz is nothing compared to what republicans have been saying both in private and public -- >> republican senators. >> republican senators, who are furious at him. this guy's a freshman. most the times when freshmen come in their first year, they don't do what ted cruz does. they laid low, they worked the system and ted cruz is operating

completely different. >> normally freshman senators are supposed to be quiet. i remember when hillary clinton was a freshman senator from new york state, barely heard from her. she was learning, she was a little bit talking but she was very, very polite, very, very quiet. that's usually the normal operating procedure when a freshman comes -- >> they certainly don't push the house of representatives into a course the rest of the party doesn't want to go down. >> let's talk about the president's nominee, jeh johnson, to be the next secretary of homeland security. do you anticipate there's going to be a big confirmation battle or will he sail through? >> i think there might be some concern over a speech he gave after he left about drone policy. remember, he was the general counsel at the pentagon. when we think about drones, we talk about cia operations. he wasn't really in charge of legal policy and drones when he was in government but he did make comments afterwards defending drone policy and basically saying the tool doesn't matter. we have a resolution that allows us to go to war. it doesn't matter if you kill that person with a rifle or a drone. the war resolution is what matters.

that's his position on drones. lot of senators don't agree with him on that. >> that's the president's position, too. >> that's the president's position. >> he targeted assassinations in effect involving drones. >> he specifically said these are not targeted assassinations. this is just using the congressional war resolution to kill the enemy. that's his argument. >> that sounds like a targeted assassination to me. >> exactly. >> if you're looking for somebody with a specific name and you send a drone in and use a hellfire missile and go kill that person, what is that? >> well, that's the objects of dispute here. look, this has been a controversial area of policy for this administration. but it's also been one that crosses partisan lines. that's why you haven't seen a more concerted pushback to the administration. we haven't heard anything from rand paul yet. he's obviously been the most high profile critic on the republican side of the administration's drone policy. and we haven't seen a lot of democrats willing to rock the boat on this, even though a lot of them do have concerns about the civil liberties aspect of it. the administration expects jeh johnson not to have any problems and we are not hearing yet that

anybody is posing a threat to that. >> we'll see what happens. >> the two other things he was involved in is don't ask, don't tell and basically the legal opinion that led to our troops in iraq coming out after we couldn't get a status of forces agreement with the iraqi government. he was deeply involved in that. >> thanks very much for coming in. up next, why the secretary of health and human services won't testify to congress about the disastrous online rollout of obama care. also, why authorities let these convicted killers walk away, not once, but twice. we have new details of a truly outrageous set of blunders. and one lawmaker likens the obama administration's approach to the rollout of obama care to a scene from the movie "animal house." congressman tim murphy is here. he will explain. what you wear to bed is your business. so, if you're sleeping in your contact lenses, ask about the air optix® contacts so breathable they're approved for up to 30 nights of continuous wear. serious eye problems may occur. ask your doctor and visit airoptix.com for safety information and a free one-month trial.

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republican law makers are taking a new tactic in their fight against obama care. hearings will begin next week on the disastrous online rollout of the insurance exchanges which have been plagued by serious technical problems. i'll speak to one republican committee chairman in just a moment on that. first, let's bring in our senior white house correspondent,

brianna keilar. how's the white house dealing with these problems? >> reporter: well, really now they're sort of acknowledging the issues. you saw them putting more of a positive spin on it at first, saying that really, this was a reflection of just how much demand there was on the website. there appears to be now very much a recognition that there are structural problems with healthcare.gov. we heard president obama really acknowledge that as well this week. he said there are more glitches than are acceptable and that sort of comes as we've heard from an independent analysis that really only 1% of people who have registered, who have been able to register on healthcare.gov or who have attempted to register, i should say, were actually able to enroll in obama care. pretty dismal numbers. >> how are they going to fix this? >> reporter: well, really it comes to fixing the website. that is number one. president obama said there are employees working around the clock to get healthcare.gov up and running. after that, having talked to some supporters of obama care today, they say there is going

to have to be another public education campaign, that president obama as we saw in the first week, he did a couple high profile events, there is going to have to be a reboot once the website is up and running and also, i think there's also this question of a penalty that goes into effect at the end of march. there's this six-month enrollment process. that penalty kicks in at the end of that. some are raising questions if perhaps that penalty time is going to be delayed because the real successful launch has been delayed. >> brianna, the house energy and commerce committee is planning on holding hearings next week on the rollout of these health exchanges online. they have asked the health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius to testify. they wrote to her. as of right now, doesn't look like she's going to accept their invitation. >> reporter: no, that's right. hhs official says she's unavailable, they say because of the government shutdown, they had a very short timeline to respond to this request. in a statement from a spokeswoman that says we are in

close communication with the committee, and have expressed our desire to be responsive to their request. but really, behind the scenes, wolf, the administration feels that this is not a real investigation, that it's a political dog and pony show. they look at republicans who have not -- who have really stood in the way of obama care from republican governors choosing not to launch state exchanges, which democrats point out have been more successful than healthcare.gov, the federal exchange. even to the shutdown, which of course was republicans who wanted to -- it started with republicans wanting to defund and delay obama care. so they don't really see this as a serious thing and they're kind of not eager to give political fodder to republicans in the house. >> thanks very much. brianna keilar at the white house. joining us now, republican congressman tim murphy of pennsylvania, the chairman of the oversight and investigations subcommittee. thanks so much for coming in. your full committee will be holding hearings next week on these glitches, whatever they're called, the problems of the

website. but when you hear that even some supporters of the overall program are saying maybe delay the penalty for the individual mandate, that part of the program, what do you say? when you hear that kind of talk? >> well, it's come down to the point we're going to fine people for not buying a product that they can't buy. it's a serious issue. i have been holding a series of hearings since the beginning of this year asking about the cost, are they ready for the web shot, are navigators trained, is the irs ready. every time i had someone before my subcommittee they said don't worry, everything's fine. it's like the scene in "animal house" everything is fine, remain calm. while people struggled all around them. they have not been up front about these things. either they don't know or they are not telling us. >> do you think they knew the website wasn't really ready and they went ahead and did it anyhow? >> they told us it was ready. they told us they were good to go. they told us the navigators were ready and everything would be fine. it appears none of that was

ready. my question is who knew this. who made the decisions to change -- >> should heads roll? >> i think somewhere along the line, you have to find out who knew what and when did they know it. >> kathleen sebelius, the secretary of health and human services. >> she has to answer questions for us. we asked her to come before the committee. so far, she's declined. we asked her to come back again. this is extremely important. this is $400 plus million just for the website. >> it already cost $400 million? originally it was supposed to be less. >> it was supposed to be much less. $94 million, started off going to this canadian company, cgi. that probably expanded into other companies as well. the data hub and other elements, they're just not ready. it's obvious facts. >> when you have this hearing next week, i suppose somebody from the administration will appear and testify but you're saying nobody has agreed yet and you invited them? >> we hope they do. clearly someone had to know some things, whether it's people from

cms, we've had gary cohen, other people who knew parts of this. there seems finger pointing without the fingers going to someone who made decisions. >> what you seem to be suggesting, correct me if i'm wrong, is the administration deliberately mislead people in the months leading up to the launch when they said everything is fine, you say they knew it wasn't ready? >> either they didn't know which makes them responsible or they knew and they were trying to say well, let's hope it gets ready by the time things are there. we were like two weeks before, for example, the navigator is supposed to start and they said everything is fine with them even though the training had been delayed and cut short. what i see is a whole pattern of them repeatedly telling us things were fine on multiple levels and they just weren't ready across the board. >> they initially said you know what, there would be overwhelming response. they got many more people trying to log in than they anticipated. that was the result, that caused the bumpy rollout, if you will. is it just a bumpy rollout or

something more serious? >> this is not a bumpy rollout. the bridge is out. for them to say only they did not expect that many people to log on, they're trying to provide insurance for tens of millions, hundreds of millions of americans. it should have been ready for that. something was fatally flawed in the design. if you want to shop for anything in some local store or any store anywhere in the world, first thing you do is pull up the products. here, you can't see that. they want to capture all this data first. >> if you go to any of the airline websites, you want to find a flight, all these options available, but you don't have to give them your credit card numbers to check out what's available. >> think of this. not only that but here, social security number, lots of personal data. >> just to check out cost. >> just to check, just to pass through the door. >> why did they decide that? >> did they want to capture the data, hold on to that? did they not want people to see prices up front? i don't understand. people should see the prices up front. if this is going to be such a grand bargain, tell us. when they have discovered problems, let's not forget, when i asked about the cost for

business, was it okay for business, they said it was fine. they had to hide this into some blog on the fourth of july. even when they recognize a problem, why not look us in the eye and say we discovered a problem. there's no trust in terms of believing they can fix this. >> your job is oversight, to take a look at what's going on in the executive branch of the government. that's your subcommittee. that's your major responsibility. have they shared with you numbers, how many people have tried to log on, how many people have actually enrolled in the process, any of those numbers been made available to your subcommittee? >> haven't seen any of those things. you would think the biggest rollout this administration has had, or the federal government has had in years, they would want to keep a careful eye on it, particularly if they know there's problems. i would think that's the first call the secretary and others would make, tell us how many people have gotten through. >> you asked for those numbers. >> we don't have anything. >> some people say it's getting better now. there are certain opportunities in various states where it's much better than in other states. you've heard that. >> yes. states who designed their own website, it's much better. some states do not have this

problem. so it's possible to do this. but the second wave of what's happening is the actual cost. when i hear from people, in order to keep a plan that's close in price, they have gone from a $1,000 deductible to a $10,000 deductible. those are other concerns that will come out. once they get there, what is the cost. >> you have been an opponent of obama care from the beginning, right? >> i'm a proponent of health care reform and worked on it myself as a state senator and federal congressman but what happens is there's a lot of problems inherent in this in the way it was done. >> are you trying to fix it or get rid of it? >> well, it's sort of like the car that at some point you say it needs such a major overhaul you say this has got to be retooled from the beginning. a lot of things i actually support in this such as making sure someone who is ill gets health insurance or someone who is younger maintains it. there's no reason to cut those people out but the way this has been done with this massive control of it, it's making it very costly and it will get in the way of health care. >> you voted for the legislation to bring the government back into operation? >> yes. >> you were among the minority

of republicans who voted for that. >> i wanted to get back to regular order. i want to get these hearings going, see what's going on. >> we'll stay in close touch with you. thanks very much for joining us. tim murphy is the republican congressman from pennsylvania. by the way, we have pre repeatedly invited kathleen sebelius to join us here in "the situation room." so far she's declined but she has an open invitation to join us whenever she's ready. coming up, new information about the two murderers who were mistakenly freed from a florida prison. we have details of how it all went down. plus, a huge asteroid whizzes past earth. instead of letting it fly by, what if we could capture it instead? no matter how busy your morning you can always do something better for yourself. and better is so easy with benefiber. fiber that's taste-free, grit-free and dissolves completely. so you can feel free to add it to anything. and feel better about doing it. better it with benefiber.

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there are new developments in the story of two escaped murderers, murderers, in florida. cnn has now learned the two men who were released from a florida prison by a court order with forged signatures actually went back to a local jail to register as felons, which they appear to have done successfully before returning to their lives on the run. cnn's john zarrella is joining us live from orlando. what is going on, john? >> reporter: wolf, the sheriff here in orange county holding a news briefing right now. he is saying that they do believe from information that they have that both of the men are still in this area, in the orlando area. they say billboards have gone up with their pictures on them and

that a $5,000 reward has been issued for information leading to their captures. as you would expect, the victims' families are concerned. 9 years old, he was just 9 when roscoe pugh iii saw his father gunned down during a home invasion robbery. >> our lives would be totally different. i said that since i was 9 years old. since i was 9 years old, i said my life would have been different if i wouldn't have saw it. >> reporter: now 15 years later, roscoe is reliving the nightmare. on september 27th, this man, joseph jenkins, serving life for the murder of roscoe's dad, was mistakenly released from a prison in franklin county in the florida panhandle. for roscoe's mom, it's impossible to comprehend. >> seemed like my whole world came down on me. i thought i would not have to see them ever again in life, because they had life sentence plus 100 years. >> reporter: if one convicted murderer is set free by accident isn't enough, there's more.

a week and a half after jenkins went free, so did charles walker, convicted of second degree murder in a different case, and get this. walker walked out of the same florida prison. how is that possible? forged documents ordered the releases and on them, the forged signature of orange county judge belvin perry. >> so they even got letterhead. >> reporter: because he's a high profile judge, perry says he sees how it's possible no one would question it and he's not entirely surprised. >> people, particularly people with criminal minds, come up with ingenius ways to beat the system. they have nothing but time on their hands. >> reporter: the florida department of law enforcement was only notified of the mistake a couple days ago. corrections officials say they followed department policy and procedures. >> those inmates were released based on those court orders that we received.

the orders were later determined to be fraudulent. >> reporter: it's a snafu that has residents of the area and the pugh family living in fear. >> now to have to know that he's free on the streets is frightening. it's terrifying. >> reporter: how did law enforcement find out that these guys were on the loose? well, they found out from the mother of one of the victims. that's right, the mother of one of the victims. she got a letter from the state department of corrections telling her that her son's killer had been released. she went to the u.s. attorney's office to tell them what had happened, that she got this letter, and here's what she says they told her. >> he said i did not sign an order for his release. he said somebody been forging names and when he said that, i almost went into shock. >> reporter: the state attorney's office then passed the information on to the florida department of law enforcement, and the department of corrections, which got the

ball rolling, but that wasn't until the 15th of october, wolf, and of course, the sheriff continuing his news conference behind us there. again, showing pictures of the two men and those pictures that he has been showing were the ones that were taken when they showed up here within days of their release to do that voluntary registration. so obviously, trying to keep to the letter of the law so that no suspicion would be raised about their whereabouts. wolf? >> you would think, though, if someone is convicted of murder gets life plus 100 years, someone would have said are you sure the judge made the right decision, they would have checked and double-checked that kind of decision. what a blunder. what an awful mistake. it raises questions about what's going on over there and has this happened before, can it happen again. >> reporter: exactly. >> shocking. shocking story. >> reporter: that's the big question. >> they knew he was serving life plus 100 years for murder, and they let him go for whatever

reason. it's just a shocking story. john, thank you very much. let's get some of the other top stories that are coming into "the situation room" right now. firefighters in los angeles are battling a fire in a 25-story apartment building. our affiliate ktla reports three people have been hospitalized. check out the video from just a little while ago. you can see black smoke pouring out of an 11th floor window. the l.a. fire department tells ktla the fire is quote, largely contained but not fully extinguished. tech stocks rallied on wall street as google soared above $1,000 a share, well above google's previous all-time high. the stock surge nearly 14% after reporting higher than expected earnings and revenue. it was a big week for all major indices. the nasdaq finished up 3%. the s&p hit new highs, gaining more than 2% for the week. the dow added 1%. malala, the young pakistani girl shot by taliban militants,

met with queen elizabeth today and gave her a copy of her memoir, "i am malala." >> i want to present to you my book. >> that's very kind. thank you very much indeed. >> thank you so much. >> malala, who met with president obama at the white house last week, told the queen she hoped they could work together to make sure all children receive an education. sad news coming out of washington. the former house speaker tom foley has died. he was a democrat from washington state who spent 30 years in congress, serving as the house speaker from 1989 to 1995. he was then appointed u.s. ambassador to japan. former president george h.w. bush said foley quote, represented the very best in public service. tom foley was 84 years old and a very, very good man. coming up, imagine the power of a few thousand atomic bombs. that's what it would feel like

if a large asteroid crashed into earth. we will tell you how scientists think that could actually -- they could stop that from happening. surprising new revelations from the former vice president, dick cheney. it turns out his heart problems were so serious, he actually wrote a letter of resignation. zzing, and truck engine humming. sfx: birds chirping sfx: birds chirping of their type 2 diabetes with non-insulin victoza®. for a while, i took a pill to lower my blood sugar, but it didn't get me to my goal. so i asked my doctor about victoza®. he said victoza® is different than pills. victoza® is proven to lower blood sugar and a1c. it's taken once-a-day, any time, and comes in a pen. and the needle is thin. victoza® is not for weight loss, but it may help you

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if you have signs of pancreatitis, such as severe pain that will not go away in your abdomen or from your abdomen to your back, with or without vomiting. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take and if you have any medical conditions. taking victoza® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. the most common side effects are nausea, diarrhea, and headache. some side effects can lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney problems. if your pill isn't giving you the control you need ask your doctor about non-insulin victoza®. it's covered by most health plans. .. sfx: oil gushing out of pipe. sfx: birds chirping. coming up, why we might be spending $18 billion to capture an asteroid.

this after a budget battle that shut down the u.s. government. stay with us. you're in "the situation room." the day we rescued riley, was a truly amazing day. without angie's list, i don't know if we could have found all the services we needed for our riley. for over 18 years we've helped people take care of the things that matter most. join today at angieslist.com

there are now new reports of a huge and very dangerous asteroid zipping close to earth. there are concerns it could strike our planet sometimes in the next 20 years with a force so powerful it would feel like a couple thousand atomic bottoms.

does nasa have a plan to deal with it? tom foreman is joining us in our virtual studio to explain. >> reporter: the idea is let's go capture an asteroid. they've already identified a couple candidates, and it will begin like this, a powerful rocket will launch what they call the asteroid redirect vehicle. this is a robotic spacecraft driven far off into space by the most powerful solar propulsion system we have ever seen on this earth. it will be amazing accomplishment. no, we won't go past the stars, this gives you a sense of movement, but many hundreds of thousands of miles looking for a very small target, because the type of asteroid we're looking for will really only be about this big, about as two or three large pickup trucks, though it will weigh as much as two freight train engines, and it will be rotating. the sun heats it on one side,

and not the other, and it rotates. all the asteroids do that. so we have to stop it before we can capture it and bring it back. when the asteroid redirects vehicle approaches, it will deploy this high-tech space bag. then over a period of hours, slowly envelope this asteroid, and then squeeze down with that bag until all the rotation is stopped. this is one theory. then the whole shebang would come flying back toward earth and toward the moon more importantly where the redirect vehicle and encloyded asteroid would go into an orbit up above the lunar surface where astronauts could visit the asteroid and study it. the whole trip from the earth to the cosmos and back to the moon could take several years. not sure how many. maybe four, maybe six, maybe nine, but they're trying to get it ready around 2021.

>> there are some estimates, though, tom it would cost about $18 billion. so that's a lot of money out there, isn't it? >> reporter: that is a lot of money, yet scientists say we've learned a lot more about deep-space exploration, and a whole lot more about the minerals that might be out there in space. bottom line is they say, yes, exploration costs money, but that's why you explore, because you never know what you will find. >> tom foreman, thanks very much. a fascinating report. coming up, dick cheney reveals his, his heart problems were so serious, he actually wrote a letter of resignation. did you know more coffee drinkers

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it's another to arrive at the carousel and find -- on your suitcase. jeanne moos has the story. >> reporter: suitcases come in all colors, have you ever seen one come out "i am gay." that's an australian blogger says he found written on his bag when he claimed it as brisbane's airport. that old luggage commercial pretty much sums it up. >> when your suitcase is out of your hands, it's out of your hands. >> reporter: instead of some gorilla of a baggage handler beating up bags, someone used airline stickers to spell out "i am gay." the self-described straight blogger tweeted out the photo, then wrote about it. he said he was rushing for a connecting flight, so he dragged the bag through the terminal. my luggage was a scarlet letter. i got to walk in the shoes of a gay person in a public place for

no good reason i had had a slur marked over my luggage. i was degraded. i was shamed, i was humiliated. some gay people are saying "i am gay" isn't a slur, it's not degrading, not shaming. on the other hand other gay people saying it was intended to offend that the suitcase owner should be applauded for taking what was a random act of cruelty and turning it into a teachable moments. the airline, jetstar, apologized and said it's investigating. others are merely joking. for instance the gawker poster wo wrote -- that's not a gay suitcase. this is a gay suitcase, with barbara streisand all over it. others proclaimed their bags bisexual. i have a carry-on bag with wheels on the bottom and backpack straps. it goes both ways. what is it about airports anyway. remember when ellen came out in the lounge? >> i'm so afraid to tell people. i'm just -- susan, i'm gay.

that luggage carousels, we are alls dying for our suitcases to come out first. when this one indicate out, it didn't even get a hug. jeanne moos, cnn, new york. happening now, a growing controversy over the roll-out of the obama care website. we have new information on the foreign company that built it. plus paying for the shutdown, new signs that republicans may be hit where it hurts most, in their campaign war chests. and dick cheney reveals a shocking step he took when he was vice president, because he was so worried about his health. he's opening up to dr. sanjay gupta. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." this how we're learning about more problems. sources tell me there's

deepening anger and frustration inside the white house, throughout the administration about the embarrassing roll-out. republicans are pouncing, they're demanding that the health secretary kathleen sebelius resign and scheduling a house oversight hearing next week. we also have confirmation a little while ago that sebelius herself has not agreed to testify. she said she's too busy and won't be able to appear. that's only making republicans more ainge are you. what are you learning, brian? >> we've been speaking to those on the receives end insurance industry sources are telling us there are widespread problems with the applications coming in. now they are having to track back to solve them. signing up is now a problem not just for potential customers, but for the insurance companies processing the applications.

>> we talked to one gentleman who had not received the confirmation he had anticipated on the exchange website, so he hit "submit" a couple times, and ended up -- he was concerned he had enrolled in multiple plans. >> reporter: another company tells us soon after enrollment started, they had one customer mistakenly apply three times for two different plans. insurance industry sources tell cnn that insurers are getting duplicates, missing information, data without a timestamp. we did speak to other scherrers who told us they had no problems, got complete applications, but for those who have had problems -- >> we're calling each member and going over the information to make sure it's accurate. >> reporter: we called and e-mailed cgi, the private contractor which got tens of millions to design this system. we didn't hear back. the department of health and human services said, as individual problems are raised by insurers, we work

aggressively to address them. as for customers' problems, we first interviewed luke chung, who runs a database company, a week into the enrollment. he had been pulling his hair out. know he says there's still too many screens on the website for those applying. >> i entered a previous screens, then i had to come to this science. the next one i had to provide three secret answers. >> and should it all be on one screen? >> it should be on one screen. >> the way i would fix it -- i would have a change in management. technical technically, asking for as fee pieces of person to expedite the process ivlts to be chair, he says he has seen some

improvement on some pages on the website they have had added more questions on single pay just to save people have having to answer a question, save a screen and go to the next korean. official say they are hammering away at the glitches. >> when's the biggest fundamental problem that he sees there? >> reporter: he says what really they do that's unnerving to people who try to log on is they ask you to give you too much personal information just to get a price quote. he says with every other service, they give you the price. he says, look, give us just the prices, that's it. then if we decide to apply, then gather the personal information, but you've got to go through all the stuff. >> an explanation for why they came up with this strategy? all this personal information just to get various options? >> the best people to ask and get that information from is cgi. they're not talking to hardly

anybody. the administration says, look, we know these are problems, we're just hammering away and streamlining the process. they seem to be unwilling to answer the questions about those specific things. you get the impression they're trying to work with the contractor to iron it out, but it's very painstaking. >> the congressman having the hearings next week tlesz 400. we're also hearing new grim lynx from republican donors, bhor ticked off about the shutdown and their party's role in making it happen. it's raising more questions about the gop's future and the campaign kash. atheno jones is working this part of the story. you've been trying to reach out to some of this is donors. what are i learning? >> hi, wolf, i have talked to some in a big hughesen based donor told me he's not contributing to the national

party until he seeings republicans focusing on issues that matter to him like overwhat you willing the immigration. he also fears that another shutdown over obama care would seriously fp reduce chances of regaining the senate, so where does the gop go from here? a fractured gop is licking its wounds after the 16-day government shutdown. some members blasting a failed strategy, led be tail party stars like senator ted cruz, to defund obama care, and calling on their colleagues to be more pragmatic in future fights. >> you have to have some tactics and some respect for the fact this is a big party. i think obama care's bad policy, i agree with my colleagues there, but shutting down the government is bad policy. >> reporter: many donors believe the party got the tactics wrong. >> by and large, the republican donor community did not agree with attaches the shutdown to

funding or delaying obama care. >> still, the fight over obama care is almost certainly to kin. >> mitch mcconnell told "the hill" he won't allow another shutdown, but cruz hand ruled it out. conservative groups are vowing to fight on. former senator jim demind said -- many republicans are thankful for conservatives likes cruz and senator mike lee, and with a revived and engaged elector electoral, obama care will now be the issue for the next few years. what would that mean for the party's future? >> no doubt in the short term ted cruz has led a movement in the senate and in congress that has damaged the republican party, and frankly will be strengthening the democrats in terms of recruit machined and fund raying. >> reporter: what about the gop donors? >> the key is what the next steps are. i don't think donors have made

up their minds just yesterday, but clearly they won't bring out the checkbooks if they keep engaging in failures. >> reporter: another prominent republican i spoke with said while donors are angry, he believes they'll end up coming around. an rnc officials tells me the party is doing very well in terms of fund-raising in october and said wait until you see the final tally for this month. wolf? >> we'll be anxious to see it. still ahead, dick chen yes reveals his heart condition was even worse than we knew when he was vice president of the united states, so serious he took an unprecedented action. piers morgan standing by to join us live right here in "the situation room." he has a lot to say about obama care, grid december lock, by the way, if you have a question for piers, use the #sitroom. i'm only in my 60's. 6 is big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses,

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above $17 trillion, less than two days after congress approved the deal to raise the nation's debt limit. on wall street, investors made new gains setting aside earlier jitters about the government shutdown and debt prices. all three stock indices were up, with the s&p 500 reaching an all-time new high. more news coming into "the situation room" right now. to hae a saturday crowd. ♪ [ male announcer ] the parking lot helps by letting us know who's coming. the carts keep everyone on the right track. the power tools introduce themselves. all the bits and bulbs keep themselves stocked. and the doors even handle the checkout so we can work on that thing that's stuck in the thing. [ female announcer ] today, cisco is connecting the internet of everything. so everyone goes home happy. britta olsen is my patient. i spend long hours with her checking her heart rate, administering her medication, and just making her comfortable.

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u.s. officials say they're seeing real progress with the nuclear progress in iran. jim scuitto was in geneva. what did you see? how about it go? i want a number of usual officials have negotiated with iran before. i've covered talks in these very same geneva rooms. by all accounts, they have never had negotiations as open and promising as these. both sides speaking of an unusually positive atmosphere, one that got into real details about curbs to iran's program, which they say would not be the case if iran was not serious. in geneva u.s. officials called the talks more detailed and

candid than ever before. back in washington, lawmakers are now vowing not to budge on crippling economic sanctions until iran turns the positive atmosphere into geneva into hard action. >> we are basically giving the ayatollah a choice. if he wants to compromise on this program, we will move one way on sections. if on the other hand he wants to play us and continue to development his nuclear weapons capability, then we have the wherewithal to increase the pressure with the sanctions. >> reporter: the administration position, say u.s. officials, remains firm. no relief on sanctions until iran acts to rein in the nuclear program. >> we're not taking steps to relief sanctions. iran will have to agree to meaningful, transparent and verifiable actions before we can seriously consider stepping to ease sanctions. >> some of those verifiable steps in reduction of uranium enrich machined, and the possible closure of some nuclear

sites, includes an underground enrich me facility. those steps take on greater urn sill because iran has repeatedly lied about the program. >> translator: we have never chosen deceit as a path, we have never chosen secrecy. >> reporter: meanwhile, iran has moved closing to enriching numb uranium, as a result, david albright adds within more, fessing up about the past pursued of a nuclear weapon. >> if they can't be truthful about the past, it's very hard to trust anything they do today. >> reporter: u.s. officials sill there's distance between what ainging relief is appropriate. u.s. wants action before any easing of sanctions. iran would prefer the two to come at the same time, and there are still many skeptics. i spoke to the charity of the permanent slicked committee, he

said, quote, i believe the leaders of iran will tell us what we want to hearing, all the wile pursuing their nucleus ambitions. the administration is preparing a number of options, carrots, if you will, if iran delivers. jim scuitto, welcome back. good recording. meanwhile, surprising revelations from dick cheney. it turns out the heart problems were so serious, he took an unprecedented step. he actually wrote a letter of resignation, he opened up to our chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta. most people have a pretty strong opinion about dick cheney. you may by spreed to know over the past 35 years he's had five heart attacks, open-heart surgery, a heart pump, even a heart transplant at age 71. he revealed all of this in a new book he's written had wills cardiologist. but when i sad down with him, he

was so concerned about his health, just two months he took an unprecedented action. >> basically what i did was resigned the vice presidency. >> so nearly for your entire time, there was a letter of resignation pending. >> pending. he stated there was no provision to replace a vice president who was alive, but in capacity at a timed, he drew up a letter of resignation to give to the president. >> new orleans with section 20 of title iii of the united states code, i hereby resign the office of vice president of the united states. >> reporter: how did president bush react? >> he was a little surprised, but he thought it was a good idea. >> reporter: we also spent a lot of time talking about the impact such a significant disease had on his job, not only as vice president, but as secretary of defense and as a congressman. keep in mind he had his first

heart attack when he was just 37 years old. back to you. >> sanjay, thanks very much. to our viewers, you can see his interview tuesday on "anderson cooper 360". cnn's piers morgan is here, coming into "the situation room" here. >> i'm invading your "the situation room." >> you actually wrote this book? >> of course -- >> did you have a ghost writer? >> i wrote it. >> every single word? >> every single word. >> we're going to talk about this and more, when we come back. i mean, look at it. so indulgent. did i tell you i am on the... [ both ] chicken pot pie diet! me too! [ male announcer ] so indulgent, you'll never believe they're light. 100-calorie progresso light soups.

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more adventures await in the new seven-passenger lexus gx. lease the 2014 gx 460 for $499 a month for 27 months. see your lexus dealer. there's been plenty of ammunition for the late-night comics. listen to this. >> should we be happy the government is back? i mean, i kind of feel like my sister got back together with an abusive boyfriend or manage. if it didn't work during the shutdown. haven't these people suffered enough. president obama called for a new era of bipartisan cooperation.

yeah. yeah. yeah, he said this because obama likes to start off a speech with a joke. always a way to hook them in. stand by for another take on the shutdown crisis. guess what? piers morgan is here. he is thrilled. so am i. we're going to talk and discuss, when we come back.

piers morgan certainly doesn't hold back, or in his brand-new book titled "shooting straight." piers is here in "the situation room." i've got through the book. you really hit right from the heart. very quickly, what is george clooney doing on the cover? >> because i wanted to find a celebrity that could go with the more serious issues who i felt

was a proper star. you've met george clooney. to me he personifies what a star is, as opposed to a celebrity. he cares passionately about big issues, but he's funny, charming, old school, he wearing a great tux. he's like you, the wolf blitzer of hollywood. >> let's talk about some of the current news. what do you make of the old obama care website glitches. these are serious problems. this is the signature achievement that the president has rolled out. clearly it wasn't completely ready. >> i think it's ridiculous, but you have to look at it politically, as if imagine what the republicans had done the last two weeks was hammer obama care for not working properly. they would have been in the driving seat, as it is here on the back foot behalf dast way they tried to defund it. senator cruz has his gander up,

and he knows obama care is president obama's vulnerable. >> they make it so complicated. if you want to buy a ticket on a flight, you can go to american airlines, check out the opportunities. 30 different flights, nonstop, cheap, expensive, first class, coach, whatever, but you don't have to give them your credit card right away to check out options. here you have to give a lot of personal information just to check out the options. >> this is crazy. you've seen cnn reporters struggling with it. imagine, you know, what is going on all over america. >> in britain someone would have to resign, a cabinet member. >> no question would have already been gone by now. >> already. >> but remember, i come back to the positive side. in britain we have the national health system. everyone is entitled to free health care. you can't get away from the fact that what the president is trying to do is bring 11 million people into health coverage that wouldn't have anything.

that's a good thing, but if the system doesn't work, then it's all hopeless. >> a question from a twitter follower, and i know you're very active on twitter -- do you think comparing the uk system to the u.s. system is unfair due to the size and scale -- >> america has five times the population of britain, but our health care system is very different. people over here think it's socialized health care, really it's not you would get immediate health care and wouldn't wake up on morphine can a doctor handing you an invoice. i felt i woke up in l.a. with five broken ribs and there was somebody trying to make me pay money as i laid there semiconscious. >> people overseas, they don't understand why this country doesn't have what you would call universal health care and certainly don't understand --

correctly if i'm wrong -- and you've been outspoken in the book -- the availability of guns. they don't understand the second amendment. >> i think the thing about the whole issue of guns is you have to have a rational debate. the problem at the moment is everybody is on the extremity. i am covered by the constitution as a u.s. resident, which i am legally, and i look at it and i say, this is not a license for american civilians to being to go and buy assault weapons. to me that's crazy, tick lay when i can't buy as walmart a kinder surprise chocolate egg, because the little toys inside may choke. i can't buy sick packets of sudafed, because i may be building machinery. i can't go buy french cheese in many places of america because of the hygiene bacterial risk, but can buy an assault rifle in a superstore. something has to change.

>> what about the news. >> the news never stops. when you get a voice, as i've developed i think almost by default, something i care very passionately about, i've now seen the history. we had our own sandy hook, we campaigned in prison, got handguns and assault weapons banned. so i think they'll learn a few things -- >> i didn't. >> also learn you, as i write, are a nice guy. >> shooting straight is the name of the book. an excellent read, piers, thanks for coming in. >> thank you. always good to have you here. i'll be back on monday. "crossfire" with eleanor holmes norton, and larry elders starts right now. tonight on "crossfire" --

the washington redskins, is the name a proud tribute on to our national heritage? >> it's not about disrespect. or an offensive throwback? >> it's a racial epithet, a racial slur. in the "crossfire" eleanor holmes horton who supports changing the team's name, and larry elder, who is again it. renaming the redskins. ask righting a wrong or caving into political correctness? tonight on "crossfire." welcome to "crossfire." i'm van jones on the left. >> i'm s.e. cupp on the right. you probably have heard about it. there's a battle brewing in washington, in between democrats and republicans, it's over the flame of washington redskins. listen to what bob costas said