Families of  Jailed U.S. Hikers Plead For Compassion
ROMANS: Thousands celebrating as Libyan rebels reach the heart of Tripoli. But the big question remains, where is Moammar Gadhafi, on this American Morning. And good morning. It's Monday, August 22nd. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Christine Romans.</s>COSTELLO: And I'm Carol Costello. Ali has the morning off. There's a lot going on internationally today, so let's get right to it. We are watching breaking news for you this morning. New explosions rocking Moammar Gadhafi's compound overnight. NATO and Libyan rebels hope he'll come out from wherever he's hiding. Across Libya, thousands of Libyans are now celebrating after rebel forces rolled into the heart of Tripoli.</s>ROMANS: President Obama is monitoring all of this, of course, and said Libya is slipping from the grasps of a tyrant and that Gadhafi needs to face reality and acknowledge he is no longer in control.</s>COSTELLO: And as Gadhafi's regime begins to crumble, a 19-year-old woman who lives in Tripoli who does not want to be identified, called in to our newsroom to do something she has never been able to do before, speak freely.</s>RESIDENT OF TRIPOLI (via telephone): This is the freedom we've been waiting for for 42 years. He'd been president for 42 years, not to mention the last six months, where we weren't allowed to do anything here in Tripoli, just sitting at home at night you don't know where your neighbor is. So, today when the day came, I don't even know how to explain it. We were outside of the windows screaming. No one can control</s>COSTELLO: Remember when Gadhafi used to hold those press conferences and he surrounded himself with people who supposedly loved him and there was cheering for him. Well, where are those people now?</s>ROMANS: I know. The very square where people are gathering right now that has been taken by the rebels -- just a month ago was covered with a humongous poster of him and his military regalia, but now, it's being tramp on.</s>COSTELLO: Torn down. Sarah Sidner rolled into the capital of Tripoli with the rebels and she watched as they seized control of the city and the people came alive at a time when no one knew for sure whether Gadhafi forces would fight or fly. Take a look.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Allahu Akbar. Finished, finished, Gadhafi.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tripoli very, very happy. Gadhafi finished. Now, we live in freedom.</s>SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are in Green Square what you're seeing behind me are a few people that the rebels are now saying there's going to be a massive battle here. They do not have full control of the city.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the moment, we are not fully in control of Tripoli because you can see, you can see that --</s>SIDNER: What does this make you -- how do you feel about this day? You are from Tripoli. Why is this day important? This day historic day?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A historic day because we had to leave from here like scared, without anything, and now we had to fight. I'm not a fighter. I'm a student. And it's my first time like handle a gun.</s>SIDNER: The civilians are now gone from here and now, we also have to leave.</s>SIDNER: We're here in the middle of Tripoli. What we're seeing is rebels all over the square. There are really no civilians, mostly men with guns in the square. But we're also seeing people running. There's a lot of gunfire. They say there are snipers. We all had to pull back. The situation is very tense here. But there is a lot of celebrating going on. Some of this is just gunfire in the air. But people are very, very concerned because they say there were snipers posted at the top of some buildings. They're not sure exactly where some of the gunfire is coming from. So, every now and then, you see people running, trying to get out of the way. But right now, the rebels have Green Square, and it is a historic moment here in Tripoli, in the capital. The real stronghold of Moammar Gadhafi has now been taken over by the rebels. Sarah Sidner, CNN, Tripoli.</s>ROMANS: NATO says the Gadhafi regime is clearly crumbling. But two key questions this morning, what's the tipping point that removes Gadhafi from power and what will the U.S. role be? Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon for us. Good morning, Barbara.</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine. Well, you know, this is what U.S. officials have been looking for for days, that tipping point at which Gadhafi can no longer recover, he cannot credibly say, again, that he leads Libya, something that's been in question for some time, of course. The tipping point factors they're looking for, can he communicate with his loyalists forces? Can he even issue orders to them? Can he pay them? What can he do with his forces that will change the play on the ground on this battlefield? Right now, all of that by all accounts appears to be ebbing away. You are seeing these interrupted communications in Tripoli. NATO by all accounts is interrupting those communications to do that very thing, to keep him from communicating and issuing orders to his forces. U.S. officials for many days now have said his days are numbered over the last several hours, saying really, his grasp on control, whatever it was, is slipping away. But the question now, of course, is what does come next. What does NATO do? What does the U.S. do? How can the rebels transition all of this into a credible functioning government in Libya very quickly? Christine, Carol?</s>ROMANS: And that's a question, I guess, Barbara. What could the U.S. role be here? I mean, there's been criticism about the U.S. role so far. Some saying it went too far. That's what liberals say. Senator John McCain, for example, said we didn't give enough of an active role.</s>STARR: Well, look, the U.S. did something very different here as everyone has seen than it did in Iraq or Afghanistan. This was a NATO operation. This did not have a U.S. face on it. That was very deliberate. The U.S. did not want to get involved with combat forces in a third war. The idea was to have NATO take the lead in this, back up from the United States, with support, with some air power, with some communications. By all accounts, it's worked up until this point. You know, clearly, the Gadhafi regime has taken some time, but it is crumbling very, very rapidly today. The question now will be the economic assistance, the humanitarian relief, medical supplies, assistance in forming a new government, if the Libyans want it, trying to get this country back as rapidly as possible, to a functioning government, and a functioning society. There are oil resources at stake. Libya's very strategic on the southern coast of the Mediterranean, very important. Things should start moving very quickly. We'll see how it goes -- Carol, Christine.</s>ROMANS: Barbara Starr -- thanks, Barbara.</s>COSTELLO: Planning for Libya with no Gadhafi. The State Department has already mirrored what President Obama said about the dictator, which is sort of a "face it, it's over already." But what the transition will look like exactly is much more involved, as you just heard? Jill Dougherty, live at the State Department now. So, what do you hear from the State Department about what a new Libya will be like?</s>JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, there's a short-term and a long term. Right now, you have the fighting and as that transition occurs or begins at least, it's very important that the TNC -- and, of course, that's the Transitional National Council, which has been leading the rebel movement -- is doing everything that it says it would do and that is to be as democratic as possible and create next a democratic structure. So, if there were reprisals or retribution, that would be a big problem. Let's say that they began unilaterally shooting Gadhafi supporters. So, the -- I just was in communication with a senior U.S. official with direct knowledge of what is going on, and this official says that the news reports from Tripoli are encouraging. Excuse me. So far, the people are avoiding retribution. So, that's one. And then the State Department issuing a statement and listen to exactly how it's phrased. "Assistant Secretary of State Jeff Feltman's visit to Benghazi," which is a rebel stronghold, "we continue efforts to encourage the TNC to maintain broad outreach to across all segments of Libyan society and to plan for post-Gadhafi Libya." And what they're saying, though, that broad outreach is very important, because Libya is a tribal society. If they do not include everybody, that could be an indication or an invitation to some very serious problems within the country. And then they also have to make sure that they create this post-Gadhafi society. What would happen, actually, is they would have a transitional, not just the TNC, that would lead to an interim authority, that interim authority would then create the structures for having elections, writing a new constitution, et cetera. So, there is a lot of work and a lot of challenge here, especially when you get into the issues, Carol, and, Christine, of money that will now be freed up for the TNC. Huge amounts of it, $30 billion, $34 billion coming from the United States alone, which is the money that was freed up in the United States. When you get that amount of money, how it's going to be divided up, who's going to use it, will it be done correctly, becomes a very big issue.</s>COSTELLO: Very big issue, especially for taxpayers who are essentially paying the bill and, you know, we're talking about this and Gadhafi still out there.</s>DOUGHERTY: Yes. But we should make clear that is money that belongs to the Libyans that was frozen. It's their assets that were frozen. Those would be freed up. So, we're not at that point talking about U.S. tax dollars.</s>COSTELLO: Thanks for clarifying. We appreciate that. Jill Dougherty live from the -- live from Washington today.</s>ROMANS: So, what are the opinion pages saying this morning about Libya and other news of the day. Here's some of what's being said in paper and online in our morning opinion segment. "The Wall Street Journal" critical of the U.S. for not taking a stronger stand on Libya from the very beginning. Editorial in "The Journal" says in part, "The shame is how much faster Gadhafi might have been defeated, how many fewer people might have been killed, and how much more influence the U.S. might now have."</s>COSTELLO: With all that is going on in Libya, not to mention high unemployment and a volatile stock market, Margaret Carlson addresses those who have been critical of the president for taking a vacation. Here's some of what she says in "Bloomberg." She says, "The truth is a president can't solve most of the problems on his desk, even if he never leaves the Oval Office. He might as well take a few days off." Just a little sampling of the op-eds this morning for you. Coming up next on</s>AMERICAN MORNING: the rebels say Libya is now under their control, but Moammar Gadhafi is not backing down. Coming up next, we'll talk with a woman who's interviewed Gadhafi and has written a book on the "Arab Spring."</s>ROMANS: "Arab Spring" just got a new whiff of life, didn't it? And hurricane Irene gaining strength, could the U.S. be in its path and when -- on this AMERICAN MORNING.