[Wolf Blitzer:] Rick, thank you. Happening now, breaking news the American hiker recently released by Iran meets with President Ahmadinejad. We have details. And 911 blame and anger President Obama has choice words for Iran over allegations that the terror attacks were America's fault. Right now, Mr. Obama's approval rating has sunk to a new low. The best political team on television talks about where the president has gone wrong and how he may pay for it on election day. And the mood inside the hearing room during Stephen Colbert's mocking testimony. The TV comic put the spotlight, though, on a serious issue. Were the lawmakers, though, in on the joke? I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. But we begin with the breaking news a remarkable face-to-face meeting today between the president of Iran and the American hiker who was jailed in his country for over a year. Mary Snow has got the details for us. She's joining us from New York. What the happened Mary?
[Mary Snow, Cnn Correspondent:] Well, Wolf, that meeting took place today here in New York. We're told that Sarah Shourd and her mother, Nora, met with Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. That is according to Samantha Topping, a spokeswoman representing the families of the hikers who had been jailed in Iran since July of 2009. At this point, we don't have details of that meeting. Sarah Shourd was released on September 14 and has been speaking out since then in an effort to gain the release of her fiance, Shane Bauer, and friend, Josh Fattal. Now, earlier today, I spoke with Sarah Shourd. I asked her if she could make a direct appeal to Iran's president, what would she say? Here's what she told me.
[Sarah Shourd, U.s. Hiker Freed By Iran:] And I want to beseech him and beg him to extend the same generosity and compassion and understanding and give the same humanitarian gesture to my fiance and my friend.
[Snow:] Now, Ahmadinejad has been in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. On Wednesday, Wolf, he spoke with CNN's Larry King. And Larry King asked him if he would consider meeting with the families while they were in New York. At that point, he said he would consider it. Now, we hope to have more details soon about this meeting. We will also have more of my interview with Sarah Shourd in the next hour Wolf.
[Blitzer:] All right. We'll stand by for that. Mary Snow, thank you. An angry reaction from President Obama today to what he calls "hateful allegations" leveled at the United States by Ahmadinejad. It was a direct response to the Iranian president, who went before the United Nations General Assembly yesterday and poured more fuel on conspiracy theories about the 911 attacks. Let's bring in our White House correspondent, Dan Lothian. He's in New York Dan?
[Dan Simon, Cnn Correspondent:] Well, Wolf, you know, one expert on Iran says that when Ahmadinejad comes to the United States, New York and the UN, he comes to put on a show to confront his Western critics face to face-to-face. Well, if that, indeed, is the case, he did not disappoint.
[Lothian:] Iran's president, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, once again opened his mouth and inserted not only his foot, but some might say his entire leg blaming the U.S. for the 911 attacks.
[Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President Of Iran:] Some segments within the U.S. government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy and its grips on the Middle East in order to save the Zionist regime.
[Lothian:] The White House called his comments "outrageous" and President Obama fired back personally in an interview with BBC Persia. [Begin Video Clip, Courtesy Bbc Persian]
[Barack Obama, President Of The United States:] It was offensive. It was hateful. And particularly for him to make the statement here, in Manhattan, was inexcusable.
[Lothian:] So much for only using the interview as a way to extend a warm embrace to the people of Iran, to show that sanctions were not a personal attack on them, but a way to rein in their country's nuclear ambitions. But Ahmadinejad has a habit of making outrageous claims, like this about gays. [Begin Video Clip From 2007]
[Ahmadinejad:] In Iran, we don't have homosexuals like in your country.
[Lothian:] And this about Jews. [Begin Video Clip From September 2009]
[Ahmadinejad:] It is unacceptable that a small minority should dominate the politics, economy and culture of vast parts of the world, through a complicated network, and establish a new form, in fact, of slavery.
[Lothian:] But one expert on Iran says Ahmadinejad's rhetoric, as frustrating as it may be, should not stand in the way of pursuing meaningful dialogue.
[Sharon Squassoni, Center For Strategic And International Studies:] I don't know how you convince him that that's the case, but, you know, so far, the problem is we don't have any better interlocutors. We haven't identified others in the Iranian government that might be more reasonable.
[Lothian:] Ahmadinejad suggested that threats and sanctions are not the right strategies, that this kind of pressure will only hurt the diplomatic effort. But speaking to reporters today, he did suggest that he was open to talks as early as next month in order to resolve the nuclear issue Wolf.
[Blitzer:] All right, Dan. Thank you. A day after President Obama urged the United Nations to embrace Middle East peace, his administration may repeat may be very close to breaking a stalemate in the peace process. Diplomor diplomatic sources telling CNN right now that a compromise may be in the works on new construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. We're told the secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, is due to meet in the next hour with top Palestinian officials. Palestinians have threatened to leave peace talks if Israel doesn't extend a freeze on settlement construction that ends this weekend. We're told one possible compromise would let Israel keep the freeze in place, to a large degree, but still allow some limited construction. Jill Dougherty is working the story. We'll let check in with her later. Now to Capitol Hill. At a time when so many Americans are not happy with elected officials and some even think politics is a joke, we got this a mock newsman delivering a sarcastic statement about a very, very real problem. The comedian, Stephen Colbert, apparently is serious about the debate over migrant farm workers and whether they take jobs away from Americans. He even accepted a labor group's challenge to experience life in the fields firsthand. And that led to an invitation to appear before Congress today. But did he help the cause or hurt it? Let's bring in our senior Congressional correspondent, Dana Bash. She was there in the hearing room. A lot of media attention that normally wouldn't have been much media attention. But it certainly seemed a little bit surreal, didn't it Dana?
[Dana Bash, Cnn Senior Congressional Correspondent:] It was definitely surreal to be in the room of those of us waiting for him and not just reporters, but also, frankly, members of Congress wanted to know which Stephen Colbert would show up? Would we see the faux conservative talk show host that we see every night on "The Colbert Report" or would it be a serious straight man talking about the issue in this hearing, which is farm wages and workers' rights. And it turned out, Wolf, we got a mix of both.
[Bash:] Sure, celebrities testify before Congress all the time, but not like this.
[Stephen Colbert, Host, "the Colbert Report":] When you're picking beans, you have to spend all day bending over. It turns out and I did not know this most soil is at ground level. If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we make the Earth waist high? Come on, where is the funding? This is America. I don't want a tomato picked by a Mexican. I want it picked by an American, then sliced by a Guatemalan and served by a Venezuelan in a spa where a Chilean gives me a Brazilian.
[Bash:] Congressmen in both parties were visibly surprised. Some tried not to giggle. Colbert's comedic in character opener was far different from the straightforward statement he told the committee he would deliver. It was a risk Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren knowingly took, inviting the comedian to testify about the plight of migrant workers.
[Colbert:] You know, when I pick these beans, you're on my turf here.
[Bash:] And talk about his day working on a New York farm this summer to see what it's like.
[Colbert:] We have to do something, because I am not going back out there. At this point, I break into a cold sweat at the sight of a salad bar.
[Bash:] At times, the satirist was serious about the cause.
[Colbert:] And it seems like one of the least powerful people in the United States are are migrant workers who come and do our work but don't have any rights as a result. And yet we still invite them to come here and, at the same time, ask them to leave.
[Bash:] There was lots of Colbert's trademark truthiness.
[Colbert:] Maybe this AG jobs bill would help. I don't know. Like most members of Congress, I haven't read it.
[Bash:] The top Republican openly questioned why Colbert was qualified to talk about farm workers and whether migrants are doing the jobs Americans won't.
[Unidentified Male:] Does one day working in the field make you an expert witness?
[Colbert:] Well, I believe one day of me studying anything makes me an expert.
[Unidentified Male:] How many of those individuals were illegal and how many were legal?
[Colbert:] I didn't ask them for their papers, though I I I had a strong urge to.
[Bash:] But Republicans weren't the only skeptics. In an awkward moment, the Democratic chairman of the full committee was so worried about the event becoming a circus, he tried to kick Colbert out even before he spoke.
[Rep. John Conyers , Judiciary Committee:] I'm asking you to leave the committee room completely and submit your statement instead.
[Rep. Zoe Lofgren , California:] And I think many are eager to hear his comments.
[Colbert:] I'm only here at her invitation.
[Bash:] Obviously, Stephen Colbert stayed. And Conyers told me afterwards that, at the end, he actually thought it went well. He said Colbert was funny and even, quote, "profound." And as for the chairwoman who invited him, she said afterwards at least according to somebody who I spoke to close her she has no regrets and that she got what she wanted, and that is attention to a cause an issue that she says she has hearings on and no cameras show up at all. And, in fact, the hallways were absolutely filled with reporters. The hearing room was packed. In fact, that congresswoman, the chairwoman, Zoe Lofgren, she even joked during the hearing, Wolf, that she hasn't seen that many people that many press reporters in the Judiciary Committee since Bill Clinton's impeachment.
[Blitzer:] A surreal moment for a very, very serious issue, as you say. Dana, thanks very much. We have new evidence coming into THE SITUATION ROOM that voters' great expectations for the Obama presidency are being dashed. Stand by. We have some striking new poll numbers just weeks before critical midterm elections. And should Evangelicals be allowed to sing the praises of Christianity at a U.S. Army base? Just ahead, the complaints about a concert set for tomorrow. We'll update you on what's going on? And Big Brother is watching New Yorkers even more now than ever before. We're going to bring you an update on the controversy over cameras placed around the city. Stay with us. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.