Compromise in Contraception Controversy; GOP Candidates Rally Conservatives; Sandusky Hearing; Dozens More Die in Syria; Sandusky Arrives at Court
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Soledad, thank you so much. Good morning, everyone. Lots going on this hour on this busy Friday. But we're going to start with breaking news about that controversy involving the White House and a policy involving birth control. We've just learned the Obama administration could put out a compromise for Catholics today. Dan Lothian is at the White House. So, Dan, what exactly are you hearing?</s>DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, I'm hearing that a compromise or an accommodation, as they like to call it here. I'm hearing this from a senior administration official, will likely be announced today. We're trying to get more details but it will likely be some kind of a balance whereby women do have access to contraceptive coverage but at the other hand a bit you will have these organizations, religious affiliated organizations will not have to directly provide that coverage. It's unclear whether this will be enough to ease the concerns of these religious organizations and others who really were looking for a reversal of this policy. What's clear though is there's been a lot of pressure on this White House over the last couple of weeks, not only from the Catholics and other religious groups, but also from lawmakers up on Capitol Hill. Republicans. Also the Republican presidential hopefuls out on the campaign trail. And then yesterday we saw some prominent Democrats also step up and join the fray. We heard from Senator John Kerry who was calling for a compromise, saying that there should be some way to provide this coverage, the coverage that women need, but at the same time respect religious beliefs. So it does appear again likely that the administration will be making some kind of announcement on this today and I'll tell you, it has been dogging this administration. Yesterday two different events that the president had here at the White House he was asked by reporters to give some kind of comment on this controversy and he declined to do so but apparently now the White House will be addressing that today.</s>PHILLIPS: OK. Dan Lothian at the White House. Thanks so much. Now let's talk about the Republican road to the White House, shall we? A critical weigh station for those seeking the GOP nomination. This is CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference. It's the annual gathering of all the movers and shakers basically in the conservative movement. And three of the four candidates are going to speak today trying to win conservative support in a race that right now is just too close to call. Rick Santorum, fresh off of three big victories this week, he's going to speak next hour. We're going to carry that live. And then Mitt Romney is trying to regain his momentum. One source actually close to the campaign telling us he's going to deliver a, quote, "major speech" at about 12:55 Eastern. And then Newt Gingrich will speak just after 4:00 Eastern Time. CNN political editor Paul Steinhauser is live at CPAC. And, Paul, I understand the music may start in moments so you just let us know. We can always come back to you. But Rick Santorum we mentioned speaking next hour. How does he keep his momentum going?</s>PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: Well, Kyra, here's what I've learned. And yes, the speakers are just starting, it's just getting underway here. Day two of three days here at CPAC. And as you mentioned, this is the grand daddy. This is the Super Bowl. Basically a political convention. All top conservative leaders, activists, supporters are here. So what does Santorum do? Well, I spoke to a senior aid for the Santorum campaign, he says that Rick Santorum today will concentrate more against President Barack Obama than his rivalries for the Republican presidential nomination. And expect the former senator from Pennsylvania to also criticize the White House, the administration for going after and assaulting the liberty of Americans. So I think you'll hear a lot of tough talk from Rick Santorum. Remember he is very popular among conservatives. The other thing he needs to do here is the behind the closed door meetings. He needs to talk to top conservatives and top fundraisers to build his campaign and monopolize and capitalize on those big three victories from Tuesday night -- Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: All right. Paul, now a source close to Romney's campaign is saying he's going to deliver this, quote, "major speech." What do you know about this?</s>STEINHAUSER: Yes, exactly. This is his attempt here to try to court conservatives. Listen, I think Tuesday night was a very big and vivid illustration. Mitt Romney still has trouble with core conservatives, with those on the right. So for what we hear, he may also highlight his record as Massachusetts governor, his fiscal responsibility and his protection of religious freedoms. Remember, Kyra, four years ago Mitt Romney was the conservative alternative to Senator John McCain and here at CPAC he actually ended his campaign but ended up winning that all important straw poll. It's very different four years later -- Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: All right. Paul Steinhauser watching everything for us there at CPAC. Paul, thank you so much. And you can stay with us for continuing coverage of today's CPAC event. In just about 30 minutes we're also going to talk about Hispanic voters and their impact on deciding the next president. Also Wolf Blitzer joining me live to preview Rick Santorum's CPAC speech today that we just talked about. That's probably going to happen about 10:25 Eastern Time. And we will bring that to you live. Now to that crisis in Syria. More people dying and the gun battles raging on in the streets. And you can see the government forces shelling neighborhoods. Pro-democracy activists say that innocent civilians continue to be slaughtered and because the regime continues to ban us from covering this story, we continue to count on citizen journalists like this.</s>DANNY, SYRIAN ACTIVIST: This is one of the houses in Baba Amr. Look at these children. Is this how the Assad regime is supposed to treat our children? Now you see what Assad regime is killing to children. What is the U.N. going to do about this? What is the U.N. going to do about this? Nothing. They're going to sit and discuss and see what they're going to do. They want to do this peacefully, they want to solve it peacefully with this murderer. After what he did to these children. They have been hitting us since 6:00 a.m. until it's 2:00 p.m. now. We have over 100 bodies, over 200 underneath the destructions. We don't even know who they are.</s>PHILLIPS: And Syria's government is also giving its take. State TV calling these activists terrorists and that they bombed two buildings of security forces. CNN's Ivan Watson is in Istanbul, Turkey, for us. Ivan, tens of thousands of people took to the streets today to protest the regime. What's your take and what are you hearing? Can Bashar al-Assad survive this?</s>IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think, you know, most of the analysts, most of the activists who are participating in these protests that we're talking to thinking the short term, he will survive, even though there are clearly armed elements now within this 11-month-old protest movement that the government accuses of carrying out two deadly bombings in the second city of Aleppo this morning. For the time being the Syrian military does enjoy a near monopoly of power. It has tanks, it has helicopters, and planes, and cannons. And it has shown the willingness to use them. It is killing to stay in power. But any analyst you talk to, anybody who knows Syria also knows that the majority of Syrian society does not come from the small religious minority of Bashar al-Assad and his family. That is the Alawite religious minority. The majority are Sunni Muslims. And the majority of the people that I'm talking to, those soldiers who were defecting from the military do tend to come from that Sunni majority. And anybody you talk to says in the long term the numbers are against Bashar al-Assad. He can kill and kill and kill but it keeps pushing people into the arms of the opposition and increasingly into the arms of an armed opposition -- Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: Can we talk about the rebels and what do we know about how they are getting help, support, weapons?</s>WATSON: Well, there is not a monolithic unified rebel army. It's a bit of a misnomer that the armed opposition, these defector soldiers, several thousand of them we understand, have called themselves the free Syrian army because it seems much more like they're independent selves much like the opposition protesters who operate on their own, some of them trying to protect the demonstrators, some of them carrying out some attacks. And there are divisions within their leadership. I mean, I've been talking to guys who all claim to be leaders of the Free Syrian Army and clearly hate each other. And that's one of the big problems for the opposition. It's not united. There are opposition activists exiles here in Istanbul. And they snipe at each other. And the diplomats and the activists that deal with them are sometimes are very frustrated. Many with their lack of organization, their lack of efficacy. And I think that comes down to, part of it, the fact that this is a country that's been ruled by a dictatorship for decades that does not have an experience of party politics, of organizing itself. Also, when you stood up and said no to this president, it often ended up landing you in jail possibly being tortured. So this is all new for Syrians right now, but they're in a crucible of fire trying to figure out how to deal with this. Just trying to figure out how to get medicine to their besieged citizens who are dying this week by the hundreds every day.</s>PHILLIPS: Ivan Watson in Istanbul, Turkey, for us. Ivan, thanks. Back here in the states, he faces 52 counts of alleged sexual abuse involving young boys and neighbors have expressed fear for the school children that he can see from his back porch. So now prosecutors want former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky to stay inside during his house arrest. Both sides will argue their motions during a hearing beginning next hour. Jason Carroll joins us live from Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. Jason, you've got new information, I'm told, that the defense will present to show that Jerry Sandusky's grandchildren want to see him?</s>JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's true, Kyra. And it has to do with what happened yesterday. Apparently yesterday Joe Amendola met with the members of the attorney general's offices. As you know the attorney general and prosecutors basically said look, if you want the conditions of the bail modified? You say that Jerry Sandusky's grandchildren want to see him, well, show us proof. Well, yesterday during this meeting, Joe Amendola presented this proof that he intends to show in court today. It's basically written testimony from five of Jerry Sandusky's children that would be presented. So that is the proof that he will be showing in court today. Now either the judge can rule on some of this today or he can take it under advisement and rule on it later -- Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: All right. Now neighbors have also complained about Sandusky outside of his home. As we know, and we've talked about this since the very beginning, that he lives right next to a school. You can see the school playground from his back porch. He hasn't approached any of these kids though, right?</s>CARROLL: Not to our knowledge, but the complaints are there. For example, there was a complaint from one neighbor that they saw Jerry Sandusky out shoveling snow. And they wondered about that. Well, his attorney tells me that he had permission from his probation officer to go out there and shovel the snow. There was another complaint from a neighbor who said that he saw Jerry Sandusky staring at one of the children from the playground. Jerry Sandusky says that from his account he remembers seeing a woman walking with a child. As soon as they made eye contact, he went back inside the house. I think, Kyra, the bottom line is that the defense wants to loosen some of the restrictions on house arrest. He wants Jerry Sandusky to be able to see his grandchildren. He wants Jerry Sandusky to be able to leave the house if he needs to be able to have legal counsel. And the prosecution is saying, quote, "That this is not a house party." That's their words. This is not a house party. They say this is a man who's facing some very serious allegations and if anything the conditions of house arrest should be even more restrictive rather than loosened up a bit. These are -- this is another point that will be discussed today during this hearing -- Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: Keep us posted, Jason. Thanks so much. A school bus in North Carolina going up in flames. We're going to hear from the driver and how she got all of those kids out of that bus. And a child is forced to run in the snow, nearly naked. The full story and the video, next.