the outside world with william cohen. it is a new day hopefully a far safer one for sunlts at a los angeles school at the center of a shobi ishocking child abu n scandal. they were greeted with an entirely new staff. the whole staff was replaced after the arrest of at least two teachers accused of committing lewd acts with students. eight alleged victims are expected to announce the first lawsuits in that case. president obama is let'sing states off the hook when it comes to the no child left behind law. the president is expected to announce this hour that he's freeing ten states from stricter parts of the law in return for a promise to improve how they evaluate and prepare students. those states will no longer be forced to meet the requirement that all students be proficient in reading and math by 2014. mr. obama's announcement is due to start at 1:55 eastern time and we'll bring it to you live. finally big relief to the tune of 26 billion for distressed homeowners. if you were watching last hour, you heard president obama discuss the deal with five of the nation's biggest banks. the settlement will help homeowners burned by foreclosure abuses after the rupture of the housing bubble in 2008. federal and state officials charged that the badges were involved in ilt legal short cuts and other deceptive practices. the banks will reduce loans for nearly 1 million households and send checks of up to $2,000 to about 750,000 homeowners who were improperly foreclosed upon. rick santorum is making bank on his triple win in missouri, minnesota and colorado. the former pennsylvania senator raised $1 million in one day. santorum's campaign says you can thank online dough mores for a good chunk of that. at one point his campaign website crashed because it was getting so many visitors. today he's in oklahoma pushing hiydraulic fracing, pounding president obama and buttering up for super tuesday. >> you look at all the states on super tuesday, oklahoma as i said before is the bedrock of the republican party, the conservative movement in this country. >> you can hear directly from santorum right here on cnn, he will be speaking with john king on jk usa tonight at 6:00 p.m. eastern. gay couples if washington state are probably hearing wedding bells right now. state lawmakers have approved a same-sex marriage bill making washington the seventh state to take such action. but it didn't happen without intense debate. the senate passed the measure last week, it now goes to the governor who promises to sign the bill. illinois could be the next state. three lawmakers have filed a measure that would eliminate the part of state law that explicitly prohibits gay marriage. women in the u.s. military can expect new roles placing them even closer to the combat zone. the defense department said that possibility will occur when it opens up nearly 14,000 jobs to military women. right now women are restricted from serving in small ground units involved in combat. but for the past decade, many have served in support positions that have put them in harm's way anyway. some of the new jobs include tank or artillery mechanics. a federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by the animal rights group peta that aurpgd seaworld was enclaslavin killer whales. t seaworld says the lawsuit was a baseless publicity student, but peta will pursue other avenues. the u.n. is calling it appalling brutality. crime so horrible, outcomes so gruesome, we can't even show you on television. coming up next, the desperate situation in syria growing even more dire. if you thought it was bad before, wait until you hear what's happening now. neutrogena® makeup removercer ] erases 99% of your most stubborn makeup with one towelette. can your makeup remover do that? [ female announcer ] neutrogena® makeup remover. gruesome, we can't even show you vacations are always wasn'ta good ideaa ♪ priceline negoti - - no time. out quickly. you're miles from your destination. you'll need a hotel tonight we don't have time to bid you don't have to bid. at priceline you can choose from thousands of hotels on sale every day. save yourself... some money it's what he would have wanted. i'm one of six children that my mother raised by herself and so, college was a dream, when i was a kid. i didn't know how i was going to do it, but i knew i was going to get that opportunity one day. and that's what happened with the university of phoenix. nothing can stop me now. i feel like the sky is the limit with what i can do and what i can accomplish. my name is naphtali bryant and i am a phoenix. in the five days since the u.n. security council fail order condemn the brutal crackdown, bomb, sniperses and tanks have laid waste to the city of homs. pictures and stories get out mainly on the internet. and what we've all seen and heard in the past five days has taken 11 months of conflict to a new and horrific level. more than 130 people killed today alone. 110 in homs. those numbers change by the hour. all the while the outside world confronts options that range from looking the oether way in launching a libyan style intervention. william cohen is a former defense secretary under president clinton, now chairman and ceo of the cohen group. mr. secretary, what can and should the u.s. be doing right now, anything? >> well, the u.s. is reviewing all potential options that can be taken against syria. i think the first instinct normally because we're so appalled at what has taken place would be to send in the marines. the difficulty with that is you want to save a military option as a last resort. so before you send the marines, you have to have a real clarity of mission, you have to know whether it's achievable, you you have to know what the cost is in terms of blood and and the exit strategy. all of those questions have to be analyzed and i'm sure the military is looking at that right now. in the meantime, we have to strengthen the economic sanctions against syria, diplomatic effort to resolve this, turkey is now taking a leadership role, saudi arabia is taking a leadership role. i think the international community now very much engaged in this, trying to persuade the syrians to stop slaughtering innocent people or face ultimately war crimes charges and be brought to justice later, but right in you, the goal is to stop the killing of innocent people. the options are pretty limited right now. >> there's a lot of talk of course about intervention and one person in the intervene camp is a friend and colleague of yours from capitol hill. listen to what john mccain said this morning on cnn. >> can he with work with other countries to roy assistance in a broad variety of ways. and by the way, military equipment is an option that should be considered but maybe to the directly. they need medical help very badly. >> so it worked this libya, so why not syria? >> well, senator mccain was saying the united states should not undertake this alone. but working with a coalition of countries, provide assistance of humanitarian nature, communications, other types of relief for them. i mean, you may also consider establishing safe havens in certain border areas. that will require a military option to be considered because once the safe havens have been established, there's nothing to prevent the syrian government from moving in and she willing th shelling them. so we have to understand the consequences and we've learned some lessons from going into iraq, not fully factoring in what the consequences would be by not having an adequate two and three and four step plan in iraq and it cost us cardearly. and we want to make sure that the united states works with other countries who in the region should be taking the lead and i commend both turkey and saudi arabia and other countries number one for severing relations for the most part with syria, at least on a temporary basis, and taking commercial action against them. and i think russia and china have to be concerned about this. they both want to have influence. >> and you believe that's what's behind their resistance to call for assad to back down? >> i think as far as the russians are concerned, it's client state. they have a major arms transaction with them. so they also have that relationship with iran. and so this is going to i think rebound in a way that perhaps they haven't full wiy calculaten temps the arab world reaction and in terms of how russia and china are behaving. i think there are long term implications for their relations with other countries. >> i want you to watch this video clip, it's a well spoken syrian activist, we call him danny. and he's showing us what's happening with the deconstruction in his neighborhood. watch this. >> you can see the whole street, the bodies are in there. there's bodies in that house, piece he is of bodies in that house. this is a civilian house. this is where civilians live. pieces of bodies are still in here. these are bodies. these are civilian bodies. these are civilian bodies. this isn't the army. this is children, men, women, being killed. we don't want monitors again. we want the u.n. to interfere with the army. >> there you have it, mr. secretary. you can see what's happening there. he's showing us civilian bodies he said in his neighborhood. is this really something that i did low massey can solve? >> diplomacy has to be exerted initially hopefully pressure can be brought that will bring russia and china into that coalition, as well, to say to the syrians you must stop this. is this a crime against humanity, you are shelling innocent civilians. i know we've been warned or taunted by the russian president saying you shouldn't act like bulls in a china shop, but you shouldn't act lie butchers either. and that's what's taking place. so this is the reason why the international community has to be involved, the united states can play a role. but once again, before we try to send the marines in, we have to know exactly what our mission would be, who is in charge of this mission, how many are going to be involved. so the united states doesn't find itself exacerbating the situation, raising to a cold war level between united states and russia and actually making it more difficult to get a cessation of hostility. so we're looking at all the options and i think the administration is proceeding with great prudence and caution at the same time with a sense of you are againsgens against agai but don't take step one until you know what you're doing. isolate syria and show to be the pariah state that it is along with iran that's supporting it. so it's a tinderbox area. we've got to be careful. to the extent that the united states becomes involved militarily, we have to consider whether iran will become involved, hezbollah, lab lebanod whether that will put the match to the tinderbox. so again we'll move with as much action as we,but caution, as well. >> we have much more to talk about with the secretary, including the pent goagonpentag plans to put more women in to combat showns. how they'll live . for more than 116 years, ameriprise financial has worked for their clients' futures. helping millions of americans retire on their terms. when they want. where they want. doing what they want. ameriprise. the strength of a leader in retirement planning. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you one-to-one. together for your future. ♪ we're tipping our conversation with wil the pentagon is relaxing restrictions on women troops in combat roles. is that a natural progression do you think? >> i think it is. we've seen a move from a point of view that women shouldn't be anywhere near the combat field, but they have been over the years. i know that back in the 80s, for example, i questioned the air force as to whether or not women pilots could withstand the g forces as well as men. and the perception was because women were smaller, lighter, that they couldn't handle a g force. turns out it was just the opposite. because of their lighter weight, they were better able to withstand g force. so we've come a long way in understanding that women can con trib butte to the military object i have. it shouldn't be a social equality agenda that's being fulfilled but can women contribute effectively to the military mission. that's what the pentagon chiefs are looking at and to the extent they feel they can, they should be allowed to chief the mission and contribute, they have been contributing. >> let me ask you about the pentagon downsizing u.s. military. half a trillion dollars give or take coming out of the defense department budget over the next few years. do you fear that this could have an impact on national security? >> i think congress has mandated that they called for $487 billion over ten years, 259 in the first five years. so congress is the one saying you have to save. i think the defense department can handle that size cut.difficulty is when we talk about sequestration, mainly when the ax falls between the super committee couldn't reach an agreement on the $1.2 trillion cuts that they were supposed to try and achieve. now they're talking about across the board cuts, that would certainly vo xcompromise our national security. i think everybody is, w r, work under the assumption that the ax won't fall. it's pot a way to run the military in terms of the planners trying to say what will we have to work with. i was with secretary pa met take in munich and he indicated that the military is not planning on any further cuts beyond the $487 billion. that's why i think it's a pretty strong signal that the administration will work with the congress to make sure we don't cut any deeper during the next decade. >> mr. secretary, so nice to have you on the program. appreciate that. thank you. >> good to be with you. remember all the furor over drug testing in florida? now another fight is brewing over fingerprinting. is it fair? that's next. but first, you probably want emily clark as your neighbor. she's a former firefighter who is battling cancer. but that didn't so that her from risking her own life when she noticed a neighbor's home on fire. with no one else around, emily took action. >> i started banging on the back door and still didn't hear anything. i grabbed the kids and took off running to their bedrooms to get out. somebody had kicked in the back door. >> the family says emily not only saved their home, but their lives. and that makes emily today's rock star. what's this? 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[ male announcer ] yes, it is. that's the cold truth! the navy s.e.a.l.s describe themselves as a special breed of warrior ready to answer our nation's call. they spell out their creed on their website, it says i will never quit, i'm never out of the fight, i will not fail. the roots of the s.e.a.l.s go back for world war ii, but the group we hear about today was created by president kennedy. there are about 3,000 active duty s.e.a.l.s. only about 20% of the candidates make it. one of the most celebrated mission was the killing of osama bin laden and now they're getting rare recognition in the form of a new hollywood thriller where ts.e.a.l.s play a unique role. barbara starr has a preview. >> reporter: the s.e.a.l.s are called in to action. when a deadly terrorist plot defense the u.s. is uncovered. it's an edge of your seat hollywood thriller, but wait, those are real s.e.a.l.s acting. >> everybody was asked to participate said no. everyone said no. >> initially all the guys turned us down. they weren't about making movies about. >> reporter: but the director convinced the navy only s.e.a.l.s could play s.e.a.l.s. >> we started to see a brotherhood of men that you didn't know existed. >> reporter: and together they embarked on a 2 1/2 year production schedule. this movie is as close as you get. the combat is actually the crew filming s.e.a.l.s on training missions. >> it is extremely authentic. we were there at every turn with the production company and the directors during the filming. we could say it was the way it actually happened. >> reporter: the movie is not without controversy. the navy originally wanted to make a recruiting film. the crew shot hundreds of hours and suddenly it became a movie that never got pentagon's official stamp of approval. navy officials say they know some will be critical of real commandos being used in a hollywood thriller. >> it did not follow the typical approval process, but the s.e.a.l.s were involved every step of the way. >> reporter: but to keep hair secrets, some camera angles were adjusted on weapons. classified procedures left out. secrets, some camera angles were adjusted on weapons. classified procedures left out. >> we made fun of each other constantly. you're running around, trying to simulate combat. it had its moments. >> these were some of the most compelling dynamic men. and they were good humble dudes. you wanted to have a beer and hang out. >> reporter: and what about a real s.e.a.l. becoming a real actor? >> if clint eastwood call, i'm taking that phone call. >> and he should. barbara joins us now. navy s.e.a.l.s in a hollywood movie. is there a possible security risk by seeing he's guys on film? >> we ask that had question because you remember, osama bin laden mission the s.e.a.l.s did, everyone was banned from knowing the identities of any of those commanders. we're old 134 of tsome of the s in the movie are back on operational duty. the navy told us they think they were willing to at that time risk, they think they can keep all of them safe. but takes pretty amazing movie to watch. >> i was concerned until he actually said that they didn't give away all the secrets. >> well, they say they didn't give away all the secrets, but it's interesting they did in fact use live ammunition in some of these scenes to make it more authentic. and the lieutenant commander that we interviewed very seriously wanted everyone to know there a big difference between a movie and real life and real troops in it action. he wanted people to remember that so many military families have suffered, not everybody gets up and walks away when the cameras stop rolling. there is real life out there. this movie, though, opens february 24th and it should be pretty interesting to watch. >> a lot of action in that one. barbara, thank you very much. so remember all the furor over drug testing welfare recipients in florida? not new york preccip yents get fingerprinted. is it fair. tools man. they'll help you nail a retirement plan that's fierce. two golden crowns. you realize the odds of winning are the same as being mauled by a polar bear and a regular bear in the same day? frank! oh wow, you didn't win? i wanna show you something... it's my shocked face. 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