>> no, not in new york, in d.c. p. >> in a diner. it improves dramatically but no food. it begins this morning with a massacre in afghanistan apparently by an american soldier and this morning as well. the taliban is vowing revenge. the soldiers from the joint base in washington state here's how it went down. door to door he went yesterday morning in kandahar province opening fire, i'll killing at least 16 people while they slept, many children. president karzai said the dead include 9 children, 3 women. and after the attacks the soldier then returned to his base and surrendered. president obama today offering his condolences. karzai, however, is furious. is calling the killings intentional and, quote, acts of terror and unforgivable. sarah is live for news kabul, afghanistan, this morning. hey, good morning to you. what's the latest on this? >> good morn, soledad. i just saw pretty gruesome images in western afghanistan where this happened and there were some witnesses also talking saying that there was more than one soldier on the ground. there is a dispute at this point between what villages are saying and isep saying. look, this is the work of one soldier. there was no mission going on in the area. that soldier left his base. now, these villagers were apartment a kilometer to two kilometers away from the base and they said this happened sometime in the early morning hours of sunday, around 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning. but the scene there, a gruesome one. the pictures coming in to us just looked at, blood stained walls, blood stained floor, shell casings being picked up by investigators now and the bodies of children, women, and then that were piled into the back of p pickup trucks. the village is obviously very angry. many of them are shown crying, weeping, unable to speak. but some of them did speak out in the first thing they'd said is they were not, could not tolerate the american soldiers in their town anymore. that they were told by the americans that they could move back to their villages and be safe and now this has happened. soledad. >> thank you, sara. appreciate it. let's get right to gary, former marine lawyer who spent 26 years in the marine corps. he's teaching now at georgetown university. it's nice to see you. thanks for joining us. you heard sar a's report and i know that you have prosecuted cases just like this. what do you want to know from sort of the psychological profile, what stands out to you in this story, sir? >> i think we should remember first this is an event that could not be anticipated by his commanders. it's not something that could have been prevented by training. it's the criminality of a single individual. the one thing i would certainly want to know is what the state of his -- what his mental state was, was he suffering from some defect that prevented him from appreciating the wrongfulness of his abouts? in other words, was he not criminally responsibility, mentally responsible? we have to remember that he was on his fourth overseas tour. and we all heard about ptsd and what it can do in a combat zone over and over and over. that's not to excuse what is done and obviously that won't be any excuse to the afghan people. >> there were reports as sara was discussing that it could have been more than one soldier. some people felt like the amount of damage, of so great, it would hard to be one home, one home alone. 11 people, entire family, with the exception of one man away from home, completely wiped out. when you see the -- and hear about the extent of the destruction, does it strike you as too much for one individual to have done because that's obviously a point of debate at this point? >> no, i don't think it is too much for one individual given the firepower and the lethality of the munitions that we have in afghanistan. so i think this could have been done by a single individual and since we have of prehended one individual and there have been some accounts saying that he has admitted what he did, i doubt there are two individuals. but we have seen it before. we saw it at ft. bragg when we had the psychiatrist go around and kill any number of people. it is possible for one individual to have done this. >> this particular base has been the spot where other soldiers apparently have snapped for lack of a better word. isn't that correct? >> it is. we had the five individuals who were tried for what can only be termed killing just for killing. and then taking body parts as well. but they were not from the same unit, they were merely based in washington. i don't think that this indicates that there is some gang of criminals from that base. this is just unfortunate that it came from the same base, even more unfortunate that they're all americans. >> 12 suicides, i believe, at this base as well. that's the most some people have reported there and certainly the year before it was nine and the year before that nine suicides. that sounds very, very high to me. is it high and as you point out, you know, a base where a bunch of different kinds of groups are housed, could there be a correlati correlation in that, do you think? >> who knows. i think that it's unfortunate, obviously. but the high rate of suicide comports with the high operational tempo that our armed forces are undergoing in this war. we have kids going back over and over. two months ago one of our soldiers was killed on his seventh tour in combat zone. so we have -- we have seen in our combat forces suicide, high divorce rates, spousal abuse, alcohol abuse and so forth. this is all reflective of the heavy strain being put on our soldiers. again, it's no excuse for criminality and we certainly couldn't use this as an excuse for the afghan people but we have to remember that we have put a heavy strain on our combat troops. >> what we know about this soldier is sergeant, support staff working for the special forces who is in custody now and as you mentioned, three tours of duty, three in iraq. this is his fourth tour, first tour in afghanistan, has two kids, 38 years old, married, 11 years in the service. i believe, is this considered three now four tours considered to be an extraordinary number? is it considered to be a typical number? that in and of itself, that profile that i just laid out for you, is there smig unusual in that? >> no. it is not. that is fairly normal for individuals who have stayed in for more than their initial enlistment. what does stand out though is he is a staff cno, staff noncommissioned officer. he is to act on the governors of the behavior op subordinate troops. he is among those who is supposed to make sure that things like this don't happen, which, to me, indicates or suggests that he may have a mental problem. i mean, just going around and killing women and children unarmed, defenseless, is not the act that one usually associates with a normal mindset. >> we're going to be watching what the implications of this are. professor solis, thank you for being with us. we appreciate your time this morning. >> thank you. other stories making headlines, and carlos dias is back joining us. >> not to be confused but massacre in syria that just happened and, of course, not by americans but people going into work today might confuse the two, massacre by afghanistan soldier in afghanistan and now we have the same thing going on in syria but it's not americans. it's a massacre that has rocked syria, 45 women and children, slaughtered in the city of homs. rebels say government troops went house to house stabbing women and children and burning their bodies. syria's government is blaming the killings on armed terrorist groups. it fell just hours after kofi annan left syria. annan spent two days in talks with bashar als a satd, proposing an end in the violent crackdowns. american journalist marie colvin will be laid to rest in her hometown today. colvin was killed in a shelling attack in homs, syria, back in february. her private funeral will be held today in a catholic children on long island, new york. front-runner mitt romney will be campaigning in alabama and mississippi with comedian jeff foxworthy by his side. those two states host primaries today. meanwhile, rick santorum is sounding confident after conservatives helped him win n cans is on saturday. he is hoping the same thing happens in alabama and mississippi tomorrow. right now the latest cnn estimates have romney with 458 delegate, santorum with 203. newt gingrich has got 118. ron paul with 66. let's go to christine romans with a look at the business headlines. >> minding your business this morning, gas prices up three days in a row, again. the national average for a gallon of gas is now $3.80. that's according to aaa rising .9. five bucks is in sight for summer. at what point do you change your life significantly because of high gas prices? a new gallop poll found $5.35 is where you change your behavior. let's check in on the markets now. u.s. stock futures pretty much trading flat ahead of the opening bell. now that greece's debt problem seems to be under control for the moment the key for stocks is the u.s. recovery. federal reserve meetsz tomorrow on that. the fed has pledged to keep interest rates near zero for a few more years. but critics say the fed needs to do something more to boost economic growth and the recovery is still too slow. job gains notwithstanding. carlos? >> christine, mississippi pardon case is now closed. five remaining inmates have been released after the state's supreme court upheld more than 200 pardons last week. those pardons issued by out going governor haley barbour. the high court ruling it's up to the governor to decide whether the constitution's requirements were met. and it's time to not work today's. fill out your brackets and then tear them up on thursday night. it's march madness. that's right. ncaa tournament has been set. we have kentucky, syracuse, north carolina, and michigan state earning the top seeds in the regions. kentucky is fae vored to go all the bway. madness begins tuesday night. >> you say that like a parts man, all the way! >> final four in new orleans this year. tournament starts on tuesday night, not on thursday, tuesday night. the first four now. 68 teams so there's 64. >> another good reason to go to new orleans. new orleans is hosting all kinds of sporting events. >> hold on. i'm thinking that soledad is going to pick kentucky to win it all. >> didn't you just say they're the favorites? yes, i am. >> i'm thinking it's going to be kentucky against north carolina in soledad's bracket. >> you're amazing. still ahead this morning on "starting point," israel's top spy has a warning against iran. has plans to attack, quote, the stupidist thing i've ever heard. there have been reports that she was battling some of her own problems, but is it too soon for bobbi kristina to be talking about all? we'll talk about. and our "get real," homeless people turned into hot spots at the south by southwest dpes val festival. questions and much more. we leave you with mark lamont hill's play list, john legend. each one gets better. you're watching "starting point." 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[ male announcer ] at&t introduces the samsung galaxy note. phone. tablet. both. ♪ phone. tablet. both. montgomery and abigail higgins had... ...a tree that bore the most rare and magical fruit. which provided for their every financial need. and then, in one blinding blink of an eye, their tree had given its last. but with their raymond james financial advisor, they had prepared for even the unthinkable. and they danced. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you. ♪ a lot of hope in our musical selection. it gets better, we're waiting on a sunny day. that was bruce springsteen "waiten on a sunny day." we are talking about this interview that happened over the weekend, the first interview with bobbi kristina. the first one certainly since we've heard about her -- since, of course, whitney houston died a month ago. bobbi kristina turned 19 a week ago and she spoke only to oprah winfrey on the own network. here's a chunk of it. >> i really wanted to say that she was something that she wasn't and this and that. i saw her hurt. i heard that, you know, i saw her cry, you know. i mean, and i held her through that. you know. we held each other through that. we have so many people saying so many other things. but they don't know who she really was. >> joining me this morning is clinical psychologist dr. jeffrey gardiere. nice to see you. >> good morning to your wonderful panel hering. >> thank you very much. there are so many questions they wanted asked and they weren't asked. very gentle interview with a young woman who is a teenager and at the same time i thought, wow, so soon after her mother died to be doing a television interview. >> i thought it was a little bit soon but she needs the catharsis, as we say the psychology. what better person than perhaps oprah who can be soothing and comforting and is a friend of the family. of course, you would -- you would have done a great job, too. >> no, no, i meant i would call oprah if i had an issue, too. but i guess i mean it's going to be televised. it's not just oprah and soothing and comforting because i would love to talk to her about all kinds of issues. it's more that you know this is a television event and that part of it, i thought, it was sort of soon. >> if you're going to come out so soon to do this, what better person than oprah because she will support you through that and we know that she is a family friend to bobbi kristina, was to whitney and their family and so on. so i think in some ways she really held her hand through that interview. it was really kind of a softball interview and that's okay, too. >> teenage girl who loved her mother. >> of course. of course. >> 19 years old. plus, we know that bobbi kristina, from what we've been told, she really is kind of a fragile person, allegedly may have had some substance accuse issues of her own. we don't know how much of that is true. but certainly this is a person who needed to talk about it and get her story out and do it in a friendly way. >> in that little clip it almost sounded like the roles were reversed, how many she had to comfort her mom to make her understand, you know, we know who the real you is and it's not other people. she talked to build up her self-esteem in a way. i thought that was kind of surprising, the teenager kind of mom being a parent to the mom. >> well, we see that all the time. we tall that a parentified child because obviously whitney had her substashs ance abuse issues. i'm not surprised at all in any way that bobbi kristina talked about how she was there for her mother and how she supported her through all of her issues. >> there have been reports that she's thinking about changing her name, bobbi kristina. >> yes, i think it's not so much because she has issues with her dad, and obviously she has. bobby brown is a very interesting person and i'll thought it was really great that they didn't slam him in that interview. they were very respectful. but at the same time, i think this young girl is so close to a mother, they were friends for one another, it really was a very intense one-on-one relationship, especially with the substance abuse issues. i'm not surprised at all that she wants to change her name to houston. >> yeah. >> interesting story. i felt so sorry for her. she's just a teenage girl. so see her on camera it was like, oh, you're just a little girl. >> this is a girl who has been hospitalized twice after the death of her mother. so i hope she's not by herself. i hope she is continued to be supported by family members because that's what she really needs right now. >> that's true. thank you. thanks for the analysis of it, jeff. still ahead this morning on "starting point," a comic-con tro controversy, some newspapers are yanking a doonesbury comic strip about abortion law. plus, if you look at this t-shirt, we're going to show you right here, it says, i'm clarence, a 4g hot spot. you can text the number on this man's shirt, pay him a fee and get speedy wi-fi. but these shirts being worn by homeless people at south by southwest is our "get real" this morning. we leave you with grover norquist's play list. deep purple, "smoke on the water." all right. we're back in a moment. when i grow up, i want to fix up old houses. ♪ [ woman ] when i grow up, i want to take him on his first flight. i want to run a marathon. i'm going to own my own restaurant. when i grow up, i'm going to start a band. 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[ female announcer ] discover what's next in your life. get this free travel bag when you join at aarp.org/jointoday. the priceline negotiator went down in that fiery bus crash. yes i was. we lost a beautiful man that day. but we gained the knowledge that priceline has thousands and thousands of hotels on sale every day. so i can choose the perfect one for me without bidding. is it hard for you to think back to that day? oh my, this one has an infinity pool. i love those they just... and then drop off, kinda like the negotiator. nice mellow way to start. welcome back, everybody. this is mark lamont hill's play list, the roots, "silent treatment." monday morning, i couldn't get it together. there is no blog today. couldn't do it. busy. time to "get real qult" this mo. this is a question about the line of being helpful and being hue muhumiliating. we were just in south texas and there were 13 men wearing these shrks t-shirts. i'm clarence, a 4g hot spot. they give a pay pal donation to that homeless man and then all of a sudden you get high speed internet access on your phone on ipad. mark is going like this, no, no, no. critic, not just you, are saying a campaign is disturbing. dehumanizing and it's offensive. the marketing company behind the plan is called bb-8, say not backing down. he says this, homeless hot spots, the worry is these people were suddenly just hardware, is a quote, but frankly i wouldn't have done this if i didn't believe otherwise. why do you think it's so offensive? i have my reasons. you tell me yours. >> it's exploiting poor people. there's this idea this this country that to help poor people we can shame them, get in a position to need help from anyone, it's okay to do it. >> what if i said they did this in conjunction with a homeless advocacy group called front steps and that all the money that someone donates to that particular homeless person goes to that specific person. it doesn't go to the marketing company, it doesn't go to fund anything other than that guy clarence. clar rehn's t-shirt says my name is clarence, i am from new orleans, i lost he home in katrina. most people at that festival would not interact with those people, might hand him a buck or two but for the most part would ignore him. does that information change your mind in any way? >> it interests me. it doesn't change my mind in any way. i still think there's something demoralizing in this t-shirt saying that i'm a hot spot and knowing he's homeless and probably this is the only way we can subsist for a while and sustain his life. i understand the person behind it wouldn't do it if they didn't think it was dehumanizing. >> if it was a teenager doing it as a job. i did stuff like this when i was a teenager and it was called work. and you got paid, not by a contribution but you got paid by the company that wanted to hand out fliers about their new restaurant. s