barack obama. i think it will be very hard for him to win the general election because i think it just blurs everything. i think a real conservative who stands for solid values, essentially for new hampshire values -- >> the former massachusetts governor holds what looks like an insurmountable lead in new hampshire so he is moving on to south carolina. that state's primary is january 21st. it has been a deadly day in iraq. at least 60 people were killed in attacks in baghdad and other cities across the country. most of the victims were shiites raising fears of renewed sectarian violence. the deadly attack was a suicide bombing targeting shiite pilgrims west of the city of nasiriyah. at least 36 people were killed. dozens wounded. the iraqi military blames the attacks on terrorist groups. president obama says a fighting force that costs less can still be the best in the world and it will be. in an unusual visit to the pentagon, the commander in chief unveiled a rewrite of cold war strategy that's driven military decision making for decades. being able to fight two major wars at once. he said deep cuts in spending are a political reality but the military fallout can be managed. >> that's why i called for this comprehensive defense review. to clarify our strategic interests in a fast changing world and to guide our defense priorities and spending over the coming decade because the size and structure of our military and defense budgets have to be driven by a strategy. not the other way around. >> we'll talk much more about all of this in face time just minutes from now. after more than a sent riff capturing smiles, there are reports the kodak eastman company may be getting ready to file bankruptcy. although the company has not confirmed the news, the report has already spooked markets. kodak shares have dropped sharply. meanwhile kodak is continuing to try to sell its assets to raise much needed money. some stronger than expected job numbers out today. payroll processing firm adp says private sector companies ramped up hiring last month adding 325,000 jobs. up from 204,000 in november. many economists aren't expecting the labor department's numbers coming out tomorrow to be as large. a deadly police shooting in ogden, utah. six officers on a narcotics task force are shot, one killed while serving a search warrant. wounded officer's injuries range from serious to critical. the suspected shooter was also wounded and his injuries are not life threatening. the officer who died at the hospital was a seven. year veteran of the organized city police force. he leaves behind a wife and two young children. in los angeles, $2.85 million is the bail set for the german national suspected of setting dozens of fires. harry burkhardt will also have to surrender his german passport while he waits to be tried. it is believed the 42-year-old started more than 50 fires after his mother's arrest led to his "rage" against americans. casey anthony out of the news and out of sight for months is apparently speaking out for the first time since acquitted of murdering her little daughter, caylee. in a four-minute video diary on youtube and facebook, she makes only a vague reference to o her sensational trial last summer but says nothing about caylee, her daughter, her parents or where she is in hiding. anthony's attorney issued a statement saying, "casey has maintained notes and memoirs for her personal counseling. she did not upload or release this to youtube. she doesn't know how the video got on youtube, she did not authorize it and therefore it had to be obtain illegally. nancy grace covered the anthony still for hln. she'll join us for reaction to this video in just a moment. also ahead, amid an anemic economy and a new era of record budget cuts, president obama has announced a major shakeup at the pentagon. a new strategy of the military that involves reduced funding. will it still keep americans safe? we'll talk about that with retired army brigadier general mark kimmitt. but did you know they're good for you too? they're high in vitamins and potassium. and idaho potatoes are now certified to carry the heart checkmark from the american heart association for foods low in saturated fat and cholesterol. so they're good for my family, and for yours. heart smart idaho potatoes. always look for the grown in idaho seal. is the pain reliever orthopedic doctors recommend most for arthritis pain, think again. and take aleve. it's the one doctors recommend most for arthritis pain... two pills can last all day. ♪ it's pro-cool technology releases armies of snowmen masseuse who cuddle up with your soreness and give out polar bear hugs. technology. [ male announcer ] new bengay cold therapy. the same technology used by physical therapists. go to bengay.com for a $3 coupon. aspercreme breaks the grip, with maximum-strength medicine and no embarrassing odor. break the grip of pain with aspercreme. welcome back. have you seen this video of casey anthony? it was uploaded on youtube. the first we've heard from casey anthony since she was acquitted. nancy grace covered the trial for our sister network hln and she joins us now. nancy, i'm sure you've had a look at this video. but i want our viewers to see it so before we talk about it, let me play just a little bit of it here. >> i know it is going to be a while since i leave. i'll be here for many, many months more, even if i'm living here for six months, even if i get off probation early. i'll still be here at least until february? the end of february. seven months, either way, whether it is six months or it is a year from now, or year from middle of august, you know, this has been such a blessing in so many ways. >> nancy, what do you make of this video diary as it is being called? >> well, first of all, i don't believe that it's any such thing as a "video diary." her lawyers, her old defense team has just come out with a statement that this was hacked. i find that very, very difficult to believe. as a matter of fact, the person that posted it who was on our show tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern says he got it by finding it on pay-per-view sites charging $2 and $3 per viewing of it. so i find it very difficult to believe it was hacked. think this is very simply tot mom casey anthony and her lawyer's way of injecting themselves back into the media because nobody's touching her offer for an interview with a ten-foot pole. this is her way of generating interest in herself, her story, as it is. and i think an extension of her own narcissism. >> what do you think of the fact she does not mention her daughter caylee in this video? >> i think the same thing i thought throughout her trial, throughout all of her interviews with police, throughout every single time she talked to her parents behind bars and it was captured on video in a florida jailhouse. only when caylee was brought up directly to her face does she da deign to mention her child. she talks about adopting a puppy as being her family. hey, correction, tot mom. you had a family. it was caylee. also her family now, her mom and dad, no relations with them. so everything is so disingenuous. and also, you see her presentation of herself with the new hair, the glasses to appear more serious, the low-cut shirt, the flipping of the hair style. just the whole thing is so contrived. >> what do you make of her whole demeanor? at one point she says things are going to get better, they are getting better. overall what do you take away from this? >> i take away an extension of what i observed at the trial and all of her tapes with detectives and tapes with her family. that it is all about tot mom. it is about her birthday coming up. it is about her starting a new life. it is about things getting better for her. i'd like to know how could she afford a computer. who gave her a camera. who made this possible? so many unanswered questions and again, this amplifies the fact that justice was not obtained in the death of 2-year-old caylee. >> how does it make you feel watching this having covered the trial? >> not surprised, randi, not surprised at all. it was just a matter of time before tot mom emerged again in some way trying -- for self-gain and furthering of her own money situation and her own persona. this is just an amplification of that as far as i see. same thing, second verse, same as the first. >> nancy grace, thank you very much. good to have you on the show. nancy will have much more on casey anthony's new video tonight on o her show on our sister network, hln. tune in 8:00 p.m. eastern on hln. president obama has announced a major shakeup at the pentagon. a new strategy for the u.s. military that involves reduced funding. but is it one that will work? we'll talk about that with retired army brigadier general mark kimmitt next. also coming up, a cnn exclusive that you don't want to miss. a senior syrian official escapes the brutal crackdown in his country and tells cnn a story of horror, torture, underground prisons, even ambulances being used to run down protesters. that story is coming up as well. stay with us. nyquil: you know i relieve coughs, sneezing, fevers? tylenol: me, too. and nasal congestion. nyquil:what? tissue box (whispering): he said nasal congestion... nyquil: i heard him. anncr vo: tylenol cold multi-symptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion... nyquil cold & flu doesn't. as much as presidents have to think about defense, the military, national security, they rarely set foot in the pentagon. so president obama's visit there would be worth a mention even if he weren't rolling out a historic overhaul of the u.s. military planning. facing tight budget pressures and a dynamic threat, the obama administration's changing a policy that's long been an article of faith. the brass know it asmtw, two major theater wars. they've been able to fight and win two major wars in two parts of the world. but the president says budgets have to be driven by strategy and cutbacks have to be seen in context. >> i think it is important for all americans to remember over the past ten years since 9/11, our defense budget grew at an extraordinary pace. over the next ten years, the growth in the defense budget will slow but the fact of the matter is this -- it will still grow because we have global responsibilities that demand our leadership. in fact the defense budget will still be larger than it was toward the end of the bush administration. >> $450 billion in cuts already are in the works for the decade ahead and half a trillion dollars in new cuts may be unavoidable. they'll be belt across the board from nuclear missiles to navy ships to fighter jets to personnel. my next guest will be watching it all. you can count on that. retired army brigadier general mark kimmitt joins me from washington. general, you've expressed concerns about a budget driven exercise. did you hear anything from the president or secretary panetta today that eased those concerns? >> well, i was glad to hear the president recognize that there will be more challenges, that there will be more instability in this world and that there will be more threats that we face over the years to come. and it is good that we're restructuring the military to adapt to these new threats, but at the same time that he said we're going to have more challenges and more threats, he said there's going to be less money to do it so i see a fundamental mismatch between the requirements that are being levied on the military and the resources that are going to be provided to the military to accomplish these missions. >> if you look at this whole picture, critics argue that the two whole major war policy was wishful thinking. iraq and afghanistan took a huge toll on the u.s. military so why your argument? >> well again, the whole construct of two major theater wars going on simultaneously at one time recognized that we might have to fight north korea in a major theater war in the middle east or europe. it is a dated construct. we don't think that there is going to be two major theater wars simultaneously so it is good that the strategy no longer reflects that. but at the same time, we're still asking the military to fight a major theater war but also defend against cyber attacks, conduct peacekeeping operations in the balkans, conduct peace enforcement operations in libya, conduct humanitarian operations in places such as pakistan. that is a significant number of missions that will require significant resources and the president is saying you will see fewer resources, not more. >> i want to share with you and with our viewers a quote from former defense secretary robert gates. quoting here westbound's like to say when he comes to predictsing the nature and location of our next military engagement, since vietnam our record has been perfect. we have never once gotten it right. doesn't that speak to the need to rethink this? >> no, that's exactly right. i had pleasure and privilege of working for secretary gates at the department of defense and he was prescient in much of what he said and he was prescient there. it is the very nature that the threats are unpredictable, asymmetric and will always try to fight us in a way that we're not prepared, which means that we need to have significant capabilities across the board. it needs to be a capabilities-based force, one that recognizes not just today's threats but tomorrow's threats. and fundamentally that's an expensive proposition for the defense of this country and what the president has said today is we're not willing to pay that. >> i want you to look very quickly here. we have some numbers here. the u.s. military spending compared to everybody else's. you see it there. no other country comes close. in the face of gigantic deficits, why shouldn't we make deep cuts? >> well, i absolutely agree that we need to take a look at the defense budget and structure it for the missions at hand. but the united states, if it wants to retain its position as a super power in this world, it has responsibilities. and those responsibilities are unlike any other country. there is not a country that's standing guard on north korea, assisting humanitarian relief efforts in pakistan, conducting combat operations in afghanistan, putting aircraft carriers through the straits of hormuz. to some extent the u.s. has been a free rider on the defense establishment. it is expensive to maintain the security of this country and to a greater extent the security of the free world. that's why we pay more and that's our responsibility and our responsibilities need to be met with resources. >> general mark kimmitt, thank you very much. >> thank you. time now to go globe trekking. today we head to syria. since protests began there last year, the u.n. says more than 5,000 people have been killed. activists and human rights groups have been talking about the regime's brutality but now a senior syrian official who escaped to egypt tells cnn about the horrific acts of violence committed by state security forces. arwa damon has that exclusive story. >> reporter: in the syrian capital, the defense ministry is the nerve center of the regime's efforts to stamp out unrest. >> translator: my office is on the 12th floor of the ministry of defense. >> reporter: he worked at the ministry for years. his official i.d. describes him as a financial inspector. not part of the regime's inner circle, but in a position to see the wheels of repression at work. >> translator: during protests in damascus, armed gangs filled the green public transport buses and dispatched from our offices flanked by four-wheel drive vehicles filled with weapons. >> reporter: and those they didn't kill, they brought back. >> on a daily basis, i used to see them bringing in blindfolded and handcuffed detainees on buses. they were kept in underground prisons. some even built under streets. >> reporter: and he makes this chilling allegation. >> translator: what is more horrific is the intelligence vans carrying the red crescent insignia labeled syrian red crescent drive through the protests as ambulances and fire at the protesters. >> reporter: he says the oversaw spending at the defense ministry. he tells cnn that the regime hired hitmen, paying them $100 a day. it spent so much on the security crackdown that the budgets of other ministries had to be cut by one-third. he says for a while he hoped there would be compromise. >> translator: we were hoping the killing would stop and the regime would understand that the revolution will win and maybe find a way to appease the people. there was no hope. >> reporter: as a climate of fear took hold, he decided to get out. >> translator: so i traveled to egypt through the airport. normally. with the excuse of registering my son in college in egypt. when the rest of my family followed me, i announced my defection of protest regarding what is happening in syria. >> reporter: most of the carnage he blames on intelligence services and armed gangs, not regular troops. >> translator: bashar al assad is no longer able to control these human monsters. >> reporter: two weeks after he fled syria, he has this message for the outside world -- >> translator: we have reached a phase of genocide and this can't be tolerated under any circumstances. >> reporter: arwa damon, cnn, beirut. the arab league has been on a fact finding mission in syria. they say they made mistakes during their mission and are now asking the u.n. for help. a lot of parents tell their kids to fight back if being bullied at school or stick up for themselves. but what happens when a bully victim takes it to the next level, not just fighting back, but killing? it's happened in florida and the state says it is okay. sunny hostin is standing by for us now, she takes up the case with us coming up next. over twenty delicious varieties have sixty calories or less per serving and are now weight watchers-endorsed. try green giant frozen vegetables with sauce. welcome back. i talk a lot about bullying on the show because we need to put a stop to it. i feel very, very strongly about that. but the story i'm about o tell you raises troubling questions about how far is too far when it comes to self-defense against bullies. by all accounts this 15-year-old was bullied relentlessly by a group of boys. a fight broke out at this florida bus stop last year. the court says 16-year-old dylan nuno, the so-called bully threw the first punch but nuno ended up being stabbed to death. the most interesting thing about this case, a judge ruled he acted in self-defense and was justified in killing his classmate under the florida stand your ground law so the case was dismissed, no charges filed. let's bring in sunny hostin from our sister network trutv to talk about the implications of this case. part of what the stand your ground law says is, a person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself. now some might say that this gives victims immunity when it comes to killing someone who's bullying them. how do you see it? >> i don't see it that way at all. these were very specific and special circumstances. not only because florida does have this stand your ground law, but also because this was a situation, as you mentioned earlier, where a child was bullied for a year. the child tried to avoid the fight. he was told by the bully that today was the day. the child got off at a bus stop earlier than the proposed bus stop. the bully followed him off and then attacked him, punching him in the head. given those special sets of -- set of circumstances, this case is sort of unique, i think. and so we shouldn't read into it that now victims of bullying