sunday mr. obama vowed to prevent it. here's part of santorum's address this morning. >> as i sat and watch this play out on the world stage, i've seen the president who has been reticent. he says he has israel's back. from everything i've seen from the conduct of this administration, he has turned his back on the people of israel. >> israel prime minister told the group time is running out for a peaceful resolution to the threat of a nuclear iran. benjamin netanyahu's remarkses came after his meeting with president obama and before his visit the leaders of congress. netanyahu met with top senators and next hour he will meet with house leaders. now in the 1:00 hour, president obama will hold a news conference. if that shifts the spotlight, at least momentarily from republican presidential politics, well, it's the perk of being president. he's expected to announce more help for homeowners at the risk of foreclosure. one step is tailored for service members and veterans who can't refinance or who have already lost their homes. you will see the president live, start to finish, here on cnn. eight u.s. service welcoming forward with scathing allegations against the military. they're filing a federal lawsuit alleging that they were raped, assaulted, or harassed during their service. what's more, they claim they were punished for reporting their sexual assaults to their superiors. women's lawsuit alleges the defense department failed to tackle the problem and the defense department is not commenting but publicly said the military does not tolerate sexual assault. you will hear from two of the alleged victims in just about ten minutes. state tv in syria is airing screens of what it cause peacend calm in the wake of a military onslaught in homs. official media blamed the devastation on, quote, terrorists. but youtube tells a different story. among the latest videos posted is this apparent bombardment of the mosque in the city of dahra. opposition sources say that two people have died there today among 14 killed nationwide. and john mccain has seen enough. the arizona senator is calling for u.s. air strikes on syrian forces. >> you will find a thousand reasons not to do the right thing. every time we've been involved i've heard the same excuses, and in this particular case, if we want to stand by and watch syrians being massacred in the most brutal and incredibly genocidal fashion, then that is a decision we can make. but please don't tell me we can't do it. we can if we have the will. >> while the white house says it's focused on diplomatic and political approaches rather than military intervention in syria. for the first time in four weeks gas prices are not going up. that's according to aaa which says the average price of unleaded regular dropped.3 of a cent overnight. did you notice, it's $3.76 a gallon. the nationwide average was $3.48. t.j. lane is due back in court today in chardon, ohio. the high school sophomore who allegedly opened fire in the high school cafeteria a week ago faces three counts of aggravated murder. two counts of attempted murder, and one assault. still in juvenile court but probably not for much longer. prosecutors say that lincoln fessed to those shootings. and arizona sheriff may get slapped with a lawsuit by his former boyfriend. according to the "arizona republic" he plans to sue sheriff paul babbou and the county for $1 million. this comes after a mexican immigrant went public about his relationship with the sheriff. he says that he allegedly threatened to deport him if he didn't keep their relationship a secret. the sheriff denies those allegations. but the lawsuit could complicate things for him. he's running for congress. britain's prince harry living it up in the caribbean right now, bahamas one day, jamaica the next. the prince is on a four-day visit on behalf of his grandmother celebrating her diamond jubilee. his visit to jamaica comes as the nation's new prime minister is pushing to cut ties with the queen as the head of the state. prince harry and the prime minister will meet for lunch this afternoon. actress patricia heaton seems to be taking a queue from rush limbaugh. heaton went after georgetown lawsuit on twitter with stinging sarcasm over the contraception insurance debate. according to politico, which is what she tweeted. hey, g-town, stop buying toothpaste, soap, and shampoo. you will save money and no one will want to sleep with you. it wasn't long before heaton felt the backlash. she reportedly disabled her account briefly but resurfaced with several apologies. hey, it's super tuesday. more than 400 dell baits at stake. ten states holding primaries and caucuses. four gop presidential candidates fighting to win. it may be the 63 delegates in ohio that the candidates want the most. ohio's republican chair joins me next. but first, the power of song. this is a 13-year-old iranian girl who is burning up the internet. she's singing adele's "someone like you." 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[ male announcer ] engine light on? come to meineke now for a free code scan read and you'll say...my money. my choice. my meineke. one state has the markings of a true battleground and well weather. ohio. there are 63 dell greaegates at. bragging rights for the industrial midwest. plus, it isn't any candidate's home state. joining me now, kevin dewine, chairman of the ohio republican party. so, kevin, who is going to win? >> good morning, kyra. i think the people of ohio are going to win. the state party hasn't taken a position on a candidate, neither have i. but i think what what you're going to see is a close race tonight between governor romney and senator santorum. >> you say that people of ohio are going to win. according to one cartoonist, i'm going to bring the cartoon up right now, this is actually in this morning "cleveland plain dealer", a big yawn for gop choices. what's your reaction? >> well, i didn't see it, so -- >> voter apathy is what it's saying. voter apathy, kevin, is what it's saying. >> look. i would say just the opposite. we are seeing a lot of excitement at the grass roots level of this party. dinners, rallies. the candidates have spent a lot of time here and generated a lot of excitement. and from what we see across the state is a republican base focused on the right thing and that is making barack obama a one-term president. >> okay. you know what, let's take a look at the latest ohio numbers, if you don't mind. romney and santorum, neck and neck in our cnn/orc poll, kevin. with just a couple of days to go, nearly half are not locked in to vote for a certain candidate. so what does this tell you about ohio voters right now? >> well, what it tells me is the race -- what i've been saying all along is this race is fluid. when -- coming out of michigan a week ago senator santorum had either an 11-point lead or 7-point lead depending on who you talk to, what poll you looked at. what you see now is that race getting very close. i think the momentum, there's a little bit of momentum probably for governor romney here, although i wouldn't want to call it. i think it's going to be a very close race. the fluidity is underscored by the fact that 50% of the people are still trying to evaluate these candidates, see them, understand what the issues are that they're going to focus on, listen to their economic plans, and head to the polls. >> so what are the issues that matter to them the most right now? what will get them to the polls? >> yeah, i think the -- i think the number one issue across the state and it's really no different from what you're seeing across the country, kyra, and that is the focus on the economy and both senator santorum and speaker gingrich and i'll include speaker gingrich and governor romney have been in ohio talking about tax reform, regulatory reform, energy independence, the repeal of obama care. but all of those very technical terms, all come back to a focus on creating jobs, creating an economy that can sustain a family. and that's the most important -- that's the most important thing on the hearts and minds of majority of voters in ohio today and certainly this fall as well. >> kevin, as you know, in 2008 president obama took ohio by a narrow margin. independents went his way. what are you doing right now to try and change that this time around? >> well, i think the president has done a lot on his own, kyra. in ohio the president's approval rating is below 50%. there's a majority of independents who don't believe he deserves a second term. and so our candidate's job -- our nominee's job will be to come here and paint a message and convey a message that is attractive not just to the gop base but can gather these independent voters who are displeased and unsatisfied with the president's four years in offers and go gather a few of those right-thinking reagan democrats and build a winning coalition to carry the buckeye state. >> kevin dewine, republican party, kevin, thanks. straight ahead, the military and allegations of rape. unfortunately it's nothing new. but these interviews are. eight service women filing a federal lawsuit and we're talking to two of them next. scathing allegations of military women being raped, even gang raped, assaulted, and harassed at alarming rates. those are just some of the shocking allegations in this federal lawsuit just filed today. it's brought by eight current and former service women. the lawsuit paints the military as having a, quote, high tolerance for sexual predators in their ranks. and, quote, zero tolerance for those who report rape, sexual assault, and harassment. this lawsuit could prove especially telling considering that even defense secretary leon panetta admits that sexual assaults in the military are a huge problem. he estimated there were 19,000 sexual assaults last year alone. arianna clay are just two of the estimated 19,000 possible rape victims. they're a part of this lawsuit that was filed today. they just held a news conference about it. ladies, thank you so much for joining me. i appreciate it. >> thank you. >> thank you for having us. >> if you don't mind, just to sort of set up your stories, arianna, i'll begin with you. tell me what happened and why you're coming forward. >> after a year of pretty shocking harassment, it culminated in a gang assault led by a senior officer in my command and his civilian friend. they came to my house a block from base. threatened death and proceeded to assault me. >> ariana, let me ask you, did you have a bad feeling when they showed up at your house? did you hesitate at all about letting them in or did you not let them? >> i did not let them in. i did not let them in. they let themselves in. they were uninvited. i did have a bad feeling. he was screaming at me from the time that he entered the door. he felt that since i had humiliated him in front of his junior marines by not obeying his order, that he wanted to humiliate me. >> and, elle, just watching both of you. your body language, i know this is not easy to talk about. i hate taking you back to these allegations. but i just want to be able to set this up properly. elle, tell me what happened to you and why you are coming forward along with ariana. >> okay. i was the only female officer at essentially all-male command that supplies and defends the white house and the president. they are the ceremony dog and pony show of the marine corps. they pride themselves more on how they look in a uniform than their ability to lead a and protect their marines. but after roughly a year of being stationed there i was ordered to attend a mandatory command sponsor colonel endorsed pub crawl, paid for with taxpayer dollars. and after the pub crawl, i was asked by my commanding officer to come back to his office, he wanted to address some things with me. i had no feeling that, you know, any of this would go, my life was going to change immediately. considering i was ordered to attend this event, so when i got back to his office he immediately began to press himself against me and pressure me. i tried to fight him off. there was a physical altercat n altercation. i was knocked unconscious and that's when the rape occurred. >> and, elle, i'm going to follow-up. you brought up this pub crawl. and before i ask you this, at any point did you think, i'm not going to do that, i'm not going to go. how can you order me to go to a pub crawl. >> drinking events, mandatory weekly drinking events at this command, so in both our cases i guess things didn't change much because hers was two or three years ago. we were required to attend these weekly social events which revolved around drinking. >> yeah, kyra, i was ordered to at tend by the man who raped me, by the company commander. so i tried to not go and i was told that it's not optional. >> were you forced to drink, elle? >> absolutely. in addition to just immense amount of alcohol consumption and overall "lord of the flies" atmosphere there's a lot of haze that occurs as well. >> let me ask you this. officials at the marine barracks came forward saying that the charges were, quote, thoroughly investigated and found to be unsubstantiated unsubstantiated. also the officials went on to say that both of you were accused of misconduct, including frat nizing with other officers and excessive drinking and have sense left the marine corps. what's your response to that? >> i would say to that that that's the case they've been trying to make for years, that there are just a few bad apples instead of admitting to the crisis on their hands. you know, it's not that far fetched to say of all of the combat arms marines there, many of whom have not worked with females that there might be some issues. although it was corroborated that i was routinely called a slut and a whore, my commanding officer also decided that i had welcomed the harassment because i wore makeup and running shorts. so, yes, the commander's in a position where he reports directly to the command can't of the marine corps and that's not something they want to report. the system is it up so that he's in that undesirable position. so this is consistent with the retaliation. the lawsuit alleges that they have zero tolerance for those who report us results rather than having zero tolerance for those who are the perpetrators and this is consistent with that statement. >> kyra, to go on with that, i mean, what we're finding, too, and what what happened to me for six years is the process of reporting an assault and a rape is moodily spun upon, well, how do we make the victim the accuse about what will be the s subtrifunlg by which they are dismissed. ariana klay accepted both responsibilities for any investigations. unfortunately we were lieutenants at the time so we accepted responsibility for wrong doing. why did no one else? >> you know, i want to ask you both this, too. you are obviously beautiful women and so my guess is there were many men that attempted to ask you out, make a pass at you. i mean, let's be real. when you're a beautiful woman, that's what happens. how did you deal with passes in the past? elle? >> you know, at first people, you know, you're they're shiny new toy. because i was the only female officer at an all-male command with a handful of exceptions for female enlisted junior marines, people did ask you out and people did make passes. at first it was just kind of easier to laugh them off. but then you realize they became more serious and i would try and just say, you know, this isn't really professional, unfortunately, or i'm dating someone. the minute you said that, you went from being the shiny object of their affection and their potential lust to being called horrible derogatory terms. so i mean, the minute you deflect any sort of attention that they may want, now you're their enemy, now you're their target. it got worse and worse. >> the military has come fo ward saying that sexual assault has no place in this department. also i want to point out after the fact, after these astounding numbers of sexual assault cases have come forward and these allegations, that the pentagon now has a new director of sexual assault prevention and response. an air force major general, a female who has said that we own this problem, we need to fix this problem. ariana, do you have faith in that? >> i don't because they've been saying that for decades. and to really have reform, it's going to take completely restructuring the system, you know. it's a matter of basic checks and balances and separation of powers. right now the military investigates itself. you know, the marine corps deals with the greatest moral challenges every day. war fighting institution. so it's not equipped to deal with this challenge alone. it needs an external neutral organization to assist it. and that's not going to be anything within dod. >> and, elle, you know, i have talked with women in your position, ones that it's very tough for them to come forward and talk about this because they're afraid that immediately the men in the military will say, see, this is why they shouldn't be in combat, this is why they shouldn't be mingling with us. final thought, elle, what do you say to women who are scared to come forward because of the stereotyping, because of the backlash? >> i mean, i would be remiss if i said it wasn't extremely challenging and that this is the first time in six years i've had a voice. and that's -- that -- so the victims out there who ant to come forward or who are debating coming forward, please do. there's strength in numbers and we're not all lying. this won't go away. this continues to happen. be strong. believe in yourself. live up to your morals. come forward and try and get help and do what's right for you, yourself, before the military. >> elle, ariana, appreciate your time this morning. >> thank you. just about two hours from now president barack obama holds his first news conference of the year. we're learning that he's going to take on the housing crisis. alison kosik on who is expected to benefit, next. i look at her, and i just want to give her everything. yeah, you -- you know, everything can cost upwards of...[ whistles ] i did not want to think about that. relax, relax, relax. look at me, look at me. three words, dad -- e-trade financial consultants. so i can just go talk to 'em? 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