tech equipment supplied by iran. let's go straight to our pentagon correspondent, barbara starr. barbara also seeing reports of high-level defections including at least four generals. do u.s. officials think that's significant? >> reporter: right now, john, senior u.s. intelligence officials are telling us no. and that's the problem. they are seeing no cracking in the inner circle around because char bashar all assad. they are seeing no evidence his powerful inner circle is cracking. and that imagery that has now been declassified and released today is also critical. because what it's providing the u.s. intelligence community is very specific information about where syrian forces are on the move, what they are shelling, the destruction of mosques and hospitals in critical neighborhoods. you have the video on the internet. but this is the kind of key intelligence that they are pouring over right now to get a better idea of what the syrian military's really up, to john. >> as they try to get more information about that, barbara, tell us is it suspicion or is it evidence iran is now helping the syrian government to try to crush the rebellion? >> reporter: i have to tell you that senior u.s. intelligence officials are telling us they have evidence they believe iran in the past has supplied unmanned drones, uavs, that syria is now using in these neighborhoods to track people and track opposition movements. iran is providing computer technology, the kind that they used in their own to put down their own revolution so many months ago to track the opposition forces, to jam or track their internet postings. very, very tricky business. but it's that kind of support from iran that has them concerned right now. and you know, the real bottom line, john, still is with all of this destruction going on, if the u.s. military was told by the president to intervene, these senior intelligence officials are telling us in detail, syria has thousands of surface to air missiles, anti-aircraft batteries, radars, very densely packed, very tough for u.s. air strikes to get at. it would be very grim business for the u.s. to try and go in, john. >> important and very sober breaking news. barbara starr at the pentagon. barbara thanks so much. a closer look at the satellite images just released by the u.s. government. first before and after pictures. you see them there. this is the assault on the babar amar neighborhood. on the right heavy black smoke powers out from the buildings there. the wider pinpoint marks the neighborhood pock marked by artillery craters. next set of before and after pictures shows a bridge near the syrian border with lebanon. in the right hand picture you clearly see that bridge perhaps an access for people to escape the country destroyed. the u.s. government released these dramatic images on the eve of a new diplomatic push to try to stop the blood bath. former united nations secretary general cofkofi annan is now a special diplomat. set to meet with the president of syria tomorrow. >> is there any kind of a deadline that will be given to president assad? >> well, the imperative is to resolve this as swiftly as possible. our view it and i think the mounting view of the international community is that assad's days are numbered. but in the meantime he's killing an atrocious number of people. our preference has been and remains for this to be resolved through peaceful and diplomatic means. and that's annan is trying to do. >> we'll have more of that conversation with ambassador rice in this hour. in a new show of vigor the united states economy added 200,000 plus jobs for the third consecutive month. the unemployment rate held steady at 8.3%. it's a boost for many of you and perhaps a boost for a president looking to keep his job. let's crunch some of the numbers. then we'll have a conversation with christa freeland. the file here 227,000 jobs created last month, 8.3% unemployment rate. during the obama presidency you see the rate was up around 10%. it's now dropped down. pretty static since january but down from its highs anyway. the question will it go lower than 8.3% before november? let's look now. since the president came to office, remember back in 2008 the final months of the bush administration? then first year of the obama administration? the economy was bleeding jobs. that's all the red. been in the black mostly since. a few tough months in the middle of 2010. look at that, though. since this rough period here and into 2011 and 2012, jobs up. these are the three months in a row above 200,000. one last thing to look at here, where are the jobs? the last month 233,000 created in the private sector. 6,000 jobs lost in the public sector. manufacturing up, healthcare up. hospitality and service industry up. let's bring in christa freeland now a global editor at large for global reuters. christa this has to make you think this recovery finally has a sustainable foundation, right? >> i think that's absolutely right. i think they're cheering in the white house right now. and look, john, you an i are both journalists. in some ways you could say our job is to look for the clouds in the silver lining. but i think we have to concede that these job numbers are really strong, stronger than people expected. and as you showed with those charts, we're now seeing some sort of mounting numbers. it's three months in a row. it's 2 million jobs over the past 12 months. that's pretty good. it's looking better. >> and so if let's say looking better manufacturing is up, the president says manufacturing is up nearly 500,000 over the last two years. those are bright spots. those are good spots. but if you are looking never mind from a political standpoint just from an economic standpoint, if you're looking for anything in there that's a warning sign or potentially a pothole what is it? >> i think there are probably three things to bear in mind and to be worried about. the first one is, even though the trend is our friend, the situation is still pretty bad. you know, as you said, unemployment is 8.3%. who would have thought that americans would be cheering for an 8.3% unemployment rate? that's 13 million people still out of work. so that i think is a big issue. i think the second thing which is an issue is we have had some false dawns, right? since the depth of the recession there have been moments when it looked like things were getting better and then the problems returned. we had that last spring, particularly with the japanese tsunami and then the debt ceiling debate. so i don't think we're out of the woods yet. and then the third thing which i think is really a pocketbook issue, and i think economists need to be careful to bear in mind, although the jobs numbers are looking better the level of people's wages is still not keeping up with inflation. so maybe it's easier, a little bit easier to get a job, but people are still feeling the pinch in their pocket books. >> that's very important when it comes to spending and consumer confidence. christa freeland, thanks so much. a couple quick data points. on the campaign trail, if you look at this the darker the state the higher the unemployment rate by states. you see these states in the industrial midwest, california and nevada. you see the dark states. so many of these states happen to be from a political standpoint presidential swing states as well. here's also a potential warning sign. gas prices, energy prices on the rise. you might note this horrible coincidence. a lot of the highest gas prices around the country happen to be in states that also have high unemployment. out on the campaign trail today the republican presidential candidates mostly ignored the new positive numbers about job creation. during this stop in jackson, mississippi, mitt romney focused instead on the stubbornly high unemployment number. >> 37 months ago told us that if he could borrow $787 billion, almost $1 trillion, he would keep unemployment below 8%. it has not been below 8% since. >> earlier i also spoke to another republican presidential candidate, the former pennsylvania senator rick santorum, began that conversation as well with today's news. encouraging news on jobs. >> senator, let's start with the new unemployment report. you're among the republican candidates traveling the country trying to convince not only republicans but all americans we need a new president because of his economic leadership. three consecutive months now of job growth above 200,000 a month. the president's in a better position today than he was a few months ago, no? >> well, 3 1/2 years with 8 plus percent unemployment. that's not a good position for anybody to be. and this is a recovery that has been anemic by any standard. and the principal reason is the president's oppressive regulatory and tax policies and his continuing growing the size and scale of the budget. and again, the budget deficit. all of which are a way down in this horrible energy policy which as we've seen is leading now to higher and higher gas prices and another headwind for the economy. >> but you know how this works. if the statistics do continue to get a little better, he will be in somewhat better, maybe dramatically better chance of re-election. so if there's a republican voter out there about to vote in kansas, mississippi or alabama or beyond who says, whoa, this looks like it might be an even tougher race now, what's your case to say here'sy can still beat president obama on the economy in a sentence or two? >> well, the bottom line is that if we have a candidate that is just a little different than barack obama and just running on the fact that he can create jobs which is what governor romney's doing even though he was 47th out of 50 states when he was governor in job creation, you're going to have a hard time. you've got to have a broader message. you've got to have a message about what's really at stake in this election. that is yes, the economy, the reason it's struggling is because of this president, because of government regulation. he's denying people freedom. and this is an election about liberty, this is an election about big things for this country, about government regulation and oppression of our lives. and that has to be the narrative. it can't be about, well, you know, i'm better -- i'm going to create x number of jobs. the i'm going to create the freedom for you to go out and create the jobs. that's the issue. >> still ahead, passengers on an american airlines flight witness a shocking scene as a flight attendant warns them their plane will crash before they have taken off. and newt gingrich says he isn't going anywhere. how does that affect the santorum strategy? we'll ask senator santorum right after this. [ male announcer ] this is lawn ranger -- eden prairie, minnesota. in here, the landscaping business grows with snow. to keep big winter jobs on track, at&t provided a mobile solution that lets everyone from field workers to accounting, initiate, bill, and track work in real time. you can't live under a dome in minnesota, that's why there's guys like me. [ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. imagine if you could always see life [music] in the best light. every time of day. outdoors, or in. transitions® lenses automatically filter just the right amount of light. so you see everything the way it is meant to be seen. maybe even a little better. experience life well lit, ask for transitions adaptive lenses. let's continue our conversation with the republican presidential hopeful rick santorum. he's hopeful in mississippi, alabama and kansas. but recent polling shows he's got some catching up to do. >> you have been telling the voters in kansas, alabama and mississippi, give me a couple days here, a few wins and i'll have a two-person race, rick santorum against mitt romney. if you look at latest polling in mississippi, newt gingrich 35%, mitt romney 31%, rick santorum 20%. you're running third in that poll in mississippi. speaker gingrich today says he's not going anywhere. >> i'm going all the way to tampa. there's no question in my mind. >> the romney campaign says if gingrich stays in and you guys keep splitting the votes there's no way either one of you can mathematically get there. >> well, we'll just let this all play out. as we've seen since i think it's nevada, we've finished first or second in almost every state. i think maybe three or four that we didn't. but congressman gingrich outside of the state of georgia has finished third or fourth in every other race. and so the congressman can stake in as long as he wants to stay in. i think what we're going to see is as this campaign goes on i think we're going to have a good win here in kansas. i think we're going to run well in alabama and mississippi. i've seen other polls that have us a much closer race in both of those states. i feel like we're clearly the candidate right now that is the alternative to a moderate republican from massachusetts being the nominee of the party. not exactly the kind of contrast that i think is going to be a winning one for us in the general election. >> you're standing in kansas tonight. you just criticized governor romney. i want to read you something from a romney supporter who happens to be a pretty famous son of kansas, bob dole. he says this about you to abc news "i don't know what the appeal is to rick. he's a great family man and he's certainly a good person but i don't see him as a leader. i don't believe he's had any real private experience and no position of leadership, well, high leadership in politics." how would you answer bob dole? >> i have a lot of respect for bob dole. i was privileged to serve with him in the united states senate. he left in 1996. i was two years in the united states senate. clearly i was 36 years old when i came to the senate. the bob dole and the rick santorum relationship was almost 20 years ago. so i don't blame senator dole for saying what he said and the experience he had 20 years ago with me. obviously i've gone through a lot more in my life since that time. and i think what the people are seeing is someone who can paint a vision for this country, someone who can go out and has the courage to lead and fight to make things happen in this country, and someone who tells them the truth. unlike governor romney who has repeatedly throughout the course of this election maintained that he simply did not advocate for obama care and did not offer a federal mandate as a solution to the healthcare problems that this country is confronting. and now we find repeatedly that governor romney in 2009 at the heart of this debate did just that. and then went out in this campaign and did not tell the truth to the voters of the republican party. they've already got one president who isn't honest with the american public on a variety of different issues. we should not put up someone whose policy is wrong and very similar if not identical to the president's but also can't tell the truth to the folks about what his position was in a very critical time when obama care was being debated. >> let me ask you a commander-in-chief question. as we speak today the united nations top humanitarian official went to syria, she presented the assad government with a plan. she's trying to get relief supplies in, monitors. in she says they want some time to think about it. senator mccain says the united states should start moving quickly for air strikes, some other effort to help the opposition. what would you do if you were president today? >> well, i would be working to provide as much aid to the rebel forces there as possible indirectly, be supporting them as best we could. i'm not comfortable at this point with committing to air strikes. but i think we have to understand that syria's part of a very important access against israel and the united states and the west. and that of course is iran and syria are very much joined at the hip. and even the russians have weighed in about protecting syria and this thug regime of assad. so this is not just -- this is not libya, this is not even egypt. this is a much more complicated picture. and i think we have to be bold in a sense that we need to continue to maintain that he needs to leave and we need to act accordingly. but i think we have to be very cautious about how much we act in that regard. >> senator rick santorum from the campaign trail today. sir, good luck in kansas and the next few days. we'll touch base after the next round of contests. >> thank you very much, john. appreciate it. up next, coke or pepsi? either way your favorite soda is about to change. plus a house from the 1990s smash movie "home alone" was sold. remember this? >> hello there. i'm in good shape. aaaaaaah! >> oles in their plans? aflac! quack! like medical bills they don't pay for? aflac! or help pay the mortgage? quack! or child care? quack! aflaaac! and everyday expenses? huh?! blurlbrlblrlbr!!! [ thlurp! ] aflac! [ male announcer ] help your family stay afloat at aflac.com. plegh! metamucil uses super hard working psyllium fiber, which gels to remove unsexy waste and reduce cholesterol. taking psyllium fiber won't make you a model but you should feel a little more super. metamucil. down with cholesterol. welcome back. here's kate bolduan with the latest news you need to know right now. happy friday. >> reporter: happy friday everyone. today the u.s. agreed to let afghanistan take control of the detention center at bagram air base. it hold about 3,000 doetainees. its control has been a sticking point for u.s. involvement in afghanistan after combat forces leave in 2014. under the agreement the prisoners eventually will be sent to other facilities but u.s. will have a veto of who gets released. and president obama is attending fundraisers in houston, texas this evening, visiting a rolls royce jet engine factory in virginia today. this afternoon's stop was meant to push his plan to revive u.s. manufacturing but he also sounds like a man trying to keep his own job. listen here. >> i did not run for this office just to get back to where we were. i ran for this office to get us to where we need to be. [ cheers and applause ] >> and a big change coming to your soda or pop, whichever you prefer. today the folks at coke and pepsi announced their supplier will change a chemical in the caramel coloring that gives cold drink their color. the center for science in the public interest says it causes cancer in lab animals, and we're told the change won't affect the way coke, pepsi and other drink look or taste. you can be the judge, of course. somebody just got a pretty good deal on the house where they shot the 1990 movie "home alone." according to chicago cbs 2 the 14-bedroom home in winetka was listed last year for 2.4 million but sold a bit over 1.5. it was used for all the movies' outdoor scenes as women as welle kitchen, first floor landing and the staircase when he sleds down and head goes outside. what every kid's dream is to do? >> a lot of kids learned some new tricks watching that movie. >> i heard that john king does that trick. >> good deal. >> if you have 1.5 million for sure. >> you were laughing when you came out here, the mccauley caulk kin screen. are you doing it? >> i'm not doing it new international and u.s. attempts to turn up the pressure in syria. we'll talk to susan rice the u.s. ambassador to the united nations. plus a passenger's ireport of a flight attendant's bizarre outburst today including talk of the plane crashing and references to 9/11. [ male announcer ] the draw of the past is a powerful thing. but we couldn't simply repeat history. we had to create it. introducing the 2013 lexus gs, with leading-edge safety technology, like available blind spot monitor... [ tires screech ] ...night view... and heads-up display.