illinois. we'll tell you why. take a look at this, would you? now, all right. i can't snowboard, but apparently this pos sum can. we'll have more of the best video of the morning later on this hour. >> level-headed and experienced. words that an attorney for staff sergeantent robert bales say accurately describe the soldier, and now those closest to bales are sharing their thoughts about the rampage that killed 16 afghan civilians and the man accused of committing the act. a statement reads in part, "sergeant bales' family is stunned in the face of this tragedy, but they stand behind the man they know as a devoted husband, father, and dedicated member of the armed services." bales is currently being held in kansas at fort leavenworth. his attorneys say they will meet with him next week. susan canned eon they will have more later. >> the outrage sparked by the shooting is being felt in the streets of afghanistan and also back here in the united states. >> we want peace! we want peace! >> that was the scene near san francisco where more than 100 afghans and their supporters held a vigil for those killed. some of those gathered calling not only for peace, but also for justice for the victims. an american teacher has been killed in yemen. it happened in the city of taez. two gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on the victim as he was driving to work to a language school. no one has claimed responsibility. violence has escalated in yemen. thursday tribes have abducted a swiss woman on the red sea coast. turning now to iraq where digging for answers into a military mystery. the united nations says an american believed by some to have been held captive for nine months has been turned over to the u.s. embassy in baghdad. that embassy is now working to verify his story. he is identified as ran michael holtz. holtz wearing a military uniform, speaking about his experience. >> i was taken inside baghdad and had been kept in and around different locations within the city. it was explained to me that my release has been for more of humanitarian reasons and that there was no exchange involved. >> a pentagon official says that while the defense department is reviewing the reports, there is no knowledge of any active duty military member missing in iraq. >> chants of "free, free syria" ringing out in the nation's capital. protesters are urging president obama to stop the bloodshed in syria. hundreds of demonstrators rallied outside the white house yesterday. they want increased u.s. pressure on the syrian regime and more aid for civilians. it is primary day in puerto rico, and both mitt romney and rick santorum are hoping for victory. the polls open in just two hours. there are 20 delegates up for grabs in the u.s. territory. a key campaign issue? puerto rico's statehood status. romney santorum, and gingrich support puerto rico becoming the 51st state if their voters do as well. sdmrirchgts the man who turned red bull into a global phenomenon and became a bill yore air in the process has died. he and a business partner transformed a sweet drink that was popular with truckers in europe and asia into a brand sold in now 164 countries. he died of natural causes. he was in his 80s. let's say good morning to meteorologist reynolds wolf. how is it looking for today? >> you know, it's going to be okay for parts of the country. the eastern one-third of the country should be okay. very mild conditions. plenty of sunshine. when you get to the central plains and then certainly i'm going to get to the west coast, things really do change. a chance of severe weather in some spots. possibly some heavy snow in the rockies and looks like the rain is going to continue for parts of central and southern california. we'll give you more on that coming up. >> all right, reynolds. thank you. >> you bet. >> here's a rundown now of what's still to come. the wife of the u.s. soldier accused of killing innocent afghans opens up about life as an army wife. see what was on her mind even before last weekend's deadly rampage. plus, if israel does decide to strike iran, why experts in and outside of israel envision a much more complicated attack. you know how annoying and dangerous it can be for someone to text while driving? well, an app ames to put a stop to that. seriously. i'll explain. you're watching "weekend early start" because news doesn't take the weekend off. my daughter's grabbing some yoplait. lemon burst, blackberry harvest, pina colada... i can't imagine where she is... orange creme... 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[ male announcer ] with wells fargo advisor's envision plan, you always know where you stand. in fact, 93 percent of envision plan holders say they will retire on their own terms. get started on the plan you need today -- wells fargo advisors. together we'll go far. back to our top story now. a man who is known afghan shooting suspect sergeant robert bales all his life says nothing adds up. he says the soldier accused in last sunday's house to house rampage is not the young man who has done so much for his family since he was a kid. suzy candiotti has this exclusive report. >> reporter: robert durrer remembers his last conversation with sergeant robert bales who called him from afghanistan. >> said i love you, poppy, you know? take care of yourself. >> that was in december. shortly after he was redeployed to the region for a fourth time. >> a real caring, real understanding individual. even from a real young age. >> durham has known bales all his life. they lived next door to each other in norwood, ohio. he still calls him bobby. >> bobby and my son were best friends. >> an uncommonly kind friends because durham's son wade, two years older than bales is severely disabled. >> bobby was just a very understanding, very accepting kid. he didn't at one time point out a kid's disability. it was what they could do. >> bobby took wade swimming, too school parties, to the zoo. bobby made sure wade was never left out no matter what anyone thought. >> and with bobby around, there was never a question. all of bobby's friends accepted wade because bobby accepted him. >> at norwood high school outside cincinnati bales was a football captain. year book photos show him typing and a playful side. after attending two colleges and working in finance, a fateful day, 9/11. >> 9/11 really affected bobby. >> within two months he joined the army. >> he was like a lot of young men and women who decided that not on our watch. you don't do this to our country. >> when they talked about the war, durham says bales empathized with civilians. >> people are people to him. people are people. i never heard him say that he hated anyone. >> like most, durham was horrified to hear about an american soldier who allegedly fwuned down 16 afghan villagers door to door. >> how did you react when you heard the news? >> they're saying bobby did that, and i couldn't believe it. i still can't believe it. durham suspects his friend may have snapped and is worried. >> i don't think he can live with it. he will never be the same, and that -- he is such a great person. that just -- that crushes me. i don't know. >> what questions do you have? >> i think everyone has the same question because everyone knew the same bobby. what happened? what happened? >> questions with few answers. >> i don't know what happened to my friend, bob bales. i hope somebody figures it out. >> and gets him help. susan candiotti, cnn, norwood, ohio. >> hmm. reynolds is back now with a forecast for you. reynolds, what do you have in store for us? >> we have a lot going on. it's one of those days where you just have -- you just take your pick of weather im's around the country. when you think of ski season, ski season was very slow starting this year, and especially in central rockies. many resorts were building on snow, creating their own stuff. now they're finishing up the season and n a pretty strong way, anden only in parts of the rockies, but even in the sierra nevada where we have all the moisture coming in from the pacific crossing over the coastal range into the san walk even valley, and being boom, into higher elevations it's turning into snow that you can see plain as day. same story in southern california. you can see light snow especially up towards big bear, but then when you get over towards phoenix and flagstaff, you see the transformation of the rain. farther to the south and then when you get higher elevations in near staff, it's switching over to snow. same story in salt lake city. in the valleys things are fine. up towards snow bird, it's totally a snow event. it's great news for anyone who hopes to get a few more runs, few more turns in before the ski season ends up. the problem is on the other side of the system, it's a different story. very dry conditions. strong winds. you have a fire threat that will be in effect for the day. when you get into the central and southern plains, chansz of severe storms. not much on radar for the time being, but as we get to the late afternoon and then you have the daytime heating, the high humidity, that's where things get interesting. we might have some strong storms that could develop. tornadoes are possible. yes. unfortunately. we might see some isolated tornadoes that could develop, but the primary thing ewe going to see is going to be the chances of small hail and some heavy rain and with that maybe strong winds. warm conditions across the ohio valley. very muggy. you're going to feel the humidity in cincinnati today. no question about it. warm conditions are going to be felt all over the eastern one-third, and even the center of the u.s. 84 in memphis. 84 in atlanta. 64 degrees in new york. 71 in boston, and as we wrap things up, 61 in albuquerque, and 56 in los angeles. anyone flying out to los angeles, maybe slight delays due to low clouds. the big problem is in phoenix with wind and a few thunder boomers that might keep you grounded for a bit on the tarmac. >> i have a question for you. how many times were you on the road where you see people texting or talking on their phone? >> every single day. >> crazy, right? >> it really is. no question. >> i want to just grab their blackberry or iphone our their hands. a lot of people do it. a lot of people text while driving. it's not only a distraction, but we also know that it can be dangerous. a colorado father of triplets is already thinking about what it will be like for his kids when they start driving, and that's why he has created an app to make driving safer. here's our affiliate with kusa. >> i don't want them on the road dogg this. >> troy of littleton says his triplets have grown up so fast. before he knows it, all three will be asking for the car keys. >> the thought of them driving in today's world, you know, they're 8, so they're eight years away from driving, and there are so many dust rackses and meaningless deaths on the roads caused by people texting. >> that's why two years ago troy began working on a cell phone app to block calls and texts who'll driving. he hired a california company to develop the life before text app that's just hit the market. >> it was kind of a shock that it finally came together. >> as distracted driving claims more lives and makes more headlines, more and more safe driving apps are vaebl to drivers. bloo so if you are driving down the road and i want to text somebody, this will come up. >> we took troy's app for a test drive going 10 miles per hour. parents have a few options for speed. the app is supposed to block calls, texts, and emails. >> there it is right there. it says missed call from my cell phone. it didn't ring. didn't bother you. >> no. i got my eyes on the road. making sure i don't hit anybody or get in a wreck. >> got your twitter here. no cell phone use. >> emergency calls can be made, but if a teenage driver disables the app, the parents will get an e-mail. if the app is deleted, an e-mail can be sent to an insurance agent who may be giving the teen driver a discount for having the app installed. troy spent $20,000 creating the app. consumers can buy it for a one-time fee of $3.98. troy says it's not about the money. it's about his kids' safety and other drivers. >> even if i don't make any money off of this, it's worth the investment that i made just to put on my children's phones. >> when their spouses are sent off to war, they are the ones left to pick up the pieces. up next, inside the diary of the wife of the soldier accused in last weekend's afghan shooting rampage. us. how can we save these young people's lives? as a police chief i have an opportunity to affect what happens in a major city. i learned early on if you want to make a difference you have to have the right education. university of phoenix opened the door. my name is james craig, i'm committed to making a difference and i am a phoenix. two of the most important are energy security and economic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project in canada, we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as many other oils and that's a huge breakthrough. that's good for our country's energy security and our economy. i like yoplait. it is yoplait. but you said it was greek. mmhmm. so is it greek or is it yoplait? exactly. okay... [ female announcer ] yoplait. it is so greek. she the woman sergeant robert bales left behind when he went to iraq and afghanistan. today we're getting her thoughts on his service and how it impacted the life she they shared. in a series of blog posts carolyn bales writes about several events, including the disappointment felt when her husband was passed over for promotion last year saying, quote, "after all of the work bob has done and all the sacrifices he has made for his love have his country, family, and friends." mrs. bales also described her pregnancy with their daughter, quincy, and the anticipation of her husband's return saying, "i only want the days to go by fast when it comes to bob coming back home." she wrote this about her unborn child of whom she shared a certain physical condition and how it reminded her of her husband. she wrote, "i get the hiccups all the time these days. i always think that bob is thinking about me. i guess bob was thinking about her too." bales' family has reportedly been moved due to safety concerns. their home according to public records was put up for sale just this week. rising tensions between israel and iran are fueling speculation of a looming war. we watched iran flex its military muscle practicing war games m strait of hormuz. in a meeting with president obama this month israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu said his country reserves the right to attack iran to defend itself. he also said that israel has been patient. >> this room has waited, patiently waited, for the international community to resolve this issue. we've waited for diplomacy to work. we've waited for sanctions to work. none of us can afford to wait much longer. >> an air strike by israel it's not going to be so easy to pull off. that's what experts both missed and outside israel tell cnn's richard green. he is joining us live now from london this morning. richard, welcome to you. how would israel go about attempting to destroy iran's nuclear site? would this be done by air or by sea? >> well, iran has a number of targets spread around different locations, and so although israel has submarines and we don't know exactly what's on those submarines. we assume they have cruise missiles or something like that. because there are a number of different targets and because you would need very, very precise bombing, i think the assumption of all experts is this will happen by air. that the israeli air force will fly either over saudi arabia, over turkey, or straight across jordan and into iraq and then from there into iran to bomb from the israeli air force bombers themselves. >> it sounds like quite a complicated mission. you have been told that this will be a lot more difficult than when israel attacked iraq decades ago, and a suspected one in syria. what are the biggest challenges here in terms of the military assault? >> well, randy, in syria and in iraq, the previous case, as you mentioned, there was one target in each place. now, iran has at least four different nuclear sites that we assume the israelis would want to bomb, if we thought they were going to destroy the entire program. we're talking about something like 25 israeli fighter bombers because it's so far they're going to need midair refueling, so that's air refueling tankers in the air as well. plus, whatever, you know, fighter support you want to have to protect the planes that are doing the bombing. it's going to be -- if it happens, it's going to be an absolutely enormous air operation. >> yeah. not to mention that some of the sites there are hidden in concrete and mountains and can be really difficult. would it be a surprise assault, do you think? >> well, the israelis would certainly want it to be. now, it's tricky. if you fly low over the ground, that's going to protect the israeli planes from the iranian radar. the lower the planes are, the harder it will be for the iranians to see them coming, but if they're flying over a hostile country like iraq or saudi arabia, then what you are doing is you are opening yourself up to the air defenses of those countries. now, iraq after ten years of war they can't really defend its airspace all that well, but the lower you are, the more you run the risk of alerting the people on the way to the target. the higher you are, the quicker the iranians will see them coming. >> the former director of israel's massad believes abbing din jawed is a rationale person. if that's the case, could this be more of a game of chicken? could this be a cold war all over again? >> well, i think there are a lot of people who hope so. you know, certainly i think everybody's preference would be that we not go into a full-on shooting war between israel and iran. netanyahu has been a tough negotiator. he is pressing the americans, and he is making tough statements as far as iran is concerned. i think there are a lot of people who hope this is tough talk instead of a war rather than tough talk leading to a war. >> and just very quickly, when would this happen by if this were to happen? do you think it would have to happen before the u.s. elections in november? >> the israelis have been talking about a point of no return where iran's nuclear program will be so far along that they can't stop it by bombing. there's debate about where exactly that is. president obama addressed apaic last week. the pro israeli lobbying committee. he said, look, we have been watching iran very closely. we know they do not have nuclear weapons yet. israel agree with this on that. obama for his part is certainly sending a very clear signal to slow down, let's not rush into anything here. randy. >> richard green, thank you very much. appreciate that. nice to see you. we'