we'll bring you n an side look at a documentary about bill clinton and monica lewinsky major role in it. we begin with today's eye-opener. your world in 90 seconds. shot down a chute for about 1500 feet. >> an avalanche claims the lives of three washington state skiers while a fourth cheats death. >> the avalanche danger was predicted. >> they took that risk and we're aware of it. >> about some phony ideal. some phony theology. not a theology based on the bible. >> i got to ask you, what in the world were you talking about? >> rick santorum defends comments about president obama's beliefs. >> says he's a christian. but i am talking about his world view. >> the new poll shows that president obama's approval rating raised. keep talking fellas. >> iran is lashing out over tough sanctions against its nuclear program. international inspectors are there to discuss the issue. >> it's not prudent at this point to decide to attack iran. >> the mid-atlantic has been keting pelted with snow. >> knocking out power to tens of thousands. about 20 vehicles were involved in crashes on interstate 75. >> aviation officials are investigating why a helicopter and small plane collided in california. both pilots walked away with minor injuries. >> a swedish man is rescued after being trapped in his car for two months. >> all that. >> how are you doing in. >> one of of the strangest things i've seen. >> all that matters on "cbs this morning." >> another thing we never got tired of. yeah. welcome to "cbs this morning." we begin with campaign 2012 where the rick santorum bandwagon is picking up speed. the latest gallup tracking poll finds santorum leading mitt romney by 8 points. over the weekend he attacked the obama campaign. jan crawford is in washington with more this morning. jan, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. for months, the obama campaign has been focusing fire on mitt romney. they think he's going to be the republican nominee. for the first time, it took direct aim at santorum hitting him hard with something he didn't even really say. campaigning in ohio, santorum was criticizing president obama's liberal environmental views which he says hurt the american people. >> it's not about you. it's not about the equality of life, about your jobs. it's about some phony ideal. some phony theology. oh, not a theology based on the bible. this is the opposite. >> many in the media report that somehow the president wasn't a christian is what he said. trying to type cast santorum as an extremist. >> i can't help but think that those remarks are well over the line. it's wrong, it's destructive. >> on face the nation sunday, santorum said he wasn't talking about obama's religious faith but his liberal ideology. >> i have repeatedly said that i believe the president is christian, he says he is. i am talking about his world view or the way he approaches problems in this country. i think they're different than how most people do in america. >> in the past month, santorum surged to the top of polls and leads romney in michigan the state where he grew up. with front-runner status comes scrutiny and attacks from all sides. former front-runner newt gingrich now trailing santorum and romney continues to blame his decline on the attacks directed his way, especially those by political groups supporting romney. >> i think he's already damaged by the negativity of his campaign and the fact that he keeps driving downturnout. i think for the general election, that's not a very good sign. >> now the man of the hour, santorum and he is getting huge crowds, and a lot of enthusiasm. last night in i can't gentleman thousands of people came to hear him speak. he talked about what's at stake in the election. he said america was facing challenges just as it did in world war ii. listen to what he had to say here. >> britain was being bombed and leveled, while japan was spreading cancer all throughout the southeast asia and america sat in the 1940s when france fell in december of '41. it did all this. why? because we're a hopeful people. we think, well, you know, he's a nice guy. i mean, won't be near as bad as what we think. this will be okay. oh, yeah. maybe not the best guy after a while you found out some things about this guy in europe. he's not so good of a guy. but you know what, why do we need to be involved? we'll take care of our own problems. get our families off to work and kids off to school and we'll be okay. sort of the optimistic spirit of america. but sometimes, sometimes it's not okay. >> jan, is this a new santorum ar has he been saying these things all along and the campaign getting new attention. >> that's a great question, charlie. a lot of people are saying these are sharpened attacks and rhetoric. these are santorum and these are things that he really believes. he says what he thinks and he means what he says. that's what voters are responding to. they see rick santorum as someone who is real, authentic. who they can trust to say what he thinks. all of these attacks that we've been seeing him recently directing at obama, the criticism he's leveling at the president, he's been saying that for months and months an months because that's what he believes. and a lot of conservative voters, the polls show, of course, believe that too. >> but he seems to use the word theology when he in fact says later he meant ideology. transforming those two words. >> that's right. bob schieffer pushed him on that yesterday. do you think you used the wrong word. because to a lot of people theology means religion. santorum actually, he didn't back down. that's another thing. he does not back down. he says what he thinks and he keeps saying yeah, that's what i think. no, this is what i meant. >> jan, thank you so much. this morning, president obama's top security aide is in israel for a talk with defense officials as u.n. inspectors arrive in tehran to discuss the nuclear program. meanwhile, crude oil prices hit a nine-month high after oil exports were cut off. with us now to look at the tensions between iran, israel and the west is joan cirincione. he's a nuclear -- member of the council on foreign relations. good morning. >> good morning, charlie. >> i'm joined by erica hill here. tell me what you believe israel is planning to do and what are the difficulties if they do that? >> well, some officials in israel, particularly the prime minister are urging a strike on iran by israeli aircraft. as the new york times reports this morning, this would be a very large and complicated and uncertain adventure. it would involve at least a hundred airplanes, tankers, they'd have to dodge a pretty stout iran air defense network. and if they did hit the targets as they probably could, it's uncertain whether they would o do enough damage to do much more than delay the program for a year or so. that's why u.s. officials were in the region now. that's why you heard the chairman of the joint chiefs yesterday say that an israeli strike would not be prudent, would not be a wise idea. they think a strike by israel would be large, complicated and probably counterproductive, maybe accelerating an iranian nuclear program, not stopping it >> what general dempsey said is destabilizing. >> yes. that would be the beginning of a large conflict in the region. it wouldn't be a quick end to this crisis. it would be the beginning of either a larger war or a long scale, large scale containment effort to try to stop iran from what they would undoubtedly do, which would be race to build a bomb. you would see oil prices already spiking probably going through the roof. experts warn that they could hit $200 a barrel, some think $300 barrel that would have repercussions on a fragile global economy. >> as you lay this out, the risks outweigh the benefit. is that enough to convince israel that this is in their best interests and not in the best interests of the global community? >> you're also seeing many israeli intelligence officials and military officials take issue with prime minister netanyahu. you see for example the retired head of mossad, the israeli intelligence unit say that an israeli strike would be the stupidist thing he's heard of. you're seeing a pushback against this. what the hope is, the rhetoric coming out of some israeli officials is dee tiend signed to o stiffen western pressures. if so, it is being effective. you're seeing sanctions go to unprecedented levels. we've never seen these sanctions put on any country. they're quite strong and more to come. europe will end its purchase of iranian oil and you're hearing talk that the international banking system might cut off iranian banks. this would be a crippling strike against them. >> how long is israel prepared to allow sanctions to work before it comes to the realization that decision time is now? >> i think you're going to see -- they talk about a window that they feel will open and close around april or may. so i think we'll get through march okay. but the more back and forth with these kinds of discussions, the national security adviser of the united states, tom donnell led a delegation to israel today and top officials will travel there later in the week assuring israel that we've got this, the pressure is going to increase, we're not ignoring this problem. >> joe, good to see you. >> thank you, charlie. we want to turn to that terrible skiing accident in washing ston state. three people died after being caught in an avalanche. nine others survived. it's 80 miles northeast of seattle. bill whitaker is at the scene this morning. bill, good morning. >> good morning, erica. despite warnings of high avalanche danger, skiers packed the slopes here hoping to take advantage of a long weekend and two feet of fresh powder. now, the skiers who died on this mountain were expert skiers, but they were no match for the extreme conditions. the avalanche tore through pine trees building up speed before burying a dozen skiers all on a back country run. >> those that weren't buried, those that were able to extricate themselves quickly immediately began their rescue mode looking for the other persons in their party. we do have three fatalities. >> cbs news has learned through the friends of the victims that jim jack a former extreme skier who judged free skiing competitions around the world, friends say he was on the mountain making a video with chris rudolph, a marketing director for stevens pass ski area. a third man, john brenan died. and elise was skafd by an avalanche airbag. >> kept her atop of the avalanche and basically saved her life. >> earlier this month, the same kind of gear saved professional snowboarder meesh hytner from an avalanche in colorado. >> i see the ground in front of me rip. it was like the earth was breathing. one an avalanche has you, you're not going anywhere. >> she deployed an airbag as she was being swallowed up by a wall of snow. john swanson was snowmobiling in the cascade range when he was buried alive. >> i was getting suffocated, face first into the snow. >> several friend rushed to rescue swanson digging frantically to free him. >> you're good. >> nationwide there have been 17 avalanche deaths this season. one of the many triggers is a slick snow base caused by a winter like this year. the top layer can slide off of it. many expect the dangerous conditions that led to this tragedy to continue throughout the spring ski season. a young ski boarder, snowboarder died in a separate incident here at another ski resort in washington state yesterday when an avalanche pushed him off a cliff. the victims in both of these incidents were skiing out of bounds. outside the designated ski runs. >> bill, thank you. tens of thousands of people in the south have no power this morning after their first substantial snowstorm of the season. up to 9 inches of snow fell in virginia, tennessee, kentucky and north carolina. more than 350 traffic accidents were reported in virginia alone. and in northern tennessee, white-out conditions caused a chain reaction pileup on sunday involving some 20 vehicles. one person was seriously hurt. a hearing is set this week for virginia man accused of a terrorist plot to blow up the u.s. capitol. authorities a a mean he will cal iffy met with investigators and repeatedly said he wanted to kill as many people as possible. he was arrested friday in a parking garage near the capitol carrying a gun and he can please sifs that didn't work. that plot was broken up and the new york police department defended monitoring of muslim student association. the nypd reached out to college -- many colleges, hundreds of miles from the city. senior correspondent john miller is a former fbi assistant director and head of the los angeles police department's counterterrorism bureau. good morning, john. >> good morning, charlie. >> tell me what this is about. >> this is about really a fairly new phenomenon in some respects in policing, which is what is the difference between investigation where you're trying to prove that somebody has committed a crime with the goal of arresting them and intelligence collection, where you're trying to assess where a threat may exist and you're just gathering information on people. and this is a very touchy subject. >> so what does the new york police department say it is doing and why? >> well, what the new york city police department says it was doing was "trying to get a handle on the muslim students association" and to justify that they rattled o off a list of a dozen cases involving terrorist acts where the prime actors were members of the muslim students association and you have people like umar farouk abdul-mutallab who was the so-called underwear bomber, anwar awlaki, the master prop began dis. al qaeda spokesman and more. they were trying to assess regionally what the threat was from that group or if there was one. >> the concern, john, has been that is perhaps the nypd overstepping its bounds in some way or are they being transparent enough? two issues or concerns. can you address hose? what's the finding? >> well, there isn't a finding yet. because the transparency is a little opaque there. the fbi version of this is that you have an office of intelligence policy review with the justice department looking over your shoulder, the inspector general who found a violation would write a report. you have congressional committees that could examine these things and briefed on them regular. the nypd isn't in that position. they have one external member and there isn't a lot of exposure of what goes on to the public. >> is that -- different law enforcement agents as to whether they should be doing this? >> i think the jury is out on that one. the real question here is what are the standards? the federal standards are, we couldn't investigate anything either when i was in the fbi or the lapd where it was activities protected by the constitution. freedom of speech. you could say i hate america. but you couldn't say i want to kill americans. and i think the jury is out on what the nypd's standard is on that. that's what the continuing questions will be. >> thank you, john. time now to show you some of this morning's headlines from around the globe. we begin with the san francisco chronicle. reporting on a plane clipped by a helicopter in a midair collision. amazingly both aircraft landed safely and no one was hurt. britain's independent newspaper has the story of a man trapped in an ice cold car in sweden. he claims to have been there for two months as temperatures fell to 22 below. >> mexico, rival gangs getting some of the blame for prison riots that left 44 dead. the victims were stabbed or beaten to death. a story focuses on blue collar jobs which is one of the themes in president obama's reelection campaign. manufacturers in michigan say they have loss of jobs but having trouble finding workers to have the skills to do the jobs. >> report on a fast food combination, taco bells and doritos. the mexican fast food chain putting a doritos taco on the this national weather report sponsored by farmers insurance. find a knowledgeable farmers agent at farmers.com. we are insurance. we are farmers. a new tv documentary focuses on the controversial life of president bill clinton. one of the leading characters in that documentary, monica lewinsky. we'll speak to the man behind it. 50 years ago today, john glenn became the first american to orbit the earth. we'll hear from him as he remembers that historic flight. you're watching "cbs this morning." this portion of "cbs this morning" sponsored by expedia. bundle your travel to save. expediament we can't guarantee she'll always mind her table manners. but we can guarantee that petsmart grooming... ...will make your dog look great! with our look great guarantee, you're happy... or it's free. petsmart®. happiness in store.™ ♪ vegetables picked at their peak ♪ ♪ so fresh my 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