our pentagon correspondent chris lawrence has been working his sources. chris, so because of the suspect here the staff sergeant arriving at fort leavenworth, where does that take news the process? does that mean we're closer to charges or he has a new place for detention? >> reporter: we've been told him coming to fort leavenworth is separate from actual charges being filed. but we are told that it's likely that he will be in fort leavenworth probably within the next few hours or at least by later on tonight. but again, charges we may not see those until possibly tomorrow. however, there is a good chance we may know exactly who this man is by the time he actually lands and is taken into fort leavenworth. >> interesting. that's one of obviously the big questions we're trying answer who is the suspect. chris as we try to get this information, as we watch the transfer a lot of theories floating around out there what might have led to this tragedy. what are your sources telling you? >> reporter: they're all telling me, don't look for that one size fits all ex

chris lawrence sdwroin joins us live. what did she say? >> she said her husband appeared confused. said he loved children, even compared him to a big kid hymn. listen to what she told "today" show an tor matt lauer. >> you've spoken to him twice on the phone. did you say sweetheart, did you do this? >> no, no. >> as a spouse, wouldn't you want to ask that question, why are they saying these things about you? >> not on a monitored phone call. we couldn't discuss those details. he seemed a bit confused adds to where he was and why he was there. >> will there become a time when you get to see bob and look him straight in the eye and ask him? >> probably. >> so she was clearly concerned ability the military monitoring the call with her husband. and obviously would hope to have a more open honest face to face conversation at some point in the future. there are also new details about the specifics foft attack. what are you hearing? >> officials are saying based on the investigation that they have been doing, it now afears that staff sergeant bales left the base, went to one village and t

our pentagon correspondent chris lawrence has been studying these pictures. us, chris? >> reporter: carol, i just spoke with a defense official who gave me a little background on what they were doing. the big question, that's still out there. he says basically what happened was this is a pretty remote area. it's in the southeastern part of afghanistan. they had air dropped some supplies down to some of the troops on the ground. so a patrol went out there to pick up some of the air dropped supplies. there were two of these apache helicopters out sort of doing an overflight. in other words, keeping a lookout for any insurgent activity while the patrol was on the ground picking up their supplies. this one helicopter, as you just saw, almost clips that building before sort of pulling up, hits the snow. the rotors and momentum sent it skidding across the snow. you can see people running after it hits. then it pops up in the air, spins wildly and back down. the investigation going on i'm told is looking at whether there was any error by the pilot, whether they were

let's go to chris lawrence. as we mentioned, sergeant bales will be facing 17 counts of murder. your sources why 17 counts? when you look at the number of dead, chris, it's been reported as 16. >> that's right. that was the first question that really jumped out at us. we have sbn asking our source, but so far no definitive call. we have been able to rule out a few things. first of all, a senior official saying none of the wounded that have been cared for by the u.s. military have died. in other words, you know, there was no person wounded in the shooting who later passed away to add to that count. so we can rule that out. there's been a lot of speculation that perhaps this was a pregnant woman, in the late stages of pregnancy. that's not very likely either. that would be the u.s. military making a statement on when life begins. it's still unclear where the 17th came from. it may stiimply be that the military never had a definitive count of 16 starting out and that the investigation led them to conclude initial ly that tha it's now 17 victims. his attorney also asking, where is th

. >>> chris lawrence, i do want to begin with you there at the pentagon. talking about the multiple exchanges between ranking member of the armed services committee, senator mccain, and secretary of defense panetta. what happened? where do they disagree? >> there was a big disagreement between senator mccain and secretary panetta about the u.s. going alone into syria. mccain made a very strong point going back to the '90s saying, look, when the atrocities were happening in bosnia, the united states acted and it's time for us to act here. he had a very pointed question to panetta saying, how many more tens of thousands have to die before you're willing to go in? but panetta countered and said, look, i'm not going to send american troops, men and women, into this situation unless i'm sure of exactly what we can accomplish there. we heard today some of the real factors that the u.s. is considering, you know, that you've got 100 different groups as part of the opposition, so not a clear idea of who they are. high density, high population centers, and a syrian

>> chris lawrence, thank you. while the obama white house promises this won't interfere with steady progress in afghanistan, the taliban is vowing bloody retaliation. we are in afghanistan covering the anguish and vows of revenge. a quick caution, the video in this report is disturbingly bloody. >> reporter: not far from a u.s. military outpost, a disturbing scene. a dead toddler with a blood-stained face lies sandwiched between two dead men in the back of a pick-up truck. in another truck, a blanket reveals charred remains of more people. they are a few of the victims of the shooting rampage. one guy came in and pulled a boy from his sleep and shot him in this doorway. then put the gun in the mouth of another child and stomped on another boy this mother says. u.s. officials, including president obama expressed their condolences and sadness. that has little meaning to the families. one family alone lost 11 family members in the incident. look at these bodies. they are all belong to one family, this villager cried.

. >> our pentagon correspondent chris lawrence is tracking this and standing by for us tonight. chris, why it's calm words but a pretty aggressive pushback against what mccain wants. >> reporter: well, john, it's because i've talked to some pentagon officials here. they say it's because going into syria is incredibly risky. and they don't want the united states to bear that risk alone. they want to share the burden so to speak. they look at the situation and say this could easily devolve into a civil war. they look at 100 different groups making up the opposition. and they look at the options and the risks involved with each. the pentagon has prepared detailed military options, but they all carry risk. establishing a humanitarian corridor. well, hard to see how that would happen without ground troops to protect the food trucks. establishing a no fly zone. well, syria has managed to inflict a whole lot of damage with tanks and artillery on the ground, not so much in the air. and even limited air strikes are being considered. but again, they look at the fact that syria has five tim

let's get to chris lawrence at the pentagon. what can you tell us? >> well, i can tell you he's originally from the midwest and he was living in ohio until about 2001. after 9/11, that's when he joined the army. he's been based out at joint based lewis mcchord for the majority if not all of his military career. did about three combat tours in iraq. this was his first in afghanistan and as his lawyer has pointed out to cnn earlier today, apparently, he did not ever think he woul get a fourth deployment. a fourth caught him by surprise. get a combat veteran. we know he's been decorated for his service having served three tours in iraq already, but apparently from his lawyer we're learning, that he did not expect to be deployed for this fourth deployment to afghanistan. >> thank you very much with the latest of what we know about staff sergeant bales tonight. his name was not officially released by the military. of course, it has been the subject of intense speculation in recent days. sources say the military was tight lipped on his identity because the

let's go straight to the pentagon back to chris lawrence. you expect the news of his avbl arrival to come from the pentagon, do you think it will be quiet and we won't hear about it until we get the news from his attorney? what do you think? >> reporter: i think we'll get the news of his arrival fairly quickly once he's on the ground and on base, but that doesn't actually translate to getting his name and having charges filed. the two are two separate things, and i think that's what we're really waiting on, brooke, is to find out exactly when the name will be released and what charges will be filed against him. the military has been on some of these big high-profile cases before. i remember two years ago when the so-called kill team killed some afghans for the thrill of it, for sports, they were taking body parts as souvenirs. that happened in may, but it wasn't until about a month later that we got the name of the ringleader and some others involved in that weren't even released until a few weeks after that. >> chris, we know he hasn't even

chris lawrence is at the pentagon for us. chris, what do you know? what can you tell us?, brooke. this was a staff sergeant who had served at three tours in iraq. this is his first tour in afghanistan. he had only been in country for maybe two months or so, not much longer than that. he was assigned to force protection, so he was a conventional army soldier working with the green berets there on that combat outpost, working to sort of stabilize a village. think of it as sort of a neighborhood watch sort of operation. he was not with special operations forces but he was working with them to protect the force. he left that base about 3:00 in the morning. some of the afghan forces who control that base and who do security, they saw him leave. they called their american counterparts and said, hey, a soldier just walked off base by himself, so the u.s. then did a head count of all the troops on the base, figured out that one soldier was missing, they mounted a patrol to go after him but this soldier had walked back to the base by himself, and that's where he turned himself in

erin. >> chris lawrence, thank you very much. laying out exactly what we know right now. there is a huge question mark here. let's bring in paul callan. let me ask you the huge question we have. i would imagine that we are going to know the soldiers that he spoke to because it's clear that they have come forward. so we're going to find out if they told someone else, ie someone higher up, right? or could they themselves be held accountable? >> i think there are two things we want to know. number one, what exactly did he tell them? for instance, could they have assumed that he was out on a legitimate patrol and he killed military-aged afghan men that were threatening to him. i don't know. >> or he just said it in passing? >> but the second and most important thing is exactly what you referred to. who was there, somebody higher in the chain of command, a lieutenant with command authority? if you pushed it up higher in the chain of command there may be a problem for higher-ups. >> i imagine when you get to that higher level saying i assume it was legitimate, someone else over

our chris lawrence has been following the situation closely, and he's "outfront" tonight. ris, can you explain -- it was sort of shocking to me what happened or almost happened, breach of security here to the defense secretary in afghanistan? >> reporter: yeah, bottom line, erin, it was an incredible breach of security. what happened was, as secretary pennetta's plane was landing, there was an afghan man who worked on the base, stole one of the british forces' trucks, drev it into another british soldier, injuring him, and got through a level of security to get the truck all the way onto the runway. again, as secretary panetta was landing. now, this man ended up in a ditch, and somehow he caught on fire, tried to run out of the car. the coalition security forces eventually got him down. they put out the fire. although he was burned over probably half his body. and they arrested him and took him in. when they searched that car, they didn't find any explosives, but still, the secretary's plane had to be diverted after it landed. just an incredible breach of security. >> it tr

. >> i want to bring chris lawrence into this conversation, our pentagon reporter. what can you tell us, chris? >> reporter: erin, i think we're going to learn a lot more when these charge sheets come out, particularly why the death count may have increased from 16 to 17. but i think that the thing to keep your eye on -- i apologize for that, i'm with my daughter and these charges don't seem to be making an impression on her right now. but i think the thing really to keep your eye on is the fact that when we talked to the officials earlier, they said they had limited forensic evidence. the fact that a lot of these deaths were committed with a high-powered rifle at very close range meant that some of the bullets passed through the victim' bodies and lodged in the walls, so they do have some measure of forensics. i think the key going forward will be how much they are actually able to prove, what they were able to determine from some of the eyewitness accounts. remember this occurred in the middle of the night, in the dark, with allegedly a soldier who was in full gear

. >> let's head straight now to the pentagon and our course didn't, chris lawrence.et's deal with the transfer of the suspect here from kuwait to afghanistan. what do we know about that? >> reporter: john, i was told by a defense official a couple hours ago it was for two reasons. one the legal advice of some of the advisers to general john allen there in afghanistan. and also because they felt they did not have anywhere adequate to detain this service member for any long length of time. remember, it's very likely that his legal proceedings will last well beyond his tour of duty. and at some point he'd probably be brought back to the united states. >> and help us out. how serious was this incident on the tarmac there in afghanistan that led secretary panetta's plane once on the ground at least to be diverted? >> reporter: it was an egregious breach of security. i mean, this was someone actually getting onto the runway. and you had this incredible d dichotomy. in washington you have the image of the president and prime minister talking about this enduring partnership

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let's head to the pentagon and chris lawrence, the man in the know. chris, what are you hearing?hone speaking with a senior military official there in afghanistan. his first four words to me were "not true, not happening." he said there have been no changes to operations going on there in afghanistan right now. also spoke with a u.s. official who says they haven't changed any sort of deployment orders or anything like that following president hamid karzai's demand that the troops get out of the villages so just to put that in a little bit of background context, carol, a senior defense official says at the point where president karzai made some of these comments, he had sent his own investigativive team there. they had just come back and given their report to him and the official says that report and what he heard from his investigators was clearly weighing on president karzai's mind and you can see over the next couple days officials, one of them speaking to our own candy crowley yesterday have started to soften that tone a little bit and walk it back saying, look, the demand is

our pentagon correspondent chris lawrence is with us. he has details. very important story and a lot of commotion right now as far as keeping u.s. troops in afghanistan. what's the very latest from the commander, chris? >> yes, wolf, this could potentially affect thous of american troops and their families. the u.s. commander is indicating that after the last of the surge troops come home by the end of the summer, he would like to see the rest of the remaining american troops stay in afghanistan at least through the end of the year. by the end of summer, 68,000 american troops will still be fighting in afghanistan. pentagon officials say it's too early to tell how quickly they'll come home, but the top u.s. commander has revealed he'd like to keep most, if not all of them in the fight next year. >> what is your opinion at this particular juncture? >> my opinion is that we will need significant combat power in 2013, sir. >> like 68,000? >> 68,000 is a good going in number, but i need analysis on that. >> the general john allen clearly wasn't comfortable g

chris lawrence live at the pentagon. >>> more now on staff sergeant robert bales.rney again today at ft. leavenworth, kansas. we're now hearing from bales' wife for the first time. she put out this statement. it says, quote, what has been reported is completely out of character of the man i know and admire. the victims and their families are all in my prayers, as is my husband who i love very much. she and her two children have the added stress of moving out of their home in the tacoma, washington, area. the bales have been having money problems. their house was put up for a short sale just before the shootings. bales' lawyer says his client, by the way, was not drunk the night of the killings, but he cannot remember what happened. >> he has an early memory of that evening, and he has a later memory of that evening, but he doesn't have memory of in between. >> bales told you he was not drinking that night. >> he said i had a couple sips of something but he didn't even have a full drink. >> but he was not drunk. >> no. >> now, let's go to ted rowlands at ft. leavenw

our pentagon correspondent chris lawrence and barbara starr are both standing by live. even though iran only spends about 1% of what the u.s. spends on is military, american commanders say it has the kind of fast boats and long-range rockets that could completely destabilize that region. what's the most significant threat to the entire middle east? u.s. military commander say iran. >> they're fighting basically a shadow war every day. >> general james matta says iran is the only nation trying to spark violence in the region, weapons into sudan to establish a base on the red sea, trying to influence the post-arab spring government in egypt, dispatching ships full of -- and sending technology, cash and weapons to help syria crush its rebellion. >> my biggest concern is iran. that is the nation with four different threats. >> reporter: the most critical is the nuclear programs, but the pentagon says it can launch covert attacks around the are world. >> they have the long-range rockets and ballistic missiles they can use and hold other nations at risk from the mediterranean

let's get more from our pentagon correspondent chris lawrence. chris, what happened?at we're mainly learning from these charge sheets that were just released in the last hour or so is that the prosecutors believe that they can prove premeditated murder. in other words, they believe that staff sergeant bales consciously came up with the thought of the intent to commit these crimes, and i'm told by some of the jag sources that we've been speaking with he needed to have had that intent for a long amount of time. so it's not like you have to conceive of this for days and weeks. it can be a very short amount of time as long as it is premeditated. i think now as we start to move into more of a pretrial hearing phase and this starts to move along, evidence becomes in a very, very important point. on one side it's going to be very difficult for the government to find exact eyewitnesses because this happened in the middle of the night in a very dark area, in a rural part of afghanistan, presumably staff sergeant bales would have been dressed in full combat gear with a helmet a

chris lawrence at the pentagon.st one example of some of this exchange between the ranking senator and the secretary of defense. let's talk about another exchange, though, it happened over the issue of the u.s. asking permission to actually launch an attack. what happened there? >> yeah, brooke, secretary panetta was talking with senator john sessions and he said basically, the secretary did, that the u.s. would seek to get permission from an international body and then come back and inform congress of what it intended to do or wanted to do. senator sessions shot back that that seems very mixed up. you should be coming to congress first, getting permission from congress, then taking that to the international body. the secretary may have been trying to say what he was looking for was an agreement. in any case, senator carl levin had to jump in, basically stop everything and say, wait a minute, you were looking for something like an international legal basis for going in. is that what you meant to say? and he said, th

i do want to go first to the pentagoning to chris lawrence. kuwait? >> well, in terms of just moving the soldier to kuwait, they say it was based on one, the legal advice of some of the advisers to general allen, and two, the fact that they felt they did not have the facilities to hold a u.s. service member for any length of time. there was already a probable cause hearing, so to speak. it wasn't a full-blown hearing more like an assessment where they found they had reason to detain him longer. but very likely, his legal proceedings will probably last beyond his tour of duty. so at some point, you knew he was going to leave afghanistan if not be brought back here to the united states. >> also, chris, why is it that this particular soldier hasn't been identified yet? why don't we know his name? >> well, there's been -- we've been asking that same question for days now. that you know, even for minor crimes, if you're stopped in the street and arrested, you get a booking photo. that information is put out publicly almost immediately. why would suc