[Dana Bash, Cnn Anchor:] The 11:00 hour of NEWSROOM starts right now. A suicide bomber who carried out an attack in war-torn Syria has now been identified as an American. Officials say he's a U.S. citizen who grew up in Florida. He went to school there and according to "New York Times" played in a youth basketball league, too. But somewhere along the way something changed. And he went to Syria to join extremists linked to al Qaeda. Mohammed Jamjoom is following the story in Washington. Mohammed what have we learned about this American?
[Mohammed Jamjoom, Cnn Correspondent:] Well Dana the State Department believes that his name Moner Mohammad Abusalha. They say that he grew up in Florida, that he went to school there although they're not sure yet when exactly he went to Syria. They have not divulged details about when he went or why he went. Although it seems that he went to join up with the ranks of these jihadists in Syria. There is video that is posted online purporting to show the attack that he was involved in. Now, you see this huge blast in one of these videos. There's always a still picture of this man where you see him holding a cat. The video that you're looking right now is actually showing the planning stages of this attack when artillery shells were being loaded into one of the trucks that was used for the attack. This was a huge attack. And in the initial stages when we were trying to confirm the story American officials were saying they would not be able to confirm the identity of this man unless they were able to do DNA tests. But judging just by the shockwaves that was generated by that blast it was very unlikely they were going to be able to get their hands on any remains to do any kind of testing. This is a very disturbing development, not just because there are Americans that are fighting currently in Syria and we're told by analysts that there are at least 100 Americans currently there. It's also disturbing for U.S. officials because they worry about what will happen when these fighters that are over there, the ones that survive the fighting actually come back to the homeland. There's great concern that American fighters that are in Syria that are learning terrorism techniques from the ranks of al Qaeda members might be able to plot out attacks against the U.S. Dana.
[Bash:] Well that certainly Mohammed that certainly leads to my next question which is the concern about that. If you have Americans in America who are presumably U.S. citizens and that are trained as terrorists, you know, the concern that it would be a lot easier for them to conduct those attacks here on the homeland.
[Jamjoom:] Yes that's right. And U.S. officials have stated since yesterday that one of the things they're really looking into now is networks of recruiters that are tied to al Qaeda that are trying to convince Americans that might be attracted to this cause to come over to Syria and other hot spots, fight alongside them and then return to the homeland and use the techniques that they've learned against the U.S. or other countries. This is a very real fear. It's actually a nightmare scenario and it's one of the reasons that this story is so disturbing to U.S. officials. Another reason it's so disturbing is because you have the actual, physical war going on in Syria, which is so bloody and so deadly, but you also have the propaganda war. And in an instance like this where there is now video of an American who was in Syria who became the first suicide bomber, that is going to be used repeatedly by jihadists there al Qaeda link jihadist as propaganda to try to recruit more Americans to their cause. They see this as a big win for them. Dana?
[Bash:] Very disturbing. Thank you very much, Mohammed Jamjoom. And back here at home a new twist in the drama surrounding the sale of NBA the NBA's LA Clippers. The team's co-owner Donald Sterling dropped a major bombshell. He's suing the NBA for a whopping $1 billion billion with a "b". Sterling's lawsuit claims the NBA had no right to force the sale of the Clippers at all and that terminating his ownership is unconstitutional and in breach of contract. This comes just as new questions are out there about his mental state and his wife, Shelly she's agreeing to sell the team for $2 billion to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Our Alexandra Field joins us now with a closer look at this price tag. Alexandra wow. First let's start with the $2 billion money money mark. Is it really worth it?
[Alexandra Field, Cnn Correspondent:] Yes blockbuster number. Apparently it was worth it to Steve Ballmer because he put up that money and he outbid the next closest competitor by about $400 million. But Dana you'll remember that a lot of people were estimating the team would sell for between $700 million and a $1 billion. So this certainly took a lot of people by surprise and it certainly will have the other NBA team owners taking notice.
[Field:] A $2 billion bid for a basketball team smashes records, but what's Steve Ballmer the former Microsoft mogul getting for all that money?
[Rick Horrow, Horrow Sports Ventures:] A team is better on the court today than the Los Angeles Lakers with a great lease at the Staples Center and a new upside television deal that he is about to negotiate in Los Angeles.
[Field:] Future TV deals both local and national could bring in close to an extra $100 million a year by some estimates, which is a lot, but not the big picture.
[Mike Ozaman, Forbes Magazine:] In the first few years, profits are going to be very minimal. This isn't something he's buying because he wants to make money. This is someone who is going to take 10 percent of their net worth and they're going to buy a sports team in L.A., which is going to give them a lot of prestige.
[Field:] For $2 billion, there is plenty of prestige, a way for the wealthy to diversify investments, and with a salary cap in place NBA owners can be protected from dipping into their own pockets.
[Ozaman:] Steve Ballmer knows that if he runs this team somewhat prudently, he is not going to have to put any capital into the team.
[Field:] If you have $20 billion.
[Ozaman:] It's not a bad thing.
[Field:] In January Forbes' list of NBA team value ranked the Clippers 13th with an estimated worth of $575 million. Their potential sale price was estimated at around $1 billion once Donald Sterling's racist rant was revealed.
[Horrow:] The NBA should trip over itself and get the documents done, approve this transaction and move on to other business just as fast as humanly possible.
[Field:] The $2 billion price tag could help send the values of some of the league's most valuable franchises soaring.
[Ozaman:] I don't think you'll be able to buy a big market NBA team for less than $3 billion.
[Field:] More big numbers. Now because of this agreement to sell the team for $2 billion, the NBA has said that it will cancel the meeting it had scheduled for June 3rd during which the other NBA owners would force Donald Sterling to sell the team. But the owners do still have to approve this sale and while there are a lot of reasons why you can imagine they would want to approve the sale and do it quickly, the extra reason is this $2 billion price tag. Dana a lot of these owners are certainly thinking about the values of their own teams and how they could be elevated.
[Bash:] Not everybody has Microsoft money. Alexandra Field, thank you so much. And coming up, V.A. fallout. This is the first full day on the job for the interim secretary of veteran affairs. What should his first step be? And how can veterans make sure Eric Shinseki's resignation doesn't end the pressure for reform. I'll ask a congressman and former V.A. doctor straight ahead.