A-Rod Penalty Expected Soon; U.S. Embassies Closed in Hot Spots; Driver Was Out for Blood
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: They're being called the new generation of al Qaeda, and their apparent new plot has the world on edge. I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now. He cheated. He lied. And now baseball's most expensive star may be about to go to war with his league. What would you do?</s>MOODY: Leave that boy alone. Leave him alone!</s>BALDWIN: A school bus driver doesn't step in as a student cries for help during a brutal beating. Plus, the Army psychiatrist accused of the Fort Hood massacre could cross-examine victims. Hear what they're saying. And -</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Camouflage, shadows and</s>BALDWIN: Schoolteacher by day, burqa avenger by night. What this new cartoon character is fighting for. Hi there. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Great to be with you on this Monday. We begin with the highest paid player on the most high-profile team in all of Major League Baseball. You know who I'm talking about. Alex Rodriguez. He is famous for his record-setting performance, his celebrity girlfriends, and his exploits on the baseball diamond. But one of the game's most storied careers is coming apart at the seams as I speak because what we're learning, we are expecting Major League Baseball to issue a news release anytime now outlining this punishment for A-Rod, and a group of other players, all linked to this Miami clinic alleged to have distributed these PEDs, these performance enhancing drugs. But even with today's imminent announcement, this saga is far from over. CNN Sports' Rachel Nichols is tracking the story for us from New York right now. And here he is in Chicago, Jason Carroll, where we know A-Rod has said he plans to be in the Yankees lineup tonight against the White Sox. We've heard from the manager saying he's penciled him in. But, Rachel Nichols, let me just begin with you. Tell me, what are we expecting to happen both to Rodriguez and these other players involved?</s>RACHEL NICHOLAS, CNN SPORTS: Well, this is getting fascinating, Brooke, because baseball is planning to use this evidence it gathered from this Miami clinic to suspend 13 players today. And reports over the last hour have indicated that 12 of those 13 players are going to accept their suspension, 50 games each for each one of them. None of them, according to these multiple reports, plan to appeal. They're all going to start serving today. The lone holdout, Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod has said that he denies any wrongdoing. He is going to appeal any suspension that he gets. Now, of course, things could change at the 11th hour, but so far we are expecting him to be suspended, to appeal that immediately. And there was some talk from Major League Baseball last week that maybe they've used special powers of the commissioner to keep him off the field during his appeal. That doesn't sound like it's going to happen. So it sounds like he can appeal, show up for the New York Yankees today in Chicago for, by the way, his first game of the season, probably get booed at a park that is not full of friendly fans, and then, Brooke, this saga is going to go on for the next month or so while an arbitrator looks at it.</s>BALDWIN: Speaking of potential booing, let's go to Jason Carroll. I mean, Jason, I'm sure that's what you've heard as well, expecting that, right, in the stadium, in the White Sox stadium. What are you hearing there in Chicago?</s>JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, first I should tell you, Brooke, we've already heard some of the booing. We heard it this weekend when I was out in New Jersey, as you know, Rodriguez playing AA ball out there. I heard some boos when he hit the field, but also heard some cheers as well, expecting to hear that in Chicago as well. But they won't be all boos. As I was standing out here doing some live reporting, we saw one guy walk by with the Yankees jersey on and it had "Rodriguez" there on the back. We pulled him over. And we know that there's at least one fan out there who feels as though Rodriguez deserves a second chance.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not saying it was OK. It's not OK to do steroids and stuff. But I'm just saying, do I think it's fair for him to get a lifetime ban or 214 games that they're talking about compared to everybody else that's at 67 when Braun did about the same thing as A-Rod? I don't think so, you know.</s>CARROLL: And we've heard Rodriguez say something similar to that, Brooke. Basically Rodriguez saying that he feels as though he's being singled out because he's a high-profile, highly paid player. He feels as though it's a double standard -- one standard for him, another standard for some of the other players. So that's probably going to be the basis of part of his appeal. Also, he says, as you heard Rachel say a little earlier, says he is not guilty of the allegations, was not connected to that clinic, that anti-aging clinic down there in Florida. So it's going to be an interesting game, to say the least.</s>BALDWIN: Yes.</s>CARROLL: I think it was ESPN who basically said, it's not going to be just a game, it's going to be more like a circus. I'm actually anxious to see what will happen later on this evening.</s>BALDWIN: I think, though, if you were to talk to a lot of people, they mentioned circus and Yankees a lot in the same sentence. And just in terms of dollars and cents for the non-baseball, you know, viewing audience, this is a guy who, it was 2007, signed with the Yankees for $275 million over the course of 10 years.</s>CARROLL: Yes.</s>BALDWIN: Rachel, back to you. I mean put this, though, more in perspective as we await this lone holdout here, this 13th man. Tell us why we really should care, because a lot of people want this to go away.</s>NICHOLS: Both of those things can be true. You want it to go away and care about why it's happening. Look, this is a very interesting case. This didn't come about because of a spate of positive tests. Instead we're looking about what is likely going to be the largest performance enhancing drugs scandal in the history of American sports because of baseball's aggressive investigation into this clinic. We really haven't seen this from sports leagues in the past. Normally they wait around for the positive test to come in. Instead, baseball, recognizing it has had a huge problem with this, went after the players involved in this clinic, used other evidence to bring these guys in. So that's first of all a big change and we may see some other leagues follow. You've also seen a c-change among the players. During the so-called steroid era of baseball, which by the way, of course, we know never really ended, but the whole Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa era, we saw players close ranks around any guys accused or accused of using steroids. Hey, hey, don't bother us about this. Now clubhouse after clubhouse, we listened to players say, get them. Go get the guys who were cheating. We don't want them in the game. That is a huge change and that is going to affect, going forward, the penalties for these guys. I think you're only going to see them get tougher.</s>BALDWIN: As soon as we get the news, obviously we'll bring you two back up and a number of other players here to talk about what everyone is talking about today, A-Rod and this news that we're awaiting. Jason Carroll, Rachel Nichols, thank you both very much. Let me move on for now and tell you that the United States government is closed for business across much of the Mideast and Africa today. This is the terrorist threat. We talked about this on Friday, apparently based upon an intercepted message from within the ranks of al Qaeda. But take a look with me. Take a look at Egypt. Here it is. The American flag is flying. But the U.S. embassy is locked. It is closed until Friday. Bangladesh, a heightened security presence there at the embassy in Dhaka. And Yemen, increase in suspicion that the plot could originate there. In all, I am talking about 19 embassies closed the entire week, a defensive move, unprecedented in scope. Authorities say the intel is the scariest stuff they have seen since the days before 9/11. Take a listen to this.</s>REP. PETER KING (R), NEW YORK: Because this threat was so specific as to how enormous it was going to be and also there's certain dates were given, but it didn't specify where it's going to be. And, you know, the assumption is that it's probably most likely to happen in the Middle East at or about one of the embassies, but there's no guarantee of that at all.</s>BALDWIN: Congressman King says it could happen in Europe. It could even happen here at home. Keep in mind, al Qaeda has tried at least three times since 9/11 to bomb incoming airliners. CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank is joining me now from Washington. And there is Nick Paton Walsh joining us from Beirut. So, Paul, first to you. What are you hearing as far as new today, new intelligence, new warnings, new indications of where this purported threat might originate?</s>PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, Brooke, it seems that the threat originates in Yemen. There's a lot of concern because it may be linked to the chief bombmaker of the group in Yemen, Ibrahim al-Asiri. He's the mastermind behind those three attempts against U.S. airliners. Three plots against U.S. airliners in recent years. He's been able to build the most sophisticated devices ever seen from al Qaeda. Devices which are very difficult for detection scanner equipment to pick up. So a lot of concern that he may be linked to this plot. This is a guy who put a bomb inside his own brother in August 2009 to target the head of Saudi counterterrorism, Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: I want to come back to you about al-Asiri and sort of the cutting-edge bombmaking, if you will. But, Nick Paton Walsh, to you. As we have been reporting, really one of the wild cards here is this rash of prison breaks. You have hundreds of militants who have been sprung in these nine different countries in the month of July, including some with al Qaeda connections. I mean here's the tick tock, the time line, if you will. How can these - how can these bad guys return to the battlefield so quickly?</s>NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this complexity in working out exactly how that would take shape, Interpol put out an alert over the weekend. As you say, 11 jail breaks, nine countries in just 25 days. Pakistan, Libya, Iraq. Importantly, in Iraq, we've confirmed today with Iraqi officials, and, in fact, it's the war minister of al Qaeda in Iraq who was released in that jailbreak. ' But this is where it gets more complex, Brooke, because a lot of these high-profile militants, they have battles to fight in Pakistan, in Iraq, in Iraq's own (ph) sectarian violence, in Syria even as well. Al Qaeda having changed in shape slightly to be more about local, often into (ph) Arab violence and just targeting America, like we remember seven, eight years ago at the height of the Bush administration. So many asking, yes, how fast can these militants get back into play? Is someone like the minister at war with al Qaeda in Iraq, would he find himself eventually (ph) looking to threaten America or more involved in this violent civil war almost happening in Iraq now that killed over 1,000 people last month, Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: And, Paul, back to you. Talking about this mastermind bombmaker, al-Asiri, who, as you point out, put this bomb in his brother. I mean, if you can, just characterize for me this group, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Clearly they seem hell-bent on using airliners as an example. They are constantly the group that's keeping us or we're trying to stay one step ahead of them as far as our own detection. Are they younger? Are they organized? How brazen are they?</s>CRUICKSHANK: Well, al Qaeda in the Arian Peninsula is an organized group, and they also have a track record of hitting U.S. interests in the region. In September 2008, they carried out a sophisticated multiphase attack on the U.S. embassy in Sana'a. They didn't manage to breach the embassy perimeter. But six Yemeni guards were killed in that attack And now, according to sources who've spoken to CNN, there are also three operatives from the group who actually participated in the attack on the consulate in Benghazi in September of last year. So this is a group with a track record of hitting the United States, Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: Paul Cruickshank and Nick Paton Walsh, thank you very much, both of you. Coming up, a young woman found dead and burned inside her own apartment. This, just days after two other women were attacked and burned as well in the same city. Might there be a connection there? We'll look into that. Plus, a teenager is on trial for allegedly helping his father murder a young boy. And today that father takes the stand. And let me tell you, it got very heated.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been sentenced for it, life in prison, yet here I am going over the same