everybody wants in. >> lori, thank you so much. we appreciate it. that is it for "the lead." i'm jake tap per. i'll hand it over now to wolf blitzer in "the situation room." >> jake, thanks very much. happening now, only on cnn, incredible terror plot. an alleged plot against the united states embassy. the chairman of the house intelligence committee, mike rogers, is standing by. >> an unmanned drone collides with a u.s. airways flight. we have the latest on the midair scare. i'm talking to a girl. i'm trying to have sex with her. >> unbelievable new recordings of clippers' owner donald sterling talking about other women, even as his wife fights

to maintain ownership of the team. his lawyer will join us live at this hour. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >> this is cnn breaking news. >> one of the breaking details about a near crash between a u.s. airways flight and an unmanned drone in just a few minutes. first, exclusive new reporting just coming into "the situation room." we're learning new details of the terror threat that shut down the united states embassy in yemen where the government is waging a deadly offensive against al qaeda terrorists. the fighting is raging in cities across the country and the militants are vowing to bring it to the capital our reporters are covering all an angles of the story. mohammed jamjoom is joining us. what have you learned? >> my sources in yemen are telling me that the credible threat towards the capital of

sanaa is actually far more serious than they initially let on that it was. these two yemeni government officials tell me that this threat was so serious they don't know when the u.s. embassy will be back open for business and highlights how u.s. targets and personnel there and installations in yemen are very much still a target for aqap, the al qaeda based in yemen. all of this we find out when pitch street battles are happening between aqap and yemeni military in the capital of that country. as the fight against al qaeda and yemen flares into what looks dangerously close to all-out war, the u.s. brace it is self for more possible terror attacks. cnn has learned exclusively the threat against sana is far more serious than originally thought.

it shut down it is operations indefinitely and the security officials telling us that they are taking these threats seriously. terrorism experts say there's more reason than ever for the u.s. to worry. >> the crime cruel of the organization, the master bomb maker who makes these sophisticated bombs to get on planes, there's no evidence that he's dead. ibrahim al asiri tried to bring down a plane with an underwear bomb. one of the most wanted terrorists is still believed to be at large. and of all al qaeda-affiliated networks, aqap based in yemen is considered the most dangerous threat to americans.

and yemen's military is battling not just in the capital but ground operations in the aqap in the sovereign provinces. >> it's a threat to yemeni and the u.s. security. >> reporter: this is just one more sign that the threat of al qaeda is nowhere close to being over. wolf, to give you an idea of just how serious this threat by aqap still is in yemen, i spoke to another yemeni government official a while ago. he told me the situation there is so bad that there are fuel shortages across the country. that's affecting the military that in the provinces in the south of the country where they are going after hideouts and they are afraid that the military will run out of gas for their cars, for their tanks. he says they are going to need a lot more support, including the saudis and the americans. wolf. >> mohammed, stay with me. mike rogers, the chairman of the

house intelligence committee is here with us. this sounds ominous. there are dozens of americans who work at that u.s. embassy in yemen right now. what are you hearing? >> this is not the first serious threat to the embassy. there was a plot that was believed to be disrupted back in april of this year and what is concerning is that the tempo of our counterterrorism operations slowed for a period of time. during that time, we think that they've been able to reconstitute and gather up in strength. so last april, pretty effective counterterrorism effort and it turned out to be highly effective. but there were decisions made afterwards. >> decisions by whom? >> the administration. >> the obama administration? >> the obama administration that i do believe added to the tension and the threats that you see to the embassy today. this, once again, proves tempo in counterterrorism operations is incredibly important.

and for any reason, political or otherwise, they feel like they are in the driver's seat in this and they are going to continue as long as they feel that they are making progress. >> that embassy is like a fortress. is it too dangerous for them to be there? >> we have fighting in the streets of the capital. obviously you need to be extremely careful for the diplomats at that particular facility. maybe too early to pull them out completely but they are probably already down in a scale-down and not probably, they are in a scale-downed verge. i would hold that scaled-down version of embassy personnel as long as possible to make sure that we have the ability to push back. >> these are al qaeda terrorists. in addition to interfering with other interests, they are working closely with the united

states. what are you hearing about attacks, for example, on palaces and other vital, strategic yemenese par gets? >> we're seeing that the palace has been under siege throughout the day. >> the yemeni government palace? >> that's a huge problem for them and keeps getting close to home. anyplace where there is it cooperation between the yemenese and the u.s. government, they are trying to make sure that they are targets of opportunity and they are taking advantage of it. >> mohammed, you have been to yemen. you reported for cnn before. when you hear that al qaeda is going after yemenese palaces, it's pretty dramatic what is going on. >> some people have called this open warfare. what aqap has done, they have attacked vital installations in the capital in the past few years and the intensity,

frequency of this is just increasing. and the fact that today you have the presidential palace come under attack at one point, you have the political security headquarters come under attack and the fact that i'm hearing several yemeni personnel have been killed as a result and that at least 20 of these militants have escaped, that really shows just how bad the situation has gotten. >> and one problem, sources have told cnn, mr. chairman, and you know about this, i'm sure, that the u.s. intelligence community is now having much greater trouble tracking al qaeda and the arabian peninsula, terrorists because they are not using communications the way they used to. is that right? >> i can tell you that the leaks surrounding aqap that happened last year have had an impact. a negative impact on the u.s. intelligence community's ability to track certain individuals, certainly, and we do still have some acuity there but there is a problem that we need to make a

political decision and we need to be engaged in a high tempo activity when it comes to counterterrorism. we need to cross that threshold. great success in april. we should take advantage of every opportunity we have to provide disrupting activity. >> to just kill these people? is that what you're saying? >> i can't talk about what that might look like. the april event, wildly successful. subsequent to that, the decision was not to made opportunities where we found them. that was a mistake. i hope today it's an example of why we shouldn't make that. >> when it comes to threats of the united states, what keeps you up at night? >> the list is pretty long. everything from cyberattacks. but we have a whole diverse group of affiliated organizations all who are expressing an interest to do operations external to where they operate, meaning europe or

the united states. boko haram included, and what really worries me is the lack of discussion on the pooling of al qaeda elements in the east of syria at a rate we've never seen before, including, literally, thousands, with an "s," of those getting combat training and eventually will come back home. that's a huge problem we'll face in the near future and a deadly one. >> stay with us, mr. chairman. we have a lot more news to report on. we're getting new information on terrorists in nigeria. they are holding hundreds of schoolgirls. general carter hamm was the former africa commander. general, stay with us. mr. chairman, stay with us. we're going to expand this conversation into what's going nearly 300 schoolgirls have been

kidnapped. also, we're learning new details about that near collision between a u.s. passenger jet, a u.s. airways plane and a drone aircraft over the skies of florida. we'll update you on that. frequent heartburn? the choice is yours. chalky.

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islamist terrorists abducted girls but did not protect them. there's growing concern about how well-armed the terrorists might be. our pentagon correspondent barbara starr is looking into all of this for us. what are you picking up, barbara? >> wolf, the u.s. is trying to manage expectations about what the u.s. military might be a i believe to do in nigeria and trying to get the nigerians to step up to the plate. the names of the missing schoolgirls go up for all to see. >> we're racing against the clock. >> reporter: three weeks after the kidnapping of the more than 200 nigerian girls, advisers are on the ground being joined by fbi and other personnel. the obama administration insists it's been pressing the nigerians to act. >> we had made repeated offers of assistance and it was only

just this week when the nigerians accepted the offer of this coordination cell and within 48 hours people were moving. >> u.s. officials caution they are only offering advice. the nigerian military will have to conduct any rescue mission. a rescue mission that may encounter boko haram militants armed with rocket propelled grenades after the fall of moammar gadhafi. >> boko haram may have gotten hold of missiles, including sa7 missiles. there's significant concern about that. not absolute proof that they have obtained these but a significant concern. >> reporter: now a claim from amnesty international that security forces were aware of a planned attack on the school four hours before it happened but failed to deploy enough troops. nigerian security forces knew

about boko haram's impending raid but failed to take the immediate action needed to stop it, the group said. the nigerian government is denying that it had any advanced knowledge about the impending attack on the school. the u.s. is talking to the nigerians behind the scenes about sharing satellite imagery and electronic intercepts but with every day that goes by, these girls are in more jeopardy. >> they certainly are. let's dig deeper. the republican congressman mike rogers of michigan is still with us. also joining us, general carter ham, the u.s. former commander of the africa command retired right now. general, first to you. what do you make of this amnesty international report. the nigerian military had four hours advanced warning that these boko haram terrorists were going to kidnap these schoolgirls but failed to do

anything. >> they saw a very serious allegation. it is one that the nigerian government has to take seriously and investigate and answer. but my hope is that in addressing that allegation, it will not distract them from the immediate mission at hand, which is find those girls and get them back to safety. >> because a lot of people are concerned. you work with the nigerian military when you ran the african command. are these guys up to -- do they have the will? i think they could do it but do they have the will, the political leadership to go out there and save these girls? >> well, they haven't yet obviously effectively countered boko haram and i think you hit it right. it's a combination of capability and will. president jonathan yesterday talked about whether this incident would be the beginning of the end of boko haram. i hope, with all of my heart, that that is true. but it is now up to the nigerians to act and make it so. the mission is large enough that it does require international

support but the nigerians are primarily responsible for handling this situation. >> because so far, mr. chairman -- and you know this well, the president of nigeria, goodluck jonathan, has not really stepped up to the plate. maybe he'll change but so far he has not done what is necessary. >> well n. this particular incident, i would say yes but also much before this as well. he has huge corruption problems. his mail tear is not up to the task. it also has corruption problems. they are countered the professionalism of his troops but when you look at the home areas of boko haram, they have done very little over any period of time to stem the tide and the growth. even with the neighboring chad who has been eager to push back on boko haram but doesn't have the capability, this is a multination problem and it should be an international problem. the u.s. should leave -- >> how worried are you that some of these schoolgirls may have

already been sent out to some of these neighboring countries or where boko haram has a presence or chad or camaroon and it's going to complicate their rescue dramatically. >> we have information that a lot of that has already happened, that they are selling off some of these girls, marrying some of these girls. it's pretty horrific the way these young girls are being treated and it's likely that a number of them are outside of the country. and remember, this is a group. this is not the first event in 2012 they blew up the u.n. headquarters, they blew up a newspaper organization the following year. after they kidnapped the girls, they slaughtered another 300 people. these are some bad, brutal characters and they need addressing and, again, they have now connected with al qaeda and al shabaab, which is a dangerous recipe for all of us. >> you had a deal with boko

haram when you were commander of the africa command. you know this group. these are brutal terrorists. what can the u.s. credibly do in nigeria right now militarily speaking? >> i think there are a couple of roles that are aprpropriate for the united states. not just militarily but the fbi, intelligence committee and others, offering their support to the nigerians to, again, first find these girls and then help craft a solution. but it is now bigger than nigeria. i do believe that they are outside of the regional approach. so i think there's a role for the african union here to help coordinate efforts across the region. this will be very, very complicated in the coming days and weeks to coordinate this effort. >> back in 2012, correct me if i'm wrong, after they blew up

that u.n. facility in nigeria, you wanted the united states' state department to designate boko haram has a terrorist organization but you got resistance from secretary of state hillary clinton who was still in charge over there. why wouldn't they declare boko haram has a terrorist organization? >> there was an internal debate and interest was resistance in the state department believing that if you designated them, it gave them status. if you gave them status, they would gain international terrorist support, both finances and others and it would create a bigger problem than you had. i didn't believe that. hi they had well crossed that threshold. they were already working at that time with al qaeda. we saw reaching out to al shabaab as well. that terrorist designation is

important. >> it would allow us to reconsider what our policy was with boko haram, not only for chad and camaroon, but we could have stepped up our ability to help those host nations to gain z . >> were you involved in that activity? >> i was. i was part of the conversation. i was supportive of designation. frankly, because we had seen the increasingly violent nature of boko haram but there's a practical aspect of this that the chairman refers to and designation brings with it more tools that the u.s. government can use, not just militarily, in fact, not primarily military but financial tools and excess to banking records and a number of different tools that are effective, that have proven effective to counter terrorist or organizations. >> the intelligence committee,

the house of representatives, you all wanted that, the state department under hillary clinton did not. is she to blame for the failure to call boko haram a terrorist organization? >> let me be clear. as the commander of africa command, i was supportive of designation -- i didn't then and certainly do not know speak for the department of defense. i understood the arguments of why designation might not be the right time, for might be right at the time. but to me it was a matter of practicality. i think they met the category of terrorist organization. >> do you blame hillary clinton? >> i think it was a terrible decision and a terrible decision based on what we knew at the time, not even what we know now. again, they had engaged in vehicle ieds, they are the most lethal and they used that in the u.n. bombing that killed 23 and wounded 80 and then subsequent

killings. they were becoming more violent by the day and they had this relationship with the al qaeda. i didn't think that the other argument carried the weight at all and sometimes timidity causes huge problems. this is a serious problem, these 300 girls. but it can't just be about these 300 girls. it has to be about all of the women in north africa. >> mike rogers, general ham, thanks for coming? > . >> a commercial airliner nearly come lieded with a drone. and a new push by donald sterling's wife to hold on to the team. and a rather provocative motive for the racist rant. >> if you were trying to have sex with a girl and you're talking to her privately, you don't think anybody is there, you may say anything in the world. i always say be the man with the plan

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that corporate trial by fire when every slacker gets his due. and yet, there's someone around the office who hasn't had a performance review in a while. someone whose poor performance is slowing down the entire organization. i'm looking at you phone company dsl. check your speed. see how fast your internet can be. switch now and add voice and tv for $34.90. comcast business built for business. there is breaking news coming in right now. close calls over the skies of

florida where a commercial ir airliner and a drone nearly collided. rene marsh is joining us. what happened? >> this is the closest that a drone and jet have come in the skies. the plane was a u.s. airways regional jet flying near t tallahassee, florida, airport. the pilot saw what he believed was a fixed-wing drone. it was some 2300 feet in the air, far higher than something than amateur might be flying and the pilot says it was painted in camouflage. the pilot also told authorities it came so close that he thought he had actually hit this drone. but once they got on the ground, they did not see any damage. u.s. airways just told cnn that they are aware of the reports. they are investigating but, you know, this really could have been catastrophic. what may be more concerning, though, wolf, is that this

happened in march. and was never publicly reported until an faa official told people at a special drone conference on thursday. wolf? >> that's pretty shocking. how catastrophic could it have been, rene? >> you saw what a flock of geese causes problems for the u.s. airways flight known as miracle of the hudson. imagine a drone getting sucked up in one of the plane's engines. again, wolf, in the official's own words, it could have really been catastrophic. >> what could be done to fix this problem? >> over in the next five years, the faa is estimating as many as 7500 drones could be flying in the air space at any given time. there's urgency to figure out how to safely integrate the air space. the faa has been working on a plan to safely integrate into the air space so you don't have

incidents where you have passenger aircrafts crashing into drones that are sharing that same space. >> shocking information. let's hope they fix this problem. work on it. it looks like it's going to be a bigger problem down the road. rene, thank you very much. other news we're following, donald sterling says he was jealous. new recordings showing sterling explaining why he originally made those racist remarks and the answer is very provocative. brian todd is digging through these recordings. tell us about them. >> reporter: it sounds like something out of a frat conversation. a man reported to be donald sterling is trying to relate racist comments with sexual he said he wasn't full of hate but testosterone. >> i'm talking to a girl. i'm trying to have sex with her. eye trying to play with her. what can -- you know, if you

were trying to have sex with a girl and you're talking to her privately, you don't think anybody is there, you may say anything in the world. what difference does it make? >> reporter: radar online says this is donald sterling explaining why he made those comments to v. stiviano. cnn cannot confirm that it's his voice or who he is speaking to. >> i have a girl here who has black kids and is partly black herself. i love the girl so she's telling me you're wrong. i know i'm wrong. what i said was wrong but i never thought that the private conversation would go anywhere. out to the public. i didn't want her to bring anybody to my game because i was jealous. >> reporter: v. stiviano has denied leaking the recordings.

sterling's estranged wife shelly is facing her own backlash against her plan to keep 50% of the l.a. clippers. doc rivers, the team's coach, says if shelly remains part owner -- >> i think it would be very difficult. i guarantee every person would not be on board with that. whether i would or not, i'm not going to say. but i just know that that would be a very difficult situation for everybody. >> reporter: shelly sterling's attorney responded in an e-mail to cnn, stressing her ownership would be passive, that someone else would control the clippers. and we also find it improbable that players and coaches under contracts would boycott it because a 79-year-old woman would rock the boat. the league only wants to force donald sterling out as owner but one sports attorney says that may change. >> it sounds like at this point things are getting worse. the sterling name appears to be too toxic for the nba.

>> but shelly sterling's camp remains in talks with the nba over how this is going to play out and you're going to get details from mrs. sterling's attorney so back to you. >> thank you, brian todd. the attorney for shelly sterling is joining us. first of all, your reaction to doc rivers saying that it would be very difficult for shelly to stay at least as part owner. what do you say to that? >> well, doc rivers and everyone doesn't really know her position until today. she wants to become a passive owner. she wants a very skilled and well-heeled owner. she only wants to own the team in her lifetime. she's 79 years old. she's been an owner for 33 years. she's an avid fan. in america we don't dispose of people's property rights by

public opinion. i think doc and everyone understands she'll retain her interest during her lifetime we might have a different reaction. >> i want to make sure i understand. she wants to stay as a part owner, 50% owner, but sell his 50% to someone else? is that what i'm hearing? >> well, his interests may very well be sold involume lntarily the league. what happens to donald is a saga we're going to see soon. >> pierce, i want you to stand by. we have new revelations about donald and shelly's relationship. more after this. what you wear to bed is your business. so, if you're sleeping in your contact lenses, ask about the air optix® contacts so breathable

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let's continue our conversation with shelly sterling's lawyer pierce o'donnell. pierce, thanks very much. a lot of our viewers want to know what kind of marriage to the sterlings have? are they going to get divorced? are they going to stay together? >> well, i think the marriage by now is in shambles and shelly is weighing her legal option of what she should do. she hasn't decided yet. she has attorneys advising her. they've been separated for a year and she doesn't talk to donald about any of these things. >> they came out of a restaurant a while ago. you've seen that video here on cnn and other networks as well. they walked out. i'm going to play a clip where she seems to deny that donald sterling is a racist. listen to this. >> mr. sterling, are you a racist, mr. sterling?

>> no, of course not. >> people want to know, mr. sterling. >> okay. you know that -- >> these accusations, are they true? >> forget it. it's not true. >> not true? >> no, of course not. >> she seemed to be defending him there. what is your interpretation of that videotape? >> well, i think shelly's told me that they thought they were asking whether she's a racist. of course, it's not. the truth of the matter is, shelly will tell you during the marriage he never exhibited these viewpoints and this came as a shock. she's denounced them. she's been tarnished. they share the last name but not the same values on race. by the way, it was his 81st birthday party. it was a family gathering. people get together on family occasions even when they are divorced or separated. >> so that's why she went to that dinner, because it was his birthday? >> yeah. she didn't go there to defend him. >> do you think they are going to wind up divorced? or is it just, they are going to still remain estranged, did you

say? >> well, he's 81. she's 79. they have been married 57 years. this has been a very painful process for her, all of the embarrassment over the year with these mistresses. she sued v. stiviano to get back some community property. she has said to people, enough is enough. she's weighing her options and you're probably going to see something down the road. >> does he have prostate cancer? >> i don't know. >> all right. let me bring jeffrey toobin into this conversation, our senior legal analyst. you have a question? >> pierce, the nba is a private organization. they get to decide who their members are, who owns teams. can't they just say, you know what, our players don't want any member of this family on the team, the fans don't want it, the other owners don't want it and she should just go. what's wrong with the nba saying that? >> because they have a constitution that list certain

things that can get you terminated and the last thing i saw is being the wife of a revialed co-owner is not one of them and she's protected under the by-laws and constitution of the nba. there are no grounds, as silver said, to expunge her and throw her out of the league. we also have a united states constitution that provides due process of law. the courts have intervened in private association cases and said you must afford due process. >> but no one is taking her property. she's going to sell it for hundreds and millions of dollars. it's not like it's being taken away from her for nothing. they would just put it on the market and she'd get the market value. why is that something that we should feel sad about? >> mrs. sterling has a valuable property right that she's own for 33 years. she should be the one that decides to sell it, not 29 other owners deciding that. and we will fight to the death any effort by the nba to

involu her assets. make no vote of uncertainty about this, she will defend her right to decide when and how and for what price she sells her 50% interest in the los angeles clippers. >> she'll have a much stronger case -- i assume you'll agree, pierce -- if she gets divorced. don't you think? >> sometimes what lawyer would like can't happen, wolf. that's all i'll say. >> the other argument i guess some people are making is, if the team, the players, the coaches, everyone else, the fans, why would she want her to stay in there as a part owner? >> well, i think this is mob psychology. they don't know shelly. they didn't know her position until yesterday. and, you know, we don't hold public opinion polls on whether

you should keep your house or your job, wolf, and she's done nothing wrong. everybody acknowledges that. she's made no racial comments. this is america and it's her property right and i think it's preposterous to think that players under contract who makes tens and millions of dollars a year is not going to show up at the arena because a 79-year-old woman who is a passive owner is in the stands. it's ridiculous. >> i want you to explain the video from a few years ago where she was posing as a health inspector and seems to be saying derogatory things in that video as far as minorities are concerned. i don't know if you've had a chance to speak with shelly about that, have you? >> yes, i have seen the video and i've read the deposition transcripts. ultimately, the gentleman retracted his position and the court found that she did not

commit racially discriminatory conduct. she said i'm here to check out the health and safety of the building. there were multiple violations by this tenant. had he been cited. had he a jacuzzi in his department. she knew the gentleman and she was walking down the hallway. it was blown out of context and the court in that case ruled in favor of the sterlings and that gentleman lost his case. >> pierce o'donnell is the attorney for shelly sterling. pierce, thanks very much for joining us. we'll stay in close touch with you and see what adam silver, as you point out, hopefully he's going to make a decision fairly soon on what happens next. we'll see what happens as far as the marriage is concerned. >> all i can say is, go clippers. go clippers. small drones believed to belong to north korea. what information were these spy planes able to collect?

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we're following the breaking news about a near collision between a commercial airliner and a drone over the skies of florida. we'll have more on that in just a few moments. first, another important drone story we're following. primitive spy drones found in south korea apparently the latest espionage tool from the north which is now launching new racial slurs against president obama. our foreign affairs reporter is working the story for us. she's over at the state

department. what are you hearing, elise? >> wolf, these are tiny unmanned aerial surveillance drones and they're not loaded with weapons but taken together with north korea's other military moves, they're really rattling both south korea and the united states. this is the latest north korean tool in its war on the west. drones. not technically sophisticated but programmed to slip into south korean airspace, fly over military installations and the presidential residence and bring back images. found crashed in south korea near the border with the north. u.s. and korean investigators determined they were sent by kim jong-un's military. just as the north was lobbying missiles in the region and is believed to be on the eventual of a new nuclear test. >> i wouldn't read too much in terms of the material impact. i think the psychological aspect of it is perhaps more damaging. >> reporter: the drone discovery comes as the dictator launched a personal attack on president obama. having his state media public a

rant laced with racial slurs from north korean citizens, referring to the president as a monkey and calling for, quote, divine punishment to the juvenile delinquent obama. the obama administration was not amused. >> the leader of north korea should focus more on approving the lives of his own people than in saying these kind of ridiculous things. >> reporter: recent satellite images indicate increased activity at north korea's main nuclear site. seoul says the tunnel is being sealed. a final step before detonation. a former member in the inner circle of kim's father, kim jong-lir jong-ill told cnn the son keeps acting out in order to consolidate his own power. >> translator: but he has no one inside north korea. he did not build up his power to get what he was. he received it symbolically. >> and wolf, south korea is so rattled by these threats, ongoing military threats from the north that the vice defense

minister told reporters this week that plans from the u.s. to transfer control of troops on the korean peninsula to south korea are on hold indefinitely, wolf. >> elise labbot at the state department. thank you. breaking news woe're following. how a passenger jet nearly collided with a drone over florida. and when you put them in charge of making an unbeatable truck... ... good things happen. this is the ram 1500. the 2014 motor trend truck of the year and first ever back-to-back champion. guts. glory. ram. we cannot let the fans down. don't worry! the united states postal service will get it there on time with priority mail flat rate shipping.

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donald sterling scandal. he apparently says the rant that got him banned from the nba wasn't about race, it was about sex. new information on this story coming right in to "the situation room" right now. we have new information that we will share with you. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." this is cnn breaking news. >> the breaking news this hour, a terrifying close call, a major american airliner flying dangerously near a drone. the consequences could have been disastrous. we're learning more about the incident and the threat to passenger planes from a small unmanned aircraft. our aviation correspondent rene marsh is here. she's got news on the breaking story. rene? >> that's right. potentially disastrous and potentially deadly if the drone made contact with the passenger plane, and the two came dangerously close to colliding midair, but this isn't a first.

there have been other drone disasters in the air. a near nightmare in the sky. a passenger plane near lly crass into a camouflage drone flying at 2,300 feet well above the typical altitude for a private drone. the incident in the tallahassee skies involved a us airways express jet flying nearby the airport. the first details of the march scare previously not revealed until an faa official spoke about it thursday in san francisco. >> the airplane pilot said that the uas was so close to his jet that he was sure he had collided with it. thankfully, inspection of the airliner after landing found no damage. >> reporter: authorities do not know who flew the drone but say it could have brought down the plane. the safety of our passengers and crews are top priority. us airways' parent company tells cnn tonight in a new statement, "we're aware of the published report alleging an incident with one of our express jets and we

are investigating." there have been close calls before. the fbi is investigating a drone that came within 200 feet of a flight in new york earlier this year. >> we saw a drone. >> reporter: the pilot in that incident can be heard telling air traffic control. and this monday, a small drone was found after apparently hitting this building in st. louis. >> all right. well, in the next five years the faa estimates as many as 7,500 drones could be flying in u.s. airspace at any given time. the agency has been working on a plan to safely integrate drones into the airspace so that you don't have accidents with passenger aircraft. we should tell you it is illegal for commercial use and the faa only allows obvious to fly drones up to about 400 feet. >> rene, stay with us. i want to bring miles o'brien in, our cnn aviation analyst. miles, how big of a problem potentially is this? >> what's interesting here, you have an industry that's gone far beyond the ability of the faa to

regulate it. basically what the faa said in 1981, the last time they addressed this classification of drone which are considered radio-controlled models, was they were supposed to be below 400 feet, stay 300 miles away from an airport and if closer than that, notify the authorities. what has happened is the drone world was self-regulating, self-policing for many years through these radio control models and now it's exploded way beyond these self-policing entities. what you have are people flying these small drones who are not abiding by these rules. this can cause real problems. i think it's time for the faa to consider this 400 feet and below level as far beyond their purview at this point. >> the main issue is really because these unmanned drones are just that, unmanned. no pilots there so you can't have this see and detection where if there is a pilot in the cockpit then you could see something is wrong and you know to move away. you don't have that luxury here because, again, there's no one

in a cockpit. it is remotely operated. >> one of the big concerns, wolf, imagine if there had been some sort of evasive maneuver there that was somewhat violent, somebody wasn't strapped into a seat. final approach to the airport, everybody is strapped in, but short of it hitting an engine, there could be some trouble that could be caused by these drones. we have to rely on people exercising common sense and relying on that as we well know time and again can lead us to trouble. the other area above 400 feet and larger size, integrating predator-size type drones into the national airspace, the faa is working on that at six specific location around the country. that's a distinctly different problem and something the faa is more readily equipped to handle. these aircraft can be equipped with transponders and given the kind of technology which we'd call sense or see and avoid. that technology is going to be tested at this six sites and those types of aircraft will be flying side by side with

aircraft that is piloted which is an interesting notion. >> faa released a statement, rene, don't know if you've seen this yet. they're saying they're working aggressively to ensure the safe integration of unmanned aircraft system into the national airspace. they say our challenge is to integrate unmanned aircraft into the busiest most complex airspace in the world. introduction of unmanned aircraft into america's airspace must take place incrementally and with the interest of safety first. here's what's shocking to me. they really haven't addressed it since 1981 when drone technology was so primitive, those drones have come a long way since then. >> this has caught them by surprise. this is an industry that's exploded and gone beyond the capability of the clubs to self-police which the notion was in 1981. the faa is having a hard enough time thinking about how to integrate the big drones into the system, 25 pounds and above, predator-style. the little ones, there's so

many. going to require everybody who buys a drone to get a pilot's license? how do you regulate that area? >> seems like they're coming late to the game right now. i don't know how you feel about that. >> they have been slowly, keyword, slowly here, inch by inch, they're laying out a blueprint so to speak, how they will begin to safely integrate them. some of the issues they're looking at is determining a standard for how far apart these drones would have to be spaced from an aircraft that's in the air. the type of technology that the drone needs to have onboard which is a detection sensors that would be able to detect that it is too close to maybe an aircraft because, again, there is no pilot onboard. so that's the groundwork that they're laying, but they're not there yet simply because like you said, this industry has exploded, and they're essentially trying to keep up. one thing, if you notice in the bottom of that statement there, they still don't know who was flying that drone. they say that they're investigating. >> if a drone, if that gets anywhere near a commercial airliner with a few hundred people onboard, remember what a

few geese could do if they get caught up in the engines. i'm not worried about the drone because it's unmanned, i'm worried about those passenger airliners. >> let's remember, first of all, that was a flock of canada geese. that was a lot of goose meat that went into those engines. that brought down -- both engines went out. one single solitary drone at a lightweight i'm not so sure how much damage that might cause. as a matter of fact, the faa should be looking at -- you've seen the testing where they literally fire frozen birds into the engines to see how they survive. they should start firing drones into the engine. >> miles o'brien, rene marsh. thanks to you as well. still ahead, vladimir putin takes a victory lap. as the battle for control of ukraine rages on. we have new information that reveals what the russian president is really up to. and we'll talk about another secret audio recording in the donald sterling scandal. he appears to blame his problems in the nba on lust and jealousy. >> i'm trying to have sex with

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the helm. the russian president's visit to the disputed crimea region sent a powerful message today, a message that triggered a stern response from the united states. cnn's nick paton walsh is standing by on the ground ukraine. first let's go to chief national security correspondent jim sciutto in "the situation room." >> two days ago president putin said he moved his troops back from the ukrainian border. that's not true. they're not seeing indications of that. here's what u.s. officials have been looking at. satellite images of the troop deployments along the ukrainian border. this is before the crisis. you could see empty here. this is the end of march. you can see these are armored personnel carriers. these are tents, other structures. and this is two days ago. no change between march 23rd and two days ago, the day president putin made that promise. indeed, as you look at these photos, these are becoming more than short-term deployments. they look medium to long-term.

you have structures and movement of the armored vehicles as well. you have this proof coming out from the state department. at the same time president putin makes what the state department called a provocative visit to crimea, once part of ukraine, now part of russia. with cheering crowds greeting him, russian president vladimir putin made his first visit since russia annexed cry mimea from ukraine, a holiday commemorating world war ii into a celebration of putin's new russia. >> translator: 2014 will enter into the chronicles, into the chronicle of all our country as the year when all the people who live here have firmly decided to be together with russia. >> reporter: russian military might was on full display. a soviet-era performance as troops marched and armored vehicles rolled by. >> translator: we are together.

this means we have become even stronger and i congratulate you on the great victory. >> reporter: u.s. reaction to the visit was immediate and firm, the white house accusing putin of enflaming tensions in the region. >> crimea belongs to ukraine and we don't recognize, of course, the illegal and illegitimate steps by russia. >> reporter: beyond the pomp and circumstance, the situation on the ground very real and very bloody. here, a man shot down pointblank in broad daylight. another victim lying dead nearby. as open gun battles played out in the streets. two days after russia promised to reduce tensions by withdrawing its forces from ukrainian border, the pentagon left no doubt that the reality is very different.

>> they're still there in great number. they're still capable. our assessment is it's still a very ready force. and, again, their presence there is doing nothing to deescalate the tension there in ukraine. >> now, this is where those russian forces are. this is kirsk, this is volgorad and this is russia, eastern ukraine here. and the only movement of troops that russia has, indeed, been doing these last couple weeks is back and forth from forward deployments, closer to the border and back. going back and forth. none are going back to where they started to other bases around russia, and it's down here where those satellite images were taken showing, indeed, since president putin made that promise to pull those forces back, wolf, as you can see in the pictures, no movement. >> no movement at all. looks like they're reinforcing their positions. >> these look like long-term deployments, not short-term things. >> thanks very, very much. let's go to ukraine right

now. senior international correspondent nick paton walsh is on the ground for us. what do you see over there, nick? >> reporter: well, near where i'm standing here, wolf, we are seeing a day of comparative calm. there's great tension ahead because tomorrow is the last day potentially the ukrainian military could move in ahead of referendum they're holding, the self-declared authorities, pro-russian protesters on sunday. all eyes here. you saw in jim's package there, the death toll. it includes as many as 20 pro-russian militants but really comes to 7 dead, 39 injured. it's about an hour's drive if those troops that jim was talking about choose to move across the border from russia into ukraine. very close, indeed. a lot of bloodshed here and it feeds into this resonance of today, may the 9th, very important in the russian mentality here. vladimir putin celebrating that victory of what they call fascism in world war ii.

to all us, they call it the great patriotic war. many concerned the scenes in mariopol are feeding into that narrative, wolf. >> nick paton walsh on the ground in ukraine. a small team of u.s. military advisers landed in nigeria to help the search for more than 200 girls kidnapped by terrorists. amnesty international says they were warned of the attack by militants more than four hours in advance but failed to act. the nigerian military now denying that report. the terrorist group boko haram is waging a holy war against western education and rights for women. to find out, by the way, how to help girls worldwide overcome barriers to education, go to cnn.com/impact and you'll be able to impact your world. just ahead, we have new information coming into "the situation room" about the donald sterling scandal. i just spoke to his estranged wife's lawyer, rachel nichols interviewed the new ceo of the

l.a. clippers. rachel is standing by. jeffrey toobin is standing by. we'll all talk about the breaking developments. that's coming up next. mine was earned in korea in 1953. afghanistan, in 2009. orbiting the moon in 1971.

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breaking news in the donald sterling scandal. the nba tapped the former city group and time warner chairman richard parsons to be the new ceo of the l.a. clippers. rachel nichols spoke to him. we'll bring her in in a moment.

i spoke to the lawyer with sterling's estranged wife shelly an her fight to keep 50% ownership stake in the team. >> we'll fight any effort by the nba to involuntarily sell her asset. at the same time, having conversations with the league, adam silver this morning, we hope to resolve this dispute. make no uncertainty about this, she will defend her right to decide when and how and for what price she sells her 50% interest in the los angeles clippers. >> meantime, more secret audio released by radar online. the website says its recording of donald sterling talking to a friend claiming he made racist remarks to v. stiviano because he wanted to have sex with her. >> who thinks anybody's going to tape something? what the hell? i'm talking to a girl. the girl's black. i like her. i'm jealous she's with other black guys. i want her. i didn't want her to bring

anybody to my game because i was jealous. i mean, i'm being honest. and, it doesn't matter. no one's going to hear it but you and me, so -- >> it's not true. everybody's hearing it. let's bring in jeffrey toobin, rachel nichols, host of cnn's "unguarded." dick parsons used to be our boss at cnn when he ran time warner, our parent company. he's now going to be running the l.a. clippers. what did he say? >> he was approached by the nba monday, officially accepted the job with them yesterday and it was announced today. his main job is to steady the ship, c ship, just calm everybody down, provide rudder to get them back to work and used a "star wars" term with me there, said there's going to be disturbances in the force from time to time. as this situation with ownership shakes out. but he said he will remind the people in the organization through those moments that their

job is to handle the basketball and the business side, that the ownership issues will be handled, that, quote, turbulence, as he put it, will be handled by the nba. he also joked with me about his experience playing basketball at the university of hawaii. he said, you know, it helps. he says i love basketball, it helps to have this job. i asked him how good he was, wolf, and he said, well, my college coach was asked the same question recently and his answer was he tried really hard. >> he's a great guy. very smart guy. i'm sure he'll do a fabulous job for the clippers. dick parson, congratulations to you. jeffrey, when i spoke to pierce o'donnell, the lawyer for shelly sterling, i asked him about the marital relationship between the sterileling sterlings. listen to what he said. >> i think the marriage by now is in shambles and shelly's weighing her legal options about what she should do. she hasn't decided yet. she has attorneys advising her. they've been separated a year. they're estranged. she doesn't talk to donald about any of these things.

>> if they got divorced, it would certainly help her maintain the 50% stake, right? >> it would. their marriage is actually very significant as this all unfolds because pierce makes a fair point when he says, look, why penalize her if she didn't do anything wrong, she didn't say anything racist? but if they are married and have one legal entity and the money is all mixed together, then the nba would have a much stronger footing in saying the both of them have to get out of -- have to lose their ownership interest in the team. >> rachel, you heard what doc rivers, head coach of the clippers said. he said he thinks the team would have a hard time accepting her if she stayed on as an owner. what are you hearing? how contentious could this part be? >> yeah, absolutely. i think there's a lot of people around the nba, players especially, but also certainly fans and people within different organizations who associate the sterling name with so much negativity now. who've seen the allegations at least against shelley in terms of previous incidents, although

certainly not in this incident. and just want a clean break. but it will be interesting, and jeff, i'm curious now if this is going to become a little bit of a foot race. if you're seeing that the divorce might help her case, and if the nba thinks it might be in their best interest to just have a clean break, do they need to get this process started quickly? because it hasn't happened yet, by the way, guys. it's been almost two week and nothing has officially happened in terms of the ownership issue. >> california, especially, but in the real world generally, everything moves very slowly in the legal system. so their divorce, if it happened would take months to resolve itself. the nba certainly wants to get this process at least started if not over a lot sooner than that. so i think that's a big problem for the sterlings. i think the nba clearly wants to get both of them out there. remember, i think pierce o'donnell is doing good lawyering but also may be doing some bossesturing. money could solve this problem. she could get a great big check

and be happy to go away. >> i'm not so sure about that. she seems to want to stay on. >> she said fight to the death. >> that's what i heard the lawyer say. fight to the death. >> lawyers say that kind of thing all the time. >> i'm not so sure she wants to move on. maybe i'm reading too much in between the lines when i did the interview with pierce o'donnell, her attorney. i got the impression he was hinting at least, according to my interpretation, that we may get some news on the marriage front in the next few days. did you hear that, rachel, or jeffliry? the same thing i heard? >> go ahead, rachel. i'm sorry. >> certainly as i said, jeffrey, you would know how long it takes to untangle a marriage in california. i believe you when you say it's long and not a quickie trip to mexico. i have to say timing is an issue here. because the fact that the nba has not officially moved on this yet has to be significant. they came out and talked about how, woet, quote, expeditiously