dozens of embassies and consulates across the globe this sunday citing a credible terror threat connected to al qaeda. >> the department has been apprised of information that, out of an abundance of caution and care for our employees and others who may be visiting our installations, that indicates we should institute these precautionary steps. and today the state department issued a global travel alert to last through the month of august because of the continued potential of terror attacks. >> they clearly have something very credible, either human or signals intelligence. in light of benghazi, the state department is going to be extra careful. thin ice. nsa leaker edward snowden's temporary asylum in moscow is creating new tensions between the u.s. and russia. the white house is rethinking a long planned summit with the russian president in september. tough talk from the hill on the putin problem. >> russia has stabbed us in the back and each day that snowden

is allowed to roam free is another twist of the knife. considering the actions of putin today, the president should consider moving the g-20 summit. check out this fancy footwork caught on a restaurant surveillance camera. we've heard of cat burglars, but look at this bear in colorado springs back pedals out door with not one but two garbage dumpsters of food. that's a much more impressive loot than even yogi bear's coveted picnic basket. . good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. the state department has sent a warning to u.s. citizens today about what it calls a continued potential for terrorist attacks

particularly in the middle east and north africa. this comes after yesterday's announcement that nearlily 20 diplomatic posts will close in those regions this sunday due to an al qaeda related threat. closures that could be extended and expanded to include more embassies and consulates on monday if warranted. joining me now in two of the capitals directly affected, nbc's atia abawi in kabul and ayman muhyeldin in cairo. but right here in washington is justice correspondent pete williams. what are we hearing from homeland security and justice department officials and agencies? >> very little from homeland and the fbi because this is primarily a threat overseas. that's an important point to make. there is no information here suggesting that this is any kind of attack planned for the homeland. so it is more of an overseas threat and i guess the best way to describe it is this. what we're told is this is a credible source in a country where some other al qaeda plots have come from. the question is, while the source is considered credible,

is the information that the source is passing along thought to be solid or not. that's the big question here. it is said to be vague and unspecified threat to attack u.s. interests or u.s. diplomatic posts overseas starting this sunday and perhaps going through the end of the month. as a matter of fact, this travel warning that the state department put out goes through the end of august. so that gives you some idea of what they think the potential time frame is here. but what we've been told is there is nothing specific about whether it would be a bombing or a benghazi style attack with conventional firearms or what it would be. as you noted in your introduction, i think it is sort of a two-pronged thing here. one is the credibility of the source, the place where it comes from, where known al qaeda associates are thought to be still plotting attacks, and you add to that the concern -- heightened concern over the u.s. protection of embassies overseas after the benghazi attack and you have what we're now seeing.

>> pete, we've got atia abawi and ayman muhyeldin in these two capitals. first to kabul. we've seen closures before in kabul, intermittent closures but this feels different. tell us how it's playing out where you are. >> reporter: it does feel different, andrea. i spoke to u.s. official here at the embassy in kabul and he said that they have closed down the embassy many times before in the past but this morning was probably one of the biggest warnings that they've received in a long time, if not ever, when it comes to the global scale and implication. that being said, when i spoke to him he said that they're going to continue with the normal procedures of closing down the embassy. that includes restricting movement. that means that no embassy vehicle will be leaving the embassy compounds. any meetings that were coming in to the embassy they've tried to cancel those. and then when i asked him if the afghan embassy staff would be coming in to the embassy, which often they still come in, he said that no afghan staff will be coming in to the embassy on

sunday, and that they're really not sure if it is just going to be sunday or if it is going to continue on for days, if not longer. >> of course, they rely in most of of these posts very heavily on afghan staff, foreign nationals. ayman, you are in the middle of the continuing storm, what almost amounts to civil war there. what's the reaction in cairo, as the deputy secretary of state burns has arrived on an unannounced visit? >> reporter: well, it is a two-pronged approach for u.s. officials. the u.s. embassy is in a very heavily guarded part of cairo. they are very accustomed to the kind of violent and street protests that's plagued egypt over the last four years. additional egyptian security forces and the military have been stationed outside the u.s. embassy in recent months so you can expect the area around that

embassy is going to be tight. in addition to the arrival of william burns, most of the eyes are far away from the u.s. embassy, they're much more concentrated on this support of -- or supporters of ousted president mohamed morsi, they have been staging this sit-in for nearly a month. these protests number in the thousands. in the last 48 hours a lot of mixed signals coming out of the egypt government, first from the police, then from the government, as to whether or not an impending deadline will be imposed and the police going in. that's why the trip of william burns is so important, because of whether or not he will be able to negotiate or try to push the egyptian side to some solutions. this comes on the week of very intensive negotiations led by the eu, predominantly catherine ashton. she came here, met with president mohamed morsi. in the coming days we know republican senators lindsey graham and john mccain will be coming here. no doubt, there is a very intense international pressure andest to try and bring these sides to the negotiating table

and in the absence of doing so, the fear is that we could see the type of bloodshed and violence that's plagued egypt in the last months. >> we should point out that lindsey graham and john mccain very interestingly are traveling to egypt at the request of president obama. they've often gone off on their own and they are the most experienced foreign policy hands on republican side there but the fact that they are traveling really as enjoy vois for the white hou white house is very, very significant. before we close this down, what are the next steps? i'm told routine steps will be to try to either confirm or deny, knock down this threat, check with foreign intelligence services, and also beef up security either the marine guards or local security, national, foreign nationals at these posts, to the extent that they could then keep them open. but we don't have confirmation yet of this threat from our intelligence allies. >> i guess that's the best way

to put it, yes. and in terms of the number one goal for the u.s. intelligence agencies, it is to try to see what more specificity they can get, can they learn more. they'll go back now. the usual procedure is to go back now and look at the take of intelligence, the electronic intelligence that they've gathered to see if they see anything more about this and whether they can triangulate it and learn more about it and determine whether in fact it truly is a plot that was well established, try to put some sort of shape to it, when might it happen, what might it involve. but i think the other possibility here is that by being so open about this, by disclosing the fact that there is a threat, saying that it is an al qaeda threat, making clear where the embassies are going to be shut down, there may be a hope as well that saying we're on to you may discourage the people behind it. >> and one more thing. it's not limited to embassies.

it was diplomatic posts or other american targets overseas. thank you all so very much. atia and ayman and pete. thanks for all of that information. joining me now, someone who knows a lot about this, congressman ed royce of california, you had been briefed by the vice president, you and other leaders of congress within the last 48 hours about this. what can you tell us about the threat, where it is coming from and how serious it might be? >> well, what we can tell you, andrea, is it is al qaeda linked. it emanates from the arabian peninsula. what we can tell you in addition is that yesterday we passed legislation which i authored out of the committee, out of the foreign affairs committee, which our center counterparts will be bringing up as well, and that legislation focuses in the future on what we can do to --

for these particular embassies that are at risk, to harden those embassies, put marine corps security guards in place at the interest to the embassies, build additional checkpoints at the entrance and also put in place measures that will ensure a fast reaction force. a quick reaction force in embassies come under attack. so that legislation has now passed out of committee. >> let me just clarify about that though. because i think overall that legislation is 9% less than the current year or last year's funding. so you are most likely taking away from areas that you think are less vulnerable and putting them -- putting that money into this middle east, north africa area. >> yes, and i think wisely, because we have all of these reports that we require of the state department that requires tens of thousands of man hours

to do and instead of doing that we streamline the reporting and we put the focus on the funding in to 156 new marine corps security guards for the embassy and in hardening these embassies with at the entry point a new process which will better secure the personnel. and lastly, we make a change if you're going to hire security in country -- remember what happened at benghazi with the local militia that evaporated as soon as the attack began. in this case we move off of the old policy of lowest bid, cheapest cost, and we move to best value in terms of the hiring to make certain that we hire those who will stand their ground locally to assist, and we bring in, as i say, the marine corps, security personnel, to be the first line of defense. so we are now authorizing and making changes to make certain that we have better protection

should an embassy come under attack. >> there was some suggestion that the state department may have taken this unusual step, rare step, to close this many places and conceivably if they have not nailed down the threat in a better way, close more on monday, more embassies that normally would be open on monday, that this was partly reaction to benghazi. almost an after-the-fact, you could call it cya. do you have that sense or do you think it was real lay serious deal in and of itself after your briefing by the vice president? >> part of the criticism of benghazi was that it was 9/11 and that the administration had apparently forgot to circle their calendar and there had been the request for additional embassy personnel there in benghazi which had been ignored. so yes, i think they are sensitive to that. but i believe that it is probably now prudent, given the

fact that in this case we do have this intelligence to take this step to make certain that we have fully protected our embassy personnel. and remember, it is going to be a short while before we finish the process of getting the marine corps and security guards in place in these particular embassies which are in a plet-proplet threat-prone environment. i think in the interim when you have the actionable intelligence about a potential attack, you take the steps necessary to protect personnel. >> do you think they may have to extend this to the other -- to europe and asia and other places that normally are not closed on sunday? >> i don't think that that's envisioned, no. >> so you think that this is regional? >> this is regional. this is the arabian peninsula, north africa, central asia. >> and there was some reporting

in the "new york times" that it may be related to an increased tempo in drone attacks in yemen. >> well, i have not heard any speculation to that effect and my suspicion is that given al qaeda's intentions of its focus on harming the interests of the united states, i mean this is an ongoing challenge that we've had with al qaeda linked organizations for some time. right? so i'm not that surprised that al qaeda would target u.s. interests at this time. they've done it in the past and i just think the answer to this is for us to get better at strengthening our embassies, and of course better at interception of this intelligence. and this intelligence, of course, is not only used to protect the united states. it is important to understand it's also used to protect our

allies such as the uk, and in continental europe. certainly it is used in afghanistan, it's used in israel and in the middle east. so it is an important asset that protects not only our foreign service officers but also protects many of our allies around the world. >> thank you so much, chairman ed royce from the house foreign affairs committee. thanks for being with us, sir. and we have more news out of russia. a government crackdown on gay athletes in the 2014 winter games in sochi. a new controversial law in russia bans "home sexual propaganda." russia's sports ministry said yesterday gay competitors and spectators could be arrested if they "flaunt their sexuality." activists from new york to washington are dumping vodka in protests of the olympic decision. olympic official said last week that they had been assured the anti-gay laws in russia would not affect the participants.

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putin and his team are in charge of a declining power. this isn't china or some other ascendant economy or military force. this is about managing russian decline but you've got a leader there now with an expansive ego. actually, russia's power right now is confined to the ability to say no. >> michael hayden, former cia director, vladimir putin's

latest action to ignore personal calls from president obama to send edward snowden home to stand trial rather than giving him asylum is seen as a slap in the face. nbc's david gregory is moderator of "meet the press" and a veteran putin watcher. you've seen many summits with past presidents and putin and this is -- to call it a big ego is even an understatement to what putin thinks about himself. just look at the way he recreates. >> right. the projection of his self-image, of him as a leader. it all goes to ego, it all goes -- >> we're cracking up because of the pictures. >> there is a lot of those. this is about ego but it is about challenging the united states at a time when he views them and has since 2001 of encroaching on russia's influence. i like to go back to the reason why this putin-u.s. relationship

disintegrated right after 9/11 was at the time cooperation after 9/11 was really a predicate for him to say, we're with you on terrorism so that you'll ignore what we're doing in chechnya. it was never, ever to do anything beyond russian interests and it was an opportunity to say no to things that they thought were not in its interests. >> you're so right to point out the self-interest. because there was that brief flurry of cooperation after the boston marathon bombing, then a lot of recriminations, then this. what's so extraordinary about this, president obama picks up the phone, calls putin and says, we both know what happens here, we both have spy services. here's the deal, send him back. and -- >> no doing. because there may be leverage for putin down the line on a host of other issues. the dealing over iran, over nuclear weapons. so there is lots of other areas where putin may like to retain some leverage or at least not be

an ally, not be a real strategic partner. i think surveying lots of different reactions so far this morning, it's still unclear how this administration wants to proceed with putin because there are things so delicate, over iran's nuclear program, over syria more notably, cooperation in the united nations, when they still need each other. this idea of this restart is still very much a question mark as to what you're going to do. and the administration i think has to be careful about how much it elevates snowden at a time whether it is trying to deal with other kinds of leaks. >> they don't want to elevate snowden clearly. they do feel that they've got to go to the g-20. they're not going to wipe out a g-20 where there are all the nations and all the interests in st. petersburg. it is unfortunate from their perspective that it is in russia. i don't think this is going to be raised to the olympic levels. we all know what happens to olympic boy counties, it ultimately blows back to the

united states. >> there may be more on this to come. the difficulty is you're not dealing with somebody that you can trust. that was the great exposed lie of the bush administration. is that the u.s. really can't trust putin. and the reality of that is playing out with every decision and that makes it very difficult because it is still a country we have to deal with. >> i want to also ask you about domestic politics and this gender war over the fed chair. there is a lot of subtext there. now the president in a very unusual way at the democratic caucuses on the hill raised another name, don cohen. i know him well. he is an expert economist, former vice chair of the fed. seems as though the white house in saying it is not going to name a successor presumptively to ben bernanke who has made it clear he doesn't want another term, not do that until the fall. maybe trying to just tamp this down and not have this continued very damaging debate about larry summers, the president really

likes and wants, versus the woman who is the -- janet yellin who is the vice chair and very experienced economist. >> two points. one, the last time the president really vouched for somebody that he was close to, susan rice, didn't get that job. so i don't think interpreting -- overinterpreting his defense means that somehow summers is a front-runner. maybe some have argued this morning, that really terminates his candidacy. >> you could say that susan rice got an even better job in the end, closer to the oval office. >> you could certainly make that argument. depends on what was seen as the plunge up. the other point is some of the frick in the democratic party right now over the economy. i think this fed position plays very importantly in to that role. you think about senator elizabeth warren and that wing of progressives and how they view monetary policy, i think there is an internal fight here politically and economically that will weigh on this choice. >> samantha power, sworn in today by joe biden. there was a white house photo. no other coverage.

but samantha power is the new united nations ambassador. her husband was an administration official standing there holding the bible. irish born. she was pulitzer prize winner and this is going to be a very different kind of u.n. ambassador. >> yeah. interventionist as well as we've seen back in the libya debate, with susan rice now as national security advisor. they are also going to have to get to work on how they deal with russia. >> thank you so very much, david gregory. and see you on sunday. and we'll be right back. , they don't throw out as much pollution to the earth. so i feel good. i feel like i'm doing my part to help out the environment.

so what is behind the extraordinary measures taken to protect american diplomatic posts this weekend? joining me now is dan benjamin, former coordinator for counterterrorism at the state department and currently director of the sloan dickie center for international understanding at dartmouth college. dan, first of all, this is serious because we get chatter all the time. michael liter said this morning

to savannah guthrie 40 or 50 possible threats a day when he was heading the counterterror center but this is obviously different if we're closing so many posts and potentially even more on monday. >> that's exactly right. obviously the authorities in washington and the embassies in the region are taking this quite seriously. tells me there are multiple strands to the reporting on this plot and caution is appropriate under those circumstances. it is true, the government gets tons of threats every day. the overwhelming majority of them are not serious. few you have to take seriously and a few more you have to take very seriously. >> what is the downside of closing these posts? i mean this is very disruptive to normal diplomatic work and consulate work and just the positioning of the united states in each of these capitals.

>> the state department hates closing embassies. the diplomats in the region hate not going to work. they have gone into these jobs to do their meetings, to meet people, to advance american interests in the region and it is a real problem when we have to do shutdowns. that said, having embassies attacked and having diplomats killed has a profoundly bad impact on american's standing in the region as well and we had a bad experience last year in benghazi and no one wants to see that repeated. >> is it ever possible to fully reinforce these postings? we knew how vulnerable benghazi was and the local militia there turned tail and ran. but we he have very few of these posts that have full marine guards and there are only really i think 1,200 globally. you've got perhaps a dozen here

or a dozen there. >> right. it is impossible to have a post that has -- that can withstand any threat. perfect security is impossible in all circumstances if you want to keep people in the post, keeping it occupied and working, there is just no way to do a perfect job. while marines will certainly add an important layer of security to a number of embassies around the world, even that will not prevent the occasional shutdown because the marines are only going to be right there on site and they may again be able to do something about a car or truck bomb that's incoming but i think that with a lot of credible reporting ambassadors are going to be reluctant to leave those marine out there at forward checkpoints. so this is going to be the new normal, i fear. i think having this many closed

down at one time will be unusual but we have seen that local security forces particularly in arab spring countries may not be up to the job and so i think you will see the department and the ambassadors in the field closing with a little more regularity than they did in the past. >> dan benjamin from dartmouth, thanks for joining us today. adventure must run in this family. one of amelia earhart's ancestors -- or successors, rather, named after the famous aviator is recreating the historic flight around the world. 80 years ago amedia earhart disappeared three-quarters of the way around her around-the-world flight. if the modern aamelia completes the trip, she'll be the first woman to fly solo around the world. >> when i think about the best

way to honor being a namesake of amelia, it is all about adventure. we are entitled to developing our own adventure, whether that's just leaving the house or flying around the way around the world. this is my version of adventure. my best way to keep amelia's spirit alive. >> a descendant of amelia earhart. coming up, senators dick dur win and saxby chambliss join david gregory sunday on "meet the press" on nbc. if you have yet to master the quiet sneeze... david gregory sunday on "meet the press" on nbc. [ male announcer ] these days, a small business can save by sharing.

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>> i have. he's doing very well. he's obviously very happy for the obvious reason he won't be subjected to the standard whistle-blower treatment that the united states government gives to people which is to put them in cage for decades render them incommunicado. he's very gratified that he helped provoke the debate by doing what he did. >> what kind of life is he leading there? is this a temporary home that he's in now? is he looking for more permanent home? what can you tell us about just the lifestyle? is he apparently with an american family. >> well, he's only been out of the airport for about 30 hours so i don't think he's quite established what his lifestyle yet is going to be. obviously it is a new situation for him but he knew when he took the risk to come forward and shine light on what the nsa was doing, things that no one in the united states almost nobody in the united states or the world

knew, that he was going to be radically changing his life, sacrificing the very comfortable and fulfilling life that he had in order to achieve these objectives of transparency. i don't think he knows exactly yet what his future holds but i know he's happy not to be in the custody of the american government and the persecution they subject whistle blowers to. >> given his vast knowledge beyond what he has technologically but just his knowledge of the way things work in the intelligence community and specifically at the cia, do you think he would be cooperating with russians, be willing to be debriefed by russian officials? what is his posture towards being a resource for the russians? >> i've been really astonished that media figures have been willing to be be so irresponsible as to openly speculate that the russian government or the chinese government has obtained information from him even though there's zero evidence to suggest

that has happened. he has vehemently denied it. "the new york times" was harshly criticized by their own public editor for speculating in print this was true of that evidence. i think it is important to use common sense here. he is a very smart individual. he knew what the value was of what he had. if he were willing to share -- just use common sense -- to share what the russian government or with the chinese government what it is that he had in order to benefit himself or promote his self-interests he could have gone to either of those governments before he came to us and sold that information and lived the rest of his life a very rich man or he could have passed it to them. he didn't do what he did and sacrificed his life in order to the cooperate with the russian an chinese governments about how to better their surveillance systems. that's now why he did what he did. there's no evidence that he's given anything to them and he insists that he hasn't. everything that i know about him and what his actions have been would make me extremely shocked if he was willing to work with any government to help them better understand how to surveil

their citizens. >> do you think that they could have taken documents or information from him without his knowledge, hong kong in particular? >> no. remember, he was a very sophisticated cyber operative. i know there have been media reports that he was some sort of low-level nave. >> i would never suggest that. >> i'm not saying you were. i'm not at all suggesting -- >> i've been told he is amazingsly sophisticated and knowledgeable and really brilliant at what he did. >> correct. i share that assessment. and so there's very sophisticated encryption technology that prevents data from being obtained even by the most advanced governments, including the nsa. they have software that guesses billions of passwords a second. this encryption technology takes even the nsa many years to crack. and so the idea that the russians and chinese government can somehow pull out of the

ether extremely encrypted data is the stuff of science fiction which no one would take seriously who has knowledge of how encryption works. >> i want to ask you about exkey score. that's the more kree cest recen reports. >> more to come? >> yeah, there are so many documents that we have. it has taken us quite a while to read through them all but there is a lot more domestic and international spying that the nsa does that even people in congress don't know about that we're going to continue to report very aggressively. >> i want to ask you a question about something that's just breaking in the last 24 hours as well because have you been outspoken for the need for gay rights. here snowden is now in russia which is saying to gay olympians that they will be prosecuted under the russian law. how do you feel as good as you obviously feel about what russia has done to grant asylum to mr. snowden, how do you feel about

russia's law against gay rights? >> i feel that it's a disgusting law. russia has all sorts of very radical problems in its human rights record, including its practice towards its gay citizens, just like the united states has all kinds of human rights abuses and putting people in prison without charges and the like. when someone seeks asylum they're not seeking to declare the civil liberties nirvana. they're seeking to be protected from political persecution at home. he's not in russia because he thinks it is a pristine place or because it is what he chose. he was passing through there, he got forced to stay there by the united states but russia has very serious problems with its human rights record just as most large countries in the world do. what you asked me about is definitely one of them. >> glen greenwald, thanks for joining us today. we'll be right back. luckily though, ya know, i conceal this bad boy underneath my blanket just so i can get on e-trade. check my investment portfolio, research stocks...

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and ruth marcus. ruth, first to you. there was another one of these incidents this week in alabama. congressman, freshman congressman martha roby -- she was elected in 2010, i should say. at a tea party gathering but this was unrelated to the tea party. a man gets up and really goes after president obama and this is what happened. >> what i need from you is to know what you can do, you and your fellow non-communist colleagues in the lower house, what you can do to stop these communist tyrannical executive orders laid down by this foreign born american hating communist desp despot? what can you do? we need to know. >> so, thank you for your question. he said it loud enough that you all heard it. look. i can't em.

did can't emphasize the oversight part of my job enough. i think that's what's gets lost every day because that's exactly what we're doing, we're chasing down these executives orders, we're chasing down these rules that are promulgated that are back door legislation that agencies, whether it is the epa, the irs, go down the list. >> well, she didn't repeat it or agree with it but she did not challenge it. i should read before we go off on this, read the official response because we called her office and she said, "representative roby spent two hours hearing concerns and frustrations of monday night at a meeting of the wetumpka tea party. you bet they are frustrated with this administration. oversight is the appropriate role of the house in addressing

the obama administration's oversteps which is what she reiterated time and again monday night. we showed what you she said. >> wrong answer the first time. wrong answer the second time. the right answer is the one that john mccain has given when there have been similarly offensive comments from questioners to him, including during the campaign, which is, no, it's clear, president obama was born in the united states and he is not an america hater. >> not a communist despot. >> this might be opinion. but when somebody says something that outrageous, it is not enough to simply go on to the merits of their assertion. and i'm a big believer in congressional oversight. let's go for it. but you need to call them out, just like you call out racism or sexism or antisemitism or anything else. and i think it is very disappointing she didn't do that. it is very disappointing she didn't do that on sober reflection. >> and we should point out, that

was first posted i think by mother jones. chris cillizza? >> andrea, i'm with ruth in that i think what you have to say is, look. i don't agree with president obama's views. if you're martha roby, i don't agree with president obama's views on virtually every issue. we are doing what we can -- fair part of her answer is okay, we're doing what we can on oversight. but i think what you do have to say is, look, it does us no good to go down these false premises. president obama has a different vision for the country. it may not be the vision that you share but he doesn't hate america. and, as ruth points out, the facts are the facts. he was born in the united states. so again, i just think it is this broader conversation, too, about simply the coarsening of discourse in this country, that you can't agree without being disagreeable. >> thanks to chris cillizza and

ruth marcus. speaking of disagreeableness of the conversation in the house, the senate is usually known for yesterday, majority leader harry reid let leaders know how he felt during a heated debate. >> madame president -- >> have him sit down and shut up. >> and you can add these scenes to your highlight reel of lawmakers behaving badly in the taiwanese parliament. a debate turned into an all-out brawl. punches were thrown, water was tossed. apparently no one was hurt. in korea, these two women used their words and their fists to get their message across. and in the ukraine, they threw rotten eggs at the speaker. good thing they had an umbrella handy. just watch. being sixteen, alex thinks he's invincible.

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a-rod is scheduled to play with the trenton thunder tonight. that's the yankees aa farm team. even that may not take place if the anticipated mlb suspension comes down by then. nbc's ron mott has been tracking all of this in new york. do we expect the suspension to come down? i know his lawyers said they were going to fight anything. are they trying to work out a deal? >> that's the rumorumor, that they're trying to work out a deal. last night, some of the reports were that both sides have essentially walked away from one another because they're so far away from a deal. no one really knows. i think we need one of those msnbc clocks to show lounge this a-rod watch has gone on. i think i'm on day nine here. essentially, it boils down to this, whether he will accept a suspension that the league is going to push for, a pretty substantial suspension, or if he doesn't, they can't work out a deal, there are reports that the commissioner is ready to issue this lifetime ban, which will keep a-rod off the field

indefinitely. he, of course, can appeal that. no one knows for sure. what we know for sure is he's scheduled to play tonight in trenton, new jersey, for the thunder, a aa team down there, a yankee organization. presumably, if he's not suspended or banned before sunday, he may join the yankees out in san diego or monday in chicago. so there are a lot of things still up in the air here. >> and if he isn't suspended, will the yankees play him? >> it's hard to say. i think they want to see how well he's doing. he apparently complained of some injury in his quadricep. that's why they had the mri a couple weeks ago. he says he's ready to go. the team is not quite convinced. we'll have to see how he plays this weekend. after tomorrow's game and if he's not suspended, maybe people will start asking whether it's time for him to rejoin his teammates. >> wow. that would be quite a turn in all of this. thank you so much, ron. >> you bet. >> and that does it for us for

the week for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." thank you so much for joinings us. my colleague tamron hall as a look at what's next. >> coming up, we're following developing news from the state department. terror threats prompted a new worldwide travel alert. this as the list of embassies forced to close grows longer. also ahead, a new report found banks are denying accounts to thousands of americans all because of simple mistakes like bounced checks. did you know to open an account, some banks actually pretty much do a credit check on you? we're going to talk to one of the top prosecutors investigating these actions. and american gay bars are dumping russian vodka and calling for boycotts in response to the country's anti-gay laws. but will the boycotts have any effect on the winter games? it's our "news nation" gut check. i'm tony siragusa and i'm training guys who leak a little,

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hi, everyone. i'm tamron hall. the news nation is following developing news from the state department, which has now issued a worldwide travel alert for u.s. citizens, warning for the potential for terrorist attacks, particularly in the middle east. that alert follows the department's pre-emptive plan to close at least 23 embassies in the middle east, central asia, and eastern africa. the list even includes the embassy in tel aviv, which is already closed on sundays. so far, the administration is not giving specifics of the threat, only saying that it is linked to al qaeda and possibly tied to ramadan. republican congressman ed royce reiterated the state department's assertion that the closures are being ordered out of caution. >> we're going to take whatever steps necessary to protect our