i think it's all business and i tell him where i strongly disagree with him and he does the same. >> and throwing more cold water on the u.s./russia relationship, fallout from the eves dropped phone call between victoria nuland and u.s. ambassador to ukraine. >> i'm obviously not going to comment on private diplomatic conversations other than to say it was pretty impressive trade craft, the audio was extremely clear. >> and the teacher, former secretary of state colin powell, joining me to talk about a different side of leadership, this time in classroom. twist and shout, a look back at the british invasion 50 years later. >> half done at all? >> i had one yesterday. >> and curtain call, we laughed

and cried as we said farewell to a lejds legendary "tonight show" host. >> this has been the greatest 22 years of my life. [ cheers and applause ] >> i got to work with two -- writers and just all kinds of talented people who make me look a lot smarter than i really am. in closing i want to quote johnny carson, who was the greatest guy to ever do this job, and he said, i bid you all a heartfelt good -- >> and good day, everyone, i'm andrea mitchell in washington. now we can say 2014 winter olympics have officially begun.

and joining me now for the latest and greatest from russia, nbc's ann thompson and olympic security analyst andrew weiss with more on that break being news, an attempted hijacking on a plane enroute to ukraine where the hijacker threatened that he or she had a bomb and demandeded to go to sochi. ann, i don't know if you've been briefed in sochi, security very tight there and you've been through that airport so you know about the security at that airport. >> reporter: yes, security is very tight here, andrea, but that hijacking threat certainly hasn't impacted us here up at the mountain venue. i can tell you yesterday when we were going up to the slopestyle competition, our van was stopped by security. we had to take everything out halfway up the mountain. they put all of our equipment through an x-ray machine. they made us go through an x-ray machine.

and they searched the van and so you have those checkpoints all along the way. they are very conscious that something -- that people could target these games. but they are doing everything they can to keep both the athletes and the spectators safe. i have talked to several u.s. athletes in the past week who say they feel very secure in the athletes village. they feel that the security while it is obvious it is not overwhelming, in fact lauren williams, one of the members of the u.s. bobsled team, told me in athens she felt far more frightened in athens because she saw security guards with machine guns. you don't see that here. you do see security guards who are aware of it but it is not a smothering sort of sense of security. >> ann, i want to ask you more about the opening ceremony, what you can tell us and about the athletes themselves and andrew weiss here, what we know now, it was pegasus airlines, 110

passengers on board. turkey did scramble an f-16 and apparently the alleged hijacker said he or she had a bomb and they said, okay we're going to divert to sochi. they turned off the on board monitors and landed instead in turkey. and have been landed at another part of the airport. what would be the normal procedure here and how would they go about determining what the background is of this person, whether it's one person acting on his or her own or whether this is part of larger threats? >> i think at this point everything is completely fluid in what we're hearing is pretty sketchy. the latest i've heard from checking online was that the passengers were still on board the plane and so i think at this point things are still being resolved on the ground in istanbul. >> right now richard engel is joining us from sochi. richard, what more have you learned? >> reporter: what we've been able to hear is this flight took off from ukraine, that it was

originally going to istanbul, that a passenger sitting in 2-f, alerted the crew and pilots he had a bomb on him. it seems that the pilots were pretty quick thinking. they didn't try to resist. they told the attempted hijacker that they were complying, that they were diverting the flight here to sochi. at that stage, they turned off the inflight monitors making it more difficult for this attempted hijacker to know exactly where the plane was going. they continued on to istanbul. as soon as they entered turkish air space, the pilots tripped an alarm signaling that there was a crisis, that a hijacking attempt was in progress. at that stage the plane was escorted by two f-16 fighter jets and continued through turkish air space and landed on the asian side in istanbul. there are two airports, the european side and asian side

where pegasus has its hub. it landed on the asian side and quickly surrounded by security forces and negotiations began to try to get the passengers and crew off the plane and to get the hijacker to surrender. we're told there are 110 people on board. and now where the situation is at this moment, we're hearing conflicting reports. there are very late reports from the turkish media that the situation is over, that the hijacker has surrendered and taken into custody by turkish authorities but that's not been confirmed. >> to you, andrew weiss, we know there have been recent threats and we know about the toothpaste alert. and the additional requirements, safety requirements for all commercial flights flying from here into sochi. into russia. >> i think the tsa announcement yesterday was unexpected.

we've seen all sorts of threats against the games, a lot of them have been in the form of e-mails or videos and of course you have the video of the two suicide bombers behind the attacks in volgograd. the pressure on the russians to deliver a security environment for the games, everyone knows quite high. at the same time we're hearing now are events unfolding. one of the big challenges for any national security establishment, can you integrate the different strands. the russian will their hands full. >> you're up on the mountain top, let's talk about the athletes and what you've seen so far and the concerns that some have had about some of the venues being too challenging and you spoke yesterday about how they had to shave things down. but had some of those athletes in early runs were quite concerned. >> reporter: well, they were, in fact they had to alter the women's downhill course yesterday because the first three skiers who went on the

training run on the last jump they took off and kept going. and they just watched three skiers do this and italian skier hurt her knee and they stopped the training run and now the skiers are much happier with it. it's not usual. they alter courses in -- at various venues as he is special limb since this is the first time that the courses are being used. that's not a particularly unusual thing. unfortunately for the u.s. team, heidi kloser busted up her knee. she is a mogul skier and tore her acl and mcl and had an impact fracture of her thigh bone. when you watch the opening ceremony tonight, you are going to see an amazing sight because a among the 230 u.s. athletes, walking into that stadium tonight is heidi kloser. she is on crutches and she was

followed by a wheelchair but she was there and in fact, her father said when she was in the ambulance yesterday, she looked at him and said, dad, am i still an olympian because i never got to make an official run? he said, yes, you are and she certainly is tonight. she is there with her u.s. team. >> that is so uplifting but at the same time heartbreaking. andrew weiss, i want to also ask about this extraordinary diplomatic flap between ukraine, russia and the united states where we had the overheard conversation crystal clear audio of veteran diplomat victoria nuland who is very -- has been very tough on russia and has difficult relationship with lavrov and other officials. there is this leaked conversation about ukraine exposing the inner workings of the u.s. policy or strategy towards resolving the crisis where she speaks disparagingly

and profaneely. this is immediately published on a deputy prime minister twitter feed. all signs point to russia as having done the eavesdropping. >> at this point we don't know who's responsible for creating the tape. what did happen is that a prominent member of putin's team assistant sent a tweet around linking people to the youtube -- >> drawing attention to it. >> drawing attention to it. overall we have a real political crisis on our hands in ukraine and repeated waves of violence and activists being rendered up by security forces are unknown people. u.s. officials are trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube. we have an urgent political crisis. the diplomats heard on the phone call probably are not the only people caught on a hot mike saying thingses they may not wish to have made public. the russians look at the u.s.

role in ukraine angrily. there's a big tug of war going on and the russians show they have a lot at stake and probably willing to play the game rather rough. >> and they can use this as a pretext to say, you see the u.s. is meddling in an area that is russian area and that could justify them moving in more aggressively. >> the russians put $22 billion on the table several weeks ago as a way to buck up the beleaguered. they trying to find a way to marginalize the u.s., we should have the biggest say on how the political crisis plays out. >> andrew weiss, thank you so much. >> more of that emotional farewell with jay leno ending his 22-year run. he also had a lot of laughs thanks to a star-studded closing

musical number and final guest billy crystal. >> 22 years later, 160,000 jokes, 3 band leaders and two dark suits later, here we are. it's been a great thrill for me as one of your first friends in the business to watch you become one of america's friends. someone who makes us feel a little better before we go to sleep at night. on may 25th, 1992, who told me when i walked out to be a very first guest that you wanted me to be the guest on your last show. you did. promise made, promise kept. [ cheers and applause ] hey guys! sorry we're late.

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kentucky senator rand paul turns a lot of heads with his recent references to bill clinton as a quote, sexual

predator. in an interview now on c-span airing in full this sunday, senator paul took his criticism of president clinton one step further, putting pressure on the democratic party. take a look. >> they can't have it both ways. i really think that anybody who wants to take money from bill clinton or have a fundraiser has a lot of explaining to do. in fact, i think they should give the money back. if they want to tape a position on women's rights, by all means do. but you can't do it and take it from a guy using his position of authority to take advantage of young women in the workplace. for goodness sakes he paid an $800,000 fine for sexual harassment, he admitted to it in one court case and been convicted in the public place for the other sexual harassment. >> joining me now, chris cillizza and managing editor of postpolitics.com and ann gearan. chris, first the politics of

rand paul, relitigating impeachment? what's going on here? >> i put out a few calls and e-mails to folks and gotten two answers looking for why is he doing this. this is not first time or seconds time he's gone after bill clintmultiple times. attacking bill clinton for his admitted sexual peg dell los is the most -- rand paul wants to run for president. even people that consider themselves allies, we don't know -- they are not sure there's a strategy behind this. it may just be personal and rand paul is not one we know to back down from a fight he's made comments initially about bill clinton and keeps getting asked about them and keeps making more and more comments about them. so i think we might have a tendency to think there's a grand strategy here.

this may be a personal dislike between rand paul and bill clinton. >> pretty extraordinary. i want to ask ann for further background on victoria nuland, a career diplomat, russian speaker, was the spokeswoman for hillary clinton at the state department, now promoted to be assistant secretary for europe with support from john mccain from key elements in the republican party as well getting by the senate when a lot of others didn't. this overheard conversation though, is so explicit about our strategy for ukraine and it empowers russia to say we're meddling in trying to do something that frankly the eu wasn't doing, working closely with a foreign colleague now at the u.n.. >> you put your finger on the actually more important part of the overheard conversation. the expletives she uttered is getting all of the attention and is pretty shocking. but what else she says in that conversation, she and the u.s.

ambassador to ukraine are talking like political party bosses in the back room. this guy has got some skills in this area and this guy stinks, what are we going to do? >> in a new government. >> and these are government officials pronouncing their opinions and their hopes for what happens among the opposition consortium in ukraine at the same time in private, at the same time as in public the obama administration's position is this is a decision for the ukrainian people to settle and the -- ukrainian government and opposition need to work it out and our hands are clean. and it plays into every russian conspiracy theory about the americans are in there meddling and trying to stir up trouble. now maybe the russians are stirring up trouble. >> chris cillizza, the timing is so perfectly timed from the russian standpoint as sochi at the opening ceremonies today as

she was arriving in kiev meeting with the opposition and we've seen her very prominently handing out bread to the protesters, making it very clear what she decided. whoever leaked this, we know who posted it very quickly. the audio is perfectly clear and the suspicion in the white house and state department is that this was all the russians doing. >> i defer to both you and ann on matters of diplomacy, but in reading ann's story, the thing i was most struck by andrea and we don't know that russia did it. we do know they tweeted it but don't know they did it. was that there is a word in russian for this sort of stage craft, spy craft, trade craft. is basically means compromising evidence. this is not an uncommon practice that happens in russia, the leaking of the information to make others look better. it's not that uncommon a practice in the united states, though i'm not sure we have an exact word for it. but you know, again, i think the

timing of it with as you point out, with sochi, with the negotiations in ukraine and the offer who plays the right role, u.s./russia, et cetera, et cetera, there are very few coincidences in policy or diplomacy. >> we have an update on the attempted hijacking, a plane pegasus airline was diverted to turkey when a passenger on board flet threatened it had a bomb. the alleged hijacker demanded to be taken to sochi. it is on the ground safely in istanbul. and as we see in the live picture from the airport, there are more on the situation as we have it. if i can impart one lesson to a

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color overcome the odds because so many boys in this country need that mentor to help them become a man and good father. >> president obama at the national prayer breakfast yesterday raising the issue of mentoring for young men of color. an issue that challenges all us of to do more in our communities and schools. the grio is honoring african-americans for doing just that. joining us now, colin powell, thank you very much. i wanted to talk about education and your role in the community. let's talk about ccny and what you've created in new york at ccny, a school my dad went to, it was a school that you went to. it was the place of choice for young men and women in that day who didn't have a lot of other options as a public university. >> a public university formed in

1847 as the free academy of new york. first one like it in the country where we are going to take all of the kids of the people of all of the people and give them a chance to get an education. and it's been doing that for all of these years. it took me in in 1954 as just a kid born in harlem and raised in the south bronx and allowed me to go into the army and compete with guys from west point and harvard and princeton and otherwise. the reason i got the education because the citizens of new york said, what do we have that is more important to do than to educate the next generation? and now in this phase of my life, i'm back at ccny with the powell school for civic and global leadership and proud of it. i'm doing the same thing with the people up there for a new generation of minority kids and immigrant kids that was done for me so many many years ago. >> i want to show a clip of you at ccny, it may be at the opening of the powell school.

>> it isn't about colin powell and the colin powell school as it is named, it's about the kids. it's about the youngsters who come here seeking a better life, seeking to make their parents proud, seeking to be good citizens, seeking to do what they can for their fellow citizens. that's what it's all about. >> so many barriers have changed from those days in 1954 when i think you once told me when you were courting alma, your wife and driving down to birmingham, you couldn't stop at a public rest station or diner. >> couldn't stop. >> they were only a few places along that way that you could stop from here down south. those things have changed. what hasn't changed as we think about black history? >> let's start with the reality that a lot has changed. my goodness, at the look at the african-american leaders we have in corporate america and political america, that we have in military america, we should

be very proud of what we've done as a nation. but in doing that, we have also left behind a group of young people who do not have the kind of mentorship and do not have the kind of family structure i had and those that have been successful and not have the quality education that is needed so badly, especially in the 21st century to prepare them for successful lives in our country. that is why it's become a passion of my life and my wife and son and you, you're part of our team, and we thank -- >> want to be on team powell. >> but we have got to provide these young men and women, not just african-americans, but all young american children coming up, with the right sort of start in life. if you don't get the best start in life you're at a disadvantage. early childhood education is so important. that's why if the family isn't intact and we have so many in the african-american community where 77% of the children are being born without benefit of a

normal two parent family, ingle parent. it isn't a single parent can't do it, it's harder. when that parent needs help, we have to be there with big brothers and big sisters and faith based programs and boys and girls clubs and all of the other things that give a kid structure, make a kid part of a tribe. if the kid doesn't find a good tribe, he'll join a bad tribe and end up in jail. the dropout rate has declined. we're doing a better job of keeping keeping kids in school and getting them into trade schools or community colleges or into college. the problem is solvable, we know where the dropout factories are. we know what to do about that and we're doing it. the things are getting better. >> i wanted to share a smithsonian documentary that features you among other great african-american leaders. let's watch. >> when i first went to germany in january of 1959, i had just finished my training in

columbus, georgia at fort benning. in columbus, georgia it was still segregated and there was discrimination and racism. and so for me as a young lieutenant who couldn't go off the post in columbus, georgia, can go off the post anywhere in germany. it was a breath of freedom. it was a breath of freedom not only for me but for the germans who might have thought otherwise about black soldiers but recognized we can do the job as well as anyone. you should not judge us by the color of your skin. >> that documentary will air on the smithsonian channel on february 17th. you've been concerned about some of the cultural issues and i know you've read deeply into this and talked to kids, black and white, about education and about the cultural influences on them. part of that is the internet and you're an early advocate and involved with aol, what about reading and what about some of -- reading offline, reading

in a more old fashioned way? >> i keep focusing on this with young people, particularly the minority kids, you don't have time to waste. there's nothing wrong with the internet but use the internet to read books. there's a great deal of debate about some of the cultural things taking place in our society. i'm kind of old, perhaps a little too old for hip hop and i appreciate the hip hop culture and understand why young people like it. does it have to focus on themes and be so degrading of women? if the guys we celebrate in black history month, such as dr. martin luther king or mrs. rosa parks, if they were to see the things we're doing, they would be very disappointed and say we haven't come as far as we need to come. we can't afford to waste time. we need to spend our time getting our education and neat to need to spend time that black

history month is not just something we celebrate in the past in which we celebrate the future as well. if we don't prepare them for that future, they will not be successful and the country will not shall successful. the asian americans, hispanic americans and african-americans and other americans as they are sometimes called, not going to be a majority of the population, over 50%. they have to be prepared to be the leaders of the country and that's what i'm trying to work on with my wife even may family and wonderful dedicated people who are participating in this effort such as andrea mitchell. >> thank you for that undeserved shout-out. then we have the lack of bipartisanship and the most recent setback for immigration change or reform is, you know, the speaker said not now, it seems to be a lot of resistance to even having some sort of compromise on immigration.

at a time when our workforce desperately needs to keep the highly educated foreign students in particular -- >> if not now, when? we keep putting it off. at the beginning of president bush's administration, i was secretary of state and we were moving towards that and 9/11 through it off track. we should all understand by now that we are an immigrant nation. we are fueled with every new wave of immigrant who comes to this country. people wonder are we still the great country that we pretend to be on present ourselves to be and the answer is yes, they are lined up at all of the embassies and offices saying i want to go to america. 800,000 students from other countries are in america. and whenever they get the skills that can be useful in america and graduate with a ph.d. in computer science, give them a green card. the dream act should be a no brainer. i think we really have to buckle down and do something about immigration reform and do it as quickly as we can. this has been a silent song of

mine for many years. >> you've been quoted -- you said there's a dark vein of intolerance in your republican party. >> i will repeat that now. there are certain elements within the party which go out of their way to demonize people who don't look like the way they would like them to look like or who came from some other place. and i think the party has to deal with this. the party says we're doing it. they came out of last year's election with a lot of ideas about how they were going to make themselves a little more acceptable and yet you see things happening. you see members of the party and senior levels making statements about women, making statements about minorities that once again make the party look less toll rant than it should be. when you see a party that seems to in some states go out of their way to restrict voting on the pretense that there's a lot of fraud going on and i want to see a party, either democrat or republican party, that is working to get everybody to vote. isn't that what america is all about? get everybody to the polling

place and not keep it harder to get people to the polling place? they should have learned a practical lesson when they tried this last year in florida, rather than stopping the minority vote they came out in droves. you're not going to stop us. and the lesson should have been learned there, if you try to tell people that can't vote, you'll get more and more people voting and longer and longer lines and they'll wait to vote. that's what america is all about. >> you endorsed barack obama on "meet the press." are you still a republican or what do you think you are? >> i'm a republican -- i was a republican for the eight presidential elections before mr. obama where i voted for a republican president. but when i was in the phase of deciding what i should do in 2008, i was disturbed by the direction in which the party was moving and i made it clear at the time and i thought mr. obama was the best choice for economic reforms that we needed and other things that we needed. so people said, that makes you a

democrat? i'm still a republican. and i think a republican party needs me more than the democratic party needs me. you can be a republican and still feel strongly about issues such as immigration and improving our education system and doing something about some of the social problems that exist in our society and our country. i don't think there's anything inconsistent with this. as i go around the country, everybody is focusing on 2014, 2016, i said don't think that superman or superwoman is coming in 2016. if you don't like the lack of -- if you want to do something about the lack of civil tri in this country, it's the super people are going to change it, not whoever the next president is. we the people have to start pushing back on all of the instability that exists in our society, especially in our media and listen to other sides to get a more balanced perspective with respect to the issues of the day. and make the compromises necessary to keep our country moving forward just as our founding fathers did in 1787.

>> i wanted to finally ask about the tension with vladimir putin, the olympics opening. we've seen today an attempted hijacking going into sochi and eavesdropped conversations being posted on an official russian website of an american diplomat. putin is a tough customer. you had to deal with him. >> i know mr. putin very, very well. i've done a lot of things with him, from telling him we're withdrawing from the treaty to negotiating in arms control treaty with the russian federation. he's tough, we have to remember his background, he was kgb. he enjoys support with the russian people because he has brought some order to the country. i'm disappointed he doesn't understand he has the power to put the country on a more democratic basis and he's missing historic opportunity by not doing that. and i'm disturbed with a lot of things he does with respect to running of the country. but at the same time, he is the president of russia and i think we have to be a little more cautious in the way in which we talk about him and the way in

which we sort of interfere with his principle objectives, just as we should be free to tell him when we disagree about human rights policies of the russian federation and other things they are doing in trying to draw people into their economic union rather than the european union. and so we all ought to be big boys about this and not petty. i don't know how miss nuland's words got on russian television. i don't know who put it on youtube, that's where it came from. but this little episode will pass and don't think too much will be made of it in the long run because we have to work with them. we have to have them work with us. i think both sides should take a little more care in the way in which we share points of view with each other. >> colin powell, as always, thank you, general. >> thank you, andrea. >> and the red dress has become a symbol of the battle against heart disease. today on national wear red day, we're shining a spotlight on the fight against heart disease.

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♪ we are entrepreneurs who started it all... with a signature. legalzoom has helped start over 1 million businesses, turning dreamers into business owners. and we're here to help start yours. we have an update on the attempted hijacking when a passenger on board threatened no he had a bomb and demanded to be taken to sochi. the plane landed in turkey where the suspect is now in custody. pete williams, what are you hearing from law enforcement? >> this is coming from the turkish officials to the u.s. being monitored by u.s. security officials here. they say the man that tried to do this is now in custody, neutralized is the word they used. so the plane is safe. it's all over now. and we still don't know the answer to the big question here, which is did this man who

claimed he had a bomb actually have explosives. there have been reports in the turkish news media that this man had been drinking. we don't know whether that's what really is at the heart of this or whether there really was a true threat. in any event the circumstances seem clear. he made the threat once the plane took off from the ukraine and said he wanted to hijack it to sochi. the crew told him okay, we're going to do that but disabled the graphics that are in the plane that would tell you where the plane was. the plane landed in istanbul and the man was calmed down and the pilot signaled it was okay to for enforcement authorities to come on board e and the man has since been detained. we'll have to wait some more minutes to figure out if this was something serious or not. >> pete williams, thanks so much for staying on top of that for all of us. now to the environment, the nation faced a string of environmental disasters as of late from the chemical spill in

west virginia last month to the coal ash leak in north carolina on sunday. joining me now from phoenix, senior attorney for the national resources defense council and it's grade to see you again, bobby, thank you for being with us. >> thank you for having me, andrea. >> i'm so excited to have you on because i wanted to ask you about west virginia, the schools are still having difficulties, kids are reporting burning and itching and eyes, throat. we've got all of these questions about the odor, the color of the water. and this is only the most recent but it is a very dramatic case of water safety and of a company that had not been inspected properly by state authorities and had terrible containment. >> well, and you know, it's not just the drinking water, andrea, the -- what we find is that for many of these toxins,

particularly the ones that have volatile organic chemicals in them, that the principle factor for this entering the human system and damaging health is cooking and showering because it -- the vapor -- the molecules in the water are in the water vapor and you breathe them in and it's a most more potent factor. avoiding drinking the water is not going to protect your health of people, 300,000 people in charleston who are exposed to this water. and the health department has indicated that they believe that the water may be safe to drink but the health department -- the head of the charleston health department has said he is not allowing his family to drink the water. and that he's not drinking it himself. unfortunately, this is not an isolated problem in west

virginia or in other states. west virginia is a particularly bad example. there's over 1,000 of these tanks now vulnerable and that are near public water supplies in west virginia. the ash spill that happened this week in north carolina, is another example of the danger of coal and the power that this industry wields over the state industry over the state regulatory agencies that are supposed to be protecting the rest of us from pollution. the west virginia dep is kind of the paradigm of agency capture phenomenon, the dynamic by which the agencies that are supposed to protect us from pollution become the kind of sock puppets for the industries that they regulate. the same thing is true in north carolina and in fact we have seven river keepers in north carolina ten days ago filed suit against duke energy about this very ash pile, saying that

you've already been warned by epa this is a danger and we're suing you. and four days later, the ash pile collapsed and dumped 80,000 tons of highly toxic waste into the dan river turning hundreds of miles of the dan river into a witch's brew. we have -- the dep is supposed to be down there, should be down there, but we don't see them. we have seven river keepers and a group of former marines who work for the water keep movement who are down in the water testing that water. we have drones flying all over the ash piles and keeping track of them. and we don't see the west virginia dep anywhere. so this is a -- this is a systemic problem. and it's a problem of our democracy that these industries have become so powerful in states like west virginia and north carolina, particularly and virtually all states, that they've been able to subvert the

democratic process and avoid compliance with the laws that are supposed to be protect public health. >> i don't know if you have a view yet on the document that the state department released by the keystone pipe line on friday because many people who have read it, i've read it, have the impression that this could give a green light or remove a hurdle because it does say there would not be an appreciable effect, that the oils will be extracted with or without the pipeline and could give the president and secretary of state the ability to give the green light to the keystone pipeline. >> well, you know, the media spin on it is that it's somehow exculpated the pipeline but still acknowledges this is extremely dirty oil, it's five times in terms of carbon production, five times as bad at producing carbon as dirty as conventional fuels.

the economic benefits to the united states are going to be practically nil. according to even this document, which was written by a compromised group, environmental research management, which did not disclose illegally did not disclose its profound conflicts of interest with trans canada and american petroleum institute to the state department as required by law, prior to doing the environmental impact statement for the state department, but even that compromised document says that this -- this pipeline, once its built, will only create 35 permanent jobs for the united states. there are going to be a couple of thousand jobs during the two-year period of construction, but other than that it's 35 jobs. we are then moving 830,000 barrels a day through the american heartland, through the most important water aqua for in our country, it's already shown

its ability to eat through pipelines, contaminate rivers and we can't clean up. the odd thing about this, and i think the thing, andrea, thisan irks environmentalists most, and particularly putting it in perspective to the previous of the obama administration, obama promised in june and again twice in july at public forums and once in a private dinner that i attended that he would not allow the construction of the keystone pipeline unless the promoters of that pipeline were able to demonstrate that there would be no net increase in global carbon. when i asked him to clarify that statement, he said, look, the people promoting this pipeline are making tens of billions of dollars by using the pipeline rather than using railcars. they're going to be able to sell their oil much quicker, and that's a big economic benefit.

if they come to me, to president obama, and show that they're going to use a large portion of those billions to somehow reduce carbon production around the globe so that the net impact of this pipeline is, in the end, going to be less in terms of carbon production and if we didn't build the pipeline, then i will listen to them and maybe make a deal. >> it sounds like that might be a compromise that they might come up with. we're going to have to leave it there for now. i just want to point ut it is 50 jobs in the report. 3,900 temporary construction jobs and only 50, but we're talking about just a slight difference here but not nearly the thousands of jobs they claimed -- >> can i say one other thing, andrea? >> sure. >> president obama has said in his state of the union that he was going to use in his power -- he understood that congress was going to block any kind of initiative he did, so he was going to use his power to stop

global warming by going around congress, by going to the agencies using executive power. well, the thing that really bothers environmentalists is this is the one issue where he could say no. he doesn't have to go to congress for this. and the people who are promoting this, those who spent $2 million trying to hurt him, tea party people in congress and republicans who have been trying to block every part of his agenda. there's nobody who traditionally supported him or the interests of children or the environment or democratic civilization as we -- you know, at our highest ideals wants this thing to happen. it's a catastrophe, and he needs to use his power to say -- just say no. >> robert kennedy jr., thank you very much. an impassioned plea against the pipeline. we of course will have people on all sides of this issue in coming days as well. thank you very much. more on the attempted

hijacking of a flight bound for the ukraine. a suspect is in custody in istanbul after claiming to have a bomb on board. he demanded to be take on the sochi. the crew diverted the plane to istanbul. richard engel joining me from istanbul, kis tin welker at the white house. what's the latest? >> reporter: the situation has been contained, that this man was taken into custody by turkish special forces. this all began several hours ago when a flight left from the second biggest city in ukraine, a flight originally scheduled to go to istanbul and after takeoff, a ukrainian national sitting in one of the front rows, 2f, got up, alerted the crew that there was a bomb on board or on his person, and that the flight must go to sochi, where we are right now. this was as the opening ceremony was taking place, as so much security has been put in place all around the world to make sure that these games are safe.

the pilots, according to the accounts by turkish officials, were quite cool in this situation. they didn't resist. they said no problem, we will divert the plane to sochi. they didn't do that. they continued on their route to istanbul. they turn off the in-flight monitors so that the passengers, including the hijacker, wouldn't exactly know where the flight was. it's dark at this hour so it would be very hard for them to independently identify by terrain where they were. as soon as they entered into turkish air space, the pilots tripped a hijacking alert, a situation crisis alert, and then when the plane landed it was surrounded by special forces and the man was taken into custody. unclear there if there was a bomb. there are reports he may have been drunk. we're not how serious this was. but it did cause a lot of concern. >> clearly has indeed. i know, richard, you'll stay all over this. kristen welker at the white

house, has the president been notified or any of the national security officials? >> reporter: -- that president obama has been notified. at this point the white house won't say one way or another. we know he's of course traveling in east lansing, michigan, but one official with the nsc tells me they are monitoring this situation closely. they are in contact with the turkish gocvernment. as you know, the white house is quite cautious before they respond to this type of an incident, before they put out a statement. so i think we're waiting to make sure they have all their facts straight before they respond. i would be surprised if president obama hasn't been notified. he's traveling with white house press secretary jay carney. so, again, we're just waiting for confirmation about that, waiting for any potential statement the white house might put out. to richard's point, this obviously did cause concern. senior administration officials monitoring this situation closely. >> kristen welker, thanks so much. of course the president is in michigan to sign the farm bill

so there were a lot of political events today. that does it for us for this week for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." enjoy the olympics. monday, former secretary of homeland security and head of the u.s. delegation to sochi, janet napolitano. see what's new at projectluna.com how much money do you think you'll need when you retire? then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. i was trying to, like, pull it a little further. [ woman ] got me to 70 years old. i'm going to have to rethink this thing. it's hard to imagine how much we'll need for a retirement that could last 30 years or more. so maybe we need to approach things differently, if we want to be ready for a longer retirement. ♪

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you two should probably get a room... oh that's right! you already did. at planet earth's number one accomodation site... booking.com booking.yeah! good friday. i'm craig melvin in for tamron hall. a hijacking attempt on a turkish-bound flight. a ukrainian man demanded the flight be diverted to sochi, russia, where the opening ceremony for the winter olympics is just wrapping up. the flight landed safely in istanbul, but the situation, as we understand it, is still ongoing. nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel is live for us in sochi. richard, what do we know about this point?

>> reporter: we know this situation appears to be contained, that this suspect, attempted hijacker, was taken into custody by turkish officials. it began several hours ago when a plane left from the ukraine. it was always on its way to istanbul, but then a passenger in one of the up-front seats, 2f, alerted the crew, alethat there was a bomb on the plane and he wanted the plane to be diverted to sochi during the opening ceremony. you can imagine that caused a great deal of concern when these reports came out because there is so much security in place here as that opening ceremony is still under way. the crew acted quite calmly under this very stressful situation. they told this attempted hijacker that they were meeting his demands, that they would, in fact, divert the flight to sochi. they did not, however, do that. instead, they stayed on course to istanbul. they turned off the in-flight