bob baer, the president does sound frustrate with leaders around the world right now, in particular foror standing up to the use of chemical weapons right now. does the president have reason top frustrated, do you think? >> absolutely. hundreds of people have been slaughtered in syria thanks to chemical weapons. we simply don't know what bashar al-assad will do next. will he be encourage bid thd th we've done nothing. yes, he's absolutely right to be frustrated. >> general short, the president isn't getting the support that i think he would like from a lot of other countries from around the world right now but as a former fighter pilot, as you said, how much does that support really matter? >> i think it matters a great deal. we want to act as part of a coalition. we don't want to be seen as the cowboy as some folks have seen us for perhaps the last ten years. this reminds me of kosovo where the world was horrified over the genocide that was occurring but quite frankly it took us six months to act. >> general michael short, bob baer, thank you for joining us today. >>> coming up, they'v

also, bob baer joins us, senior fellow at the brooking s institution. and john king as well. fran, listening to secretary kerry today, it seems like the u.s. is determined to do something? >> absolutely. let's remember anderson, there were reports in the spring that there had been a small scale use of chemical weapons, and the assad regime very much in keeping with their method of operation tests and then nothing happened, and so then we see this large scale attack, and frankly atrocity. i don't think there's any doubt, when you hear the language secretary kerry uses that they're talking, they're looking at one of the options as being one of these missile strikes. in order to try to take out the delivery systems, that the systems used to actually deliver the chemical weapons, that's really only a first step, and the question is, will they be able to put together a coalition that includes our arab allies, so there's international support for this that would allow you to take it further? one strike of missiles we know is not enough. after the east africa embassy bombings, the c

bob baer, cnn national security analyst, formerly of the cia. gentlemen, welcome. general marks, beginning with you here, tactically speaking, talk to me about these missiles. how exactly do they work and how can they be so accurate? >> well, brooke, these things are incredibly accurate. out to what we call ten digit level of granularity. that means it'll pass through a pane in a window, specified pane in a window and not the lower pane in the window. it will hit the target that it's intended to hit. these things do not miss. the challenge is, and this is where bob's experience is so important, is that we have not had boots on the ground in the form of our own human intelligence assets that are doing some very good reconnaissance and surveillance on those targets. they are fixed facilities. and within those fixed facilities, we have to assume that what's inside, if it's valuable, it's been removed. and very sadly, and probably not unexpectedly, assad may be moving women and children into those sites. so this could be a very, very difficult task that the united stat

versus russia. >> jake tapper, bob baer, thank you very much. jake, we'll check back with you next hour. the president will be speaking? california at camp pendleton. watch jake every day 4:00 p.m. eastern right here on cnn. >>> her husband gave his life battling wildfires. one of 19 elite firefighters known as the granite mountain hot shots. remember this tragic story? this was back in late june. now his widow is battling an arizona city for the benefits she says her husband earned. she is julie ann ashcraft. she says her family should get the lifetime health insurance and salary full time firefighters in the city of prescott receive. the city says some of the hot shots were considered, quote, unquote, seasonal employees and, therefore, not eligible for the payouts. >> i wanted to be able to just spend time with my family. i want to be able to grieve the loss of my husband. that's what's been the worst part. my son started school on monday. every chance i get, every time he comes home and i pick him up, i'm rushed off to another meeting. there'

bob baer is a former cia operative and a cnn security and surveillance correspondent. >> hi. >> bob, what other details do you think intelligence has gathered? >> oh, i'm quite convinced this was based on solid evidence. you don't close 22 embassies and consulates on something flimsy. >> what do you mean? >> chatter, a known player in al qaeda on the telephone saying, all right, we're going to hit. now's the time. is everybody in place? these conversations that are a bit vague but if the players are important and type of people to make things happen, washington pays attention. this didn't come from a human source. i've heard this from somebody, a guy i know. no. probably from chatter. >> if it's believed that yemen based operatives may be behind a lot of serious planning, you know, how porous has this country become? how much in the making has this moment come? >> well, you have to look at yemen, the mountainous areas of the country never under the control of the central government. it's a good place for al qaeda to hide, keep arms, make plans. the capital cannot send forces in to th

. >> but bob baer, a former cia case officer the mideast, says the threat in that region appears to be very real. >> i would say if you don't have urgent business in that part of the world, you shouldn't go. >> the closing of 20 embassies and 20 consulates in the mideast is the sign the u.s. has picked up on what they believe to be a credible threat. >> it has to be fairly specific, the sources, the phone calls are probably pretty well-known. my only question is will the attack occur in the middle east? >> baer said al-qaeda has created diversions before and they can do it again. hence the global travel alert. abc7 news. >>> this afternoon gay rights advocates are planning to gather in san francisco at the russian consulate to protest anti-gay laws in russia. two days ago they poured vodka on the streets in west hollywood because of fines on people who hold gay pride rallies. today's protests includes flying a huge rainbow flag and there will also be a active picket lines. >> you probably remember the embarcadero freeway. officially it was interstate 480, a double decker highway that c

also former cia officer bob baer joins us. and john king, as well. fred, listening to secretary kerry today, it certainly seems like the u.s. is determined to do something. >> oh, absolutely. let's remember, anderson, remember, there were reports in the spring that there was a small-scale use of chemical weapons and the assad regime in keeping with the method of operation tests and then nothing happened and so then we see a large-scale attack. and frankly, atrocity. i don't think there's any doubt when you hear the language secretary kerry uses that they're talking -- they're looking at one of the options as being one of the missile strikes off the destroyers in the med in order to try to take out the delivery systems that the systems used to deliver the chemical weapons. but that's really only a first step and the question is, will they be able to put together a coalition with the arab allies so there's international support for that that would allow you to actually take it further? one strike of missiles -- not enough. after the east africa embassy

i want to bring in cnn intelligence and security analyst bob baer. bout this threat other than what we're seeing the resultant shutting down of such a wide swath of embassies? what's unique about this threat? >> brianna, first of all, i've spent 21 years in the cia, and i don't think i've ever seen 22 embassies closed simultaneously. this is very, very unusual. it could only be based on very credible information. secondly, we're seeing a resurgence of al qaeda, which frankly surprises me. we've had prison breaks in libya, iraq, other places in the middle east. we've got mali and also egypt, which we're being held responsible for the military coup d'etat there, the overthrow of the islamic governmenbrother we're seeing a lot of turmoil. it goes back to the chatter. there are definitely plans to make some sort of attack, supposedly today, but there could always be slippage in this. >> just to remind people of those prison breaks, we're talking about prison breaks, for instance, the one in iraq where you saw hundreds of inmates escape. these are very ser

bob baer has told me he definitely has never seen anything like this kind of behavior on the part ofress needs to be more curious. jon: they did say we won't get the people responsible of this attack on the compound. is anybody in the media asking how does that stand, where does that stand? >> no. cnn is hardly even running the interview their own reporter did with this suspect. not only are other people not picking up on it, cnn does not seem that interested in it. this is a pattern with the obama administration trying to silence people. the polygraph to make sure that nobody is leaking something to the media again, w we're not talking about classified information. it goes without saying nobody says they should come out and say what they are doing but to talk about what happened that night is not classified information. jon: you can catch more with this great panel this weekend, we will cover the coverage of the top stories, that is saturday at 2:30 eastern right here on the fox news channel. thanks. jenna: a lot of new research on diet and exercise, yet a new reason to hit the gym.