0 laws. could gay athletes be prosecuted there. hear about one athletes plans to participate out and proud in those games. that's coming right up cnn in the "newsroom." 21 embassies and consul lats is a lot. this is really sending a message we're under serious threat. >> americans be on alert. that's the warning from the u.s. government as they plan a massive embassy shutdown and issue a worldwide travel alert. our presence in russia will do nothing but help fight this law. >> a new law targeting gays in russia sparks confusion and fear as that country prepares to host the winter olympics. now, some american athletes are taking a stand. you look great. >> thank you. >> and guess who is saying i'm making it work. tim gunn talks fashion, politics, and shares his shocking personal choice. good morning. i'm victor blackwell. >> and you are making it work this morning. >> i am trying to make it work. >> i'm brianna keilar. it's 10:00 on the east coast, 7:00 on the west, and you're in the cnn "newsroom." the obama administration is taking no chances. come sunday embassies and consulates across the middle east and north africa will shut their doors. it follows a new al qaeda threat. >> 22 embassies and consulates will be closed. look at the map. you can see most are in the middle east and north africa. after the closures were announced, a message said to be from the al qaeda chief surfaced on jihadist websites. >> translator: i call on every muslim on every spot on earth to stop the crimes of america and its allies against the muslims in palestine, iraq, afghanistan, yemen, mali, and everywhere. >> emily schmidt joining us from washington. emily, clearly the obama administration feels that something is up here, but specifically do we know what led them to pull the trigger on closing these embassies? >> we have a couple of different ways to pull back the curtain for you. first of all, with what we've been reporting, officials have been tracking this knowledge they said for weeks, but in the past few days they say the chatter was simply increasing enough to believe that al qaeda in the arabian peninsula in yemen could be in the final stages of planning an unspecified attack. this morning the white house tells cnn though it's not going to comment on intelligence in this case, particularly as it relates to a "new york times" report that says some of this intelligence came from intercepted electronic communications between senior al qaeda operatives. this article notes that's one of the main functions of the nsa. so you take a look at the embassy closings, they are officially for sunday but they could be extended, and there could be more closings in number. in fact, yesterday we were talking about a number of 21. that was updated overnight to 22 to include the consulate in b basra. they stretch across north africa and the middle east. peter king, who is a republican congressman, the chairman of the homeland security committee, says there is very little doubt to him something serious is being planned. >> let's talk about -- >> it's the most specific i've seen. i don't think i'm giving anything away when you look at the reaction to have 21 embassies being closed shows how seriously our government is taking it. >> and two u.s. officials say this threat is against not just the u.s. but broaden it out, western targets. in fact, britain and germany have also said they are going to close their embassies in yemen. >> and, emily, i think we had the chiron over peter king and that was actually -- we had it as chris hill. that was to be clear, peter king. let's talk a little bit about the timing here, the anniversary of benghazi. >> september 11th, 2012, the attack there. we're coming up on the one-year anniversary in seven weeks. what role does that attack and the anniversary play both from the planning element and also to make sure -- this abundance of caution that this does not happen again? >> you take a look at this lens. you cannot ignore what happened almost a year ago. we're just a few weeks before the first anniversary of that deadly attack on the u.s. in benghazi. it's where four americans were killed including u.s. ambassador christopher stevens. after that the obama administration was criticized for not responding strongly enough to that threat. this time, as you said, they're talking about responding in an abundance of caution. you have to think about where we're focusing right now. when we're talking about al qaeda as it replies to yemen, this has been a known and growing threat there. it's the place from which the underwear bomber on christmas day was responsible for and also for more than a year there have been concentrated drone strikes from the u.s. in that area, including three just this week. >> all right. emily schmidt for us in washington. thank you. a scare at the u.s. embassy in israel this morning. >> let's bring in cnn's vladimir in tel aviv. walk us through what's going on there. >> well, we today just saw how efficient and how on alert the folks guarding the united states embassy in tel aviv which is right behind me are when it comes to potential terror threats. we were seated at the left-hand side of this embassy when all of a sudden we saw security officials rush out into the street. there was a suspicious package, what turned out to be a handbag or a backpack of some sort, that was lying literally right in front of the embassy. the embassy is right behind me. it was on this side of the street on a gazebo. security officials immediately cordoned off the area, they stopped foot traffic on either side of the street from coming by. they did allow automobile traffic to continue, but once they had cordoned that area off, the explosive bomb disposal unit showed up. within 30 minutes they had approached the suspicious package. they had looked through it, realized it was not a potential terror threat, and they took it into the bomb disposal vehicle and they drove off with it. it took about 30 minutes, but right now there doesn't look to be any kind of beefed up security in front of the embassy, but once there was a potential terror threat, i can tell you, there were at least 15 security officers, including tel aviv police, that rushed to the scene and were essentially had everything going on before anybody could realize what had happened, brianna. >> vlad, this is victor blackwell. i have a question about what's happening outside because we know they're not just securing that area but also checking the cars in the area. tell us about that. >> reporter: so where we park our vehicle, which is -- you can actually see it, the parking lot of the embassy, maybe we pan over just a little, it's to the right-hand side of the united states embassy. and if you go into that parking lot throughout various points of the day, you will see there are these little colored tabs they put on the tires of every vehicle that is in that parking lot. and that is to signify that a security official has conducted some kind of search of the area underneath the undercarriage of those vehicles and have cleared those vehicles because there are some cars that are long-term parking within that parking lot. so they put a little tab on there to signify they have checked that vehicle and it's okay. so even though the embassy is normally going to be closed on sunday, this does not -- this directive does not affect this embassy directly because they're always closed on sunday. there is a sense of awareness, a heightened sense of alert that you can feel standing outside here in tel aviv, victor. >> tense there, tense all over the region. thank you. vlad is in tel aviv with that report. the state department has also issued a month-long global travel alert. this is because of this al qaeda threat. >> it's for americans traveling abroad everywhere, but you especially need to be cautious in the areas in red here. cnn's nick valencia is at the busiest airport in the world, atlanta's hartsfield-jackson. nick, should people traveling here domestically be concerned as well? >> reporter: victor, domestically business as usual for those traveling today. they should not expect longer lines or delays as related to this travel warning. the state department also says for those that are traveling internationally this weekend, they should not see a visible change in security even if it is happening. we just came from the international terminal. i was inside there, and tfers pretty calm. i spoke to travelers who were going abroad. some had no idea there was a state department travel warning in place while others, they say their plans of travel had changed because of the travel warning. does that give you pause at all to get on a plane today? >> it gives me a little pause, i guess you could say. makes you think about it. and which we know i guess everything knows that ramadan is coming up and i knew it was coming. this is the time that i guess it's muslim unrest i guess you would say in that area. >> reporter: is tdoes it change way you prepare to travel or what you might do? >> no, sir. no, sir. we trust they've got everything under control. >> reporter: it's worth noting that the airlines we have spoken to that do travel internationally out of this airport in atlanta, they haven't changed their flight schedule or canceled any flights. for those who might be a little nervous, you might be looking for refunds or waivers, those airlines as of right now are not offering refunds or waivers to anybody. that policy may change depending on the information they receive from tsa and the state department, and speaking of the state department, let's give a quick rundown to our viewers here about what they should expect and how to prepare when they travel. one is to register with the embassy in the country that you're going to. the other is to register for this smart traveler enrollment program. it gives travelers alerts about crisis situations. as well as taking a look repeatedly or frequently i should say on the state department website. they'll have updates. there are others that are monitoring this situation. when we get more information about potential delays or other security changes, we'll bring it to you, but for right now, everything is sort of business as usual in atlanta. >> all right, nick valencia, thank you. officials tell cnn that the new intelligence led the u.s. to conclude that operatives of al qaeda in the arabian peninsula, aqap, were in the final stages of planning an attack against u.s. and western targets. now, just a short time ago i asked our law enforcement analyst tom fuentes to tell us about the capabilities of that terror group. >> well, the so-called underwear bomber, abdbe abdulmutallab, t from london to yemen, and he claimed with 20 other people to learn how to put on the underwear bomb and detonate the bomb. the bombmakers in yemen gave them the training and basically dispatched him to go ahead and attempt to bomb the aircraft as it was coming into land in detroit airport christmas 2009. so we've had al qaeda in the arabian peninsula be a very strong cell and a strong cell at attempting to attack u.s. interests that way. >> the u.s. is not the only country taking precautions. both great britain and germany said their embassies in yemen would also be closed on sunday and monday over security concerns. the fbi and federal prosecutors want to know how nsa leaker edward snowden got cleared to work for the government. "the wall street journal" reports a federal grand jury is looking into whether the company that did the last background check on snowden rushed its review. that company is u.s. investigation services. it's based in virginia. several of its former employees reportedly have been subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury to answer questions. the firm says it is cooperating fully. coming up on "newsroom," baseball star alex rodriguez now says that he will be back with the yankees on monday. >> monday? >> that's what he says. can that really happen though given the fact that this embattled player is facing a possible lifetime ban or a big suspension? plus, the fda has now confirmed what's behind that outbreak that's sickened hundreds of diners. you really couldn't have come at a better time. these chevys are moving fast. i'll take that malibu. yeah excuse me, the equinox in atlantis blue is mine! i was here first, it's mine. i called about that one, it's mine. mine! mine. it's mine. it's mine. mine. mine. mine. mine. it's mine! no it's not, it's mine! better get going, it's chevy model year-end event. 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