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U.S. Closes Embassies in Middle East and North Africa; Alex Rodriguez Announces Return to Yankees; Letter Written by Aaron Hernandez Published; Food Poisoning Linked to Mexican Farm Produce; Russian Law Targets Homosexuals; Interview with Reality Star Tim Gunn
Aired August 03, 2013 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERT BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY ANALYST: Twenty-one embassies and consulates is a lot. I mean, this is really sending a message we're under serious threat.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): 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.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our presence in Russia will do nothing but help fight this law.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: 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.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You look great.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.
BLACKWELL: And guess who is saying I'm making it work. Tim Gunn talks fashion, politics, and shares his shocking personal choice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Good morning. I'm Victor Blackwell.
KEILAR: And you are making it work this morning.
BLACKWELL: I am trying to make it work.
KEILAR: 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. The move follows a new Al Qaeda threat.
BLACKWELL: And 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. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AYMAN AL ZAWAHIRI, AL QAEDA LEADER: I call on every Muslim on every spot on earth to do all that you can to stop the crimes of America and its allies against the Muslims in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Mali, and everywhere.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Emily Schmidt now joining us from Washington. So 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?
EMILY SCHMIDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 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 Basra. They stretch all across, as you see, 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.
BLACKWELL: Let's talk about --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. PETER KING, (R) NEW YORK: 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHMIDT: 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.
KEILAR: 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, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. But let's talk a little bit about the timing here, the anniversary of Benghazi.
BLACKWELL: Benghazi, the September 11th, 2012, the attack there. We're coming up on the one-year anniversary in about 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?
SCHMIDT: 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. That of course is 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.
But 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.
BLACKWELL: All right, Emily Schmidt for us in Washington. Thank you.
A scare at the U.S. embassy in Israel this morning.
KEILAR: Let's bring in CNN's Vladimir Duthiers in Tel Aviv. Vlad, walk us through what's going on there.
VLADIMIR DUTHIERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Brianna. 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. BLACKWELL: 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.
DUTHIERS: 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. And so they put a little tab on there to signify they have checked that vehicle and it's OK.
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.
KEILAR: Tense there, tense all over the region. Thank you, Vlad Duthiers 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.
BLACKWELL: 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?
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 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 it was 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.
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VALENCIA: Does that give you pause at all to get on a plane today?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 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.
VALENCIA: Does it change the way you prepare to travel or what you might do?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, sir. No, sir. We trust they've got everything under control.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VALENCIA: It is worth noting, Victor and Brianna, 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 about traveling this weekend because of the warning, 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, Victor and Brianna, 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 or emergencies abroad in these areas that are under risk, 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.
BLACKWELL: 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.
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TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, the so-called underwear bomber, Abdulmutallab, who was radicalized while he was attending school in London, and he's a Nigerian national, travel 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 bomb-makers 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.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLACKWELL: 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 employees, or former employees rather, reportedly have been subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury to answer questions. The firm says it is cooperating fully.
KEILAR: Coming up on Newsroom, baseball star Alex Rodriguez now says that he will be back with the Yankees on Monday.
BLACKWELL: Monday?
KEILAR: 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.
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BLACKWELL: Baseball star Alex Rodriguez is coming out swinging.
KEILAR: That's right. The controversial Yankees third baseman isn't just vowing to fight a possible lifetime ban or a suspension from the game over his alleged use of performance enhancing drugs. He says he'll be back in pinstripes this Monday.
BLACKWELL: Joe Carter is live in New Jersey with the latest. Joe, is it so?
JOE CARTER, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Well, guys, I think that is definitely the question we're all wondering and only a few people really have the answer to. But after Alex Rodriguez finished his game here in Trenton, New Jersey, behind me last night he addressed the media for 10 minutes and did it very candidly. He said he's 100 percent, he feels more ready to play baseball than he ever has in the last few months.
And while he says he's ready to get back with the Yankees, Major League Baseball is about to deliver its so-called suspension announcement. Of course we're expecting that on Monday. Yesterday after the game he addressed the number of topics. He talked about his legacy, about performance enhancing drugs, and he also took a shot at those trying to keep him from the ball field.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You believe you will be with the Yankees come Monday?
ALEX RODRIGUEZ, MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL PLAYER: Absolutely.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you believe the team feels the same way. RODRIGUEZ: Who is the team?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your team, the Yankees.
RODRIGUEZ: I hope so. I love being a Yankee. I love my teammates. I have a lot of brothers in that clubhouse. We won a world championship. The plan is to win another one. And I'm excited to get back there and compete and keep fighting.
I had a great time tonight playing. I felt good. I felt my work was good before the game and my body is beginning to react the right way. I think the further I get away from the surgery, the more productive I'm going to be. I think I'm going to be better in six months, I think I'm going to be better in 12 months. But I do like the way the ball is starting to jump off my bat, the ball is coming off my throwing arm.
As far as the legal stuff, to me it's been confusing. The one thing I have gotten from so many people, so many fans, some teammates, they're like, what is going on? I think there's a lot of people that are confused, a lot of people that don't understand the process. There's a lot of layers.
I will say this, there's more than one party that benefits from me not ever stepping back on the field, and that's not my teammates and it's not the Yankee fans. I think we all agree we want to get rid of PEDs. That's a must. I think all the players, we feel that way. But when other stuff is going on in the background and people are finding creative ways to, you know, cancel your contract and stuff like that, I think that's concerning for me. It's concerning for the president, and I think it should be concerning for future players as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARTER: So I also asked him what the tentative plan was from here on out, and he said he'll play a game tonight here in Trenton. He'll play seven innings instead of five. On Sunday he will conduct a short workout and he says he will be in Chicago with the New York Yankees when they play the White Sox on Monday night.
Major League Baseball is expected to deliver its announcement sometime Monday. There are several reports indicating they're going to give a deadline to the players they're going to suspend on Sunday, and then on Monday they'll make a blanket announcement having two lists -- one of the players that are going to accept the suspension and the other of the players that are going to appeal the suspension. Of course, Alex Rodriguez is an entirely different situation, guys.
KEILAR: Big day on Monday, Joe Carter. We will be waiting. Thank you for that.
BLACKWELL: Let's take a look at money news now. "The New York Times" is selling "The Boston Globe" to the owner of the Boston Red Sox. "The Times," Listen to these numbers, taking a huge loss on the sale. It bought the paper in 1993 for more than $1 billion but it sold it for just $70 million. KEILAR: Not so good at all.
Coming up, a pain reliever you probably have in your medicine cabinet. I know I have it in mine.
BLACKWELL: Me too.
KEILAR: It is prompting new warnings about dangerous side effects. And you know that stomach bug that sickened hundreds across the country, we now know the source.
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KEILAR: A very good morning to you, 10:22 in the east. Picture here of Washington and the Washington monument with all that scaffolding on it. Pretty shot of the mall. It looks like it's going to be a beautiful day this first Saturday of August.
BLACKWELL: A new warning about a very popular drug. The Food and Drug Administration says acetaminophen, the main ingredient in Tylenol, can cause a potentially fatal skin reactions in rare cases. Now the FDA says more than 100 cases have been documented since 1969, including a dozen deaths. The reaction includes flu like symptoms, a rash or blistering on the skin. Even so, the agency says the potential benefits of acetaminophen still outweigh the risks.
KEILAR: Hundreds sickened in more than a dozen states. Now the FDA confirms it was bagged lettuce from Mexico that made diners at two chain restaurants sick. But the CEO of Taylor Farms tells CNN that all tests for at his company's Mexico plant have come back negative. Meantime, the owner of Olive Garden and Red Lobster says the tainted food is no longer in its supply chain. CNN Chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has this report.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, we're getting some new information on what has caused the illness in at least 400 people in 16 states. As you remember, we've been talking about prepackaged, prewashed lettuce. That was a concern in Iowa. But we're now hearing specifically and directly from the FDA about produce that has come from Taylor Farms of Mexico going to the states of Iowa and Nebraska and specifically being eaten in two restaurants, which are Olive Garden and Red Lobster.
Now, the FDA was able to actually look at four groups of people, four clusters of people who got sick and figured out that they had eaten at these restaurants and figured out that they had specifically eaten produce that was infected with this parasite from Taylor Farms of Mexico.
One thing I will mention. You may have heard of Taylor farms before because earlier in year in February they were part of a nationwide recall on baby spinach. That was Taylor Farms of Salinas, California location. But this is the second time this year Taylor Farms has been implicated. FDA is saying they're monitoring all leafy greens coming in from Mexico and conducting an environmental inspection down at the Taylor Farms of Mexico location. As we get more information, Brianna, we'll bring it to you. Back to you for now.
KEILAR: All right, Sanjay, thanks for that.
BLACKWELL: The FDA is issuing new guidelines defining exactly what gluten-free means on food labels. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. Hundreds of new rules -- food that says if gluten- free must have fewer than 20 parts per million of gluten. And that's meant to help the millions of people who have celiac disease. They can suffer severe health problems if they eat gluten.
KEILAR: It is a sweeping step, almost two dozen U.S. embassies and consulates are shutting down. We explore Al Qaeda's latest threat.
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KEILAR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Brianna Keilar.
BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Here are five things we're watching this morning.
Number one, 22 American embassies and consulates are getting ready to close for Sunday and perhaps longer. That's because intelligence agents have picked up new threats in Al Qaeda chatter. The diplomatic posts stretch across North Africa, the Middle East, and into South Asia.
KEILAR: And the State Department has issued a worldwide travel alert, especially if you're traveling to any of those areas shown here on this map. The warning says that Al Qaeda may be planning to attack any time between now and the end of the August. American tourists are encouraged to be cautious, especially around typical terrorist targets like subways and buses.
BLACKWELL: Some pretty big baseball news here at number three. Alex Rodriguez says he'll be back with the Yankees this Monday despite reports of a lifetime ban or suspension from the game of baseball looming over his head stemming from alleged steroid use. The controversial slugger sounded confident in a press conference last night that he'll suit up in pinstripes again this season.
KEILAR: And at number four, a federal grand jury wants to know if the government's largest security background check firm rushed its review of NSA leaker Edward Snowden. This is according to a report by "The Wall Street Journal." It says that federal prosecutors and the FBI are looking into whether the firm U.S. Investigation Services cut corners in clearing Snowden.
BLACKWELL: Number five, Ariel Castro has been moved from a Cleveland jail to a maximum security prison in Grafton, Ohio. He'll be kept in isolation at least for new. A judge sentenced Castro to life plus 1,000 years Thursday. He held three women as prisoners in his home for almost a decade.
KEILAR: We have been following news all morning of a possible Al Qaeda plot. U.S. officials focusing specifically on Yemen. The threat against westerners there is so serious that Britain is telling all of its citizen not to travel to Yemen and leave the country immediately.
BLACKWELL: U.S. officials are warning an attack could happen at any time in the coming weeks from the coast of Africa all the way out to Bangladesh. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is in Beirut, Lebanon, where the U.S. embassy will not be closed on Sunday. Nick, Sunday is a holy day on the Muslim calendar. What is the mood in the Middle East right now?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly there's concern amongst American expats obviously because of these threats. The embassy isn't closed Sunday -- sorry, it is always closed Sunday, so it won't be obviously opening for any particular reason. That reflects the specific timing of this threat in many ways. And it will be open again on Monday as per normal.
You also referenced the particular day of Sunday in the Muslim calendar. That's toward the end of Ramadan known as the Night of Power in which many Muslims believe the prophet Mohammed was given the text of the Koran. There is some suggestion there may be extra fervor to attack on that day. But most people living in the country have their mind on other issues. The violence swirling next deer in Syria where 100,000 have died, merging in sectarian violence in Iraq, and Egypt in crisis, too. So while these threats are very serious for Americans, it's not capturing the popular consciousness in the region. Victor?
BLACKWELL: What about this message from Ayman al Zawahiri, Al Qaeda's leader, accusing the U.S. of toppling Egypt's president? What impact, if any, does that have?
WALSH: I have to say I think it would be slim on Egypt's current struggle. That's somewhat divorced from the fight Al Qaeda has had. The Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, while affiliations have been there in the past, are very much more trying to protect more moderate ground when they took power there and subsequently had their leader Mohamed Morsy deposed.
Zawahiri's statement talked about how there was a conspiracy between Americans and then Mubarak's thugs, referring to the previous Egyptian president who left power in 2011. So his message very much trying to ferment those small elements of radical Islamists that are in Egyptian society. Is it really going to have an impact on what's happening on the streets? Well, no, that's unlikely, because that's a much broader fight for Egypt's identity between those who see it being a secular country and those Muslim Brotherhood affiliates who want to see a much more Islamist future, more Islamic faith becoming part of the constitution.
So Zawahiri's time many feel perhaps has passed, and the Islamic world now looking at so many more different crises that, in fact, Al Qaeda certainly it's desire to attack the west in that old form that bin Laden used to head up, sort of taking more of a backseat now, Victor.
KEILAR: Nick Paton Walsh for us in Beirut. Thank you.
BLACKWELL: Just ahead, a violent crackdown on gays in Russia has some people worried about the safety at the upcoming Olympic Games in Sochi and even discussing a boycott. We'll talk to one gay athlete who says nothing will make him give up his dreams of taking home a medal.
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BLACKWELL: Most of us remember Raven Simone as Olivia, the youngest member of the Cosby family. But she's all grown up and has some big news, suggesting that she's gay in a tweet last night. Now, she didn't come out and say it, but here is the tweet, "I can finally get married. Yes, government, so proud of you."
KEILAR: Two of those governments she may be talking about belong to Minnesota and Rhode Island. Both of those states began granting same- sex marriages this week. Hundreds turned out for midnight ceremonies across both states, and in Minneapolis the mayor wed 42 couples on the steps of city hall at midnight on Thursday.
Now, holding hands, kissing, waving the rainbow flag, any of those could get gays and lesbians and their supporters sent to jail in Russia. That presents a dilemma, as you can imagine, for Olympic athletes in Russia for the 2014 winter games.
BLACKWELL: Russia has told the International Olympic Committee all athletes are welcome, but it's unclear whether the law will be enforced. Blake Skjellerup is a speed skater planning to compete at Sochi. He joins us from Vancouver. Johnny Weir is a three-time U.S. national figure skating champion and he joins us from New York. Gentlemen, it's good to have both of you.
JOHNNY WEIR, OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATER: Good morning.
BLAKE SKJELLERUP, OLYMPIC SPEED SKATER: Good morning.
BLACKWELL: So here is my question. There have been talks of a boycott. We'll start with you, Blake. Boycott or not?
SKJELLERUP: Definitely not. I think visibility is going to be the greatest key to bring about an awareness to the situation and to hopefully bring about a change.
BLACKWELL: How about you, Johnny?
WEIR: I think a boycott is the worst possible thing we could do. I think our presence will help more than a boycott absolutely would. Our absence would create more of an issue for the LGBT community in Russia than our presence and our performance and just our support of being there for them.
KEILAR: Do you plan, I'm wondering, as gay athletes, to make any sort of statement about your sexuality to sort of, I guess, make a statement and maybe pressure Russia in obviously a law you very much disagree with. Johnny?
WEIR: Well, for me my sheer presence is already propaganda. First of all, I'm a figure skater. We wear very elaborate, crazy costumes, which has been alluded to in Elton John's case in Russia as of late as being propaganda. And I'm married to a Russian-American man. I'm a figure skater. I'm very well-known in Russia. So just my sheer presence is a big statement going against this anti-propaganda law.
KEILAR: Blake, what about you?
SKJELLERUP: Yes, I guess I would agree with Johnny on that one. I'm out, and I'm just myself, and there's a lot of ambiguity with this law. And I guess if just being yourself is going to get you arrested, then I guess that's a statement in itself.
BLACKWELL: So when you say going there and being yourself is a statement in itself, do you believe that you will challenge that law in any way? Will you go there with anything, a rainbow flag? Will you attend something to show that you are there in solidarity with gay Russians?
WEIR: Well, I guess I'll take that first. My fans have made it very clear to their friends and family members that are of the gay community in Russia that I support them. I have spoken with many LGBT groups in Russia over the years, and luckily I have the skill of Russian language, so I'm able to connect to people in a very real way. And I stand in solidarity with my brothers and sisters in Russia. I will perform for them. I will do my best for them. I will be as strong as possible.
I actually was invited to go to Russia in October, and should I be arrested, I will do it with my chin held high because I was myself 100 percent. And if in some way I can help the community there just by being there and performing and not being afraid, I think it's the best statement I can make.
KEILAR: Now, I want you guys to listen to University of Michigan rowing coach, this is Charlie Sullivan. He is openly gay, and I will get your reaction on the other side.
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CHARLIE SULLIVAN, ROWING COACH, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: If you're an athlete and you're going to compete in the Olympic games in a space where there is widespread persecution going on, you have some responsibility to say something. If you say nothing in that space, whether you want to say anything or not, you've actually supported the status quo.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: So, Blake, what do you say to that because as you and Johnny say participating is enough. He says you have to do more.
SKJELLERUP: I think we are doing more. I personally believe in the Olympic movement. It's been very important to me in my life. And I think that just having the Olympics in Sochi, the Olympic values can be championed not only by myself but the entire athletes and the coaches and everybody there. I think that is what's going to help. The Olympics have great power, and I think that power can be used in Russia in 2014. BLACKWELL: I have got to go back to that. If I can go back to Blake, I think what Brianna was getting to, that you have to do something, you have to say something. You can't just be there. I'm thinking about 1968, Mexico City, when those two athletes held their fists in the air, they didn't say much, they held up their fists. There was something there. Do you plan to go and compete and let that be the statement or do you believe there's a responsibility, are you conflicted at all? Let's go to Johnny with that.
WEIR: Well, for me personally, I am a very out and proud gay person, and just speaking about Russia in particular, as soon as I was married, it was front page news on all of their newspapers and people thinking like, oh, there were so many funny conspiracy theory that is my husband was marrying me for a green card even though he's American, and all of these crazy stories, and Russia was really gossiping about it.
And my position on being gay and being born gay is simply that I don't have to make myself different, I already am. The thing I need to do is live normally and show people being gay is absolutely a normal thing. It's not something that should be jeered at in any way. So for me to wave a rainbow flag goes against my principles. If I want to be accepted as Johnny Weir, I have to act as Johnny Weir. I'm not a political leader. I'm not, in my own sense of the work, a propagandist. I'm somebody that lives their life and that lives it openly and proudly.
And for me to go on a medal stand and wave a rainbow flag, while it would be a beautiful moment for the LGBT community around the world, it's not in my own personal principles to do that. The Olympics are a peacetime. The Olympics are about sport and excellence. The Olympics aren't about politics.
KEILAR: And certainly, though, I think we'll see a little bit of that as it comes into the Olympics. Johnny and Blake, we will be watching, and certainly good luck to both of you as you try to qualify for the Olympics. We do wish you the best of luck.
WEIR: Thank you so much.
SKJELLERUP: Thank you.
BLACKWELL: All right, coming up at 3:00 on CNN Newsroom, Fredricka Whitfield asks Olympic gold medalists Greg Louganis his thoughts on Russia's new law and the Sochi Olympics. And I think there are a lot of people who are on either side of this line. Do you go and say or do something, or do you go and say I am here and that is the statement?
Aaron Hernandez has been answering fan mail from behind bars. We'll tell what you the former NFL star told a fan about the first-degree murder charge against him.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KEILAR: More than 9,000 prisoners may soon be heading out of state prisons in California. The Supreme Court has declined to block a court order that California Governor Jerry Brown set the inmates free by the end of the year. A three-judge panel has found the state's prisons are dangerously overcrowded and it says that Brown must bring the number of inmates down. He may still appeal that though.
BLACKWELL: From behind bars fallen NFL star Aaron Hernandez is declaring his innocence in writing. In a letter to a fan, the former New England Patriot's tight-end says he's not guilty of murder. The gossip site TMZ published that letter. Hernandez doesn't pull any punches, writing that when he's exonerated, quote, "all the people that turned on me will feel like crap."
Our Alina Cho is following the story from New York. Alina, how did this letter become public?
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's an incredible story, Victor. Basically, and if you could follow me, a fan who we are calling Carl wrote a letter to Hernandez about two weeks ago. He sent it to the Bristol County House of Corrections where he had been incarcerated and he wanted to show Hernandez support. He never dreamed Hernandez would write him back. According to TMZ that's exactly what happened.
Now how did it get into the public's hands? The fan apparently sold the letter to a sports memorabilia store in Massachusetts. That sports memorabilia store called Sports World in turn sold it to TMZ for $18,000.
But what's incredible is that if you look at the letter on the bottom left-hand attorney, Hernandez explicitly says "KEEP THIS OFF SOCIAL MEDIA PLEASE" in capital letters. So much for that.
Now, the letter is about a page long. Among the highlights, Hernandez says, quote, "I know everything happens for a reason, and I know god has a plan for me and something good will come out of this. The world just makes things out of false accusations, and it will all die down, especially when they say "not guilty."
Hernandez also signed the letter with his New England Patriots number 81 and he went on to say, "I can't wait to sign this again when I'm playing again." Of course, that doesn't seem likely, Victor and Brianna, at least for now. Hernandez remains in prison charged with murder in the June 17th death of his friend, Odin Lloyd.
BLACKWELL: Wow, $18,000.
KEILAR: That's crazy. And certainly, he puts it out there, Alina, and it ends up on social media. Not really a surprise. It's public.
CHO: You have to expect that.
KEILAR: When you don't know the person you're sending a letter to.
BLACKWELL: Alina Cho in New York for us. Thank you.
CHO: You bet.
KEILAR: Tim Gunn is the host of "Project Runway." He's smart, he's funny, he's a great dresser, of course. He's a catch. But did you know he's been single for over three decades, and he has no interest in changing that status. Stick around to find out why.
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KEILAR: You know Tim Gunn from his Emmy nominated role on TV's "Project Runway," challenging designers, you know it, to make it work.
BLACKWELL: Now he wants to do that for candidate Christine Quinn in a race for New York mayor. And while they both back the mayor, Gunn says he's more than happy being just with himself. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLACKWELL: Let's start with the news that you made about your endorsement of Christine Quinn for mayor of New York.
TIM GUNN, HOST, "PROJECT RUNWAY": She has an extraordinary vision for the city and simply wants it to continue to ascend and get better. When it comes down to it, the issues that the city faces are always going to be changing, so it's a matter of what qualities of character does the person leading the city possess to help make efficacious, viable, correct decisions.
BLACKWELL: And you've spoken about qualities of character and that's something that comes up with the conversation of Anthony Weiner and his run for mayor. Do you think that possibly is his Achilles' heel?
GUNN: Well, no doubt. I mean, if all issues aside if we're simply talking about qualities of character, I believe that there are some profound qualities missing in Mr. Weiner, and I as a citizen of this city would not trust his decision making.
Going back to Christine Quinn's candidacy for mayor of New York, first woman and first lesbian. How fabulous would that be? Because it just -- it just removes the stigma that's attached to so many of us.
BLACKWELL: In the marriage equality conversation, it's interesting we're having a conversation about marriage equality. You are happily single.
GUNN: I am! I am very happily single. It's not that I feel that there's no one good enough or I wouldn't want to share my life with anyone. It's not that at all. It's just that I'm very content being with me.
(LAUGHTER)
BLACKWELL: But I've read that you've been celibate for decades.
GUNN: I have.
BLACKWELL: For 30 years now? GUNN: It's 31.
BLACKWELL: And 31 years. Why?
GUNN: I'm not without feelings and emotions.
BLACKWELL: All right.
GUNN: There just isn't another person involved.
(LAUGHTER)
BLACKWELL: But this started for you in the early '80s.
GUNN: Yes.
BLACKWELL: At the height of the AIDS crisis.
GUNN: The partner I had for a long time declared to me when we split up and it all happened in a split second one night, he declared to me that he had been sleeping around for a number of years. And after I got over my just -- the deepest hurt I think I have ever felt, after I got over that hurt, I was furious. I was so angry. I thought he could have given me a death sentence.
BLACKWELL: So a portion of this was fear.
GUNN: Oh, absolutely. Oh, absolutely. I thought talk about throwing the dice.
BLACKWELL: You like being alone or you like being with yourself?
GUNN: I like being with myself, thank you very much for making the distinction, because there is a distinction. Yes, I like being with myself.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: What a candid interview.
BLACKWELL: Yes. He definitely came to share, 31 years. And after that we actually did some shopping. Tim put this together for me.
KEILAR: I like it. You're making it work with that.
BLACKWELL: I think so. He picked this out for me.
KEILAR: It's beautiful.
BLACKWELL: Thank you very much.
KEILAR: Good work, Victor.
A real life deep sea adventure. Fabian Cousteau, the grandson of the legendary diver Jacques Cousteau, is about to plunge into the darkness and live in an underwater lab for a remarkable 31 days. If all that couldn't sound cooler, his team will be cruising around the ocean floor on space age motorcycles -- I'm not kidding. And he spoke to our Chad Myers about the mission, where he'll live. This is all part of our new segment "The Science Behind."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a habitat about 43 feet long, nine feet wide, inside full of equipment and full of people, six people. It is -- you can get in and out of the habitat from down below in what we call the moon pool. But inside it is air, it's at pressure depth so to speak, so we will be saturation diving as opposed to diving from the surface.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: You can catch the full interview with Fabian Cousteau on Newsroom today at 3:00 p.m. eastern.
BLACKWELL: All right, that will do it for us today. Thank you for watching.
KEILAR: But stay right there because there's so much more ahead in the next hour of CNN Newsroom, and we turn it over now to our colleague Fredricka Whitfield.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Good to see you guys. You had a full morning. We have a very full afternoon. So we're going to pick up where you leave off. Have a great day and see you tomorrow morning.
