And more at 3 00 p. M. Eastern with Brooke Baldwin. Cnn newsroom continues right now with ashleigh banfield. Carol, thanks very much. Weve got big news to bring to you. An actual dramatic turn of events in algeria where americans are among those being held right now. Weve got reports that an algerian militant operations currently under way to free the hostages from a remote gas plant located in the eastern part of that country. The Algerian State News Agency says four hostages have been freed, two british, a french citizen and citizen from kenya. Minutes ago the irish governmented aed to that saying one of its nationals have been freed which brings the total to five being freed. We are getting very sketchy reporting out of this area that some of the hostages that were taken may have in fact been killed. Militants seen here in this web video seized dozens of hostages yesterday, including the americans, british, japanese, algerians among them as well. News reports in the region say they are demanding an end to the French Military operation in mali. Thats neighboring mali and also safe passage to neighboring libya. It is a very complex situation playing out in northern africa. Our Barbara Starr is covering the developments at the pentagon. So without getting into the int indicates of mali, give us an idea of what is happening in algeria, barbara. Well, u. S. Officials have told us for the last two days now the information is sketchy, as you just said. Right now the algerian operation, it is believed continues to be under way. Defense secretary leon panetta has said he believes there are as many as seven american hostages involved in this incident. It looks like the u. S. Government, the british, japanese, norwegians, basically, are letting this algerian operation play out. You have to, you know, really remember, this is sovereign algerian territory. Its something the algerians take very seriously. They havent asked, as far as we know, for any u. S. Help. They want to handle it. This is a classic hostage situation. The algerians have moved in, surrounded it, nobody in, nobody out, and they are going to make the attempt to deal with it. Thats the basic u. S. Understanding. But, you know, beyond that its very difficult to understand whats going on. One thing that has happened is the u. S. Has sent a satellite over the region. It has some satellite imagery of this area and we have just been told by a u. S. Official, an unarmed predator drone flying at a much lower altitude getting much better fidelity, detail on the site also has flown over the bp site trying to get a lay down of what it all looks like. Forgive me if im repeating something that youve already said. I was doing work specifically on the drone information. A lot of this information is coming in as were speaking, barbara. But unarmed. Very key that you said unarmed, clearly because you said this is sovereign territory. Do we know that there may not be any other drones that are not unarmed . Well, you know, this is really the key question. You know, the algerians, the u. S. View is that the algerians would have to grant permission for u. S. Troops, u. S. Military force to go in there. Because the u. S. Has a close can relationship with the algerian government and with the algerian military. They are not going to be able to just bust down the door. So thats not likely whats going to happen. But that doesnt mean that there arent some u. S. Special forces in the region, on stand by, ready to go if the algerians want them and president obama were to order them in. We already know there are marines nearby in spain and italy. They are not particularly geared to hostage rescue but they are trained in antiterrorism operations. If if it came down to it, there is this special forces unit for africa, called the commanders in extremist force. Its on stand by. It can move very, very quickly into the area. But this still at the moment, day 2, by all accounts, this appears to be an algerianled operation, ashleigh. Thats certainly the truth for now. Barbara, keep us updated on how things change as they continue to come into your office. Barbara starr, thank you. A senior u. S. Official in washington, a source for cnn, has been working feverishly and also to determine the fate of the hostages. Our Jill Dougherty is working the angle from the state department. Jill, its very specific when you say sovereign territory and the algerians are taking the lead on this. What is our relationship with algeria given what we went through with libya next door, how is this playing out . You know, its a very complex area, isnt it . Because libya to the east, algeria in the center, mali in the southwest. Very, very complex and very volatile because of these groups allied. Hillary clinton was there in october and talked about a potential situation with mali which we all know has become very volatile and you have the french who have gone in there which reportedly is why this operation, this kidnapping operation was taking place. The kidnappers said they were doing that in solidarity for their people in mali. They were angry, they said, that algeria was allowing french planes to overfly algeria and go into mali to carry out that operation. Now, whether thats true, i mean, it could be, or it could also have been, as some u. S. Officials are indicating, kind of a preplanned operation. After all, we understand that these people came in from libya into algeria. And the group, by the way, as we also know, is led by a man whos notorious for kidnapping, hes made millions of dollars, kidnapping, et cetera. The news that barbara brought to us just before i came to you, Jill Dougherty, a u. S. Drone, an unmanned drone has flown over this bp air field collecting intelligence information and the fate of the hostages as we await news on that. Keep us posted as well. Thank you, Jill Dougherty for us live. Of course, well bring you all of the latest news as it comes into us. Were monitoring this very, very carefully. [ male announcer ] dont just reject convention. Drown it out. Introducing the allnew 2013 lexus ls f sport. An entirely new pursuit. Introducing the allnew 2013 lexus ls f sport. Why take exercise so seriously,when it can be fun . Pushups or sprints . Whats wrong with fetch . Or chase . Lets do this larry ooh, i got it, i got it narrator the caloriesmart nutrition in beneful healthy weight. Includes grains and real chicken, because a healthy dog is a playful dog. Beneful healthy weight. Find us on facebook to help put more play in your day. Try capzasinhp. It penetrates deep to block pain signals for hours of relief. Capzasinhp. Take the pain out of arthritis. An amazing athlete with an historic backstory to match, adorned for his courage and now shamed by a ruinous lie. If you think im talking about Lance Armstrong, you have not been on the internet this morning. Im talking about manti teo. His legend arose not so much because of the devotion to the sport but maybe to his family and his devotion from a girlfriend who suffered from leukemia and who died just last september, just hours after the death of his grandmother and the bottom line is, we dont think there was a girlfriend and that there ever was a girlfriend. Notre dame say teo was the victim of a an elaborate, sophisticated hoax. But thats not the end of the story either. Some people are saying, maybe not so much. Cnn ted rowlands is up to his shoulder pads in intrigue. First of all, how did this hoax come to light . Give me basically the premer on all of this. Reporter well, it started to unravel with deadspin. Com got an anonymous tip and they started to look into this whole story and piece by piece it started to unravel and their investigation, all of the things that people had been led to believe about this person werent able to be verified. So they figured out that it was a hoax. They pushed the piece out last night online and it has created a firestorm. There are lots of questions to be answered here, ashleigh. Folks here at the university of notre dame are standing by. University of notre dame Athletic DirectorJack Swarbrick fought back tears. Hes convinced that teo is an elaborate hoax. People from around the world were touched with how in love he seemed to be with lennak kekua, a girl he called his soulmate. I never felt that way before. You know, the love of my life. Reporter on the day of his girlfriends supposed funeral, teo played football. After the game, notre dames football coach, brian kelly, actually awarded the game ball to the girl we now know does not exist. I award this game ball to lennay and id like man tie manti to take this ball back to hawaii. Reporter notre dame kept the truth under wraps despite the fact that the media was still telling the story. From the outset, we established a parameter that this was mantis story to tell. We wanted to know what would be told and at the at the appropriate time when it would be tell but it was his to tell. Reporter one of the reporters that broke the hoax story doesnt think teos story adds up. Teos story that hes completely innocent in this doesnt shake through with us. Reporter what is not clear, why didnt te ever mention that he had never met lennay and how they first met at a Football Game and if it wasnt true why didnt he correct it and how could he be so in love with someone he had never met. As manti tells the story, youll see the same thing that i saw, that it does fully line up. Reporter well, well see if it fully lines up. Sorry. Weve got a delay going. I apologize. But in interviews manti said several times that he met this girl in person, his father in his interview said that she went to hawaii to spend time with him. So what is he saying now about that part of the story . Reporter well, thats the crux of this. The details, because hes claiming that this was just an online relationship. Let me read a little bit of a statement that he did release. It says, but over an he can tended period of time i developed an emotional relationship with a woman i met online. We maintained what i thought to be an authentic relationship by communicating frequently online and on the phone and i grew to care deeply about her. What teo apparently told the Athletic Director here at notre dame during two separate meetings, one that lasted 2 1 2 hours, is that all of his communication was online and on the phone and that they talked every day on the phone but he had never met her, that there were a couple of meetings set up and she never showed up to those meetings. That, of course, begs more questions, why would he still call her the love of his life if shes stiffing him in meetings, particularly in hawaii and california. The bottom line, there are so many questions. Why did they wait through the championship buildup when they knew it was false . And then ted, if you could wrap it up, theres this really strange mystery of this now fictional but dead person tweeting again last night . What exactly is that . Reporter yes. Shes come back. Tweeted out that there will be more information coming at 10 00, i believe, 10 00 or noon pacific time. We havent heard anything yet. And from this twitter handle, who knows who is behind it. Deadspin says they will update their story online and were anticipating that manti teo will eventually speak to the press. Lets hope. Ted rowlands, very bizarre. Thank you for that. Manti teos headlines have not pushed Lance Armstrong completely out of the headlines. The International Olympic committee has made some statements. Theyd like armstrong to give back his medal from the sydney games. But, first, was he duped or did he lie which means we all got duped . Good person to ask a question to, famed sports attorney Lee Steinberg joining me from irvine, california. So glad youre here on this very strange story. Originally i wanted to talk to you all about Lance Armstrong and then this thing sort of fell out of the sky. Give me your reaction just off the bat to all of these strange developments. Well, on the manti teo story, it seems like theres something wrong with the narration that notre dame and teo had done. Here america was transfixed with this amazing notre dame player who became the love of this young man as life, who os ostensibly went and visited in hawaii and now we find out all these year later that there was no such person. The time frame does not add up because he was aware of this so early in december and never said a word about it until just now. The way in which the facts are being laid out seems almost like damage control as opposed to really facing up to whatever the truth was. And the problem is, in this environment, there are so many 24hour news cycles like cnn, like espn. There are so many investigative reporters. Theres the internet blogs, everyone in the world focuses and until you put an end to a story like that, whether its manti teo or Lance Armstrong, it continues to build and build and build and the damage was done because the name keeps getting repeated in the most negative way. Thats exactly what i want to get to, the damage. Because with regard to manti teo, everyone has said that this guy is remarkable and he had extraordinary prospects for the draft. Has this done any damage to his draft stock . Basically what the nfl cares about is the projection of how the player will play on the field over the next 10 to 11 years. Players have done much worst things that even if this turns out to be a teo hoax, they have done worst things and have gotten drafted. The problem is, if its a big, big character red flag, teams put down guaranteed signing bonuses and cannot lose cap money. Its a disaster if a rookie turns out to be someone that gets disqualified for any kind of off the field problems so it raises the proverbial red flag. Its not a help to him but probably worse how he plays on the field against alabama. Let me ask you this. You have been in this game for a very long time. People dont remember, youre the inspiration, as legend has it, for jerry maguire. Have things changed in the last 20, 30 years in terms of an athletes value, is it enough now to just be great at your sport, or do you need that love of a girlfriend, something extra to really make it these days . This is all about branding. And so we have a celebritymaking machine in this country and athletes then get put into it. So that even the most casual sports fan or someone who is not a sports fan will learn through a story like ta yeo or Lance Armstrong, they become known, branded, and that then leads to millions of dollars of endorsements and all sorts of opportunities. Right. The problem is, once that profile is raised and reached that way, then anything like this needs to be handled very carefully. You need to wrap your arms around the facts very quickly, put the complete story out there. And if youve done wrong, america loves the fall of the high and mighty but they also love the come back. Im glad you brought that up. The key i need to ask you about is that exact scenario when it comes to Lance Armstrong but i have to fit in a quick break. Can you stick around to the next block . Sure. Leigh steinberg, thank you. More in a moment. Lance armstrong could lose her bronze medal now. The International Olympic committee is now asking him to give it back. All of this on the same day as the big bear all interview. Leigh steinberg is spiking with me live from irvine, california. A fame nous agent. You yourself have had your struggles. Youve battled bankruptcy and alcoholism. Youre in the midst of your own comeback. You mentioned it right before the break, america loves to tear people down but then loves to see them build back up. My question to you is, do they like to see people like Lance Armstrong who have gone so far, not just cheating but forcing his cheating upon the rest of us and then destroying people who were trying to call him out on it . History shows that if an athlete will make a public statement, acknowledge the wrong that he has done, states that he understands the proper standard and makes it clear there will be no recurrence of that behavior, that if he then has athletic performance and positives that occur, that over time people forgive. If you would have believed that kobe bryant in the midst of rape accusations, three, four, five years later, people would hardly remember and hes doing all sorts of National Endorsements or ray lewis who had been part of a murder investigation, not really relating his own conduct but a very nasty story and, again, doing all sorts of national ads, the problem comes when a michael vick or a tiger woods keeps denying, denying, keeps parsing statements and keeps challenging the press and they keep digging and digging and it goes on and on and on. Lance has problems. Theres a big suit against the u. S. Postal service team for fraudulently collecting 11 million. Hes got his case, he wants to come back and be a try athlete. Hes got lifetime sanctions against him. Hes got to resolve that if hes ever going to be a functional athlete again. He has reportedly he somewhere around 125 million net worth. So he could ostensibly get through the litany of litigation that he could potentially face from any sort of confession that we might witness tonight but i want to you go further. How far is too far to come back . I mean, murder is one thing. O. J. Simpson never came back after being convicted in a civil court of being responsible for the death of his exwife. But how far is too far when youre lying and destroying other people to continue your lies . Can you really come back from that . I dont know. Michael miliken defrauded millions of people across the country and now is leading a very respectable life holding conferences with world leaders. I think that the key to it is, does he take steps to undo the wrong he did . And is he open with the american peop people . If he continues to try to parse and lawyer around, he needs to admit that he sinned, explain why he did it, explain why it wont happen again and talk about how anyone negatively affected is going to receive some healing and hes going to make amends. Leigh, its really great to talk to you. Congratulations on your recent acome accomplishments and the best for you to push forward with your life. Thanks. Thanks, ashleigh. Leigh steinberg joining us from california. So why is it that people cheat . Our own Brooke Baldwin is doing great work examining the psychology and Science Behind it and has a presentation for us at 3 00 p. M. T