Osama Bin Laden Doctor in Danger Inside, Outside Prison

The recently-jailed Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA track down Osama bin Laden is not only in danger inside prison, according to officials there, but now faces threats from the Taliban and another terrorist organization should they find him outside.

Dr. Shakil Afridi was sentenced last week to more than 30 years in prison -- a conviction that at the time was reportedly linked to his role in running a vaccination program for the CIA near bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The ploy was an attempt to collect DNA from bin Laden's relatives and verify the al Qaeda leader was indeed in the compound. Bin Laden was killed in a Navy SEAL raid on the compound May 2, 2011.
Days after Afridi's sentencing, however, the Pakistani court released charging documents that claimed he had not been convicted for helping the CIA, but for aiding a Pakistani terrorist organization called Lashkar-e-Islam. Afridi had allegedly given the group two million rupees, or $21,000, and provided medical care for militants.
But today Lashkar-e-Islam not only denied any links to "such a shameless man," but said that they would kill Afridi if given the chance. The money, a spokesperson told Agence France Presse, was a fine levied by the group against Afridi.
The Pakistani Taliban issued its own gruesome threat against Afridi, telling CNN today they would "cut him into pieces when we find him" for helping the U.S. kill bin Laden, their "hero."
Both threats came after a Pakistani intelligence agency reportedly issued a warning detailing the danger to Afridi coming from inside the Peshawar prison where "many" of the 3,000 inmates held negative sentiments towards him. Afridi was given personal armed guards, according to local media.
The doctor's brother, Jamil, told reporters earlier this week that Afridi is innocent and the trial was a "sham."
"This was a one-sided decision," said Jamil. "All allegations against him are false. He didn't do anything against the national interest."
Afridi's role in the CIA operation, first reported by The New York Times in July 2011, was publicly confirmed by U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in January when he told CBS News' "60 Minutes" he was "very concerned" for Afridi's well-being in Pakistan.
"This was an individual who in fact helped provide intelligence that was very helpful with regards to this operation," Panetta, who was head of the CIA at the time of the operation, said then. "He was not in any way treasonous towards Pakistan, he was not doing anything that would in any way undermine Pakistan... Pakistan and the United States have a common cause against terrorism."
After Afridi's conviction, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. would continue to pressure Pakistan to release Afridi, saying, "his treatment is unjust and unwarranted."
Last week the U.S. Senate moved to cut Pakistani aid by $33 million -- $1 million for every year of Afridi's sentence -- in response to his conviction.
"We call upon the Pakistani government to pardon and release Dr. Afridi immediately. At a time when the United States and Pakistan need more than ever to work constructively together, Dr. Afridi's continuing imprisonment and treatment as a criminal will only do further harm to U.S.-Pakistani relations, including diminishing Congress's willingness to provide financial assistance to Pakistan," Sen. John McCain (R.-Arizona) said then.

John Edwards Jurors Say 'Evidence Wasn't There' to Convict

In nine long days of deliberations, tension occasionally escalated in a North Carolina jury room as eight men and four women debated the guilt of John Edwards, who was on trial for allegedly using money from wealthy donors to cover up an affair and love child.

Together they acquitted Edwards, a two-time presidential candidate, of one count but found themselves hopelessly deadlocked on the other five campaign-finance charges.
Jurors talked publicly for the first time today on "Good Morning America" about the sometimes heated exchanges inside the jury room, as the days ticked by and the pressure mounted for 12 strangers to come to a unanimous consensus about the legal culpability of a man whose moral failings were on full display.
"Everybody's got their own beliefs based off what they saw and they stood their ground, they stood by their decision and I respect that," said juror Jonathan Nunn, a maintenance technician who voted "not guilty" on all six counts.
The panel could agree only on Count 3 of the indictment, which dealt specifically with checks written by wealthy heiress Rachel "Bunny" Mellon in 2008.
On every other count, the jury fought it out, the majority unable to sway a steadfast minority convinced of Edwards' guilt.
"Twelve people, trying to get them all to see eye to eye on the same level, that's going to be hard in any aspect," Nunn told "GMA."
Nunn said "there were a couple of times" where tension and tempers rose in the jury room, but the panel "tried to keep level-headed," knowing it was their duty to try and form a consensus.
Many of the jurors believed the government had not presented a strong enough case linking Edwards to the money his backers shelled out to support mistress Rielle Hunter and his love child, Frances Quinn.
"I just felt that he didn't receive any of the money so you can't really charge him for money that he got. He didn't even get the money so I just didn't think he was guilty," said Sheila Lockwood, a hospital telephone operator who voted to acquit on all charges.
"There wasn't enough [evidence] there," Lockwood said, adding that she did not believe the case should have ever come to a courtroom in Greensboro, N.C.
The jurors with whom ABC News spoke believed the prosecution had not made its case, but said there was a small group of holdouts convinced of Edwards' guilt.
"I felt like the evidence just wasn't there," said juror Theresa Fuller, a heat press operator. "It could have been more. It could have been a lot more than what it was."
Jurors told Federal Judge Catherine Eagles Thursday they were finished deliberating all six counts. The judge and other parties assumed that meant the panel had reached a verdict, but the courtroom was briefly thrown into confusion when it was revealed they had a verdict on just one count.
Eagles read the panel an Allen Charge, insisting they go back to work to try to reach a consensus. Less than an hour later, the jury came back and admitted they were deadlocked.
The judge declared a mistrial on the five outstanding charges, but Justice Department sources told ABC News Thursday a new trial was unlikely.
Edwards and his defense team were seen celebrating at a bar after the verdict had been read.
Immediately after the verdict, Edwards made a statement on the courthouse steps, speaking publically for the first time since the trial began.
"I did an awful, awful lot that was wrong," Edwards confessed. He said he had sinned by conducting an affair while his wife Elizabeth died of cancer and lied about it, but maintained he did nothing wrong criminally.
In the final days of deliberations, with little news coming from the jury room, media attention focused on four alternate jurors who began wearing color-coded outfits and one who appeared to be flirtatious with Edwards. "We sat in a room for eight hours," alternate Leah Peterson said. "We learned about everybody. We talked about wardrobe and it ended up we started wearing the same colors."
The four alternates wore matching yellow, green, black and purple outfits over four consecutive days.
Another alternate, Denise Speight, was spotted smiling at Edwards and the former was seen smiling back. Speight, however, denied there was any such flirtation.
"I thought it was just the most funny thing I've ever heard," she said. "Actually, I was giggling over, I think, the media reaction when we walked into the courtroom over our outfits and color. I had no intention of flirting with John Edwards and I don't think he had any intentions of blushing or flirting back with me."

May’s Jobs Report Disappoints Across the Board

Well, this is a bad employment report — across the board. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the economy created just 69,000 jobs in May -- the fewest in a year -- and the unemployment rate crept up to 8.2 percent.

A few takeaways:

Spring Slowdown. Once again, the jobs figures testify to a slowing of growth in the spring. But the gloomy data extend beyond the headline payroll jobs figure. The economy is growing and demand continues to rise. But that's not translating into more work or significantly higher wages. The average workweek for private sector sectors fell in May by .1 hours — i.e., six minutes. Manufacturing, which has been a pocket of strength, showed signs of weakness. The manufacturing workweek fell .3 hours to 40.5, and factory overtime fell sharply. Hourly earnings crept up a smidgen in May, and over the past year have risen just 1.7 percent.
Labor Force Rises. There's an odd wrinkle here. The unemployment rate is derived from the household survey, in which BLS calls people and asks them about their employment status. The rate is calculated by dividing the number of people estimated to be unemployed into the size of the labor force. When the labor force shrinks, the unemployment rate can fall even if the number of people who say they're working doesn't rise. But that's not what happened this month. In May, according to the BLS, the labor force actually grew by 635,000 — which means a lot of people who had been sitting on the sidelines jumped back in. The number of people employed, according to the Household survey, rose by 422,000 in the month.
The Conservative Recovery Continues. Europe isn't the only area where austerity and reduced government spending are impacting employment. Virtually every month for the past few years, the private sector has added jobs while the public sector (local, state and federal government) has cut jobs. That continued in May. The private sector added 82,000 payroll jobs in May while government cut 13,000 positions. Since February 2010, the private sector has added 4.27 million jobs, while the public sector has cut 1.028 million jobs since May 2010.
The Trend Isn't Your Friend. There was another way in which the May report reversed recent trends. Every month, when it reports the figures, BLS goes back and revises the figures it had reported for the prior two months. For much of this recovery, the trend has been for BLS to discover jobs that hadn't been originally reported and revise the prior months' totals higher. But not this month. In May, BLS revised the gains for the two previous months lower. March's figure, originally reported as a 120,000 gain, had been revised upward to 154,000 in April, was revised back down to 143,000. The April figure, originally reported as a gain of 115,000, was revised to a gain of only 77,000.
Labor Market Frustration Rising. Despite the general trend of more job openings and declining first-time unemployment claims, this report shows that the jobs market softened in May. In addition to reporting the headline unemployment rate, BLS publishes alternative measures of labor force frustration — e.g., rates that include workers who have given up, or who are working part-time but would prefer to work full-time. BLS compiles all such measures in the U-6. After falling for much of the past year, it rose in May — to 14.8 percent