US discussing giving Russia missile defense data

WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency says that the Obama administration has discussed declassifying key data on U.S. missile defense in order to provide it to Russia.

The administration has been exploring how to ease Russian concerns that the U.S. missile defense shield is aimed at countering Russia's nuclear arsenal.

Arms control advocates have suggested that revealing missile interceptor capabilities could provide a breakthrough on an issue that Russia says stands in the way of nuclear arms reductions. But doing so would provoke charges by Republicans that the administration is compromising national security to appease Moscow.

Under questioning by a Republican lawmaker Wednesday, Missile Defense Agency director Vice Adm. James Syring said that he has discussed declassifying data, including the speed of interceptors, with senior Defense Department officials.

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Defense: Public misinformed in alleged terror case

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The defense attorney for a man arrested in what the FBI has called a thwarted terror plot in western Minnesota said Wednesday that authorities have given the public some misinformation about his client, while a local police chief said authorities continue to keep an eye on the anti-government militia group founded by his family.

Buford Rogers, 24, of Montevideo appeared in U.S. District Court in St. Paul for a scheduled detention hearing Wednesday. But his attorney, Assistant Federal Defender Andrew Mohring, asked that the hearing be postponed so he could investigate the accusations.

Rogers is charged with one count of illegally possessing a firearm. He was arrested Friday after FBI agents from the domestic terrorism squad said they found a cache of explosives and weapons in his parents' mobile home in Montevideo.

The FBI said earlier this week that it stopped a terror attack that was in its planning stages, potentially saving the lives of several Montevideo residents.

"There has been a great deal of information and misinformation that has been released, and it should never have happened, and it should stop," Mohring said in court Wednesday. When asked after the hearing to elaborate on what the misinformation might be, he said rules prevented him from talking about the case.

An FBI spokesman and the Montevideo police chief declined to respond to Mohring's statement.

Rogers' father, Jeff Rogers, has said his son has done nothing wrong, and is being targeted because he is outspoken about his beliefs.

Rogers has not been charged with terror-related counts, and the motive behind the alleged plot and the potential target have not been publicly released. Police say he has militia ties, and he has made anti-government comments on social media.

Montevideo Police Chief Adam Christopher said Rogers and his family started a local anti-government militia group called the Black Snake Militia, which consists of family members and a few friends. Police believe the group is small, with a maximum of about six members.

Christopher said Rogers family members have been public about their anti-government beliefs: They regularly wear camouflage, have flown a flag upside-down at the mobile home as a sign of "distress," and a homemade sign reading B.S.M., for Black Snake Militia, sits near the door.

Examples of comments he posted to his Facebook page in 2011 say: "The war is here tsa agents are doing random cheeks and shooting people for no reson," or "together we can fight back they wont take me down with out a fight i hope that you wont go down easy eather."

Rogers' page features a military vehicle as his profile picture, and other pictures of him with weapons.

"I don't think they are hiding anything," Christopher said of the group. When asked if the Black Snake Militia is focused on any one issue within government, Christopher said the group seems to direct their sentiments toward all facets of government — from the United Nations, to FEMA, to the TSA.

Christopher said authorities have been looking into the group for the last couple of years, and they continue to keep an eye on them. He said until the events leading to the recent discovery of explosives, he's unaware of any prior threats the group has made.

According to a federal affidavit, authorities searched the mobile home in Montevideo and discovered Molotov cocktails, suspected pipe bombs and firearms. The affidavit said Buford was there at the time, and one firearm recovered from the residence was a Romanian AKM assault rifle.

In an interview with authorities, Rogers admitted firing the weapon on two separate occasions at a gun range, the affidavit said. Rogers has a 2011 conviction for felony burglary and is not allowed to have a firearm.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Kovats was not opposed to postponing Rogers' detention hearing, and said in court that his office is aware of, and abiding by, rules prohibiting pretrial release of information.

U.S. Magistrate Jeanne Graham postponed the hearing, and said if a motion for a gag order was brought before her, she would consider it.

Rogers will remain in custody until the formal detention hearing. A status conference to see if it needs to be postponed further will be held May 17. He also waived his right to a preliminary hearing on Wednesday, and Graham found there was probable cause for the case to go forward.

Montevideo, a city of about 5,000 people, is about 130 miles west of Minneapolis.

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Israeli attack exposes Assad's air defense weakness: rebels

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

AMMAN (Reuters) - It was too late when air raid sirens wailed at one of Syria's most fortified military compounds. Israeli jets were already attacking the Hameh complex and civilian employees in nearby housing were scrambling for cover with their families.

Around Damascus the warplanes staged a series of raids in the early hours of Sunday including on President Bashar al-Assad's air defenses, opposition and rebel sources said. But none had more devastating results than at Hameh, a high-walled site linked to his chemical and biological weapons program.

"Families ran to basements and stayed there," said one witness of the attack on Hameh that lit up the night sky and shook the ground kilometers (miles) away. "We heard ambulances. There were very few workers at the compound at that time but an attack of this scale must have killed a lot of soldiers among the guards and patrols."

The raids have raised fears that Israel could be drawn into Syria's civil war, in which the United Nations says 70,000 people have died since an uprising against Assad family rule began two years ago. Damascus has accused Israel of effectively helping what it calls al Qaeda Islamist terrorists.

Western intelligence sources said the attacks were designed to prevent Syria sending Iranian-supplied missiles to the Shi'ite Hezbollah group in neighboring Lebanon for possible use against Israel. An Israeli general played down the consequences on Monday, saying: "There are no winds of war".

The witness said windows were blown out in workers' flats several hundred meters (yards) from Hameh's perimeter, even though the centre of the blasts was further away on the huge site, which is surrounded by air defenses.

Opposition sources said the warplanes also hit facilities manned by Assad's Republican Guards on Mount Qasioun, which overlooks central Damascus, and the nearby Barada River basin.

The area is believed to be a supply route to Hezbollah, according to residents, activists and opposition military sources. Their statements could not be verified due to restrictions on media operating in Syria.

RIGHT ON TARGET

One rebel commander said Assad's forces have been fortifying their positions on Qasioun since the uprising began in March 2011. "The Israelis still managed to get to the weapons stores. The secondary explosions indicate that they were right on target," he said, adding that Syrian air defenses, already weakened by the civil war "could not do anything".

Other opposition sources also said the targets included air defenses comprising Russian-made surface to air missiles and heavy anti-aircraft guns, deployed on Qasioun and overlooking the rebellious Damascus district of Barzeh.

"The destruction appeared to be massive. We have heard that the army has asked rank and file personnel based in Qasioun and those on leave to stay away. The military usually does this sort of thing when there is a big mess to sort out," said one activist in Damascus, who did not want to be named.

Assad's forces have fired on rebels from Qasioun, which is largely a closed military zone apart from a strip of restaurants, flattening areas of Damascus below.

However, it was unclear whether Israel was effectively helping the rebels by raiding the Qasioun sites, as Damascus has said, or attacked the air defenses purely to safeguard its own operations against Iranian-supplied missiles.

The Syrian government has said that Israel raided three military sites. Several media published what they described as a photo supplied by the official Syrian news agency showing a huge pile of collapsed concrete at a flattened building in an unspecified site they said was targeted by the Israelis. Reuters could not verify the photo.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, a strong opponent of Assad, said on Tuesday the Israeli air strikes had given the Syrian government an opportunity to cover up its own killings.

"The air strike Israel carried out on Damascus is completely unacceptable. There is no rationale, no pretext that can excuse this operation," Erdogan told parliament in Ankara.

Opposition sources familiar with the Hameh site said a large section of the compound housing missile systems appeared to have been hit. Mobile missile launchers, part of a Russian-supplied SA-17 air defense system deployed elsewhere on Qasioun, also appear to have been destroyed, they said

Western intelligence agencies suspect work on chemical weapons has been conducted at Hameh. Assad's government and the rebels have accused each other of carrying out three chemical weapons attacks, one near Aleppo and another near Damascus in March, and another near Homs in December.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition monitoring group based in Britain, said at least 42 Syrian soldiers were killed and 100 others are missing.

Other opposition sources put the death toll at 300 soldiers, mostly belonging to the Republican Guards, an elite unit that forms the last line of defense for Damascus and comprises mainly members of Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that has controlled Syria since the 1960s.

Although casualties among Assad's troops appeared to be high, opposition sources said the raids were mainly targeted on storage facilities. "Whatever they hit, there is little chance that anything was left intact," another source in Damascus said.

(editing by David Stamp)

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Defense: Wisconsin dad who killed girls was insane

Apr 15 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $4,139,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $3,137,920 3. Matt Kuchar $2,442,389 4. Adam Scott (Australia) $2,100,469 5. Steve Stricker $1,935,340 6. Phil Mickelson $1,764,680 7. Dustin Johnson $1,748,907 8. Jason Day $1,659,565 9. Hunter Mahan $1,553,965 10. Keegan Bradley $1,430,347 11. Charles Howell III $1,393,806 12. John Merrick $1,375,757 13. Russell Henley $1,331,434 14. Michael Thompson $1,310,709 15. Kevin Streelman $1,310,343 16. Bill Haas $1,271,553 17. Billy Horschel $1,254,224 18. ...

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Defense Dept. employee arrested on bribery charges

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- A Department of Defense employee who oversaw construction contracts at Camp Pendleton used his position to extort bribes from businesses seeking to work on the California Marine Corps base, federal prosecutors said Monday.

Natividad Lara Cervantes was arrested Thursday after authorities say he accepted $10,000 of a $40,000 bribe offered by a witness working with federal agents, said Daphne Hearn, the special agent in charge of the FBI's San Diego office.

Cervantes believed he was receiving the money in exchange for helping the witness secure a $4 million flooring contract, according to a federal complaint.

Prosecutors say Cervantes referred to himself as the "Godfather at Camp Pendleton," and, dating back to September 2008, he accepted thousands of dollars in cash payments and remodeling work on his condominium in exchange for helping contractors get business on the Marine Corps base north of San Diego.

Cervantes is a Department of Defense employee and a supervisor for construction and service contracts at Camp Pendleton.

Neither Cervantes nor his lawyer could be reached for comment.

According to the complaint, the witness working with the FBI met with Cervantes on March 26 and agreed to pay the $40,000 bribe. The first payment of $20,000 was to be paid Thursday, and the remainder was to be paid when the contract was awarded, prosecutors say. The meeting was monitored by federal agents.

Cervantes was arrested at a business in San Diego after the witness met him there to discuss the bribe payments and handed him an envelope containing $10,000, according to the complaint.

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U.S., Russia aim to reconvene stalled missile defense talks

MOSCOW/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russian and U.S. defense chiefs signaled on Monday their intention to reconvene long-stalled missile defense talks, the Pentagon said, following a change in U.S. missile defense plans for Europe that has been met cautiously by Moscow.

There have been no meetings at the deputy minister-level since 2011, when six were held, a U.S. defense official told Reuters. Talks set for 2012 were canceled because of scheduling conflicts, he said.

The Pentagon said Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu expressed a desire to reconvene the talks, and that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel assured him they would continue and would be carried forward by the Pentagon's policy chief, Jim Miller.

"We are very interested in further developments on the European missile defense and our minister offered to restart regular consultations on that between deputy ministers," Anatoly Antonov, a deputy of Shoigu, was quoted as saying by Russian news agency RIA.

The news came after a March 16 announcement that the United States would station 14 new anti-missile interceptors in Alaska in response to North Korean provocations, but at the same time forgo a new type of interceptor that would have been deployed in Europe.

Cold War-era foes Moscow and Washington have long been at loggerheads over the shield in Europe. President Barack Obama's move in 2009 to scale down earlier, Bush-administration plans only offered a short-lived respite. Russia's main concern is that the European shield would weaken its nuclear deterrent.

Russia's point man for U.S. relations, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, said on March 21 that the Obama administration's planned changes brought a new element to the issue.

He called for further dialogue, noting Moscow still had concern that U.S. missile defenses could threaten its security.

U.S. Admiral James Stavridis, NATO supreme allied commander Europe, noted Russia's concerns in an article published on NATO's website on Monday but said: "We strongly disagree."

"And (we) feel that the system is clearly designed to protect populations against Iran, Syria and other ballistic-missile capable nations that threaten the European continent," Stavridis wrote.

(Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska in Moscow and Phil Stewart in Washington; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Xavier Briand)

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Pentagon urged to stop stalling, start planning defense cuts

By David Alexander

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon needs to stop stalling and start figuring out how to cut its budget by $50 billion annually for the foreseeable future in a way that preserves national security, defense analysts from across the political spectrum said on Thursday.

Warning that the department appeared to be clinging to the hope that Congress and the White House would eventually reverse the cuts, the analysts said the Pentagon needed to focus on factors that drive long-term cost growth, including overhead, compensation and acquisition.

"We are not getting the bang for the buck for the dollars we should in the Pentagon," said retired Marine Corps Major General Arnold Punaro, who led a task force that reviewed Pentagon overhead costs for then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates in 2010.

"If we don't make some fundamental changes ... in about 15 years, we will not have the strongest military ... because these three ticking time bombs are eating away at the core of our defense capability," he told a round-table at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

The Pentagon is scrambling to reduce spending by $46 billion this fiscal year after a law requiring $500 billion in defense spending cuts over the next decade took effect on March 1. The cuts came as the department was implementing a $487 billion cut over the same period that went into force last year.

The Pentagon's 2013 budget has also been under stress because of Congress' failure to appropriate funds for the government this year.

Congress alleviated some of those issues on Thursday when it approved funding for the government for the rest of the year. But it left in place the budget cuts required under the automatic reductions, known as sequestration.

The Pentagon welcomed the measure and postponed for two weeks a decision on how many of the nearly 800,000 civilian defense employees would have to be placed on unpaid leave for as many as 22 days during the rest of the fiscal year.

'DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE'

The 2014 budget proposal the Pentagon sent to the White House last month did not include the $50 billion in automatic cuts scheduled for that year and the Defense Department has not been asked for revised figures, officials said.

The White House posted a plan on its website this week that seeks to avert the automatic cuts through budget cuts and revenue increases. The White House plan would replace the $500 billion of defense cuts over the next decade with a $100 billion cut, to be implemented over five years beginning in 2019.

The defense analysts expressed skepticism about the plan, which likely faces stiff resistance from Republicans who have vowed to oppose more tax increases.

"That's a scenario that doesn't make any sense at all except in la-la land because those aren't real cuts," said Gordon Adams, an analyst with the Stimson Center who worked on defense budgets while at the White House during the Clinton presidency.

Todd Harrison, a defense budget analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said the White House and Defense Department approach to the budget cut was to "deny it, put it off, assume it's going to go away at some point."

"The reality is they need to start planning for this staying in effect, and even if they start right now it's a little too late," he said, noting the department would have to begin laying off personnel next year when more cuts go into effect.

Mackenzie Eaglen, a defense analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, urged the Pentagon to tackle the tough issues of compensation, overhead and base closures, some of the thorniest issues politically but factors that have been driving up defense costs for years.

Punaro said the cost of the Defense Department's "massive and inefficient overhead," at $218 billion a year, was greater than the economy of the entire state of Israel.

"If you just look at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the combatant commands and the defense agencies ... there's over 250,000 people, $116 billion a year," he said.

"There's not a trigger-puller in that lot. There's nobody with a sharp bayonet in that group," said Punaro, adding that of the top 12 defense contractors, half were agencies of the Pentagon.

(Editing by Peter Cooney)

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Arias defense works to restore expert credibility

PHOENIX (AP) — Jodi Arias' defense attorney worked Wednesday to undo any damage to the credibility of an expert witness who diagnosed the defendant with post-traumatic stress disorder and amnesia after a withering cross-examination that called into question his techniques and testing procedures.

Psychologist Richard Samuels testified for a fourth day Wednesday after telling jurors he diagnosed Arias with PTSD and dissociative amnesia, which explains why she can't remember much from the day she killed her lover. Samuels said he met with Arias a dozen times for more than 30 hours over three years while she was jailed.

Prosecutor Juan Martinez previously seized on multiple lies Arias told Samuels throughout the process of his evaluation, at one point getting the psychologist to acknowledge that he should have re-administered at least one test he used to come to his PTSD diagnosis. Martinez questioned how Samuels could have come to any definitive conclusion for a diagnosis based upon Arias' lies.

Samuels insisted his diagnosis was accurate.

"The process of forming a diagnosis is not a simple process," Samuels testified Wednesday. "The fact is that it's necessary to obtain information from as many different sources as you can."

Arias faces a possible death sentence if convicted of first-degree murder in the June 2008 killing of Travis Alexander in his suburban Phoenix home. Authorities say she planned the attack in a jealous rage. Arias initially told authorities she had nothing to do with it then blamed it on masked intruders. Two years after her arrest, she said it was self-defense.

Defense attorney Jennifer Willmott spent much of Wednesday questioning Samuels about his testing procedures. When Samuels initially began his evaluation of Arias, she was sticking to the intruder story.

Willmott went over each question and Arias' answers with Samuels.

"Did she think her life was in danger?" Willmott asked.

"Yes," Samuels replied.

"Did she feel helpless?" Willmott asked.

"Yes," Samuels said, explaining later that his diagnosis would have remained unchanged whether Arias was responding to the questions still telling the intruder story or claiming self-defense.

"If the answers remained yes before and yes after, would it have changed the score at all?" Willmott asked.

"No," Samuels said.

He said Arias also answered "no" to a question about whether she was having nightmares.

"This is a score where you could exaggerate if your intent was to skew the score in your favor," Samuels said.

He said the PTSD test was merely one tool used to come to his diagnosis.

"I based the information primarily on my interviews, the crime scene photographs and descriptions, interviews with family members, police reports, emails, text messages and the psychological tests," Samuels said.

Martinez had also questioned Samuels' credibility, accusing him of blurring the line between objective observer and therapist when he bought Arias a self-help book about building self-esteem.

Samuels denied the accusation.

"Is there ever blurring of the lines between evaluator and therapist?" Willmott asked Wednesday.

"There should not be," Samuels replied, explaining that sending Arias the book is not considered therapy.

Trial adjourned early on Wednesday after a woman in the gallery vomited.

Samuels was set to return to the witness stand Thursday to answer questions from jurors that will be read aloud by the judge. Arizona is one of a few states where jurors have the right to query witnesses. In most other states, it's up to the judge to determine whether to allow it.

Alexander suffered nearly 30 knife wounds, was shot in the head and had his throat slit before Arias dragged his body into his shower.

Arias spent 18 days on the witness stand during which she described an abusive childhood, cheating boyfriends, dead-end jobs, a shocking sexual relationship with Alexander, and her contention that he had grown physically abusive in the months leading to his death.

She said she recalls Alexander attacking her in a fury. Arias said she ran into his closet to retrieve a gun he kept on a shelf and fired in self-defense but has no memory of stabbing him.

She has acknowledged trying to clean the scene of the killing, dumping the gun in the desert and working on an alibi in an attempt to avoid suspicion. She said she was too scared and ashamed to tell the truth.

None of Arias' allegations of Alexander's violence, that he owned a gun and had sexual desires for boys, has been corroborated by witnesses or evidence. She has acknowledged lying repeatedly but insists she is telling the truth now.

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Defense chief orders strategy review in response to budget cuts

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has directed senior Pentagon officials to re-examine the military strategy approved last year to see how priorities may have to be adjusted due to budget cuts that took effect on March 1, U.S. officials said.

The two-month review will define the major strategic choices and international challenges facing the military in the coming decade and will provide the framework for the 2015 fiscal year defense budget, according to a memo from Hagel obtained by Reuters on Monday.

The review also will provide the foundation for the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review, which is due in February 2014. The congressionally mandated review assesses long-term threats and challenges facing the military and rebalances U.S. strategies and forces to meet them.

A senior Pentagon official said the review ordered by Hagel was not a "fresh start toward a new strategy," but would flow directly from the strategic guidance approved by President Barack Obama last year, which calls for a shift in emphasis to the Asia-Pacific region.

"The department hopes never to have to work toward the contingencies this review might identify," the official said. If the budget cuts, under a process known as sequestration, are lifted, "those contingencies are likely to go away," the official said.

(Reporting By David Alexander; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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Defense questions FBI agent in NY cannibal plot

NEW YORK (AP) — A defense attorney for a police officer accused in a cannibalism plot pressed an FBI agent to explain where fantasy ends and reality begins Wednesday after the investigator read aloud several dozen Internet chats in which participants boasted of plans to cook and eat human flesh.

Attorney Robert Baum attacked FBI agent Corey Walsh's statement that 40 of the thousands of Internet communications of Officer Gilberto Valle that he reviewed contained "elements of real crimes." Valle is accused in Manhattan federal court of conspiring to kidnap, kill and eat women he knew, including his wife.

Baum's cross examination aimed to show little or no distinction existed between chats or emails the FBI deemed real evidence of a crime and those dismissed as fantasy.

The agent conceded both had similar elements: Valle discussing how to cook women, how much it would cost to abduct them and which women would make good targets.

Walsh conceded that some chats or emails considered fantasies contained photographs and names of real women and dates and references to past crimes, the kind of factual information that prosecutors have insisted proves Valle meant to carry out gruesome crimes including kidnapping, rape, torture, murder and cannibalism.

"Isn't it a fact that some of the chats you found to be fantasies involved cooking women?" Baum asked.

"It could have been," Walsh answered.

The agent also conceded that no women were kidnapped or harmed and that Valle never had contact with his supposed co-conspirators outside the Internet.

In addition, the agent said, no evidence of a crime was found in Valle's apartment besides a computer. There was no rope, pulleys or chemicals to render someone unconscious despite Valle's Internet boasts that he wanted to assemble a torture chamber or that he had an upstate property where he could cook women, Walsh said.

Valle, 28, has pleaded not guilty. He could face life in prison if he is convicted of conspiracy and illegal use of a crime database, a crime prosecutors say stems from his use of a federal database to research potential victims.

Prior to cross examination, Walsh showed jurors graphic X-rated communications between Valle and a butcher in India early last year as they discussed plans to torture and cook Valle's soon-to-be wife and a former college roommate.

"I have longed to butcher and cook female meat," Valle told Aly Khan, Walsh said.

Khan offered to provide a place in Pakistan to kill a woman once she was taken to India, the agent said.

For two days, Walsh has testified about chats Valle participated in last year with a New Jersey co-defendant and two supposed co-conspirators, a man in Great Britain and Khan, both of whom posed on the Internet as veterans of cannibalism who could teach Valle cannibalism skills.

In several emails read by Walsh, Valle seemed eager to offer the woman he would marry a few months later to Khan, though he added: "She is a sweet girl. I like her a lot. But I will move on."

Valle wrote that he could take her to India and then Pakistan, where they could gag her in a basement, hang her from her feet and take turns sexually assaulting her before slitting her throat and cooking her.

"I just love the thought of stringing her upside down," Valle wrote in an email shown to jurors.

He said he would like "to see her suffer" and "slowly roast her until she dies."

In a later email, Khan taunted Valle.

"Are you really into it?" he asked.

"Yes," Valle answered.

"Are you sure?" Khan asked.

"Definitely," Valle said.

Khan, seemingly content, said: "Get your mind ready. I will guide the rest."

Later, Valle discussed plans to attack a Columbus, Ohio, woman he knew in college.

"I want her to experience being cooked alive," he said in one exchange. "She'll be trussed up like a turkey. ... She'll be terrified, screaming and crying."

He wrote that her death would "definitely make the news" and there will be "plenty of suspects" because she is a prosecutor.

The woman, Andria Noble, testified Monday she never knew Valle to be violent when they attended the University of Maryland.

If jurors are offended or horrified by the gruesome testimony, they haven't shown it. Three of them even yawned during the reading of the Internet exchanges.

The six men and six women sitting on the jury mostly sat stone-faced and silent as they listened to the agent's monotone recitation of seemingly grimace-worthy evidence — remarks by Valle like, "I'm dying to taste some girl meat" and discussions about using one potential victim's severed head as a centerpiece for a feast of body parts.

The government hasn't said what roles Khan and the man in Great Britain played in the investigation.

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Hagel has enough support for defense secretary

WASHINGTON (AP) — Barring any new, damaging information, Chuck Hagel has secured the necessary votes for the Senate to confirm him to be the nation's next defense secretary. A vote ending the bitter fight over President Barack Obama's Cabinet choice is expected next week.

Hagel cleared the threshold when five-term Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama said he would vote for the former two-term GOP senator from Nebraska after joining other Republicans last week in an unprecedented filibuster of the Pentagon nominee.

"He's probably as good as we're going to get," Shelby told the Decatur (Ala.) Daily.

In another boost for Hagel's nomination, former Republican leader Bob Dole, a decorated World War II veteran, issued a statement Thursday saying, "Hagel's wisdom and courage make him uniquely qualified to be secretary of defense and lead the men and women of our armed forces. Chuck Hagel will be an exceptional leader at an important time."

If confirmed, Hagel, a twice-wounded Vietnam combat veteran, would succeed Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who is stepping down after four years first as CIA director and then Pentagon chief.

Although a Republican, Hagel has faced strong GOP opposition, with many of his former colleagues voting last week to stall the nomination. Republicans have questioned his support for Israel, tolerance of Iran and willingness to cut the nuclear arsenal. His opposition to the Iraq war after his initial vote for the conflict angered his onetime friend, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

Shelby's support was a clear sign of weakening Republican opposition, and it prompted two letters within hours from Hagel's fiercest GOP foes. One letter went to the president calling on him to withdraw the nomination, the other to GOP senators pleading with them to stand together against Hagel.

Fifteen Republicans senators wrote that Hagel lacks the bipartisan support and confidence to serve in the vital job of defense secretary.

"The occupant of this critical office should be someone whose candidacy is neither controversial nor divisive," wrote the senators — all opponents of Hagel. Leading the effort was Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the party's No. 2, who is up for re-election next year.

One name missing from the letter was McCain, who has called Hagel unqualified but indicated last Sunday that he wouldn't stand in the way of a Senate vote.

Separately, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, sent a letter to his GOP colleagues urging them to vote again to block the nomination when the Senate returns from its recess next week. He acknowledged the reality that if the GOP fails to block a vote, Hagel proponents have the votes to approve him on an up-or-down vote.

"Make no mistake: A vote for cloture is a vote to confirm Sen. Hagel as secretary of defense," wrote Inhofe. He said that while the Senate traditionally defers to presidents on their Cabinet choices, "our nation is at war. The Senate must insist on confirming only the most effective leaders."

At the White House, spokesman Jay Carney rejected GOP calls for Hagel to withdraw. He complained that Republicans were putting politics ahead of national security, pointing out that the administration wants Hagel to be part of decisions on the size of the U.S. force in Afghanistan as American and coalition forces wind down combat operations.

"This waste of time is not just meaningless political posturing because we firmly believe that Sen. Hagel will be confirmed. The waste of time is of consequence," Carney told reporters.

The Senate also is holding up the nomination of John Brennan to be CIA director, with Republicans and Democrats seeking more information about the U.S. policy on the use of drones. Hagel and Brennan would join Secretary of State John Kerry in Obama's overhauled, second-term national security team.

Hagel is expected to get all 55 Democratic votes and the support of three Republicans — Sens. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Mike Johanns of Nebraska and Shelby. Two other Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — voted last week to allow the nomination to move ahead and are expected to do the same next week, giving Hagel the requisite 60 votes out of 100 necessary to end a filibuster.

An up-or-down vote on confirmation, with only a majority necessary, could occur as early as Wednesday.

The filibuster left the administration angry and troubled by the prospect of a nomination in limbo, with opposition groups redoubling their efforts to scuttle Hagel and the uncertainty of a weeklong Senate break. But the administration is more confident about Hagel's prospects after private conversations with several senators to ensure Hagel gets past the 60-vote barrier, according to an official close to the confirmation process. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss private conversations.

Hagel's nomination also has become entangled in GOP demands for more information from the Obama administration about the deadly assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, last September that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has described Hagel as "radical" and pressed for Obama to abandon the nomination. Graham sent a new letter to Hagel this week with fresh questions about Israel, after Hagel responded to a separate Graham letter on Israel last week.

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Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.

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Follow Donna Cassata on Twitter: http://twitter.com/DonnaCassataAP

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