Woman feared Iowa kidnapping suspect's release

FILE - This file photo provided by The Iowa Department of Public Safety shows Kathlynn Shepard, 15. Michael J. Klunder, who police believe abducted 15-year-old Kathlynn Shepard and her 12-year-old friend Monday, May 20, 2013, as they walked home from school, committed suicide after the younger girl escaped, but Kathlynn is still missing. (AP Photo/Iowa Department of Public Safety)

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The ex-girlfriend of a man suspected of kidnapping two Iowa girls this week worried that he would harm her and her family before his impending release from prison in 2011, citing prior sexual and physical abuse and threats, according to court records released Friday.

The woman once lived with Michael J. Klunder, who police believe abducted 15-year-old Kathlynn Shepard and her 12-year-old friend Monday as they walked home from school. Klunder committed suicide after the younger girl escaped, but Kathlynn is still missing.

His ex-girlfriend had a child with Klunder and they lived together in 1991, when he was arrested for two kidnappings and later sentenced to 41 years in prison. When seeking a no-contact order a month before his release from a work-release facility in February 2011, she alleged that Klunder had subjected her to "sexual trauma" and physical abuse during their relationship. He had pushed her into a wall, grabbed her by the throat, threatened her with a raised fist, punched a hole in the wall behind her head and threw her across a room, she said.

The documents also show that Klunder admitted having "a violent history," but he denied abusing her and said he'd been rehabilitated.

The documents add more detail to Klunder's violent past and show that corrections officials were aware of the woman's concerns before he was released without supervision in 2011. Department of Corrections spokesman Fred Scaletta said Friday that officials helped the woman obtain a no-contact order but that there was little more they could do to protect the public when Klunder's term expired.

Police said Klunder, 42, abducted Kathlynn and her friend in Dayton, a small town about 60 miles north of Des Moines, after asking if they wanted to make money mowing lawns. Investigators said he took them to a hog confinement building where he worked, but the 12-year-old girl was able to escape when Klunder took Kathlynn to another part of the property.

The search for Kathlynn on Friday included an area north of another rural Dayton property where Klunder hanged himself Monday. Investigators said they had new information suggesting he was driving in the area after the abduction.

Authorities will scale back their search on Saturday between the hog confinement and a location where the girls' backpacks were found. They're focusing on terrain that's difficult to navigate and requires specialized skills and equipment, according to authorities.

Their hopes of finding Kathlynn alive were dampened Thursday, when authorities said her blood was found on Klunder's truck and at the hog confinement site. Still, some 150 law enforcement officials and 200 volunteers searched Friday throughout parts of three rural counties, a spokeswoman said. Authorities said they do not need citizen volunteers for the search on Saturday.

In the documents obtained Friday, Klunder admitted he was addicted to cocaine and had a violent temper when he lived with his ex-girlfriend, but claimed his past did not reflect who he was today because he had received Christian-based treatment for offenders and surrounded himself with "positive people."

He also said he had "no interest whatsoever to see, talk to, or have anything to do with" the former girlfriend, but that he wanted to mend his relationship with their son. In April 2011, Klunder agreed to an injunction that permanently barred him from contacting the woman but allowed him to see his son out of her presence.

With his prison sentence winding down, Klunder had warned the woman in September 2010 that he would soon be "coming for our son and would find him," she said in court records. Klunder said that comment wasn't meant to be threatening and was "misconstrued."

Still, the manager of the work-release facility in Marshalltown where Klunder was living warned the woman that Klunder was going to be released without supervision in February 2011, and told her she should consider getting a no-contact order.

"She is fearful of him," residential manager Jon Groteluschen wrote. "Now that he is back in the community and especially after he is off supervision he has the opportunity to harm (her) that he has not had prior to this time. I certainly can understand (her) concerns and feel that an order limiting his contact with her appears warranted."

The Associated Press is not naming the woman under its policy of generally not identifying alleged victims of sexual abuse.

Another record obtained Friday shows the woman and her son changed their last names in 2010. A judge initially said the son needed permission from his biological father, but granted the request after the woman said Klunder was incarcerated and, "It would increase the risk of our safety to establish contact with him."

Klunder had been convicted in two kidnappings on back-to-back days in December 1991. Police said he lured a woman on a highway near Mason City out of her vehicle by claiming she was missing a taillight, then forced her into his car and tried to assault her. The next day, he snatched two 3-year-old toddlers from a Charles City apartment complex, put them in a trunk and left them 50 miles away at a secluded garbage bin, where they were later found alive.

Scaletta, the corrections spokesman, said Klunder's 41-year prison term expired in 2011 after it was reduced under an Iowa law that gives inmates credit for every day they serve. Corrections officials declined to seek his continued confinement for treatment after determining he did not meet the criteria to be declared a "sexually violent predator" who was likely to reoffend, he said.

A law requiring sex offenders such as Klunder to face lifetime supervision by parole officials was not in place when he was convicted, he said.

"Our hands were a little tied," Scaletta said.

After vote on gay youth, Scouts face more turmoil

In this Thursday, Sept. 6, 2012 file photo, Zach Wahls waves after addressing the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. The Eagle Scout, a 21-year-old activist raised by lesbian mothers in Iowa, has been a leader of the campaign to end the BSA's no-gays policy. In the wake of the Thursday, May 23, 2013 decision, he said his group, Scouts for Equality, would continue to press for lifting the ban on gay adults, while also monitoring how the BSA implemented its new policy for gay youth. We'll act as a watchdog," he said. "If any gay youth feel they're experiencing harassment or discrimination, we want to be there for them." (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The Boy Scouts of America will get no reprieve from controversy after a contentious vote to accept openly gay boys as Scouts.

Dismayed conservatives are already looking at alternative youth groups as they predict a mass exodus from the BSA. Gay-rights supporters vowed Friday to maintain pressure on the Scouts to end the still-in-place ban on gay adults serving as leaders.

"They're not on our good list yet," said Paul Guequierre of the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay-rights group. He said the HRC, in its annual rankings of corporate policies on workplace fairness, would deduct points from companies that donate to the Boy Scouts until the ban on gay adults is lifted.

In California, gay-rights leaders said they would continue urging passage of a bill pending in the Legislature that would make the BSA ineligible for nonprofit tax breaks because of the remaining ban.

The Boy Scouts' chief executive, Wayne Brock, pleaded for theScouting community to reunite after the divisive debate that led to Thursday's vote by the BSA's National Council. The proposal to lift the ban on openly gay youth — while keeping the ban on gay adults — was supported by about 60 percent of the council's 1,400 voting members.

However, Brock's plea failed to sway some conservative religious leaders whose denominations sponsor many Scout units and who consider same-sex relationships immoral.

"Frankly, I can't imagine a Southern Baptist pastor who would continue to allow his church to sponsor a Boy Scout troop under these new rules," Richard Land, a senior Southern Baptist Conference official, told the SBC's news agency, Baptist Press.

Land advised Southern Baptist churches to withdraw their support of Scout troops and consider affiliating instead with the Royal Ambassadors, an existing SBC youth program for boys that combines religious ministry with Scouting-style activities.

Baptist churches sponsor Scout units serving more than 100,000 of the BSA's 2.6 million youth members.

The Assemblies of God, which oversees units serving more than 2,000 Scouts, said it could no longer support such units and suggested its own Royal Rangers youth group as a "positive alternative."

John Stemberger, a conservative activist and former Scout from Florida who led a group opposing the policy change, said he and his allies would convene a meeting next month in Louisville, Ky., to discuss creation of a "new character development organization for boys."

"We grieve today, not because we are faced with leaving Scouting, but because the Boy Scouts of America has left us," Stemberger said. "Its leadership has turned its back on 103 years of abiding by a mission to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices."

There is a template for forming a conservative alternative to a major national youth organization. American Heritage Girls was formed in 1995 as a Christian-oriented option to the Girl Scouts of the USA, and it now claims more than 20,000 members.

From the left, gay-rights supporters — including President Barack Obama — generally welcomed the move to accept openly gay Scouts, but urged the BSA to take the further step of welcoming gay adults as leaders.

White House spokesman Shin Inouye said Obama "continues to believe that leadership positions in the Scouts should be open to all, regardless of sexual orientation."

Rich Ferraro of GLAAD, formerly known as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, said his group would continue a campaign to discourage corporate giving to the Boy Scouts until the ban on gay adults is lifted.

He also predicted that the presence of openly gay boys in Scout ranks would undermine the viability of the adult ban as those youth turn 18 and seek leadership posts.

"The BSA now will have to look gay teens in the eye, boys who've been involved in Scouting for years, and tell them they're not going to be able to grow into adult leaders," Ferraro said. "Those conversations will be difficult and shouldn't be had."

Eagle Scout Zach Wahls, a 21-year-old activist raised by lesbian mothers in Iowa, has been a leader of the campaign to end the BSA's no-gays policy. He said his group, Scouts for Equality, would continue to press for lifting the ban on gay adults, while also monitoring how the BSA implements its new policy for gay youth.

"We'll act as a watchdog," he said. "If any gay youth feel they're experiencing harassment or discrimination, we want to be there for them."

For some parents of Scouts, the entire membership debate has been emotionally draining, and the decision to accept openly gay youth left them disenchanted or confused.

Wes Comer, whose family attends an Apostolic Pentecostal church near Knoxville, Tenn., that considers homosexuality sinful, had been wrestling with whether to pull his eldest son out of the Scouts if the no-gays policy was abandoned.

"To be honest, I'm torn at this point," Comer said Friday in an email. "I'm not sure exactly what our decision will be."

"If I place this situation in the context of my religious beliefs, I'm forced to ask myself, 'Would I turn a homosexual child away from Sunday school? From a church function? Would I forbid my children to be friends with a gay child?' I can't imagine a situation where I would answer 'yes' to any of those questions. So how can I in this one?" he wrote.

Yet he said was "extremely disappointed" in the entire debate, and suggested that the BSA "has dealt itself a mortal blow."

Another Scouting father, Don Mack, of Waconia, Minn., said he and his 10-year-old son will be leaving Cub Scouts after the current year is done and his son gets his Arrow of Light Award.

Mack, a Scout himself as a boy and a self-described conservative Christian, has been a Cub Scout leader for about five years. Now, because of the vote to admit gay youth, he and his son both want out. And they'll be looking for an alternative program that offers similar character-building benefits as the Scouts.

"We home-school, and my wife and I teach our son you need to stand up for what's right, even if that means sacrifice or getting hurt in the process," Mack said. "It was not an easy choice for us to make because our family believed in the mission Scouting has to offer. I kind of feel like my best friend died."

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Associated Press writer Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis contributed to this report.

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Online:

Boy Scouts of America: http://www.scouting.org/

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Follow David Crary on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/craryap .

Gaza exports have plummeted under Israeli blockade

Gaza's exports have dropped by 97 percent since 2007, limiting the chances that Gazans can wean themselves off of international aid.

By Christa Case Bryant | Christian Science Monitor – Sat, May 25, 2013

Aid group describes siege of Afghan compound

Afghan men investigate at the site of an attack on an international compound in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, May 25, 2013. A would-be suicide bomber died when his explosives-rigged vest went off prematurely in Afghanistan's capital on Saturday morning, police said. The apparent failed attack came a day after a major Taliban assault on an international compound in Kabul left many people dead including the attackers.(AP Photo/Ahmad Jamshid)

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Ten terrified international aid workers huddled inside a fortified room in Kabul for two hours as a Talibanattack raged around them until they were rescued by Afghan police, the aid group's country chief said Sunday.

Richard Danziger, chief of mission for the International Organization for Migration, praised the police for fighting their way into the compound to free the workers during the eight-hour Taliban assault Friday that turned one of the capital's most upscale neighborhoods into a battleground.

"Both the police and our ... guards, they held their ground and fought for two hours until they found a time when they could grab our staff and take them out of the compound," he said at a news conference along with his deputy, Enira Krdzalic, who survived the siege.

An Afghan police officer and two civilians died in the heavy fighting that began with a suicide bombing, Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said.

Afghan security forces have been criticized over how such heavily armed attackers could penetrate the area, which is dotted with checkpoints and blast walls protecting several government buildings and humanitarian offices including the headquarters of the United Nations in Sharr-e-Now district.

Others noted the fact that only two civilians died as a sign of the Afghan forces' growing capability — one of the lynchpins of the international military coalition's plans to withdraw by the end of next year.

Details of the chaotic siege were still emerging two days later. Danziger said earlier police reports that one of the group's armed Nepalese guards died was not true, though five of the guards were wounded along with four IOM staff, including one Italian woman badly burned by a grenade. All of the attackers were killed.

Danziger said the attack was clearly planned to target the international staff, and the gunmen appeared to know the layout of at least part of the compound.

"The way they forced themselves in, the way they knew where to go once they were inside, certainly provides every indication that they were coming for us," he said.

Danziger, who was out of Afghanistan during Friday's siege, said he was "mystified" as to why IOM was targeted. Insurgent assaults on aid groups are relatively rare, though attacks have hit guest houses used by the U.N. in the past. The IOM is a U.N.-affiliated agency assisting returning Afghan migrants as well as those displaced internally.

A Taliban spokesman on Friday said the insurgents launched an attack on a group of CIA trainers for the Afghan security forces, but Danziger stressed that the group has no affiliation with the American spy agency, adding that the Taliban often see any foreigner as an attractive target.

When the Taliban car bomb slammed into the IOM's southeastern gate just after 4 p.m. on Friday, only about 12 international staff who live in the compound and another dozen Afghan employees were inside along with the Nepalese guards, Danziger said.

Most of the Afghan staff escaped through the main gate and took three international workers with them. Nine other staff, including Krdzalic, fled to a fortified "strong room" along with one foreigner working for the International Labor Organization who also lived in the guest house.

"They were basically in direct line of attack," said Danziger. He said the Taliban attackers were armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers that they fired from the building and, later, from upper floors of nearby offices they took over.

"You can imagine it was a very confusing situation inside the strong room. Not to mention we had this one (wounded) colleague of ours who they were desperately trying to keep out of going into shock," he said.

He said it took Afghan police two hours of fighting to get to the strong room and get the staff out. "And then, of course, when there were knocks on the door, (those inside) had to be reassured that these were friendly knocks and not the terrorists."

Krdzalic, who is from Bosnia and Herzegovina, was still visibly shaken from her ordeal.

"I hope you all understand that it is still too early for me to go back over that time," she said.

She thanked the Afghan police, saying without them, she might not be alive.

Training Afghan military and police to take over security is essential to the withdrawal of more than 60,000 foreign forces remaining in Afghanistan nearly 12 years after toppling the Taliban's hard-line regime for sheltering al-Qaida's terrorist leadership. The start of the insurgents' spring fighting season last month has proved a crucial test for those forces, as U.S. military trainers pull back and let the local police and military take the lead.

The coalition said Friday that its troops were not involved in the fighting Friday, though they provided medical support.

UK police arrest 3 more men in soldier's slaying

By SYLVIA HUI | Associated Press – Sat, May 25, 2013

FILE - Michael Adebolajo, front, shouts slogans as Muslims march in London in a protest against the arrest of 6 people in anti-terror raids, in this Friday April 27, 2007 file photo. Adebolajo has been identified as one of the two men who attacked and killed a British soldier on a street in south London on Wednesday May 22 2013. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, file)

LONDON (AP) — British police on Saturday arrested three moresuspects in connection with the savage killing of an off-duty soldier that has raised fresh concerns about terrorism.

Scotland Yard said counter-terrorism officers arrested two men, aged 24 and 28, at a residential address in southeast London. A third man, 21, was arrested separately on a London street at the same time.

Police said they used a stun gun on two of the suspects. All three were detained on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder.

Officers have already detained several others in connection with the murder of 25-year-old soldier Lee Rigby, who was hit with a vehicle then repeatedly stabbed with knives while walking outside the Royal Artillery Barracks in the Woolwich, south London, on Wednesday afternoon.

The horrific scenes were recorded on witnesses' cellphones, and a video has emerged in which one of the two suspects made political statements and warned of further violence as the dead soldier lay on the ground behind him.

The two main suspects, aged 22 and 28, were shot by police who arrived at the scene minutes later. They are under guard in two separate hospitals.

Three other people were arrested Thursday in connection with the probe. Two women were released without charge, and a 29-year-old man has been bailed pending further questioning.

Another man was arrested on suspicion of unspecified terrorism offenses late Friday immediately after he gave a BBC interview detailing the background of one of the main suspects. The man, identified by the BBC as Abu Nusaybah, was arrested on BBC premises and remains in custody.