23 possible jurors to return in Zimmerman case

Trayvon Martin's parents, Tracy Martin, left, and Sybrina Fulton, arrive in court during George Zimmerman's trial in Seminole circuit court in Sanford, Fla., Friday, June 14, 2013. Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder for the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin.(AP Photo/Orlando Sentinel, Gary W. Green/Pool)

Defense attorney Mark O'Mara, right, speaks with Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda during George Zimmerman's trial in Seminole circuit court in Sanford, Fla., Friday, June 14, 2013. Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder for the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin.(AP Photo/Orlando Sentinel, Gary W. Green,Pool)

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) — Nearly two dozen potential jurorsinterviewed individually by prosecutors and George Zimmerman'sdefense attorneys during the past week were told Friday to return to a Florida courthouse next week for further questioning.

Judge Debra Nelson told the 23 jury candidates on the fifth day of jury selection to return next Tuesday. She asked them not to discuss the case or selection process with anyone.

Of the candidates, 16 are white; four are black; two are Hispanic; and one is Asian-American. The racial and ethnic makeup of potential jurors is relevant because prosecutors claim Zimmerman profiled 17-year-old Trayvon Martin when he followed him through his gated community shortly before the unarmed teen was fatally shot. The case prompted public outrage, as some critics believed authorities initially didn't investigate the case thoroughly because Martin was ablack teen from the Miami area.

Race-related questions came up regularly during jury candidate interviews on Friday.

During questioning of a potential juror Friday, defense attorney Mark O'Mara specifically asked a man in his 20s who identified as mixed race what his racial background was. The man said German, Filipino, Chinese and Spanish.

Later in the day, a middle-aged black man who works in a school described his family and friends' reaction to Martin's death as "typical," given a history of violence against African-American men in the U.S.

The group of 23 jury candidates who were asked to return also skewed overwhelmingly female and middle-aged.

A potential juror who wasn't asked to return was given a trespass warning and ordered not to come back to the courthouse until after the trial. The dismissed juror, a middle-aged white man who described himself as a musician and painter, expressed concern about losing his privacy and complained about the jury process outside the jury assembly room. He pointed to the jury assembly room and said "Do they know what they're in for?" according to a report from the Seminole County Sheriff's Office.

During his questioning on Thursday, the judge had asked him if he had made a Facebook posting about the case. He answered yes and was told he could leave the courtroom a short time later.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys want to build a pool of 40 potential jurors who have been screened for any influence of pretrial publicity before they move to a second round of questioning. Attorneys had interviewed 41 potential jurors over five days by midafternoon on Friday.

At least 75 potential jurors already have been dismissed.

Zimmerman, a 29-year-old former neighborhood watch volunteer, is pleading not guilty to second-degree murder, claiming he shot Martin in self-defense.

A 44-day delay in Zimmerman's arrest led to protests around the nation. Some questioned whether the Sanford Police Department was investigating the case seriously since Martin was a black teen from the Miami area. Zimmerman identifies himself as Hispanic.

Attorneys need to find six jurors and four alternates. In Florida, 12 jurors are required only for criminal trials involving capital cases, when the death penalty is being considered.

The judge said Thursday that jurors picked to serve will be sequestered during the two weeks to a month that the trial will last. They will have limited contact with their families, they will spend the night at a hotel and their actions will be monitored by court security outside the courtroom during the duration of the trial.

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Follow Mike Schneider at http://twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP

Follow Kyle Hightower on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KHightower

Sarin Gas Used in Syria Blocks Body's 'Off Switch'

Sarin, a chemical weapon that U.S. officials say has been used by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime in the country's ongoing civil war, blocks the "off switch" for muscles and glands, paralyzing and suffocating its victims by exhausting their bodies, experts say.

The clear, colorless liquid -- developed in Nazi Germany as a pesticide -- quickly evaporates into sarin gas, which, if inhaled or absorbed through the skin or eyes, can cause deadly symptoms in a matter of seconds.

"Without an 'off switch,' the glands and muscles are constantly being stimulated," the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says on its website, describing how sarin leads to sustained activation of acetylcholine receptors on vital tissues throughout the body. "They may tire and no longer be able to sustain breathing function."

Despite its deadly potential, sarin is more likely to injure than kill. Of more than 900 people exposed to the gas during terrorist attacks in Tokyo and Matsumoto, Japan, in the 1990s, only 17 people died, according to a 1996 report. The gas was also used during the Gulf War of the 1980s.

"Mild or moderately exposed people usually recover completely," the CDC said, describing how certain drugs and hospital care can reverse the gas's effects if administered quickly. "Severely exposed people are not likely to survive."

A 1952 case report of a U.S. Army medical officer sent to decontaminate a sarin spill, initially obtained by The New Yorker, reveals the torturous effects of the nerve gas.

It describes how the officer, dubbed J.A., neglected to wear protective clothing as he approached the wreckage of a sarin-loaded jet that crashed into in Utah's Great Salt Lake Desert during a test mission. Within 10 seconds, he staggered back to the ambulance, clutching his chest and calling frantically for a gas mask as he collapsed.

J.A.'s colleagues quickly injected his thigh with a dose of atropine, an antidote for sarin gas, as his breathing turned to screeches and gurgles. He started convulsing, according to the report.

And then minutes later -- about five minutes after exposure -- he went limp and his breathing reduced to the "occasional gasp." He was given more atropine as he became flaccid, lost his pulse, and turned a deep blue.

Roughly 35 minutes after exposure, J.A. was admitted to an Army hospital and put in an iron lung. Over an hour, his skin turned from blue to "ashen gray," and he began to breathe on his own.

He ultimately recovered, remembering nothing of the incident beyond stepping toward the desert crater holding the crippled jet. But the haunting report highlights the effects of a chemical weapon that is still used today.

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Reaction cool to US arms plan for Syrian rebels

Egyptian Salafis shout slogans against Syrian President Bashar Assad as one waves a Syrian revolutionary flag during a rally after the Friday prayers at Amr Ibn Al As mosque, in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, June 14, 2013. Syrians are being killed at an average rate of 5,000 per month, the United Nation said Thursday as it raised the overall death toll in the civil war to nearly 93,000, with civilians bearing the brunt of the attacks. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Deputy National Security advisor Ben Rhodes arrives for the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, Friday, June 14, 2013. Rhodes discussed the ongoing conflict in Syria, and previewed the upcoming G8 trip. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration hopes its decision to give lethal aid to Syrian rebels will prompt other nations to beef up assistance, now that the U.S. has cited evidence that the Syrian government used chemical weapons against its people. But the international reaction Friday ranged from flat-out disbelief of the U.S. intelligence assessments to calls for negotiation before more weapons pour into the vicious civil war.

The administration now says it has "high confidence" that President Bashar Assad's forces have killed up to 150 people with sarin gas. Although that's a tiny percentage of the approximately 93,000 killed in the civil war so far, the use of a chemical weapon crosses President Barack Obama's "red line" for escalating U.S. involvement in the conflict and prompted the decision to send arms and ammunition, not just humanitarian aid and defensive non-lethal help like armored vests and night goggles.

The administration's plan heading into the G8 meeting of industrialized nations beginning Monday is to use the chemical weapons announcement and Obama's decision on arms to persuade Russia to increase pressure on Assad to send a credible negotiating team to Geneva for talks with the opposition.

In addition, Obama is expected to use the G8 meeting and discussions on the sidelines to further coordinate with the British, French and potentially others an increase of assistance — lethal, non-lethal and humanitarian — to the rebels, the political opposition and refugees.

In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice said the United States has determined that sarin was used in a March 19 attack on the Aleppo suburb of Khan al-Assal and in an April 13 attack on the neighborhood of Shaykh Maqsud. She said unspecified chemicals, possibly including chemical warfare agents, were used May 14 in an attack on Qasr Abu Samrah and in a May 23 attack on Adra.

U.S. officials have not disclosed any details about the weapons they intend to send to Syria or when and how they will be delivered. According to officials, the U.S. is most likely to provide the rebel fighters with small arms, ammunition, assault rifles and a variety of anti-tank weaponry such as shoulder-fired rocket-propelled grenades and other missiles.

As of Friday, however, no final decisions had been made on the details or when it would reach the rebels, according to the officials, who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal administration discussions with reporters.

Obama has consistently said he will not put American troops in Syria, making it less likely the U.S. will provide sophisticated arms or anti-aircraft weapons that would require large-scale training. Administration officials are also worried about high-powered weapons ending up in the hands of terrorist groups. Hezbollah fighters are among those backing Assad's armed forces, and al-Qaida-linked extremists back the rebellion.

The lethal aid will largely be coordinated by the CIA, but that effort will also be buttressed by an increased U.S. military presence in Jordan.

U.S. officials say Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is about to approve orders that would leave roughly a dozen F-16 fighter jets and a Patriot missile battery in Jordan after ongoing military exercises there end later next week. That would result in several hundred more U.S. troops staying in Jordan to support the fighters and missiles, in addition to the approximately 250 that have been there for some time.

The added military troops and equipment are designed to increase stability in the region and are not part of the effort to train Syrian rebels or take part in any offensive operations in Syria, the U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the details.

The biggest hurdle for the U.S. strategy remains Russia, a major weapons supplier to Assad.

President Vladimir Putin's foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said Friday that Moscow doesn't believe the U.S. finding on chemical weapons.

"I wouldn't like to draw parallels with the famous dossier of Secretary of State Colin Powell, but the facts, the information presented by the U.S. didn't look convincing," he said. The comment indeed drew a parallel with Powell's speech to the U.N. asserting pre-war Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, a claim that proved false.

Ushakov also suggested that sending weapons to the opposition would diminish Moscow's interest in negotiations in Geneva.

"If the Americans make and fulfill a decision to provide a greater assistance to the rebels, to the opposition, it's not going to make the preparations for an international conference on Syria any easier," he said.

Obama's deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, acknowledged the differences that remain between U.S. and Russia on the Syrian crisis. Despite their disagreement over chemical weapon use, the U.S. will continue to talk to the Russians about ways to achieve a political settlement in Syria, considered the best option by all .

"We have no illusions that that's going to be easy," Rhodes said, adding that Obama and Putin would meet next week.

Getting Western allies to increase support for the rebels won't necessarily be easy, either.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has said he there is credible evidence of "multiple attacks" using chemical weapons by Assad's fighters, but indicated that al-Qaida-linked elements in the opposition movement had also attempted to acquire chemical weapons for probable use in Syria. Still, he restated the government's position that no decision had been taken to arm moderate rebels opposed to Assad. The Obama administration says it has no evidence the opposition has used chemical weapons.

French President Francois Hollande told reporters Friday that the use of chemical weapons by Assad "confirms that we must exercise pressure on the regime." But Foreign Ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot would not say whether the U.S. claim of chemical weapons adds momentum to arming rebels.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, however, voiced opposition to the U.S. decision to send arms to the Syrian rebels. He said no one can be certain chemical weapons were used without an on-the-ground investigation. Increasing the flow of arms to either side "would not be helpful," he said

Washington's decision comes after several military setbacks for the rebels and as Lebanon's Hezbollah militia becomes increasingly involved, fighting alongside Assad's forces. Hezbollah's role was key in the capture of the strategic rebel-held town of Qusair earlier this month.

The U.S. has so far provided $250 million in non-lethal military and political aid to the Syrian opposition. The Obama administration has already told Congress that $127 million of this aid is in the pipeline. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Friday the administration now has notified Congress that the remaining $123 million in assistance, including body armor and other equipment such as night-vision goggles, is beginning to move to the Syrian rebels.

The plan to arm the rebels comes after a tricky assessment of which groups in the opposition the U.S. and allies can work with and which should be avoided.

"I think we know who the good guys are ... who we can trust and who we cannot," said Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. He received briefings from U.S. diplomats and intelligence officials in Jordan last month and visited a refugee camp at the Syrian border.

He said the U.S. aid will include weapons training and basic military tactics, and share intelligence to help guide the rebels to the right targets.

"Intelligence is a key component to helping the opposition warfighters to make sure they make the right decisions to turn the tide of this fight," said Ruppersberger.

The CIA has led U.S. outreach to the rebels from outside Syria, meeting rebels at refugee camps and towns along the Turkish and Jordanian borders. CIA paramilitary officers, as well as special operations trainers, have trained select groups of rebels in Jordan on the use of encrypted communications equipment — the nonlethal aid provided by the Obama administration — and they have helped the rebels learn how to fire anti-aircraft weapons and small arms provided by Gulf states.

"We've been looking at this for a long time now," said John McLaughlin, former acting director of the CIA. "You can do a pretty good diagram of who the rebel forces are, what the number of foreign fighters are. We've come to the conclusion that there is an acceptable level of risk, understanding we will lose control of some of the weapons."

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Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Kimberly Dozier in Washington, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Elaine Ganley in Paris and Cassadra Vinograd in London contributed to this report.

Web giants get broader surveillance revelations

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook and Microsoft Corp. representatives said that after negotiations with national security officials their companies have been given permission to make new but still very limited revelations about government orders to turn over user data.

The announcements Friday night come at the end of a week when Facebook, Microsoft and Google, normally rivals, had jointly pressured the Obama administration to loosen their legal gag on national security orders.

Those actions came after Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old American who works as a contract employee at the National Security Agency, revealed to The Guardian newspaper the existence of secret surveillance programs that gathered Americans' phone records and other data. The companies did not link their actions to Snowden's leaks.

Ted Ullyot, Facebook's general counsel, said in a statement that Facebook is only allowed to talk about total numbers and must give no specifics. But he said the permission it has received is still unprecedented, and the company was lobbying to reveal more.

Using the new guidelines, Ullyot said Facebook received between 9,000 and 10,000 government requests from all government entities from local to federal in the last six months of 2012, on topics including missing children investigations, fugitive tracking and terrorist threats. The requests involved the accounts of between 18,000 and 19,000 Facebook users.

The companies were not allowed to make public how many orders they received from a particular agency or on a particular subject. But the numbers do include all national security related requests including those submitted via national security letters and under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, which companies had not previously been allowed to reveal.

The companies remain barred from revealing whether they've actually received FISA requests, and can only say that any they've received are included in the total reported figures.

Microsoft released similar numbers for the same period, but downplayed how much they revealed.

"We continue to believe that what we are permitted to publish continues to fall short of what is needed to help the community understand and debate these issues," John Frank, Microsoft's vice president and deputy general counsel said in a statement.

Frank said Microsoft received between 6,000 and 7,000 criminal and national security warrants, subpoenas and orders affecting between 31,000 and 32,000 accounts.

Both attorneys emphasized in their statements that those affected by the orders represent a "tiny fraction" of their huge user bases.

Google did not release its own numbers, saying late Friday that it was waiting to be able to reveal more specific and meaningful information.

"We have always believed that it's important to differentiate between different types of government requests," Google said in a statement. "We already publish criminal requests separately from national security letters. Lumping the two categories together would be a step back for users. Our request to the government is clear: to be able to publish aggregate numbers of national security requests, including FISA disclosures, separately."

Facebook repeated recent assurances that the company scrutinizes every government request, and works aggressively to protect users' data. Facebook said it has a compliance rate of 79 percent on government requests.

"We frequently reject such requests outright, or require the government to substantially scale down its requests, or simply give the government much less data than it has requested," Ullyot said." And we respond only as required by law."

IRS scandals threaten funding for health care law

IRS scandals jeopardize agency funding to put in place Obama's massive new health care law

Associated Press -

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Mounting scandals at the Internal Revenue Service are jeopardizing critical funding for the agency as it gears up to play a big role in President Barack Obama's health care law.

Obama sought a significant budget increase for the IRS for next year, when the agency will start doling out subsidies to help people buy health insurance on state-based exchanges. Congressional Republicans, however, see management problems at the IRS as an opportunity to limit the agency's funding just as it is trying to put in place the massive new law.

Republicans have been fighting the health care law ever since Democrats enacted it in 2010 without a single GOP vote. Unable to repeal the law, some Republicans hope to starve it by refusing to fund its implementation.

The IRS scandals are giving them a timely excuse.

"I think it's safe to say they're not going to get the kind of increase they're asking for," said Rep. Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla., chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee that funds the IRS.

"The question is, based on their bad behavior, are they going to end up with less money?" Crenshaw said.

Last month, the IRS was rocked by revelations that agents had targeted tea party and other conservative groups for extra scrutiny when the groups applied for tax-exempt status during the 2010 and 2012 elections. A few weeks later, an inspector general's report said that the agency had spent lavishly on employee conferences during the same time period.

From 2010 through 2012, the IRS spent nearly $50 million on employee conferences. In 2010, the agency used money that had been budgeted to hire enforcement agents to instead help pay for one conference that cost $4.1 million, according to the watchdog's report.

Three congressional committees and the Justice Department are investigating the targeting of conservative groups, and much of the top leadership at the IRS has been replaced.

Obama appointed a new acting IRS commissioner, Danny Werfel, a former White House budget official. Werfel is conducting an internal review of the agency and is expected to issue recommendations for changes by the end of June.

All this is happening as the agency works to implement the health law that includes some of the most sweeping changes to the tax code in a generation.

"The IRS needs to repair the plane while it's in flight right now," said Paul Cherecwich, chairman of the IRS Oversight Board, an independent board within the agency. "Should the current budget environment continue, the IRS will have to continue to have to do more with less while rebuilding taxpayer trust. It has no choice, and it won't be easy."

Like many federal agencies, the IRS has seen its budget and workforce shrink since 2010, when the agency was allotted $12.1 billion. This year, the IRS is expected to spend $11.2 billion. Obama's proposed budget for next year is $12.9 billion — a 14 percent increase over current spending.

About $440 million would go toward implementing the health care law. That would include hiring nearly 2,000 employees, according to an analysis of the president's budget proposal by the Government Accountability Office.

"We are working to get to the bottom of what happened at the IRS, hold the responsible parties accountable, make sure it cannot happen again, and restore public trust and confidence in the IRS and its ability to administer the tax code fairly and efficiently," said White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage.

"For years Republicans in Congress have made repeated attempts to stop and slow down the Affordable Care Act. This is just the latest attempt to put up roadblocks to implementing the law," Brundage said. "The health law is the law of the land, and we are working to implement it well, so millions of Americans will have access to affordable and quality insurance."

Starting next year, the IRS will administer subsidies to help millions of individuals buy health insurance. The subsidies, technically tax credits because they are administered through the tax code, will help low- and middle-income families buy health insurance through the state-based exchanges.

Under the new law, nearly everyone in the U.S. will be required to have health insurance starting in 2014, or face penalties. The IRS will collect those penalties.

About 6 million people are expected to get the insurance subsidies next year, and that number will grow to 20 million by 2017, according to estimates by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The enrollment season to buy health insurance through the exchanges starts Oct. 1.

"The bottom line here is that the IRS can barely manage what it already has to do, and that's a generous characterization given the targeting of conservative groups," said Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees the IRS.

"Adding Obamacare under the IRS, that can only be described as a looming disaster," Hatch said. "And now the Democrats are saying we need to give the IRS more money. I'm not sure I'm willing to do that."

Democrats in Congress say they are growing tired of Republican attempts to repeal a law that has survived a review by the Supreme Court and whose main champion — Obama — won re-election last year.

"The American people will see over the next six months the lengths the Republicans will go to destroy the implementation of the Affordable Care Act," said Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington state, a senior Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee. "I've expected it from the first day this (IRS) issue came up."

"I'm sad about it, it's awful," McDermott added. "But sometimes in a democracy people have to learn the hard way, and the American public is going to learn."

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