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The family of Amir Hekmati, the Arizona-born ex-Marine currently held in Iran accused of being a CIA spy, said today the Iranian government told them to "remain silent" about Hekmati's arrest should they want him released. "The Iranian government detained Amir on Aug. 29, 2011 without any charges, and urged our family to remain silent with the promise of an eventual release," the family of the U.S.-raised veteran said in a statement. "Amir has never had any affiliation with the CIA, and these allegations are untrue.canada goose outlet Amir's family hopes that this misunderstanding can be resolved peacefully with Iran, and that Amir can be reunited with his family and friends in the U.S. who miss him dearly and are praying for his safe return." For months Hekmati's story stayed under wraps until Iranian television broadcast a "confession" by Hekmati Sunday in which the 28-year-old said he was sent by the CIA into Tehran to infiltrate the Iranian intelligence ministry."It was their [the CIA's] plan to first burn some useful information, give it to them [the Iranians] and let Iran's Intelligence Ministry think that this is good material," Hekmati, a dual Iranian-American citizen, says in English in the video.The family said they were "shocked" by the "false information and forced confessions." According to Hekmati's family, he had received permission from the Iranian Interest Section in Washington, D.C., to travel to Iran for the first time in his life to visit his extended family, including two elderly Iranian grandmothers.canada goose cheap outlet Two weeks into his visit, he was suddenly arrested without explanation. Hekmati's mother, father, two sisters and brother all live in the U.S. n the Iranian broadcast, Hekmati was described as having been trained in military intelligence for 10 years by the U.S. Army before being sent in country on his secret mission to become a double agent for the CIA. But military service records provided to ABC News showed Hekmati is an ex-Marine, was never in the Army and never had any military intelligence training. He spoke Arabic and may have helped translate for his Marine unit, but left service in 2005 as a rifleman. State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said Monday the State Department has been providing consular assistance to Hekmati's family, who first reported his detention in September. Nuland declined to elaborate on Hekmati's wellbeing, citing privacy concerns. canada gooseThe U.S. has requested access to Hekmati but has yet to receive it, Nuland said. A representative at the Iranian Interest Section in Washington, D.C., declined to comment for this report and referred ABC News to his colleagues in New York. Representatives at the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately return requests for comment.

At the height of Newt Gingrich's political power as House Speaker, Republican congressmen began reporting back that their constituents were passing along a simple message: "Tell Newt to shut up!" The same advice is being given now, though this time the message is coming from a distinctly elite group of apparent ideological confreres and former associates. But there seems -- until recently, at least -- to have been a significant disconnect between their views and those of likely voters in charge of the Republican nominating process,canada goose outlet who have turned Gingrich into a top-tier candidate in early states. Said Robert Dallek, a prominent presidential historian, "There is a certain unprecedented quality to this which should give people pause." Back in 1995, after the Republicans' stunning, Clinton-era takeover of Congress, Gingrich was a pivotal figure who would be named Time's "Man of the Year." One is reminded of his strengths, weaknesses and grandiosity in "Tell Newt To Shut Up!", a fly-on-the-wall account of that tumultuous first year of leadership, including his critical budget negotiations with President Clinton and the federal government shutdown which boomeranged politically on Gingrich. "He spoke in sweeping sentences bursting with adjectives and adverbs that rendered his world oversized and absolute. Enormous. Classic. Grotesque. Tremendous. Totally. Frankly. Unequivocally. Extraordinarily. Explicitly. He wore these words as epaulets of power," wrote the authors, then Washington Post reporters David Maraniss and Michael Weisskopf. Their Gingrich was in key ways a failure -- most notably, he made gross strategic miscalculations about his chief adversary, Bill Clinton -- but in no way one dimensional. Indeed, the Post reporters' detailing of his first critical year as Speaker is also the tale of a sometimes astute manager and compromise-seeking bargainer.canada goose cheap outlet He was very much an adherent of respected books on management and leadership and did his best to thoughtfully heed their lessons. Dallek does find Gingrich a "classic grandiose narcissist, full of himself but typical of narcissists' ability to get under your skin and create a measure of rapport or connection," and posits that "it's not the substance of what he's talking about--Medicare, debt, deficits, foreign policy--it really is something terribly superficial that is part of the whole television culture. His ability to have good zingers and a presence before the camera and to create a sense of connection to people is working for him." But even if a TV-loving and increasingly newspaper-averse public doesn't quite get the insider aversion to Gingrich, would their publicly-voiced doubts persist if, say, he were to win and thus face President Obama in the fall? Would partisan pragmatism trump the seeming moral convictions being voiced by so many who know him so well?canada goose "McCain was seen as a hot-headed crazy guy but, once he got the nomination, the Republicans were less inclined to trumpet that," said Dallek. It may be that the "extraordinary" tension between Gingrich's rank-and-file support and elite-Republican disdain is starting to break down. But it remains entirely possible that he'll hold on win the GOP primary, in which case the aim of upending President Obama might force even longtime Republican naysayers to swallow hard, shut up and get in line for Gingrich 2012.

Last month, a survey by Piper Jaffrey cited on Apple Insider, opened eyes about the prospects of young people using tablets: 44 percent of kids ages 6 to 12 want an iPad in the next six months. "Among children ages 13 and up, 24 percent of those polled said they are interested in buying an iPad in the next six months, canada goose outletbeating out a tie at No. 2 between a computer and an e-reader." That's good news for Apple and probably Amazon and Barnes and Noble as well (according to a Retrevo report), but a month-old startup is also excited about the pre-teen and teen trend toward tablets and e-readers. California-based Backlit Fiction thinks this is going to translate into more and better reading for Young Adults. Conventional wisdom might respond, "what do you mean, 'more?'" But parents already know what Backlit's publisher and editorial director Panio Gianopoulos told me last week. "The Young Adult demographic is reading a lot," Gianopoulos said in the phone interview. "They're just reading differently. They're reading online. They're reading shorter things."Gianopoulos, a former editor at Bloomsbury Publishing, believes a company that can publish the way teens are reading could revolutionize the YA books market."In one sense, we're changing the model and creating content in a very different way," Gianopoulos said. "In another sense, we're flashing back to an earlier time, to the time of Dickens." Meaning: Serialized novels. So far the company has four ebook series going, "Borrowing Abby Grace," "The Start Up," "The Dig" and "Young Americans.canada goose cheap outlet" Each offers a clearly YA point of view to everything from relationships, tech companies, the American Revolution and archaeology. The content concepts might be tried-and-true, but the delivery method is not. The concepts are developed by Backlit -- and authors are recruited to create the stories in bite-size morsels, sold for as little as 99-cents to e-readers, tablets, PCs and phones. The authors are given a treatment and then collaborate with the company to create the stories. "Each episode is self-contained, so you can drop into the series without having go to the first book," Gianopoulos said. "With digital books it's easier to add the element of surprise," he said. "With a physical book, you know are coming to an end. But with a digital book, boom, you're done, cliffhanger." To spread their excitement, Backlit didn't throw their efforts behind author tours, book reviews or even a traditional website. Click on any of the links above and you will be sent to Facebook. "Young Adults go to Facebook, that's where they get their information," he said. "So our website efforts have been on Facebook.canada goose"And in an age when many fret the book's future, Gianopoulos sees the embodiment of that future as cause for hope. It is, after all, a generation that could very well be defined by Harry Potter the way Boomers were defined by The Beatles. And it's not just readers that have him excited. "The first wave of Harry Potter readers are just getting old enough to write," he said. "It will be exciting to see what they create. It could be a time of giant innovation, the way the 70s filmmakers inspired a whole generation."

District Judge William Wenner decided there was enough evidence against former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and finance official Gary Schultz that they should be brought to trial. The ruling capped a court hearing where a key witness, Mike McQueary, testified in public for the first time that he saw Sandusky in a sex act with a 10-year-old boy in 2002.The explosive allegations against Sandusky have shocked the university and the college-sports world,canada goose outlet and focused national attention on the serious problem of child sex abuse. The story told by McQueary, a graduate assistant in the university's football program at the time, is key to the case against the two Penn State officials and Sandusky.This is because McQueary testified that he personally witnessed the abuse and then told his boss, former head coach Joe Paterno, who in turn told Curley. Even though McQueary's account was passed up the line of authority at Penn State, no one told police and Sandusky's alleged behavior continued for years.Curley and Schultz deny that they lied to the grand jury and say that Paterno and McQueary only told them in general terms about the incident and not in graphic detail. McQueary said he witnessed the abuse on a Friday night, but it was not until Saturday that he told Paterno, canada goose cheap outletwho then waited for the close of the weekend to notify Curley and Schultz, who was in charge of campus police at the time. Failure to immediately notify local police has resulted in accusations of a cover-up and the firing of Penn State president Graham Spanier as well as Paterno. Both McQueary and Curley were placed on administrative leave and Schultz has retired to prepare his criminal defense.Now that the case is going to trial, it will be up to a jury to decide "whether McQueary has the credibility to address the high level of proof required to determine perjury," said Curley's attorney, Caroline Roberto. Key testimony at trial will also come from Paterno, who turns 85 next week, either in person or collected earlier, depending on his health, Deputy Attorney General Marc Costanzo told reporters. Paterno has been diagnosed with lung cancer and recently fell and broke his pelvis. McQueary's father, John McQueary, also testified on Friday. He said that in a meeting with Schultz after the event his son was told there had been a "noise level" about other incidents involving Sandusky, canada goosebut the university "was never able to unearth anything or sink our teeth into anything substantial." Referring to his son's description of the sounds of the alleged incident, the elder McQueary said while neither he nor Mike used the word thrusting, "you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out a sound like that would be thrusting." (Additional reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Greg McCune and Jerry Norton)

The Venezuelan defendant, 62, whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, has been locked up in France for almost 20 years serving a life sentence in a separate case for killing two police officers and an informant in Paris in 1975.canada goose outletSentencing Ramirez to an additional life term, the special terrorism court in Paris made up of seven magistrates said he should serve a minimum of 18 years in jail.The verdict could push back the date on which he can apply for conditional release, currently set for 2012. Ramirez was accused of masterminding four separate attacks in France on two trains, a train station and a Paris street that killed 11 people and wounded nearly 200.Prosecutors said the bombings were his answer to the police seizure of two of his gang, including his lover, and had argued that he remained a danger to the public. Earlier on Thursday, Ramirez -- once one of the most wanted international criminals -- addressed the court in a five-hour monologue, alternately rambling, vitriolic and poignant, calling himself a "living martyr" in defending his innocence.Ramirez, a self-dubbed "elite gunman" appeared resigned to a likely guilty verdict. canada goose cheap outletDeath in prison, he said at one point, "is the role of a revolutionary.""I am in prison ... condemned in a pre-decided case," he told the court, his voice rising in volume. Ramirez, a colorful figure recognizable at the height of his notoriety by his Che Guevara-style beret, sunglasses and Havana cigars, sealed his renown in a bloody hostage-taking of OPEC oil ministers in 1975. During the Cold War he received backing from Soviet bloc and Middle Eastern countries, staging attacks throughout Europe for more than two decades before being captured in Sudan in 1994.During the six-week trial, Ramirez appeared more like a master of ceremonies than a defendant, talking over speakers, interrupting judges, correcting lawyers and occasionally beaming benevolently from his caged-in defendant's box. Casting himself as a convenient scapegoat, he questioned why no one had ever been arrested in France for the attacks.canada goose The evidence in the case, he and his lawyers say, is based on unreliable witnesses and photocopies of documents from Eastern European secret service archives. Clearly enjoying the limelight, Ramirez displayed a fondness for name-dropping, variously citing a cast of historical and modern-day heads of state from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Soviet leader Stalin to former French president Jacques Chirac, mentioning the latter's guilty verdict given in the same courthouse earlier in the day.He explained to the court the proper way to load a 9-millimeter pistol, correcting a prosecutor's knowledge of how many cartridges such a gun holds."You really aren't a man of combat," he told him.Prosecutors had argued Ramirez remains a public danger and demanded he be sentenced to an additional life term and serve a minimum of 18 years

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in an exclusive interview with Fox News, said that the stealth drone campaign along the Iran-Afghanistan border will "absolutely" continue despite the loss of a valuable and sophisticated drone to Iran. The mysterious loss of the RQ-170 Sentinel drone has revealed not only that the U.S. was spying on Iran, but also that the program was being run from Shindad Air Base in western Afghanistan. Panetta would not comment directly on what that drone was doing over Iran, canada goose outletbut he said the U.S. military has no plans to halt the drone operation out of western Afghanistan. "Those operations have to be protected in order to do the job and the mission that they're involved with," he said. When asked if he would continue those missions as they have been conducted out of Afghanistan, he responded with one word: "Absolutely." Panetta would not speculate about whether the Sentinel drone had been felled by a cyber attack or a high-tech jamming device. "You can make all kinds of guesses at this point. Obviously there's nothing that you can rule out and nothing that you can rule in right now," he said. President Obama said on Monday he would not comment on the situation beyond saying the U.S. has asked to Iranians to give it back. "We we will see how the Iranians respond," he said. Panetta will travel later this week to Baghdad for a ceremony to mark the end of the U.S. war in Iraq. The secretary did not agree with the assessment of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Washington Monday suggesting Iranian interference in Iraq would disappear once all U.S. troops have gone home.canada goose cheap outletMeanwhile on Tuesday, a high-ranking Iranian official said Iran's military will practice sealing off the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important oil transport channel. It's a provocative move that illustrates Iran's capability of disrupting the world's oil supply. Pentagon spokesman Doug Wilson responding saying although he has no information on those specific exercises, the U.S. is "committed to the free and safe passage in international waters." Anything that affects that, Wilson said, would be "detrimental." Back in Kabul, the defense secretary will also be assessing how to heal the relationship with Pakistan after it closed border crossings and key supply routes in response to the Nov. 26 NATO air strike that killed 24 Pakistani troops. Gen. John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said just before that incident, he went to see Pakistan's General Kayani for meetings he hoped would "bring the relationship back to a high level of coordination.canada goose" But in the aftermath of the incident on Nov. 26, "that has chilled to some extent," Allen said.

A Virginia Tech police officer gunned down in a shooting that revived memories of the April 2007 massacre on campus was remembered at his funeral Monday as a loving husband, father and dedicated public servant.canada goose outletBagpipers and drummers marched somberly down the center of Cassell Coliseum to Deriek W. Crouse’s flag-draped coffin as hundreds of police officers, family, friends and state dignitaries looked on. Crouse, 39, was ambushed last Thursday during a routine traffic stop on campus. Police said Ross Truett Ashley, a 22-year-old student at a nearby college, walked up to Crouse’s cruiser and shot him. Ashley was found a short time later in a nearby parking lot, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Investigators said they have found no apparent link between the two men and are seeking a motive. The random nature of Crouse’s death was a common sentiment expressed at his funeral. “Today we have gathered in this place not because life always makes sense, but because sometimes it just doesn’t make sense,” said the Rev. Tommy McDearis, chaplain of the Virginia Tech Police Department. “And what happened last Thursday did not make sense.” Crouse, who left a wife and five children and stepchildren, was an Army veteran who had served in Iraq.canada goose cheap outletHe joined the campus force six months after the 2007 massacre on the Tech campus that left 32 dead, including the gunman. Gov. Bob McDonnell, who led a contingent of state leaders, said Crouse was a warrior and lifelong public servant to his nation and his community. He also paid tribute to the officer as an avid athlete who had a love for baseball and a passion for the Pittsburgh Steelers. “I’ve come to tell you that Deriek’s incredible bravery and sacrifice will not be forgotten,” McDonnell said, addressing Crouse’s wife, Tina, and their children seated at the front of the coliseum. Tech police Sgt. Tom Gallemore said the two rode motorcycles together and shared a love for the Steelers. “I am proud to say I knew Deriek Crouse and he was a friend,” Gallemore said. “Those memories will be lasting memories. canada gooseWhat happened last Thursday does not make sense.” A private graveyard memorial followed the funeral.

Tom Brady's first interception in more than a month led to a screaming match on the sideline. That's how perfection-driven the New England Patriots are. On a day when tight end Rob Gronkowski is simultaneously strong and nimble while setting an NFL record, on a day when the defense again makes just enough plays to compensate for all the yards it allowed, on a day when a 34-27 score vs.canada goose outlet the Washington Redskins meant a fifth straight victory, it was Brady who had to be calmed down after a rare fourth-quarter mistake. With the Patriots leading by seven, Brady tried to find Tiquan Underwood at the back of the end zone and was instead picked off by Josh Wilson with 6:30 remaining. The Redskins then began a march downfield that could have sent Sunday's game to overtime — even as Brady sat on the bench and exchanged words with offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien. "I threw a pretty bad interception, so he wasn't happy about it," said Brady, who completed 22 of 37 passes for 357 yards with three touchdowns and his first interception since Nov. 6. "And there was probably a long line of coaches and players that were pretty (upset) at me after that, but Billy got to me first. He let me have it; I deserved it." And yet Brady had a 107.6 rating and upped his career touchdown pass total to 294, moving ahead of Warren Moon (291) into sole possession of sixth place all-time. Brady also surpassed the 4,000-yard mark for the fourth time in his career. The Redskins (4-9) amassed a season-high 463 yards but lost for the eighth time in nine games. Already playing without tight end Fred Davis and left tackle Trent Williams— both suspended for the rest of the season last week for violating the NFL's drugs policy — Washington lost another offensive starter during pregame warm-ups when right tackle Jammal Brown injured his right groin. But it was the officiating that had the Redskins steamed. canada goose cheap outletIn addition to the crucial flag on Moss, linebacker London Fletcher was whistled in the second quarter for a personal foul call that appeared particularly egregious. The referee announced that Fletcher hit a late-sliding Brady with a forearm to the head, but Fletcher's arm clearly hit the quarterback in the chest. Coach Mike Shanahan said he thought the call against Fletcher was "horrible." "We don't get no calls around here, man," Moss said. "You guys have been covering us for a long time. Y'all see what goes on out there. We blow our breath on one of the doggone guys over there and it's a penalty. canada gooseOur quarterback gets killed — and you just almost hit somebody that's a quarterback and we get flagged. So a lot of stuff goes on. But I guess we've got to play against a team and the ref."