Power couple steps up push to free hero doctor- Official: Bomb kills 14 at pro-Taliban rally in Pakistan

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The California activist behind a campaign to free a Pakistani doctor who helped hunt down Usama bin Laden has put the issue before the men and women who risk their own lives and freedom fighting for America.

An advertisement in Military Times magazine, which goes out to some 275,000 homes, asks if service members would rather be “captured and tortured” or “rescued and set free.”  The ad directs readers to the magazine’s website, where they can cast their vote and watch a clip of Secretary of State John Kerry discuss the plight of Dr. Shakil Afridi, who has been imprisoned in Pakistan for more than two years for helping locate the world’s most wanted man and paving the way for the Navy SEALs raid that killed him.

The ad is the latest phase in the “Free Afridi” campaign by health care executive Robert Lorsch and his actress wife Kira Reed Lorsch, who both took up the cause earlier this year just before the Academy Awards, where “Zero Dark Thirty,” a movie about the SEAL raid, was up for several Oscars. The pair has so far spent $70,000 of their own money trying to raise awareness about Afridi’s plight.

The Lorsches say the poll, posted on www.freeafridi.com, is aimed at sending a message to the White House and State Department to address the plight of the doctor and moral dilemma of leaving him behind.

Afridi was convicted by a tribal court in North West Pakistan on May 23, 2012, on a charge of colluding with terrorists, though it is widely acknowledged he is being punished for his ruse in the CIA-led Bin Laden operation. To positively identify bin Laden’s presence, Afridi set up a Hepatitis B vaccination program and collected DNA samples to verify the Al Qaeda leader and his family’s were living at a compound in Abbottabad, 80 miles from the capital, Islamabad. He was sentenced to 33-years in jail, of which he has nearly completed a year, and has been subjected to severe interrogation tactics at Pakistan Intelligence Agency’s prison. 

The advertised poll posted on www.freeafridi.com is aimed at sending a message to the White House and State Department to address the plight of the doctor and moral dilemma of leaving him behind.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., Afridi’s most vocal supporter in Congress, introduced a bipartisan resolution in February to recognize Afridi as an American hero and called for his immediate release or cancellation of billions of dollars in aid to Pakistan.

“Quiet diplomacy toward Dr. Afridi’s imprisonment is not working,” Rohrabacher said in a statement Monday, in which he accused the Obama administration of acting “cowardly” on the matter.

Afridi is now in a hunger strike over denial of access to visits from his family and legal counsel, as well as harsh treatment in prison.

“The U.S. ambassador should be recalled and legislation should be passed to withhold foreign aid to Pakistan as long as they are doing the bidding of terrorists and persecuting the likes of Dr. Afridi,” said Rohrabacher.

Afridi’s court hearings have been adjourned up to a dozen times since he was sentenced last May. His family fears the next court hearing, scheduled for June 13, won’t yield any results unless there is more pressure from the U.S.

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TEXAS CONNECTION? Car Chase May Be Tied to Killing of Colorado Official

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DECATUR, Texas –  A paroled Colorado inmate who may be linked to the slaying of the state's prison chief led Texas deputies on a 100 mph car chase that ended Thursday after he crashed into a semi and then opened fire before being shot down by his pursuers.

Evan Spencer Ebel, 28, was driving a Cadillac in Texas that matched the description of the vehicle seen leaving the neighborhood where prisons chief Tom Clements was shot. Ebel was hooked up to equipment for organ harvesting and authorities say he is not expected to survive.

Colorado investigators immediately headed to Texas to determine whether Ebel was linked to Clements' slaying and the killing Sunday of Nathan Leon, a Denver pizza delivery man. Police in Colorado would only say the connection to the Leon case is strong but would not elaborate or say if they believe Ebel killed Clements and Leon.

The Denver Post first reported Ebel's name, and that he was in a white supremacist prison gang called the 211s. A federal law enforcement official confirmed his identity and gang affiliation to The Associated Press. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the case and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

The killing of Clements, 58, shocked his quiet neighborhood in Monument, a town of rolling hills north of Colorado Springs, for its brutality: He answered the door of his home Tuesday evening and was gunned down. Authorities wouldn't say if they thought the attack was related to his job, and all Clements' recent public activities and cases were scrutinized.

The Texas car chase started when a sheriff's deputy in Montague County, James Boyd, tried to pull over the Cadillac around 11 a.m. Thursday, authorities there said. They wouldn't say exactly why he was stopped, but called it routine.

The driver opened fire on Boyd, wounding him, Wise County Sheriff David Walker said at an afternoon news conference in Decatur. He then fled south before crashing into a semi as he tried to elude his pursuers.

After the crash, he got out of the vehicle, shooting at deputies and troopers who had joined the chase. He shot at Decatur Police Chief Rex Hoskins four times as the chief tried to set up a roadblock.

"He wasn't planning on being taken alive," Hoskins said.

Boyd, the deputy who was shot, was wearing a bulletproof vest and was at a Fort Worth hospital, authorities said. Officials had said he wasn't seriously injured but later said his condition was unknown.

The car is so far the main link authorities have given between the Colorado case and the Texas shootout. El Paso County sheriff's investigators have been looking for a dark, late-model car, possibly a Lincoln or a Cadillac, that a neighbor spotted near Clements' home around the time of the shooting.

"We don't know yet exactly whether this is the guy," Gov. John Hickenlooper told reporters Thursday afternoon. "There's some indication. I hope it is."

El Paso County sheriff's officials did not return repeated messages Thursday. In a statement, Lt. Jeff Kramer said investigators will inspect evidence in Texas and would need crime lab analysis before they're able to determine whether the suspect is linked to Clements' shooting.

"These efforts take time," Kramer said.

Other links between Ebel and the Colorado killings aren't clear. Legal records show he was convicted of several crimes in Colorado dating back to 2003, including assaulting a prison guard in 2008. He apparently was paroled, but Colorado Department of Corrections spokeswoman Alison Morgan said she could not release information on prisoners because of the ongoing investigation into Clements' death.

Scott Robinson, a criminal defense attorney and media legal analyst, represented Ebel in 2003 and 2004. He said Ebel had been sentenced to a halfway house for a robbery charge in 2003 before he was accused in two additional robbery cases the following year that garnered prison sentences of three and eight years.

"I thought he was a young man who was redeemable, otherwise I wouldn't have taken the case," Robinson said, saying he didn't recall the details of the case.

Robinson said he knew Ebel before he got in trouble. He said Ebel was raised by a single father and had a younger sister who died in a car accident years ago.

Clements came to Colorado in 2011 after working three decades in the Missouri prison system. Missouri Department of Corrections spokeswoman Mandi Steele said Thursday the department was ready to help in the probe if asked.

"Tom regularly commented that corrections is inherently a dangerous business, and that's all that I'll say," Morgan, who worked closely with Clements, said earlier.

Officials in positions like Clements' get a deluge of threats, according to people who monitor their safety. But it can be hard sorting out which ones could lead to violence. A U.S. Department of Justice study found that federal prosecutors and judges received 5,250 threats between 2003 and 2008, but there were only three attacks during that time period.

The last public official killed in Colorado in the past 10 years was Sean May, a prosecutor in suburban Denver. An assailant killed May as he arrived home from work. Investigators examined May's court cases, but the case remains unsolved.

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TEXAS CONNECTION? Car Chase May Be Tied to Killing of Colorado Official

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  March 20, 2013: Searchers use a dog to search the area around the Monument, Colo. home of Colorado Department of Corrections Executive Director Tom Clements, pictured left.AP/Colorado Department of Corrections

DECATUR, Texas –  A man who may be linked to the slaying of Colorado's state prison chief led authorities in Texas on a harrowing, 100-mph car chase Thursday that ended after he crashed into a semi and then opened fire before being shot down by his pursuers, authorities said.

The man is still unidentified and is "basically legally deceased" while still hooked up to equipment for organ harvesting at a Fort Worth hospital, Wise County Sheriff David Walker told an afternoon news conference in Decatur.

The possible link to the Tuesday night slaying of Colorado prison director Tom Clements is tentative but intriguing enough to put Colorado investigators on a plane to Texas. The black Cadillac the man drove, with Colorado license plates, matches the description of a car spotted outside Clements' home just before the Department of Corrections chief was fatally shot while answering his front door.

"We don't know yet exactly whether this is the guy," Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper told reporters Thursday afternoon. "There's some indication. I hope it is."

A deputy in Montague County, Texas, tried to pull the Cadillac over at about 11 a.m. Thursday on a routine traffic stop, though officials wouldn't elaborate on the reason.

The driver opened fire on the deputy, wounding him, Walker said. He then fled south before crashing into a semi as he tried to elude his pursuers.

Walker says Colorado investigators are heading to Texas to determine whether the man is connected to Clements' killing. The wounded deputy was wearing a bulletproof vest and is at a Fort Worth hospital, authorities said. Officials earlier said he wasn't seriously injured, but now say his condition is unknown.

Decatur Police Chief Rex Hoskins said the man appeared to be a white man in his 30s. The man shot at Hoskins four times as the chief tried to set up a road block to halt him. The man left his car after it crashed and opened fire on the authorities around him, Hoskins said.

"He wasn't planning on being taken alive," Hoskins said. In a brief interview, he added that the man had no identification on him.

El Paso County, Colo., sheriff's investigators have been looking for a dark, late-model car, possibly a Lincoln or a Cadillac, that a neighbor spotted near Clements' home around the time of the shooting. Lt. Jeff Kramer refused to say what other clues may have been found after Clements' neighborhood was canvassed by officers.

Clements, 58, was killed as he answered the door to his home Tuesday night in Monument, a town of rolling hills and alpine trees north of Colorado Springs. His death stunned law enforcement colleagues in Colorado and Missouri, where he spent most of his career as a highly respected corrections official.

Police haven't said if they think his death was linked to his job.

Denver's KMGH-TV reported Thursday that Clements may have put a bicycle up for sale for $1,200 on Craigslist. Kramer told the station, "I can't speak to the efforts behind this tip, or the level we are giving it."

In recent weeks, Clements had requested chemicals to plan for the execution of a convict on Colorado's death row and denied a Saudi national's request to serve out the remainder of a sentence in his home country. Officials refused to say whether they were looking at those actions as possible motives.

Clements came to Colorado in 2011 after working three decades in the Missouri prison system. Missouri Department of Corrections spokeswoman Mandi Steele said Thursday the department was ready to help in the probe if asked.

"Tom regularly commented that corrections is inherently a dangerous business, and that's all that I'll say," said Alison Morgan, a Colorado corrections spokeswoman who worked closely with Clements.

Officials in positions like Clements' get a deluge of threats, according to people who monitor their safety. But it can be hard sorting out which ones could lead to violence. A U.S. Department of Justice study found that federal prosecutors and judges received 5,250 threats between 2003 and 2008, but there were only three attacks during that time period.

The last public official killed in Colorado in the past 10 years was Sean May, a prosecutor in suburban Denver. An assailant killed May as he arrived home from work. Investigators examined May's court cases, but the case remains unsolved.

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Top EPA official to resign amid email backlash

A top EPA official plans to resign, just three weeks after Republican Sen. David Vitter questioned him over the use of a personal email account to conduct "official business." 

EPA spokeswoman Alisha Johnson confirmed to FoxNews.com that Region 8 Administrator James Martin plans to resign effective Friday. She said it was "for personal reasons." 

Martin was facing questions about his use of personal email, as former EPA boss Lisa Jackson also comes under scrutiny for using alias emails to communicate with employees. 

The agency reportedly is disputing the notion that Martin's resignation had anything to do with the email controversy. 

But Vitter, R-La., top Republican on the Senate environment committee, claimed Martin is leaving at least in part because of the "open investigation about his use of a non-official email account to conduct official business." 

Vitter claimed Martin had recently hired legal counsel, following a Jan. 29 letter in which Vitter and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., challenged the EPA official. Vitter and Issa said documents showed he used his private me.com account to confirm a meeting with the general counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund. 

The EPA, according to Politico.com, downplayed the communication as a one-time occurrence. 

But the Republican lawmakers wrote that "it does not appear that this transaction was an isolated incident." 

"Rather, the body of emails suggests that you regularly used this personal email account to stay informed on matters relating to your official duties," they wrote. Further, they said the issue raises concern that he could be trying to "insulate" himself from formal records requests and "circumvent" federal records law. 

It's not the first time administration critics have tried to tie a high-profile resignation to the unfolding email controversy. 

A Washington attorney suing the Obama administration for access to Jackson's alias emails claimed in December that a decision by the Justice Department to release thousands of those emails contributed to Jackson's decision to resign. Chris Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said the scrutiny over the alias emails is clearly a factor. 

Jackson, though, said she was leaving after four years for "new challenges, time with my family and new opportunities to make a difference." Several top officials in the Obama administration have resigned in recent weeks, as part of what the administration says in normal turnover going into a second term. 

Vitter, in a statement Tuesday, turned his scrutiny to Jackson's acting replacement Bob Perciasepe. He noted that another tranche of emails released late last week showed Perciasepe using a personal account. 

The emails -- which included a number involving Jackson's alias "Richard Windsor" account -- largely showed routine chatter about press clippings. CEI later complained that the documents were heavily redacted. But Vitter objected to the use of personal accounts. 

"Now we know that Lisa Jackson's acting replacement, Bob Perciasepe, appears to have been doing the same thing to dodge the agency's mandatory recordkeeping policy. EPA owes us all some answers about their absolute disregard for transparency, especially from their acting administrator or any potential nominee to be administrator," Vitter said. 

The EPA has downplayed Republican concerns. 

In November, when reports of the alias accounts were first surfacing, an EPA spokesman said the agency has for roughly a decade assigned internal and public email addresses to administrators -- and that they use the internal ones to communicate with staff because of the massive amount of traffic on the public accounts.

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