Knox 'shocked' by Guede's testimony

Rudy Guede, pictured in 2009, is expected to testify in the Amanda Knox trial on Monday.Amanda Knox says she is "shocked" by the testimony of Rudy GuedeGuede, convicted separately of killing Meredith Kercher, denies another convict's storyKnox and her former boyfriend were found guilty in 2009 of killing Kercher in PerugiaKnox is fighting the conviction

Perugia, Italy (CNN) -- Amanda Knox, the American student convicted of killing her British roommate Meredith Kercher in Italy, faced a surprise accusation Monday from another man behind bars for the murder.

Rudy Guede refused to say Knox was not involved -- and prosecutor Luca Mignini read out a letter saying Guede thought the American and her then-boyfriend had killed Kercher.

Guede wrote to a news website in the spring of 2010, after the three were convicted, referring to "a horrible homicide of a splendid young girl, Meredith Kercher, by Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito."

Mignini produced a copy of the letter on Monday during Knox's appeal against her conviction. Defense lawyers said they did not know of the existence of the letter before Mignini read it in court.

Knox took the stand for emotional testimony after Guede spoke, saying she was "shocked."

"The only time that Rudy Guede, Raffaele Sollecito and I were in one room together was in a court room.... He knows what the truth is. I don't know what happened that night," she said.

Monday's appeal hearing was the first time the three people convicted of the crime appeared in court together since a preliminary hearing years ago.

Kercher was found stabbed to death in 2007 at the house she shared with Knox in Perugia, the central Italian town where both were students. She was semi-naked and her throat had been slashed.

Knox, 23, and her then-boyfriend Sollecito, 27, were convicted of the murder in 2009. Guede was found guilty in a separate fast-track trial and sentenced to 16 years.

Defense lawyer Carlo della Vedova and Knox's mother Edda Mellas both rejected Guede's testimony Monday.

Under cross-examination, Guede said he had written what he always believed, but that it "was not up to me to say who was the killer."

Della Vedova said Guede's letter was based on "a feeling" and that his accusations are not based on facts or events he witnessed.

Mellas said Guede "continues to lie about Amanda and that's unfortunate."

"He didn't say much. He refused to answer most of the important things," she said. "Amanda wanted to be able to confront him and she was denied that."

Mellas said she had suffered watching her daughter testify: "It's devastating to watch your child in pain. It's horrible to see her go through that."

She said before the hearing she cannot understand why Guede might spend only seven years behind bars if he is released early for good conduct, while Knox could serve 26 years.

Sollecito said Monday he and Knox had been behind bars for nearly four years, their lives destroyed based only on suppositions.

The hearing is now adjourned until July 25, with further hearings on July 30 and August 1.

The appeal hearing has heard a confusing array of stories from a range of convicted criminals this month.

Guede had been called as a witness to corroborate the story of another convict who told the court just over a week ago that Guede had said Knox and Sollecito were not involved.

But on the stand, he did not back Mario Alessi's version of events.

As part of the appeal, forensic experts are retesting evidence that was used to convict Knox.

That evidence includes a knife found in Sollecito's apartment with Knox's DNA on the handle and what Perugia prosecutors say is Kercher's DNA in a tiny groove on the blade.

The prosecution contends that the knife was used to stab Kercher in the neck and that it had been cleaned. The DNA matter attributed to Kercher consists of flesh, not blood, they say.

The sample, however, was so small that forensic scientists investigating Kercher's murder were not able to double-test it in accordance with international forensic science norms, which Knox's legal team says raises doubts about its validity.

The second piece of evidence the forensic experts are testing is the tiny metal clasp from Kercher's bra, which was cut from her body after her slaying.

Forensic scientists in the investigatory phase determined that Sollecito's DNA is present on the metal clasp.

The clasp was identified on an investigatory video the same day Kercher's body was found. But it was not collected until nearly six weeks later, giving the defense cause to question whether the sample may have been contaminated.

CNN's Hada Messia and Dan Rivers contributed to this report.

CNN

Pakistani town shocked by bin Laden find

After almost a decade of pursuit, the world's greatest manhunt ended with Osama bin Laden cornered not in a cave but in a mansion on the edges of a leafy city near Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.

Pakistan army soldiers and police officers patrol past a house where it is believed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden lived in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

By Anjum Naveed, AP

Pakistan army soldiers and police officers patrol past a house where it is believed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden lived in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

He was hiding, in a sense, in plain sight.

"It is a big surprise for me that bin Laden was actually there," said Sadik Aale Mohammad, who lives a mile from bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, a middle-class Pakistani city an hour's drive north of Islamabad.

"We are in disbelief that this happened in Pakistan and Abbottabad, which is such a peaceful place," he said.

Situated in the Orash Valley, Abbottabad is circled by forested hills cut by the Karakoram Highway, once part of the fabled Silk Road. Tourists come here in the summers for its pleasant weather.

Abbottabad is also home to a large military base, and a prominent Pakistani Army academy. Soldiers are everywhere.

That U.S. intelligence agents and special operations forces tracked bin Laden there, and that he appeared to have been with family and aides for considerable time, has raised questions about the role and veracity of Pakistan's government, a nuclear power and nominal ally of the United States in its war against Taliban in Afghanistan.

It casts doubt on the degree to which Pakistan was complicit in hiding and protecting bin Laden, founder of al-Qaeda and mastermind of the terrorist attacks on the United States that killed thousands of Americans on Sept. 11, 2001. Some experts say the find potentially shakes the future of U.S.-Pakistani relations by suggesting terrorists are operating more freely here than previously assumed.

"The question of where Pakistan stands in this whole effort has come to the fore," said Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations and former State Department official. "This long, flawed and difficult relationship will be entering another difficult phase."

Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf, interviewed in Dubai by Bloomberg TV, insisted Pakistan had cooperated fully with the U.S. government and said that he had never known bin Laden's location.

"No, never," Musharraf said. "That really surprises me."

The implications for Pakistan were immediately clear to its own citizens.

"What was he doing in Pakistan?" asked Umair Ejaz, a businessman in Lahore, which has been the scene of Islamist violence. He said his country's image has been damaged because it "implies Pakistan had given him free accommodation."

"The blowback from this is going to be huge," Ejaz said.

Pakistan has seen rising levels of violence linked to terrorists operating in the country, which has been a base for extremist Taliban fighting against U.S. troops in neighboring Afghanistan.

Bin Laden's refuge in a large compound in a Pakistani military town "is evidence that bin Laden was protected by Islamic elements in the Pakistani army," said Walid Phares, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

Even so, Phares doubted Pakistan policy leaders knew bin Laden was there — reasoning "they would never put him in a Club Med situation. They would put him in the Kush mountains."

Stephen Tankel, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said bin Laden's compound, bigger and more secure and secretive than others in the area, could not have been built without Pakistani officials knowing someone important was there. His presence there, and the support he may have been receiving from accomplices in the country, point to a growing jihadi threat in Pakistan, Tankel said.

House Intelligence Chairman Mike Rogers said that of the known 20 top al-Qaeda leaders, at least 10 to 12 "we believe to be traveling around Pakistan someplace."

He said the U.S. government will press tough questions of the Pakistani government, a recipient of substantial U.S. financial aid, and its ISI security agency. But, Rogers added, U.S. reaction must be tempered with the knowledge of delicate internal political considerations for the country's rulers.

"It is incredibly important for us that we maintain a relationship, so that we can pursue those targets that we know are posing a threat to the United States," he said.

Only two interpretations could explain bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad, an old British military garrison town now occupied by active and retired Pakistani military officials, says Andrew Wilder, director of Afghanistan and Pakistan programs at the United States Institute of Peace, a Washington think tank.

"One is that they (Pakistani security officials) didn't know, which is pretty bad news," Wilder says. "And one, that they did know, which is worse news."

It's hard not to conclude that some aspects of the Pakistani military establishment were aware of bin Laden's whereabouts, which "has disturbing implications for U.S. relations in the country," he says. "Yesterday's events will further weaken an already weak partnership."

Wilder said he did not think Pakistan is about to implode or be overtaken by Islamist extremists. The military there is protecting its own interests and is not at war with the state, and every new al-Qaeda attack in Pakistan turns more of the public and the military against it, he said.

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Colorado mom shocked to hear Obama quote her e-mail

By Joshua Buck, The Longmont Times-Call via AP

Shalini Schane wrote to President Obama about a planned trip for her son Adam. Obama cited her letter Friday during his televised remarks about the federal budget.

EnlargeCloseBy Joshua Buck, The Longmont Times-Call via AP

Shalini Schane wrote to President Obama about a planned trip for her son Adam. Obama cited her letter Friday during his televised remarks about the federal budget.

Shalini Schane, of Longmont, said Saturday that she e-mailed the president a few days ago because she was worried the 50 eighth-graders from Altona Middle School would be shut out of landmarks on their trip, which was set to begin Sunday.

ANALYSIS: Budget deal spawns winners, losersEARLIER: Budget agreement averts shutdownSchane, who's going along as a chaperone, said a White House staffer called her Friday to say the e-mail might be used in a speech. The staffer didn't indicate when that might happen, or who would be making the speech.

Schane and her 13-year-old son Adam were packing for the trip Friday night, still not knowing whether the government would be shut down, when the president came on TV to discuss the compromise that is keeping things open.

Her husband and their daughter were also watching when Obama closed his remarks by quoting from her e-mail.

"That was quite shocking, and we're still in shock," Schane said.

Obama didn't mention Schane by name, but a White House spokesman confirmed Saturday she had written the e-mail. The Longmont Times-Call first reported she was the author.

Obama directly quoted one passage from the e-mail: "Remember, the future of this country is not for us. It's for our children."

He closed by saying, "Today we acted on behalf of our children's future. And next week, when 50 eighth graders from Colorado arrive in our nation's capital, I hope they get a chance to look up at the Washington Monument and feel the sense of pride and possibility that defines America — a land of many that has always found a way to move forward as one."

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