ambassador to china, gary locke. they said he is a standard-issue american politician intent on stirring up conflict. >> pelley: holly williames of british sky news covering this story for us all week long, thank you, holly. today, philadelphia's roman catholic archbishop said he has ousted five priests who were among 26 investigated on suspicion of sexual misconduct. it's part of the fallout from a criminal investigation that's been going on for more than a year. today, the archbishop lefta i lot of questions unanswered and families frustrated. >> reporter: philadelphia archbishop sailed the five priests found unsuitable for ministry can appeal, choose a life of prayer and penance oh, leave the priesthood. >> the decisions announced today reflect our commitment to protect children, victims, restore the integrity priesthood, and provide evidence to the broader community that it can have confidence in these outcomes. >> reporter: but chaput refused to share any details of the priests' role in the sex abuse scandal. >>

the chinese people liked gary locke too. in a country that's increasingly disgusted with the arrogance consumption on the part of its elite, jon huntsman riding his bike around and locke wearing backpack. those went a long way to win over chinese opinion for the ambassador past and presence. these state controlled newspapers have been attacking ambassador gary locke. it translate to the clumsy performance of american politician. the paper goes onto say it's all an act. this whole flying economy class, buying coffee with coupons. they say it's an act. they say he's putting on a which he raid of being a regular guy. it's a standard issue american politician who goes out of his way to stir up conflict. this propaganda pile on is the latest development in the huge international controversy around this man. he's a human rights activist and lawyer. he's been blind since infancy. in china you're not allowed to go to law school if you're blind. he's a lawyer but he's a self-taught lawyer. he audited law classes. what he did with his

. >> but ambassador gary locke told gary williams chen was not pressured to leave the u.s. embassy. >> suddenly he jumped up and said let's go. before we got in the van, i asked him again, is this what you really want to do? do you want to leave the embassy, are you ready to go? he said yes. >> in the eye of the storm since his dramatic weekend escape from house arrest, chen has made a series of emotional calls, including nbc news. locke said chen has clearly had a change of heart and they'll visit him again to find out what he wants. but as clinton tries to pressure china for help on iran, syria, and north korea and treasury secretary geithner on the economy -- >> we need your help in a time of risk and challenge in the global economy -- >> both countries must deal with chen and how china handles dissidents, issues both countries wanted to downplay. >> this is a lose-lose proposition for the united states because the administration will be criticized for failing to stand up tall enough in defending him. >> there may no longer be a way to avoid offering chen political asylu

he is gary locke, the man with the answers about what went wrong at the embassy. chen guangcheng said he was encouraged to leave and without knowing the full range of his threat that the family was posing. i sat down with the ambassador to get his side of the story. here's what he had to say. >> reporter: ambassador gary locke is the man in the hot seat, to answer a crucial question did the united states fail chen guangcheng? >> we took extraordinary steps to retrieve him. we found out that he had escaped and was in beijing and wanted to talk to us. we undertook almost like a mission impossible retrieval to pull him into the embassy. >> reporter: according to chen himself, that mission impossible is looking more like mission failure. chen, a blind activist who fled what he called brutal house arrest to take refuge in the u.s. embassy more than a week ago tells cnn he wishes he never left the dip the maic compound. in an interview yesterday he accused embassy officials of encouraging him to go and then deserting him at a beijing hospital. the embassy kept lobbying

ambassador gary locke. >> at no point during his time in the embassy did mr. chen ever request political asylum in the u.s. and at every opportunity he expressed his desire to stay in china, unify with his family and stay in his country. all of our diplomacy was directed at putting him in the best possible position to achieve his objectives. >> the republican presidential candidate mitt romney is mincing no words in assessing this current crisis. listen to this. >> it's also apparent according to these reports if they're accurate that our embassy failed to put in place the very phiable measures that would ensure the safety of mr. chen and his family. if these reports are true, this is a dark day for freedom and it's a day of shame for the obama administration. >> u.s. officials in beijing, they say they'll try to stay in touch with chen. we'll see what happens, but the stakes clearly are enormous. >>> we're also getting new information just coming into "the situation room right now. face book's initial public offering. ali velshi is standing by. what are you h

. >> reporter: ambassador gary lock said chen was not pressured to leave the embassy. >> he jumped up and said "let's go" i asked him again, is this what you want to do? do you want to leave the beam see, are you ready to go? he said yes. >> reporter: in the eye of the storm since his weekend escape from house arrest, chen made a series of emotional calls including to nbc news. lock says chen had a change of heart and they will visit him again to find out what he wants. but as clinton tries to pressure dma for help on iran, syria and north korea, and treasury secretary geithner on the economy. >> a time of risk and challenge in the global economic. >> reporter: most deal with chen and how china deals with dissidents. >> this is a lose-los proposition for the united states because the administration will be criticized for failing to stand up tall enough in defending him. >>> that was nbc's andrea mitchell reporting. >>> here is a look at other stories making news "early today" in america. in southern california a mama bear and two cubs are now spending time in a residential neighborhoo

. >> reporter: chen was brought to the embass si by gary lock and said he left for six days preferring to stay in china after assurances about his safety. they said he never once asked for asylum. chinese authorities assured chen he wouldn't be mistreated and his allegation of abuse would be investigated, promised a new home and university job. hours later with u.s. officials gone, chen apparently had a dramatic change of heart. in an emotional telephone interview with nbc news said he only left the embassy because of threats to his family and asked the u.s. for concrete steps to guarantee his safety and now wanted to leave china. hillary clinton in china said earlier the deal reflected chen's choices and american values and hoped to prevent the issue from overshadowing high level talks thursday which it now surely will. u.s. officials promise to closely monitor chen's treatment for years if necessary but no longer under diplomatic protection. china's angry and embarrassed and even demanded an apology and for now, leaving the country now may no longer be an option. >> meanwhile, secret

stan, i know you talked to gary locke today, the u.s. ambassador. you had another chance to speak with chen. what do you get a sense of what's going to happen here? is this in limbo and chen may just quote/unquote disappear? >> i can tell you what is happening right now, erin, and this is a man who's in fear of his life, in fear of the safety of his family is right now in a hospital surrounded by chinese guards who are not even letting u.s. officials in to see him. that's his situation. at the same time, he's calling in to the u.s. congressional hearing, he's speaking to us and saying over and over again, get me out of here. yesterday when he spoke to us, he appealed directly to president obama saying please, sir, do everything you can to get me and my family out of this country and to safety in the united states. now, this is someone who's heard directly from authorities back in his village saying they're waiting there in his house with weapons if his family is sent back there. so this is a very, very desperate image right now. and very, very conce

i sat down with gary locke today. he said, no, they didn't do that. at all times, this he were guided by what chen wanted. chen has changed his mind. >> stan grant continues to keep us ahead of this traumatic story. thanks so much. >>> fareed zakaria, when you hear there, there is some conflict. we are not there. we are here in the united states. chen says he feels he was duped. one thing u.s. officials concede, they told him about the risks but never talked to his wife. that strikes me as amateur. >> this whole thing has been mishandled. there weren't any good options. what appears to have happened and what my sources tell me, chen was very unstable in the u.s. embassy, emotionally, and may have had a breakdown. they should have understood there was a great likelihood that he would change his mind or his mood and in that context, change his mind or mood. i do think this could have been handled better. >> i will let you list to a host of u.s. officials, ambassador and white house press secretary, all choosing their words very, very carefully. >> we ne

ambassador gary locke and taken to the hospital for treatment of injuries curing his escape. american officials said they only brought chen out of the embassy after severing receiving a promise from beijing he would not be harmed. chen agreed to stay in china as long as he could continue his education and reform work, safely. but after arriving at the hospital chen changed his mind. chen now says american diplomats left him alone at the hospital with no protection. he says he fears for the safety of his family, his wife and two children, and for himself and now wants to leave china. to president obama chen had this message -- "please do everything you can to get our whole family out." question, how does everyone save face here? i ask you. >> i think the obama administration really has to hope that everything turns out right, because they initially mishandled this. chen said that -- quote to the cnn interview was the embassy kept lobbying me to leave the embassy and go pack out there. and so if the whole situation doesn't turn out right, then it's going to be impossible for th

ambassador gary locke wednesday after six days in the u.s. embassy and after an apparent u.s.-china deal to guarantee his safety in china. >> apparently he has had a change of heart. we will just have to sit down with him and talk about it and review all of the options. again, they are going to have to make a decision. for the u.s. officials say che or pressn to leave the embassy and they said he never once asked for asylum. according to one report, chen has asked to leave on the same plane as secretary clinton but the reality is he is in china -- in a chinese hospital under chinese jurisdiction and getting him out of the country may be far more complicated. back to you. >> still ahead on a 11 is that loan, morning and nfl great, how fans are remembering junior seau found dead in what police are calling a suicide. even though there is a big glass barrier, a lion can't stop clawing at this child. see the boys reaction. and dr. hammond from falls road animal hospital is here to into your q >> fans are morning former nfl star junior seau, who died yes -- wednesday from what polic

ambassador gary locke. they drove to a beijing hospital where he was reunited with his family, his wife and two children, and where he'll receive treatment for injuries received during that dramatic escape from house arrest. he will be staying in china. senior u.s. officials say that is his decision, that he didn't request asylum in the u.s. they say the chinese authorities have given assurances that he will be properly treated. he'll be treated like an ordinary citizen, that his complaints will be investigated. they say he will be relocated to a safe place to live and probably be given a job in a university. now, while officials also say that this deal will be monitors bied u.s., officials say that this follows days of sleepless nights and that hillary clinton herself, the secretary of state, who's here in beijing on a previously arranged visit, phoned him at the hospital. he was very emotional and apparently his words to her in broken english were "i want to kiss you." back to you. >> all right, that was

chen guangcheng was brought to the hospital personally by ambassador gary locke and u.s. officials say the left the embassy after six days preferring to stay in china after assurances by the chinese authorities about his safety. >> reporter: from day one, his express desire was to remain in china. he sought to be reunited with his family looking for a better life. >> reporter: they say he never once asked for asylum. once he knew u.s. officials said chinese authorities assured chen he wouldn't be mistreated and his allegations of abuse would be investigated and he'd get a new home and university job. hours later, with u.s. officials gone, chen apparently had a dramatic change of heart. in an emotional telephone interview with nbc news, he said he'd only left the embassy because of threats to his family. i demand the u.s. government take concrete action to guarantee my safety and human rights and not consider other interests, he said. i want to leave china. any country is fine. hillary clinton earlier said the deal reflected chen's choices and american values. she hoped to

. >> reporter: ambassador gary lock told nbc's ian williams chen was not pressured to leave the safety of the u.s. embassy. >> he jumped up and said "let's go," and before we got in the van i asked him again, is this what you really want to do? do you want to leave the embassy? are you ready to go? and he said, yes. >> reporter: in the eye of the storm since his weekend escape from house arrest, chen made a series of emotional calls including to nbc news. lock says chen has clearly had a change of heart and they will visit him again to find out what he really wants. but as clinton tries to pressure china for help on iran, syria and north korea, and treasury secretary geithner on the economy. >> we meet here in beijing at a time of risk and challenge in the global economy. >> reporter: both countries now must deal with chen and how china handles dissidents. issues both countries had hoped to downplay. >> this is a lose-lose proposition for the united states because the administration will be criticized for failing to stand up tall enough in defending him. >>> that was nbc's andrea mitch

ambassador to china, gary locke, says chen was never pressured to leave that united states embassy in beijing. >> suddenly he jumped up and said, let's go. before we got in the van i asked him again, is this what you really want to do? do you want to leave the embassy? are you ready to go? and he said, yes. >> as i said, chen has now changed his mind on that. he also told the associated press, did chen, that u.s. diplomats have been blocked from seeing him for two days, adding that his calls to american officials are cut off after just a few sentences. stay tuned to this one. >>> just days after the one-year anniversary of the death of osama bin laden, documents retrieved by the navy s.e.a.l.s who stormed his compound in pakistan are being released to the public. the information shows a terror group split on strategy, and an aging leader struggling to keep control. nbc's chief pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski has more from washington. >> reporter: holed up in his dpound, huddled against a cove, osama bin laden looked a far cry from america's most wanted terrorist. but documents

american ambassador to china gary locke did tell abc news today that the u.s. wants to sit down with chen and his wife. >> and really find out what it is they want to do and to explore the option. >> reporter: but should the u.s. have handed chen over to the chinese in the first place? and can they now figure out a way to get him to safety? martha raddatz, abc news, way to get him to safety? martha raddatz, abc news, washington. >>> reporter: as if airline fees weren't high enough, here comes >>> and back here at him, there was a kind of aftershock about junior seau who apparently shot himself in a suicide. a lot of people wondering if his death was linked to those injuries football players endure on the field. well, today, 100 former nfl players filed a federal lawsuit against the nfl, not mentions seau but claiming the league fails to protect players from brain injuries and concussions. >>> and now to the frantic coverup described in that north carolina courtroom, where john edwards is on trial. last night, as we told you, his daughter dissolved in tears. tod

embassy, headed by ambassador gary locke, mounted an operation to bring him in from the cold. >> when we got the word he was in beijing wanting to talk to us in the wee hours of the morning, we went out and contacted him. and then we engineered almost a maneuver out of "mission impossible" to bring him in to the embassy. >> reporter: the maneuver involved transferring chen from a van driven by the dissident to the u.s. government car while evading chinese surveillance, then spirit him back to the u.s. embassy, past chinese guards, whose job is to prevent would-be defectors from reaching the embassy. that's when six days of negotiations began. ambassador lock flew back from vacation in bali to negotiate with the chinese on chen's behalf. >> he did not want to go to the united states, and so the choice was to help him get back into china to be a freedom fighter if he wanted, or, if conditions, negotiations with the chinese government were not to his satisfaction, he was prepared to stay in the embassy and live there for possibly years. >> reporter: the chinese brought chen's wife to bei

assistant secretary of state for asia, kurt campbell and you saw ambassador gary locke and a legal advisor at the state department, hugging, clutching hands with him. he looked so hea. he was going to be transferred to the hospital because he broke his foot when he climbed over the wall. and he also had other health problems from years of, he said, beatings. but he got out, he got to the hospital after saying he wanted to stay in china and the u.s. saying basically he's happy to do this, he wants to do this, he has some guarantees. and he got out and suddenly he was saying he was pressured into leaving. the twitter lit up. all sorts of social media lit up, saying the story the media has is wrong. gwen: it should be said that twitter lit up not in china. >> not in china, but they know how to get over those firewalls in chipe. in fact, there is some access there by getting over those firewalls. >> the question for a couple of days was what happened with secretary clinton and her people. did they misjudge, did they make mistakes? it looked pretty bad for a couple of days there where he's call

ambassador, gary lock. u.s. officials said he left the u.s. embassy voluntarily after six days preferring to stay in china after assurances from the chinacy authorities about his safety. >> from day one, his express desire was to remain in china. he sought to be reunited with his family. he was looking for a better life. >> they said he never once asked for asylum. once he knew u.s. officials said chinacy authoritieses assured chen he wouldn't be mistreated and his allegations of abuse would be investigated and he would get a new home and a university job. but hours later, with u.s. officials gone, chen apparently had a dramatic change of heart. in an emotional telephone interview with nbc news, he said he had only left the embassy because of threats to his family. i demand the u.s. government take concrete action to guarantee my safety and human rights and not consider other interests, he said. i want to leave china, any country is fine. hillary clinton in china today said earlier the deal reflected chen's choices and the american values. she

ambassador to china, gary locke. did he leave the door open to the u.s. further helping chen out? is the u.s. trying to negotiate on his behalf? >> absolutely. he maintains throughout that chen had said to him explicitly time and time again i want to stay in china. i want to fight for freedom in this country. and i want to leave the embassy and be reunited with my family. you saw the images, he was smiling and hugging officials when they took him to the hospital. everything changed after he went to the hospital. then he said, no. i don't trust the chinese government. threats have been made. we need to get out of here. i put that to ambassador locke. he said they're going to continue to talk, to leave the door open, to try to negotiate something albeit when they can get to see him face to face. but here's the problem. to get asylum he needs to be on the u.s. ground. it could be the embassy, ironically the one he walked away from 24 hours ago. >> be careful, stan. it's already friday in china. you can see we're still blacked out. still being censored. the screens went to stan as soo

ambassador to china, gary locke. what did he say about this situation? >> reporter: he's really the man in the hot seat. if you look at the photographs that we saw yesterday of a smiling gary locke and smiling chen guangcheng as he left the embassy for the hospital at that point it appears as if they had a deal that china and u.s. came to an arrangement where chen would live freely and safely along with his family. that disintegrated quickly between leaving the embassy, meeting his family and hearing his wife saying she had been beaten in days leading up to his leaving the embassy and also speaking to us at 3:00 a.m. on thursday morning chen had done an about-face. he said he didn't want to stay in china and wanted to be taken to the united states. he said he feared for his life and said that he felt the embassy let him down and that they almost forced him to leave. certainly very much encouraging had imto lea him to leave the embassy. i put those questions directly to ambassador locke. this is what he had to say. >> when he first came in, we took extrao