U.S. military officials confirmed Thursday that a guard at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay last January fired a "non-lethal round" to disperse detainees after one of them sought to climb a fence and others threw rocks at the guard tower.

No one was injured during the incident, which appears to be the first shooting involving rubber bullets in the 11-year history of the Guantanamo facility. Nonetheless, it has fueled claims by defense lawyers – denied by camp officials – that the  detainees have been engaged for weeks in widespread protests, including hunger strikes and refusing to sleep in their cells.

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The conflicting claims about conditions come as the detention facility in Cuba – which began under President George Bush in 2002 – is once again in the spotlight. Congressional Republicans, led by South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, on Thursday sharply criticized the Obama administration for flying the recently captured Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, Osama bin Laden's son in law, to New York to stand trial in federal court rather than sending him to Guantanamo.

Al-Qaida spokesman and bin Laden son-in-law captured

“When it comes to people like this ... we want them to go to Gitmo to be held in military custody for interrogation purposes," Graham said in a news conference.

But Obama administration officials say they have ruled out sending any more terror suspects to Guantanamo because it would undercut their intention to shut down the facility. On his first full day in office in January 2009, President Barack Obama vowed to close Guantanamo, but he has been blocked from doing so by Congress, leaving most of the 166 detainees remaining there in perpetual limbo – even though at least 55 of them have been publicly cleared for release by an administration task force consisting of U.S. intelligence agencies.

The shooting incident, first reported by the Miami Herald, occurred on the grounds of a new $744,000 soccer and recreation field that was opened last year and touted by base officials as an example of new and more permissive conditions at the facility. The new soccer field was featured in an NBC News report on Guantanamo last June.

Read more at The Isikoff Files

Navy Capt. Robert Durand, chief public affairs spokesman at Guantanamo, told NBC News in an email that on the afternoon of Jan. 2, the incident occurred "after a detainee attempted to climb the fence" in the new recreation field and a "small crowd of detainees began throwing rocks at the guard tower."

"After repeated warnings were ignored, the guard force was forced to employ appropriate crowd-dispersal measures, in accordance with standard operating procedures," Durand wrote.

In response to follow-up questions, Durand said that the measures involved the shooting of a "non-lethal round" consisting of "several small rubber balls with limited ability to penetrate skin and little ability to cause injury." One of these balls "hit a detainee," he added. (During a May 2006 disturbance at Guantanamo, guards fired pepper spray at detainees, Durand said.) 

Information only began to emerge in recent weeks when some of the detainees began informing their lawyers – whose communications with their clients are tightly regulated. One detainee, Bashir al-Marwalah, wrote his New York lawyers in a letter received  Feb. 22: "We are in danger. One of the soldiers fired on one of the brothers a month ago. Before that, they send the emergency forces with M-16 weapons into one of the brothers' cell blocks."

The letter, a copy and translation of which was obtained by NBC News,  further alleged that a copy of the Quran had been "desecrated" during a search the day before and that guards were going from "cell block to cell block" and taking away detainee possessions.

"Now they want to return us to the darkest days under Bush. They said this to us. Please do something." the letter stated. It then concluded: "We asked that this be announced to the media so that people know what the Obama administration is doing to prisoners now. All the brothers are now on a hunger strike in protest of mistreatment and the desecration of the Quran."

The claims in the letter have been echoed in the last few days by lawyers for other detainees , who have said their clients have told them about large-scale  hunger strikes – with some detainees "losing consciousness" and "coughing up blood."  The claims of widespread hunger strikes have been vigorously denied by Guantanamo officials, who say there are now seven who are doing so – about the same number as have for the past year. 

Pardiss Kebriaei, a lawyer for the Center for Constitutional Rights, said she spoke to one of her clients, Ghaleb Al-Bihani, also a Yemeni, by phone this week and he said he has refused food for a month.  "He's dropped 23 pounds, he’s a diabetic, and medical staff have told him his life is in danger," Kebriaei said. 

Kebriaei said her client told her that there is now a "mass hunger strike" in Camp 6 – the largest and most permissive of the camps at Guantanamo – and that all but two detainees are participating. In addition, she said,  the detainees are protesting in other ways – by refusing to sleep in their cells, instead taking their mats outside and sleeping there. The trigger for the protests appears to be new restrictions and more comprehensive searches of cell blocks  imposed by the new camp commander, Rear Adm. John Smith.

Durand, the Guantanamo spokesman, disputed the lawyers' claims across the board.

“In broad terms, what we are seeing is a coordinated effort by detainees and their attorneys to take routine camp events and create a false picture of conditions," he wrote in an email. "Every day, to some degree, there are a few hunger strikers, a few detainees who assault or threaten guards. To describe the current conditions in the camp as 'deteriorating' is patently false."

He added: "Detainees, their attorneys, family members and sympathetic organizations routinely attempt to gain sympathy for detainees in the media by initiating and spreading falsehoods regarding conditions of detention, allegations of abuse by guards, denial of medical treatment, abuse of the Quran and reports of mass unrest or hunger striking. These tactics have been employed off and on since Joint Task Force Guantanamo opened in 2002."

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The Obama administration has "no intention" of carrying out drone strikes against suspected terrorists in the United States, but could use them in response to “an extraordinary circumstance” such as the 9/11 terror attacks, according to a letter from Attorney General Eric Holder obtained by NBC News.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who received the March 4 letter from Holder, called the attorney general’s refusal to rule out drone strikes in the U.S. “more than frightening.” 

The letter from Holder surfaced just as the Senate Intelligence Committee was voting 12-3 to approve White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan to be CIA director. The vote came after the White House agreed to share additional classified memos on targeted drone strikes against U.S. citizens overseas.

Paul had threatened to hold up Brennan's confirmation on the floor of the Senate if the administration did not clarify whether targeted drone strikes could be used inside the U.S.

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In his letter, Holder called the question of drone strikes inside the U.S. "entirely hypothetical, unlikely to occur and we hope no president will ever have to confront. … As a policy matter, moreover, we reject the use of military force where well-established law enforcement authorities in this country provide the best means for incapacitating a terrorist threat."

But Holder then appeared to leave the door open to such strikes in extreme circumstances.

Read the full letter

"It is possible, I suppose, to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the Constitution and applicable laws of the United States for the president to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States. For example, the president could  conceivably have no choice but to authorize the military to use such force if necessary to protect the homeland in the circumstances of a catastrophic attack like the ones suffered on Dec. 7, 1941 and Sept. 11, 2001." 

In a statement, Paul said, “The U.S. attorney general’s refusal to rule out the possibility of drone strikes on American citizens and on American soil is more than frightening – it is an affront the Constitutional due process rights of all Americans.” 

Paul told NBC News that the response by Holder could lead to a situation where “an Arab-American in Dearborn (Mich.) is walking down the street emailing with a friend in the Mideast and all of a sudden we drop a drone” on him. He said it was “really shocking” that President Barack Obama, a former constitutional law professor, would leave the door open to such a possibility.

Paul said he will filibuster Brennan’s confirmation over the issue but acknowledged “we probably can’t stop him.” He did say, however, he intends to co-sponsor a bill with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, to be introduced in the next few days, that would bar the president from using drone strikes in the U.S.

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A former top official of the Federal Emergency Management  Agency will plead guilty to a  felony conflict of interest charge for helping arrange millions of dollars in contracts to the Gallup Organization at the same time he was negotiating a $175,000 job with the polling firm.

A nine-page “criminal information” document filed by federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., this week charges that Timothy Cannon, 64, who served as the director of FEMA’s “human capital division” between 2007 and 2009, “knowingly and willfully” participated in the award of contracts to Gallup while he was arranging to accept employment  with the firm.

Lawyers familiar with the matter say the new case against Cannon is noteworthy because it provides an unusual window into the world of federal contracts – complete with explicit email exchanges among Cannon and Gallup executives, including the firm’s chief executive officer, James Clifton. 

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“Ah, yes, I got another 500k put on the contract. Cool huh?” Cannon emailed one unidentified Gallup employee on Jan. 6, 2009, just six days before a job interview with the firm in which he discussed salary terms, according to the criminal complaint.

“Tim has had a distinguished career in the military and as a federal employee,” his lawyer, David Schertler, said Thursday. “To get this matter behind him, he’s agreed to plead guilty to one felony count.” He added that his client “has accepted responsibility for his conduct.”

The filing by prosecutors is the latest development in a widening federal probe into Gallup—perhaps the world’s most venerable and best known polling firm --  prompted by a whistleblower lawsuit filed by Michael Lindley, who previously served as its director of client services. The Justice Department last summer joined the lawsuit, accusing Gallup of bilking the government –  including routinely inflating bills by  tens of millions of dollars for polling for FEMA, the U.S. Mint and the U.S. Passport Agency.

Gallup said in a statement at the time that the charges in the Justice Department civil suit were based “on the false allegations of a former disgruntled employee.” 

The criminal complaint against Cannon does not identify Gallup by name, referring only to a “Company A.” But three legal sources familiar with the case, who spoke with NBC News on condition of anonymity, said that the company in question is Gallup and that the CEO quoted in the emails is the polling firm’s top executive, Clifton. In addition, the same conduct outlined in the criminal information has already been publicly described in the amended Justice Department civil suit that identifies both Gallup and Clifton by name. 

Asked about the charges, Gallup emailed a statement from William E. Kruse, its vice president for law, stating:  “Today’s filing was not against Gallup, but rather DOJ’s allegations against a former FEMA employee. As such, there is nothing Gallup can comment on in regards to this development.”

The complaint alleges that Cannon first had discussions with Gallup officials in 2007 about the firm providing services for a FEMA project called the “BEST Workforce Initiative.” The following summer, Gallup, was awarded the contract – originally valued at about $6 million over five years --  to poll FEMA employees and provide training to FEMA managers.

By then, Cannon had already had multiple discussions with Gallup about a job and his interest had come to the attention of Clifton, the firm’s CEO.

“If (Cannon)  gets us a big deal at FEMA… i (sic) think we should hire him … because he will be a ‘client’ hire … which might be good,” the Gallup CEO wrote in an April 25, 2008 email. Later in the same email chain, Clifton asked, “Is the ink dry yet on our deal with fema (sic)?”

Then, on or about Nov. 18, 2008, another Gallup employee wrote in an email to Clifton: “I talked to Tim today. He asked for a job.”

Clifton  replied: “What about ethics… are we okay with all of that … he is a significant client … am sure you know rules …  gee he seems like a winner to me … I don’t think these guys are as expensive as one might think … and he has a military background.” (Cannon served for 15 years in the U.S. Army, retiring in in 2001 as a colonel, according to Schertler, his lawyer.)

The criminal complaint charges that, during a two week period between Jan. 21 and Feb. 3, 2009, Cannon signed five separate forms expanding Gallup’s work with FEMA and giving the firm an additional $1.6 million in business. Gallup then sent Cannon a letter dated Feb. 5 offering him a post as "partner" in its government division. “I am very excited about joining (Gallup) and I look forward to working with you,” he wrote in an email to the firm that same day.

But  the job offer quickly ran into problems. Cannon retired from FEMA on Feb. 27, 2009, after signing a form on which he checked the “none” box in response to a question asking if he had any agreement for future employment, according to the complaint.  That same day, he asked Gallup to provide him with a new job offer letter dated Feb. 27 — to replace the one he had already received on Feb. 5. Gallup responded by sending him a new letter dated March 2, 2009, it said.

At that point, Gallup executives started to have concerns: In one email exchange detailed in the complaint, a Gallup employee stated he was “getting more red flags about Tim Cannon” and there was speculation among his co-workers at FEMA “that this is improper. They are pretty mad.  This may get in the way of future business with FEMA.” 

On March 26, 2009, Gallup withdrew the job offer, according to the complaint. In September, CEO Clifton forwarded an email about Cannon to company employees stating: “This is a guy that was our sponsor at FEMA. When he was applying we broke some of the rules of the US Gov on the ‘how’ we do it ... so we had to let him go.” 

Michael Isikoff is NBC News' national investigative correspondent.

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Updated at 2:20 p.m. ET: Pennsylvania state prosecutors, citing what they called "a conspiracy of silence," on Thursday charged Graham Spanier, the former president of Penn State University, with perjury, obstruction of justice and endangering the welfare of children abused by the school's former defensive coordinator, convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky. 

The prosecutors also brought new felony charges against two former top Penn State officials -- Tim Curley, the ex-athletic director, and Gary Schultz, an ex-Penn State vice president who oversaw the campus police. Both men had been previously charged in the case and they, along with Spanier, have publicly insisted on their innocence.

"This case is about three powerful men who held high positions -- three men who used their positions to conceal and cover up for years the activities of a known child predator," state Attorney General Linda Kelly said at a news conference in Harrisburg. "This was not a mistake, an oversight or a misjudgment.

"This was a conspiracy of silence by top officials at Penn State, working to actively conceal the truth, with total disregard to the suffering of children,"  Kelly said.

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“Graham Spanier has commited no crime and looks forward to the opportunity to clear his good name and well earned national reputation for integrity,” Spanier’s lawyers said in a statement. “This presentment is a politically motivated frame-up of an innocent man. And if these charges ever come to trial, we will prove it.”

“To be clear, Tim Curley is innocent of all charges.
We are carefully reviewing the presentment and will reserve a more comprehensive comment for a later time,” Curley’s lawyer said in a statement.

They also blamed the charges against their client on Pennsylvania’s Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, saying that Kelly – whom he appointed – had brought the case against Spanier to divert attention from the fact that when Corbett was attorney general, he had failed to bring criminal charges against Sandusky in 2009  – an issue that Democrats have criticized him for. Kelly on Thursday adamantly denied that politics played any role in the case.

The new charges come nearly one year after Sandusky was arrested and charged with repeatedly abusing young boys dating back to 1998, setting off one of the biggest scandals in the history of college sports. Sandusky, the longtime deputy to the school's late legendary football coach, Joe Paterno, was convicted on 45 counts of child sex abuse last June and was sentenced last month to 30 to 60 years in state prison.

Full coverage of the Sandusky trial

Spanier, 64, a professional sociologist and family therapist, served for 16 years as president of Penn State, one of the largest public universities in the country, where he was a popular figure on campus and an active booster of the school's football program. He was fired last year, after Sandusky’s arrest, and is now facing eight criminal charges, including five felonies, each of which carry a potential prison term of seven years.

The charges laid out in a new 39-page grand jury presentment are based in part on evidence uncovered in a report last summer by former FBI director Louis Freeh. But the grand jury report also provide new details-- in part culled from previously undisclosed grand jury testimony and documents -- of how Spanier, Schultz and Curley allegedly deceived investigators and hid key information from other university officials, including the chief of the campus police and, in Spanier's case, from the Penn State Board of Trustees.

The grand jury report also provides new details about the trail of an incriminating "Sandusky file" that was kept in a file drawer in Schultz's office -- documenting a 1998 police investigation of Sandusky "with very detailed information" about Sandusky's contact with a young boy in the Penn State shower and a later 2001 allegation about Sandusky abusing another young boy in the Penn State shower.

This and other material was not turned over to prosecutors despite  grand jury subpoenas for all documents relating to the defensive coordinator between 2010 and April 2012. In all, 22 boxes of Sandusky documents, photographs and other materials were not initially turned over in response to the subpoeanas and, as a result, the investigation into Sandusky was "signficantly thwarted and frustrated," the grand jury report states.

According to the new grand jury report, the Sandusky file was removed from Schultz's office by his administrative assistant last year and delivered to his home on Nov. 5, 2011, the same day the then-Penn State vice president was first charged in the case. A previous assistant testified she was given an "unusual request" by Schultz to never "look in" the Sandusky file and that the request was delivered in a "tone of voice" she had never heard him use before.

The new grand jury report states that the emails and other documents show that Spanier, Curley and Schultz at first agreed to report to child welfare authorities a 2001 allegation by former graduate assistant Mike McQueary that he saw Sandusky sexually abusing a young boy in the Penn State shower. One indication of how serious they took it was found in documents showing that Schultz sought legal advice from Penn State's outside lawyer, Wendell Courtney, who billed the school for a "Conference with G Schultz re reporting of suspected child abuse."

But Curley later changed his mind "after talking it over with Joe" -- a reference to the late coach Joe Paterno. (At the news conference, Kelly declined to speculate on whether Paterno would have been charged in the case had he been alive.) They then developed a new plan to encourage Sandusky to seek professional help. "This approach is acceptable to me," Spanier wrote in a Feb. 27, 2001, email to Curley and Schultz.

Spanier added: "The only downside for us if the message isn't 'heard' and acted upon, and we then become vulnerable for not having reported it. But that can be assessed down the road. The approach you outline and a reasonable way to proceed."

According to the new grand jury report, Spanier initially told investigators in March 2011 that he knew nothing about the 1998 police probe of Sandusky (despite emails showing he was briefed on the investigation) and was given only sketchy information about the 2001 allegation, believing that involved only a contention of Sandusky "horse playing around" with a child. And he later made similar comments before a grand jury, including testifying  that there was "no discussion" about reporting the 2001 incident to child welfare or police -- part of the basis for the perjury charge against him.

The report says that Spanier never told the Penn State trustees about either the 1998 or 2001 allegations. When he did brief the board in May 2011 -- after a newspaper story first disclosed the investigation into Sandusky -- Spanier directed the university's chief lawyer, Cynthia Baldwin, to leave the room and then "specifically informed the Board that the investigation had nothing to do with Penn State and that the investigation was regarding a child in Clinton County [Pennsylvania] without affiliation with Penn State," the grand jury report states. 

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While publicly pledging to refuse corporate money, the official host committee for this week’s Democratic National Convention has quietly and aggressively courted corporate donors — using a sister nonprofit that has been offering firms special “sponsorship opportunities” if they ponied up $1 million or more to help cover the costs of the event.

A 13-page marketing brochure obtained by NBC News shows how New American City, a nonprofit that is closely affiliated with the official Democratic convention host committee,  offered package deals to corporate contributors — with different benefits starting at levels of $100,000 and escalating to the top “Tryon Street Level” of $1 million.

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The companies that reached the seven-figure level got “naming rights” at “villages” set up for a Charlotte street festival that opened up the convention, as well as guarantees that “your logo will be featured prominently.” The firms also got to put up banners and logos at other convention-related events — such as a delegate and media welcoming parties — as well as the chance  to include their logos in gift bags that are being handed out to 6,000 delegates and over 15, 000 members of the media.

The use of New American City to tap corporate funds appears to have worked. While Charlotte in 2012 has struggled to meet its $37 million fundraising goal, New American City has raised about $15 million from corporate donors that include Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Duke Power and Time Warner Cable, according to public statements by foundation and host committee officials.

The courtship of big corporate donors by New American City stands in contrast to much of the rhetoric that Democrats have used to describe this week’s Charlotte convention. ” By publicly stating that they wouldn’t take money from corporations and lobbyists — or any donations over $100,000 — for the official convention host committee, the Democrats have said they are holding a “people’s convention” unlike any that has come before it.

But campaign spending watchdogs say that the operations of New American City (the foundation accepts donations from lobbyists as well as corporations) reveal some of the Democrats’ claims to be hollow.  

“It’s amazing how creative Democrats can be finding loopholes around their own rules,” said Bill Allison of the Sunlight Foundation, a group that t has been tracking the role that corporations and lobbyists have played at both party’s conventions. “It’s the Super Bowl for special interests at the convention. We’re seeing it in Charlotte the same way that we saw it in Tampa.”

New American City is a nonprofit  set up by Charlotte in 2012 — the name of the official host committee — initially to promote “Charlotte hospitality” and showcase  the city’s reputation “as a New South City,” according to the marketing brochure. But it has  much of the same staff as Charlotte in 2012 (the foundation’s finance and deputy finance director are the same) and many of the corporate funds that have gone to New American City have been used to pay expenses that would normally be covered by the official host committee. 

Suzi Emmerling, who serves as spokeswoman for both groups, confirmed that New American City has paid  “administrative costs” for the convention, such as the salaries and health care benefits of the host committee staff as well as delegate and media welcoming parties and the Charlotte street festival called CarolinaFest.

But Emmerling said that no corporate money has been used to pay for “official convention” costs as outlined in a contract signed by the Charlotte in 2012 with the Democratic National Committee. She also said that this year’s Democratic convention has gone further than any previous convention in attracting small individual donors, receiving 85 times more such contributions than the Democrats got in 2008.

“We’ve dramatically expanded the donor base,” she said. “We have gone further than any other convention in trying to keep out corporate money.”

Corporate and lobbying money has long been a staple of political conventions of both parties; the Republicans placed no restrictions on taking such funds for its convention in Tampa. Moreover, while touting its enlarged base of smaller donors, the Democratic convention host committee has also made strong efforts to attract money from big party bundlers — many of whom have invaded Charlotte, taken over posh watering holes like the bar at the Ritz Carlton Hotel and who are attending many of the glitzy parties sponsored by big lobbying groups and corporations such as the Recording Industry Association, the Distilled Spirits Council and Google.

A separate package released by Charlotte in 2012 describes a range of packages offered to such party bundlers and big donors. A “Carolina Package” for those who raised $1 million entitled donors to  “premier uptown hotel” rooms, concierge services, priority access for rental facilities and multiple “gold tickets” to convention events, including parties. Lesser packages for those raising $650,000, or $500,000 (the “Trustee Plus” package or the “Piedmont Package,” respectively) also got premier rooms and tickets to convention events, but fewer in number.

Despite the organizers’ promise to hold “the most transparent convention” in history and initial pledge to release the names of all donors in real time, the convention organizers now say they won’t release a complete list of the donors to either group until they are required to do under federal election law — next month, long after the convention is over.

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Editor's note: A correction had been made to this article. Click here to view it:

Fugitive al-Qaida leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri has released a new audio message about Yemen at a time of escalating fighting in the country that one Yemeni official on Tuesday described as "all-out war."

The release of the audio comes just two days after White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan visited the Yemeni capital of Sanaa to meet with its new president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, to discuss ramping up the battle against al-Qaida affiliated militants who now control large swaths of the country's southern region.

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While there is still no public translation of the new Zawahiri audio message, a U.S. government official familiar with the contents tells NBC News it was clearly recorded before the news broke last week about a foiled plot to blow up a U.S. airliner with more-sophisticated underwear bomb.

The message discusses the transition from exiled former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh to Hadi, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Watch world news videos on msnbc.com

NBC News terror analyst Evan Kohlmann notes that there is typically a two- to three-week lapse between the events described in Zawahiri’s messages and their public release.  (Kohlmann's Flashpoint Intel service is working to translate the message, but he gives the title as, "Yemen: Between a Fugitive Puppet and a Collaborating Stooge," apparent references to Saleh and Hadi.)

Read more reporting by Michael Isikoff in the 'Isikoff Files'

Over the past week and a half, Yemeni forces -- backed by U.S. military trainers and drone strikes -- have dramatically escalated their attacks on al-Qaida militants in the south.

A Yemen government official estimated as many as 20,000 troops were now involved in the battle, supported by approximately 50 to 60 U.S. trainers.

"We have begun to reintroduce small numbers of trainers into Yemen," a Pentagon spokesman, a Navy Capt. John Kirby, told reporters this week. 

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