Condolezza Rice & Joel Klein: "Education Reform Is Necessary For Our National Security"

Condoleezza Rice on Education: American Dream on Verge of Collapse


America's national security and the upward mobility the country was built upon could collapse if the education system isn't rapidly improved, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Tuesday.

"If you look at why [Americans] are here or why their parents are here or their grandparents are here, someone believed that in the United States of America, if you worked hard, you could have a better life. That's what set us apart," she told a group at the Council on Foreign Relations. "It's fragile, and we have to make sure that's [still] true. If it ever becomes not true because the education system can't deliver it, then there's no hope of rebuilding it."

Rice and former New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein co-chaired a task force that looked into the relationship between education reform and America's national security. American students have fallen into the second tier of achievement when compared to international competitors such as China, South Korea, and many European countries. That failure threatens America's economic future, its physical safety, ability to protect cyber assets, awareness of other cultures, and the country's sense of unity, the report warns.

The task force said America should throw its support behind and expand the Common Core State Standards—benchmarks in English and math that have been adopted by all but five states—to other subjects; provide more school choice to students, so they are not stuck in "dropout factories" that graduate a low percentage of students; and launch a "National Security Readiness Audit" that would determine whether students are learning national security skills such as foreign languages and computer programming.

According to the report, America's educational system is "not adequately preparing its citizens to protect America or its national interests." The Department of Defense estimates that 75 percent of young Americans are not eligible to serve in the military because they didn't graduate from high school, are obese, or have criminal records. "Among recent high school graduates who are eligible to apply, 30 percent score too low on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery to be recruited."

At the Council on Foreign Relations event, Klein said that the country's fading education system is threatening America's identity. If the education system fails, there's no Plan B, he said.

"If people don't believe they can get a fair shake with education, then I think the [national] cohesion erodes," he added.

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OCCUPY EDUCATION!!!

Time is running out for REAL Education Reform in America or Europe & China will leave Our students in the dust!
EFFECTIVE EDUCATION REFORM IS IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT THE COOPERATION OF TEACHER UNIONS.


22 Steps to 21st Century Education Reform:


1) REPEAL No Child Left Behind! Please!

2) Enact REAL Educational Reform within the U.S. Dept of Education & the National Public School System. This includes the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Dept of Education.

3) Link the Montessori Pre-School Experience (4 year-olds) to Direct Student Achievement via Hiring Montessori Certified Teachers to teach in Pre-Schools housed on Public School & Charter School Campuses.

4) Eliminate the current Student Testing System & Focus on Subject Matter Content & Student Creativity to Enhance Critical Thinking Skills.

5) Increase Teacher Pay based on a combination of Qualifications, Job Performance, Merit & Student Achievement NOT just Student Test Scores.

6) Require Parents & Guardians to Partner with Teachers and Schools.

7) Bail Out the Federal Student Loan Program just like Congress Bailed Out Wall Street & STOP Funding For-Profit Schools & Colleges which are Nothing more than Student Loan Mills!

8) Allow More Charter Schools to Operate & Provide More Funding those Schools.

9) Ensure that EVERY Public School & Charter School is Asbestos-Free, Up to Date, has a 21st Century Technology Lab & a Community Garden. Especially Schools in Urban Communities. Offer FREE Technology lessons for Parents at School Technology Labs.

10) HIRE & Train Qualified People from Corporate America to Work as Teachers, using the "Teach For America" Business Model.

11) Focus More on Reading, Science, Math, Art and...... Music.

Art & Music Must remain a part of Student Achievement because Creativity helps Children to thrive Academically.

12) Don't Allow Teachers to Teach the SAME Grade Level past 3 Years as to prevent Stagnation & Complacency.
Don't Allow Principals to remain at the SAME Schools past 5 Years.

13) Allow BAD, Poor Performing, Complacent Teachers to be FIRED!

Recruit & HIRE More Part - time & Full -time Instructional Teacher Assistants for Grades: Kindergarten - 8th.

14) Encourage Local & Global Businesses to Form Partnerships with or Adopt EACH Public & Charter School in Every City & Community. Especially those located in Urban & Rural Communities.

15) Bail Out Student Loan Debt which has now reached $1 Trillion Dollars, just like the Bail Out Wall Street received.

16) Integrate Student Appropriate Entrepreneurship & Tech Start Up Programs into Student Curriculum beginning in the Kindergarten.

17) Make Student Attendance Mandatory. Hold Parents & Legal Guardians Accountable!

18) Focus on High School Graduation for EVERY Student! Start in Pre-School & Kindergarten.

19) Offer the Federal "Breakfast in the Classroom" Program in ALL Pre-School & Elementary Classrooms. Also Open Food Banks in ALL Public & Charter Schools.

20) "It Takes A Village!" Allow NO Student to FAIL! Drill Student Achievement into Every Teacher, Student, Principal, Parent & Legal Guardian.

21) Open Student Career/ Workforce Programs in ALL High Schools.

22) Help Students who want to enter the Teaching & Medical Profession to obtain College Scholarships & REAL Financial Aid prior to High School Graduation.
OCCUPY EDUCATION!!


Sources: Fox News, Mediaite.com, MSNBC, PBS News, US News, Youtube

Times Square Saved From Death & Disaster By NYPD (New York's Finest)

3 NYPD Cops & Street Vendor Stop Times Square Car Bomb From Detonating


Three heroic cops and a quick-thinking street vendor stopped a madman from detonating a car bomb in the heart of Times Square Saturday night, law enforcement officials told the Daily News.

The T-shirt vendor - a Vietnam vet - told Officer Wayne Rhatigan there was smoke coming from a Nissan SUV on the southwest corner of 45th St. and Broadway about 7 p.m., sources said.

Rhatigan approached the car, saw the smoke, and sprang into action.

"I did a lap around the vehicle. The inside was smoking," Rhatigan told the Daily News Saturday night. "I smelled gunpowder and knew it might blow. I thought it might blow any second."

He grabbed two rookie female cops patrolling the area. Together, they pushed hundreds of people away from the scene as they called for backup, he said.

The Fire Department and bomb squad rushed to the scene.

What they found was stunning: a running SUV packed with three propane tanks, two red 5-gallon plastic jugs of gasoline, a clock, electrical components and a canister of gunpowder, police sources said.

"We are very lucky," Mayor Bloomberg said at an early morning press conference at the scene, still wearing a tuxedo and red bow tie. "Thanks to alert New Yorkers and professional police officers we avoided what could have been a very deadly event."

The two rookie cops reported seeing a man running away from the scene as they approached the car.

Police spokesman Paul Browne said cops were investigating a report that someone was seen running from the vehicle at some point and are reviewing security videotapes.

"It looks as if the perp was trying to light it up, and was interrupted by the cops, panicked and took off," a law enforcement source said.

"It looked like someone tried to detonate it and we got to it in time," a police source said. "This is a big deal. It has the makings of a real car bomb."

Cops began evacuating the Crossroads of the World as the bomb squad used a robot to get inside the car.

Tourists rushed out of the Marriott Marquis hotel and several Broadway shows.

Seven big shows went dark, including "Billy Elliot" and "The Lion King," which is located directly behind the would-be car bomb.

The curtain at "God of Carnage" and "Red" went up a half hour later than usual, but those shows were not canceled, said spokesman Adrian Bryan-Brown. Restaurants like Sardi's and TGI Friday's were also evacuated, witnesses said.

Police said the blue Pathfinder appeared to be stolen and had Connecticut license plates belonging to another car.

The man seen fumbling with the device vanished into the crowd and had not been found as of early this morning.

Cops closed a huge chunk of Times Square from 43rd St. to 49th Sts. on Seventh Ave. and all of 45th St. from Seventh Ave. to Eighth Ave.

They were pulling video footage from a number of security cameras in the area.

Times Square had been jammed with pedestrians all day.

Celebrities Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Jessica Alba and thousands of women ran through Times Square in the afternoon for the EIF Revlon Run/Walk, which raises money for research to fight Ovarian cancer.

"The death toll could have been enormous," a police source said. "It was a nice day and the Times Square area was completely packed."

Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly were in Washington, D.C., for the White House Correspondents dinner, but rushed back to the city when they learned what was going on.

Police precincts all over New York City were put on high alert and ordered to patrol sensitive areas, officials said.

The Homeland Security Department was aware of the situation, but the NYPD was the lead agency involved in the investigation, sources said.

"The matter is being taken seriously," said Paul Bresson, head of the FBI's public affairs office at bureau headquarters in Washington.

President Obama was notified at 10:45 p.m. of the situation in Times Square and commended the "excellent work by the NYPD," White House officials said.

"The federal government is prepared to provide support," a spokesman said. "\[We\] will continue to keep the President up to date on the investigation."

For his part, Rhatigan, 47, said he still plans to retire this year after 19 years of service.

"Of all the idiots in New York, I find this thing," he said. "I was almost a fireball.

"It's upsetting that someone tried to pull this off."


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Sources: CNN, MSNBC, NY Daily News, Google Maps

Cheney's Common Sense Approach vs Biden & Obama's Arrogant, European View

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VP vs. VP: Cheney Calls Biden "Dead Wrong!"


Vice President Joe Biden and former Vice President Dick Cheney hurtled barbs across the airwaves Sunday in a split-screen debate over terrorism, charging each other with being dangerously “misinformed” or just “dead wrong.”

The unprecedented dueling sit-downs – Biden on NBC and CBS, Cheney on ABC – broke little new ground, but amounted to a point-by-point recitation of each parties’ view of the war on terror, and how the other side screwed it up.

Biden said Cheney “doesn’t listen” and doesn’t give Obama credit for killing dozens of al-Qaida leaders and associates. Cheney shot back that Obama has a dangerously passive “mindset” that doesn’t view terrorism as anything but a crime.

The two also differed on the use of waterboarding in interrogation, with Cheney saying the president must have all the tools at his disposal to get information and Biden saying flatly that he doesn’t think it works and shouldn’t be used in any circumstances.

Biden had one advantage – getting to hear Cheney’s ABC interview and respond live on CBS. So he took on Cheney’s contention that Biden is “dead wrong” when he says it’s unlikely there would be another massive 9/11-type attack.

“That’s Dick Cheney,” Biden said. “I mean, thank God the last administration didn’t listen to him at the end.” Saying that the White House’s approach was similar to that the Bush administration used successfully in its second term, Biden added, “it seems like Dick Cheney can’t take yes for an answer.”

Biden also defended his own statement: “The reason it’s unlikely is because we have been relentless – absolutely relentless – in isolating al-Qaida,” Biden said. “We agree, the worst nightmare is the possession of nuclear weapons or a radiological weapon by al-Qaida. . . . The reason why I do not think it’s likely because of all the resources we have put on this, considerably more than the last administration, to see that it will not happen.”

In his interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Biden said Cheney “either is misinformed or he is misinforming” and accused him of “trying to rewrite history.”

“Let me choose my words carefully here,” Biden said in an interview taped Saturday night from Vancouver, where he seemed to take a more measured tone toward Cheney himself. “Dick Cheney's a fine fellow. He's entitled to his own opinion. He's not entitled to rewrite history. He's not entitled to his own facts.”

For his part, Cheney disputed some of Biden’s recent comments as they appeared on a split screen, calling a nuclear attack or one similar to 9/11 “the biggest strategic threat” facing the United States.

“If the mindset is it’s not likely,” Cheney said, then it’s difficult for the administration to mobilize the resources needed to combat such a threat.

Cheney did back down from his criticism of Obama’s assertion that the Christmas Day bomber was the “act of an isolated extremist,” saying that Obama eventually changed his view.

“It’s the mindset that concerns me,” Cheney said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” adding that the Obama administration was slow to “come to that recognition that we are at war.”

And he even offered unflinching support for Obama’s strategy in Afghanistan.

“I’m a complete supporter of what they’re doing in Afghanistan,” Cheney said. Obama made the right decision on Afghanistan, he said, “although it took him a while to get there.”

And the two sparred on Iraq, as Cheney attacked Biden’s recent statement that success in Iraq will be one of the Obama administration’s great achievements, calling it “a little strange.”

Chuckling after he was read Biden’s statement on ABC’s “This Week,” Cheney said, “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by my friend Joe Biden.”

“I’m glad he now believes Iraq is a success,” Cheney said, adding that Biden and Obama criss-crossed the country during the campaign, criticizing the Bush administration on Iraq and opposed the surge. “For them to try and take credit for what happened in Iraq strikes me as a little strange.”

If the Obama administration is going to take credit for Iraq, it should come with “a healthy dose of thank you George Bush” because the drawdown of troops and democratic government there are “in accordance to the timetable that we initiated.”

Cheney has emerged as one of Obama’s harshest critics in the anti-terror fight, and the White House eagerly accepted the chance to send Biden out to offer the counter-point to the ex-vice president’s critique. Biden’s taped interview was something of a “pre-buttal” to Cheney’s expected remarks, and his live appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation let him respond to what Cheney did say, which largely matched those expectations.

Biden addressed Cheney’s criticism of the Obama administration’s decision to offer alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Muhammad a civilian trail and to read the Christmas Day Bomber his Miranda rights, Biden argued that the Bush administration also tried accused terrorists in civilian court and Mirandized the shoe bomber.

At one point, Biden said of KSM, “I want to see that son of a b. . .son of a gun, incarcerated” for a long time.

Biden expressed exasperation over Cheney’s criticism of the administration’s handling of the Christmas Day Bomber.

“I don’t know what Dick’s been doing lately,” Biden said on CBS. “We did exactly what the Bush administration did with the shoe bomber.”

The administration’s handling of the Christmas Day bomber has been successful, he added, in getting “significant information from him.”

So when it comes to Cheney’s remarks, Biden said, “I don’t get it.”

Biden specifically challenged Cheney’s criticism that Obama is not treating the fight against terrorism as a war.

“I don't think the Vice – the former Vice President Dick Cheney listens,” Biden said. “The President of the United States said in the State of the Union, ‘We're at war with al Qaeda.’ He stated this – and by the way, we're pursuing that war with a vigor like it's never been seen before.”

Biden said while the Bush administration “did their best,” the Obama administration is waging a stronger fight against al Qaeda than its predecessor.

“There has never been as much emphasis and resources brought against Al Qaeda. The success rate exceeds anything that occurred in the last administration,” Biden said. “It's simply not true that the President of the United States is not prosecuting the war against Al Qaeda with a vigor that's never been seen before. It's real. It's deep. It's successful.”

Biden said specifically that the Obama administration’s efforts have killed 12 of al Qaeda’s top 20 leaders and 100 of their associates.

“They are in fact not able to do anything remotely like they were in the past,” Biden said of al Qaeda. “They are on the run. I don't know where Dick Cheney has been. Look, it's one thing, again, to criticize. It's another thing to sort of rewrite history. What is he talking about?”

Cheney, who as vice president was a chief architect of the Bush administration's policies for fighting terrorism and handling accused terrorists, has been one of the White House’s most high-profile critics since Obama took office. In an unusual move for a former vice president, he has repeatedly issued harsh assessments of the administration’s handling of national security and foreign policy issues over the past year.

Biden called Cheney “a fine fellow” twice and declined to speculate on Cheney’s motive. But he did not hold back in his assessment of the former vice president.

“All I know is he's factually, substantively wrong on the major criticisms he is asserting,” Biden said. “He either is misinformed or he is misinforming.”

In his “Meet the Press” interview Biden said President Obama will ultimately decide where to hold the trial of Mohammad, who is now unlikely to be tried in civilian court in New York as the administration had originally ordered. Biden also did not rule out a military commission.

“I am not ruling anything out,” he said. “A military tribunal is available. It is the less preferable way to go. But one way or another, [Mohammad] will be held accountable.”

Questioned about whether the administration has already decided that Mohammad would continue to be detained if he is acquitted, Biden would not confirm or deny that but said there is “no doubt that he would not be acquitted.”

“I assure you, I assure you, acquitted or not, he will not be walking the streets of the United States of America,” Biden said. “And he will not be acquitted.”

Biden’s interview leaned heavily on foreign policy. And while he clarified his remark earlier this week that success in Iraq would be one of President Obama’s great achievements, which drew some criticism because the Iraq plan was put in place under the Bush administration – “What I meant by that is I think he has taken office and managed the situation incredibly well in Iraq.” – when asked if he believes the war there was worth it he said, “No.”

“I don't think the war was worth it in the sense that we paid a horrible price, not only in loss of life, the way the war was mishandled from the outset,” Biden said. “But we took our eye off the ball, putting us in a much different and more dangerous position in Afghanistan. We lost support around the world. It's taken a lot of hard work to get it back. But we were handed — we were dealt a hand, and I think we're handling it incredibly well. ... I think we're handling it very well, the Iraqis are handling it well. And we built on the positive things that the Bush administration had initiated. And we have jettisoned those things that were negative.”

On Iran, Biden said he believes China, the lone holdout, will eventually agree to sanctions, and he disputed President Ahmadinajad’s claim that the country is a nuclear power.

“It is not a nuclear power,” Biden said. “And I believe we'll get the support of China to continue to impose sanctions on Iran to isolate them, to make it clear that in fact they cannot move forward. The progress that Iran has made on the nuclear front is greatly exaggerated in my view. If you take a look at what's happened-- anyway, I think we've made significant progress.”

On domestic issues, Biden declined to confirm reports that he advised President Obama last January not to pursue health care reform because of the economic crisis. Instead he reiterated Obama’s commitment to getting health care legislation.

“Given what's happened, given the trouble that health care reform is now in, do you think that that advice should have been followed?” “Meet the Press” host David Gregory asked.

“Well, first of all, I'm not acknowledging what advice I gave,” Biden said. “The advice I gave to the president is private, that's why he keeps asking for it, and as long as it stays private. I think the president made the right judgment in deciding that in order to bend the cost curve and prevent people from being victimized by health insurance costs that we had to move and we had to move aggressively.”

Biden said Obama has three goals in legislation that brings down the cost of premiums, gets Medicare and Medicaid under control and reforms insurance company practices, such as denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

“[W]e think it's absolutely essential for the economic health of this country that we move forward on health care,” Biden said.

The vice president also predicted that come the November elections, which will be a referendum on Obama, the climate for Democrats will be much more favorable than it is right now.

“[B]y the time we get around to November, in addition to bringing home 90,000 American troops out of Iraq, the story of this administration is going to be more clearly told, and we're gonna do just fine,” Biden said.

















Biden Swings Back At Cheney For War On Terror Criticism


The Obama administration has been stronger than the Bush administration in fighting terrorism, Vice President Biden said Sunday, suggesting former Vice President Dick Cheney, one of President Obama's chief critics, is either "misinformed or misinforming."

In an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Biden said he thinks Cheney doesn't listen to the facts and is trying to rewrite history.

"I don't think the former vice president, Dick Cheney, listens. The president of the United States said in the State of the Union we're at war with Al Qaeda," Biden said.

Biden said the Obama administration has eliminated 12 of the top 20 Al Qaeda leaders, has "taken out 100 of their associates, we have sent them underground ... they are on the run."

Calling Cheney "factually, substantively wrong," Biden said it's simply not true that the president is not prosecuting the war in Al Qaeda with a vigor never before seen.

"I don't know where Dick Cheney has been. Look, it's one thing again to criticize. It's another thing to sort of rewrite history. What is he talking about?" Biden said.

Cheney said that the Obama administration is failing to treat the battle against terrorism as war. He told ABC's "This Week" that he is glad for what the administration is doing in Afghanistan but he disagrees with those in the Obama Cabinet who "still insist on thinking of terrorist attacks on the United States as criminal acts rather than acts of war, that's a huge distinction."

Cheney said he also disapproved of President Obama's initial response to the actions by Christmas bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

"It was closer to being an act of war than an act of an isolated criminal," Cheney said. "What the administration was slow to do was to come to the realization that this is an act of war."

But Biden said Cheney's criticism rings false. He added that two of three detainees tried in military courts were set free under the Bush administration, while more than 300 tried in federal courts are now in prison.

"He is not entitled to his own facts," Biden said.

White House National Security Adviser Jim Jones refused to get into it over Cheney's criticism, telling CNN that national security isn't a partisan issue. He added that it depends on what information Cheney has.

"If it's informed, that's one thing," he said.

As for the war in Iraq, Biden said it hasn't been worth its "horrible price."

He said the war was mishandled from the outset and that the U.S. took its eye off the ball. As a result, the U.S. was left in a more dangerous position in Afghanistan, where Al Qaeda hatched the Sept 11 attacks, he said.

The war also has cost the United States support from other nations, he said, but he predicted Iraq will have successful parliamentary elections next month and the U.S. is likely to bring home some 90,000 combat troops by the end of the summer.

More than 4,370 U.S. military personnel have died in Iraq since former President George W. Bush ordered the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been wounded or killed.

But Cheney said, "I believe very deeply in the proposition that what we did in Iraq was the right thing to do . It ws hard to do, it took a long time to do.

"We're going to have a democracy in Iraq. We do today ... This is has been an enormous achievement for peace and stability in the Middle East and security for the United States. Joe Biden doesn't believe that," Cheney said.

Cheney said that if the Obama administration now wants to take credit for the success of Iraq, after opposing the surge, campaigning against it during the 2008 presidential race and finishing up a timetable set forth during the Bush administration, then "it ought to go with a healthy dose of 'Thank You, George Bush' up front."

Sources: Fox News, Politico, MSNBC

Obama Admin. "Dithering" On Terror Trial Location

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Stop Dithering, Holder


The terror trials won't be in Manhattan. The other federal court options aren’t much better. Gerald L. Shargel on why Eric Holder should put Khalid Sheikh Mohammed on the stand in Gitmo.

The too-hot-to-handle Khalid Sheikh Mohammed travelin' road show has been run out of Gotham. The cover story is that a vacillating mayor, succumbing to pressure from commercial and residential neighbors, convinced both the White House and Justice Department to abandon the resolute plan to try the accused terrorist at the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan. The more likely story is that Attorney General Eric Holder blinked in the face of mounting criticism and the White House used the Bloomberg about-face (real or not) to escape from New York.

Although there is yet to be an official announcement, the widely reported alternative is to hold the KSM trial on a military base or in a federal prison. There has also been speculation about trying the case at a federal courthouse outside of New York City, with specific mention of the courthouse in White Plains. These alternatives are fraught with their own problems.

The federal court in White Plains, like almost all outlying courts, is particularly unsuited to meet the security issues that are freighted along with a terrorist trial. The closest jail, from which the defendant-inmates would need to be transported daily, is 20 miles away in Valhalla. The courthouse itself sits alone on a vulnerable corner bordering streets that would be nearly impossible to close.

A federal prison or military base would surely meet security concerns but the attendant problems would reach constitutional proportions. The Sixth Amendment guarantees a public trial, a right that the courts do not take lightly.

Only last month the Supreme Court, in Presley v. Georgia, reinforced the right to a public trial and reversed a criminal conviction where a lone spectator, the defendant's uncle, was excluded from the courtroom during jury selection. What arrangement can be made to accommodate the defendant's right to an open trial as well as the public's right to attend a trial if the proceeding is held within a prison? How is the plan to use a prison or military facility even being contemplated without addressing this core constitutional issue?

Trying the KSM case in a prison or on a military base presents an even larger question. The whole point of trying accused terrorists in a civilian court is to make it plain to "friend and foe alike" that terrorist acts, no matter how heinous, cannot shake the foundation of our republic nor its criminal justice system. Holding the trial at a military base or prison is so far outside conventional process that the intended message is defeated. Terrorist organizations would celebrate the fact that we have capitulated to the fears that they intended to instill.

The search for alternative venues will only strengthen the point originally recognized by both the federal and local government: The federal court in Manhattan is particularly well-suited for terrorist trials, as shown by a track record of successful prosecutions, including the prosecution of those involved in the 1993 plot to bomb the World Trade Center. In the federal courthouse the requisite secure facilities are already in place. The federal jail is only steps away, and those steps are taken through an underground tunnel with no public access. The jail itself is one of the most secure in the country, with its claustrophobic "terrorist floor," where inmates are kept in some form of deep lock 24 hours a day. And, of course, a trial in the Manhattan federal courthouse, subject to appropriate security measures, would be open to the public.

But make no mistake about it. A trial of KSM and other designated detainees accused of terrorist acts at the Manhattan federal courthouse will carry with it an enormous price, measured not only in dollars. Lives will be disrupted. Several federal judges, as well as prosecutors who were previously involved in terrorist cases, lived for years under the complete protection of the U.S. Marshals Service. Lawyers and litigants in unrelated cases will face a huge inconvenience upon approaching and entering the courthouse. And it cannot be disputed that the security measures necessary to prosecute KSM will be felt, like shockwaves, through lower Manhattan. So the real question is not whether another federal court or another federal facility would be better suited; the real question is whether civilian authority should have to bear the burden of prosecuting non-citizen terrorists.

The present waffling by the Justice Department and other officials on matters such as location, logistics, security, and cost speaks eloquently in support of abandoning the present plan altogether and holding these trials exclusively before constitutionally constituted military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay. We would first need to recognize that Guantanamo is not the Guantanamo of George W. Bush. While President Obama has not met his promise to close Guantanamo, the facility has become more bearable since he took office.

The torture has ended and the inmate's living conditions have been substantially improved. A military tribunal under the watch of the current administration is not the military tribunal of the Rumsfeld-Cheney era. There is no longer cause to believe that military trials will be unfair or that the accused terrorists will not get the process to which they are due.


Sources: MSNBC, The Daily Beast

Bloomberg, New Yorkers Pressure Obama To Move 9-11 Trial

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White House Asks Justice Department To Look At Other Venues For 9-11 Trial


The White House ordered the Justice Department Thursday night to consider other places to try the 9/11 terror suspects after a wave of opposition to holding the trial in lower Manhattan.

The dramatic turnabout came hours after Mayor Bloomberg said he would "prefer that they did it elsewhere" and then spoke to Attorney General Eric Holder.

"It would be an inconvenience at the least, and probably that's too mild a word for people that live in the neighborhood and businesses in the neighborhood," Bloomberg told reporters.

"There are places that would be less expensive for the taxpayers and less disruptive for New York City."

State and city leaders have increasingly railed against a plan to try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in Manhattan federal court since Holder proposed it last month.

Sen. Chuck Schumer said he was "pleased" that the administration is reconsidering the location of the trial.

Earlier in the day, Schumer spoke "with high-level members of the administration and urged them to find alternatives," said the senator's spokesman, Josh Vlasto.

The order to consider new venues does not change the White House's position that Mohammed should be tried in civilian court.

"President Obama is still committed to trying Mohammed and four other terrorist detainees in federal court," spokesman Bill Burton said Thursday.

"He agrees with the attorney general's opinion that . . . he and others can be litigated successfully and securely in the United States of America, just like others have," Burton said.

Burton referred questions about the location debate to the Justice Department. While not commenting publicly, a department official disputed the characterization that the White House ordered the possible move.

But another insider told the Daily News that Justice officials have been caught off guard by the fiery opposition in New York.

"They're in a tizzy at Justice over Bloomberg," a federal law enforcement official said. "It's like a half-baked soufflé - the plan is collapsing."

Julie Menin, the chairwoman of Community Board 1 who helped rally opposition to the plan, called the shift "a step in the right direction."

"I'm thrilled the White House is reconsidering," Menin said. "The trial has to be moved out of New York City."

Meanwhile, a source told The News that Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly was the driving force behind the push by Manhattan business leaders to change the mayor's mind on the trial.

Kelly made an "extremely powerful" speech to a roomful of 150 prominent business leaders about how disruptive and costly the trial would be for lower Manhattan at an annual police charity event on Jan. 13, the source said.

"What turned this around was when Ray made a presentation to the Police Foundation," the source said. "Everyone went from thinking, 'Justice will be served' to thinking 'We are screwed.' "

What followed was a barrage of complaints to the mayor from some of New York's most powerful tycoons - part of a tide of pressure that led Bloomberg to turn against hosting the trial.

Estimates put the cost of a multiyear terror trial in lower Manhattan at about $200 million a year. Leaders have suggested other venues for the trial, such as the Military Academy at West Point or Stewart Air National Guard Base in upstate Newburgh.

The federal government has said they would reimburse the city for the costs, most of which cover overtime for increased security, but they won't reimburse business owners for lost revenue during the chaos, said Steven Spinola, president of the heavyweight business group Real Estate Board of New York.

"Is the federal government going to give the city $1 billion plus the cost of propping up businesses? I don't think so," Spinola said.

"The mayor clearly has been thinking about this. The tide is turning," he said.


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Sources: NY Daily News, MSNBC, The Daily Beast, Google Maps

Osama Bin Laden Releases Audio Tape About The Christmas Day Bombing

New Osama Bin Laden Audio Tape Emerges


A new audio tape allegedly from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden claims responsibility for an attempt to blow up a plane en route to Michigan on Christmas Day and warns the United States of more attacks.

The tape, which aired on the Arabic-language news Web site Al-Jazeera on Sunday, says "the United States will not dream of enjoying safety until we live it in reality in Palestine."

The tape continues: "It is not fair to enjoy that kind of life while our brothers in Gaza live in the worst of miseries."

CNN could not independently confirm the authenticity of the message, but the CIA has in the past confirmed Al-Jazeera reports on tapes from the al Qaeda leader.

President Obama's senior adviser David Axelrod told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday that while there was no immediate confirmation that the message was authentic, it "contains the same hollow justification for the slaughter of innocent people."

In another section of the audio tape that Al-Jazeera broadcast, the voice says: "God willing our attacks will continue as long as you support the Israelis and may peace be on those who follow guidance."

Bin Laden also claims responsibility for the foiled attack on Delta flight 253 in December.

"The message intended to be sent to you was through the hero fighter Omar Farouq, may God release him, confirming an earlier message that the [September] 11th heroes delivered to you and it was repeated before and after [that event]," he says.

A Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, has been charged with attempting to blow up the Delta Airlines plane as it approached Detroit from Amsterdam, Netherlands.

A security expert said there's a possibility bin Laden did not know about the attempted attack in December and al Qaeda branches may be using it to prove themselves to the group's leadership.

"They were able to get their man on an American plane on an American soil so it is successful by all means," said Mustafa Al-Ani at the Gulf Research Center. "The strategy is there, outlined by the mother leadership and now we will see the branches doing their best to please their leadership and implement al Qaeda vision in their own ways."

Sunday's message would be bin Laden's first in seven months. In 2009, he had six messages. The last one, on September 25, was "to the European people."

In that message, he urged the countries to reconsider their involvement in the Afghanistan war.

"Today Europe is suffering an economic crisis, and its export reputation doesn't hold true anymore, while America is bleeding economically because of all the wars it is involved in," his last message said. "Think about how Europe will fare when America pulls out of Afghanistan. You will be left to suffer alone the rage of the people you oppressed."

Bin Laden is thought to be hiding in the Pakistan-Afghanistan mountain region, according to intelligence experts.



Sources: ITN News, CNN, Youtube

Watch Lists Not Enough To Combat The War On Terror

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Terror Watch Lists Have Limited Uses, Experts Say


Around the world, watch lists are a key but imperfect tool against terrorism.

Experts say simple issues like fickle spelling and incomplete data, as well as deliberate deception and uncooperative countries, all make it possible for a determined terrorist like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to slip through the net.

British officials are proud of their border-protecting list, which contains more than 1 million names, including that of Abdulmutallab. That didn't stop the young Nigerian boarding a plane for the United States elsewhere with explosives in his underwear — a stark reminder of the perils of flawed information-sharing and the limits of watch lists.

"It's not difficult to change your identity in the modern world," said Alain Chouet, former chief of the security intelligence service at France's counterintelligence agency, DGSE.

Analysts say intelligence tip-offs, information-sharing and data analysis are also vital to stopping terrorists, and Britain has announced an urgent review of its watch list system in the wake of the Christmas Day attack over Detroit.


E-borders Initiative

The British list holds the names of everyone from suspected terrorists and radical clerics to wanted criminals and rejected visa applicants — like Abdulmutallab, who was added after being denied a student visa in May 2009 for applying to a bogus college.

The program, known as E-borders, will eventually check all passengers traveling to or through Britain against the master list. Information comes from police, intelligence services and other sources and is held by the U.K. Border Agency.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson said this week that the list had led to almost 5,000 arrests since 2005 and prevented 65,000 people entering Britain in 2009.

"In some countries, there are separate watch lists for security, for policing and crime, for people who have lost their passports and for immigration issues, but an integrated watch list serves us well," Johnson told lawmakers in the House of Commons.

Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert at the Swedish National Defense College, said the British system was an effective deterrent.

"What you have in U.K. is data mining of anyone in transit, on every single passenger coming into the U.K." Ranstorp said. "So even if you are in transit, and never meet a border guard, it's a hostile environment if you're flying through the U.K."

10 Percent Viable


The list has its limits, though. Names on it are not automatically shared with other countries, although those on a smaller terrorism-related watch list are.

U.S. authorities have said Abdulmutallab was on a 500,000-strong database of people suspected of terrorist ties, but not on a no-fly watch list. Britain has said it had no indication the Nigerian was planning an attack, and did not flag him to U.S. officials as a particular threat.

On Thursday, President Barack Obama announced about a dozen changes designed to fix the system that let Abdulmutallab slip through, including an overhaul of the nation's terrorist watch lists.

Chouet, the former French intelligence official, estimated that lists he saw when working in intelligence were only about "10 percent viable."

"The identity of people outside the European tradition is vague. People can change their names, and there is the problem of transcription into European alphabets."

He used the example of the name Mohamed, which can have different spellings and different transcriptions into English, French or Polish alphabets.

Difficulties With Nations

Even passport numbers are only partially viable since passports can be changed, or people can get passports from other countries.

And some countries are more cooperative than others. European Union nations and close allies like the U.S. routinely share information, but Britain's Johnson noted this week that "it is outside Europe that we have the problem."

The Home Office declined to name any uncooperative nations, but said biometric data such as fingerprints, now included on passports and required from all visa holders, would help tighten up the system.

Experts agree biometrics are key to ensuring names on a watch list can be matched to a real individual.

"It's very difficult to fake, and the governments have begun collecting that information massively," said Ranstorp.

Global Effort

Around the world there are multiple — and often overlapping — watch lists. In addition to national lists, Interpol established a Terrorism Watch List in April 2002 in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The list can be viewed by personnel of the international police agency and by authorized police forces in about 180 countries.

It achieves regular success, as in November when authorities in Indonesia were tipped off about Abdul Basir Latip, a suspected al-Qaida-linked militant from the Philippines. Acting on a tip from Interpol, which was sharing information from a U.S. watch list, officials nabbed him Nov. 21 at Soekarno-Hatta international airport with the help of photographs provided by the FBI. He had arrived from Syria using a fake passport.

This kind of effective coordination is more critical to successful security, analysts said, than the watch lists themselves.

Rolf Tophoven, director of the Essen, Germany-based Institute for Terrorism Research and Security Policy, said intelligence failures in the Christmas Day bombing attempt resulted from too much bureaucracy in the U.S. Leaner intelligence services have proven much more effective because there is better communication, and information is less likely to fall through the cracks, he said.

"The different intelligence authorities in the United States are too huge — the apparatus is too large to be effective," he said. "Look at the Israeli intelligence services and their effectiveness countering terrorism and I think you can take one lesson — small but effective."

An Analytical Failure

John Harrison, an aviation security specialist at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said Abdulmutallab's behavior should have set off alarm bells, even if his name on a list did not.

Abdulmutallab apparently bought his ticket in cash, was flying the same day, had no check-in luggage and purchased a one-way fare.

Any of those details — and certainly the sum — should have tripped a standard international security procedure, Computer Assisted Passenger Screening or CAPS, Harrison said.

"This case seems more to have been failure, not of lists, but a failure on the human side of intelligence, accurately assessing the threat and tracking the information to see if there were any links," he said. "It was an analytical failure."


Sources: MSNBC

Obama Halts Yemen Transfers; Re-opens Yemen's U.S. Embassy

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No Yemen Transfers "Right Now"


President Barack Obama does not plan to transfer additional detainees to Yemen "right now," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Tuesday — a stance that could complicate Obama’s efforts to close the U.S.-run Guantanamo Bay prison for terror suspects.

Nationals from Yemen make up nearly half of the remaining 198 prisoners at Guantanamo. Gibbs acknowledged that the decision not to send any more of them home soon could mean that an added number of them will have to be transferred to a new prison for former Guantanamo detainees that the administration hopes to set up in Thomson, Ill. There was never a plan to transfer the Yemenis as a block back to Yemen, White House aides said.

"While we remain committed to closing the facility, the determination has been made that right now any additional transfers to Yemen is not a good idea," Gibbs said. "We would not move additional people into Yemen."

The suspension is for the foreseeable future, as long as the current situation remains, the aides said.

Obama has said the Christmas Day bombing plot was hatched in Yemen, an extremist haven on the Arabian Peninsula. The U.S. Embassy there closed Sunday and Monday because of a terrorist threat. The suspect in the attack, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, has reportedly told the FBI that he crafted the plot with Al Qaeda operatives in Yemen. In addition, the Al Qaeda branch there claimed responsibility for the attack.

A senior administration official said: "The president created the [Guantanamo] Task Force to conduct the thorough work that had not been done before: to review the relevant information about each detainee on an individual basis, including the threat they pose, to determine whether they should be prosecuted, detained or transferred. That review resulted in different recommendations for the Yemeni detainees."

The administration has sent mixed signals on the issue in recent days. During appearances on Sunday television talk shows, White House counterterrorism and homeland security adviser John Brennan brushed aside questions about a halt to repatriations to Yemen.

“We haven't, you know, stopped the process as far as dealing with them," Brennan said on CNN's "State of the Union." "Many of them are going to be prosecuted, some under the Article III courts, and some under — in military courts. Some of these individuals are going to be transferred back to Yemen at the right time and the right pace and in the right way."

"We are looking at it every day," Brennan said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "We're not going to make any decisions that are going to put people at risk. We will decide and determine when we should send additional people back."

Last month, the Obama administration sent six Guantanamo prisoners home to Yemen. However, that was prior to the attempted Christmas Day bombing.

While Republicans have long been critical of Obama for transferring prisoners to Yemen, the issue became more politically problematic for the White House last week when key Democrats like Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) called for a stop to such repatriations. Thompson also said members of Congress were likely to have objections to bringing the detainees to the U.S.

A total of seven prisoners have been returned to Yemen since Obama took office last January. Under President George W. Bush, 13 men were sent from Guantanamo to Yemen.

Last week, administration officials speaking on condition of anonymity told news outlets, including POLITICO, that no more prisoners would be sent to Yemen in the coming months. One official told The New York Times that such a decision was actually made weeks ago, before the Christmas Day bombing attempt. It was not clear why Brennan seemed unwilling to repeat those statements during his TV interviews Sunday.

While Republicans and some security analysts have expressed skepticism about Yemen’s ability to keep returning Guantanamo prisoners out of trouble, Brennan has said that the U.S. worked closely with Yemen’s government to obtain such assurances for the men returned last year.





U.S. Embassy In Yemen Re-opens


The U.S. Embassy in Sana'a, Yemen, has re-opened, two days after it was shut out of concern for terrorism threats, Reuters reports:

The U.S. embassy in Yemen re-opened on Tuesday, an embassy official said, a day after Yemeni forces killed two al Qaeda militants they said were behind a threat that forced U.S. and European missions to close.

"We are reopened," a U.S. embassy official said. The embassy had closed on Sunday in response to what it said were threats from al Qaeda. Washington says the group is trying to use Yemen as a base for attacks far beyond the region. ....

A number of western embassies closed their doors this week due to security fears. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said fighting in Yemen was a threat to regional and global stability.

The British and French embassies resumed operations on Tuesday but remained closed to the public, diplomats at those missions said.

Yemeni forces killed at least two al Qaeda militants on Monday they said were behind the threat that forced the foreign embassies to close, and President Ali Abdullah Saleh said Yemen was "ready to confront and defeat anyone thinking of harming the country and its security."




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Sources: AP, Politico, MSNBC, Reuters, NY Times, Google Maps

"Obama Stop Pretending We're Not At War!", Says Dick Cheney

Dick Cheney: Barack Obama "Trying To Pretend"



Former Vice President Dick Cheney accused President Barack Obama on Tuesday of “trying to pretend we are not at war” with terrorists, pointing to the White House response to the attempted sky bombing as reflecting a pattern that includes banishing the term “war on terror” and attempting to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center.

“We are at war and when President Obama pretends we aren’t, it makes us less safe,” Cheney said in a statement to POLITICO. “Why doesn’t he want to admit we’re at war? It doesn’t fit with the view of the world he brought with him to the Oval Office. It doesn’t fit with what seems to be the goal of his presidency – social transformation—the restructuring of American society.”

Cheney was joining a chorus of Republicans who have criticized Obama following the Christmas Day attack, in which a Nigerian suspect is accused of trying to blow up a loaded airliner with a bomb stitched into his underwear.

A senior Democrat said in response: “It’s telling that in attacking the president and the administration, that Vice President Cheney did not condemn the attack against our nation on Christmas Day.”

Foreshadowing the party’s strategy for next year’s midterm congressional elections, GOP officeholders have eschewed the customary partisan restraint following a terrorist incident, and have baldly portrayed Democrats as weak on security.

Rep. Peter King of New York, ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee and a member of the Intelligence committee, said Tuesday on NBC’s “Today” show: “I think that the administration has made a mistake by treating this terrorist as a common criminal, by putting him into the criminal-justice system. I wish they had put him into a military tribunal so we could get as much intelligence and information out of him as we could.”


Here is Cheney’s full statement:

"As I’ve watched the events of the last few days it is clear once again that President Obama is trying to pretend we are not at war. He seems to think if he has a low key response to an attempt to blow up an airliner and kill hundreds of people, we won’t be at war. He seems to think if he gives terrorists the rights of Americans, lets them lawyer up and reads them their Miranda rights, we won’t be at war. He seems to think if we bring the mastermind of 9/11 to New York, give him a lawyer and trial in civilian court, we won’t be at war.

“He seems to think if he closes Guantanamo and releases the hard-core al Qaeda trained terrorists still there, we won’t be at war. He seems to think if he gets rid of the words, ‘war on terror,’ we won’t be at war. But we are at war and when President Obama pretends we aren’t, it makes us less safe. Why doesn’t he want to admit we’re at war?

It doesn’t fit with the view of the world he brought with him to the Oval Office. It doesn’t fit with what seems to be the goal of his presidency – social transformation—the restructuring of American society. President Obama’s first object and his highest responsibility must be to defend us against an enemy that knows we are at war."

Although Cheney and other Republicans have accused Obama of a muted response to the attack, President George W. Bush was quieter for much longer about the attack by shoe bomber Richard Reid in December 2001.

Obama went before cameras on Monday, the third day after the fizzled bomb attempt.

It was six days after the attack when Bush finally discussed the incident, saying as part of a response to a question at his ranch in Crawford, Tex.: “[W]e’ve got to be aware that there are still enemies to the country. And our government is responding accordingly.”

The day before, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had refused substantive comment, saying: “That’s a matter that’s in the hands of the law enforcement people.” Earlier, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan had said officials were “continuing to monitor events.”

Also, Democratic officials maintain that Obama is, in fact, comfortable with the notion that the U.S. is at war with terrorists. Near the start of his inaugural address, he said: “Our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred.”

And John O. Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, declared in an August speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies: “[A]s the president has made clear, we are at war with al-Qaida, which attacked us on 9/11 and killed 3,000 people. We are at war with its violent extremist allies who seek to carry on al-Qaida’s murderous agenda. These are the terrorists we will destroy; these are the extremists we will defeat.”

The senior Democrat said: “There are numerous other such public statements that explicitly state we are at war. The difference from the last administration is that we are at war with that which is tangible -- al-Qaida, violent extremists, and terrorists -- rather than at war with a tactic, ‘terrorism.’”

As indicative of what they contend is Obama’s world view, conservatives passed around the recording of a statement Obama made while taking calls on New Hampshire Public Radio on Nov. 21, 2007: “I truly believe that the day I’m inaugurated, that not only does the country look at itself differently, but the world looks at America differently. If I’m reaching out to the Muslim world, they understand that I’ve lived in a Muslim country and I may be a Christian, but I also can understand their point of view. …

“The world will have confidence that I am listening to them, and that our future and our security is tied up with our ability to work with other countries in the world. That will ultimately make us safer. And that’s something that this administration has failed to understand.”



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Sources: Politico, National Geographic, Google Maps

Fire The TSA! Replace With U.S. Army Veterans Or Cops

President Obama, It's Time To Fire The TSA!



Today, DHS's Napolitano's response to the "crotchbomber": "We're looking to make sure that this sort of incident cannot recur." But the TSA's response to Abdulmutalib's attempt makes one thing clear: We must stop pretending the TSA is making us safer.

Security expert Bruce Schneier nails the core incompetency: "For years I've been saying 'Only two things have made flying safer since 9/11: the reinforcement of cockpit doors, and the fact that passengers know now to resist hijackers.'"

So what has the TSA done in response to the attempted attack? They've told airlines to make passengers stay in their seats during the last hour of flight. They've made it verboten for passengers to hold anything in their laps, again only during the last hour of flight. Perhaps most hilariously telling, they've forbidden pilots from announcing when a plane is flying over certain cities and landmarks.

There is no other way to interpret it: The TSA is saying clearly that they can't prevent terrorists from getting explosives on airplanes, but by god, they'll make sure those planes explode only when the TSA says it's okay.

I want our government to prevent terrorism and to make flights safer. But we are spending billions of dollars and man-hours to fight a threat that is less likely to kill a traveler than being struck by lightning. In the last decade, according to statistician Nate Silver, there has been "one terrorist incident per 11,569,297,667 miles flown the equivalent to 1,459,664 trips around the diameter of the Earth, 24,218 round trips to the Moon, or two round trips to Neptune."

(Sadly, this does mean that in the future we can expect one out of every two round-trip flights to Neptune to be hijacked.)

The TSA isn't saving lives. We, the passengers, are saving our own. Since its inception, the TSA has been structured in such a way as to prevent specific terror scenarios, attempting to disrupt a handful of insanely specific tactics, while continuing to disenfranchise and demoralize the citizens who are actually doing the work that a billion-dollar government agency—an agency that received an additional $128 million just this year for new checkpoint explosive screening technology—has failed to do.

We just had the first legitimate attempted attack in years, and the TSA changes the threat level from orange...to orange.

This goes far beyond simple customer satisfaction issues like "Take Back Takeoff."
(Although they are of a kind.)

It has to do with wildly irrationally response of a government agency in the face of failure. An agency whose leader, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, said at first blush that the attempted attack showed that—here comes the Katrina-class foot-in-mouth—"the system worked."

I don't want to die on an airplane. I don't want to die in my home while eating an organic bagel infested with parasites that lay eggs on my liver. I don't want to die from starvation or bad water or a thousand other things that I pay our government to monitor and regulate.

But I also don't expect the government to protect from the literally endless possibilities and threats that could occur at any point to end my life or the life of the few I love.

It's been nearly a decade since terrorists used airplanes to attack our country, and last week's attempt makes it clear that the lack of terrorist attacks have nothing to do with the increasing gauntlet of whirring machines, friskings, and arbitrary bureaucratic provisions, but simply that for the most part, there just aren't that many terrorists trying to blow up planes. Because god knows if there were, the TSA isn't capable of stopping them.

We're just one bad burrito away from the TSA forcing passengers to choke back an Imodium and a Xanax before being hogtied to our seats.

President Obama, don't let this attack—this one attack that was thankfully stopped by smart, fearless passengers and airline staff—take us further in the wrong direction. I don't think I'm alone in feeling this way. Americans of all stripes and affiliation standing up to say, "This isn't working. We gave you our money. You're not making us safer." We appreciate the attempt to make us safer and acknowledge that it came from an honest attempt to protect American (and the rest of the world's) lives.

But it's a failure. It's wrongheaded. It's a farce. Tear it down. Put the money towards the sort of actions at which our government excels, like intelligence. The failure of the TSA leaves us no choice, but it's okay. The American people are ready to take back the responsibility for our own safety. Really, we already have.



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Sources: Gizmodo, The Daily Beast, CNN, CBS News, Fox News, Youtube, Google Maps