I asked myself this question, on assignment, when General Michael Hayden retired from the Air Force after 39 years of service. How many of us do anything for 39 years? OK, how many of us do anything we ARE proud of for 39 years?

You know Gen. Hayden from his “day job” as the CIA Director, a post he’s held since May 2006, and one he’s keeping. What many people don’t realize is that Gen. Hayden is also a four star. He is the highest ranking intelligence officer in the Armed Forces.

The ceremony at Bolling Air Force Base, just outside of Washington, was a virtual Rolodex of the intelligence community: the DNI, the Deputy DNI, the former head of the NCTC, the former CIA director, Gen. Hayden’s No. 2, acting general counsel for the agency, head of the Coast Guard…..

The ceremony was short, but powerful with moments of real humor. Did you know that the CIA Director at one time sold hairbrushes and combs door to door? He is also a die hard Steelers fan. He once worked as a bellhop. Check out the clips: two from Defense Secretary Gates (below) and the other from Gen. Hayden (above). This is a human side of the intelligence world you seldom see.

Gen. Hayden joined the Air Force when he was at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. In his early 20’s, Gen. Hayden told the group, that he had never been on a plane and that this career choice would take him all over the world. One of the most moving moments came when the general thanked his wife Jeanine for her service to the country. His family presented him with an American flag which had flown at each of their assignments. It was powerful because, as he said, his success was not possible without his family.

So ask yourself the same question. How much of your success is due to the help of others? I’d like to begin by thanking our DC intern Natalee Morales who helped me select the clips!

For the first time today, I saw a man I have covered for nearly seven years.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is nothing like the mug shot we have all seen. No dark hair. No white T-shirt. He is now in full warrior mode. A long white and grey beard. Traditional head covering. Thick military issue glasses. As we waited for the hearing to begin, I was struck by how quickly Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) took control of the group. He had not seen them in years, his four fellow accused, but they smiled and laughed like old friends.

The five defendants sat in single file, each at this own desk with military and civilian attorneys and they delighted in mocking the military commissions, as imperfect as they are. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed leaned over and whispered to his fellow defendant Wallid Bin Attash, accused of running a training camp for the hijackers. Quickly, Bin Attash leaned over to Ramzi Binalsheib and whispered the message. It was passed down the line. All of them knew to follow KSM’s lead and today each one said they did not want any government are choosing to represent themselves. In other words, they will use these commissions, for their own purpose, to showcase Al Qaeda and their wish to die.

Click here to read the story from foxnews.com >>

KSM showed today, that after five years of captivity, after spending time in a CIA secret prison where he was waterboarded, he still has the drive to control the men around him. He still has the desire to make a mockery of this country.

This is just the beginning. Even military lawyers assigned to the case are questioning its legitimacy, their lack of access to their clients, their inability to establish a working relationship. But what we saw in court today, a small slice of history, questioned whether KSM and the others just want to be martyrs.

You never know where the next story will come from.

One of my FOX colleagues, Andy Ryan, a reservist, has been deployed in Iraq for the last 18 months. We’ve been shooting emails back and forth for a while and just a few weeks ago he sent one that really caught my attention.

The email boiled down to this: Can one soldier and his camera really change Iraq one picture at a time…..

The whole concept got me wondering and once I saw Staff Sgt. Joe Cox’s pictures it was clear to me that Cox was capturing through his lens, the humanity that is often lacking in our coverage of Iraq. We often talk about this war in big broad strokes, but I thought, Cox’s story would provide an intimate look at the war and the people living it.

Cox takes pictures from his Stryker while they are on patrol. Then, once back base, he prints them out to hand out to the villagers when he returns.He has become so famous in some areas they run into the streets, sometimes in their best clothes, to get their picture taken.

There is such poverty, many of them don’t have a single family picture. It’s not often a story or an individual really moves you. The pictures are powerful.

Can a picture paint a thousand words and make a difference?

Keep Reading …

This story seemed straight forward this morning when I started: How many detainees who are released or transferred from Gitmo have wound up on the battlefield again with the goal of killing Americans? But the more you report this story, the more you realize, the Pentagon doesn’t have a good handle on how many detainees are involved and some lawyers argue that their clients, the detainees, got radicalized after spending years in Gitmo without charge.

Cully Stimson, a former senior policy adviser on detainees to the president, told me that these detainees are trained to lie. It is part of their terror training – that is why Stimson says – it can be so hard to make the case they are enemy combatants. Stimson put it this way:

“You find a guy, who says he’s a sheep herder in the mountains of Afghanistan, he has 25k cash on him and a GPS recorder and he’s found with 200 rpgs. Is he a sheep herder? No. And so this is a typical type of cover story.”

According to the Pentagon’s statistics, and I mention the source because it’s always important to know the source and their agenda, of the 500 detainees released from Guantanamo Bay, about 36 are confirmed or suspected of returning to the battlefield. That is roughly 7 percent.

Among the group, Mohammed Nayim Farouq (top left) who according to military officials, quickly renewed his relationship with the Taliban and Al Qaeda after his release in July 2003.

Also, a Russian, Ruslan Odizhev, (bottom) who was killed in June 2007 after being transferred along with 7 other detainees to Moscow in 2004.

And Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi, (top right) who the military now links to a suicide bombing in mosul last month that killed 7. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said today that some countries don’t even want the detainees back – period.

“I think we do as careful a vetting job as we possibly can before releasing these people. There are a lot, um, there are a lot of, prisoners down there frankly, that we would be prepared to turn over to their home government , but the home government isn’t prepared to receive them.”

I learned today that the conditions of each detainee’s transfer can vary dramatically. They could be transferred back to their home country and the only condition is that their passport is handed over. Each case is negotiated separately between the us and the host country.

A source familiar with a number of detainee cases told me the real problem is that there is no process at Gitmo. There is no way for a court to decide who should be held and who should be freed. And that in some cases, these guys become so angry and so frustrated, that if they didn’t hate the us before they got to Gitmo, they do now.

What should we do? Because the problem of possible radicalization is more pronounced in Iraq where, one contact claims, more than 20,000 are being held.

Late Monday, I got a tip from one of my contacts. It was one of those tips where a little negotiating went on. I couldn’t air the story right away, but I could “go with it” after midnight. So I am writing this story around 5 with the idea it will go up on the Web in about seven hours. I will also do an “as-live” that is TV speak for a taped report that “looks live” for the overnight headlines.

The new report, obtained by FOX News, claims that cigarette smuggling is generating big bucks for terror groups overseas. The total terror funding is estimated to be in the millions of dollars annually.

The ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, Peter King, who called for the investigation said, “This is a very serious homeland security issue, one that has gone unnoticed for far too long. Cigarette smugglers are able to generate millions of dollars in illegal profits with a great deal of this wealth being sent to terrorist groups overseas – groups that would like nothing more than to inflict devastating harm on our country and its citizens.” The fifteen page report, obtained by FOX, includes intelligence from law enforcement sources as well as New York State’s Department of Taxation and Finance. The report reads in part:

“Historically, the low-risk, high profitability of the illicit cigarette trade served as a gateway for traditional criminal traffickers to move into lucrative and dangerous criminal enterprises such as money laundering, arms dealing, and drug trafficking. Recent law enforcement investigations, however, have directly linked those involved in illicit tobacco trade to infamous terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah, Hamas and Al Qaeda.”

One of the key issues, according to the report, is what maybe a fundamental flaw in New York state policy. In that state, according to the Congressman King’s office, there is a policy of “forebearance,” or refusing to collect on sales of Native American tax-free cigarettes to non-Native Americans. Critics of the policy say it has effectively created a safe haven for smugglers. In some cases, the report claims that a well-organized operation can generate up to $300,000 per week with a loss of up to $576 million in tax revenues to New York State.

According to the report, citing federal and New York state law enforcement sources, nearly 60 percent of all convenience retail outlets in New York City are now Arab-owned, primarily families of Lebanese, Yemeni, Jordanian and Palestinian descent. While the vast majority of retailers are operating above board, some are not, seeking their supplies from Native American reservations. The benefits of tax-free cigarettes are obvious.