In Eastern Ukraine demanding referendums. In 2009 in fort hood an Army Sergeant killed 13 and injuring many others. Mickey rooney passed away in his home surrounded by his family. His career dates back to the silent era and spans to more than 200 films. Consider this is next. A bombshell report claims that pakistan not only new where obama was, but protected him as he hid. Americas plan to trigger protests in cuba secretly using social media. Plus, who holds the keys to the internet. We meet a member of the select secret group. Can a convicted child rapist escape a prison sentence because hes rich. Here is more on whats ahead. Consider this. Federal education standard some students are opting out. Set lipping for a status quo of mead okay rity shouldnt be the answer. The u. S. Government created a secret social media platform. Suggestions that this was a Covert Program are wrong. A wealthy heir to the du pont paint. Pleaded guilt yoi to sexual acts on his daughter sentenced to probation. Relations between the u. S. And pakistan are mystifying, but a book from a vaet reason New York Times veteran New York Times reporter contained bomb shells about pakistanian intelligence making a difficult alliance complexing. The claim is they knew that Osama Bin Laden was living in the compound where he was killed. That reporting and other revelations were so controversial that when an excerpt of the book, local versions in pakistan were censored and the article left blank. We are joined by the author of the book the wrong enemy america in afghanistan 2001 to 2014, she reported from afghanistan and pakistan for the New York Times and is the north africa correspondent. Its great to have you here. Some of the things you describe in the book is harrowing. I want to start with bin laden. You say pakistani intelligence not only knew about his compound, but they actively collaborated in letting him survive in the compound. In the end thats what i found. It took a while. We felt there was complicity. It wasnt just stupidity that they didnt find him. Six years, just a few hundred yards from the military academy. But in the end i found an inside source who said that they were handling him. In a secret service way you have a desk responsible for him. One man only who didnt report to anyone, just did he made his own decisions did everything himself. He was handling, using bin laden and protecting him. You heard this from a former head of the isi, the pakistani intelligence, but also other desk. No, that desk is a onesource story. I have never been able to confirm it. But i did ask, and its from an isi source, but not the head. They never would admit it, they denied they knew bin laden was there, which is barely credible when you chase the war. Looking at how the isi operates, this could have been there so in the open without them knowing. Right, right. You say that the u. S. Later ended up finding out that that was the case. Right. What was fascinating. I checked it with u. S. Officials, who said it makes sense. They were piecing it together they saw things, they were watching the house and saw things that didnt add up. He didnt have an escape door or tunnel or fox hole that Saddam Hussein was found hiding in. He had no hole in the house, no place to hide and nowhere to escape. It made sense to me that he was relying on being tipped off or protected or good evening able to get out if a raid was coming. It turned out the c. I. A. Came to the same conclusions when they looked at the house, which is why they didnt trust to tell the pakistanis. What do you say to the man that was the u. S. Ambassador to pakistanis, he said he did not believe that the isi knew and the u. S. Didnt end up independently figuring that the isi knew. Yes, ive had a lot of talks with cameron, the ambassador. I dont agree with him. I think he hes interested in preserving the relationship with pakistan, so hes been cautious on what he thinks they knew. He says we didnt trust them, pakistan, to tell them about the raid. We kept it silent. I think that, to me chose shows there was a lot they knew that they didnt tell you. You write that pakistan were undermining our afrts, not that they were hiding Osama Bin Laden but they were undermining the efforts. That the isa was maintaining and protecting the taliban. You say the Pakistani Military and taliban proxy forces lie in wait, as much of a threat, lying in wait for the u. S. To leave, which it may do if we dont come to agreement with the Afghanistan Government in the near future. If thats the case, why are we spending on average 2 billion in aid to pakistan as we have over the past 40 years. Because very have nuclear weapons, they are too important to sanction. That was a disaster when we did that in the 90s. Then pakistan pulled away from america. If you dont have pakistan, you have no leverage. I argue you give that much money, there should be smarter diplomacy as well as the military cooperation. It will be much smarter. You dont give people things and let them do what they want. So i think there has to be much closer look at how the relationship work, and how pakistan could be allowed to do this, because its not possible. Trouble. And in some curious parts of the book is when they smashed the hotel room, when you were trying to follow the trail of the isi supporting the taliban. I was in adequata, a boarder council keta, a border town in the south. We found suicide bombers in afghanistan. We were coming from pakistan. They were being trained there. It was an awesome recruit without their companies. I was tracking that, and then they raided my hotel room, they arrested the photographer working with me. They punched me in the face when i released handing over my handbag. They took my computer, phones and notebook. The the argument was you are not allowed to talk to the taliban. That just told me everything. We havent got that many. The book is the wrong enemy. On the domestic front we are 12 days away from the one Year Anniversary of the boston bombing. On thursday, the Harvard University is mostly heaping praise on the tragedy. The first definitive manhunt was published. The authors shed new light and perspectives to the tragedy. Some of the images are graphic. Joining us in new york are the two awardwinning reporters from the boston globe, they along with the rest of the staff covered the bombing and its aftermath, the book is titled long mile home, boston under attack, the courageous recovery and hunt for justice. I cant imagine anyone better suit to write this than the two of you. It must have been hard to relieve this . It was a difficult story. Its what we do. We saw a lot of value in going back to the scory and going deeper, bringing individual stories together. Thats what you do, telling the story through the eyes of different people. You have the police officer, the marathon director, a doctor running the marathon. He was there when it happened. Why did you choose them. This is a massive story, theres so many pieces an chapters and the week. We wanted to find a way people could test themselves to the narrative. Not have 8 million different perspent tifs, but focus on perspentives but focus on five people. We got by telling the story. You could have in a sense guides throughout the week. Giving the perpectives brings a lot to the story and connects you to individuals. Theres a new harvard report out praising the response that the city had to the bombing. It said that the city was unusually well prepared for the attacks. And you say in the book that in a seran dip to us way that it comes back. With the medical tent in place, it was the best place it could true. It really is true. The finish line is a mile or two of the location. The best in the world. Because of the marathon, you have a massive medical situation, the problems that the runners had to deal with. There were tonnes of volunteers on hands, doctors and nurses. People were really, i think, stunned. As awful as it is to have three die, it could have been more. Had they not had these in play. When you look at the images. The results were as good as they were despite the deaths and these terrible injuries. The harvard report is critical about one thing in particular which is the shoot out once they knew it was the two brothers and they went after them. One thing that you guys raised is the decision to close down boston altogether. What are your feelings about that . You do think if a terrorist can do that, completely shutting down an american city, does that give them too much power . There were voices making the point at the time convict are we going too far, is a step too far. No city had done anything like this. At the same time you have to think back to what it felt like on the morning, and a lot of people woke up friday morning not knowing where the guy was, what the capacity was, wlrfe it was one more person, was it whether it was one more person, five, 10, was is part of a larger thing. When you talk to the political leaders, Law Enforcement who were getting suspicious reports about the guy running away or someone getting on a train. They didnt know how wide this thing was. I do understand it was a prudent decision. You ask people what they remember. Most remember the friday when literally the city shut down. When they found joseph, he was outside the area where they were looking. The house could have been an area they should have gone into but did not. The house where he was found was close to where he had abandoned the car two tenths of a mile. So they had to make decisions about where to focus the search. There was some searching down on the street. But it wasnt complete, and as a result you had a home owner who rambled out into his yard as soon as they listed the ban discovered. Saw the blood on the boat and there. We got lucky. It could have been worse. Had the younger suspect not been unarmed and wounded, there easily could have been another victim here, or one or two. I think the authorities were lucky that it worked out the way it did. Boston being an historic city, important to american history, where will this rank in bostons city. Of course, boston strong had become, you know, a huhshold expression. Hes given the whole country more respect for the city of boston, where do you think it will lie in the annuals of boston history. This is one of the most significant things to unfold in the city. Theres a long history and theres a lot of important things on the time line. The marathon, you have to remember, is a special event and is a celebration of the city, and has been around for 170 years, and is so engrained in spring tradition in boston. The fact that that was the target of the attack makes is that much bigger of a deal. Not that it wouldnt have been a deal if you attacked a red sox or patriots game. Theres Something Special about the marathon. Because of that. I have to tell you, always amazes me when writers do this, which is something you two have done, turning something that we know about, know what happened, and manage to turn it into a crazy page turner where you want to keep reading and readingment there are also reading. There are also positive messages coming out of the book, bringing a tear to the eye of anyone that occasion. That was important to us, for one thing our experience was frag mmented. There was so much confusion. People were trying to press it. It was not possible to understand it at the time to understand it as a whole the way we tried to do. Under the drama and action it makes it a suspenseful story. Theres so much humanity, and so many connections that people made, so many ways that people in boston and jnd reached out to each other beyond reached out to each other and came together. Thats what we found compelling and warranted to share. It was inspirational and there are beautiful stories that you tell beautifully. Good to have you with us. The book is long mile home. Scott helmand, jemaah im actually quite nervous. As u. S. Forces prepare to leave afghanistan, fault lines brings you an eye opening look at what life is really like under the taliban. From girls attending school, to enforcing sharia law. They rely on the local population, and so they need to win the hearts and minds of locals to be able to fight. Then immediately after, an american tonight special edition, explain how you were able to get access to the taliban. Fault lines this is taliban country then, an american tonight special edition only on Al Jazeera America thousands of parents in new york are pulling their children out of the controversial common core tests. They began on monday with three cools in brooklyn having 70 of students opting out. Its happening with parents and kids taking a stand against similar tests. Joining us in new york is a 20 year veteran of the Education Sec store. A former sector, a former teacher and assessment expert. Shes a mother whose 8yearold exams. Good to have you with us. I want to start with your son. Eight years old, third grader and thats an objection. You dont think the standardized tests are age appropriate. Absolutely are they not. Neither 10yearolds. And i start by telling you i taught third grade. Theres nothing i need seven hours over six days to find out. The tests go on for so long. Stress. Absolutely, i hear from parents all the time. A parent told me her daughter cries when she picks up a pencil because shes concerned these a bad writer. Is your objection just to the testing or the common core itself. Its to highstakes testing. Im not opposed to assessing children to find out what they know. We use assessments to then teach. These tests are high stakes, tied to teacher evaluations. The results come out over the summer, after the school year ended so no one can use the information, and its a number. Parents get no information to know how can i help my child. Stakes. You dont have a problem with the standard involved in common core or what they are trying to teach. What they profess to do, trying to do, is to make sure all children have a certain level of education by the time they grd ute from high school. Theres nothing wrong with standards, but the standard are set by experts in the field the teachers and administrations, community who can reflect what we know children need to learn and do. Its fine to have a conversation about standard, silly to attach founding and teach evaluations to one tst. It doesnt make test. It doesnt make sense. All the studies, we are doing ter ill. We are. We are near the bottom. We are. If we implement common core, as expected in new york they adopted it early. It will spread to most of the country, how do you figure out if its working if we dont have the tests. Im glad you brought up other countries. Ive been talking about schools in finland and sweden, where they invest in education. Thats where we need to start, we need to address poverty, unequal access and talk about what is happening in communities and schools. We cant test our way into High Standard and achievement. It doesnt work. You are concerned someone who has been with state implemented programs that teachers are teaching to the test and not focussing on kids all righting. Absolutely, you would teach to the test if you were going to be judged. Just common assistance children are not getting signs, they are not getting trips or learning how to talk to each other and problem solve. I dont want to live in a nation with people cant figure out how to communicate and express ourselves and do music and maths. Thats part of the problem. The testing and all this is leading to important subjects being ignored. They are completely being ignored. Cut out, and children are getting a sense that they are not important. The pressure to do well on the test is being pushed down to children younger and younger. We have kinder gardeners talking about tests and afraid they are not going to cut it. People are saying kinder gart ep is the first grade. It is ridiculous. Children are five in kindergarten and we need to teach them as such. It is incredible that 8 this. They are terrified, stressed. We had reports of children vomiting. There are so many ter tible things associated. What should parents do. Parents should educate themselves. Go to change the steaks. Theres a lot stakes. Theres a lot of information. Theres an agreed video where parents talk about why we chose to opt children out. Diane on her blog has so much information. Every day theres more dots to be connected. I urge parents to do the work and find out. Its a pleasure to have you with us. Switching topics. To use a 2002erlike project to undercut the cuban government. According to an Associated Press exclusive. The program was a cellphone text Service Going around the cuban controls operating between 2010 and 2012. Its been used to organise smart mobs to trigger a cuban rebellion. It was run by the u. S. Agency for international development, which delivers foreign aid, not the c. I. A. At the white house thursday, press secretary jay carney insisted that it was meant to encourage dialogue. Its a development agencies. Suggestions that this is a Covert Program is wrong. It was a Development Assistance program about increasing the level of information that the kuehnan people had and were able to discuss among themselves. For more im joined from washington d. C. By Associated Press reporter jack gilham, who cowrote a report. I want to get your rehabilitation to jay carney saying it was a develop assistance program. What does your reporting show . Documents suggested that the u. S. Agency said that through contractors set up the company overseas to create a primitive version of twitter. Its restrictive. We dont dislike we have access to the internet. Theres a lot less access there. It encourages people to talk to each other. We get people talking to each other. Mundane things about football scores. Theres a build up. One of the ultimate goals is to push the project. The idea of economic change. It worked when it came to describing tens of thousands. Thats right. As many as 40,000, from what we saw signed on. They were able to sign on. They received half a million phone numbers from the cell phone provider. They blaffeded them out. Encouraging people to sign up around 2012. And based on sample messages that we saw, and the some of the people that used the service. It was a hit. Text message was a hit. Text messaging is expensive. It was a subsidised free service for them, and they loved it. People. So they went through jumped