south america less than 48 hours before president obama's arrival friday, april 13th. >> guests had to be signed in. >> reporter: 21 people responsible for the president's security are accused of soliciting prostitutes in colombia, south america. those include 11 secret service agents and ten members of the u.s. military. now republicans senator susan collins wants to know if what happened is isolated or cultural behavior. >> i am worried that this is the only time that they were caught. >> reporter: wjz learned a former agent from maryland says his brother, a current agent, was in colombia, south america when the scandal broke. dan is a republican from the parks running for the u.s. senate in maryland. he says his brother is not accused of anything involving prostitution. >> i have personal relationships with some of them. one of them happens to be a family member who's assisting in the investigation. >> reporter: now some lawmakers say what happened could have been disastrous had the women been working for let's say a terrorist organization had gotten alaska receive syces to details about the president's security, back to you. >> so far, president obama has not asked his secret service director to resign sayi

secret service and military are investigating reports 21 americans hired prostitutes while in colombia south america prior to the president's arrival for the summit of the americas there last week. >>> investigators in new york will spend a second day searching a basement in manhattan for a 6-year-old who disappeared more than 30 years ago. etan patz vanished while walking two box to a school bus and they are going through a basement along the digging up the concrete floor among other things. police say it was the workshop of a handyman that was friendly with the boych he was one of the first missing children on a milk carton. >>> another scare in the air a los angeles bound plane makes an emergency landing after striking a bird. you can sigh it flying past the -- see it flying past the plane. it happened shortly after take off. the pilot of the delta was able to turn it around and land safely back at the same airport. passengers on the plane were switched to other planes and other flights. >>> starbucks says they are ditching beetle juice from the menu. the company says they will stop using red dye

was an announcement by the white house today about the secret service scandal, the one in colombia, south america. president obama lawyers have concluded that no direct member of the white house staff engaged in improper conduct at the summit. however, one announced that a member of the military who worked at the white house communications agency is under investigation. that would make him the 12th member of the military being questioned about prostitutes in colombia. 12 secret service agents also under investigation. >>> overseas a new warning by the nation of north korea. a tv presenter, right here is reading a government statement as it is a promise to reduce south korea's government to ashes in four minutes, but no further detail is given. the new leader of north korea is untested. his recent rocket launch was a ail failure. south korea says it's ready for any provocation. >>> now politics, your voice, your vote and the photo op that had everyone asking, is this the vice president running mate? it was a man standing next to romney today that had everyone talking. and david muir is here right

plus it may be the 100 year anniversary of the titanic >> president obama down in colombia, south america big powwow on trade, security and energy. the latin america summit coming one week after the president's wheeling and dealing with the leader of brazil. a country we're buying twice as much oil from as we did one year ago. amelia, you say stop making deal to buy other people's oil and start pumping one of our own. >> you start at home before you go out. i don't understand why he's not putting the energy right here. we have plenty in our backyard and we have businesses ready to go and desperate to start doing oil here and he's -- look where eggs! why would you do that? even sales force. sales, start from your graund -- ground territory and then go out. >> jonas, you think this is an old fashioned way of looking at things. >> this is part of the problems of the president's policies. he thinks all business is good to encourage. we're selling 10 times as many iproducts to that country than years ago. that's the trade. they're pulling the stuff out of the ground. we used to do it 150 years

allegations tonight involving prostitutes and heavy drinking on a road trip to colombia south america. 11 secret service agents and officers have been placed on leave and five u.s. military members have been confined to quarters. abc2 news pierre thomas has the latest for us. >> reporter: it was not on the president's agenda going in, but today, the secret service scandal about sex and prostitutes forced its way into the world stage at the summit of the americas. >> if it turns out that some of the allegations that have been made in the press are confirmed, then of course i will be angry. >> reporter: members of congress were calling the alleged behavior outrageous. and vowing to investigate. >> get as many facts as we can as quickly as we can as to what happened, who knew what when. >> reporter: the security detal araved in colombia a week before the presidentch the job to protect him in the country plagued by drugs, shootings and bombings and kidnappings. but by last wednesday officials were said to be irritated by heavy drinking and loud partying disturbing guests. and sources say,

at home, now, 11 agents assigned to protect president obama, during a summit in columbia, south america -- colombia, south america are under investigation after allegedly bringing prostitutes to their hotel room. >> if it turns out allegations made in the press are confirmed, then of course i will be angry. >> the agents could have been blackmailed, by these prostitutes they were married, the prostitutes had leverage over them and could have you know, been in concert with terrorists or drug cartel people. >> the scandal came to light after one agent allegedly refused to pay his prostitute for her services. >> embarrass the president rather than protected the president they went wild and about the last people you would expect to go wild is secret service they keep the rest of us from going wild so they got a price to pay for this one. >> eleanor homes norton sits on the house committee. >> this is a lot worse than relaxing a lot worse than r and r on your time off and a real offence when secret service go s with the president there is no time off. >> 11 employees, uniformed and agents are suspended

being briefed on the secret service prostitution scandal that's erupted as all of us know in colombia, south americation from him. we have all of our reporters digging, more members of the secret service about to be fired, dismissed and what's going on in that front. so we have a lot of news in the situation room. >> and it's friday, each and every friday. i'll let you answer some questions and in this behind the scenes video we call week one. here's a sneak peek here. it's what we call each and every day, it's called the super tease. check it out. >> this is one of our veteran p.j.s, mad dog. that's his name. >> hey, mad dog. >> we do this every day, the super tease that popsup in the first hour of the show. we try to figure out a unique place in the building to shoot it. >> let's do this. >> we try to find a new place in the building and we run out of places and we always try to find a cnn because we always say the united states. >> now. three, two, one. george zimmerman's bail hearing takes a surprising turn, suddenly turning into a mini trial and not only are we hearing from zimmerman's wife. i'

are investigating claims the agents hired prostitutes prior to president obama's aleve in colombia, south america> starbucks says it will stop using extracts made from dried insects to color the drinks red. they got negative feedback from customers and they will begin using tomato based extract in the drinks instead very soon. >>> it is 6:55. we'll be back right after this. stay with us. >>> well, we've got some patchy dense fog this morning but we're going to have a great afternoon. mid 730s some upper 70s south and west. tomorrow some hours and storms -- showers and storms mainly in the afternoon and evening and then wet sunday. could be a very wet sunday and temperatures only in the 50sment monika? >>> serious accident just being reported on the dulles toll road near hunter mill. our sky 9 is headed there. also want to show you a shot downtown. this is pennsylvania avenue at 19th. 19th street will be closed now between e and pennsylvania for the imf world bank meetings for the next few days. so be aware of that. quick look at duke street northbound 395 just heavy traffic here. same story on th

now 11 agents assigned to protect president obama during a summit in colombia south america are undernvestigation for allegedly bringing prostitutes to their hotel. >> if it turns out that some of the allegations that have been made in the press are confirmed, then, of course, i'll be angry. >> the agents could have been blackmailed by these prostitutes. they were married. the prostitutes had leverage over them and could have, you know, been in concert with terrorists or drug cartel people. >> reporter: the scandal came to light after one of the agents allegedly refused to pay his prostitute for her services. >> embarrass the president rather than protecting the president, they went wild. about the last people you expect to go wild is the secret service. they keep the rest of us from going wild. so they got a price to pay for this one. >> reporter: d.c. delegate eleanor holmes norton sits on the house committee whose chairman is vowing to investigate the matter. >> this is a whole lot worse than relaxing and r and r on your time off. in a real sense when secret service goes with the p

: impact segment tonight, at lease 11 secret service agents have been september home from colombia, south americaecause of an embarrassing prostitution scandal. agents and military people as well hired hookers in the coastal town, allegedly some of the secret service guys refused to pay the prostitute and all hell broke loose. this is troubling on a number of fronts because these guys are in colombia to protect president obama. consorting with prostitutes on the job is unbelievable breach of security. with us is lt. colonel ralph peters author of big new book "cain at gettysburg." what i heard this over the weekend, i could hardly believe it secret service has a good reputation, does it not? >> secret service is a great organization that's done tremendous work over decades. over a century. but, you know, as you see with the military, sometimes a sociopath or a bad leader slips through and you get this sort of thing. so i think you had three factors in play. this is a morally slop'y administration. can i tell from you personal experience latin america, has always been regarded as the party contine

obama promises a thorough investigation of the secret service. 11 agents were sent home from colombia, south america accused in the scandal of prs institutes. -- prostitute. >> here's what the president had to say about it before coming home sunday. >> we're representing the people of the united states. when we travel to another country, i expect us to observe the highest standards. because we're not just representing ourselves. we're here on behalf of our people. >> more on the allegations andle fallout. >> 11 members of the see very service -- secret service advance team are on leave and under investigation after some got into a dispute with a prostitute over monday. five members of the u.s. military working on the president's visit were also disciplined in the incident. the secret service team was sent home and replaced before the president's arrival friday. members of congress are threatening to investigate. congressman daryl issa. >> the question is the whole organization in need of some soul searching, some changes before the president, the vice president, members of the cabinet are in danger.

: impact segment tonight, at lease 11 secret service agents have been september home from colombia, south america of an embarrassing prostitution scandal. agents and military people as well hired hookers in the coastal town, allegedly some of the secret service guys refused to pay the prostitute and all hell broke loose. this is troubling on a number of fronts because these guys are in colombia to protect president obama. consorting with prostitutes on the job is unbelievable breach of security. with us is lt. colonel ralph peters author of big new book "cain at gettysburg." what i heard this over the weekend, i could hardly believe it secret service has a good reputation, does it not? >> secret service is a great organization that's done tremendous work over decades. over a century. but, you know, as you see with the military, sometimes a sociopath or a bad leader slips through and you get this sort of thing. so i think you had three factors in play. this is a morally slop'y administration. can i tell from you personal experience latin america, has always been regarded as the party continent. an

a number of secret service agents are accused of hiring prostitutes in colombia, south america, before president obama arrived there. six secret service members already have been fired or resigned. six other agents and 11 military members are being investigated. now a house committee is giving the secret service until friday to answer 50 questions related to this incident. >> i would say the most important question and so far it seems that there is not a real threat here but to me most important question is did any of those porn nationals have access at any time to any data, new information, of any type, that could have compromised the president of the united states or made them -- made an enemy for us aware of the practices and procedures of the secret service. >> the house committee is also questioning if any white house staffers were involved in the scandal. the obama administration says there's no evidence to suggest that. >>> as the secret service investigation wideens defense secretary pan ate is traveling to local yeah today. he's visiting brazil and chile as the u.s. military w

embassy in colombia in south america. 11 secret service agents and ten u.s. service members are accused of bringing at least 20 prostitutes back to their hotel in cartagena, colombia after visiting a strip club. this morning investigators are in colombia again to interview those women. >>> jury selection in the perjury case against roger clemens could take longer than the trial itself. choosing jurors for the retrial has already gone for two days and might not be done by the end of the week. 11 jurors were quickly dismissed yesterday. but it took all day to approve eight other prospective jurors who made the cut. the court is trying to trim a pool of 90 people down to 36 jurors. >>> storm 4 meteorologist tom kierein joins us to talk a little bit about our weather. we've had the threat of rain out there. has it come down at all? >> a little bit. a little bit. we'll take every drop we can get. what a relief it is for allergy sufferers to get some of this pollen washed out of the air and the rain has been doing that, off and on, since around dawn this morning. mo

i was in colombia, south america this past week. we spoke of small business opportunities. at the same time we had to talk about an action from secret service. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 5, 2011,, the gentleman is recognized for 60 minutes. mr. burton: thank you, mr. speaker. i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. mr. speaker, this past break that we were just on, i had the occasion to visit a group, in the gulf area. bahrain is a great friend, not only because they've been historically a friend of the united states, but we have the fifth fleet there. and the fifth fleet is there to protect the interests of that part of the world as well as the united states of america. the straits of who are muzz and the persian gulf is right there and the fifth fleet is there to guarantee that shipping of oil from that part of the world can get through. and so bahrain is extremely important to the united states as well as being a friend. and an ally. in addition to that, bahrain is also a free trade agreement partner. i think

. >> traveling south america, colombia specifically today with president manuel santos. addressed the secret service issue that happened earlier this week. we will keep an eye on this press conference and bring you any news that comes out of it. >> here we go again, another dangerous round of storms firing up in the midwest. the first system killed at least five people last night. we are live with that for you. a white tourist beaten and stripped naked by a group of black youth. and bill cosby is usually funny and outspoken. this time he is not. >> thank you so much for joining us. it has been a recurring theme recently. lives destroyed in a matter of minutes. it happened again just last night and this evening the danger is far from over across a wide swath of the united states. >> this car is going to get hit. come on dude, you got go. book it, dude. >> for many the damage is already done. 122 reports of possible tornado touchdowns yesterday and overnight. most of them hit kansas but parts of nebraska, oklahoma, and iowa are in rubble today, too. and the most impacted c

america's in cartegana. he tauted a free trade agreement with colombia and defended a new round of nuclear talks with iran. but his visit to south america was overshadowed by an alleged prostitution scandal involving secret service agents stationed in colombia. susan mcginnis in washington with more. >> reporter: questions about these allegations dogged the president during his entire trip to colombia. president obama broke his silence on the allegations made against members of the secret service and military assigned to the security detail ahead of his visit to cartegana. >> if it turns out some of the allegations in the press are confirmed, then of course i'll be angry. >> reporter: the president said he expects an investigation to be thorough and rigorous. it will focus on 11 members of the secret service advance team who were sent home from colombia before the president arrived friday. some members of the group staying at a five-star hotel allegedly got into a dispute with a prostitute over money. five members of the military were sdmined in the incident. while the secret service is investigating, congress may not be far beh

we continuously are involved in central, south america, and, in fact, have opened support offices in guatemala, panama, and colombia, south america. this year out of this location in tampa, we have shipped projects all throughout central america, the caribbean, projects in africa, two projects in saudi arabia, and we have another large project coming up in panama, as well as a large one developing in ecuador. we are truly in a global economy. with that, fla. structural still along with the port of tampa and the city of tampa are honored to welcome the of the united states, president barack obama. rahm. -- welcome. [applause] ♪ ♪ >> thank you. hello, tampa. [applause] it is good to be here in tampa, good to be in florida. i just got a tour of this magnificent port. i was hoping to try one of the cranes. [laughter] the secret service would not let me. they don't let me have fun. there were more concerned about your safety than mine. [laughter] they did not want me messing anything up. i want to thank david for that introduction. i want to thank mayor buckhorn for welcoming us to tampa and an outstanding member of con

could you be like colombia in south america where they have been battling for 30 years and continue to battle, then yes. i will not be here 20 or 25 years from now. if i got wrong, i got it wrong. what do we care? there is fighting all around the world. can we live with different tribes in afghanistan fighting each other? sure. i don't know what it looks like 20 or 25 years from now so i will cite it will probably be shooting each other. but as long as we are not involved in it, i'm willing for them to shoot each other. host: we have a comment on twitter. respond in terms of what we're leaving behind. walk us through that. guest: we still have some troops in germany. we have troops in japan. we have embassies in 144 countries. the measure cannot be whether or not you still have some troops somewhere. a global power will have troops in different places. question is the stability and that they are not involved in combat day after day. i believe the residual force in 2015 will still be involved in combat. i do not know when that will end. there is some misperceptions about whether we have

could you have continued chaos -- be like colombia in south america where they have been battling for 30 years and continue to battle, then yes. i will not be here 20 or 25 years from now. if i got wrong, i got it wrong. what do we care? there is fighting all around the world. can we live with different tribes in afghanistan fighting each other? sure. i don't know what it looks like 20 or 25 years from now so i will cite it will probably be shooting each other. but as long as we are not i'm willing for them to shoot each other. host: we have a comment on twitter. respond in terms of what we're leaving behind. walk us through that. guest: we still have some troops in germany. we have troops in japan. we have embassies in 144 countries. the measure cannot be whether or not you still have some troops somewhere. a global power will have troops in different places. question is the stability and that they are not involved in combat day after day. i believe the residual force in 2015 will still be involved in combat. i do not know when that will end. there is some misperceptions about whethe

south america. she was in colombia when she heard about a prostitute at the hotel caribe, complaining she wasn't paid by one of the secret service agents under reed's command. she quickly notified washington and rounded up the 11 agents involved, who were then sent home, a day before president obama arrived. today on "this week," american officials are asking if the culture of the secret service needs to be re-examined. >> i can't help but wonder if there had been more women as part of that detail, if this ever would have happened. >> reporter: but secret service officials tell abc news, there are plenty of women in its ranks, including two deputy assistant directors. barbara riggs, now retired, was once the number two highest ranking official in the secret service. >> has this been condoned? in my experience, it has not. i mean, the secret service, when an issue comes to their attention, they react very swiftly and decisively. >> reporter: we may learn more this week about the fate of the five remaining secret service agents under investigation. one agent, already fired, is planning to fight back. a

south america as promising developing markets for your products. when you think about the u.s. trade agenda south america has fallen off. took forever to get the colombia deal flew the congress. the partnership in asia. is the united states doing enough as a government, apart from what you're doing as companies, is the u.s. doing enough to make sure that american companies are able to take full advantage of the market opportunities in south america for any one on the panel or all of you. >> it's interesting that the chamber hosted a session between brazilian government and us. >> was just here. >> and bet president obama and talked about areas of cooperation, and i think from what i heard from it, i participated in part of it, it was a recommitment to really -- we are the two big countries in this hemisphere and there should be a lot of opportunities there. also the council on competitiveness has a sister organization that works with a number of other countries and in particular brazilian government on innovation and ways that we could spur innovation to the good for all. not just for one country pitted against another country. so, i think the short an

women may have been used as almost bait or lures to pull in the men because colombia is the kidnapping capital of south americaepard: a moral is if you get a prostitute make sure to pay her. >> never pays to be cheap. >>shepard: well, more workers are putsing in more hours at the office without getting paid. now, some of those people are taking their bosses to court. it is a surge in overtime lawsuits across the nation. details ahead. [ male announcer ] drinking a smoothie with no vegetable nutrition? ♪ [ gong ] strawberry banana! [ male announcer ] for a smoothie with real fruit plus veggie nutrition new v8 v-fusion smoothie. could've had a v8. it was in my sister's neighborhood. i told you it was perfect for you guys. literally across the street from her sister. [ banker ] but someone else bought it before they could get their offer togher. we really missed a great opportunity -- dodged a bullet there. [ banker ] so we talked to them about the wells fargo priority buyer preapproval. it lets people know that you are a serious buyer because you've been credit-approved. we got everything in order so that we can

paula reed was recently promoted to boss for the miami field office and all of south america she was in colombia when she heard about a prostitute complaining she had not been paid. quickly she notified washington and rounded up 11 agents and sent them home before president obama arrived. >> i can help but wonder if there had been more women as part of that detail, if this would have happened? >> six of the 11 agents have been forced out in the wake of the scandal. there are reports this morning that a 12th agent has been suspended. more agents are expected to resign or be let go in the next week or so. >>> police in tucson, arizona will resume the search for a missing 6-year-old girl. investigators revealed police found something suspicious while searching for isabel. they won't say what it is. isabel has been missing since early saturday morning. her parents last saw her friday night in her bedroom. >> you don't think anything like that would happen to you. all of a sudden you wake up and you are in that sane o'scenario. you are angry, upset, frustrated -- confused. >>> police found a window t

reed recently prompted to secret service boss for the miami field office and all of south america she was in colombia when she heard about a prostitute complaining she hadn't been paid by a secret service agent she notified washington and rounded up the 11 agents involved and sent them home before president obama arrived. >> i can't help but wonder if there had been more women as part of that detail, if this ever would have happened. >> six of the 11 agents affected have been forced out in the wake of the scandal. there are reports that a 12th has been suspended. more expected to leave in the next day or two >>> this morning police in tucson, arizona will resume the search for a missing 6-year-old girl. last night investigators reveal police found something suspicion searching for her. they won't say what it is. isabel's parents last saw her friday night in her bedroom. >> you don't think anything like that would happen to you. all of a sudden you wake up one morning and you are in that scenario. you are angry, upset, frustrated, confused. >> police found a window to her bedroom open. police will onl

president obama recently returned from the summit of the me of the americas in colombia and the president of colombia and other south american countries urged him to change drug policies one thing that they even recommended was the legalization of certain drugs so president obama wasn't exactly on board here's what he had to say on the subject. i don't mind debate around issues like decriminalization i personally don't agree that that's a solution to the problem but i think that given the pressures that a lot of governments are under here under resourced overwhelmed by violence it's completely understandable that they would look for. new approaches and we want to cooperate with them i don't think that legalization of drugs is going to be the answer so we have facing this pressure now from the president that the south american country because they're saying it's killing drug rylan in their area and they're pushing for reform because simply i mean as we've seen the war on drugs isn't working and the president obama he's saying legalization is not the solution or you didn't hear him proposing any other alternative now

in 1985, a massive eruption in neighboring colombia melted snowfields, causing mudflows that killed more than 23,000 people. throughout south americascientists study the tragedy and vow to prevent the next one. they may get their chance here, in ecuador. the ngurahua volcano threatens a town of 17,000 at the base of the mountain. it is called baños. although baños is very near the equator, its elevation in the andes gives it a mild climate. add spectacular scenery and soeothermal hosprings and you have aibrant urist economy. on the surrounding hillsides, adequate rainfall and fertile volcanic soils sustain agriculture. but the same natural forces that sustain the economy are also a source of danger. hoping to avoid a agedy, geographer patty mothes maps and monitors several volcanoes for ecuador's geophysica institute,nclu tungurahua. she is looking for any changes that might signal an eruption. moes and one of these ways thate hat is to put a prism that's highly reflective, or a number of prisms up on the flanks of the volcano, and then, shooting with this very high-powered laser beam... narrator: the beams reflect off the prisms a

south america. it seems directv down there, in venezuela, and colombia, pulled fox news channel for some reason. looking into it. if you watch it from south america, we know you're down there. we'll try to fix that. all right? usain, thank you for watching

south america. it seems directv down there, in venezuela, and colombia, pulled fox news channel for some reason. looking into it. if you watch it from south america, we know you're down there. we'll try to fix that. all right? again, thank you for watching us tonight. i am bill o'reilly. remember the spin stops right here. because we are definitely looking out for you. captioned by closed captioning services, inc

this mornings big story secret service prostitution scandal in colombia, the incident happened before the president arrived in south america even though prostitution is legal in colombia it is a violation of the secret service, zero tolerance policy on personal misconduct this morning the agency is in damage control. >> agents could have been blackmailed by these prostitutes, they were married, the prostitutes had leverage over them and could have you know been in concert with terrorists or drug cartel people. >> what happened here in colombia is being investigated by the director of the secret service, i expect that investigation to be thorough and i expect it to be rigorous. >> the entire team has been replaced and white house security says security was never compromised. >> for more on the secret service scandal we are joined by ed o'keefe who specializes on congress for the washington post. how big of a deal is this in your opinion. >> huge you talk to people who either were in the secret service or follow it very closely they said this has to be the largest scandal ever the idea you had 11 guys not only compromise the

so he is also facing later this week to central and south america to a summit in colombia. >> very, veryin a lot of ways, his speech in florida, there is the theme of the week coming out of the white house and the campaign. and in truth, these two things move in unison at this point in an election. the obama team and the president believes strongly this bucket rule that billionaires cannot pay under 30% of their, they can't pay under 30% tax rate. they think that this is a big hit against mitt romney, against the republican party in general. that your classic populist messaging. wealthy people using various tax gimmicks to not pay as much money. these are the people who should pay. there will be a vote on april 15th, on tax day. the big theme of the week. a broader theme of the campaign, andrea. which is to say that barack obama is the voice of the middle class. mitt romney is the voice of the upper class. obviously, mitt romney won't let that dynamic sit. he will fight back against it. that is clearly the frame president obama and his re-election team are putting on in this election. >>

congress m, the korean/south korean agreement, panama and colombia, were negotiated in the bush administration. but between 2003, china has secured nine ftas in lay sha and latin america, free-trade agreements, five more are in negotiation, and four are under consideration. indeed, trade is the one place that we have not tilted toward asia, latin america, or anyplace else. free trade is one of america's greatest assets in helping both free markets and free peoples. now, asia, then, we have an infrastructure for dealing with the challenges there, even a rise in china. the middle east is much more chaotic. it lacks infrastructure. many of the pilars of our influence have been rattled by the events of the arab spring. one senses that the united states wants to pull back from the middle east. in fact, sometimes i wonder if the so-called pivot to asia is because the middle east is too hard. we can't afford to pull back from that middle east that is so hard. it's fashionable to talk about insulating ourselves by an energy policy that finally frees us of dependence on middle eastern oil. we should do that any way, we should do everything we can to build north american platfo

the president in cartagena, colombia, there was a bad story and the back story was the countries of central and south america think the war on drugs has been lost and something else has to be done. what do you think, michael? >> i don't think there is any question it has been lost. we see it chipped away here in the united states, various medicinal marijuana laws, sort of opening the door to wider changes in policy. but moreover, i think the bigger point is this war will never be one as long as consumption stands at where it stands in the united states. and so, to my way of thinking -- all the talk about interdiction, incarcerates in -- incarceration, all of those things will mean nothing as long as demand is there. what particularly troubles me as someone who is a political scientist and interested in american elections is how the war on drugs, particularly the conservation aspect, has been utilized to disenfranchise tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people around the country with a law that says if you have been convicted of a felony you cannot vote. so there are political implications to this