WASHINGTON — No matter the cost, one thing is certain: It ain’t going to be cheap.

The Associated Press is reporting that New York police commissioner Raymond Kelly says the cost of providing security for the upcoming federal trial of five Sept. 11, 2001 terror attack suspects will far exceed the original estimate of $75 million mentioned in mid-November. No updated figure was given.

Ray Kelly/nypd photo

But Kelly told USA Today that he’d need federal help paying for the security for the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, and four others. No trial date has been set.

The decision to put the defendants on trial has caused a great deal of  controversy. Critics say it will only put the citizens of New York in danger and cost a great deal of  money to provide security.  The Obama administration insists that it will be good for the defendants to go through the judicial system.

Janet Napolitano/bill maher show

WASHINGTON — Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano and the Obama administration learned a valuable public relations lesson in this latest incident involving the Detroit terror incident: Don’t try to hoodwink the public with positive spin– at least not on something so obvious.

Napolitano came out after the Christmas Day incident involving  a Northwest flight and said “the system worked”.  It seemed to have the same ring of credibility as Bill Clinton’s infamous remark:  “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.”

Snow job. (Or in Clinton’s case, the other kind of job).  Both had a cost: a loss of credibility.

Sure, Napolitano backed off her statement and said it was taken out of context. She says she was referring to the response after the incident. And then President Obama stepped up to the plate on Tuesday and conceded that the system had failed.

But some damage was done. You only get so many chances in this unforgiving town. Be careful how you use up those credibility chips. In many instances, once they’re gone, so are you.

World class computer hacker Albert Gonzalez, who tapped into the credit card information of some of America’s biggest corporations like 7-Eleven, looked pretty subdued in federal court on Tuesday when he pleaded guilty, a sharp contrast to his everyday persona as a major thief.

The Boston Globe reports that Gonzalez, who is accused of being part of “one of the largest cyber-crime rings in US history, allegedly lived a playboy lifestyle out of “Miami Vice.”

“He sported a mane of black hair, lived in Miami, drove a blue BMW 330I, once threw a $75,000 birthday party for himself, and was often high on cocaine and other drugs. He dubbed one of his break-ins “Operation Get Rich or Die Tryin’,” according to records in federal court,” the Globe reported.

But the Globe reported that in court on Tuesday he “looked very different. His hair was closely cropped. He wore narrow framed glasses and olive-shaded prison garb.”

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• TSA Screeners Have Access to Terrorist Data Base But Rarely Look at It (Newsweek)