  Although it has been established observationally beyond doubt that broad-line
stripped envelope supernovae (SNe) of type Ic produce long duration gamma ray
bursts (GRBs), that neutron star mergers produce short hard GRBs (SHBs), and
that phase transition of neutron stars in high mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) may
produce SN-Less GRBs, their production mechanism is still debated. The two
leading theoretical models of GRBs and their afterglows, the fireball model and
the cannonball model, have been widely confronted with the mounting
observational data on GRBs and SHBs during the last two decades. Both have
claimed success in reproducing the observational data, despite their complexity
and diversity. This claimed success, however, may reflect multiple choices and
the use of many free adjustable parameters, rather than the true validity of
the models. Only confrontation of the key falsifiable predictions of the models
with solid observational data can test their validity. Such critical tests are
summarized in this report. Conclusions left to the reader.
