Terrorism

American journalist David Rohde escaped last year from a Taliban stronghold in northern Pakistan after being held for seven months. It's the same region where the suspected Times Square bomber reportedly trained. Rohde, who is currently on leave from The New York Times, explains the conflicted history of the region.

Attorney General Eric Holder has come under fire, mostly from the Republican side of the aisle, for the decision to try Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a civilian court — and for the handling of "underwear bomber" Umar Abdulmutallab after his arrest. New Yorker journalist Jane Mayer looks at growing partisan differences about national security.

How does organized crime influence terrorism? Investigative journalist David Kaplan discusses the relationship between terrorism and criminal syndicates, and how that relationship may have played out in the recent attacks on Mumbai.

President Obama has said he wouldn't send more troops to Afghanistan if he didn't think the security of the American people was at stake. Peter Bergen gives us an update on the threat: what's left of the Taliban and its connection to al-Qaida.

Charles Sennott has been reporting on the Taliban since 1995. He recently returned to Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he revisited the people and places he got to know through his reporting.

Tobacco smuggling is a lucrative business used to fund terrorist organizations around the world, according to a new report. David Kaplan, editor of "Tobacco Underground," explains how the illicit trade fuels organized crime.

Journalist Jane Mayer expects that an upcoming Supreme Court case will force the Obama administration to clarify its policy towards fighting terrorism — and define its stance on preventative detention of suspected terrorists.

The Newsweek journalist writes that the NYPD has become one of the world's best intelligence-gathering operations; his book Securing the City explores New York City's creation of an elite counter-terror force.

The seventh season of 24 premieres this Sunday. Critic David Bianculli assesses the four-hour, two-night return of counterterrorist Jack Bauer — who's got some new allies, and some new enemies.

Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid discusses the Bush Administration's policies concerning Afghanistan and Pakistan and speculates about the changes President-elect Barack Obama may bring to the area.

A two-hour self-contained 24 movie on Fox follows Jack Bauer to Africa, where he's hiding out from his own government and working at a charity boys' school. But as reviewer David Bianculli reports, wherever Bauer is, trouble surely follows.

David Edelstein reviews Body Of Lies, a new spy thriller directed by Ridley Scott and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe. Set in Iraq and Syria, the film charts a young CIA operative's growing disillusionment with his superiors in Washington.

Radical bombers battle strikebreaking capitalists while Clarence Darrow squares off against the "American Sherlock Holmes" in this very popular history of a trial that mixed murder, politics and celebrity in 1910 Los Angeles.

In his latest movie, Traitor, Don Cheadle plays a CIA operative who goes undercover to work with a terrorist group — but then becomes a suspected terrorist himself.

Journalist Ahmed Rashid's new book, Descent into Chaos, examines the Unites States' nation-building efforts in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia. Rashid argues that U.S. efforts have failed — and served to destabilize the region further.

In 2005, The New York Times revealed that the National Security Agency had performed wiretaps and other surveillance without court orders. It was a story the Bush administration hoped to keep under wraps, says reporter Eric Lichtblau. Lichtblau's new book is Bush's Law.

Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid, a regular Fresh Air analyst, joins Terry Gross for an update on Pakistani politics after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

Mohammed Hafez, author of Suicide Bombers in Iraq: The Strategy and Ideology of Martyrdom, says the overwhelming majority of suicide bombers in Iraq are non-Iraqi volunteers. He says the war has unleashed a new generation of Muslim militants who care little about national boundaries. They're driven instead, he says, by the ideal of defending Muslims whoever and wherever they are.

Hafez is a visiting professor of political science at the University of Missouri in Kansas City. He's also the author of Manufacturing Human Bombs: The Making of Palestinian Suicide Bombers.

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf faces protests at home — and given his stance on the Taliban, eroding support in the West as well. Journalist and author Ahmed Rashid parses the challenges and possibilities of contemporary Pakistani politics.

Middle East policy expert Daniel Byman talks about the effect of the war in Iraq on state-sponsored terrorism.

Byman is the director at the Center for Peace and Security Studies at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where he is also a professor.