One of the accused in an apparent Russian spy ring arrested earlier this week by the F.B.I. has confessed to working for that country's secret intelligence service. Federal prosecutors say the confession from a man who called himself Juan Lazaro is the first. The case has captured the country's attention, not only for the number of people involved, but the Cold War era techniques used in passing off information. Why did this man choose to confess? 

 

The FBI announced yesterday the arrests of 11 people associated with an alleged Russian spy ring. The arrests were made on Sunday in Massachusetts, Virginia, New Jersey and New York. Details coming out of the FBI reports read like a Russian spy novel — if not stranger.  Authorities worked for at least seven years to gather information about the suspects, who were all charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and failing to register as guests of a foreign government. The maximum sentences for these crimes are five to 20 years.

Thousands of pages of Senator Ted Kennedy’s FBI file were released yesterday, 9 months after he died. This is just the first installment of the file, but it covers some of the most interesting years of Kennedy’s life, from 1961, when his brother was president, to 1985, five years after Kennedy’s own failed run for the White House. There are all sorts of gems in the file: unverified claims and documentation of countless threats — some more serious than others — made against the last surviving Kennedy brother.

Could the FBI have prevented a murder?

When Joran van der Sloot was arrested this week for killing a 21-year-old woman in Peru, details of Natalee Holloway's murder rose to the surface. Although he was never charged for Holloway's murder, Van der Sloot was the main suspect in that case, and before he left Aruba to Peru, he tried to extort money from Holloway’s mother.

The FBI arrested nine members of a group called Hutaree this past weekend. According to officials, the group planned to wage an all-out war to bring down the U.S. government.  Authorities said Hutaree's initial plan was to kill a law enforcement official and then plant IEDs to kill more officials who attended the funeral. If you're thinking this is a militant Islamist group, you're dead wrong: Hutaree is a Christian militia group based in Michigan. Hutaree's philosophy, stated on their website, reads, in part, that they are "preparing for the end time battles."

The FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List turns 60 years-old this month. Thomas Holden, a noted bank and train robber who killed his wife and her two brothers was the very first man to be put on the top-ten list back on March 14th, 1950. A little over a year later, Holden was arrested after a citizen reported his whereabouts after seeing his picture on a most wanted poster. FBI historian, Dr. John Fox, talks about the history and impact the list has had over our society for the past 60 years, and how the FBI plans to adapt it for the 21st century.

A rift is growing between the FBI and the leaders of prominent Muslim-American groups over allegations that the feds tried to infiltrate a mosque in Irvine, California using a paid informant. Now, several Muslim groups, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), one of the largest Muslim American civil rights organizations, are threatening to cut off ties with the FBI over the use of what they call "McCarthy-era tactics." It's unclear how much damage the current rift may cause to the relationship formed by the FBI and Muslim groups in the wake of the September 11th attacks. The Takeaway talks to Alexandra Marks, a senior writer with the Christian Science Monitor, who has been following this story.

For more, read Alexandra Marks article, FBI and American Muslims at odds, in the Christian Science Monitor.

Since 2001, half of all FBI agents have been assigned to uncovering terrorist attacks in the U.S. It was unclear how the Obama administration might change that, but attorney general Eric Holder is now saying that the FBI will keep counterterrorism as its top priority, even in the face of mortgage fraud and the deadly drug war on the Mexican border. This comes in a report in today's New York Times that was co-written by David Johnston, who joins us now.

For more read David Johnstone's article, White House to Keep Agencies’ Focus on Terrorism, in today's New York Times.