In February 2007, the FBI and the Department of Justice announced that they would "do everything we can" to prosecute Civil Rights-era hate crimes. The Civil Rights-Era Cold Case Initiative was an attempt to put federal dollars and manpower into closing unsolved murder cases. However, these crimes are more than 40 years old. Few of the cases have been solved and key suspects are dying.

"Secure Communities," the federal initiative by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is supposed to find and deport illegal immigrants who have committed violent crimes. ICE aims to do this by requiring states to forward the fingerprints of people booked by local police to federal immigration officials. But is that how the program really works? More than a fourth of the people deported under the Secure Communities policy have no criminal record at all. Some local law enforcement groups say that if illegal immigrants fear they'll be deported after interacting with the police, they will avoid calling them, even when crimes are being committed.

Fourteen people, mostly of Somali descent, have been accused of providing support to the Somali terrorist group al-Shabab. That’s the group that claimed responsibility for a bombing last month that killed 76 people who were watching a World Cup match in Uganda, including an American aid worker. Al-Shabab have declared war on the United Nations and humanitarian organizations in Somalia. A handful of people have been arrested in recent weeks on charges they were leaving to aid the terrorist group.

Six current and former New Orleans Police Department officers were indicted yesterday in connection with the Danziger Bridge shooting five years ago, amidst the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The indictment charges that NOPD officers shot at unarmed civilians as they crossed the bridge on September 4, 2005, leaving four people wounded and two dead: 17-year-old James Brissette and Ronald Madison, a 40-year-old mentally disabled man who was shot in the back and, allegedly, kicked and stomped while dying, laid out on the ground.

Members of the United States Marine Corps have been shadowing officers from the Los Angeles Police Department in order to learn new methods of policing a city. They hope to take the tactics they learn to Afghanistan and apply them to fighting the Taliban, who are being seen more and more as a drug trafficking mob instead of an insurgency.

Last month, we spoke with Darell Cannon, one of a number of black men in Chicago who claim they were tortured and coerced into confessions during the 70s and 80s by Chicago Police. For men like Cannon, who spent 24 years in prison after being tortured by former police Lieutenant Jon Burge the men he commanded, justice has finally come.

Former Chicago Police Lieutenant Jon Burge was found guilty yesterday on charges of federal perjury and obstruction of justice. He could now face up to 45 years behind bars, after his sentencing hearing in November. Rob Wildeboer, criminal justice reporter for Chicago Public Radio tells us more about the case and the conviction.

Two American citizens were arrested yesterday at New York's JFK airport. The young men from New Jersey, both in their 20s, had been under surveillance since 2006. Law enforcement laid low, gathered evidence and waited until this weekend when the two men were trying to board separate flights to Egypt, and then to Somalia where they were allegedly planning to join al-Shabab, a terrorist group allied with al-Qaida.

After decades of claims by black men in Chicago that they were tortured and coerced into confessions during the '70s and '80s, former police commander Jon Burge now faces trial in federal court on obstruction of justice and perjury charges.

This weekend, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into a law a controversial bill that gives local police the power to check documentation of anyone they suspect to be an illegal immigrant. It has sparked a fierce political debate and enraged many in the Hispanic community. But it has also raised concerns over how local police officers will go about enforcing the law and whether it will lead to racial profiling. Others worry it will burden officers who are already busy addressing other crimes in the state.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law one of the toughest immigration laws in the United States. The law requires police to question anyone they believe to be an illegal immigrant. Critics say they believe that this law will lead to wide spread racial profiling. The law also seems to shift the burden of proof onto the defense instead of the prosecution in a country where pratcially everyone knows the term, "innocent until proven guilty."

Last year, U.S. authorities found nearly 100 fugitives hiding out in Mexico. In 1999, only 14 fugitives were found and returned. The increase is attributed to ongoing cooperation between United States and Mexican officials along the border.

The Christmas Day almost-bomber has left a lot of people scratching their heads and wondering: why didn't the airport in Amsterdam know he was a terrorist, when his father had already reported to the CIA that he was acting like one? Should there be an overarching international security database in place to alert airports to such passengers? Why aren't they in place everywhere now? And if such systems ever become the norm, what will it take for them not to fail?

We're joined by Michael Tanji, Senior Fellow at the Center for Threat Awareness and Wired.com Danger Room contributor, and Dr. Nelson Ludlow, CEO of Intellicheck Mobilisa (which designed an international security database system now being used at Andrew's Airforce Base).

Details are still trickling out on how the alleged Christmas Day 'bomber' managed to board a Detroit-bound plane despite several intelligence agencies having some information on him.  To look at what happened and what procedures may change in the future, we talk with Scott Shane, New York Times national security reporter.

The rate of incarcerations in Texas is on the decline since the implementation of a new program that redirects money from the prison system to rehabilitation programs. Adam Gelb, of the Pew Center on the States, and Jim Marquart, a former sergeant in the Texas Department of Corrections, explain how the program works.

Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is charged with killing 13 people and wounding 31 others during a shooting rampage at Fort Hood in Central Texas. Hasan has been hospitalized at Brooke Army Medical Center since the shooting. Civilan police reportedly shot and wounded Hasan, paralyzing him from the waist down. Trying Hasan in court may seem straightforward to most, but President Obama and several high-ranking army officials made statements in the days after the shooting that some say will prevent Hasan from getting a fair trial anywhere in the country. We talk with Hasan's attorney, Ret. Col. John P. Galligan. Galligan says his main concern is making sure his client is able to find a fair and impartial jury.

The Federal investigation into a Minnesota-based terrorism operation widened this week when authorities released criminal charges against eight men connected to the operation, which allegedly recruited young men to fight alongside terrorists in Somalia. We look at how the case is impacting the Somali community in Minnesota, and speak with Tim Nelson, a reporter with Minnesota Public Radio. We also speak with Mohamed Hassan, vice chair of Somali Cause.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder yesterday defended his decision to try self-professed 9/11 'mastermind' Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a civilian court in New York City, rather than a military tribunal. In a heated exchange with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Holder speculated on whether this trial will set a precedent for how future terror suspects are treated. At one point, Graham asked whether the U.S. would have to read Osama Bin Laden his Miranda Rights if he was caught. James Cohen, a professor at Fordham Law School who is defending two Guantánamo Bay detainees says that Graham's question made the news, but that it's a moot point.

(click through for a transcript of Holder and Graham's exchange.)

U.S. law enforcement agencies have arrested more than 300 members of a ruthless Mexican drug cartel over the past few days. The massive drug sweep against the 'La Familia' cartel was the biggest takedown of a Mexican drug organization in history, according to Rusty Payne, who joins us this morning. Payne is chief spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Here's U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's response to the raids:

Earlier this month, the sheriff for Arizona's Maricopa County, Joe Arpaio, was stripped of his powers to enforce immigration rules by a change in federal law. But the feisty sheriff has said that won't stop him, and apparently it hasn't. He announced that he will be conducting an anti-immigration sweep disguised as "crime suppression" in Maricopa County today. He will face protests, though, as he does it. Valeria Fernandez, an independent journalist from Phoenix, Ariz., joins us with the story. (Read Fernandez' piece on the Feet In 2 Worlds blog.)

Here's Sheriff Arpaio on "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer" explaining that despite losing his federal enforcement authority, he still plans on "locking 'em all up."

Former Vice President Dick Cheney spoke out on Fox News yesterday against the decision by Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the alleged abuse of prisoners by CIA interrogators. Cheney said he was concerned what effect the investigation would have on morale in the CIA and called it "clearly a political move." We’re here this morning with Scott Shane, who covers intelligence for our partners The New York Times, to go over the details.