As a standoff between Somali pirates and U.S warships continues in the Indian Ocean, a British think tank released a report today showing the growth of piracy off the Somali coast. According to Chatham House, piracy in the region has doubled in 2008 over the previous year. It threatens to disrupt international trade and could potentially become a weapon of international terrorism.
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Chinese state media report that police arrested 22 people accused of involvement in a network that produced, sold and added the industrial chemical melamine to milk. BBC Correspondent Vaudine England joins The Takeaway from Hong Kong, where British chocolate manufacturers have recalled some China-made products.
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It sounds like a fantastic tale — pirates, ransoms and hijacked tanks — but today, a Ukrainian ship with 33 tanks and other military hardware on board was hijacked by Somali pirates. A U.S. destroyer and at least two other foreign warships have surrounded the hijacked vessel, currently moored off the coast of central Somalia. The pirates have demanded a ransom for the ship's release. They've told the BBC they are not afraid and have enough food to withstand a siege.
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Jury selection begins today in the trial of five men accused of plotting a terrorist attack on the army base in Fort Dix, New Jersey. The Muslim men, all in their 20s, were taken into FBI custody in May 2007 after a tip from a store clerk asked to dub a videotape containing scenes of men with weapons and cries for jihad.
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India has become the first country to convict a person of a crime based on a brain scan. This past summer, a woman was given a life sentence for murder after prosecutors strapped her to memory-scanning electrodes and ran a test called Brain Electrical Oscillations Signature, or BEOS. Could this be coming to America anytime soon?
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A serial killer has killed 10 young black women and one man in Los Angeles since 1985. The killer went dormant for years, occasionally reemerging. Eight unsolved homicides from the 1980s show links to DNA tests and ballistics from a 2002 case, then one in 2003 and another in 2007. Police knew a deadly stalker was in their midst a year ago, and ordered a special task force. But no one told the public or families of the victims until the story broke in the L.A. Weekly. The Takeaway talks to journalist Christine Pelisek about a killer in L.A. who has been around for 22 years, lays dormant and then strikes, and is now known as the “Grim Sleeper."
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On September 10th Charles Dean Hood will die by lethal injection — or not. He’s already received five stays of execution, which is not unusual for death row. What is unusual is why: there are credible allegations that the judge who presided over Hood’s trial was, during the trial, having an affair with the prosecutor who handled the case against Hood. For the latest developments we spoke with Michael Hall, Senior Editor of Texas Monthly. He’s been corresponding with Hood since 2002.
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WNYC reporter Bob Hennelly and Chicago Public Radio reporter Ben Calhoun
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This week in Riverside, California a civilian jury is being asked to decide whether a former US Marine committed a criminal act during the course of his military service. The verdict aside, this case is a first for US courts. The case establishes a precedent by allowing military contractors and ex-military to be prosecuted for crimes committed overseas. The Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, was passed in 2002, but this is the first time it’s been tried in US courts. The Takeaway talks to Steven Cuevas, a reporter from KPCC who has been following the trial from California
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Forget Red State - Blue State politics. But don't forget that all politics is local. The Christian Science Monitor's Patchwork Nation project is redefining political geography based on social and economic data, and in the process is clarifying the issues that will matter to Americans come November.
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Guest: Lamont Hiebert, lead singer and songwriter for the band Ten Shekel Shirt and co-founder of the organization Love146.
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The Archdiocese of Chicago agreed to a $12.7-million settlement six years after the first Catholic Church sex abuse scandal broke. Despite the Pope’s call for change, has the church addressed this problem?
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Guest: Lee Israel, biographer, copy editor, author of “Can You Ever Forgive Me? Memoirs of a Literary Forger”
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A Michigan judge ordered Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to jail for breaking a bond agreement Thursday. Kilpatrick, who is facing eight felony charges for allegedly lying under oath, says he went to nearby Windsor, Ontario, on official business to push the sale of the city’s Michigan-to-Ontario underwater link.
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The FBI has arrested two people in connection with a multimillion-dollar Medicaid/Medi-Cal scam involving three private hospitals and hundreds — possibly thousands — of homeless people. This is an ongoing investigation — more arrests could come.
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Guest: Jonathan Mahler, author and New York Times contributing writer. Mahler wrote the book "The Challenge: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and the Fight over Presidential Power."
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Guest: Abdullah Faruuq, Imam of the Mosque for the Praising of Allah. Aafia Siddiqui attended his mosque.
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The Department of Justice said yesterday that Army scientist Bruce Ivins was the sole person responsible for anthrax deaths in 2001. New documents in the investigation have been made public. View and discuss the documents in the case of Bruce Ivins, suspect in the 2001 anthrax mailings.
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Osama bin Laden’s former driver, Salim Hamdan, was found guilty of war crimes, but acquitted on conspiracy charges Wednesday.
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The Department of Justice released 66 documents Wednesday related to the case against federal laboratory scientist Bruce Ivins. Ivins was suspected of mailing anthrax-lined letters, causing a second terrorism scare in 2001, before committing suicide last week. The FBI says Ivins acted alone; Ivins' lawyers say the case has "heaps of innuendo." As questions remain over why it took investigators 6 years to create a case against Ivins, The Takeaway is offering the documents for you to analyze and discuss with other readers.

• Document #1 motion to unseal read | comment
• Document #2 order to unseal read | comment
• Document #3 07-524-M-01 attachment read | comment
• Document #4 07-524-M-01 search warrant read | comment
• Document #5 07-524-M-01 search warrant affidavit read | comment
• Document #6 07-524-M-01 search warrant application read | comment
• Document #7 07-524-M-01 search warrant return read | comment
• Document #8 07-524-M-01 read | comment
• Document #9 07-525-M-01 search warrant read | comment
• Document #10 07-525-M-01 search warrant affidavit read | comment
• Document #11 07-525-M-01 search warrant application read | comment
• Document #12 07-525-M-01 search warrant return read | comment
• Document #13 07-526-M-01 search warrant read | comment
• Document #14 07-526-M-01 search warrant affidavit read | comment
• Document #15 07-526-M-01 search warrant application read | comment
• Document #16 07-526-M-01 search warrant return read | comment
• Document #17 07-527-M-01 search warrant read | comment
• Document #18 07-527-M-01 search warrant affidavit read | comment
• Document #19 07-527-M-01 search warrant application read | comment
• Document #20 07-527-M-01 search warrant return read | comment
• Document #21 07-528-M-01 search warrant read | comment
• Document #22 07-528-M-01 search warrant affidavit read | comment
• Document #23 07-528-M-01 search warrant application read | comment
• Document #24 07-528-M-01 search warrant return read | comment
• Document #25 07-529-M-01 search warrant read | comment
• Document #26 07-529-M-01 search warrant affidavit read | comment
• Document #27 07-529-M-01 search warrant application read | comment
• Document #28 07-529-M-01 search warrant return read | comment
• Document #29 08-082-M-01 search warrant read | comment
• Document #30 08-082-M-01 search warrant affidavit read | comment
• Document #31 08-082-M-01 search warrant application read | comment
• Document #32 08-082-M-01 search warrant return read | comment
• Document #33 08-083-M-01 search warrant read | comment
• Document #34 08-083-M-01 search warrant affidavit read | comment
• Document #35 08-083-M-01 search warrant application read | comment
• Document #36 08-083-M-01 search warrant return read | comment
• Document #37 08-084-M-01 search warrant read | comment
• Document #38 08-084-M-01 search warrant affidavit read | comment
• Document #39 08-084-M-01 search warrant application read | comment
• Document #40 08-429Affidavit read | comment
• Document #41 08-429AffidavitAttachment read | comment
• Document #42 08-429Application read | comment
• Document #43 08-429SearchWarrant read | comment
• Document #44 08-429SWAffAttach07524 read | comment
• Document #45 08-429SWAttach07524 read | comment
• Document #46 08-430SearchWarrant read | comment
• Document #47 08-430SWAffidavit read | comment
• Document #48 08-430SWAffidavit07524 read | comment
• Document #49 08-430SWAttachment07524 read | comment
• Document #50 08-430SWReturn read | comment
• Document #51 08-431Affidavit07524 read | comment
• Document #52 08-431Application read | comment
• Document #53 08-431Attachment07525 read | comment
• Document #54 08-431SW read | comment
• Document #55 08-431SW07525 read | comment
• Document #56 08-431SWAffidavit read | comment
• Document #57 08-431SWAttachment read | comment
• Document #58 08-431SWReturn read | comment
• Document #59 08-432 affidavit read | comment
• Document #60 08-432 application read | comment
• Document #61 08-432 return read | comment
• Document #62 08-432 search warrant read | comment
• Document #63 08-433 affidavit read | comment
• Document #64 08-433 application read | comment
• Document #65 08-433 return read | comment
• Document #66 08-433 search warrant read | comment

When America's largest kosher meatpacking plant was raided, investigators found something far more egregious than undocumented workers: laborers as young as 14 working through the night and in hazardous conditions.
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Anthrax timeline:

Late September, 2001
First signs
Envelopes containing threatening letters and a grainy brown substance arrive in the offices of ABC, CBS, NBC, and the New York Post.

October 5^th, 2001
A fatality
Robert Stevens, a photo editor for the Florida-based tabloid "The Sun," dies of inhaled, pulmonary anthrax after opening an anthrax letter sent to the paper's office in Boca Raton. He was 63.

October 15^th, 2001
Political targets
A threatening letter containing a purer form of anthrax spores arrive in the offices of Senator Tom Daschle, D-S.D. — a similar letter destined
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With the trial of Osama bin Laden drive Salim Hamdan underway in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, writer Jonathan Mahler compares the proceedings those in Nuremberg after World War II. Nuremberg mattered, Mahler says, but Guantanamo is another matter in the eyes of the public.
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With President Bush facing a pile of applications for pardons, The Takeaway goes back to one of the most famous and controversial pardons a president has ever made.
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The number of people of seeking pardons and commutations for federal crimes continues to climb — and the backlog of petitions is in the thousands. With President Bush's term coming to a close, who will he pardon?

Who would you pardon?

Jack Abramoff	Former lobbyist | Overcharging Indian casinos in lobbying fraud
Conrad Black	Former newspaper tycoon | Skimming money from his company, Hollinger International
Randy "Duke" Cunningham	Former U.S. Representative from California | Bribery
Tom Delay	Former Speaker of the House | Indicted for fundraising violations
Edwin Edwards	Former governor of Louisiana | Racketeering
Marion Jones	Former Olympic sprinter | Perjury over the use of performance-enhancing drugs
I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby	Former Chief of Staff for Vice President Dick Cheney | Perjury, obstruction of justice related to leak of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity
John Walker Lindh	Former Taliban fighter | Aiding terrorism
Michael Milken	Former bond trader | Insider trading, fraud
Bob Ney	Former U.S. Representative from Ohio | Conspiring in lobbying fraud
Pete Rose	Former professional baseball player | Tax evasion
George Ryan	Former governor of Illinois | Racketeering
Wesley Snipes	Actor | Tax evasion
Martha Stewart	Homemaking magnate | Conspiracy related to insider trading

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John Fox is the most wanted person at the FBI this week. Not because he's a criminal, but because July 26, 2008, is the 100th anniversary of the FBI and he's the Bureau's only historian. If it happened in the FBI, Fox knows about it.
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The Hamdan trial continues in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Yesterday, U.S. Military prosecutors played an interrogation video of former Osama bin Laden driver Salim Hamdan in which he denied any connections to al-Qaida. Hamdan asked to leave the courtroom as video playback began.
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A Miami Herald investigation has revealed that thousands of convicted felons, including bank robbers and people convicted of drug, fraud and grand larceny were allowed to write mortgages, costing state residents millions of dollars.
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