Arwa Gunja

Since the days of Watergate, when President Richard Nixon's White House collected information on political enemies, the Central Intelligence Agency has been prohibited from spying on American citizens inside the country. But in a recent article in The New York Times, Glenn Carle—a former senior CIA official—said there were at least two occasions when the George W. Bush White House asked intelligence officers to gather sensitive information on Juan Cole. Cole is a fierce critic of the Iraq War and professor at the University of Michigan. We talk with Carle, who was also a top counterterrorism official, about these alleged spying attempts by the Bush administration.

According to a new report, scientists have come one step closer in the development of neuroprosthetics that may help restore memory loss. A brain implant, tested in rats, successfully restored lost memories and strengthened old ones. Its use in humans will require far more research. Benedict Carey, science reporter for The New York Times, explains the findings.

The Boston Bruins brought the Stanley Cup back to their city for the first time since 1972, after defeating the Vancouver Canucks 4-0 on Wednesday night. "This one still hurts," says Canucks fan, Brian Wawryshyn, who runs CanucksCorner.com. Boston resident Mike Wilkins has been celebrating the win. And both fans say that the rioting in Vancouver is something neither team would be proud of.

One Takeaway from Monday night's Republican presidential debate was a religious one. Businessman Herman Cain was pressed on earlier statements he made saying he would not appoint a Muslim to his administration, unless they passed a loyalty test. Cain, who continues to rise in polls, clarified that he said he would not be comfortable having a Muslim in his administration – not that he wouldn’t appoint one.

Are Muslim Americans the next voting bloc to be courted?

In a pivotal Game 5 last night in Dallas, the Mavericks took home a 112-103 victory, earning their first N.B.A Championship win. Lebron James continued to show final quarter troubles—in the last four games, he has yet to score more than five points in the final quarter. Takeaway sports contributor Ibrahim Abdul Matin talks about this and other sports news from the week, including the outlook for the Boston Bruins.

The International Criminal Court says there is evidence that Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddhafi may have distributed a Viagra-like drug to Libyan troops as part of an official policy of rape. This comes after a UN panel said its investigators found evidence that hundreds of women have been raped by pro-Gaddhafi forces. This isn’t the first time we’re hearing accusations of rape—back in March, Iman al-Obeidi made global headlines after she stormed a hotel in Tripoli, telling international reporters she had been sexually assaulted by Gaddhafi forces.

We talk with Lara Setrakian, correspondent for ABC News and Bloomberg Television, who's reporting on this story from Libya and speaking with some of the alleged rape victims.

In December 2007, A.J. Larson, 20, was behind the wheel of his car, texting his girlfriend, when he accidentally drove through a stop sign and was struck by a garbage truck. Larson was killed in the accident.

In response to a decision by some Broadway musicals to drastically cut the number of live performers in the orchestra pit, the Broadway musicians' union is waging an aggressive battle to save jobs. The show at the center of the controversy is the jukebox musical "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert," which features disco favorites. The show currently only has nine musicians playing live in the orchestra. The rest of the music comes from a pre-recorded track. We talk with Marshall Coid, a lead on stage violinist in the Broadway show, "Chicago." Boyd has been performing on Broadway for 30 years, as an actor, singer and violinist.

After being held in detention for six weeks, the Libyan government announced on Wednesday that they will release four foreign journalists. Just a day earlier, the Libyan government had sentenced the journalists to one year of captivity on charges of illegally entering the country. And a fifth journalist, Dorothy Parvaz who works for Al Jazeera, arrived safely at the network’s headquarters in Doha after disappearing in Syria and being sent to Iran. We talk with Diane Foley, the mother of James Foley, a reporter for the Global Post who was among the four detained in Libya.

Egypt is changing. And so are its street names, signs of buildings, schools, hospitals and other institutions. What was once the Hosni Mubarak Library is now the Revolution Library. The Hosni Mubarak Experimental School is now just the Experimental School. And the Suzanne Mubarak Specialized Hospital is now the Red Crescent Specialized Hospital. This comes after a Cairo court ordered for all the images and signs with the name of Hosni Mubarak and his wife, Suzanne, be removed from public places and buildings. Egypt will most certainly have to go through a transitional period to move from the 40-year rule of Hosni Mubarak into a democracy. But does a country need to forget the past in order to build a future?

By all accounts, the Mississippi flood waters threatening communities across the South are reminiscent of the “Great Flood” of 1927. That historic event forever changed how the country’s levees, spillways and flood control systems are built and operate. It allowed for federal and state governments to create a flood preparedness system to make sure we never see a disaster like 1927 again. But despite the best efforts by the Army Corps of Engineers, the Coast Guard and emergency responders, thousands of people have already lost their homes to the rising flood waters. 

With less than a year to go until the Iowa caucuses, and less than 18 months out from the 2012 presidential elections, the Republican pool of presidential contenders is still uncertain. Earlier this week, Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and real estate mogul Donald Trump announced they would not seek the party's nomination. And pundits are awaiting announcements from big names like Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and former U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman. 

In the first major case of homegrown terrorism in this post-Osama bin Laden era, six people were indicted by the FBI for funneling around $50,000 to terrorists in Pakistan. Two of those arrested were imams from south Florida. Nearly ten years out from the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, we evaluate how the relationship between federal law enforcement officials and Muslim communities has evolved in order to more effectively work together to prevent homegrown terrorism. Asad Ba-Yunus, a former Miami-Dade assistant state attorney who now serves as legal adviser for the Coalition of South Florida Muslim Organizations.

The Coast Guard and Army Corps of Engineers continue working around the clock to prevent massive flooding to major cities in the South. But even as they open floodgates and break through levees, the Mississippi River continues to rise. If it rises above 18.5 feet — two feet higher than it was on Saturday — access to parts of the river could be limited or temporarily shut down.

Monday afternoon, two Florida imams are scheduled to be arraigned in a federal court in Miami after being arrested for allegedly providing financial support for the Pakistani Taliban. Imam Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan runs the city's oldest mosque, the Flagler Mosque. He, in addition to his two sons, and three others in Pakistan, were indicted for supporting terrorist organizations in Pakistan. Jay Weaver, federal courts reporter for The Miami Herald, talks about the case and the role of the Khan family in Miami.

Libya's main opposition group, the Libyan Transitional National Council, made significant gains in the last week against pro-Gadhafi forces when they retook the Western port city of Misrata. However, the group faced a political setback on Friday after meeting with members of President Obama's administration in Washington, D.C., and failing to be fully recognized by the United States as Libya's official and legitimate ruling council. The president of the Libyan Transitional National Council, Mahmoud Jibril, said financial constraints could threaten their progress as well.

President Barack Obama is asking Congress to extend the term of Federal Bureau of Investigations Director Robert S. Mueller III for two years. Mueller was sworn in as the head of the F.B.I. just seven days before the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2011 — an event that marked the greatest challenge ever for the nation and the bureau's 93-year history. Mueller has led the FBI in preventing attacks like the Christmas Day shoe-bomber and stopping al-Qaida operative Najibullah Zazi who was headed for New York City in 2009 to blow himself up. For more on how Mueller changed the FBI and who might be qualified to replace him, we talk with Barton Gellman, contributing editor at large for Time Magazine, a research fellow at NYU's Center on Law and Security, and author of “Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency.” He wrote an article on Mueller and the future of the FBI for this week's Time Magazine.

With the death of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaida is now calling on all its followers to prepare do-it-yourself plans of attack against America. And it’s a sharp contrast to the strategy taken on by bin Laden, which focused on long-term planning for one big attack on U.S. soil. This message from the terror network’s online presence is just among the first signs that a change in leadership will also mean a change in strategy. And it seems that without a prominent candidate, the future of the organization is in limbo. We talk with Scott Shane, national security reporter for The New York Times who broke this story for the paper.

Following the NATO-led bombardment of targeted government buildings in the Libyan capital of Tripoli earlier this week, the United Nations called on both sides to pause their military assaults in order to ease the growing humanitarian crisis. Misrata, which has been under attack for weeks by pro-Gadhafi forces, is short of food, water and other basic supplies. An estimated 750,000 people have fled the country since the uprising began in February. NATO entered Libya to prevent a humanitarian crisis. But without Gadhafi’s forces letting up anytime soon, the fighting seems to only be escalating the humanitarian situation. So how do the United Nations and NATO collaborate on a joint humanitarian and military operation?

In what has amounted to one of the largest and most prominent cases of insider trading, a billionaire hedge fund manager was found guilty Wednesday of fraud and conspiracy by a federal jury in Manhattan. Raj Rajaratnam is the co-founder of the hedge fund Galleon Group — he was also considered one of the savviest traders on Wall Street. But for nine months, the federal government secretly recorded Rajaratnam’s phone conversations with traders and powerful corporate insiders. We get the back story with Louise Story, Wall Street and finance reporter for The New York Times.