Hsi-Chang Lin

Foreign diplomats have enjoyed diplomatic immunity for centuries. Following the weekend arrest of I.M.F. managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn on charges of sexual assault, there have been questions as to whether he could be legally protected by diplomatic immunity. The answer is complicated as is the issue of diplomatic immunity. 

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.

Former Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk was found guilty of nearly 30,000 counts of accessory to murder in a German prison. At age 91, Demjanjuk was sentenced to five years in prison, but will be released pending a possible appeal. Demjanjuk is accused of being a prison guard at the Sobibor camp in Nazi occupied Poland in 1943. Does he deserve an appeal? David Cesarani,  professor of history at Royal Holloway, University of London, joins us for more on the story. 

Since the shooting death of Osama bin Laden, the news has been dominated by stories of the former al-Qaida leader; but, the country’s foreign policy priorities do not end with the discover of his Abbottabad compound. By the time that Leon Panetta takes the stand for his Senate confirmation hearing, politicians on the Left and the Right will be clamoring for their chance have their foreign policy issues back in the limelight. To preview some of the issues we that will make their way back into the news we speak with David Sanger, chief White House correspondent for The New York Times.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, better known as FEMA, is asking thousands of Americans to return more than $22 million in government aid. The agency claims that it doled that money erroneously, to disaster victims ineligible for the support. In some cases, individual claimants will be asked to return up to $27,000.

Water is driven to find the shortest and quickest course from source to mouth and the Mississippi River is no exception. The river is fighting against modern engineering as it continues to crest. If it were allowed to flow freely, New Orlean's Atchafalaya River would capture the main flow of the Mississippi. However, thanks to a feat of modern engineering, the great river is forced to follow its current path through Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Some researchers believe the likelihood of major flooding increases each year due to this tension between water and engineering.

Over a week after the shooting death of Osama bin Laden, Pakistan announced that it has yet to receive a formal request from the United States for access to his three widows left behind in the Abbottabad compound. The C.I.A. believes the three widows harbor valuable information about the terrorist leader. However, it is very possible that the wives were so sheltered that they don't have any information. For insight into life with the world's most renowned terrorist mastermind, we speak with Jean Sasson, author of "Growing Up Bin Laden: Osama's Wife and Son Take Us Inside their Secret World," a memoir of Osama bin Laden’s son Omar and first wife Najwa bin Laden.

The Mississippi River reached near record levels on Monday when it crested at 48 feet around 7 p.m. Experts, who have been watching as heavy rains swell the waterway's thousands of tributaries and feeder streams, expect the level to remain high for at least the next 48 hours. Memphis residents began to evacuate their homes over the weekend, for fear that the flood waters could rise high enough to become a serious threat. This flooding might prove more devastating than the 1927 floods, which killed hundreds and flooded tens of thousands of farmland acreage.

On Thursday, the head of Pakistan’s army, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said that he would not tolerate future covert missions by the United States within his borders. Does that mean that the U.S. has overstretched its reach in the war against al-Qaida? That's the question international law experts have been addressing since Monday's covert operation, which ended with the death of former al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Speculation continues regarding the future of al-Qaida’s leadership following the killing of its leader Osama bin Laden. There are rules governing who is next in line, explains Leah Farrall. Farrall is the former Senior Counter-Terrorism Analyst for the Australian Federal Police and currently the author of the blog, All Things Counter-Terrorism. In a recent article for Foreign Policy magazine, she writes that "like any good corporation, the terror network has a strict series of rules and regulations it must adhere to in naming a successor. Rules that provide insight into how any future power struggles may play out." And these rules point to number two leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

The White House has announced that it will not release photos of Osama bin Laden’s death. Quoting the transcript of President Obama’s upcoming interview with 60 Minutes, set to air this Sunday, White House Spokesperson Jay Carney told reporters that, “It is important for us to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to further violence or as a propaganda tool.” Some very graphic photos from the raid have already been published by The Guardian. Is the release of graphic photos a good idea? 

Sunday’s mission to infiltrate and extract Osama bin Laden was by all measures a success. But in the nearly decade-long process that led up to this moment, there's a new debate raging over how intelligence officials went about finding the world's most hunted terrorist. The latest reporting by journalists suggest detainees at Guantanamo Bay and in secret prisons in Europe were interrogated to obtain any information about bin Laden's whereabouts — including the identity of his courier.

In his new memoir, former Navy SEAL sniper Howard Wasdin writes, “When the U.S. Navy sends their elite, they send the SEALs. When the SEALs send their elite, they send SEAL Team Six.” And that was certainly the case on Sunday, when a team of highly trained men overtook a a secure compound in Pakistan to eliminate the world’s most wanted terrorist figure. They accomplished this mission, in the midst of crossfire, in under 40 minutes. We talk with Howard Wasdin, a former member of this clandestine unit, about what Team Six must have gone through to get face-to-face with Osama bin Laden.

On Sunday, a military operation lasting approximately 40 minutes, transformed an elite fighting force known for keeping a low profile, into the talk of the world. Former US Navy SEAL Michael Howard and Retired US Army Colonel Douglas MacGregor discuss what goes into training one of the most elite fighting force in the world. 

This morning, survivors of the six southern states hit by Wednesday’s rash of deadly tornadoes continue the hard work of surveying and cleaning the damage. We speak with Julie Steel, News reporter for WUTC in Chattanooga, Tennessee, a town that was hit repeatedly by waves of storms.

Deadly tornadoes that ripped through the South on Wednesday claimed some 284 lives. Entire neighborhoods were flattened in the wake of the 160 tornadoes that touched down in six states. We speak with Campbell Robertson, correspondent for our partner The New York Times, who joins us from Tuscaloosa Alabama, one of the areas hardest hit by the storms.

For our troops fighting in Afghanistan, there may be a new threat, beyond the constant worry of enemy fire which occurs in the field. This new threat is growing behind friendly lines. According to Stars and Stripes, at least 38 coalition troops have been killed by Afghan Security forces undergoing routine  training. Two weeks ago, 5 NATO troops were killed by a Taliban suicide bomber who enlisted as an Afghan National Army soldier.

"If we don’t get this unemployment rate down, eventually it’s going to stick," former chairwoman of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisors Christina Romer warned on Monday's show. "We’re going to have discouraged workers, people who have lost many skills. They may have a higher unemployment rate forever after, and that would be a true disaster.”

Since January 25, when a wave of popular protests began to sweep across the Middle East region, the U.S. has been put into several very precarious policy positions. The most obvious question is: should the U.S. stand on the side of revolution and support the protesters seeking new Democratic leadership; or, should we continue to support the incumbent, sometimes brutal, autocratic regimes that have been our long-time allies in the region? The answers aren't always clear. 

President Barack Obama is a different leader than candidate Barack Obama. What remains difficult to discern is just how different both men are on matters of U.S. foreign policy. Critics to both the left and the right of the president have voiced frustration at the administration's obstinate refusal to state a foreign policy doctrine. Ryan Lizza, Washington correspondent for The New Yorker describes how recent events in the Middle East may be creating an Obama doctrine on its own.