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This week, Maria Hinojosa talks with Lt. Col. Isaiah Wilson III, a former planner with the 101st Airborne in Iraq and a war historian, about his concerns over U.S. policies in Iraq. He questions President Bush's proposal to send over 20,000 more troops to fight on the frontlines, and has pondered some novel strategy options. Wilson was also the first military insider to publicly state that the U.S. government did not have a strategy to follow combat operations in Iraq.

This Week, Maria Hinojosa talks with "Jersey Girl" Patty Casazza about her reaction to Democrats' attempts to implement 9/11 Commission national security recommendations. The "Jersey Girls" are a group of women whose husbands died in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Casazza is also a member of the steering committee keeping an eye on the 9/11 Commission's work. Casazza's husband John F. Casazza, a Cantor Fitzgerald employee, died at age 38. She has a teenage son.

Elvis Mitchell discusses his top holiday movie picks, the role of politics in film, the legacy of Robert Altman, and what to look forward to in 2007.

Maria Hinojosa talks to Sen. Jeff Bingaman about how he plans to tackle global warming, America's dependence on oil, and possible criminal activities surrounding collecting royalties from Big Oil companies, in his new job as head of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Maria Hinojosa talks to journalist Lila Azam Zanganeh about President Ahmadinejad's letter to the American people, the need for dialogue between Tehran and Washington, and what Iranians really think of Americans.

Maria Hinojosa talks to Rep. Charles Rangel, the incoming chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, about the wrong way to wage a war, goals of the new Democratic Congress, and what he'd say to Vice President Cheney.

Journalist Matt Taibbi: "The reason I didn't see this as that much of a victory was the tone that was brought to this election...I think the way that they [the media] cover politics in this country is bad and creepy."

Maria Hinojosa talks to Lynne Stewart, the veteran civil rights lawyer, about why she broke the law for a jailed terrorist sheik and whether or not she would do it again.

Maria Hinojosa talks to George Packer, journalist and author of "The Assassins' Gate" about his experiences in Iraq and his perspective on world affairs.

David Brancaccio speaks to Rose Ann DeMoro of the California Nurses Association about an important new labor ruling.

Leading American intellectual Professor Noam Chomsky talks about the newly disclosed intelligence report on Iraq, the Clinton-FOX debate and why America is its own worst enemy.

At the United Nations annual summit this week the issue of Darfur was high on the agenda as African Union peacekeepers expanded their mandate in the war-ravaged region and President Bush named a special envoy to Sudan. But Mark Hanis, the 24-year-old head of Genocide Intervention Network, which seeks to help victims in Darfur -- where over 200,000 people have died and two million have been displaced in three years -- said heads of state are failing Darfur with empty rhetoric. "This has been going on for three years and it seems to be the same old story. They talk the talk but they don't walk the walk."

Iranian journalist Maziar Bahari -- who is Newsweek magazine's Iranian correspondent -- said in a NOW on PBS exclusive podcast that Iranians were relieved at the small sign of hope that the nuclear standoff between his country and the West could be resolved. "People are just happy that there won't be a war, that the country will not be attacked ... like Iraq was invaded," Bahari told NOW's Maria Hinojosa in a web-exclusive audio interview from his home in Tehran. In his interview with NOW's Maria Hinojosa, Bahari said the main concern for Iran's future lies not in its nuclear standoff or relationship with the West but in the survival of its economy. "I'm mostly worried about what's happening inside the country, that the government is just intoxicated on oil money, and people are just apathetic at the moment," Bahari said. Bahari argues his presidents and President Bush have more in common than most people would think. "I think they're very similar people. They're both very provincial politicians," he said. Ba

Maria Hinojosa interviews Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997-2002 for a look at how the world views America five years after September 11.