tal changes lives

On July 8, This American Life ran an episode entitled "The Arms Trader" -- a whole show dedicated to the conviction of Hemant Lakhani, 70. In 2003, Lakhani was arrested for trying to sell a shoulder fired missile to an undercover FBI agent. He was later convicted arms brokering and providing material support to terrorism.

The theme of the show was Lakhani, but it was also the difficulty of trying to stop people from doing bad things -- before they do them. It demonstrated how the FBI had to create criminals, like Lakhani, in order to verify there were criminals like Lakhani.

Well today, Lakhani's attorney's asked for a new trial, based on one juror's comments on the show. She claimed she believed Lakhani was entrapped, but felt held hostage by the other jurors and so voted to convict.

See? Public radio is totally relevant. The story is here.

(you should obsessively go to the website and listen to every back episode of the TAL like good golly did over the course of 2004. It'll be good for you. Your job will move more swiftly, you will speak in strange radio tones that people will comment are "odd" but that you will find sexy. It'll be good, I promise.)