President Barack Obama tours the Great Wall in Badaling, China, on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009. (AP)

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Who knew mammograms and Pap smears could headline a week? But here they are this week, shoved into the health care debate just as everything is on the line for reform.

We’ve got the president in China, where the U.S. no longer towers. 9/11 trials coming to New York. The Fed chief warning of another year of high unemployment. Crunch time in the Senate on health care.

And women. Sarah Palin in the news. Oprah, signing off for cable. Hillary Clinton, in Kabul for Hamid Karzai’s inauguration.

This hour, On Point: Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Matt Continetti, staff writer at The Weekly Standard. He’s author of the new book, “The Persecution of Sarah Palin: How the Elite Media Tried to Bring Down a Rising Star.”

Jill Lawrence, columnist for Politics Daily.com and longtime reporter for USA Today.

Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation. She writes the “Editor’s Cut” blog. She’s also a contributor to the Nation’s own take on Sarah Palin, “Going Rouge: An American Nightmare.”

Self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, center, and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees (from left: Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, Waleed bin Attash, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi and Ramzi Binalshibh) will be sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court, the Obama administration announced on Nov. 13, 2009. (AP Photos)

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After eight years — on the run, in secret CIA prisons, being water-boarded, in Guantanamo — Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is headed to New York City.

The alleged Al Qaeda mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and five others, will go on trial in lower Manhattan, “just blocks away from where the Twin Towers once stood,” said Attorney General Eric Holder on Friday.

It will be, without doubt, the trial of this young century. A vindication for American justice, say some. A circus and a threat, say others.

This hour, On Point: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, American justice, and the trial of the century.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Evan Perez, reporter for The Wall Street Journal.

John Hutson, former Judge Advocate General of the US Navy (1997-2000). He’s now president and dean of the Franklin Pierce Law Center.

Walter Huffman, former  Judge Advocate General for the U.S. Army (1997 to 2001). He’s dean of the Texas Tech University School of Law.

Josh Gerstein, White House reporter for Politico.

Victor Juma, who lost his father, stands in front of an artist's impression of the events of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombing at the memorial for the victims in Nairobi, Kenya, Aug. 7, 2008.

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It’s 9/11 again. Seven years now. Years of war, bloodshed, torture, military sacrifice, and deepening concern in the United States about the country’s fundamental economic and security standing — about the country’s future.

Al Qaeda set out to attack, entangle, bleed, and weaken the United States. Seven years on, we have not been hit again. Or have we? In the pocketbook, in military readiness, in global standing?

The United States is certainly entangled, bled, and — on many fronts — weakened. And Al Qaeda’s still out there.

This hour, On Point: American security, American strategy, seven years after 9/11.

Are we better off today than we were seven years ago? Even without another attack on American soil, has Bin Laden won? What should the U.S. do now to secure its homeland and its place in the world? Does John McCain have the answer? Does Barack Obama? Do you? Join the conversation and tell us what you think.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Berlin is Craig Whitlock, a staff writer for The Washington Post. He’s been covering the U.S. campaign against Al Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal areas. His front-page article in yesterday’s Post reported that U.S. and Pakistani officials are shifting tactics in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

Joining us from Vancouver is Bruce Hoffman. He’s a professor of security studies at Georgetown University and a world-renowned expert on terrorism and insurgency. A revised and updated version of his acclaimed 1998 book, “Inside Terrorism,” was published in 2006.

And joining us in our studio is Stephen Van Evera. He’s a professor of political science at MIT and an expert on foreign policy and security. His recent article, “A Farewell to Geopolitics,” appears in the new volume “To Lead the World: American Strategy After the Bush Doctrine.”

Six years tomorrow. Six years since 9/11.

It’s getting to be a long time. Maybe now it’s time to look at where we’ve been. If Pearl Harbor galvanized the nation in one direction, 9/11 galvanized it in many. Pro-war, anti-war, right, left, and scattered center.

Politicians and pundits have analyzed how and why. Now the psychologists are stepping in — and focusing on the impact of fear. Research finds the mere mention of death changes minds. The image of the Twin Towers exploding is a psychological supernova.

This hour On Point: where our minds have been since 9/11.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Sheldon Solomon, professor of psychology at Skidmore College and co-author of “In the Wake of 9/11: The Psychology of Terror.”

Martha Stout, clinical psychologist and former faculty member at Harvard Medical School, author of “The Paranoia Switch: How Terror Rewires Our Brains and Reshapes Our Behavior — and How We Can Reclaim Our Courage.”

Graham Allison, professor of government and director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, author of “Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe.”

Since 9-11, the whole world has entered that realm – a realm of pervasive unease. 

In his latest novel, McEwan takes one day in the life of one essentially average man, and draws the ocean of unease that lies now beneath, within every moment of his life, and ours.  

This Hour, On Point: writer Ian McEwan, his new novel, “Saturday”, and life in the world after 9-11.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

Ian McEwan, Booker Prize-winning novelist. His books include “Atonement” and “Amsterdam.” His new novel is “Saturday.”

Opening debrief:

A report by the National Academy of Sciences found that many of America’s nuclear power plants are vulnerable to terrorist attack. The findings pointed specifically to the spent fuel rods which are stored on site after use.

The report, commissioned by Congress, concluded that an attack could disrupt the cooling process and recommended that plants take two key steps to prevent the spread of radio activity in the event of an attack.

L.A.Times national correspondent Ralph Vartabedian explains what prompted the commissioning of this report.

Guest:

Ralph Vartabedian, national correspondent for Los Angeles Times.