Professor Pilo inspects a skull in the killing fields of Bogoro, Ituri, eastern Congo. (Susan Meiselas/Magnum Photos)

When the International Criminal Court, the ICC, was formed in 2002, its goals were big — to arrest and prosecute warlords for mass murders and genocide, for crimes committed against humanity.

But those big goals met with equally big challenges. How does a prosecutor in the Netherlands arrest a warlord at large in the jungles of Congo?

“The Reckoning,” a new PBS documentary, tracks the struggle to make the International Criminal Court, from the courtrooms of The Hague to refugee camps in Uganda and the killing fields in Sudan.

This hour, On Point: Warlords, war crimes, and the International Criminal Court.

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

-Jane Clayson, guest host

Tom Ashbrook is on vacation.

Guests:

Pamela Yates is director of “The Reckoning: The Battle for the International Criminal Court,” which was featured at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and is airing on PBS. She’s a 2008 Guggenheim fellow and co-founder of Skylight Pictures, the documentary production company.

You can watch the film online at PBS.org through September 14.

Christine Chung was the first senior trial attorney to work in the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. She directed the ICC investigation which led to the first ICC arrest warrants, for Joseph Kony, leader of Uganda’s rebel “Lord’s Resistance Army.” She also worked on the ICC’s investigations in Darfur and the Congo. She’s now a partner at the law firm Quinn Emanuel.

Watch the trailer for “The Reckoning:”

On Tuesday, Sept. 30, the commanding officer of a U.S. Navy guided-missile cruiser monitors the pirated motor vessel Faina off the coast of Somalia while one of his helicopters provides aerial surveillance. (US Navy photo)

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Somali pirates don’t joke around.

Off one of the busiest sea lanes in the world, where oil-tanker traffic and a whole lot more flow to the Suez Canal, they have been taking ship after ship this year. Boarding bloody if need be, commandeering the bridge, holding crew and cargo ransom for big money.

Ten days ago they hit a deadly jackpot. A Ukrainian freighter stuffed to the gunwhales with heavy weaponry. Soviet tanks. Grenage launchers. Ammo.

Now U.S. warships have the captive ship cornered. A Soviet frigate is on the way. But the problem is spreading.

This hour, On Point: Pirates, global order fraying off the Horn of Africa, and a high seas crisis on the world stage.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Jeffrey Gettleman, East Africa bureau chief for The New York Times, based in Nairobi, Kenya. He joined us earlier from an island near the coast of Somalia.

Joining us from London is Roger Middleton, consultant researcher for the Africa program at Chatham House in London. He’s the author of “Piracy in Somalia: Threatening Global Trade, Feeding Local War.”

Joining us from New York City is J. Peter Pham, director of the Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs at James Madison University and a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracy in Washington, D.C. He writes a weekly column for the New Atlanticist about African security issues. His Sept. 29 column was “The Challenge of Somali Piracy.”

Joining us from Bahrain is Lt. Nathan Christensen, deputy spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain.

There is no death row or execution chamber at Guantanamo, but the Army is working on it. On Monday, the Pentagon made public murder and conspiracy charges against six Guantanamo inmates accused in the attacks of 9/11, and announced it will seek the death penalty before a military tribunal.

The military’s own JAG legal community and observers around the world are deeply divided over whether such a trial can be fair. Torture, justice, six lives, and America’s reputation are at issue.

This hour, On Point: the Guantanamo Six head to trial, and the whole world is watching.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Scott Silliman, professor of law at Duke University, where he is executive director of the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security. He served for 25 years in the Air Force, where he managed 715 active duty and reserve lawyers.

John Hutson, dean of Franklin Pierce Law Center and former Judge Advocate General of the US Navy.

John Bickers, professor at the Chase College of Law, Northern Kentucky University. He served as an Army Judge Advocate for 15 years.

Michael Isikoff, investigative reporter for Newsweek magazine.

Michael Mukasey’s confirmation as Attorney General looked like a sure thing. Now, with the legal definition of torture in the balance, Democrats aren’t so sure.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Charlie Savage, reporter for The Boston Globe, is author of “Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy.”

John McGinnis, professor at Northwestern University School of Law and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General under Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

Laurence Tribe, professor at Harvard Law School.