Underscoring the relevance of WORLD’s cover story on domestic terrorism in this new issue (written by Lynn Vincent), are important developments this week. Two 20-somethings involved in a plot to blow up the Sears Tower were this week sentenced in federal district court in Miami. As AP reports:

One of the men, Burson Augustin, 24 was sentenced to six years in prison; his older brother, Rotschild Augustin, 26, was sentenced to seven years.

Today the ringleader of that plot is to be sentenced in Miami.

And in Chicago David C. Headley and Chicago businessman Tahawwur Hussain Rana have been arrested as “suspected Islamist militants” but with a twist: The two are charged not with targeting the United States, but with staging foreign operations from relative anonymity on American soil. As The Washington Post comments today:

Their profile is a fresh one, and it is being viewed by U.S. authorities with alarm.

Here are some highlights from the Dec. 5 issue of WORLD Magazine:

COVER STORY Homegrown terror: Experts say the threat of domestic terrorism is growing. But are officials ready to call it what it is? WORLD’s Lynn Vincent reports.

HEALTHCARE Non-buyers beware: Mandates in current healthcare bills to buy insurance–or face jail time–are raising prospect of civil disobedience and constitutional challenges.

MOVIE REVIEW Is everybody fine? WORLD’s Marvin Olasky says the two-dimensional focus of Everybody’s Fine limits a good film about an aging father.

MINDY BELZ Wasting the honeymoon: So far Bush has a better record for closing Guantanamo.

WORLD editor Mindy Belz talked to former assistant Attorney General Paul McNulty about the Obama administration’s decision to move the trial of 9/11 plotters Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others to lower Manhattan, just blocks from Ground Zero:

“I have very serious concerns about the wisdom of this decision,” said … McNulty, reached by telephone Friday evening. “I believe bringing KSM in particular and the group as a whole to New York places extremely dangerous circumstances on our legal system and our law enforcement.”

McNulty said his first fear is for the legal risk of a satisfactory trial, given “the uncertainty of this approach and our ability to use the criminal justice system as a vital tool in the fight against terrorism.” His second concern is the physical risk: “These are entirely different detainees from the type of people U.S. marshals are trained to deal with every day. And you are placing them within proximity of the World Trade Center and large populations.” Those factors are compounded by the time that a trial in civil court could stretch over.

Read Mindy’s report in its entirety here.

The anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall was two days ago, granted, but I keep rereading Reagan speechwriter Anthony Dolan’s Sunday op-ed in the Wall Street Journal for its relevance to the political correctness exhibited this week toward enemies of the state. Dolan recounts the fierce battle among the State Department, National Security Council (in the form of then-deputy adviser Colin Powell), and others to get the offending sentence “Tear down this wall” stripped from the president’s Berlin speech of June 1987.

The advisers little understood that the line was Reagan’s own, and came not simply from a provocative whim but from Reagan’s “caring about larger ideas” and a recognition that communist regimes weren’t simply “other”; they were also criminal.

Reagan had the carefully arrived at view that criminal regimes were different, that their whole way of looking at the world was inverted, that they saw acts of conciliation as weakness, and that rather than making nice in return they felt an inner compulsion to exploit this perceived weakness by engaging in more acts of aggression. All this confirmed the criminal mind’s abiding conviction in its own omniscience and sovereignty, and its right to rule and victimize others.

The players have changed, but the morality play at work in the run against Islamic regimes and their terrorist offspring is very similar.

In the aftermath of last Thursday’s shootings, John Dawson reports from Killeen, Texas, as they prepare for a memorial service tomorrow for those killed:

Killeen, the hometown of Fort Hood, seemed as dazed and confused as the motorists who navigated dense fog that blanketed both the base and the city Sunday morning. The quiet on Sunday morning belied the chaos and confusion that began Thursday afternoon. . . .

Churches in the area held prayer vigils. On Friday night, Bob Butler, chairman of Central Christian Church near the base, started building a memorial of 30 flags (for the wounded) and 13 white crosses (for the deceased). Older soldiers arrived in uniform for the previously scheduled Veterans Day service, saluting each other in the parking lot but speaking little. Inside Pastor Mark Bushor paid honor not only to the old soldiers but also to Hasan’s 13 victims, who won’t have the chance to grow old.

“What I say to you all as your pastor,” Bushor began, “is that instead of asking the why question right now, ask the who question. The only one who can bring us through is God.”

Read John’s report, with additional reporting from WORLD editor Mindy Belz, here.

For the first time since April 1983 the unemployment rate has surpassed 10 percent, which translates into 16 million people without jobs.

The Labor Department announced today that the jobless rate has risen from 9.8 percent in September to 10.2 percent. There was a net loss of 190,000 jobs in October, more than economists expected.

President Obama gave his condolences to those at Fort Hood in the wake of the shootings yesterday – but he came under critique for spending several minutes on national television giving a “shout-out” to a Congressional Medal of Honor winner at the conference he was attending and then name-dropping others before finally commenting on the tragedy. It seemed an awkward transition from light-hearted to serious – see what you think.

The Nov. 21 issue of WORLD Magazine is available this morning online. Here are some highlights:

COVER STORY All-American adoption story: All-American Michael Oher went from the streets as a 15-year-old son of a crack addict to potential NFL Rookie of the Year on the love and dedication of an adoptive family that wouldn’t let him fail.

ELECTION ’09 Turnabout: Decisive Republican gains in off-year elections spell work for Democrats to win back ‘change’ voters.

MOVIE REVIEW Horror on screen: WORLD’s Sam Thielman says low-budget Paranormal Activity will leave viewers terrified.

NICK EICHER Needed: WORLD Movers: In a time of journalistic retreat, a plan to grow WORLD’s influence.

To see what else is in the Nov. 21 issue, click here. If you’re not a subscriber to WORLD, you ought to be. Click here for more information.

Protesters staged a rally on Capitol Hill this afternoon to express their displeasure with the proposed House healthcare bill. WORLD Washington Bureau chief Edward Lee Pitts reports:

[T]he afternoon largely belonged to the citizen brigade that covered the Capitol grounds in protest.

“What a crowd. No wonder I couldn’t get a room,” joked actor and healthcare reform opponent Jon Voight.

The day had a patriotic flair: Kids decked out in colonial-era outfits stood beside parents wearing patriotic hats with tea bags dangling from the brims. Scores of American flags flapped in the light wind of an unseasonably bright, warm day. Numerous protestors also hoisted the historic “Don’t Tread on Me” flag.

These competed with hundreds of signs and repeated chants, as citizens from across the country seemed determined to spook Democrats just a week after Halloween: “Public Healthcare is Public Enemy No. 1,” read one sign. “Nancy We’re Barack,” read another.

“You see this building here, you own this building,” shouted conservative commentator Mark Levin, referring to the Capitol. “But the people who run that building today reject limited government. Now they have their sights set on the mother of all entitlements.”

“Vote them out,” responded the crowd, referring to the 2010 elections. Clearly still in a celebratory mood after this week’s Republican victories in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races, the protestors held aloft signs predicting a worse fate for Democrats next November.

Read Lee’s report in its entirety here.

Twelve people have been killed and 31 wounded in shootings this afternoon at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas. One of the shooters was killed and two others have been apprehended. All three were soldiers.

UPDATE: There was only one suspected gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, and he is still alive. There are now 13 dead.