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Archived Programs 2005

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December 18th, 2005

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Wayne White on the situation in Iraq and the elections taking place there, which the Bush administration hopes will stabilize that country. Wayne White is an Adjunct Scholar at Washington's Middle East Institute. He most recently served as Deputy Director of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research Office of Analysis for the Near East and South Asia (NESA). White also served as principal Iraq analyst and head of INR/NESA's Iraq team from 2003 to 2005. He was Chief of INR's Maghreb, Arabian Penninsula, Iran and Iraq division and State Department representative to NATO Middle East working groups from 1990 to 2002. Five times he received the State Department's Superior Honor Award, and three time's the Department's Meritorious Honor Award. In 1986, he was named INR's first "Analyst of the Year," and, in 2004 received the Secretary's Career Achievement Award from Secretary Powell. Mr. White also has received the National Intelligence Certificate of Distinction for service during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, in 2000 the National Intelligence Medal for Outstanding Achievement, a 2004 citation from the National Intelligence Council for his work on the Iraq crisis, and was a 2002 National Intelligence Fellow.

Kate Martin on the National Security Agency, the Patriot Act and the charge that it has spied on American citizens. Kate Martin has been Director of the Center for National Security Studies since 1992, where she has litigated and written about national security and civil liberties issues, including government secrecy, intelligence, terrorism, and enemy combatant detentions. Ms. Martin has taught Strategic Intelligence and Public Policy at Georgetown University Law School and also served as general counsel to the National Security Archive, a research library located at George Washington University.

Dr. Belinda Reyes on the issues surrounding immigration. Dr. Reyes is an Assistant Professor and founding faculty at the School of Social Science, Humanities, and Arts at the University of California, Merced. Formerly she was a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California. Her research focuses on immigration issues and the economic progress of race and ethnic groups in the United States. Her publications include: Holding the Line? The Effect of the Recent Border Build-up on Unauthorized Immigration; Taking the Oath: An Analysis of Naturalization in California and the United States; and A Portrait of Race and Ethnicity in California: An Assessment of Social and Economic Well-Being. She has briefed various federal, state, and local governmental bodies and addressed numerous civic organizations on immigration policy issues.
December 11th, 2005

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Special: Harold Pinter's Nobel Prize for Literature acceptance speech (unedited)

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Senator Bob Graham on the pre-war intelligence--what was known and unknown, and how the intelligence was used, or misused. Bob Graham is a former two-term governor of Florida and a three-term United States Senator. While recognized for his leadership on issues ranging from health care to environmental preservation, Senator Graham is best known for his ten years of service on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence including eighteen months as chairman in 2001-2002, during which he co-chaired the House-Senate Joint Inquiry into the intelligence community's failures prior to 9/11. Following the release of a declassified version of the Joint Inquiry's final report in July 2003, Senator Graham advocated reform of the intelligence community and sponsored legislation to bring about needed changes. He ran for President of the United States in 2004. His most recent book is "Intelligence Matters : The CIA, the FBI, Saudi Arabia, and the Failure of America's War on Terror." He recently had an Op-Ed published in the Washington Post, entitled "What I knew before the invasion."

Charles Kupchan on relations between the United States and Europe and the recent visit of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to Europe. Dr. Kupchan is a Professor of international relations in the School of Foreign Service and Government Department at Georgetown University. He is also a Senior Fellow and Director of Europe Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Previously, Dr. Kupchan was Director for European Affairs on the National Security Council during the first Clinton administration. Before joining the NSC, he worked in the U.S. Department of State on the Policy Planning Staff. Prior to government service, he was an Assistant Professor of Politics at Princeton University. He is the author of The End of the American Era (2002), Power in Transition: The Peaceful Change of International Order (2001), Civic Engagement in the Atlantic Community (1999), Atlantic Security: Contending Visions (1998), Nationalism and Nationalities in the New Europe (l995), The Vulnerability of Empire (1994), The Persian Gulf and the West (1987), and numerous articles on international and strategic affairs.

Karen Greenberg on the use of torture as a policy and as a strategy of the United States. Dr. Greenbergis the Executive Director of the Center on Law and Security at the NYU School of Law and a visiting professor in the NYU college of arts and sciences. Considered one of the leading experts on US torture policy, she is the co-editor of "The Torture Papers: the Road to Abu Ghriab" --a collection of all the available government memos and reports about torture, from Sept 2001 to March 2004, published by Cambridge Press. Also she is the Editor of "The Torture Debate in America" -- a series of essays which explore goverment policy on torture from a variety of perspectives, and "Al Qaeda Now," both also published by Cambridge Press. She has an article in the new issue of The Nation magazine--a special edition devoted to the subject of torture: "Secrets and Lies: Denials and Doublespeak Aside, Torture is US Policy and Bush Administration Strategy."

Special:

We present Harold Pinter's Nobel Prize for Literature acceptance speech, which was delivered last week on December 7. This is a powerful and profound statement by a man moved now, in serious illness, to speak words withheld, and which indicts policies of the United States and Great Britain, most primarily American foreign policy and the invasion of Iraq. In language which soars with artistry, poetry and rage, Pinter expresses utter contempt for those who would engage in torture and inflict misery in the name of freedom and democracy. He calls for a politics that is engaged with "fierce intellect" to reclaim "the dignity of man." The brief announcement of the Swedish Academy on Pinter's award was: "The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2005 is awarded to the English writer Harold Pinter "who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms."' In the ceremony, the 75-year-old playwright's work was described as "seductively accessible and frighteningly mysterious" at the ceremony in Sweden. Pinter was unable to attend the event in Stockholm because he has been recovering from cancer of the oesophagus and his doctors did not let him travel. But, there was still rapturous applause for the man who has written a plethora of plays including The Room, The Birthday Party and The Caretaker. A spokesman from the Academy said: "In its choice of a Nobel Laureate, the Swedish Academy recognises only the creative power of a single individual regardless of nation, sex and literary genre. "However British you may appear in the eyes of many, your international and inter-human impact in the field of drama has been uniquely strong and inspiring for half a century. "If someone thinks your prize is late in coming we may reply that at any given moment somewhere in the world your plays are re-interpreted by new generations of directors and actors." The award, presented by the King of Sweden, was accepted on the playwright's behalf by his publisher Stephen Page. After hearing of his award Pinter promptly announced he would not be writing any more plays. The writer used the opportunity of his Nobel Prize lecture to present this powerful critique of US and British foreign policy in a passionate voice, unmuted by his ill health and throat cancer. Harold Pinter's Nobel Lecture was pre-recorded, and shown on video December 7, 2005, in BoNrssalen at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm.
December 4th, 2005

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Special Briefing:

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Steve Clemons is publisher of the popular political blog, TheWashingtonNote.com, and a long-time policy analyst in Washington, D.C. He is currently Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, where he was previously Executive Vice President. Clemons currently co-directs the New America Foundation's American Strategy Program. He co-founded the Japan Policy Institute with Chalmers Johnson. In the last few months he was very active in opposing the nomination of John Bolton to become Ambassador to the United Nations and he recently presented former Colin Powell Chief of Staff Colonel Larry Wilkerson at a conference in which he gave a stunning speech that pointed fingers at Cheney and Rumsfeld. He also writes frequently on matters of foreign policy, defense, and international economic policy. His work has appeared in most of the major leading op-ed pages, journal, and magazines around the world. He speaks to us from London.

Wayne Slater is Senior Political Writer for The Dallas Morning News. He was appointed after serving 15 years as Austin bureau chief. He has appeared on numerous network television shows and is co-author of the bestseller, Bush's Brain. Slater traveled for 16 months covering the presidential campaign of George W. Bush. He has covered every Republican and Democratic national convention since 1988. He has appeared on NBC's Meet the Press, CNN's Crossfire and Inside Politics, ABC's Nightline and Good Morning America, C-Span, National Public Radio and Fox News' The Beltway Boys and The O'Reilly Factor.

Dr. Paul Zeitz The Bird Flu Threat and AIDS: Public Health Vs. Pharmaceutical Profits. Dr. Zeitz is the Executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance. Dr. Zeitz said recently: "America cannot protect itself without investing in global public health. ... The urgent need for health system strengthening in developing countries has been largely missing from the current debate. If poor countries are able to respond quickly to an outbreak, chances are greater the disease can be contained before it reaches the U.S. ... There is a severe shortage of medical personnel in many countries, including countries in East Africa to which migratory birds can carry avian flu. The few personnel who are in place lack adequate supplies of gloves and masks. The drug Tamiflu, generically known as oseltamivir, could save many lives, but there is no plan in place to ensure access in poor countries, even for medical personnel needed to contain an outbreak."

Special Briefing 12.04.05

Max Blumenthal on the conservative movement and the religious right. Max Blumenthal is a Nation Institute Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow whose work regularly appears in the Nation. He has also written for The American Prospect, Salon.com, and the Washington Monthly. He received the Online Journalism Award for best independent feature in 2003 from the Online Journalism Association and the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communications. He is a Research Fellow at Media Matters for America.

Abbas Kadhim on the state of affairs in Iraq--the insurgents, the army, security and chaos, promise and pitfall. Mr. Kadhim is a PhD candidate at the University of California, Berkeley and lecturer at Stanford University in Islamic Studies. He fought against Saddam Heussein in the Shia uprising in the aftermath of Gulf War I and escaped the slaughter in which many perished.

November 27th, 2005

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Phillip Knightley on the threat by George Bush to bomb al Jazeera. Mr. Knightley is one of Great Britain's most distinguished journalists and authors . An Australian by birth, Phillip became part of the celebrated Sunday Times Insight team from the 1950s to the 1970s, breaking such famous stories as the Kim Philby spy scandal, the Profumo sex scandal and exposing the effects of thalidomide on new-born babies. Now an acknowledged expert in the dark arts of warfare nad espionage, having written the seminal text of wartime propaganda First Casualty, he lives in London and works as a freelance journalist for publications all over the world. He is the author of some 10 books, covering in depth some of the biggest stories of recent times. Most recently he has written his autobiography A Hack's Progress and the critically acclaimed history Australia: A Biography of a Nation.

Lamis Andoni on the Bush threat against al Jazeeah. Lamis Andoni began her journalism career in 1982 as a reporter covering the Middle East for a variety of Arab newspapers. Her hard-hitting coverage has resulted in her being banned in Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia and in Jordan during the 1980's. She went on to become a writer for western newspapers, including the Guardian of London, the Financial Times, the Christian Science Monitor and her work has appeared New York Times, the Washington Post and many other publications. She has been a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, a visiting scholar in journalism at Harvard, and a visiting lecturer in journalism at UC Berkeley, focusing on the Arab media. She is currently a consultant to al Jazeera as regards international affairs. She is directly involved in assessing and countering government intimidation against the news service.the journalism school at the University of California at Berkeley, where she specializes in monitoring the Arab media, most particularly al Jazeera.

James Paul on the control of the Iraqi oil resource, what many believe the Iraq war and occupation was all about. James Paul is the Executive Director of Global Policy Forum, which co-published the bombshell report "Crude Designs" (available at crudedesigns.org), saying "this report confirms what many have long suspected: that big US and UK companies have enormous interest in Iraq's giant untapped oilfields, and shows clearly how these companies have been angling to gain control of those fields and now, under the occupation, are closing in on their goal."

Dr. Ed Brook on the phenomenon of global warming and new discoveries which prove the impact man's activities have changed our climate. Says Dr. Brook, "we've taken a lot of carbon out of the ground and put it in the air." Dr. Brook is a professor in the Department of GeoSciences at Oregon State University who specializes is paleoclimatology. We will speak to him about recent discoveries regarding glacial ice-core samples and what they show about the earth's changing climate, particularly as regards global warming. What is the scientific consensus regarding global warming and can it be slowed or stopped? We'll look into these important questions with Dr. Brook.
November 20th, 2005

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Robert Dreyfuss on the uproar in the pubic, the media and in Congress following Represenative Murtha's declaration that Bush's Iraq war is a failure "wrapped in delusion." Mr. Dreyfuss writes extensively on Iraq, the war on terrorism, and national security for The Nation, The American Prospect, and Rolling Stone, and is a frequent commentator on NPR, MSNBC, and CNBC. His new book is Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam, which is the gripping story of America's misguided efforts, stretching across decades, to dominate the strategically vital Middle East by courting and cultivating Islamic fundamentalism. Dreyfuss has an article in the December issue of Rolling Stone, entitled "Getting Out of Iraq," which is also the subject of an almost unprecedented conflict in the House of Representatives, which erupted last Friday night after Congressman Murtha of Pennsylvania attempted to introduce a resolution calling for withdrawal of the troops. Republicans hijacked this effort by introducing their own "counterfeit" resolution.

Lawrence Velvel on the Patrick Fitzgerald investigation and the Bush administration's involvement in torture. Dear Velvel is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School and has practiced law in the Department of Justice and the private sector. In those capacities, he has written numerous briefs for the Supreme Court. He has been a law professor at the University of Kansas Law School and Catholic University in Washington, D.C.. He is the author of the quartet Thine Alabaster Cities Gleam. The books in the quartet are entitled: Misfits In America, Trail of Tears, The Hopes and Fears of Future Years: Loss and Creation, and The Hopes and Fears of Future Years: Defeat and Victory. He is one of the founders of the Massachusetts School of Law, where he currently serves as Dean. He has written some of the most penetrating analyses of the Fitzgerald investigation, the Iraq war and the torture issue, which can be found at his blog: www.Velvelonnationalaffairs.com

Lawrence Walsh on the neocon connections between his prosecution of the scandals of the Reagan/Bush era and the Fitzgerald investigation and prosecution of the Plame scandal of the current Bush administration. Mr. Walsh is a distinguished attorney based in Oklahoma who served as Independent Counsel for the historic Iran/Contra scandal during the Reagan administration, which involved the current presidents father and in which a number of persons, now known as "neocons," first came to public attention. Mr. Walsh is the author of Firewall: The Iran-Contra Conspiracy and Cover-Up and The Gift of Insecurity: A Lawyer's Life (Oct-2003, memoir). He joins us from his home in Oklahoma.
November 13th, 2005

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Robert Baer on the state of affairs in Iraq and the Middle East, on whether or not Bush deceived the nation into war, and where the situation is header. Robert Baer is a former CIA officer assigned to the Middle East and is the author of two best-sellers, "See No Evil" and "Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold our Soul for Saudi Crude." His book "See No Evil" has been made into a major motion picture, starring George Clooney, which will be released in December.

Robert Fisk on Iraq and the Middle East. Fisk answers the question: is the American project in Iraq over? Robert Fisk is a best-selling author and journalist. Fisk is the Middle East Correspondent of The Independent and has lived in the Middle East for almost three decades. He holds more British and international journalism awards than any other foreign correspondent. The Financial Times has said of Fisk: "As a war correspondent, he is unrivaled . . ." The London Sunday Times said, "He is a devastating witness to the failure of politics to guard mankind against itself." His last book, Pity the Nation, a history of the Lebanon war, was published to great critical acclaim. His new book is a monumental 1,000-page work, "The Great War for Civilisation : The Conquest of the Middle East," which has been described as an "unflinching, stunning achievement."
November 6th, 2005

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Senator Gary Hart on the recent shut-down of the United States Senate by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's invocation of the rarely used rule 21, which forced a closed session, and forced Majority Leader Bill Frist to finally move forward on the long-delayed Pre-War Intelligence Report. Also, Senator Hart discussed the crumbling wall separating church and state, with what dire consequences may derive therefrom, the Iraq war, the Plame scandal and the Democratic party. Senator Hart served as a member of the United States Senate from 1975 to 1987 representing Colorado and was twice a candidate for President of the United States. Among many distinctions, he was co-chair of the U.S. Commission on National Security for the 21st Century, which performed the most comprehensive review of national security since 1947, predicted the terrorist attacks on America, and proposed a sweeping overhaul of U.S. national security structures and policies for the post-Cold War 21st century. He is the author of a number of books, including Restoration of the Republic: the Jeffersonian Ideal in 21st Century America (2002), The Fourth Power: a new grand strategy for the United States in the 21st century and the just-published God and Caesar in America: An Essay on Religion and Politics, which warns of a looming theocracy in the United States--a dictatorship by a minority.

Dr. Mark LeVine on the unrest among disenfranchised, unemployed Muslim youth in France, on the situation vis-a-vis the assassination of the Lebanese leader Rafik Hariri and the suspected Syrian perpetrators, and on the situation in Iraq. Dr. LeVine is an Associate Prof of Modern Middle Eastern History, Culture and Islamic Studies at UC Irvine. He has lived and worked in the ME and North Africa for more than a dozen years, traveled through Iraq last year and just returned from Beruit, Lebanon a week and a half ago. He is the author or editor of more than half a dozen books on the Middle East and related topics, and the author of the just-published "Why They Don't Hate Us."

John McArthur on the failure of the Democratic party to provide a real oppostion to the Republicans and on why "liberal hawks" support the Iraq war. John "Rick" McArthur is an award-winning journalist and author, and president and publisher of Harper's Magazine . He writes a monthly column for the Providence Journal and for Canada's national newspaper, the Globe & Mail. Mr. MacArthur's first book, Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War, was a finalist for the 1993 Mencken Award for books and won the Illinois ACLU's 1992 Harry Kalven Freedom of Expression award. His critically acclaimed follow-up, The Selling of "Free Trade": NAFTA, Washington, and the Subversion of Democracy, published in the spring of 2000, was called "an immensely pleasurable read." by the Chicago Tribune and "illuminating" by the San Francisco Chronicle. In 1993 he exposed "Nayirah," the Kuwaiti diplomat's daughter who participated in faking the Iraqi baby-incubator atrocity, a fraud used to help sell the first Iraq war. He has written a new piece which blasts "liberal hawks" who supported the Iraq war, and in some cases still do.
October 30th, 2005

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John Dean on the indictment of Lewis "Scooter" Libby by US Attorney and Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald. Is Libby a "fire-wall" for Vice President Cheney? Will other be indicted? Who will this politically affect the Bush presidency? John Dean served as Richard Nixon's White House lawyer for a thousand days. Before becoming Counsel to the President of the United States in July 1970 at age thirty-one, John Dean was Chief Minority Counsel to the Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives, the Associate Director of a law reform commission, and Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States. He has recounted his days in the Nixon White House and Watergate in two books, Blind Ambition (1976) and Lost Honor (1982). In 2001 he published "The Rehnquist Choice: The Untold Story of the Nixon Appointment that Redefined the Supreme Court;" and in early 2004, Warren G. Harding. His newest book is "Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush." He is a frequent commentator and write for Findlaw.com.

Laura Rozen on the Niger forgeries--the documents that helped start a war. Where did they come from? Who forged them? Who wanted them forged? For money, ideology, or more? Laura Rozen is a senior correspondent for the American Prospect. She writes about national security issues for other publications, including the Nation and the Village Voice, and for her blog, www.WarandPiece.com . She joins us from Washington, D.C..
October 23rd, 2005

Part One

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Part Two

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Noam Chomsky in a discussion on the state of affairs in the nation today. Dr. Chomsky is considered one of the world's most pre-eminent public intellectuals and political thinker in a class by himself. He is the author of numerous bestselling political works, from American Power and the New Mandarins in the 1960s to "9-11" in 2001. A professor of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT, he is widely credited with having revolutionized modern linguistics with his theory of "transformational grammar." He is a prolific author, with 360 titles listed of his works in various forms, at Amazon.com. He is the author most recently of "Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post 9/11 World."

Robert Dreyfuss on US involvement in promoting fundamentalist Islam for its short-term strategic goals, a policy that resulted in long-term problems. Mr. Dreyfuss writes extensively on Iraq, the war on terrorism, and national security for The Nation, The American Prospect, and Rolling Stone, and is a frequent commentator on NPR, MSNBC, and CNBC. His new book is Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam, which is the gripping story of Americaís misguided efforts, stretching across decades, to dominate the strategically vital Middle East by courting and cultivating Islamic fundamentalism. Among all the books about Islam, this is the first comprehensive inquiry into this critical issue: How and why did the United States encourage and finance the spread of radical political Islam? (Abridged interview. For the full interview, please see Live From the Left Coast.)

Background Briefing PART TWO

Janis Karpinski tells her story about Abu Ghriab. Janis Karpinski is a former Brigadier-General who served in the U.S. military for over twenty-five years, most recently as the Commander of the Military Police Brigade in Iraq, charged with oversight of Abu Ghriab prison. She received a Bronze Star for her service in the Gulf War. She now lives in Hilton Head, South Carolina. In her new book, "One Woman's Army" the former General refuses to take the fall for those who ordered torture at the infamous prison. Karpinski tells the story and names names.
October 16th , 2005

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Youseff Ibrahim on the Iraq constitutional referendum, the al Qaeda/Zarqawi letter and the Judith Miller scandal at the New York Times. Youseff Ibrahim is a highly regarded expert on the Middle East, having for 24 years reported on the region for the New York Times, as a senior foreign correspondent. He is currently the Managing Director of the Strategic Energy Investment Group, specializing in risk analysis.

Bill Press on the GOP's hijacking of religion for their political purposes. Mr. Press is a nationally syndicated radio talk show host. He was co-host of MSNBC's Buchanan and Press and was also co-host of CNN's Crossfire and The Spin Room with Tucker Carlson. He has had a high-profile career in government, politics, and broadcasting for three decades and served as chairman of the California Democratic Party from 1993 to 1996. He was named Best Commentator of the Year by the Associated Press and has received numerous other awards for his work, including four Emmys and a Golden Mike Award. He is the author of Spin This! and Bush Must Go and writes a syndicated newspaper column distributed by Tribune Media Services. In addition to the foregoing, Mr. Press is a former Seminarian and it is this religious background which inspired his new book, HOW THE REPUBLICANS STOLE CHRISTMAS: The Republican Party's Declared Monopoly on Religion and What Democrats Can Do to Take It Back.

Peter Irons on the misuse of presidential power to take America to war. Dr. Irons is an emeritus Professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego, and the author of numerous books, including A People's History of the Supreme Court, and editor and narrator of May It Please the Court. His writings have earned him an uprecedented five Silver Gavel Awards from the American Bar Association. His new book, War Powers: How the Imperial Presidency Hijacked the Constitution, is a very important explanation of how the United States Presidency has been able to take the US to war without consent of the legislature, a repeated practice which has lead to the current Iraq war, described recently by General William Odom as the worst foreign policy disaster in American History, the full consequences of which are yet to be known.
October 9th , 2005

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Lawrence O'Donnell on the latest developments in the roiling White House Plame scandal, which is coming to a head with possible indictments of very high level Bush administration officials. Mr. O'Donnell is an Emmy winning producer of NBCs The West Wing. He is also MSNBCs senior political analyst and a panelist onThe McLaughlin Group. He is a former contributing editor of New York Magazine and a former Democratic Chief of Staff of the United States Senate Committee on Finance and for the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Mr. ODonnell has also served as Senior Advisor to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

Professor Douglas Laycock on President Bush's nomination of his attorney, Harriet Miers, to become a member of the Supreme Court. Douglas Laycock is a professor of constitutional law at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law. He has been recently quoted in the Los Angeles Times and other news media regarding the background and associations of Bush's Supreme Court Nominee Harriet Miers, and how they may suggest what the reality of her positions are on important issues. Lured to Texas from the University of Chicago Law School in 1981, Professor Laycock is generally considered to be the nation's leading authority on the law of remedies and one of its two leading scholars on the law of religious liberty. He testifies frequently before Congress about issues of religious liberty, and has argued many cases in the courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He is author of the leading casebook Modern American Remedies: Cases and Materials (Aspen, 3d ed. 2002); the award-winning monograph, The Death of the Irreparable Injury Rule (Oxford, 1991); and many articles in Harvard Law Review, Columbia Law Review, Supreme Court Review, and elsewhere. He has been Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan Law School and is also a member of the Council of the American Law Institute and an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Wayne White on the situation in Iraq and Bush's recent speech in which he again tells the American people to ready themselves for what seems to be a perpetual "war on terror." Mr. White is an Adjunct Scholar at Washingtons Middle East Institute. In March 2005, he retired as Deputy Director of the Office of Analysis for the Near East and South Asia in the State Departments Bureau of intelligence and Research. White entered the Foreign Service in 1973 where he served with the U.S. Embassy in Niamey, Niger in 1974-1976 during the Sahel Drought Emergency as the General Services, Consular and Political/Military Affairs Officer. During 1976-1978, he served as Chief of the Non-Immigrant Visa Section at the U.S. Embassy in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti and Deputy Chief of the Immigrant Visa Section. He spent the rest of 1978 and most of 1979 in Egypt, Israel, and the Sinai serving as a peacekeeper with the U.S. Sinai Field Mission. In late 1979, Mr. White joined INR/NESA in Washington, serving as editor of INRs Arab-Israeli Situation Report (1979-1980) and Analyst for Iraq (1979-1986). He then served as Senior Analyst for Syria, head of NESAs Lebanon Crisis Team, and Deputy Chief of NESAs Arab-Israeli Division (1986-1990). He was Chief of NESAs Maghreb, Arabian Peninsula, Iran, and Iraq Division during 1990-2002. He became NESAs Deputy Director and Senior Regional Analyst in 2002. During the March-April 2003 Iraq War, he took over as INRs principal Iraq Analyst, and, subsequently, headed INRs Iraq Team from August 2003 through March 2005. Mr. White has traveled widely in West Africa, North Africa, the Levant, Iraq, the Arabian Peninsula, Europe (including Russia), the Caribbean and Japan. In 1983, he served for several months on a special assignment as Political Officer in the U.S. Interests Section in Baghdad. Between 1981 and 1986, he spent nine months in the Arabian Peninsula and Jordan briefing senior foreign officials, including the late King Hussein of Jordan. During 1987-1990, Mr. White performed similar duties with respect to Israel in support of ongoing US-Israeli talks. He also represented the State Department at yearly NATO meetings on Middle East and Mediterranean issues during 1990-2002.
October 2nd , 2005

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Lou DuBose on the criminal indictment of House Speaker and key GOP leader Tom DeLay. Lou DuBose is an investigative journalist and the author of the recent"The Hammer: Tom DeLay: God, Money and the Rise of the Republican Congress." Lou DuBose is the co-author, with Molly Ivins, of Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America and Shrub: The Short But Happy Political Life of George W. Bush and Boy Genius: Karl Rove, the Brains Behind the Remarkable Political Triumph of George W. Bush. He was the editor of the Texas Observer for eleven years. Lou DuBose is also currently covering the historic "Intelligent Design" trial in Pennsylvania, in which we again revisit some of the same themes of reason and science confronting medieval fundamentalism, nearly 100 years after the so-called "Scopes Monkey Trial."

Robert Collier on the tragic and powerful story of the life and death of football star-turned-soldier Pat Tillman. Collier describes the disturbing dishonesty of the Pentagon in accounting for this killing, which should have never happened. He discusses the determination of the Tillman family to bring the truth forward, and their outrage at the use of their son for propaganda. He also describes Tillman as an amazing human being, unique, intelligent, humorous, full of life, courageous, independent and a critic of the Iraq war and George Bush, who he opposed for reelection. Robert Collier is a staff reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, who has been covering foreign affairs for the paper since 1994. His reporting has dealt with a wide range of international issues, from Mexico to China, to the war in Iraq. He was given the Society of Professional Journalists Sigma-Delta-Chi award in 2003 for international reporting, which cited and honored his reporting from Baghdad, before and during the invasion as well as the occupation in the invasion's aftermath . His front page story last Sunday in the Chronicle has drawn international attention and powerfully recounts the extent to which the Defense Department willfully and falsely used the tragic "friendly-fire" killing of Pat Tillman, the star athlete who enlisted in the military after 9/11, for propaganda, providing a false account to the American people, and deceiving the grief-stricken Tillman family--a family now resolved to have the real truth fully and completely revealed.
September 25th , 2005

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George Galloway on his just-completed book tour of the US, the "strange bedfellow" alliance of President Bush and Prime Minister Blair and on the massive Washington D.C. anti-war protest at which he was to speak the next day. Mr. Galloway is the Respect Party's Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green and Bow in London, a seat he won after his expulsion from the Labour Party, after thirty-six years, for his opposition to the Iraq War. He is the author of "I'm Not the Only One," published in January of this year, and the new book "Mr. Galloway goes to Washington: the Brit who set Congress straight about Iraq," which is an account of his confrontation at a US Senate subcommittee chaired by Senator Norm Coleman. Coleman had accused Mr. Galloway of fraud in his attempt to aid Iraqi children who were starving as a result of UN sanctions. Galloway turned the tables on the senators is a blistering attack which left the senators reeling and speechless, accustomed as they are to the tepid and controlled discourse which serves as political discourse in Washington, D.C.. In reaction to Galloway's rhetorical blast at the senators, he received more than 20,000 emails from Americans congratulating him for speaking truth to power. He just concluded a national tour promoting his new book, in which he addressed overflow crowds. We spoke to him last Friday, the day before he was to speak at Washington's anti-war rally which drew over 100,000 protestors. (Pre-recorded on 9.23.05).

Dr. Robert Pastor on election reform in the United States and the recently completed Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform. Dr. Pastor is the Director of the Center for Democracy and Election Management and Vice President of International Affairs at American University. He is also the Executive Director of the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform, which last week published its recommendations intended to increase voter participation, enhance ballot security, reduce fraud, make election administration impartial and provide for paper auditing of electronic voting machines. Previously, Pastor was Professor of Political Science at Emory University, and was a Fellow and Founding Director of the Carter Center's Latin American and Caribbean Program and the Democracy and China Election Projects. At The Carter Center, he developed the technique of "election mediation" and organized the observation of more than 30 elections throughout the world. Pastor was the Senior Advisor to the Carter-Ford National Commission on Election Reform and also former President Carterís personal representative to the Commission. A member of the Governing Board of Common Cause, he chaired their Task Force on Election Reform. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer, a Fulbright Professor in Mexico, and the initiator of the Humphrey Fellowship Program when he was National Security Advisor on Latin American Affairs from 1977-81. He received his M.P.A. from the John F. Kennedy School of Government and his Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard University and is the author or editor of 16 books on U.S. foreign policy, democratization, and North America. Robert Pastor's new Center for Democracy and Election Management trains students, political leaders, journalists, and election managers from the US and abroad. Dr. Pastor has been a foreign policy advisor to each of the Democratic Presidential Candidates since 1976 and was Co-Chair of the Advisory Committee on the Americas for the Gore-Lieberman campaign. President Bill Clinton nominated him to be Ambassador to Panama, and he served as the Senior Advisor to the Carter-Nunn-Powell Mission to restore constitutional government in Haiti in 1994.

Michael Harris on the past, present and future of America's weapons of mass destruction. Mr. Harris is the author of a new book on the development and testing of the US nuclear arsensal. Mr. Harris began writing The Atomic Times in 1955 when he was an army draftee stationed on Eniwetok and finished the book fifty years later. In between, he married novelist Ruth Harris (in 1970) and spent years as a public relations executive at CBS Television, eleven of them on the staff of The Ed Sullivan Show. In addition to welcoming the Beatles at the airport on their first trip to the United States, he is the author of Always on Sunday, the bestselling (and unauthorized) biography of Ed Sullivan.

September 18th, 2005

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Hugh Kaufman on the toxic gumbo of chemicals and bacteria that was New Orleans and how responders are in jeopardy. Mr. Kaufman is a senior policy analyst at the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. He is one of the core group that founded the EPA, having worked at the agency for 35 years. He was the chief EPA investigator for the post-9/11 emergency response. He has been outspoken in his work, and in his environmental advocacy as a private citizen. Recently, he said "After 9/11, because the government did not do its job properly and provide the responders with the proper clothing and equipment -- like respirators -- now over 75 percent of the responders are sick as dogs ... And they're starting to die off, four years after their heroic efforts in responding to 9/11. And I'm concerned the same thing is happening down in that region of the country, where the responders are not provided respirators and the proper equipment to protect them from their exposures. The danger is actually worse when the water goes away, because you have hazardous materials more concentrated in muck and dust. People will more readily come back, and will try to clean their homes or porches. And they'll have toxic dust they'll be sweeping around. And they'll inhale it and ingest it. ... If there's no clean-up you have basically people living and trying to clean in the middle of the country's largest Superfund site."

Professor Peter Edelman on the near "sure thing" of the confirmation of John Roberts as Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court. Professor Edelman his been on the faculty of Georgetown Law School. Previously, he was Associate Dean of the Law Center, Director of the New York State Division for Youth, and Vice President of the University of Massachusetts. He was a Legislative Assistant to Senator Robert F. Kennedy and was Issues Director for Senator Edward Kennedy's Presidential campaign in 1980. Earlier, he was a Law Clerk to Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Goldberg and before that to Judge Henry J. Friendly on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He also worked in the U.S. Department of Justice as Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General John Douglas. He took leave during President Clinton's first term to serve as Counselor to HHS Secretary Donna Shalala and then as Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. Professor Edelman's book, Searching for America's Heart: RFK and the Renewal of Hope, was published by Houghton-Mifflin in January 2001. He is the author of many articles on poverty, constitutional law, and issues about children and youth. His article in the Atlantic Monthly entitled, "The Worst Thing Bill Clinton Has Done" received the Harry Chapin Media Award. Peter Edelman has chaired and been a board member of many organizations and foundations. He is currently the board president of the New Israel Fund, and is a board member of the Center for Community Change, the Public Welfare Foundation, Americans for Peace Now, the Center for Law and Social Policy, and a half dozen other nonprofit organizations. He has been closely watching the confirmation hearings of John Roberts for Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court.

James Paul on the recent U.N. Summit and the difficult relationship between the Bush administration and the world's most important vehicle for international communication and conflict resolution. Dr. Paul has been Executive Director of Global Policy Forum since its foundation in late 1993. He worked previously as a writer and consultant (1989-1993) with projects for Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights. He earned his B.A. degree from Harvard College in 1963 (cum laude), his M.A. from Oxford University in 1968 and his Ph.D. from New York University in 1975. He won the Book Prize for academic excellence at Christ Church College in Oxford. While at MERIP, he won the World Hunger Media Award (1987) and he received a "Peacemaker" award by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation in 1996. He is an editor of the Oxford Companion to Politics of the World and his most recent book is Humanity Comes of Age. From 1995 to 2002, and again beginning in 2004, he has served as Chair of the NGO Working Group on the Security Council. He also has served on the Editorial Committee of Peoples Mditrranens, he was Chair of the Board of Trustees of the World Fellowship Center, and he was a member of the Committee for an Exploratory Study of Graduate Education in Political Science of the American Political Science Association. In addition to English, he speaks French, German, Spanish and Arabic. He is listed in Who's Who in America and is currently a member of the Academic Council on the UN System.

September 11th, 2005

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Michael Scheuer on the state of the "war on terror," American security and our nation's standing in the world, four years after 9/11. Formerly known as "Anonymous," a nom-de-plune for the two books and several articles he has written, Michael Scheuer is a twenty-two year veteran CIA analyst. He headed the bin Laden task force for the agency and was their top expert. He is the author of the best-seller "Imperial Hubris," which is a powerful critical assessment on the failure of this country to seriously deal with the formidable realites we face as a nation. Scheuer's previsous book is "Through our Enemy's Eyes," which will be published in an updated edition in January 2006, with additional material. Ian speaks with Mr. Sherer about what has happened at the CIA-- a purge leaving only Bush yes-men, the "war on terror" that appears to have played directly into bin Laden's hands and a US global strategy, driven by neocon ideologues, which is a manifest failure four years after 9/11. He asks about the lack of accountability in national leadership, the 9/11 Commission report and more.

Mark Danner on where we are four years after 9/11. Mark Danner is a professor of journalism and politics at the University of California-Berkeley and Bard college, and the author, most recently, of Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib and the War on Terror. His previous books are "The Road to Illegitimacy" and "Massacre at El Mozote." He has an excellent article, published today in the New York Times Magazine, entitled "Taking Stock of the Forever War" in which he examines the Iraq quagmire and its impact on the region, the US and the world. Also see Mark Danner's website at www.markdanner.com

September 4th, 2005

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Philip J. (P.J.) Crowley on the failure of the Bush administration to address and prevent an enormous disaster in New Orleans. P.J. Crowley is a Senior Fellow and Director of National Defense and Homeland Security at the Center for American Progress. Previously, Mr. Crowley was Special Assistant to the President of the United States Bill Clinton for National Security Affairs, serving as Senior Director of Public Affairs for the National Security Council. In all, Crowley was a spokesman for the United States government and United States military for 28 years, 11 of those years at the Pentagon and three at the White House. He served for 26 years in the United States Air Force, retiring at the rank of colonel in September 1999. He is a veteran of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. During the Kosovo conflict, he was temporarily assigned to work with then NATO Secretary General Javier Solana.

Dr. Ari Kelman on the question of whether New Orleans was more of a natural, or more of a "man-made" disaster, and on the future of this great American city. Dr. Kelman is an associate professor of history at the University of California, Davis. He is the author of the prize-winning "A River and Its City: The Nature of Landscape in New Orleans," which was published in 2003." He has been guest-blogging on the New Orleans disaster for Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo, had an article published New Orleans at Slate.com "City of Nature--New Orleans' blessing; New Orleans' curse," and has an op-ed on New Orleans published in the Baltimore Sun.

Steve Clemons on the fourth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Steve Clemons is force behind the popular political blog, TheWashingtonNote.com and is a Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, where he was previously Executive Vice President. Clemons currently co-directs the New America Foundation's American Strategy Program with well-known foreign policy thinkers Sherle Schwenninger and Michael Lind. Previously he served as Executive Vice President of the Economic Strategy Institute and as Senior Policy Advisor on Economic and International Affairs to Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM). He also served for seven years as Executive Director of the Japan America Society of Southern California and co-founded with Chalmers Johnson the Japan Policy Research Institute. Clemons has organized a stellar conference to be presented this week in Washington, D.C. and presented by the New America Foundation: Terrorism, Security and America's Purpose. It will be webcast at www.americaspurpose.org and carried all day Tuesday on C-Span.
August 28th, 2005

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Fadel Gheit on the rapid rise in gas prices, which he sees resulting from a "perfect storm" of factors, but most primarily George Bush and his ill-conceived and prosecuted war on Iraq. Gheit also criticizes Bush on his manner of dealing with Venezuela and how he has destabilized the Middle East on which the world depends for energy, seeing Saudi Arabia as increasingly vulnerable. Mr. Gheit was described in a New York Times profile published last Friday as "an elder statesman among oil analysts," with more than 30 years of experience in oil and gas research and analysis. His is widely regarded as having a comprehensive insight into matters of oil and energy, integrating a deep knowledge of the industry, of the Middle East, of US domestic and international politics, and of the demands of the international markets. A native of Egypt, Fadel Gheit is a graduate of Cairo University and New York University. He is currently Senior Vice President for Oil and Gas Research with Oppenheimer and company in NYC, which covers 26 energy companies. He was previously with Mobil Oil and JP Morgan Company. At the beginning of this year, he recommended that investors buy shares in a number of oil and energy companies he had specified: from major integrated oil companies like Exxon Mobil to refiners like Tesoro and independents like Anadarko and Kerr-McGee. The stocks on Fadel Gheit's list have gained 45.5 percent so far this year.

Colonel E. M. Chamberlain on his analysis of the issues facing the US military in Iraq and how politics will play a major role in the deployment of forces in that country. Colonel Chamberlain retired from thirty years of infantry service with the United States Army as a full colonel in 2002. He comes from a family which has, for four generations, served this country as professional soldiers in the U.S. Army. Colonel Chamberlain graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1972, commencing a career, which earned many medals and commendations, including the Combat Infantryman's Badge, the Bronze Star for Valor, and the Distinguished Service Medal. Among his many career highlights, Colonel Chamberlain served as the Commander of Task Force Striker during Desert Storm, as the commander of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division and as the Inspector General of Central Command under General Anthony Zinni from 1998 to 2000, a position via which he gained a broad familiarity with the Middle East. An avid student of military history, Colonel Chamberlain has, for the last three years, contributed commentary and analysis on strategic and military affairs to the Chicago Tribune, including a piece published recently entitled, "Prediction: forces of politics, not warfare, will bring Iraq pullout by 2006." He joins us from his home in Lutz (pronounced "loots"), Florida.

Ann Wright on the ongoing protests against the Bush handling of the Iraq war. Ann Wright resigned from the U.S. Foreign Service on March 19, 2003, while serving as Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Mongolia . She resigned due to her disagreement with the Bush administration's decision to go to war in Iraq without the authorization of the UN Security Council, the lack of effort in resolving the Israel-Palestinian situation, the lack of policy on North Korea and unnecessary curtailment of civil liberties in the United States . Ms. Wright joined the Foreign Service in 1987 and served as Deputy Chief of Mission of US Embassies in Sierra Leone , Micronesia and briefly in Afghanistan . She received the State Department's Award for Heroism for her actions during the evacuation of 2500 persons from the civil war in Sierra Leone , the largest evacuation since the evacuation of Saigon in 1974. Ms. Wright was on the first State Department team to go to Kabul , Afghanistan . She helped reopen the US Embassy in Kabul in December, 2001 and worked in Afghanistan for five months, serving in the last month as Deputy Chief of Mission (Deputy Ambassador). Before entering the Foreign Service, she served in the Army and has a combined regular Army/Army Reserve service time of 29 years. She served primarily in special operations units and attained the rank of colonel. While on military duty in 1982 and 1983 in Grenada, she was on the US Army's International Law team and participated in civil reconstruction work following the US rescue mission. Colonel Wright is airborne qualified. Ms. Wright has Master's and Law Degrees from the University of Arkansas and a Master's Degree in National Security Affairs from the US Naval War College, Newport , Rhode Island . She participated in the documentary film "Uncovered: The Truth About the Iraq War .
August 21st, 2005

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Houzan Mahmoud on the difficulty in crafting a constitution in Iraq, a country more and more riven by ethnic and religious conflict. Houzan Mahmoud is the U.K. director of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq and co-founder of the Iraqi Freedom Congress. She has been expressing her grave concern that the Iraqi constitutional process is dividing Iraq along the lines of religious sects and tribal factions, that a constitution put together under US occupation, with rampant daily suicide bombings and terrorist attacks, necessarily will lack legitimacy. She says that it appears more and more likely that the final constitution will be founded not on a modern secular democratic model, but on a fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic Sharia law, which will take women's rights back "hundreds of years." We speak to her from her home in England.

James Howard Kunstler on the looming crisis facing the world and portented by increasing fuel prices--a world without oil. James Howard Kunstler is the author of what are considered two classics of sociologic commentary: "The Geography of Nowhere" and "Home from Nowhere," which established him as one of the great commentators on American space and place. His latest book, "The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of the Oil Age, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-first Century," offers an alarming vision of a post-oil future. In the book James Howard Kunstler states that, as a result of artificially cheap fossil-fuel energy, we have developed global models of industry, commerce, food production, and finance over the last 200 years. But the oil age, which peaked in 1970, is at an end. The depletion of nonrenewable fossil fuels is about to radically change life as we know it, and much sooner than we think. The Long Emergency tells us just what to expect after the honeymoon of affordable energy is over, preparing us for economic, political, and social changes of an unimaginable scale. Riveting and authoritative, The Long Emergency is an indictment that brings new urgency to the critical issues that will shape our future, and that we can no longer afford to ignore.

Dr. William Martin on the religious right in the United States. What are their goals? Have they over-reached? Has the will to earthly power corrupted spiritual teaching and the true message of Jesus in America's evangelical churches, in their effort to achieve political control? Dr. Martin is a Senior Fellow for Religion and Public Policy at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. He is the author of the definitive "With God on Their Side: the rise of the religious right in America," from which the PBS series of the same name was produced. Dr. Martin graduated from Harvard Divinity School in 1963 and received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1969. During his years at Rice, he has received numerous teaching awards, including a Lifetime Award for Excellence in Teaching. His articles, most dealing with various aspects of religion and popular culture, have appeared in such publications as The Atlantic, Harper's, Esquire, and Texas Monthly, as well as in scholarly journals. An updated edition of the book "With God on Their Side" has just been released and an updated version of the PBS documentary series will be released on DVD in September.
August 14th, 2005

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John Dean on all President Bush's men, and the investigation of same in the Plame outing. The only serious investigation the Bush administration has ever been subjected to is now being conducted by US Attorney and Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald. Is Fitzgerald going experience an "Archibald Cox" moment? Cox was fired in the Nixon Watergate scandal in what was called "the Saturday Night Massacre." Or, would the political price to be paid by GW Bush in doing this be too high? Mr. John Dean served as Richard Nixon's White House lawyer for a thousand days. Before becoming Counsel to the President of the United States in July 1970 at age thirty-one, John Dean was Chief Minority Counsel to the Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives, the Associate Director of a law reform commission, and Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States. He has recounted his days in the Nixon White House and Watergate in two books, Blind Ambition (1976) and Lost Honor (1982). In 2001 he published "The Rehnquist Choice: The Untold Story of the Nixon Appointment that Redefined the Supreme Court;" in 2002 he published an e-book "Unmasking Deep Throat;" and in early 2004, Warren G. Harding. His newest book is "Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush."

Philip Giraldi on the Bush administration's sabre-rattling vis-a-vis Iran, the radically shifted Iraq-Iran dynamic and the false basis for the Iraq war in the forgery of documents -- in the United States -- which served as bogus documentation of Saddam attempting to obtain uranium from Niger with which to produce WMD. Mr. Giraldi was, for 17 years, a CIA operations officer specializing in counter-terrorism, who served in Europe and the Middle East. He now works in the private sector doing security consulting and he writes a column in the American Conservative on international security issues. Giraldi has recently expressed concern in his column and elsewhere that those who brought us the war with Iraq--the neocons--are now focusing considerable attention on Iran. He notes that Vice President Cheney has tasked StratCom to develop a plan of attack, utilizing conventional and nuclear forces, against that country.

Crawford Bush "vacation" protest update with Anne Wright Ian looks into the latest developments as Cindy Sheehan maintains her vigil during President Bush's long vacation at his ranch in the arid environs of Crawford, Texas. Ann Wright is there, with Sheehan, in Crawford. Ann Wright resigned from the U.S. Foreign Service on March 19, 2003, while serving as Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Mongolia . She resigned due to her disagreement with the Bush administration's decision to go to war in Iraq without the authorization of the UN Security Council, the lack of effort in resolving the Israel-Palestinian situation, the lack of policy on North Korea and unnecessary curtailment of civil liberties in the United States . Ms. Wright joined the Foreign Service in 1987 and served as Deputy Chief of Mission of US Embassies in Sierra Leone , Micronesia and briefly in Afghanistan . She received the State Department's Award for Heroism for her actions during the evacuation of 2500 persons from the civil war in Sierra Leone , the largest evacuation since the evacuation of Saigon in 1974. Ms. Wright was on the first State Department team to go to Kabul , Afghanistan . She helped reopen the US Embassy in Kabul in December, 2001 and worked in Afghanistan for five months, serving in the last month as Deputy Chief of Mission (Deputy Ambassador). Before entering the Foreign Service, she served in the Army and has a combined regular Army/Army Reserve service time of 29 years. She served primarily in special operations units and attained the rank of colonel. While on military duty in 1982 and 1983 in Grenada, she was on the US Army's International Law team and participated in civil reconstruction work following the US rescue mission. Colonel Wright is airborne qualified. Ms. Wright has Master's and Law Degrees from the University of Arkansas and a Master's Degree in National Security Affairs from the US Naval War College, Newport , Rhode Island . She participated in the documentary film "Uncovered: The Truth About the Iraq War .
August 7th, 2005

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Dr. Mezier Behrooz on Iran's political dynamic, it's nuclear intentions and on the multiple reports that Vice President Dick Cheney has tasked the Pentagon's StratCom to develop conventional and nuclear weapon attack plans to be used against Iran. These plans seem to have a certain echo of the Bush/Cheney pre-emptive attack on Iraq. Dr. Behrooz is a professor of Middle Eastern History at California State University, San Francisco. His most recent book is "Rebels with a cause: the failure of the Left in Iran" "Rebels with a Cause" unearths new details and provides fresh insights into an enduring puzzle of modern Iranian political history, concluding that the Left's demise came from a combination of Iran's geopolitical setting, where both the Soviet and Western worlds saw advantage in the stability of Iran during the Cold War, as well as internal factors such as splits and factionalism, and--not leas--the Iranian Left's over-enthusiastic devotion to a barren Stalinism with its poverty of philosophy and ideas. This book is based on primary and secondary Persian-language sources never before published in English.

Cindy Sheehan on her efforts to confront President Bush on his decision to invade and occupy Iraq. The interview was conducted outside of the Bush compound at Crawford, Texas. Cindy Sheehan is co-founder of the group Gold Star Families for Peace, and is the mother of Casey Sheehan, a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq. Sheehan: "George Bush recently said, speaking about the dreadful loss of life in Iraq in August: 'We have to honor the sacrifices of the fallen by completing the mission,' and 'The families of the fallen can be assured that they died for a noble cause.' We want our loved ones' sacrifices to be honored by bringing our nation's sons and daughters home from the travesty that is the Iraq war immediately, since this war is based on horrendous lies and deceptions. Just because our children are dead, why would we want any more families to suffer the same pain and devastation that we are. ... We are determined to stay until we get answers from George Bush. We deserve and expect him to welcome us with answers as to why our loved ones are dead."

Dr. Tsuyoshi Hasegawa on the 60th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. What was the impact of the bomb in ending the war? What role did Russia play? Dr. Hasegawa was born in Tokyo, Japan and is a graduate of the Univerity of Tokyo and from the University of Washington, Seattle, from which he received his PhD in history. He has taught New York State University, Hokaido University in Japan and is currently a professor of history and Director of the Center for Cold War Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of the just-published landmark "Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman and the Surrender of Japan," in which Hasegawa rewrites the standard history of the end of World War II in the Pacific by fully integrating the three key actors in the story--the United States, the Soviet Union, and Japan. From April 1945, when Stalin broke the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact and Harry Truman assumed the presidency, to the final Soviet military actions against Japan, he brings to light the real reasons Japan surrendered. Hasegawa: "Contrary to the conventional American thought, the atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not have the most decisive impact on Japan's decision to surrender. Truman and Stalin were in intense competition. Truman wanted to force Japan to surrender by dropping the atomic bombs before the Soviets entered the war [against Japan]. Stalin wanted to join the war before Japan surrendered. Prior to the atomic bombing on Hiroshima, in order to avoid unconditional surrender, Japan was trying to terminate the war through Moscow's mediation. The Hiroshima bomb did not change this policy. To Truman's disappointment, however, taking advantage of Japan's reliance on Moscow, after the Hiroshima bomb, Stalin advanced the date of attack on Japan, and managed to join the war in the nick of time. Only when the Soviets entered the war, did the Japanese Emperor decide to surrender by accepting the Potsdam Declaration."

Clayton Swisher on the situation in Israel's occupied Gaza Strip--as reactionary, fundamentalist settlers confront the Israel government as it attempts to evacuate the Israeli settlers in order to return Gaza to the Palestinians who dwelt on it for many years. Clayton Swisher is a former marine reservist and federal criminal investigator who currently works as the Director of Programs at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C.. His recent book THE TRUTH ABOUT CAMP DAVID has been acclaimed in the Middle East, from Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper to Al-Jazeera. He has appeared recently on CNN FN, CBC, ABC News, CSPAN, Voice of America, and been quoted as an authoritative source in the Financial Times and Irish Times, as well as published in the LA TImes. He has lectured at universities including Harvard, Penn and American. He had an Op-Ed recently published in the Los Angeles Times, "Is the Palestinian Authority Passe?" interviewed with

Ehud Eiran is a senior Research Fellow at the International Security Program at the Belfer Center, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.Eiran worked as a legal clerk for two Israeli Attorney Generals and as Assistant to Prime Minister Ehud Barak's Foreign Policy Advisor. He also served as an officer in the Israeli Army and is currently a Reserve Major in the IDF.
July 31st, 2005

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Bill Fletcher on the recent dramatic fissure in America labor as major pieces of the AFL-CIO split away. What happened and what does this split mean for labor's future? Mr. Fletcher is the President and Chief Executive Officer of TransAfrica Forum, and was formerly the Vice President for International Trade Union Development Programs for the George Meany Center/National Labor College of the AFL-CIO. Prior to his service at the Meany Center, Bill served as Education Director, and later, Assistant to the President of the AFL-CIO. Bill's union staff experience began in Boston as an organizer for the United Auto Workers, followed later as the Organizational Secretary/Administrative Director for the National Postal Mail Handlers Union in Washington, DC. Bill has also worked for the Service Employees International Union where he held various positions, the last one being Assistant to the President for the East and South. Bill Fletcher is a graduate of Harvard University and has authored numerous articles published in a variety of books, newspapers and magazines. He is also the co-author of the pictorial booklet: The Indispensable Ally: Black Workers and the Formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, 1934-1941.

David Hawkins on the recent passage of Bush's Energy Bill, which environmentalists decry as having been written by the corporate energy lobbyists and somewhat servile to the energy industry. David Hawkins has been the Director of the National Resources Defense Council's Air and Energy Program since 1991, and in 2001 became director of the NRDC Climate Center, which focuses on advancing policies and programs to reduce pollution responsible for global warming and harmful climate change. He began his work in "public interest" law upon graduation from Columbia University Law School in 1970. He joined NRDC's then new Washington office in 1971. Together with former NRDC attorney Dick Ayres, Mr. Hawkins began NRDC's Clean Air Project. The Project has monitored and shaped the design of the federal Clean Air Act since the law's passage. The intent of the Project has been to provide a voice for the public in the countless decisions that EPA and State agencies make every year in delivering on the law's promise of improved air quality. In 1977 he was appointed by President Carter to be Assistant Administrator for Air, Noise, and Radiation at EPA. In that position he was responsible for initiating major new programs under the 1977 Amendments to the Clean Air Act. With President Reagan's election in 1981, Mr. Hawkins returned to NRDC to co-direct NRDC's Clean Air Program. Working with the Clean Air Coalition, NRDC defeated a prolonged effort by the new administration to roll back the protections o the Clean Air Act. Eventually Congress passed a much-strengthened law in 1990 and NRDC was a major architect for all of its provisions.

Stephen Pizzo on a wave of recent setbacks for liberals and progressive as the Bush administration sees legislative victories on several fronts, while the institutions of the left, and democracy itself, deteriorate. Pizzo examines the Bush administration, which he considers the worst presidency of all time, but also indicts the Democratic party has having no inspirational message and no leadership to ignite the American people towards active participation in their country--all of which goes to a rather bleak status report on our democracy. Stephen Pizzo is an award-winning journalist specializing in business, financial and political issues. His weekly articles are published on Alternet and his daily commentary is featured at Newsforreal.com. He has authored a number of books, including a New York Times bestseller and his journalism has appeared in many publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Mother Jones and many others. Pizzo was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and has won a number of journalistic prizes, including the George Polk Award, the George Loeb Award, the Investigative Reporters and Editors book of the Year Award, the Project Censored Award and many others.
July 24th, 2005

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 Mia Bloom on the growing phenomenon of suicide terror in Iraq and, now, in London. Dr. Bloom is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati and a consultant to the New Jersey Office of Counter Terrorism. She is considered one of the foremost experts on terrorism, suicide terrorism, ethnic conflict, rape in war, and child soldiers. Bloom is also a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and provides expert advice on terrorism to federal and state authorities. Her recent book, "Dying to Kill: the allure of suicide terror," was described by David Rappoport of UCLA and the Editor of the Journal of Terrorism and Political Violence, as "The most comprehensive and lucid book on suicide terror available-- taking the mystery out of the phenomena." She also authored an Op-Ed in last Sunday's Los Angeles Times entitled, "Grim Saudi export: suicide bombers."

Bruce Shapiro on the nomination of John Roberts by GW Bush to the Supreme Court. Bruce Shapiro is an investigative reporter and political analyst who has written extensively on civil rights, human rights, the death penalty and the Supreme Court for Salon.com, the New York Times, Harpers, the Guardian of London, The Nation and other publications. He teaches investigative journalism at Yale University and, as field director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, he is a leader in efforts to reform news reporting on violence. His most recent book is Shaking the Foundations: 200 Years of Investigative Journalism in America. He also writes for The Nation magazine's Supreme Court Watch and has a couple of articles on the Court and nominee in the August 1 issue, including one entitled "The Stakes in the John Roberts Nomination."

James Marcinkowski on the exploding Rove/CIA retaliatory outing scandal and its impact on those working in the US intelligence services and on American security itself. Mr. Marcinkowski was a "classmate" of CIA covert operative and wife of Ambassador Joseph Wilson's, Valerie Plame. Marcinkowski and Plame attend CIA training together and he was outraged at the treatment she received by those who leaked her name to the press. The leaking of Plame's name subjected her life to threat, along with those who worked with her. With identities revealed, they were lost as assets to US security interests. Plame's identity was revealed after her husband charged that Bush administration claims regarding Saddam Hussein's alleged attempts to get uranium from Niger, were unfounded. Marcinkowski testified at last week's joint House/Senate Democratic hearing on the Rove/CIA scandal and its impact. Many expressed admiration for his insightful observations and articulate presentation of the principles and facts involved.
July 17th, 2005

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Sidney Blumenthal on the unfolding scandal over what appears to have been a conspiracy to attack the credibility of Ambassador Joseph Wilson by revealing the identity of his wife, an under-cover CIA agent. This is more than a story about a CIA agent being exposed; it is about an administration who appeared to have lied to the American people to take the United States to war against Iraq, with a subsequent occupation, which has taken many lives. Sidney Blumenthal was a top advisor to President Bill Clinton and is the author of The Clinton Wars. He is also columnist for Salon.com and the Guardian of London. He has written for the Washington Post, the New Republic and the New Yorker and has authored five books, in addition to The Clinton Wars, which is in a newly revised paperback edition.

James Moore on President Bush's chief political strategist--Karl Rove and his role in the Plame Conspiracy. James Moore is an Emmy Award winning TV news correspondent with more than a quarter century of print and broadcast experience. Moore is also the author along with Wayne Slater of the New York Times bestseller "Bush's Brain: how Karl Rove made George W. Bush presidential," a book which has been made into a documentary film, now available on dvd. He has traveled extensively on every Presidential campaign since 1976. His reports have appeared on CNN, NBC, and CBS. His professional honors include: an Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio-Television News Directors Association, and the Individual Broadcast Achievement Award from the Texas Headliners' Foundation. His latest book is "Bush's War for Reelection: Iraq, the White House, and the People."

Ambassador Akbar Ahmed on the fact that Muslims in the US seem to be true examples of the "melting pot"--not involved in radical Islam, active participants in American democracy, well educated and flourishing. Ambassador Ahmed is, according to the BBC, "probably the worlds best-known scholar on contemporary Islam. He is the former Pakistani Ambassador to Great Britain, and has advised Prince Charles and met with President George W. Bush on Islam. He is now Chair of Islamic Studies and professor of International Relations at American University in Washington, DC. Dr. Ahmed is a distinguished anthropologist, writer, and filmmaker. He has been actively involved in interfaith dialogue and the study of global Islam and its impact on contemporary society for many years. His recent books are "Islam Under Siege," "Postmodernism And Islam: Predicament And Promise" and "Resistance And Control In Pakistan."

(interviewed with)

Hussein Ibish was fomerly the Communications Director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the nation's largest Arab-American membership organization. He is now with the Progressive Muslim Union, an organization to promote the interests of Muslims who embrace progressive stances on social and political issues. Dr. Ibish is a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times, and has written for many other papers. He is the editor and principle author of 2 reports on Hate Crimes and Discrimination against Arab Americans 1998-2000 (ADC, 2001) and Sept. 11, 2001-Oct. 11, 2002 (ADC, 2002). He is author of "At the Constitution's Edge: Arab Americans and Civil Liberties in the United States" in the collection States of Confinement (St. Martin's Press, 2000), Legitimizing Occupation: Cordesman, CSIS and the New Intifada (ADC.org, 2000) and "Anti-Arab Bias in American Policy and Discourse" in Race in 21st Century America (Michigan State University Press, 2001). He is also the author, along with Ali Abunimah, of The Palestinian Right of Return (ADC, 2001) and "The Media and the New Intifada" in The New Intifada (Verso, 2001). Mr. Ibish serves as Vice-President of the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom (NCPPF). He has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
July 10th, 2005

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 Tariq Ali on the terrorist bombing in London. Tariq Ali, based in London, is a long-time political activist, critic and analyst of the Middle East, neo-colonialism and international affairs. He is a filmmaker, novelist and author of "Bush in Babylon: Recolonizing Iraq" and "Clash of Fundamentalisms."

Dr. Loretta Napoleoni on the terror bombings in London and the larger picture of Bush's "global war on terror." Dr. Napoleoni is the author of "Terror, Inc.: tracing the money behind Global Terrorism." Dr. Napolenoi was a Fulbright scholar at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington DC and a Rotary Scholar at the London School of Economics. She was among the few people to interview the Red Brigades in Italy after three decades of silence; this research became the topic of her PhD. An expert on international terrorism, Napoleoni, in her book Terror, Inc., traces 50 years of Western economic and political dominance in developing Muslim countries - backing repressive, corrupt regimes, fighting the Cold War by Proxy and blocking the legitimate economic ascendancy of millions. "As in the Crusades", in which Napoleoni finds many modern parallels, "religion is simply a recruitment tool; the real driving force is economics. Dr. Napoleoni is interviewed from her office in Rome.

David Corn on the unfolding scandal of Karl Rove outing the wife of administration Iraq war critic Ambassador Joseph Wilson in an act of retaliation. Revealing such information is an injury to Valerie Wilson (nee Plame), but is also a serious violation of the national security of the United States. David Corn is Washington editor of The Nation magazine. He is the author of Blond Ghost: Ted Shackley and the CIA's Crusades (Simon & Schuster, 1994). The Washington Monthly called Blond Ghost "an amazing compendium of CIA fact and lore." The New York Times termed it "a scorchingly critical account of an enigmatic figure who for two decades ran some of the agency's most important, and most controversial, covert operations." His recent book The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception, details a pattern of deceit that has become commonplace in Washington today. Corn, is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brown University. He previously worked for Ralph Nader's Center for Study of Responsive Law and Harper's Magazine. David Corn's websites are davidcorn.com and bushlies.com. He is based in Washington, D.C.

June 12th, 2005

PART ONE

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PART TWO

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NEED HELP LISTENING?


BACKGROUND BRIEFING Part One

Ambassador Joseph Wilson on the false premeses that Bush and the neocons used to justify an invasion of Iraq, and on the subsequent retaliation levied against him and his wife, CIA operative Valerie Plame, for uncovering one of those untruths (that Saddam was seeking uranium from Niger). Joseph Wilson holds a record of diplomatic service to the United States which is extensive, having served in the diplomatic corps from 1976 to 1998. He was Ambassador to Iraq under the first George Bush and was the last American official to meet with Saddam Hussein prior to Desert Storm. Ambassador Wilson is the author of the best-selling "The Politics of Truth: inside the lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity: A Diplomats Memoir," a riveting account of his revelation that Bush's 2002 State of the Union speech contained falsehoods which were used to push this nation to an unnecessary war--and tells the story of how the Bush administration punished him and his wife for truth-telling. Her career as a CIA operative looking to contain nuclear proliferation was destroyed by operatives in the Bush administration, who would damage the interests of the United States in order to personally retailiate against Ambassador Wilson. Wilson's book, "The Politics of Truth," is in a newly revised and expanded edition. EXPANDED BIO: Ambassador Wilson served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council from June 1997 until July 1998. In that capacity he was responsible for the coordination of U.S. policy to the 48 countries of sub-Saharan Africa, He was one of the principal architecs of President Clinton's historic trip to Africa in March 1998. Ambassador Wilson was the Political Advisor to the Commander-in-Chief of United States Armed Forces, Europe, 1995-1997. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Gabonese Republic and to the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe from 1992 to 1995. From 1998 to 1991, Ambassador Wilson served in Baghdad, Iraq as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy. During ''Desert Shield'' he was the acting Ambassador and was responsible for the negotiations that resulted in the release of several hundred American hostages. He was the last official American to meet with Saddam Hussein before the launching of ''Desert Storm.'' Ambassador Wilson was a member of the U.S. Diplomatic Service from 1976 until 1998. His early assignments included Niamey, Niger, 1976-1978; Lome, Togo, 1978-79; the State Department Brueau of African Affairs, 1979-1981; and Pretoria, South Africa, 1981-1982. In 1982, he was appointed Deputy Chief of Mission in Bujumbura, Burundi. In 1985-1986, he served in the offices of Senator Albert Gore and the House Majority Whip, Representative Thomas Foley, as an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow. He was Deputy Chief of Mission in Brazzaville, Congo, 1986-88, prior to his assignment to Baghdad. Ambassador Wilson was raised in California and graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1972. He is a graduate of the Senior Seminar (1972), the most advanced International Affairs training offered by the U.S. Government. He speaks fluent French. Ambassador Wilson holds the Department of Distinguished Service Award, the Department of State Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards, the University of California, Santa Barbara Distinguished Alumnus Award, and the American Foreign Service Association William R. Rivkin Award. Additionally, he has been decorated as a Commander in the Order of the Equatorial Star by the Government of Gabon and as an Admiral in the El Paso Navy by the El Paso County Commissioners. He is married to the former Valerie Plame and has two sons and two daughters.

Gore Vidal in a unique extended discussion with Ian Masters, on where we are and where we appear to be going as a nation. Mr. Vidal is a prolific novelist, playwright and essayist, and one of the great stylists of contemporary American prose. Vidal made his debut as novelist with Williwaw at the age of 19, while still in the US Army. From then to now, he has written many novels, essays and commentaries. Gore Vidal has also been active in liberal politics. In 1960 he ran unsuccessfully for the US Congress as a Democratic-Liberal candidate in New York. Between 1970 and 1972 he was co-chairman of the left-leaning People's Party. In 1982 Vidal launched a campaign in California for the US senate. He came second out of a field of nine, polling half a million votes. As an essayist Vidal has dealt with a wide range of subjects from literary to issues of national interest, and people he has known. Vidal's family have provided him with a wealth of material, starting from his maternal grandfather, former senator Thomas Pryor Gore and his relation to Jackie Kennedy through one of his mother's marriages. Among his more recent books are: Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta, What Went Wrong in Ohio: the Conyers Report on the 2004 Presidential Election (he provided the introduction), Lincoln: a novel, Inventing a Nation: Washington, Adams and Jefferson, Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace; and the title we're offering up today: Imperial America: Reflections on the United States of Amnesia. Gore Vidal remains one of the most thoughtful, incisive and erudite voices in America today.

MORE: Vidal grew accustomed at an early age to a life among political and social notables. He was born at the military academy in West Point, New York, where his father was an instructor. He was raised near Washington, DC, in the house of his grandfather, Thomas P. Gore, a populist Democrat senator from Oklahoma. Vidal learned about political life from him, and when he was a teenager he adopted the first name of Gore. Vidal also spent time on the Virginia estate of his stepfather, Hugh. D. Auchincloss. After graduating from Philips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, he served on an army supply ship in the Aleutian Islands, near Alaska. Much of his time in the Enlisted Reserve Corps he devoted to writing. Upon his discharge he worked for six months for the publishing firm of E.P. Dutton. From 1947 to 1949 Vidal lived in Antigua, Guatemala. Williwaw was based on his wartime experiences as first-mate on Freight Ship 35 in the Alaskan Harbour Craft Detachment. The conventional seafaring story was written in the spirit of Ernest Hemingway. In 1948 The City and the Pillar shocked the public with its homosexual main character and the novel also broke the mold of gay American fiction. The book was reissued in 1965 with a different ending. The Judgement of Paris (1953) is about a young man travelling with the jet-set and wondering how to satisfy his own part-cynical, part-romantic outlook. Several of Vidal's following novels did not gain critical approval, and Vidal began to write plays for television, Hollywood and the stage. In the 1960s Vidal returned to the literary scene by writing historical novels, including Julian (1964), written in the form of a journal by the eponymous Roman emperor, Washington, D.C. (1967), a political thriller spanning the years 1937-52, Burr (1974), in which its title character rises above the other Founding Fathers, 1876 (1976), Duluth (1983), and Lincoln (1984), a carefully reconstructed account of the life of the US president, who is "almost diabolically unknowable in his use of power". Creation (1981) is the memoir of an imaginary grandson of Zoroaster who travels the world in the service of Persian kings and plays with the ideas of Confucius, Gautama Buddha, Anaxagoras and other thinkers. In Live From Golgotha (1992) Vidal portrayed events in the Bible as though they were reported on television. Among Vidal's finest works are two novels which deal with power and sex. Myra Breckenridge (1968) is a transsexual comedy parodying the cult of the Hollywood film star, dedicated to Christopher Isherwood. Its sequel, Myron, appeared in 1974. Myra is a feminist and her alternate self, Myron, is her mirror image and bitter antagonist. The hero of Washington, D.C., Peter Sandford, appeared again in The Golden Age (2000), in which the reader meets a number of real, historical figures, including Eleanor Roosevelt, Joseph Alsop, Tennessee Williams and the author himself. Gore Vidal has also been active in liberal politics. In 1960 he ran unsuccessfully for the US Congress as a Democratic-Liberal candidate in New York. Between 1970 and 1972 he was co-chairman of the left-leaning People's Party. In 1982 Vidal launched a campaign in California for the US senate. He came second out of a field of nine, polling half a million votes. In the 1960s Vidal moved to Italy and appeared as himself in Fellini's Roma (1972). During the Reagan years, Vidal published a collection of essays, Armageddon (1987), in which he explored his love-hate relationship with contemporary America. In 1994 Vidal co-starred with Tim Robbins in the film Bob Roberts. His collected essays, United States (1993), won a National Book Award. In Palimpsest (1995) Vidal wrote of his early life and friends, among them President Kennedy's family. As an essayist Vidal has dealt with a wide range of subjects from literary to issues of national interest, and people he has known. Vidal's family have provided him with a wealth of material, starting from his maternal grandfather, former senator Thomas Pryor Gore and his relation to Jackie Kennedy through one of his mother's marriages. Vidal has also met and worked with prominent people, using freely these connections in his essays.

BACKGROUND BRIEFING Part Two

Joe Trento has spent more than 35 years as an investigative journalist, working with both print and broadcast outlets and writing extensively on national security issues. Before joining the National Security News Service in 1991, Trento worked for CNN's Special Assignment Unit, the Wilmington News Journal, and prominent journalist Jack Anderson. Trento has received six Pulitzer nominations and is the author of six books, including The Secret History of the CIA, and his most recent, "Prelude to Terror: the rise of the Bush Dynasty, the rogue CIA and the Compromising of American Intelligence." ABOUT THE BOOK: After decades of writing and research about American intelligence, Joseph Trento has written the most authoritative indictment of CIA splinter groups, two generations of Bush family involvement in illegal financial networks, and the funding of the agents of terror. Prelude to Terror reveals the history of a corrupt group of spymasters-led by Ted Shackley-who were fired when Jimmy Carter became president, but who maintained their intelligence portfolio and used it to create a private intelligence network. After this rogue group helped engineer Carter's defeat in 1980 and allied with George H.W. Bush, these former CIA men planned and conducted what became the Iran-Contra scandal and, through the Saudis, allied the U.S. with extreme elements in Islam. The CIA's number-one front man, Edwin P. Wilson, was framed by Shackley and his cohorts so that Wilson's operations could be taken over. For the first time the story of how CIA director George H. W. Bush was recruited into this network, and brought it into the bosom of the Saudi royal family, is told in detail, as well as how this group's manipulation of the CIA bureaucracy allowed Osama bin Laden's fundraising to thrive as al Qaeda flourished under Saudi and CIA protection.

Aaron Glantz on conditions in Iraq and where we stand in that conflict. Aaron Glantz is a reporter for Pacifica Radio and other media outlets. He is the author of the newly published "How America Lost Iraq." He has visited Iraq three times during the U.S. occupation: for a month immediately after the fall of Saddam Hussein; from February to May 2004; and during the elections in January of 2005. His work from Iraq has also been syndicated to newspapers around the world by Inter Press News Service. Aaron is a founding producer of Pacifica Radio’s national newscast, Free Speech Radio News. In the course of his work he has also reported from Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, South Korea, Indonesia, India, Vietnam, France, and Denmark. Before becoming an international reporter, Aaron served as California State Capitol reporter for Pacifica’s flag-ship station, KPFA in Berkeley, CA, where he won the California Journalism Award for radio in 2000. A native of San Francisco, he lives in Los Angeles with his fiancée, Ngoc Nguyen, and her family.

About the book: A reporter in Iraq shows how the U.S. squandered its early victories and goodwill among the Iraqi people, and allowed the newly freed society to slip into violence and chaos. As a reporter for the staunchly antiwar Pacifica Radio, twenty-seven-year-old Aaron Glantz had spent much of early 2003 warning of catastrophe if the U.S. invaded Iraq. But, as he watched the statue of Saddam topple, he wondered whether he had been mistaken: In interviews with regular Iraqis, he found wide support for the Americans. Then, public opinion changed. In early 2004, the U.S. military initiated a completely unprovoked bombing campaign against the population of Fallujah, increasing support for an armed resistance. The attack confounded many anti-Saddam Iraqis, and plunged the nation into chaos. In How America Lost Iraq, Glantz tells his story of working on the front lines, while revealing truths that most media outlets have missed or failed to report. For instance, 50 percent of the U.S.-trained Iraqi army has either mutinied or refused to fight; the Iraqi public has sustained appalling civilian casualties; corporate contractors including Halliburton and Bechtel have failed to supply Iraqis with the basic necessities of daily life, such as clean water and electricity; and a respected poll shows that 82 percent of Iraqis want the U.S. to leave. Here is the brutally honest account of a reporter who discovered how popular the U.S. presence was in Iraq-and who then watched this popularity disappear as the Bush administration mishandled the war, leaving us with the intractable conflict we face today.

Gordon Davidson on the Iraq war-themed "Stuff Happens." Gordon Davidson is the founding artistic director of Center Theatre Group, which is one of the largest and most active theatre companies in the country, producing award-winning theatre year-round in both the Mark Taper Forum and the Ahmanson Theatre at the Music Center of Los Angeles, and the new Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. For 38 years he has guided hundreds of productions to the Taper stage while overseeing numerous special projects sponsored by the Taper. This work and his direction of many of the Taper plays have been acclaimed both in Los Angeles and New York, garnering many awards including a Tony Award for the Taper in 1977 for theatrical excellence.

MORE: In the 1990s, the Taper was distinguished by having two of its plays "The Kentucky Cycle" and "Angels in America" (Part One - "Millennium Approaches") receive in consecutive years the Pulitzer Prize in Drama, the first time for plays produced outside of New York. "Angels in America," when subsequently produced on Broadway, also received in consecutive years two Tony Awards for Best Play, for Part One and Part Two - "Perestroika," respectively. In fact, in 1994 when "Perestroika" won the Tony Award, three of the four plays nominated for Best Play were Taper plays (with "The Kentucky Cycle" and "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992" joining "Perestroika"). In 1977, Davidson won a Tony Award for his direction of "The Shadow Box," which also won the Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award for Best Play for its author, Michael Cristofer. In that same season, Davidson was the recipient of an Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Director for "The Shadow Box" at the Morosco Theatre and "Savages" at the Hudson Guild Theatre, and an Obie for his direction of "Savages." Davidson's direction of "Children of a Lesser God" (which received two Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards, including Distinguished Production) brought him a Tony Award nomination (one of four nominations for the play) and a New York Drama Desk Award nomination (one of five). "Children of a Lesser God" won three 1980 Tony Awards for Best Play, Best Actor and Best Actress. Previously, he staged The Phoenix Theatre productions of "Murderous Angels" and "The Trial of the Catonsville Nine," winning an Obie Award and a Tony Award nomination for the latter play, and he was honored with a New York Drama Desk Award for "In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer," staged at Lincoln Center. "The Shadow Box," "Savages," "Murderous Angels," "Oppenheimer" and "Catonsville" premiered at the Taper under Davidson's direction, whose other credits there include "The Devils," "Mass," "Terra Nova," "Children of a Lesser God," "The Lady and the Clarinet," "Chekhov in Yalta," "Tales From Hollywood," "The Hands of Its Enemy," "The Real Thing," "Ghetto," "Unfinished Stories," “Nine Armenians,” “QED,” “The Talking Cure” and “Stuff Happens,” among others. For the Ahmanson Theatre subscription series, he directed a revival of Stephen Sondheim's "A Little Night Music" at the Doolittle Theatre, and after supervising the remodeling of the Ahmanson Theatre at the Music Center, he staged the 30th anniversary production of "Candide" in November 1995 as the first production in the new Ahmanson. Gordon is also the artistic director/producer of CTG’s newest theatre – the 317-seat Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City, where last fall he directed the first production, “A Perfect Wedding,” in the theatre’s inaugural season that included six world premieres. Davidson was named by Variety as one of the top 100 entertainers of the century. He was honored by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle with a Special Award for his outstanding contributions to American playwrights and three Distinguished Direction Awards; he received a Margo Jones Award for encouraging new plays and playwrights; he was given The Governor's Award for the Arts in 1990 honoring his contributions to the performing arts in California; the Founders League of the Music Center of Los Angeles County honored him for 30 years of artistic leadership in 1997; and he was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in New York in 1999. Davidson has served as president of Theatre Communications Group and the League of Resident Theatres. He is currently on TCG’s board of directors, and has been a board member of several arts organizations including the Non-Traditional Casting Project. He regularly serves on panels for the National Endowment for the Arts and is an artistic advisor for the Fund for New American Plays. He is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was appointed to the National Council on the Arts by President Clinton. He has received honorary doctorates from Brookyln College, California Institute of the Arts and Claremont University Center.
May 29th , 2005

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Steven Clemons on the John Bolton confirmation as UN ambassador. Clemons is publisher of the popular political blog, TheWashingtonNote.com, and a long-term policy practitioner and entrepreneur in Washington, D.C. He is currently Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, where he was previously Executive Vice President. Clemons currently co-directs the New America Foundation's American Strategy Program with well-known foreign policy thinkers Sherle Schwenninger and Michael Lind. He has been very active in opposing the nomination of John Bolton to become Ambassador to the United Nations. He also writes frequently on matters of foreign policy, defense, and international economic policy. His work has appeared in most of the major leading op-ed pages, journal, and magazines around the world.

Kate Seelye on the situation in the Middle East. Seelye is a reporter and producer for National Public Radio, PBS Frontline and other outlets, specializing in the Middle East. The daughter of an American Diplomat, she has spent most of her life in Lebanon and Syria. Ian interviewed her live from Lebanon.

David Phillips on the Iraq reconstruction fiasco. Phillips is Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a Visiting Scholar at Harvard's Center for Middle East Studies, a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and an analyst for NBC News. He has published opinion pieces in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the International Herald Tribune. His new book is "Losing Iraq: inside the the Postwar Reconstruction Fiasco."

May 22nd , 2005

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John Flannery on the "nuclear option," the elimination of the two-hundred year-old filibuster and the Republican changing of rules in order to win, or to avoid accountability as in the case of the ethics of Tom DeLay, or any number of issues that stand between the GOP and totalist control of the United States. John Flannery is a former federal prosecutor from New York who has handled widely publicized federal criminal investigations and prosecutions that have run the gamut from securities fraud, to a mob prison break, to the the bribery of a Congressman, to heroin-trafficking by major organized crime figures. John has served twice on Capitol Hill. On the Senate side as Special Counsel to the U. S. Senate Judiciary Committee, and then as Special Counsel to the U.S. Senate Labor Committee. On the House side, he served again as Special Counsel. But his most challenging assignment on the Hill was his work for the Democratic minority on the historic Impeachment proceedings of President William Jefferson Clinton. John was also Chief of Staff for Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren. Mr. Flannery holds undergraduate degrees in Physics (BS, Fordham) and Industrial Engineering (BS, Columbia), a law degree (J.D., Columbia), and a Masters Degree (Masters in Information Science, GW).

Gary Schroen on the hunt for bin Laden in Afghanistan, the status of "the war on terror" and his assessment of the neocon-driven occupation of Iraq. Gary Schroen served in the CIA for thirty-five years, with much of his career focusing on the Middle East, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. His honors include the Intelligence Cross, the highest award given by the CIA. His is the author of the fascinating new book, First In, which describes his leading the CIA into Afghanistan in the months after 9/11 to establish contact with the Northern Alliance and lay the groundwork to bring down the Taliban regime and rout al Qaeda from their camps, caves and bases.
May 15th , 2005

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Youseff Ibrahim on the state of affairs in the Middle East. Ibrahim breaks news unheard in the US regarding the considerable pressures being placed on Syria. Youseff Ibrahim is a highly regarded expert on the Middle East, having for 24 years reported on the region for the New York Times, as a senior foreign correspondent. He is currently the Managing Director of the Strategic Energy Investment Group, specializing in risk analysis.

Professor Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. on George Bush's surprising revisionist history regarding the Yalta agreement, between FDR, Churchill and Stalin. Bush, surprisingly, repeats the canard which was the stock-in-trade of the ultra-right John Birch Society, which blames FDR for Stalin's later domination of Eastern Europe. FDR seems the target of much of Bush policy (e.g., Social Security). Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., one of America's most eminent historians and authors, sets the record straight. He has taught history at Harvard and is an emeritus Professor at City University of New York. He has published numerous books, including many best-sellers and classics. He has won two Pulitzer Prizes, two National Book Awards, and numerous other honors. He has served as president and chancellor of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, president of the Society of American Historians and he is a member of the board of the Arthur Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America (named for his father). Active in liberal politics, Schlesinger was a cofounder of the Americans for Democratic Action (1947). He served as an assistant to Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy , and in 1961 President Kennedy appointed him special assistant for Latin American affairs. His works include the classic Age of Jackson (1945) and The Age of Roosevelt (3 vol., 1957-60), a sweeping narrative and analysis of the New Deal period in U.S. history, written from a strongly sympathetic viewpoint. His study of Kennedy's White House years, A Thousand Days (1965), won the Pulitzer Prize for biography. His other works include The Politics of Hope (1963), The Bitter Heritage (1968), The Imperial Presidency (1973), Robert F. Kennedy and His Times (1978), The Cycles of American History (1986), and his latest, War and the American Presidency (2004). Dr. Schlesinger and Ian discuss the following quote, which echoes across the decades, from one Republican President to another, and demonstrates how much the party has changed. "Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are...a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 11/8/54

Gregory Townsend on the status of international law in a time of American unilateralism. Gregory Townsend was a member of the prosecution team in the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal prosecuting the perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide. Prior to that,he was and International Prosecutor with the UN Interim Administration in Kosovo, where he prosecuted and jailed terrorists who murdered ethnic Serbs and committed other heinous crimes. Prior to that, he was with the Los Angeles Public Defender's Office.
May 8th , 2005

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Nikolai Gorshkov, the head of the BBC's monitoring unit in Moscow, which monitors all Russian news broadcasts and creates a digest which is used by the BBC and others, on the visit by President George W. Bush with Russian President Vladimir Putin. How has the Russian press covered the event and what is the state of the Russian press itself, after being seriously cowed by President Putin? Ian examines Bush's Russian diplomacy, the Putin presidency, the Bush-Putin relationship and conditions in Russia and the former Soviet Union. More on Nikolai Gorshkov: he worked for 12 years with Soviet TV and Radio (USSR Gosteleradio), followed by 12 years with the BBC (first World Service, then News, now Monitoring). While at BBC Monitoring he has witnessed the "news for sale" culture in Russia, analysing dozens of Russian broadcasters and hundreds of publications for their leanings, slants and trustworthiness. Nikolai was an interpreter with the State Committee for Science and Technology in the Soviet Union. As a reporter for Moscow Radio English Language Service he drank cognac with Robert Maxwell in a Kremlin-provided limo, flew in Mrs Ts jet to the earthquake stricken Armenia, joined Peter Ustinov in a KGB-run theatre, and shared Soviet anecdotes with John Le Carre for his Russia House best-seller! It all came to a halt with the 1991 coup, after which he became a freelancer before landing a job with the BBC Russian Service in 1993. He broke through the glass wall between vernacular services and Newsgathering in 2001 to become a BBC News correspondent in Moscow, where he has reported on hostage crises, the bewildering Yukos saga, and the shocking wipeout of the liberal opposition to President Putin in the 2003-2004 elections.

Dr. Norman Dombey, who is a professor emeritus of theoretical physics at the University of Sussex in Great Britain and an expert in arms control and nuclear non-proliferation, on the subject of the leaked "Downing Streeet" memo from the British Prime Minister's office, which clearly indicates that the justification for war was consciously untrue and that evidence would be "fixed" in the United States to justify the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Dr. Dombey is the author of a piece that appeared in London Review of Books, "Iraq's Nuclear Incapacity." Ian and Dr. Dombey discuss the political dynamic at play as Tony Blair is re-elected, but has lost a substantial number of seats in Parliament, which most believe can be attributed to Blair's alliance with President George Bush in the Iraq war.

Bradley Martin on North Korea and it's leader Kim Jong Il's apparent intention to test a nuclear weapon. A veteran foreign correspondent and journalism educator, Bradley Martin holds the Manship Chair in Journalism at Louisiana State University. Martin previously had been the Scripps-Howard Visiting Professional at Ohio University's E.W. Scripps School of Journalism in Athens, Ohio. His earlier teaching and research positions include Fulbright fellowships in Japan and Korea, and a S