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Archived
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December 30th, 2007
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Ambassador Peter Galbraith on the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Ambassador Galbraith is a former United States diplomat. Ambassado Galbraith worked for Senator Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island, and served on the staff of the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1979 to 1993, where he published many reports about Iraq and took a special interest in Kurdistan. In 1993, he was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Croatia by President Bill Clinton. He later served as United Nations ambassador in East Timor. He taught at the National War College (1999, 2001-2003). Galbraith favors the independence, real or de facto, of Kurdistan, and has worked with Kurdish leaders, including Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani, toward that end. In 2003, he resigned from U.S. government after 24 years of service in order to be able to criticize U.S. Iraq policy more freely. He is currently senior diplomatic fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. He recently publishedf The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End (2006), which argues that the U.S.'s "main error" in Iraq has been "wishful thinking" and advocates acceptance of a "partition" of Iraq into three parts as part a new U.S. "strategy based on the reality of Iraq." He was a personal friend of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto who was assassinated in Pakistan earlier this week.
Tariq Ali on the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Tariq Ali is a filmmaker, novelist, activist and author. His critical analysis focuses on Pakistan, the Middle East, neo-colonialism and international affairs. His books include "Bush in Babylon: Recolonizing Iraq," "The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity" and "Pirates of the Carribean: Axis of Hope." Tariq Ali's new book, "The Duel: Pakistan on the Flightpath of American Power," will be published in 2008.
Roger Morris on the death of Benazir Bhutto and the history leading up to it. Roger Morris served on the senior staff of the National Security Council under Presidents Johnson and Nixon until resigning over the invasion of Cambodia. An award-winning investigative journalist and historian, he is the author of several books, including "Richard Milhous Nixon: The Rise of an American Politician." His history of U.S. policy and covert intervention in South Asia and the Middle East, entitled "Shadows of the Eagle," will be published by Knopf in 2008.
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December 23rd, 2007
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David Enders on the state of things in Iraq. David is a freelance journalist and a co-founder of the Baghdad Bulletin, the first post-invasion attempt to set up an English-language news outlet in Iraq. Since the invasion, he has spent half of the last four years in Iraq and has written for Men's Journal, Mother Jones, and The Nation, as well as London's Sunday Times and other newspapers. His- book, "Baghdad Bulletin," was published by the Univesity of Michigan Press. David Enders has been blogging on his experiences in Iraq at the Pulitzer Center's website, as part of their Iraq Project.
Josh Silver on the FCC allowing further media consolodation. Mr. Silver is the Executive Director of Free Press, which he co-founded in 2002 to increase public involvement in U.S. media and telecommunications policy debates. Josh previously managed successful campaign finance ballot initiatives and was a director at the Smithsonian Institution. Josh regularly publishes articles on media and Internet policy issues. He is a vigorous advocate for Net Neutrality and against further media consolidation, including last week's 3 to 2 FCC vote allowing which allowed for television and newspaper ownership in the same media market. The Free Press website is at www.freepress.
Ian Williams on Serbia and Kosovo. Ian Williams is a veteran journalist and author who is the UN correspondent for The Nation's and The Tribune. He writes for Salon, AlterNet and MaximsNews, among many others. Ian Williams has written for newspapers and magazines around the world, ranging from the Australian to The Independent, from the New York Observer and the Village Voice to the Financial Times. He has pundited on BBC, CNN, MSNBC, FOX and the CBC. He currently apppears several times a week in Comment is Free on Guardian Unlimited. He is the author of a number of books, including, The UN for Beginners, The Alms Trade, Deserter: George W. Bush's War on Military Families, Veterans and His Past and Rum: a Social and Sociable History. His blog is "Deadline Pundit." |
December 16th, 2007
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Daniel Weiss on the energy bill and the Bali climate summit. Mr. Weiss is a Senior Fellow and the Director of Climate Strategy at the Center for American Progress, where he leads the Center's clean energy and climate advocacy campaign. Weiss served for 16 years at the Sierra Club, first as a Washington representative, then as director of the Environmental Quality Program, and for the final eight years as political director. He was chief strategist and lobbyist for legislative campaigns around the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Food Security Act, and budget bills. Weiss also designed and managed the Sierra Club's political action committee, endorsements, and $9 million Environmental Voter Education Campaign in 2000. Roll Call newspaper has named him one of the Fabulous 50 Political People and Regardie s magazine listed him in the "Power 100: 100 Most Influential People in Private Washington."
Larry O'Donnell on religion in American politics. Mr. O'Donnell is an MSNBC senior political analyst and a panelist on The McLaughlin Group. He was an Emmy winning producer of NBC s The West Wing. and 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. O Donnell has also served as Senior Advisor to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He can be seen as an actor on HBO's hit series "Big Love."
Dr. Michael Perelman on his economic analysis, which foresees an economic calamity, brought on by decades of policies which he sees as not in the interests of the American people. Dr. Perelman is Professor of Economics, California State University at Chico. He is the author of twenty highly-regarded books on economics, society and politics, including Class Warfare in the Information Age, The Natural Instability of Markets, The Pathology of the U.S. Economy, and Steal This Idea. His latest book is "The Confiscation of American Prosperity: From Right-Wing Extremism and Economic Ideology to the Next Great Depression," in which Dr. Perelman shows that in the last three decades, of mostly Republican presidents, there has been a greater redistribution of wealth in America than occured during the Russian and Chinese revolutions. |
December 9th, 2007
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Wayne White on the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) which contradicted the Bush administration's alarmist assertions regarding Iran's capacity to develop a nuclear weapon. Mr. White is an Adjunct Scholar at Washington s Middle East Institute and was an advisor to the Iraq Study Group. 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.
Dr. Paul Krugman on his new book and on the state of American politics. Dr. Krugman was named "Columnist of the Year" by Editor and Publisher magazine, is cited as the world's most widely-read economist, writing a twice-weekly column for the op-ed pages of the New York Times. He is a professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University, and the author or editor of 20 books and more than 200 professional journal articles. He is the recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal from the American Economic Association. His new book is "The Conscience of a Liberal, a wholly original work that reaches into the country's history to trace the rise and fall of America's middle class.
Gene Lyons on the story of Huckabee as Arkansas Governor. Dr. Lyons is nationally-syndicated columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the co-author of "The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton," which documented the extensive and well-orchestrated Republican effort which lead to the impeachment of Bill Clinton. Lyons' book was made into a documentary, available on DVD. Lyons has written extensively for Newsweek, Harper's, The Nation, The New York Review of Books, Washington Monthly and many other magazines. He is the recipient of the National Magazine Award for Public Service. Gene Lyons holds a PhD. from the University of Virginia and his other books include The Higher Illiteracy, Widow's Web and Fools for Scandal. |
December 2nd, 2007
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Chris Hedges on prospects for war with Iran. Mr. Hedges is a veteran war correspondent, who also writes about religion and politics. He is the author of War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning and What Every Person Should Know about War. He has worked for various publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and the Dallas Morning News. He was part of the New York Times team that shared the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for global terrorism coverage. He published his most recent book, Losing Moses on the Freeway, in June 2005. He is working on a new book on right-wing religion in America. Hedges has written extensively about his experiences on the front lines of war. He has reported about his experiences in Sarajevo, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia, the Middle East and other places from around the world.In a 2003 Commencement address at Rockford College in Rockford, Ill., Hedges raised the intense ire of audience members when he spoke out against the current war in Iraq. Many regard Hedges as a "philosopher of the experience of war." According to Hedges, the experience of being in a war zone, where there is very little distinction between life and death, fills a person with a sense of "meaning" and brings him to a "high" that cannot be experienced so strongly any other way, producing a kind of addiction.
Roger Morris on the fielf of Presidential candidates. Mr. Morris served on the senior staff of the National Security Council under Presidents Johnson and Nixon until resigning over the invasion of Cambodia. An award-winning investigative journalist and historian, he is the author of several books, including "Richard Milhous Nixon: The Rise of an American Politician." He is currently completing a history of U.S. policy and covert intervention in South Asia and the Middle East, entitled "Shadows of the Eagle," to be published by Knopf in 2008.. |
November 25th, 2007
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Rami Khouri on the increasing difficult situation in Lebanon. Mr. Khouri is a Palestinian-Jordanian and US citizen whose family resides in Beirut, Amman, and Nazareth. He is an internationally syndicated political columnist and author, whose writing is distributed by Agence-Global. Rami Khouri the director of the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut, editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star, and co-laureate of the 2006 Pax Christi International Peace Award. www.ramikhouri.com
Dr. Chris Fair on the deteriorting state of affairs in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Dr. Fair is a senior research associate in the United States Institute for Peace's (USIP) Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention, where she specializes in South Asian political and military affairs. Prior to joining USIP in April 2004, she was an associate political scientist at the RAND Corporation. Much of her research has been concerned with security competition between India and Pakistan, Pakistan s internal security, analyses of the causes of terrorism, and U.S. strategic relations with India and Pakistan. She has just returned from Afghanistan. www.usip.org
Dr. Benjamin Barber on the frenetic spending done by American consumers during the holiday season. Dr. Barber is Professor of Civil Society at the University of Maryland and a principal of the Democracy Collaborative. His new book is Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole, which warns of a totalitarian "ethos of induced childishness" that not only seeks to turn the young into aggressive consumers but to arrest the psychological development of adults as well, leading them to indulge in puerile and narcissistic materialism. |
November 18th, 2007
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Dr. Paul Pillar on the potential for a US attack and what the consequence of such an attack might be. Dr. Pillar retired in 2005 from a 28-year career in the U.S. intelligence community, in which his last position was National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia. He previously served in a variety of analytical and managerial positions, including as chief of analytic units at the CIA covering portions of the Near East, the Persian Gulf, and South Asia. Professor Pillar also served in the National Intelligence Council as one of the original members of its Analytic Group. He has been Executive Assistant to CIA's Deputy Director for Intelligence and Executive Assistant to Director of Central Intelligence William Webster. He has also headed the Assessments and Information Group of the DCI Counterterrorist Center, and from 1997 to 1999 was deputy chief of the center. He was a Federal Executive Fellow at the Brookings Institution in 1999-2000. Professor Pillar is a retired officer in the U.S. Army Reserve and served on active duty in 1971-1973, including a tour of duty in Vietnam. He is the author of the books "Terrorism and US Foreign Policy" and "Negotiating Peace: War Termination as a Bargaining Process." He testified last week before a congressional hearing on potential war scenarios against Iran.
Salman Raja on the shaky situation in Pakistan and evaluating various scenarios for the future. Mr. Raja is a senior partner in a Pakistani law firm. Based in Lahore, Mr. Raja is a graduate of Punjab University, Cambridge University, Harvard Law School and the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. He is a highly respected and experienced legal professional in Pakistan, who was arrested under the emergency decree of November 3, 2007, and held for five days before being released on bail. He has authored an article, widely available on the internet, entitled "Pakistan: Inside the Storm."
Dr. Brenda Ekwurzel on the dire warnings about global warming contained in a new United Nations IPCC report. Dr. Ekwurzel s a Climate Scientist in the Global Environment Program of the Union of Concerned Scientists. She is leading UCS's climate science education work aimed at strengthening support for strong federal climate legislation and sound U.S. climate policies. Prior to joining UCS, Dr. Ekwurzel was on the faculty of the University of Arizona Department of Hydrology and Water Resources with a joint appointment in the Geosciences Department. Her specialty is isotope geochemistry, a tool she has used to study climate variability in places as disparate as the Arctic Ocean and the desert southwest. Dr. Ekwurzel completed her doctorate work at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and post-doctoral research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. |
November 4th, 2007
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Valerie Plame on her experience being "outed" by the Bush administration in retaliation for her husband's revelation that Iraq was not seeking uranium from Niger. Valerie Plame is a former United States CIA officer who worked as a classified covert intelligence agent for over twenty years and is the wife of former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, IV. On July 14, 2003 Robert Novak identified "Wilson's wife" publicly as "an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction" named "Valerie Plame" in his syndicated column in The Washington Post. In that column Novak was responding to an "op-ed" entitled "What I Didn't Find in Africa," written by former Ambassador Wilson and published in the New York Times the previous week, on July 6, 2003. In his op-ed, former Ambassador Wilson states that the George W. Bush administration exaggerated unreliable claims that Iraq intended to purchase uranium yellowcake to support the administration's arguments that Iraq was proliferating weapons of mass destruction so as to justify its preemptive war in Iraq. Novak's public disclosure of Mrs. Wilson's then-still-classified covert CIA identity as "Valerie Plame" led to a CIA leak grand jury investigation, resulting in the indictment and successful prosecution of Lewis Libby in United States v. Libby for perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements to federal investigators, in the Wilsons' civil lawsuit (Plame v. Cheney) against current and former government officials (dismissed on July 19, 2007 in U.S. District Court in a decision appealed the next day), and in continuing related controversy. Valerie Plame's autobiography, just published, is Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House. The title "fair game" refers to how she was described by Karl Rove--a targe to be used for political profit
Dr. Muhammed Sahimi on discering reality from propaganda with respect to Bush's policy regarding Iran. Dr. Sahimi is Professor and Chairman of Chemical Engineering at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He obtained his BS from the University of Tehran (Iran) in 1977 and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis in 1984, both in chemical engineering. He has been a faculty member at USC since 1984. He has also been a visiting professor in Australia, Europe, the US, and the Middle East, and a consultant to many industrial corporations. He has published over 220 papers in peer-reviewed journals and four books. Among his honours are the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Award and the United Nations UNESCO Khwarizmi Award for distinguished achievements in science. A year ago, Dr. Sahimi wrote an Los Angeles Times Op-Ed with 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, entitled "Defusing Iran with Democracy." Earlier this year he wrote another piece, again with Ebadi, for the International Herald Tribune, entitled "The Folly of Bush's Iran Policy."
Fadel Gheit on the upward spiral of oil prices. Mr. 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. Mr. Gheit, who has a degree in chemical engineering, has more than 30 years of experience in oil and gas research. He has previously been with Mobil Oil and JP Morgan Company in New York. The New York Times describes as the "elder statesman" and one of the most respected oil analysits in the world. |
October 21st, 2007
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Charlie Savage is a Pulitzer Prize-winning legal affairs reporter based in Washington for the Boston Globe. Mr. Savage was featured earlier this week in the PBS Frontline documentary "Cheney's Law." Charlie Savage wrote an article in 2006 entitled "Bush Challenges Hundreds of Laws," which received attention world-wide.. In that article, whiich won the Pulitzer Prize, Charlie Savage showed that President Bush claimed the right to disobey over 750 laws, assuming a level of power hetetofore unseen in an American president. Now, with the publication of the book "Takeover: the return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy," Savage greatly expands on his analysis to produce a searing indictment of the Bush presidency.
Paul Krugman was named "Columnist of the Year" by Editor and Publisher magazine, is cited as the world's most widely-read economist, writing a twice-weekly column for the op-ed pages of the New York Times. He is a professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University, and the author or editor of 20 books and more than 200 professional journal articles. He is the recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal from the American Economic Association. His new book is "The Conscience of a Liberal, a wholly original work that reaches into the country's history to trace the rise and fall of America's middle class.
Dr. Drew Westen is an author and professor of psychology at Emory University. Dr. Westin received his B.A. at Harvard University, an M.A. in Social and Political Thought at the University of Sussex (England), and his Ph.D. in clinical Psychology at the University of Michigan, where he subsequently taught for six years. For several years he was Chief Psychologist at Cambridge Hospital and Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School. His major areas of research are personality disorders, eating disorders, psychotherapy effectiveness, adolescent psychopathology, political psychology, and the interface of psychodynamics and neuroscience. His just-published book is "The Political Brain: the Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of a Nation." Howard Dean has said of "The Political Brain," ""Drew Westen is a must read...we will win the Presidency if our candidate reads and acts on this book." |
October 14th, 2007
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Dr. Stephen Walt is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and the co-director of the Program on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago, where he has taught since 1982. He graduated from West Point in 1970 and then served five years as an officer in the U.S. Air Force. He then started graduate school in political science at Cornell University in 1975. He received his Ph.D. in 1980. He spent the 1979-1980 academic year as a research fellow at the Brookings Institution, and was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University's Center for International Affairs from 1980 to 1982. During the 1998-1999 academic year, he was the Whitney H. Shepardson Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, and in 2003 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Mearsheimer has won numerous distinguished teaching awards. Professor Mearsheimer has written extensively about security issues and international politics. His books include Conventional Deterrence, which won the Edgar S. Furniss, Jr., Book Award and The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, which won the Joseph Lepgold Book Prize. He has also written many articles in publications such as International Security, The Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times and others.
interviewed with:
Dr. John Mearsheimer is Robert and Rene Belfer Professor of International Affairs. He holds a BA in international relations from Stanford University and an MA and PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley. He was previously on the faculties of Princeton University and the University of Chicago, where he served as Deputy Dean of Social Sciences. He is the author of The Origins of Alliances, which received the 1988 Edgar S. Furniss National Security Book Award; Revolution and War; and Taming American Power: The Global Response to U.S. Primacy. His recent publications include: An Unnecessary War?; Beyond bin Laden: Reshaping U.S. Foreign Policy; and The Enduring Relevance of the Realist Tradition.
Together, Drs. Stephen Walt and John J. Mearsheimer have written the controversial new book, which is currently on the New York Times' Bestseller List, "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy." Writing in The New York Review of Books, Michael Massing declared, Not since Foreign Affairs magazine published Samuel Huntington s The Clash of Civilizations? in 1993 has an academic work detonated with such force.
General Wesley Clark is a retired four-star general of the United States Army, a former candidate for United States President, author and activist. Wesley Clark was valedictorian of his class at West Point, was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford, and later graduated from the Command and General Staff College with a master's degree in military science. He spent 34 years in the Army and the Department of Defense, receiving many military decorations, several honorary knighthoods, and a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Clark commanded Operation Allied Force in the Kosovo War during his term as the Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO from 1997 to 2000. General Clark was a candidate for President of the United States in 2004. General Clark currently leads a political action committee "WesPAC: Securing America" which was formed after the primaries, and used it to support numerous Democratic Party candidates in the 2006 midterm elections. Clark was considered a potential candidate for the Democratic nomination in 2008, but, on September 15, 2007, endorsed Senator Hillary Clinton. General Clark is the author os several books, including Waging Modern Warfare. His latest, just out, is "A Time To Lead." In this book, General Clark reveals the neocon plan to take down seven Middle Eastern countries in five years.
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October 7th, 2007
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Congressman Bob Filner on his opposition to the development of a Blackwater training facility in San Diego county. Congressman Filner is a Democrat who has represented California's 51st district since 1993. His district includes much of San Diego's southern section, the cities of Chula Vista and National City, all of Imperial county and all of the entire length of California's border with Mexico. Congressman Filner holds a doctorate in the history of science from Cornell. He participated directly in the civil rights movement as a Freedom Rider in 1961 He chairs the House Committee on Veterans Affairs and is one of the founders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Congressman Filner has been actively opposing plans for the controversial private security firm "Blackwater" to create a "Blackwater West" training facility in the 51st district.
Robert Young Pelton on Blackwater, the private mercenary army which has been in the news much lately. Mr. Pelton is an author, filmmaker, explorer and media innovator. He is the co-founder of IraqSlogger.com, a 24/7 subcription-based news service focusing on Iraq. He is the author of The World's Most Dangerous Places, Come Back Alive, The Adventurist, and Three Worlds Gone Mad. Mr. Pelton has worked for National Geographic, Discovery, 60 Minutes, the ABC Investigative Division, and CNN. He is also a contributing editor and columnist for National Geographic Adventure. His latest book, just released in paperback, is "Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror," described as a look into an even darker side of the war on terror: the mercenary military contractors who make up the "coalition of the billing." Mr. Pelton was present during the hearing held by Congressman Henry Waxman's House Oversight Committee last week at which the reclusive Blackwater founder and billionaire Eric Prince testified.
Dr. Edward J. Baker on the recent agreements related to nuclear weapons development in North Korea. Dr. Baker is the Associate Direcor of the Harvard-Yenching Institute and Executive Committee Member of the Korea Institute. Dr.Baker's interest in Korea began in 1966, when he and his wife, Diane, traveled to Korea as part of the first Peace Corps group to go to Korea. Korea Institute Director Professor David McCann and his wife, Ann, were members of the same group. After teaching English at the College of Education at Seoul National University from 1966 through 1968, Ed stayed on to work for the Fulbright Commission for another two years. After a semester at the Harvard Law School in the fall of 1970, he returned to Yale to finish his degree. Ed s interest in Korea brought him back to Harvard in 1971 after passing the bar exam, to enter in the Regional Studies-East Asia (RSEA) program, and then in History and East Asian Languages (HEAL). He returned to Korea on a Fulbright for dissertation research, and spent another two years in Korea doing research on the Japanese colonial period. Upon returning to Harvard for a year, Ed met the staff director of the Investigation of Korean-American Relations which was about to be undertaken by the Subcommittee on International Organizations of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on International Relations. He worked for the Subcommittee in Washington, D.C. as a Korea specialist for the duration of the investigation, 1977-1978. After serving in government for two years, Ed finally returned to Harvard, this time for good. While at the Harvard-Yenching Institute from 1981 to 2005, in addition to broadening his interests to include higher education in the humanities and social sciences include China, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam, Ed maintained his connections with and dedication to Korea, particularly after becoming a member of the Korea Institute Executive Committee in the early 1980s.
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September 30th, 2007
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Linda Bilmes on the real cost of war in Iraq. Ms. Bilmes is a Professor of Public Policy, teaching budgeting and public finance at the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard. She served as Chief Financial Officer and as Assistant Secretary for Management and Budget and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce at the U.S. Department of Commerce in the second Clinton Administration. She was responsible for a budget of $9 billion, for financial management, and for administration of 45,000 employees.. Much of her previous work was in Eastern Europe and Russia, assisting in the privatization process. She writes and broadcasts regularly on financial and budget issues in the New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, The Atlantic and other publications. Her current research topics include the cost of the Iraq war, federal workforce reform, and public pension liabilities. Her forthcoming book (The People Factor, Brookings) is on civil service reform. Her recent work with the Nobel prize winner Joseph Stiglitz has show that the actual cost of Bush's war on Iraq is much larger than he has stated--it is not several hundred billion; it is over $one trillion, and expends over $720 million a day from the federal treasury. Linda Bilmes was recently featured in the powerful documentary "No End In Sight," which is soon to be released on DVD.
Pierre Sprey on waste and corruption in military design and procurement. Mr. Sprey is a veteran high-tech defense weapons and systems designer, as well as a high regarded producer of avant-garde jazz and other genre recordings. Mr. Sprey was the primary designer of two key Air Force warplances -- the F-16 fighter and the A-10 ground attack jet. He left the Pentagon in 1986, he said, because "it became increasingly obvious that the atmosphere at the Pentagon was such that it would be impossible to build another honest aircraft." He is the owner of Maple Shade Records, and enjoyed considerable success when one of his recordings was used by Kanye West in the mega-hit "Jesus Walks." He is now appalled by the war in Iraq that Paul Wolfowitz, a person he has known for 40 years, and who, as deputy secretary of defense, helped initiate. "It is an enormously unjust war, not fought for any of the reasons put forth," he said. "Very simply, I don't think we should be going to war for oil companies."
Dr. Josef Silverstein on the crisis in Burma/Myanmar. Dr. Silverstein is a distinguished professor of Political Science at Rutgers University. He is an expert on Myanmar and the author of "Burma: Military Rule and the Politics of Stagnation" and "Burmese Politics: the Dilemma of National Unity."
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September 23rd, 2007
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Dr. James Galbraith on increasingly dire economic indicators for the American economy, on Alan Greenspan, and world economic issues. Dr. Galbraith teaches economics and a variety of other subjects at the LBJ School at the University of Texas, Austin, at which he is also the Director of "The Inequality Project." Galbraith serves as a Senior Scholar of the Levy Economics Institute and as Chair of the Board of Economists for Peace and Security. He writes a column called "Econoclast" for Mother Jones, and occasional commentary in many other publications, including The Texas Observer, The American Prospect, and The Nation.
Colonel Sam Gardiner on the dynamics behind the increasing intense neocon push for an attack on Iran. Colonel Gardiner is a retired Air Force Colonel. He has taught strategy and military operations at the National War College, AirWar College and Naval War College. He has been warning, for some time now, of a number of indicators which suggest that the United States is preparing for an attack on Iran.
Dr. Paul Rogers on what may spark a war between the US and iran. Dr. Rogers is professor of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford in England. He focuses on trends in international conflict, developing an analysis of the linkages between socio-economic divisions, environmental constraints and international insecurity. Much of his work concentrates on western military responses to regional conflicts and political violence, and he is also concerned with those trends in political violence likely to have the greatest impact on wealthy industrialised states. Since the New York and Washington attacks he has been analysing US responses, especially in relation to Afghanistan, Iraq and al-Qaida and its affiliates. The second edition of his book, Losing Control: Global Security in the 21st Century (Pluto Press, 2002), has been translated into Japanese, and an Italian translation is pending. Paul wrote a widely-quoted report for the Oxford Research Group, The War on Terror: Winning or Losing? that was published on the second anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. His most recent book is A War on Terror: Afghanistan and After, (Pluto Press, January 2004). During 2003, Paul contributed over 300 radio and TV interviews to radio and TV stations and networks across the world, he wrote for The Independent on Sunday, and continued his weekly column on international security for the Open Democracy web journal. |
September 16th, 2007
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Lt. General Robert Gard (ret) on the Petraeus report and the "way forward" in Iraq. Lt. General Gard graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1950, then earned an MPA in 1956 and a Ph. D. in Political Economy and Government in 1961 - both from Harvard University. In addition to combat service in Korea and Vietnam, General Gard's military assignments included executive assistant to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara during the Johnson Administration, the first Director of Human Resources Development for the U.S. Army, and Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. He also served as President of the National Defense University and was a fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations. He retired from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant general in 1981. He is currently a Senior Military Fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Non-proliferation in Washington, D.C.. General Gard and 20 other former military leaders and foreign policy officials signed a letter last Thursday to President Bush, asking that he change course on what appears to be attack plans on Iran, in spite of policy failure througout the Middle East.
interviewed with:
Colonel E.W. "Bill" Chamberlain also on the Petraeus report and the "way forward" in Iraq. Colonel Chamerlain 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 West Point 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. Following his retirement, he served as a consultant to the Army on future combat systems and leader development. An avid student of military history, Colonel Chamberlain has contributed commentary and analysis on strategic and military affairs to the Chicago Tribune and elsewhere. His recent novel is entitled "Operation Desert Vengeance." He has just completed "Tripwire," a novel set in contemporary Korea. He is currently working on a non-fiction book, entitled "State of the Union."
Robert Young Pelton on the new narco-state reality in Afghanistan. Robert Young Pelton is an author, filmmaker, explorer and media innovator. He is the co-founder of IraqSlogger.com, a 24/7 subcription-based news service focusing on Iraq. He is the author of The World's Most Dangerous Places, Come Back Alive, The Adventurist, and Three Worlds Gone Mad. Mr. Pelton has worked for National Geographic, Discovery, 60 Minutes, the ABC Investigative Division, and CNN. He is also a contributing editor and columnist for National Geographic Adventure. His latest book, just released in paperback, is "Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror," described as a look into an even darker side of the war on terror: the mercenary military contractors who make up the "coalition of the billing."
John Dean on how the Bush administration and, in a larger sense, the Republican party, has produced a "broken government." 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 served as Richard Nixon's White House lawyer for a thousand days. John has long written on the subjects of law, government, and politics, and he recounted his days in the Nixon White House and Watergate in two books, Blind Ambition (1976) and Lost Honor (1982). He has authored 8 books in total, including the best-sellers "Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush." and "Conservatives Without Conscience." His latest, already a best-seller, is "Broken Government: How Republican Rule destroyed the Executive, Legislative and Judicial Branches." |
September 9th, 2007
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Dr. Drew Westen on the Democrats failure to articulate and effective opposition to Bush's aggresive pro-war dynamic, both with respect to Iraq and, increasingly, Iran. Dr. Westen is an author and professor of psychology at Emory University. Dr. Westin received his B.A. at Harvard University, an M.A. in Social and Political Thought at the University of Sussex (England), and his Ph.D. in clinical Psychology at the University of Michigan, where he subsequently taught for six years. For several years he was Chief Psychologist at Cambridge Hospital and Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School. His major areas of research are personality disorders, eating disorders, psychotherapy effectiveness, adolescent psychopathology, political psychology, and the interface of psychodynamics and neuroscience. His just-published book is "The Political Brain: the Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of a Nation." Howard Dean has said of "The Political Brain," ""Drew Westen is a must read...we will win the Presidency if our candidate reads and acts on this book."
Michael Scheuer on his analysis of Osama bin Laden today, and the misperceptions which circulate through the US policy apparatus and media. Mr. Scheuer is a twenty-two year veteran former CIA analyst, who was, until his resignation, their top expert on bin Laden. He is the author of the best-seller "Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror," Through Our Enemies Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam and the Future of America," and "Winning the Un-war: a New Strategy for the War on Terrorism," written with Charles Pena and just out in paperback. His forthcoming book is "Marching Towards Hell: America and Islam after Iraq." Mr. Scheuer was mentioned by Osama bin Laden in tape released last Friday
David Enders on the reality of conditions in Iraq, vs. the spin generated by the Bush White House in anticipation of the testimony of General Petraeus before congress. Mr. Enders is a 26-year-old freelance journalist and a co-founder of the Baghdad Bulletin, the first post-invasion attempt to set up an English-language news outlet in Iraq. Since the invasion, he has spent more than 18 months in Iraq and has written for Men's Journal, Mother Jones, and The Nation, as well as London's Sunday Times and other newspapers. His first book, "Baghdad Bulletin," was recently published by the Univesity of Michigan Press. David Enders has been blogging on his experiences in Iraq at the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting website, as part of their Iraq Project. |
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September 2nd 2007
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Philip J. (P.J.) Crowley on the media spin "surge" which is preceding the highly anticipated report by General Petraeus. 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.
Hugh Pope on a growing rift between Turkey and the western powers. Mr. Pope is the former Wall Street Journal bureau chief in Istanbul and is now a Senior Analyst with the International Crisis Group. He is widely regarded as a leading expert on Turkey and is the author of the much-acclaimed "Sons of the Conquerors: Rise of the Turkic World" (Overlook Press, 2005), which has been called "the most comprehensive work on the Turks today." In his book, Pope offers a vivid description of the history of Turkic peoples now some 140 million worldwide arguing that despite their extraordinary past, Turkic peoples remain relatively little studied or understood. Turkey has become the most democratic major Muslim country and is now negotiating for full membership in the European Union, but there are also five independent Turkic states of the Caucasus and Central Asia Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic and Turkic peoples live across the globe, including China, Europe and the United States. During Pope's 25 years of travels in the Turkic world, he has written from 30 countries, reporting for various news organizations, including the Los Angeles Times, the BBC, Reuters and, of course, the Wall Stree Journal. He has a recent piece out in the Wall Street Journal, entitled
Mike Rogers on the "outing" of Senator Larry Craig and how the Republican party deals with the issue of gays and lesbians -- inside and outside the party. Mike Rogers is a gay political activist. He is the guiding force behind Blogactive.com, which has outed many gay Republican congressmen and their staffers. He is credited as being the first to out Idaho Senator Larry Craig, who announced his resignation yesterday, effective September 30th.
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August 26th, 2007
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Robert Baer on what he believes is an impending attack on Iran, being planned by the Bush administration. Mr. Baer was a case officer in the Directorate of Operations for the Central Intelligence Agency from 1976 to 1997. His overseas assignments included stints in various locations in the Middle East, and elsewhere, handling agents that infiltrated a number of groups within the region, including Hizballah, Libyan intelligence and al Qaeda. He is the author of "Sleeping with the Devil" and "See No Evil," which were both used as the basis of the film, "Syriana." Bob Baer's novel is "Blow the House Down." His recent column at Time.com predicts a US attack on Iran within six months.
Wayne White on the current state of affairs with respect to Iraq, and also the drumbeat of war against Iran. Mr. White is an Adjunct Scholar at Washington s Middle East Institute and was an advisor to the Iraq Study Group. 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.
Tony Oppegard on the recent mining disaster in Utah, and the state of mining safety in the Bush administration. Mr. Oppegard is a former cousel to the Kentucky Department of Mines and Minerals and an outspoken advocate on the issue of mine safety.
interviewed with
Jack Spadaro is a mine safety and health and environmental expert who has dedicated his life to preventing environmental damage from coal mining activities and is among the nation's leading experts on coal waste disposal. Jack was a young engineer and instructor at West Virginia University's School of Mines, one of the world's top institutions for training mining engineers, when the 1972 Buffalo Creek WV disaster occurred. "Right then," he says, "I made a pledge to dedicate my life to doing whatever I could to prevent this type of thing from happening again." He has since spent nearly 38 years in public service, safe-guarding coal miners and their communities from life-threatening environmental and health and safety hazards caused by mining operations. He was the director of the Mine and Health Safety Academy in Beckley.
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August 18th, 2007
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James Moore on the departure of Karl Rove from the White House and what it may portend. Mr. Moore is the coauthor, with Wayne Slater, of the bestselling Bush s Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential and the author of Bush s War for Reelection. An Emmy Award winning television news correspondent, he has traveled extensively with every presidential campaign since 1976. His latest book, again with co-author Wayne Slater, is "The Architect: Karl Rove and the Dream of Absolute Power," which details Rove's efforts to forge a long-term Republican political hegemony and the complete dismantling of the Democratic Party.
Lee Tien on the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) lawsuit against AT & T regarding the NSA, FISA and illegal wiretapping of Americans. Mr. Tien is a Senior Staff Attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, specializing in free speech law, including intersections with intellectual property law and privacy law. Before joining EFF, Lee was a sole practitioner specializing in Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation. Mr. Tien has published articles on children's sexuality and information technology, anonymity, surveillance, and the First Amendment status of publishing computer software. Lee received his undergraduate degree in psychology from Stanford University, where he was very active in journalism at the Stanford Daily. After working as a news reporter at the Tacoma News Tribune for a year, Lee went to law school at Boalt Hall, University of California at Berkeley. Lee also did graduate work in the Program in Jurisprudence and Social Policy at UC-Berkeley. He is currently involved in the AT & /NSA wiretapping privacy lawsuit being heard in San Francisco.
Dr. Robert Butler on the surprising drop in American life expectancies versus the rest of the world, falling behind a number of "third-world" countries. Dr. Butler is the President and CEO of the International Longevity Center- USA. (ILC-USA) and Professor of Geriatrics and Adult Development at the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Adult Development at Mount Sinai Medical Center. Physician, gerontologist, psychiatrist, public servant and Pulitzer-Prize winning author, Dr. Robert N. Butler has long been involved in a broad array of social and health issues. He is perhaps best known for his advocacy of the medical and social needs and rights of the elderly and his research on healthy aging and the dementias. In 1975 he became the founding director of the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health, where he remained until 1982. In 1982, he founded the Department of Geriatrics and Adult Development at The Mount Sinai Medical Center, the first department of geriatrics in a U.S. medical school, and served as Chairman and Brookdale Professor until 1995. In 1995 he became President and CEO of the International Longevity Center (ILC-U.S.), a policy research and education center, while continuing as Professor of Geriatrics at Mount Sinai. |
August 12th, 2007
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Sidney Blumenthal on the Democratic fear-based cave-in on Bush's demand that congress relax FISA/wiretapping provisions, and on the general state of the Bush administraiton. Mr. Blumenthal is a former assistant and Senior Advisor to the President of the United States, Bill Clinton. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the New York University Center on Law and Security, and a regular columnist for the Guardian of London and Salon.com. He has been a staff writer for the New Yorker, the Washington Post and other major publications. His has authored a number of books including, "The Clinton Wars," a national best-seller. His most recent book is "How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime."
Dr. Nouriel Roubini on the sub-prime meltdown and its economic consequences, domestically and worldwide. Dr. Roubini is an internationally known expert in the field of international macroeconomics. He is a Professor of Economics at New York University s Stern School of Business and is also the co-founder and Chairman of Roubini Global Economics LLC, an economic and geo-strategic information service named one of the best economics websites in the world by Business Week, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal and The Economist. The website url is www.rgemonitor.com. Dr. Roubini served as a senior adviser to the White House Council of Economic Advisers and the U.S. Treasury Department; has published numerous policy papers and books on key international macroeconomic issues; and is regularly cited as an authority in the media. He received his Ph.D. in Economics at Harvard University, and was previously a faculty member at Yale University.
Dr. David Wagner on electronic voting machines and California's certification process. Dr. Wagner is a member of the computer science faculty at UC Berkeley. His specialties are computer security, especially as it applies to large-scale systems and networks, wireless systems, sensor networks and cryptography. He is the Principle Investigator of the University of California team and the co-chair of the 2007 USENIX/ACCURATE Electronic Voting Technology Workshop, which tested California voting systems. The results of that testing served as the justification for the recent action of California Secretary of State Debra Bowen's de-certification of California's electronic voting machines.
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August 5th, 2007
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Jim Bamford on the powers of the NSA to intrude into the private communications of American citizens and what relaxing FISA restrictions might mean. Mr. Bamford is the author of the bestsellers Body of Secrets and The Puzzle Palace and has written extensively on national security issues, including investigative cover stories for The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, and the Los Angeles Times Magazine. He was formerly an investigative producer for ABC s World News Tonight with Peter Jennings. His most recent book is A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies.
Lisa Graves on what the Democratic party capitulation to Bush's demand that of the FISA restrictions may mean for American civil liberties. Ms. Graves is the Deputy Director of the Center for National Security Studies. Previously, she served as Senior Counsel for Legislative Strategy, at the American Civil Liberties Union from March 2005 to November 2006, where she led the ACLU s lobbying efforts on national security issues affecting civil liberties, including the Patriot Act and illegal NSA wiretapping without warrants. Prior to that, she served as Chief Nominations Counsel, Senate Judiciary Committee, for the Chairman/Ranking Member, Senator Patrick Leahy, from February 2002 to January 2005. From May 2001 to February 2002, she served as Deputy Chief of the Article III Judges Division of the Administrative Office of US Courts. From October 1995 to May 2001, she served in a variety of positions at the Department of Justice, including as Deputy Assistant Attorney General and Acting Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Policy Development/ Office of Legal Policy. She also served as Senior Counsel and Counsel in the Civil Rights and Civil Division working on civil rights and immigration issues, among others. In addition to her advocacy and public education experience, she has extensive experience managing teams and projects. She received her J.D. cum laude from Cornell Law School, where she served as Managing Editor of the Cornell Law Review and was a member of Legal Aid and Civil Liberties Clinics. She received her B.S., in Political Science, from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse with highest honors.
Dr. John Ackerman on the forthcoming elections in Baja California. Dr. Ackerman is Professor at the Institute of Legal Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico and vice president of the International Association of Administrative Law. Ackerman has written for various publications, including the New York Times, The San Diego Union-Tribune, the Houston Chronicle, Revista Roceso and Mexico's Reforma newspaper. He is a senior consultant to the World Bank and vice president of the International Association of Administrative Law. He is also coordinator of the Research Program on Accountability, Legality and the Rule of Law at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences in Mexico City. |
July 29th, 2007
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David Enders on the current situation in Iraq, live from Basra, Iraq. David Enders is a 26-year-old freelance journalist and a co-founder of the Baghdad Bulletin, the first post-invasion attempt to set up an English-language news outlet in Iraq. Since the invasion, he has spent more than 18 months in Iraq and has written for Men's Journal, Mother Jones, and The Nation, as well as London's Sunday Times and other newspapers. His first book, "Baghdad Bulletin," was recently published by the Univesity of Michigan Press. David Enders has been blogging on his experiences in Iraq at the Pulitzer Center's website, as part of their Iraq Project.
Stephen Roach on the stock market and the American economy. Dr. Roach is Chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, serving as the Firm s senior representative to clients, governments, and regulators across the region. Prior to his appointment as Asia Chairman, Mr. Roach was Morgan Stanley s Chief Economist, heading up the Firm s highly-regarded global team of economists located in New York, London, Frankfurt, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Singapore. During his 25-year career as an economist at Morgan Stanley, Mr. Roach has become widely recognized as one of Wall Street s most influential thought leaders. His recent research focused on globalization, the emergence of China and India, and the capital market implications of global imbalances. He is widely quoted in the financial press and other media, and has been a leading contributor on the op-ed pages of the world s leading newspapers. He has long advised governments and policy makers around the world and frequently presents expert testimony to the US Congress. Mr. Roach holds a Ph.D. in economics from New York University.
Roger Morris on the growing scandal with respect to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Roger Morris served on the senior staff of the National Security Council under Presidents Johnson and Nixon until resigning over the invasion of Cambodia. An award-winning investigative journalist and historian, he is the author of several books, including "Richard Milhous Nixon: The Rise of an American Politician." He is currently completing a history of U.S. policy and covert intervention in Southwest Asia. |
July 22nd, 2007
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Dr. Juan Cole on Iraq. Dr. Cole is a professor of Modern Middle Eastern and South Asian History at the University of Michigan and is widely considered to be one of America leading scholars of contemporary Iraq and the Middle East. He is the author of "Sacred Space and Holy War," a definitive examination of the Iraqi Shiites. His weblog, Informed Comment, at JuanCole.com is one of the most popular blogs on the web, for its unique insight and deep analysis of the critical Middle East region.
Dr. Anatol Lieven on Pakistan. Dr. Lieven is a senior fellow with the New America Foundation who focues on US global strategy and the war on terror. Dr. Lieven was a former senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who previously covered Central Europe for The Financial Times; Pakistan, Afghanistan, the former Soviet Union, and Russia for The Times (London), and India as a freelance journalist. He was also an editor at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, where he also worked for the Eastern Services of the BBC. Mr. Lieven is the author of numerous books on foreign policy, including The Baltic Revolution: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Path to Independence (Yale University Press, 1993), which won the George Orwell Prize for Political Writing and the Yale University Press Governors Award. His work on American political culture, America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism, was published by Oxford University Press in 2004. His latest book, Ethical Realism: A Vision for America s Role in the World, coauthored with John Hulsman, was published by Pantheon in September 2006. He has also written for The Financial Times, the International Herald Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, The National Interest, The Christian Science Monitor, Prospect (U.K.), and The Nation, among other publications. Mr. Lieven holds a B.A. in history and a doctorate in political science from Jesus College, Cambridge.
Dr. Elliot D. Cohen on what appears to be a gathering authoritarianism in the Bush presidency. Dr. Cohen is an ethicist, media critic, and political analyst. He is the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Applied Philosophy, ethics editor for Free Inquiry magazine, and the author or editor of many books in journalism, professional ethics, and philosophical counseling, including News Incorporated: Corporate Media Ownership and Its Threat to Democracy, Journalistic Ethics (with Deni Elliot), Philosophical Issues in Journalism, The New Rational Therapy: Thinking Your Way to Serenity, Success, and Profound Happiness, and What Would Aristotle Do? Self-Control through the Power of Reason. Dr Cohen has been a guest on such national venues as Ring of Fire, Majority Report, the Mike Malloy Show, and the Thom Hartmann Show, among others. He was the first prize recipient of the 2007 Project Censored Award for his investigative reporting on the corporate takeover of the Internet. His new book is "The Last Days of Democracy: How Big Media and Power-Hungry Government are Turning America into a Dictatorship." |
July 15th, 2007
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Robert Dreyfuss on the increasingly dire situation in Iraq, and President Bush's seeming disconnection from the reality of that situation. Robert Dreyfuss writes extensively on the Middle East, the war on terrorism, and national security for The Nation, The American Prospect, Mother Jones and Rolling Stone. He is a frequent commentator on NPR, MSNBC, and CNBC. His new book is Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam, the gripping story of America s misguided efforts, stretching across decades, to dominate the strategically vital Middle East by courting and cultivating Islamic fundamentalism. www.robertdreyfuss.com
Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy on conditions in Pakistant following the seige of the Red Mosque. Dr. Hoodbhoy is professor of physics at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad where has taught for over 34 years. He holds a Ph.D in nuclear physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is the recipient of the Abdus Salam Prize for Mathematics, the Baker Award for Electronics, Faiz Ahmad Faiz Prize for contributions to education in Pakistan, and the UNESCO 2003 Kalinga Prize for the popularization of science. He is visiting professor at MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Maryland, Stanford Linear Accelerator, and often lectures at US and European universities and research laboratories. He is a member of the Permanent Monitoring Panel on Terrorism of the World Federation of Scientists.Dr Hoodbhoy is involved in social issues as well, such as: women's rights, environment, education, and nuclear disarmament. He is author of "Islam and Science: Religious Orthodoxy and the Battle for Rationality", now in seven languages. He is chairman of Mashal Books, a non-profit organization based in Lahore that publishes books in Urdu on social, philosophical, and scientific issues. In 2003, Dr. Hoodbhoy was invited to the Pugwash
Council, and he is a sponsor of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. He is frequently invited to comment on nuclear and political matters in Pakistani and international media. Over the years, he has produced and directed several documentary films that have been widely viewed on national television which deal with political, nuclear, and scientific matters.
Dr. Qamar Al Huda on the motivations and psychology of the fundamentalists in the Red Mosque seige in Pakistan. Dr. Al Huda joined USIP as a senior program officer in the Religion and Peacemaking program in June 2005. His research focuses on Islamic thought and Islamic philosophy on violence, nonviolence, and conflict resolution. Prior to joining USIP, Huda was a professor of Islamic studies and comparative religion at Boston College s theology department (1997 2005) and a visiting professor of Islamic studies at the College of Holy Cross and Brandeis University. He serves as adviser on interfaith relations to the archdiocese of Boston and has written on the subject of dialogue and interfaith studies as a critical way to foster peace. Previously, Huda focused on political, theological, and social history of Islamic mysticism and treatises dealing with Qur anic hermeneutics. He holds a Ph.D. in Islamic intellectual history from the University of California at Los Angeles and a B.A. from Colgate University. |
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July 8th, 2007
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Ambassador Joseph Wilson on the commutation of Lewis "Scooter" Libby by President Bush. Ambassador Wilson served in the United States 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," an 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 covert operative acting contain nuclear proliferation was destroyed by operatives in the Bush administration, in retaliation for what Ambassador Wilson revealed.
Dr. Nina Khrushcheva on Putin's Russia and the disturbing rise of a "Putin Youth" movement. Dr. Khrushcheva specializes in media and culture. She is a senior fellow of the World Policy Institute at New School University, and adjunct associate professor at SIPA, Columbia University. She is also senior editor of Project Syndicate: Association of Newspapers Around the World. She held a two-year appointment as a research fellow at the School of Historical Studies of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and has served as Deputy Editor of the East European Constitutional Review at the NYU School of Law. Her numerous articles have appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, The Wall Street Journal, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Times Literary Supplement and other international publications. Her new book is Visiting Nabokov, from Yale University Press.
Habib Battah is a reporter based in Lebanon. Mr. Battah has been a print and broadcast journalist for some of the Arab World s leading news organizations including Qatar-based Al Jazeera, Lebanon s Daily Star newspaper and the Beirut-based satellite channel, Future Television. He has covered a range of political events from across the Middle East, including the Iraq war and recent turmoil in Lebanon, as well as a wide spectrum of Arab economic sectors, with a focus on telecommunications, information technology, real estate, construction and energy. Battah has also worked for a number of non-governmental organizations such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, World Vision and Creative Associates International Inc. He graduated with a BA in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin, where he recently presented a lecture on press censorship in the Middle East at UT s Journalism and the Arab World Conference. He is now in Lebanon, just outside Beirut. |
July 1st, 2007
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Ambassador Peter Galbraith on the situation in Iraq, with a special focus on the Kurdish regions. Ambassador Galbraith is a former United States diplomat. Ambassado Galbraith worked for Senator Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island, and served on the staff of the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1979 to 1993, where he published many reports about Iraq and took a special interest in Kurdistan. In 1993, he was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Croatia by President Bill Clinton. He later served as United Nations ambassador in East Timor. He taught at the National War College (1999, 2001-2003). Galbraith favors the independence, real or de facto, of Kurdistan, and has worked with Kurdish leaders, including Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani, toward that end. In 2003, he resigned from U.S. government after 24 years of service in order to be able to criticize U.S. Iraq policy more freely. He is currently senior diplomatic fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. He recently publishedf The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End (2006), which argues that the U.S.'s "main error" in Iraq has been "wishful thinking" and advocates acceptance of a "partition" of Iraq into three parts as part a new U.S. "strategy based on the reality of Iraq."
Professor David Barron on recent Supreme Court decisions. Professor Barron teaches law at Harvard University and clerked for Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. He specializes in constitutional law.
John Prados on the recent release of a number of classified documents, aka "The Family Jewels," from the CIA. John Prados is a Senior Fellow with the National Security Archives. He is the author of "Safe for Democracy" and "The Lost Crusades: the Secret Wars of Bill Colby." http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/ |
June 24th, 2007
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Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson on the dangerous shadow presidency of Dick Cheney, whose neocon influence as a Vice President is unprecedented in American history. Colonel Wilkerson was Secretary of State Colin Powell's Chief of Staff at the Department of State from August 2002 to January 2005. But, Colonel Wilkerson's career with General Colin L. Powell goes back much further--to in March 1989 at the U.S. Army s Forces Command in Atlanta, Georgia as his Deputy Executive Officer. He followed the General to his next position as Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, serving as his special assistant. Upon Powell's retirement from active service in 1993, Colonel Wilkerson served as the Deputy Director and Director of the U.S. Marine Corps War College at Quantico, Virginia. Upon Wilkerson s retirement from active service in 1997, he began working for General Powell in a private capacity as a consultant and advisor. In December 2000, Secretary of State-designate Powell asked Wilkerson to join him in the Transition Office at the U.S. State Department and, later, upon his confirmation as Secretary of State, Secretary Powell moved Wilkerson to his Policy Planning Staff with responsibilities for East Asia and the Pacific, and legislative and political-military affairs. In June of 2002, the Director for Policy Planning, Ambassador Richard Haass, made Wilkerson the Associate Director. In August of 2002, Secretary Powell moved Wilkerson to the position of Chief of Staff of the Department. In October of 2005, Colonel Wilkerson, after considerable soul searching, went public to tell the truth of what he knew: that Vice President Cheney had provided the "guidance" that led to America's torture disgrace in Guantanamo, Abu Ghriab and elsewhere; that Secretary Powell's February 2003 presentation to the UN security council was "the lowest point" of his life; and that US foreign policy had been hijacked by what he described as a "Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal."
Robert Baer on the worsening situation in the Middle East. Mr. Baer was a CIA case officer in the Directorate of Operations from 1976 to 1997, where he served in Middle Eastern countries, including Iraq and Lebanon. He is the author of See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism, which was the source material for the Academy-Award nominated film "Syriana."
Glenn Greenwald on his new book "Tragic Legacy." Mr. Greenwald is an author, journalist and blogger, who was previously a constitutional lawyer in New York City. He litigated numerous high-profile cases in federal and state courts around the country, including multiple First Amendment challenges. He has a J.D. from New York University School of Law (1994) and a B.A. from George Washington University (1990). In October of 2005, Greenwald started a political and legal blog, Unclaimed Territory, which quickly became one of the most popular and highest-trafficked in the blogosphere. Upon disclosure by the New York Times in December 2005 of President Bush's warrantless eavesdropping program, Greenwald became one of the leading and most cited experts on that controversy. In early 2006, he broke a story on his blog regarding the NSA scandal that served as the basis for front-page articles in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers, all of which credited his blog for the story. In May 2006, Greenwald published his first book, "How Would a Patriot Act? Defending American Values From a President Run Amok," which critiqued the radical theories of executive power used by the Bush administration to justify everything from lawbreaking powers to the use of torture to indefinite detention of American citizens. The book was an instant bestseller, rising to No. 1 on Amazon's Best Seller List and remaining there for almost a full week. The book also debuted at No. 11 on the New York Times Best Seller list, and remained on the list for the next two months. Greenwald's new book, "Tragic Legacy: How a Good v. Evil Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency," will be released in bookstore this coming Tuesday. "Tragic Legacy" examines the role of Manichaean morality and the exploitation of the concept of the "enemy" during the Bush presidency and argues that President Bush's single-minded dependence on good vs. evil themes has rendered his presidency a failure.
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June 17th, 2007
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Clayton Swisher on the crisis in Palestine. Mr. 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 book THE TRUTH ABOUT CAMP DAVID has been acclaimed in the US by Foreign Affairs, Middle East Policy and Middle East Review and in the Middle East region, from Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper to Al-Jazeera to Lebanon's Daily Star. He has appeared on CNN, BBC, MSNBC, 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 has just accepted a position with the Council on Foreign Relations.
Brian Turner on life as a soldier in Iraq, and on his poetry. Mr. Turner earned an MFA from the University of Oregon and lived abroad in South Korea for a year before serving for seven years in the US Army. He was an infantry team leader for a year in Iraq beginning November 2003, with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. Prior to that, he was deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1999-2000 with the 10th Mountain Division. Besides being a soldier, Brian Turner is a poet, having had work published in Poetry Daily, The Georgia Review and other journals, and in the Voices in Wartime Anthology published in conjunction with the feature-length documentary film of the same name. His book "Here, Bullet," which has been received internationally with widespread acclaim and many awards, including the 2006 PEN Center literary award, the 2006 Lanman Literary Fellowship, the 2007 Poet's Prize and a New York Times Editor's Choice. He has received a 2007 NEA Literature Fellowship in Poetry. "Here, Bullet" is described as a harrowing, beautiful first-person account of the Iraq War by a solider-poet. Adding his voice to the current debate about the US occupation of Iraq, in poems written in the tradition of such poets as Wilfred Owen, Yusef Komunyakaa (Dien Cai Dau), Bruce Weigl (Song of Napalm) and Doug Anderson (The Moon Reflected Fire), Iraq war veteran Brian Turner writes powerfully affecting poetry of witness, exceptional for its beauty, honesty and skill. Based upon Turner s year-long tour in Iraq as an infantry team leader, the poems offer gracefully-rendered, unflinching description but, remarkably, leave the reader to draw conclusions or moral lessons. Here, Bullet is a must-read for anyone who cares about the war, regardless of political affiliation.
Norman Soloman on war and media spin. Mr. Soloman is an award-winning nationally syndicated columnist on media and politics, whose latest book is "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death." A film, based on that book, has just been released. The Los Angeles Times called the book "brutally persuasive" and "a must-read for those who would like greater context with their bitter morning coffee, or to arm themselves for the debates about Iraq that are still to come." The newspaper's reviewer added: "Solomon is a formidable thinker and activist." The Humanist magazine described the book as "a definitive historical text" and "an indispensable record of the real relationships among government authorities and media outlets." A collection of Solomon s columns won the George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language. The award, presented by the National Council of Teachers of English, honored Solomon s book "The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media." Solomon s books include "Target Iraq," Wizards of Media Oz: Behind the Curtain of Mainstream News, The Trouble With Dilbert: How Corporate Culture Gets the Last Laugh, False Hope: The Politics of Illusion in the Clinton Era, The Power of Babble: The Politician's Dictionary of Buzzwords and Doubletalk for Every Occasion, and Killing Our Own: The Disaster of America's Experience With Atomic Radiation.
interviewed with
Loretta Alper is the producer and co-director of the film WAR MADE EASY. She is a producer with the Media Education Foundation and is part of the team that created the acclaimed documentary about 9/11 "Hijacking Catastrophe." |
June 10th, 2007
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Ambassador Joseph Wilson on the sentencing of Lewis "Scooter" Libby in the aftermath of his conviction in connection to the outing of Valerie Plame, an undercover covert CIA agent (and Ambassador Wilson's wife) Joseph Wilson served in the United States 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," an 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 covert operative acting contain nuclear proliferation was destroyed by operatives in the Bush administration, in retaliation for what Ambassador Wilson revealed.
Lt. General Robert Gard (USA, Ret.) on the neocon's push for war and more war. General Gard graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1950, then earned an MPA in 1956 and a Ph. D. in Political Economy and Government in 1961 - both from Harvard University. In addition to combat service in Korea and Vietnam, General Gard's military assignments included executive assistant to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara during the Johnson Administration, the first Director of Human Resources Development for the U.S. Army, and Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. He also served as President of the National Defense University and was a fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations. He retired from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant general in 1981. He is currently a Senior Military Fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Non-proliferation in Washington, D.C.. General Gard and 20 other former military leaders and foreign policy officials signed a letter last Thursday to President Bush, asking that he change course on what appears to be attack plans on Iran, in spite of policy failure througout the Middle East.
Rick Piltz on the Bush administration defunding of satellites which serve to monitor global warming. Mr. Piltz is the Director of Climate Science Watch, a watchdog program of the Government Accountability Project in Washington, DC. Using investigation, communication, and reform advocacy, Climate Science Watch aims to hold public officials accountable for using climate change research with integrity in dealing with the challenges posed by global warming. For 10 years, from1995 to2005, Rick Piltz held senior positions in the coordination office of the federal program that supports scientific research on climate and global environmental change. Prior to that he served for four years on the professional staff of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, supporting the Committee's oversight activities on global change research. Rick has worked on environment and energy policy since the 1970s. In March 2005 Mr.Piltz resigned from the U.S. Climate Change Science Program to protest the Bush administration's political interference with climate change science communication, which he charged was undermining the credibility and integrity of the federal research program. |
June 3rd, 2007
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Nir Rosen on the state of affairs in Iraq and generally in the Middle East. Mr. Rosen is a journalist who has written extensively on the American presence in Afghanistan and Iraq. Mr. Rosen spent more than a year in post-war Iraq reporting on the American occupation, the relationship between Americans and Iraqis, the development of post-war Iraqi religious and political movements, and inter-ethnic and sectarian relations. He also focused his reporting and research on the origins and development of islamist resistance, insurgence, and terror organizations. While in Afghanistan, Mr. Rosen covered the elections and studied the differences between the American presence in Afghanistan and Iraq. Mr. Rosen has been published in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper s and The New Republic. His book on Iraq is "In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq." He has a recent piece in the Boston Review, entitled "Anatomy of a Civil War."
Dr. R.J. Hillhouse is a former professor and Fulbright fellow, who earned her Ph.D. in political science at the University of Michigan. She now specializes in the study of the privitization of black-budget US intelligence operations and analysis--said to be up to 70% of the $40billion-plus intelligence budget. Her blog, "The Spy Who Billed Me," has been praised by numerous sources, including the New York Times. She has appeared on other websites, including the popular Firedoglake, where her commentary is highly prized. Her novel, OUTSOURCED, to be released this month, is about the turf wars between the Pentagon and the CIA and the privatization of national security.
Nina Ognianova on the apparent assault on journalists in Putin's Russia. Ms. Ognianova is the Europe and Central Asia research associate for the Committee to Protect Journalists. Prior to that, Nina Ognianova worked as a staff writer for the International Journalists Network, the media-assistance Web site of the nonprofit International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) in Washington, D.C. She covered the countries of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. In September 2003, Ognianova coordinated an ICFJ conference, which was held in her native Bulgaria, for Balkan investigative journalists about covering the problems of human trafficking. Ognianova earned a bachelor s degree in journalism and mass communications from the American University in Bulgaria and a master s degree from the Missouri School of Journalism--Columbia. While in Missouri, Ognianova was on the editorial staff of the magazine of the International Press Institute, Global Journalist, where she also published articles. Ognianova is a native Bulgarian speaker, fluent in Russian, and proficient in Macedonian, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, and Italian. She was promoted to senior research associate in January 2006 and became program coordinator in June 2006. |
May 27th ,2007
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Steve Clemons on the factional conflict within the Bush administration between Vice President Cheney and its policy oppostion faction, which includes Rice, Gates, Hayden and others. Mr. Clemons is a Senior Fellow and Director of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation. The American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation aims to promote a new American internationalism that combines a tough-minded realism about America's interests in the world with a pragmatic idealism about the kind of world order best suited to America's democratic way of life. Mr. Clemons also is the force behind the popular blog, The Washington Note. He has served as Executive Vice President of the Economic Strategy Institute, Senior Policy Advisor on Economic and International Affairs to Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and was the first Executive Director of the Nixon Center. Before coming to the New America Foundation, Mr. Clemons 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, of which he remains Director. Mr. Clemons writes frequently on matters of foreign policy, defense, and international economic policy. His work has appeared in many of the major leading op-ed pages, journal, and magazines around the world. His blog is www.theWashingtonNote.com .
Robert Fisk on the developing crisis in Lebanon's Palestinian refugee camps. Mr. Fisk is a best-selling author and acclaimed journalist, based in Beirut, Lebanon. Fisk is the Middle East Correspondent of The Independent and has lived in the region for almost three decades. He holds more British and international journalism awards than any other foreign correspondent. The Financial Times described Fisk as "unrivaled as a war correspondent." The London Sunday Times said of him, "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 newest book is a monumental 1,000-page work, "The Great War for Civilisation : The Conquest of the Middle East," which has been described by the New York Times as "an unflinching, stunning achievement."
Tyson Slocum on the increasing fuel prices. Mr. Slocum is Director of Public Citizen's Energy Program, which is devoted to promoting stronger regulation of energy markets, examining the impact of mergers and lax regulations over electricity, petroleum & natural gas, and monitoring federal energy legislation. Mr. Slocum researches the influence of corporate special interests and works to promote corporate & government accountability. He is the author of numerous reports on these subjects and has presented his findings in testimony before the U.S. Congress. We'll examine the tripling of gas prices over the last five years and the fact that oil companies have made a record $477 billion in profits since Bush became president. |
May 20th ,2007
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Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi on the state of affairs in the Palestinian territories, occupied for decades by Israel. Dr. Barghouthi is a medical doctor and President of the Palestinian National Initiative, a democratic opposition movement. He was a candidate for the presidency of the Palestinian National Authority in 2005, finishing second after Mahmoud Abbas. In 1979, Barghouti founded the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees, a non-governmental organization which provides health care and related services in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He continues to serve as the Union's president. In 1989, Barghouti was one of the founders of the Health, Development, Information and Policy Institute, a think tank representing an alliance of 90 Palestinian community organizations. In June 2002, Barghouti, Edward Said and others established the Palestinian National Initiative, which was an attempt to build a reformist, inclusive alternative to both the established Palestinian Liberation Organization and to Islamic militant groups such as Hamas. Barghouti currently serves as the Initiative's general secretary. Barghouti was newly elected to a seat on the Palestinian Legislative Council in January 2006.
Ambassador David Mack on the deplorable state of American Middle East diplomacy. Ambassador Mack is the Vice President of the Washington D.C.-based Middle East Institute and was an advisor to the Iraq Study Group. He was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs from 1990 to 1993, a role in which he directed the conduct of relations between the United States and 12 other governments, including Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. He provided political support for Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm and promoted U.S. business interests in the Arab world. As U.S. Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (1986-1989), Mack was in charge of all U.S. government activities and over 150 civilian and military personnel. He was also responsible for diplomatic contacts with the leaders of the U.A.E., a country of strategic and commercial importance to the United States. Issues ranged from hostilities with Iran to billions of dollars in economic contracts to cultural exchange. Ambassador Mack was International Affairs Advisor at the National War College (1993-1995). He helped direct advanced professional education for the most promising U.S. military officers at the army/air force/ marine colonel and navy captain level, as well as their civilian equivalents in the national security agencies. He taught courses on international affairs and Gulf security and led a War College visit to Uzbekistan and Turkey. As Diplomat-in-Residence at Howard University (1989-1990), Mack taught courses in U.S. foreign policy. Ambassador Mack received the President s meritorious and distinguished service awards, the latter for work during the Gulf War with Iraq, and the State Department meritorious, superior and distinguished honor awards.
Dr. Stephen Yale-Loehr on the pending immigration legislation. Dr. Yale-Loehr is one of the nation's preeminent authorities on U.S. immigration and asylum law. A prolific scholar, he has written many law review articles, and is author or co-author of four standard reference works. He was editor-in-chief of The Cornell International Law Journal, and he co-authors a bimonthly column for The New York Law Journal. He is of counsel to the Ithaca firm of Miller Mayer. Upon receiving his Cornell J.D. cum laude, Prof. Yale-Loehr clerked for Chief Judge Howard G. Munson of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York. He is the 2001 recipient of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA)'s Elmer Fried Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 2004 recipient of AILA's Edith Lowenstein Award for excellence in advancing the practice of immigration law. |
May 13th, 2007
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Ron Suskind on the state of the Bush presidency. Mr. Suskind is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist, whose coverage of the Bush administration is widely acclaimed. He was the senior national-affairs writer for The Wall Street Journal from 1993 to 2000. He is currently a distinguished visiting scholar at Dartmouth and writes for various national publications, including the New York Times Magazine and Esquire. He is the author of a number of books, including the best-sellers "The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House and the Education of Paul O'Neill" and "The One Per-Cent Doctrine." In 2004, two-weeks before the November election, Ron Suskind published, in the New York Times Magazine, what is now recognized as perhaps the seminal article on the inner workings and psychology of the Bush adminstration, entitled "Without a Doubt: Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W. Bush." This article described an administration with a somewhat messianic belief that they were "history's actors" who could, by the exercise of power alone, create reality according to their wishes. We'll check in with Ron Suskind for his assessment of the Bush administration today, an administration now being assailed by actual reality, beyond their dictate, on every front.
Rami Khouri on developing issues in Turkey and the Middle East. Mr. Khouri is a Palestinian-Jordanian and US citizen whose family resides in Beirut, Amman, and Nazareth. He is an internationally syndicated columnist, the director of the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut, editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star, and co-laureate of the 2006 Pax Christi International Peace Award.
Tom Porteous on the legacy of Tony Blair. Mr. Porteous is the London director of Human Rights Watch where he directs the attention of the British government and media to human rights violations around the world. Mr. Porteous worked as an adviser in the British Foreign Office for three years during the Blair tenure as Prime Minister. Previously, Tom Porteous participated in UN peacekeeping operations in Somalia and Liberia. As a journalist for the BBC, he covered Middle Eastern, African and European affairs. Tom Porteous is currently writing a book about Tony Blair's Africa policy. |
May 6th, 2007
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Zbigniew Brzezinski on the state of American diplomacy and foreign policy. Dr. Brzezinski, formerly the National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter, is a counselor and trustee at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a professor of American foreign policy at the School of Advanced International Studies, the Johns Hopkins University,Washington, D.C. His many books include The Choice: Global Domination or Global Leadership (2004) and The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives (1997). His latest is Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower.
Daniel Levy on the Winograd Report on Israeli Prime Minister Olmert's war on Lebanon. Mr. Levy is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Middle East Policy Initiative of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation. He was the lead Israeli drafter of the Geneva Initiative and directed policy planning and international efforts at the Geneva Campaign Headquarters in Tel Aviv. Previously, Mr. Levy served as senior policy adviser to former Israeli Minister of Justice, Yossi Beilin, and under the Barak government he worked in the prime minister s office as a special adviser and head of the Jerusalem Affairs unit. He was a member of the Israeli delegation to the Taba negotiations with the Palestinians in January 2001, and of the negotiating team for the Oslo B Agreement from May to September 1995, under Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. As a Senior Fellow and Director of the Middle East Policy Initiative at the New America Foundation, Mr. Levy seeks to encourage thought-provoking debate and offer strategic solutions for resolving the long-running conflicts in the Middle East, core among them the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He has published extensively in a broad range of publications including Ha aretz, The Jerusalem Post, The Boston Globe, United Press International, The American Prospect, the International Herald Tribune, The Evening Standard (London), and the blog TPMCafe.
Frank Bowman on the possibility of impeaching Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Frank Bowman is the Floyd R. Gibson endowed chair of the University of Missouri, Columbia, School of Law. He was previously with the Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis, where he served as the M. Dale Palmer Professor of Law. Following his graduation from Harvard Law School in 1979, Professor Bowman entered the U.S. Department of Justice as part of the Honor Graduate Program. He spent three years as a trial attorney in the Criminal Division in Washington, D.C. From 1983 until 1986, he was a deputy district attorney for Denver, Colo. He also spent three years in private practice in Colorado. In 1989, Professor Bowman joined the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida, where he was Deputy Chief of the Southern Criminal Division and specialized in complex white-collar crimes. In 1995 and 1996, he served as Special Counsel to the U.S. Sentencing Commission in Washington, D.C. From 1998 to 2001, he served as academic advisor to the Criminal Law Committee of the United States Judicial Conference. He is the author, with Roger Haines and Jennifer Wolf, of the 1,800-page Federal Sentencing Guidelines Handbook, published in 2006. He recently had an Op-Ed published in the New York Times entitled, "He's Impeachable, You Know," referring not to George W. Bush, but to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. |
April 29th, 2007
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Tyler Drumheller on former CIA Director George Tenet's new book. Mr. Drumheller is the former chief of the CIA covert operations in Europe, who retired from the agency in 2005, after a 26 year career. He is the author of "On the Brink: And Insider's Account of How the White House Compromised American Intelligence." Mr. Drumhelloer has said that the CIA had credible sources discounting some weapons of mass destruction claims before the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. He received and discounted documents central to the Niger yellowcake forgery prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He has also stated that senior White House officials dismissed intelligence information from his agency which reported Saddam Hussein had no WMD program. According to Drumheller, the CIA, with the help of a friendly intelligence service, recruited Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri in Europe during the late summer of 2002. Sabri told the CIA in September that Saddam had no major active weapons of mass destruction programs; they had no fissile material and biological weapons were almost non-existent, although he claimed that there were chemical weapons. This information was then transmitted to the White House, but it was ignored in favor of the information coming from a source known as Curveball.
General William Odom on the status of the Iraq war and the leadership of President Bush. General Odom is a senior fellow and director of National Security Studies at Hudson Institute's Washington, D.C. office. He is also an adjunct professor at Yale University. As director of the National Security Agency from 1985 to 1988, he was responsible for the nation's signals intelligence and communications security. From 1981 to 1985, he served as assistant chief of staff for Intelligence, the Army's senior intelligence officer. From 1977 to 1981, General Odom was military assistant to the President's Assistant for National Security Affairs, Zbigniew Brzezinski. On the National Security Council staff, he worked on strategic planning, Soviet affairs, nuclear weapons policy, telecommunications policy, and Persian Gulf security issues. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1954, and received a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1970. Yesterday, he delivered the Democractic Party response to President Bush's weekly radio address.
Steve Kull on his recent polling regarding world attittudes towards the US. Mr. Kull is the Director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) and the Center on Policy Attitudes (COPA). He is a political psychologist who studies world public opinion on international issues. He directs the PIPA/Knowledge Networks poll which conducts ongoing surveys of the US public, plays a central role in the BBC World Service Poll of global opinion and is directing a major study of social support of anti-American terrorism in Islamic countries. His articles have appeared in Political Science Quarterly, Foreign Policy, Public Opinion Quarterly, Harpers, The Washington Post and other publications. His most recent book, co-authored with I.M. Destler, is Misreading the Public: The Myth of a New Isolationism, (Brookings). He regularly appears in the US and international media and gives briefings for the US Congress, the State Department, NATO, the UN and the EC. He is a faculty member of the School of Public Affairs at the University of Maryland and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Steve Kull recently published new polling in the Middle East and world-wide which documents a serious turn of world opinion against the US, in the last 6 years.
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April 22nd, 2007
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Paul Helmke on the shooting incident at Virginia Tech and the laxity of American gun laws. Mr. Helmke is president of the Washington, DC-based Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a position he has held since July 1, 2006. He is a former mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana and a former president of The United States Conference of Mayors. The Brady Campaign is the nation's largest, non-partisan, grassroots organization leading the fight to prevent gun violence. Working with its dedicated network of Million Mom March Chapters, the Campaign is devoted to creating an America free from gun violence, where all Americans are safe at home, at school, at work, and in our communities. Their website is Bradycenter.org.
Hal Clifford on where the environmental movement is and should be, a discussion occasioned by Earth Day 2007. Mr. Clifford is the Executive Editor of Orion Magazine, a magazine of nature, people and place. Mr. Clifford was a finalist for the 2002 Society of Environmental Journalists Awards for Reporting and the 2001 John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism, and a top-three finalist for the 2001 Scripps Howard National Journalism Award for Environmental Reporting. He was among the writers who created the story package that won a 2000 American Society of Magazine Editors National Magazine Award given to National Geographic Adventure. He won the 1998 Colorado Press Association First Prize for a weekly column he wrote for The Aspen Times, and his first book, The Falling Season: Inside the Life and Death Drama of Aspen s Mountain Rescue Team, won the Colorado Council on the Arts nod as 1995 s Best Non-Fiction Book. His work as a freelance journalist has appeared in more than 60 publications, including Outside, the New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, and many more.
Dr. Juan Cole on Senators's Reid's assessment that the war in Iraq is lost. Dr. Cole is a professor of Modern Middle Eastern and South Asian History at the University of Michigan and is widely considered to be one of America leading scholars of contemporary Iraq and the Middle East. He is the author of "Sacred Space and Holy War," a definitive examinati | | | |
