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Interviews on Middle East issues are posted shortly after the show each Sunday and can be
replayed here.
August 3
Let's find out what they really do think about us, and talk with a professor who runs polls of the
Middle East. He is
John Esposito, the
Director of the Center for Muslim Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, where he holds the distinguished position of University
Professor and teaches as both a Professor of Religion and International Affairs and Professor of Islamic
Studies. Esposito also works as a Senior Scientist at the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, where he
co-authored Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think.
July 27
We take a tour of Middle East issues and problems with
Thomas
Lippman, an adjunct scholar at
the Middle East Institute in Washington. Lippman spent many years reporting on the region for the Washington
Post in the paper's Middle East bureau, as its oil and energy reporter, and as the newspaper's national
security and diplomatic correspondent. He is the author of books such as Inside the Mirage: America's Fragile
Partnership with Saudi Arabia and Madeleine Albright and the New American Diplomacy.
Barack Obama was in Israel during his Middle East tour, and he promised to refocus America on finding
peace in the region if elected. We discuss the prospects for such a peace with
Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of
Maryland. Before going to Maryland, he taught at several universities,
including Cornell, Ohio State, and the University of Southern California.
In addition, Telhami has been active in the foreign policy arena.
He has served as Advisor to the US Mission to the UN,
as advisor to former Congressman Lee Hamilton, and as a member of the US delegation to the Trilateral
US-Israeli-Palestinian Anti-Incitement Committee, which was mandated by the Wye River Agreements.
July 20
How has Saudi Arabia changed since September 11, and what is the condition of relations between
that country and the U.S? We talk with Saudi businessman
Amr Khashoggi, Chairman and
CEO of the Amkest Group. Having been educated in the U.S., and having sent his children to school here
as well, Khashoggi has strong feelings about the relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, as well
as changes that need to take place in both countries. He is active in the Saudi Chambers of Commerce,
having served as chairman of the International Relations Committee, and he is an active member of the
national Committee of International Trade. He obtained
his MBA from Yale University.
Has oil become too expensive too fast, or is it playing a slow game of catch-up that is just beginning?
You'll enjoy hearing the opinions of
Matt Simmons, chairman and CEO of Simmons & Company International. He is a prominent
oil-industry analyst and one of the world's leading experts on the topic of peak oil. Simmons is an
advisor to the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre. He is a member of the National Petroleum Council and the
Council on Foreign Relations. Simmons is the author of the book Twilight in the Desert:
The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy.
July 13
With a goal of gaining a better understanding on what is driving up the cost of oil, whether the current
price levels are permanent, and the role of key players in the Middle East, we are joined by two guests. First,
Amy Jaffe, the Wallace S.
Wilson Fellow in Energy Studies at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy and associate
director of the Rice University energy program. Jaffe’s research focuses on the
subject of oil geopolitics, strategic energy policy including energy science policy, and energy economics.
Next, we talk with
John Kilduff, VP and co-hed of MF Global, a futures brokerage. Before joining MF Global, Kilduff
was Serior VP of Energy Rish Management Group at Fimat USA, where he did market research and managed energy
price hedging. He also does energy analysis for CNBC.
July 6, 2008
Why does the Iranian government seem determined to stoke tensions with Israel and the U.S.? In order
to understand this and other matters regarding Iran, we explore issues such as whether the Iranian
government is controlled by religious ideologues or pragmatists, and whether conservatives or reformers
are in power, with
Mehran Tamadonfar, author of The
Islamic Polity and Political Leadership: Fundamentalism Sectarianism, and Pragmatism. Tamadonfar teaches at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he is the chairman of the political science department.
July 6
Why does the Iranian government seem determined to stoke tensions with Israel and the U.S.? In order
to understand this and other matters regarding Iran, we explore issues such as whether the Iranian
government is controlled by religious ideologues or pragmatists, and whether conservatives or reformers
are in power, with
Mehran Tamadonfar, author of The
Islamic Polity and Political Leadership: Fundamentalism Sectarianism, and Pragmatism. Tamadonfar teaches at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he is the chairman of the political science department.
June 29
How have the policies of the Bush administration damaged the reputation of the United States in the
Middle East? What are the implications of this damage, and what will the remedy be? We ask
Chas Freeman, President of the Middle East Policy Council since 1997, and Ambassador to Saudi
Arabia during Gulf War I. In addition, he served as Deputy Chief of Mission and
Chargé d'Affaires in the American embassies at both Bangkok (1984-1986) and Beijing (1981-1984). Freeman
was Director for Chinese Affairs at the U.S. Department of State from 1979-1981 and was the principal
American interpreter during the late President Nixon's path-breaking visit to China in 1972. He is the
author of Arts of Power: Statecraft and Diplomacy, U.S. Institute of Peace Press, Washington, D.C., 1997.
June 22
In the age of terror, we discuss perceptions, and realities, of Islam in America today with
Omid Safi, Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Safi
specializes on Islamic mysticism (Sufism), contemporary Islamic thought, and medieval Islamic history. He previously
taught at Colgate University, and did
his doctoral studies at Duke University. Safi is the Chair for the Study of Islam at the American Academy of Religion.
He is also a member of the advisory board of the Pluralism Project at Harvard University. Safi is the author of
The Politics of Knowledge in Premodern Islam, dealing with medieval Islamic history and politics, and is the editor of
Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender and Pluralism, a work that reflects Safi’s involvement with the
progressive Muslim movement. He was a co-founder of the Progressive Muslim Union, from which he resigned in 2005.
We explore how language hinders understanding and affects lives with
Harold Maio, who is a linguistic ethicist – he studies how our attitudes and perceptions of reality
are influenced by language. Maio’s career has had many phases – first he was an art teacher, then, struck by the power of
the German language, he shifted his focus and taught German at the high school and college level. Maio describes
himself – “Born 1937, raised a 50's boy, lived flower power, matured through marriage, kids, college degrees, conflicts
and happinesses.” Regarding his work as a linguistic ethicist, Maio says, “Word can lead to the back of the bus, or beyond. Word can
reflect, repeat, repair, renew, alter reality completely.”
June 15
How do we leave Iraq without a meltdown ensuing? We're joined by a man who has the answer - an answer, thusfar,
that has not been adopted by either candidate for president. Our guest is
John Arquilla, professor
of defense analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School, where he has taught in the special operations
curriculum since 1993. Arquilla advised against going into Iraq, but now feels strongly that we must
stay while transitioning from the surge to a new, post-surge strategy. He details the plan for us.
Arquilla's teaching interests revolve around the history of irregular warfare, terrorism, and the implications of the
information age for society and security. His books include The Reagan Imprint: Ideas in American Foreign
Policy from the Collapse of Communism to the War on Terror, and his latest study, Worst
Enemy: The Reluctant Transformation of the American Military, which is about military reform.
We'll discuss Iran and their drive to become the leading power in the Middle East with
someone who knows the country, and the region, well. He is
Iason Athanasiadis, who has worked as a journalist since 1999, mostly covering the Middle East,
Central Asia and the southeast Mediterranean. A writer, photographer and television producer, he studied
Arabic and Modern Middle Eastern Studies at Oxford University as well as Persian and Contemporary Iranian
Studies at Tehran's School of International Studies. He lived in Damascus and Cairo for a year each, as
well as four months in Qatar, and he has reported from many countries, including Afghanistan, Turkey and
Yemen for publications such as the Financial Times, al-Ahram Weekly, the Beirut Daily Star and al-Jazeera.
He is fluent in Arabic and Farsi.
June 8, 2008
These interviews repeat from April 4.
How could the U.S. handle relations in the Middle East better? We ask
Zachary Lockman, professor of modern Middle East
history and director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at New York University. He is a
contributing editor of Middle East Report and is the author of Contending Visions of The
Middle East: The History and Politics of Orientalism.
We know how the cost of oil impacts our daily lives. But how does the
extra income effect the countries collecting the windfall? We pose this question for
Paul Sullivan, a professor of economics at the National Defense University and an adjunct
professor at Georgetown University. He previously taught and researched at the American University in Cairo, and
has traveled widely in the Middle East and North Africa. Dr. Sullivan is also a member of the
College of Fellows of the International Association of Middle Eastern Studies and serves on the advisory
board of the US-Egyptian Friendship Society.
June 1
Is Barack Obama's 'balanced' view toward Israel leading to a shift in American dialogue on Middle East
peace? Is world opinion shifting against Israel? We pose these questions to
Gad Barzilai, an international expert
on comparative politics and law who has also written extensively
on Israel in Middle East context and comparative political context. He is a Professor at the Law,
Societies, and Justice Program in the Comparative, Law and Society Studies Center at University of Washington.
Before joining UW in 2005, he was a Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Law School
at Tel Aviv University, where he was co-Founder and co-Director of the Law, Politics & Society Graduate Program.
May 25
If the U.S. is in Iraq, at least in part, to make sure the flow of oil from the region is
protected, would that make the war immoral? We ask this and other morality questions of
Daniel Chirot,
a professor at the Henry Jackson School of International Relations at the University of Washington, and
co-author, with Clark McCauley, of Why Not Kill Them All? The Logic and Prevention of Mass
Political Murder. Specializing in ethnic conflict, social change, and tyranny, he became director
of the international studies program and founded an institute on conflict resolution at the university
in 2001. He is the author of Modern Tyrants: The Power and Prevalence of Evil in Our Age,
a book that is also relevant to our discussions on the Middle East.
Lebanese leaders hammered out an agreement that could end the 18 months of fighting
between government forces and Hezbollah. We look for prespective on events there with
Hussein Ibish,
Executive Director of the Hala Salaam Maksoud Foundation for Arab-American Leadership and Senior Fellow at the
American Task Force on Palestine. From 1998-2004, Ibish served as Communications Director for the
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the largest Arab-American membership organization
in the United States. He has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
May 18
How are Barack Obama's familial ties to Islam portrayed in the media? Has he responded
appropriately? We talk to
Jack Shaheen,
Professor Emeritus of Mass Communications at Southern Illinois University. A former CBS News consultant
on the Middle East, Shaheen is a leading scholar of Arab representations in US popular culture. He is
author of the recently released Guilty: Hollywood's verdict on Arabs after 9/11, and
Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People, a comprehensive review of Arab screen images.
We analyze the expected party nominees for president and their plans for handling the war in Iraq with
Tareq Ismael,
professor of Political Science at the University of Calgary, Canada. He is the Secretary General of the
International Association of Middle Eastern Studies and is Editor of the International Journal of
International Iraqi Studies. Ismael has published extensively on the Middle East, Iraq and international
studies. His most recent book, released this year, is The Rise and Fall of the Communist Party of Iraq.
May 11
With a new leader and a growing al Qaeda presence, Pakistan remains a problem ally in the terror war. Just
back from two weeks there is
Rick Barton, Senior Advisor & Co-Director
of the Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) in
Washington. CSIS is a bipartisan non-profit that advises government officials on international affairs.
Is it good policy to talk tough against Iran as Hillary Clinton did recently, or are we better
served by less volatile rhetoric? We ask
Gary Sick, an adjunct professor of
International Affairs at Columbia's School of International & Public Affairs, and a senior research
scholar at SIPA's Middle East Institute. He is an analyst of Middle East affairs, with special
expertise on Iran, who served on the U.S. National Security Council under three presidents.
Sick is the author of All Fall Down: America's Tragic Encounter With Iran, and
October Surprise: America's Hostages in Iran and the Election of Ronald Reagan.
May 4
Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice is in Israel this weekend to check in on the 'peace process.' We
are joined by
Scott Lasensky, an adjunct assistant professor of
government at Georgetown University and co-author of the just released Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership
in the Middle East. We'll discuss the current status of talks and whether it's realistic to hope for progress this late
in the administration's tenure, or whether U.S. involvement is even a necessary component. Scott is also acting vice president and senior research associate in the Center
for Conflict Analysis and Prevention at the U.S. Institute of Peace, a thinktank funded by Congress. He
focuses on issues relating to the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy toward the region. He has lectured
and written extensively on the Arab-Israeli conflict and America’s role in the Middle East. Scott is also
the director of the Institute’s Iraq and Its Neighbors project.
More than 4 million Iraqis are estimated to have fled to other countries in the region as a result of
the war. Where have they gone and what has become of them?
Kelly Hayes-Raitt visited Iraq
before the war began and again a few months after the U.S. invasion, and she'll be returning to the region
this month. Kelly join us to talk about the lives of Iraqi refugees as she prepares to
take part in two delegations to explore the on-the-ground programs in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon that
assist them. The delegations are coordinated by the non-profit Middle East Fellowship.
April 27, 2008
During the most recent debate of the democratic presidential candidates, both promised
to follow a troop withdrawal schedule in Iraq regardless of developments on the ground. Is this
realistic? We talk with
Judith Yaphe, Distinguished Research Professor at the
Institute for National Strategic Studies, the National Defense University, Washington D.C., Judith is a
specialist in Middle Eastern political analysis, with a focus on Iraq, Persian Gulf, Arab, Islamic and
regional issues. Prior to joining the INSS in 1995, Dr. Yaphe served with the Directorate of Intelligence,
Office of Near Eastern and South Asian Analysis at the Central Intelligence Agency. Considered to be one
of the most respected authorities on Iraq in the U.S., Judith received the Intelligence Medal of
Commendation for her work on the 1990-1991 Iraq/Persian Gulf war. Yaphe co-authored the book
Strategic Implications of a Nuclear-Armed Iran and wrote and edited The Middle East in 2015: the Impact
of Regional Trends in U.S. Security Planning.
What is life like for women living in muslim countries? Is there a range in lifestyles, and are women living
in more permissive societies doing better than others? We challenge our assumptions with
Nelly van Doorn-Harder, a professor
of world religions at Valparaiso University, and an expert in Islam. Before coming to Valparaiso University
in January 1999, she taught Islamic Studies at a university in
Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and helped initiate an Institute for the Study of Religion and Interfaith.
She also spent four years in Cairo, Egypt, working as the director of a refugee agency.
April 20
First hour today we'll talk some politics with Rick Moran, who blogs at
Right Wing Nuthouse.
A freelance writer with more than 15 years experience in grass roots political action,
Moran has worked for a number of business trade
associations running programs that teach local businessmen how to become active in the political process.
Moran grew up in Mount Prospect, IL and attended Drake University where he graduated in 1976 with a Bachelor of
Fine Arts Degree. He has 9 brothers and sisters, all of whom are much more liberal than he is which makes
for interesting family reunions. His brother Terry hosts the ABC news show Nightline while his brother Greg is a reporter for the San Diego Union.
More Analysis of presidential politics and the Pennsylvania primary is on tap with former Congressman
Mickey Edwards. Mickey
spent 16 years in Congress where he was a senior member of the House Republican leadership. He was one of
the three founding trustees of the Heritage Foundation. After leaving the Congress, he taught at Harvard's
Kennedy School of Government for 11 years (where he
was voted the school's outstanding teacher) and was a visiting lecturer at Harvard Law School and a
visiting professor
at Georgetown. Edwards now teaches at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
Moqtada al-Sadr has given a "final ultimatum" to the Iraqi government and the U.S. to stop
their attempts to destroy his al-Mahdi army. Clarification will come from
Shale Horowitz, Director of
Undergraduate Studies at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Horowitz is an Associate Professor in the
Department of Political Science. His research
focuses on international and ethnic conflict, and on the politics of international economic policy.
Syria will be critical to Iraq's future when U.S. troops exit says
Scott Davis, author of The Road from Damascus: A Journey Through Syria. But the future
of Syria itself is unclear, thus knowing how it will influence events down the road is a challenge. Scott
has traveled extensively in the region over the past 20 years, and, as the founder of Cune Press, has
acquired and edited books by some of the most important Syrian political analysts.
April 6, 2008
How could the U.S. handle relations in the Middle East better? We ask
Zachary Lockman, professor of modern Middle East
history and director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at New York University. He is a
contributing editor of Middle East Report and is the author of Contending Visions of The
Middle East: The History and Politics of Orientalism.
We know how the cost of oil impacts our daily lives. But how does the
extra income effect the countries collecting the windfall? We pose this question for
Paul Sullivan, a professor of economics at the National Defense University and an adjunct
professor at Georgetown University. He previously taught and researched at the American University in Cairo, and
has traveled widely in the Middle East and North Africa. Dr. Sullivan is also a member of the
College of Fellows of the International Association of Middle Eastern Studies and serves on the advisory
board of the US-Egyptian Friendship Society.
March 30
We take a look at Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice's visit to Isral, as well as the sharp increase in violence in Iraq with Dr.
Alon Ben-Meir,
professor of international relations and Middle Eastern Studies at New York University and The New School.
A noted journalist and author, Ben-Meir has served as an advisor to both the Israeli and Syrian governments. He
writes a weekly syndicated column for United Press International, which appears regularly in U.S. and international
newspapers such as Al Ahram, Al Quds, Jerusalem Post, The Washington Times, and Yediot Achronot.
We flesh out the neocon perspective on the war against terrorism with John Wohlstetter, Senior Fellow
of Technology and Democracy at the
Discovery Institute. which describes
itself as a think tank that
“discovers and promotes ideas in the common sense tradition of representative government, the free market
and individual liberty.” Wohlstetter writes the Institute's newsletter on telecommunications, Bandwidth.
Previous work includes long stints at GTE, where he served as Director of Technology Affairs, and Contel Corporation,
where his focus was corporate and communications law and strategic assessment.
His latest book is The Long War Ahead and The Short War Upon Us.
March 23
We talk about life in the Middle East with Jordan resident
Ali Dahmash. We'll also discuss the opinions that he and his fellow bloggers in the region
have on the U.S. presidencial race. To visit Ali's blog on daily life as a 35 year old tech worker
and Palestinian living in Amman,
click here.
March 16
Some American Muslims are unhappy with Barack Obama. In defending himself against claims that he's a
Muslim, they wish Obama would use the opportunity to offer comments on why being a Muslim should not be
problematic. We explore this disappointment with
Omar Sacirbey,
a Boston-based journalist writing about religion, politics and culture for the
Religion News Service, Boston Globe and others. As an Alicia
Patterson Foundation Fellow in 2005, Sacirbey did groundbreaking work writing about Muslims in America.
Before becoming a journalist, Sacirbey was an advisor with the Bosnian Mission to the United Nations in New
York and also served in Sarajevo and The Hague, working on human rights, refugee and war crimes issues.
March 9
In the wake of the murder of 8 students at an Israeli religious school by a Palestinian attacker, we
discuss the situation in Gaza and beyond with James Wall, Senior Contributing Editor of The Christian
Century Magazine, which he edited and published for 27 years. Since 1973 Wall has traveled as a journalist
to the Middle East and to other overseas assignments. He frequently
writes on the issues of peace and justice, with a special concern for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Wall is an ordained United Methodist clergyman. Earlier in his career he served pastorates in Georgia and
Illinois. He has also been active in politics, having served 6 times as a delegate to a Democratic National
Nominating Convention.
Is Islamist rule either by election or force inevitable across the Arab world? We welcome Professor
Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, who is spearheading an international movement to rehabilitate Islam.
His main focus is how to ensure the institutional separation of Shari’a and the state, despite the strong
interaction between Islam and politics. His latest book is Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating
the Future of Shari’a. An-Na’im, who is from Sudan, and taught law at the University of Khartoum
before leaving in the mid-80s for political reasons, is a Professor of law,
human rights and Islamic law at Emory University.
The role of the U.S. military in the world today is the topic as we welcome Major General Jerry Curry.
Curry, author of From Private to General: An African American Soldier Rises Through the Ranks,
started his military career as a private serving in Viet Nam. He is a decorated combat veteran, Army Aviator,
Paratrooper and Ranger who has served his country both in the military and as a Presidential appointee in
three administrations. He served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Carter Administration,
as Press Secretary to the Secretary of Defense in the Reagan Administration,
and as Administrator of NHTSA in the first Bush Administration.
March 2, 2008
With the Iranian President making a first ever visit to Iraq, we explore the implications with
Afshin Molavi, author of The Soul of Iran. Born in Iran, but raised and educated in the U.S,
Molavi has written widely on the Middle East, the Muslim world and the United States – and the links
between the three -- as a journalist and scholar for more than ten years, with postings in Riyadh, Dubai,
Jeddah, Washington and Tehran, and assignments across the region. He has covered Iran and the Persian
Gulf region for Reuters and the Washington Post. Molavi is currently a fellow at the New America Foundation, a non-partisan,
Washington-based think tank devoted to finding solutions to global problems.
February 24
Many Americans question the source of Israel's strong political influence in this country. An answer,
at least in part, may be offered in Grant Smith's new book, Foreign Agents - The American Israel Public
Affairs Committee from the 1963 Fullbright Hearings to the 2005 Espionage Scandal. A criminal trial against
two AIPAC agents will commence this spring, and Smith suggests that Americans will learn more as it unfolds
about how Middle East agents work around the Foreign Agents Registration Act in their attempts to influence
American foreign policy.
February 17
How are people elsewhere viewing the Presidential elections in this country? We'll start a
series on this topic with Samar Dahmash-Jarrah, author of Arab Voices
Speak to American Hearts. She is a Kuwait-born Palestinian-American speaker, journalist, and educator who
has lived in Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and America. Her professional accomplishments
include being a contributor to CNN World Report; news editor and reporter for Jordan Television; editor
and reporter for Jordan Weekly; and a Political Science instructor at the University of South Florida in
Tampa, Florida.
We discuss events in Iran and Pakistan with Ruhi Ramazani, Professor Emeritus at the University
of Virginia's Woodrow Wilson Department of Politics. He is the author of The United States and Iran:
The Patterns of Influence, among other books, and is the author of more than
100 articles. He has been a consultant on the
Persian Gulf and Iran to the White House, the departments of State, Defense and Treasury and the United
Nations Secretariat General and the foreign minisries of Israel, Britian, Spain, Iran, Turkey and Pakistan.
February 3
Its time to learn more about terrorists and their goals, so we check in with award winning journalist
and sometime radio host Aaron Klein, author of
the recently released Schmoozing with Terrorists. Klein toured the Middle East meeting with
radical clerics, the families of martyrs and leaders of the world's most dangerous terrorist organizations. He shares
what he learned as seen through what Klein describes as the eyes of a "Talmud-studying modern day
orthodox Jew." Klein has a weekly column for the Jewish Press and is the Jerusalem bureau chief for
the internet news site Worldnet Daily.
We get an update on the world of oil from Raymond Learsy, author of the just revised Over a Barrel: Breaking
Oil's Grip On Our Future. We'll ask him to assess current conditions and what to expect over the next
several months and years. As the U.S. asks Opec for an increase in production, we'll also explore whether
the big producers, such as Saudi Arabia, have the ability to provide the relief that the U.S. seeks.
Learsy is a member of the Wilson Council at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
A graduate of the Wharton School, he made his life in the fast-paced, risk-filled world of commodities
trading, beginning in 1959. In 1963, he started his own firm and spent over twenty years
trading in an array of bulk raw materials and commodities with customers worldwide.
January 27
About a year ago, we asked Beau Grosscup onto the show to talk about plans for
the surge in Iraq. Now, in the wake of dramatic changes there, we discuss the
surge once again with Grosscup, a professor of international relations at California State
University in Chico. Is the Bush strategy the reason for the
improved results, or are other factors responsible? Grosscup is author of Strategic Terror:
The Politics and Ethics of Aerial Bombardment. He has been researching, teaching
and lecturing about terrorism for the media and in print for over 20 years.
Events in Gaza made headlines this week around the world as desperate Palestinians
broke through the border wall for a shopping incursion into Egypt. Are the Israelis
justified in keeping Gaza in a stranglehold, or is it time for the world to demand
improved conditions for the 800,000 residents surviving on handouts from the world
community? We pose that question to Ray Hanania, who writes an award winning
syndicated column analyzing Middle East events, and is founder of Yalla,
Salam! (Palestinians for Peace Now) which seeks to express a Palestinian voice
in the conflict. His most recent book
is The Moral Jihad, which explores reasons for the violence in the Middle East.
January 20
We get further clarification on events in Pakistan from Kamran Ali, an Associate Professor of
Anthropology at the
University of Texas in Austin. Professor Ali has conducted long term field work in Egypt and in Pakistan
and has frequently contributed to the media on recent Pakistani politics. He is on the editorial committee
of the Middle East Report and co-coordinates the Shehr Network, which is an academic initiative that
seeks to further a critical understanding of urban practices in the Middle East and South Asia.
The radicalization of Europe is the topic as we're joined by Julianne Smith, director of the Europe Program and the
Initiative for a Renewed Transatlantic Partnership (RTP) at the Center for Strategic and International
Studies. She has authored or contributed to a number of CSIS books and reports,
including Muslim Integration: Challenging Conventional Wisdom in Europe and the United States.
Ms. Smith co-directs the Transatlantic Dialogue on Terrorism, which examines European and American
disagreements over the root causes of terrorism. She is also coauthor of America and the World in the Age
of Terror.
January 13
What role have the Saudis played in calming Sunni violence in Iraq? We talk with Toby Jones, an
assistant professor of history at Rutgers University. Jones has lived and worked extensively in the
Middle East, including several years in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain. His main research
interests focus on the history of state-building, politics, and Shia-Sunni relations in Saudi Arabia and
the Gulf. Jones teaches courses on the history of the modern Middle East, Iran and Iraq in the 20th century,
the history of oil, and Islam and politics. Jones worked as the Persian Gulf Analyst for the International
Crisis Group from 2004-2006, where he wrote about reform and sectarianism in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
We discuss turmoil in Pakistan and the war in Afghanistan with Akbar Ahmed, the former High
Commissioner of Pakistan to Great Britain and current Professor
of International Relations at American University. Dr. Ahmed has advised Prince Charles and met with
President George W. Bush on Islam. He is an anthropologist, writer, and filmmaker.
His work to bring understanding between Islam and the West has included three appearances on Oprah. He is
co-author of After Terror: Promoting Dialogue Among Civilizations.
December 30, 2007
We discuss Pakistan after this week's assassination with Marvin Weinbaum, a Pakistan expert, and a
scholar-in-residence at the Public Policy Center of the Middle East Institute in Washington. He is a former
Afghanistan and Pakistan analyst at the Bureau of Intelligence Research at the US State Department.
Weinbaum explores the implications for Pakistan and the region of the Bhutto assassination.
We also get perspective on this week's events from Greg Myre, an adjunct scholar with the Middle East Institute. A graduate of
Yale University, Greg reported from Jerusalem for the New York Times until February of this year. During
the 1990's, he was the Islamabad bureau chief for the Associated Press.
December 23
What are the implications as the U.S. moves aggressively toward gaining energy independence? We are
joined by Robert Zubrin, whose new book is "Energy Victory: Winning the War on Terror by Breaking
Free of Oil." Dr. Zubrin is a world renowned scientist who defends biofuels and answers both
the security concerns of the right and the environmental concerns of the left when it comes to oil and our
future. We'll disuss the ramifications for OPEC and world affairs as the U.S. movers away from oil.
December 9, 2007
We relate the rising cost of oil to the politics of the Middle East with Jean-Francois Seznec, who
teaches the political economy of the Persian Gulf at Georgetown University. He lived and worked in the Gulf
for more than a decade and has traveled frequently to the region. He lectures often about international
financial markets and Middle East affairs in Europe and in the United States, and has 25 years experience
in international banking and finance, ten years of which were spent in the Middle East, including six years
in Bahrain. Dr. Seznec has published a book and numerous articles on the financial markets of the Gulf and
on oil and Islamic banking.
June 23
We discuss the fight for control of Gaza with Edward L. Peck, president of Foreign Services
International, a consulting firm that works with governments, businesses and educational institutions
across the world. He met with high Hamas officials while observing the Palestinian elections in 2006 and
has been monitoring the situation closely since. Peck, a retired career United States diplomat who served
thirty-two-years in the U.S. Foreign Service, served as Chief of Mission in Baghdad (Iraq 1977 to 1980) and
later held senior posts in Washington and abroad. He also served as a Foreign Service Officer in Morocco,
Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt, and as Ambassador in Mauritania. At the State Department he served as Deputy
Director of Covert Intelligence Programs, Director of the Office of Egyptian Affairs and as Special
Assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs. He served as deputy director of the White House
Task Force on Terrorism in the Reagan Administration.
Is Afghanistan being dragged into Iraqi style violence, and is Iran behind the development? We discuss
the situation with Alexis Debat, who directs The Nixon Center's program on Terrorism and National Security.
Dr. Debat is a political scientist and a former counter-terrorism official in the French government. He also
has experience with non-governmental organizations in the Middle East and is a contributing editor of The
National Interest, and is a consultant to ABC News. Dr. Debat holds a PhD from La Sorbonne in Paris.
June 16
Are things getting better or worse in the Iraq war? Perhaps both? There is talk of an "Awakening,"
reports that U.S. troops are working with tribal leaders who have turned against al Qaeda. There is also the
drumbeat of media coverage which indicates that insurgents remain as vigorous and successful as ever.
We discuss events with Jeff Emanuel, a special
ops Iraq vet who was recently back in Iraq as an embed with a frontline combat unit. Jeff is a contributing
editor for RedState.com and is a columnist for the Athens Georgia Banner-Herald. He is also a leadership fellow with
the Center for International Trade and Security at the University of Georgia.
Should Americans be more suspicious of what we hear from our government. Do our elected officials have
an agenda that is quite different from the one they present to us? We discuss this issue with Norman Solomon,
the founder and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, a national consortium of policy
researchers and analysts. Solomon discusses a new film based on his latest book, War Made Easy: How
Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death, which exposes a 50-year pattern of deception that has
dragged the United States into one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq.
June 2
We discuss the recent conflict in Lebanon with John Quigley, a professor of international law at Ohio
State University, and author of The Case for Palestine: An International Law Perspective. Professor Quigley
is active in international human rights work. His numerous publications include books and articles on human
rights, the United Nations, war and peace, east European law, African law, and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
May 19, 2007
We are fighting a war against Iran right now says Michael Evans, author of The Final Move Beyond Iraq.
We talk about the threat that Iran represents, and about how Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons is kicking
off an arms race in the region. Evans is a Middle East expert, award-winning journalist and NewYork Times
best-selling author who has served as a confidant to leaders in the Middle East for more than two decades.
His articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Washington Times, Jerusalem Post, and
newspapers worldwide.
How are Saudi Arabia and Egypt responding to the war in Iraq and Iran’s pursuit of nukes? We
ask Toby Jones, an assistant professor of history at Rutgers University. Jones has lived and worked
extensively in the Middle East, including several years in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain. His
main research interests focus on the history of state-building, politics, and Shia-Sunni relations in Saudi
Arabia and the Gulf. Jones teaches courses on the history of the modern Middle East, Iran and Iraq in the
20th century, the history of oil, and Islam and politics. Jones worked as the Persian Gulf Analyst for the
International Crisis Group from 2004-2006, where he wrote about reform and sectarianism in Saudi Arabia and
Bahrain.
April 28
Is Iraq in civil war? No, says Iraqi Raed Jarrar. Why is the U.S. supporting separatist leaders in Iraq.
We ask Raed. Jarrar, who works with the American Friends Service Committee, maintains his own popular web-
log that includes political analysis and news summary. He has been featured as an Iraq expert on several
media outlets including CNN, CNNi, Aljazeera, Al-Alam and the BBC.
We get an update on Afghanistan from Mark Schneider is Vice President and Special Adviser on Latin
America for the International Crisis Group. He directs the Washington advocacy office, conveying Crisis
Group analyses and recommendations to the White House, the State Department, the Department of Defense, and
Congress, as well as the World Bank and other international organizations. Among his areas of expertise are
post-conflict reconstruction and nation-building and U.S. foreign policy in the 21st century.
April 21
Does the U.S. lack the understanding to effectively deal with the Middle East? We ask Michael Oren, a
Senior Fellow at the Shalem Center, a Jerusalem research and educational institute. A graduate of Princeton
and Columbia universities, Oren received international recognition in 2002 for his best seller Six Days of
War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East. His most recent book is Faith, Power and Fantasy.
Oren immigrated to Israel in 1979, achieved the rank of major in the IDF and has served as an advisor to
the late Prime Minister, Yitzchak Rabin.
April 14
We discuss Europe’s role in the Middle East with Helena Cobban, a writer and internationally
syndicated columnist on global affairs. Since 1990, she has contributed a regular column on global affairs
to The Christian Science Monitor. She has maintained a weblog called "Just World News" since 2003 -
www.justworldnews.org. Her most recent book is Amnesty after Atrocity: Healing Nations after
Genocide and War Crimes.
As the six Imams removed from a flight out of Minneapolis last November file suit against US Airways,
we examine the story with Clay Waters, director of Times Watch, a project of the Media
Research Center, which monitors the political agenda of the New York Times.
April 7
Did Iran accomplish anything with the hostage grab, or simply embarrass itself on the world stage?
We ask that question of Carah Ong. Carah is a Policy Analyst for the Center for Arms Control and
Nonproliferation. In June 2004, following the US lifting decades-long sanctions, Ong was a member of the
first delegation of twelve Americans to visit Libya in order to establish relations with the government
and civil society. Ong serves on the National Advisory Board of Washington and Lee University’s Alsos
Digital Library on Nuclear Issues. She is co-editor of the books A Maginot Line in the Sky: International
Perspectives on Ballistic Missile Defense, and Hold Hope, Wage Peace. Ong is a graduate of the
University of California at Santa Barbara.
As oil and gas prices increase, we visit with Jean Francois Seznec for his take on current events
and their impact on world oil markets. Seznec is a Visiting Associate Professor at Georgetown University.
His research centers on the influence of the Arab-Persian Gulf political and social variables on the
financial and oil markets in the region. He is focusing on the industrialization of the Gulf and in
particular the growth of the petrochemical industry. He has published and lectured extensively and is
interviewed regularly.
March 31, 2007
Saudi Arabia is again working on peace between Israel and the Palestinians, bringing back its proposal from
a few years ago. We explore the problems and possibilities with Alex Safian, Associate Director and Research
Director of Camera, a media watchdog group that is pro-Israel.
With the capture and holding of 15 British sailors, Iran seems deliberately to be polarizing the
world community in opposition. But why? We talk with Reese Erlich, a freelance foreign correspondent who’s
covered the Middle East for over 20 years. He reports regularly outlets such as NPR, CBC, ABC (Australia).
He was a contract correspondent for Common Ground Radio, a weekly public radio show covering international
affairs. Reese co-authored the book Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You with Norman Solomon.
He has produced many radio documentary series, including Perspectives in Jazz, The Iran Project and The
Russia Project. Erlich discusses the captured Brits, the UN vote and the general escalation with Iran.
March 24
As new plans for Middle East Peace are floated, we talk with Michael Oren, a Senior Fellow at the Shalem
Center, a Jerusalem research and educational institute. And since he is the author of the best-selling Six Days of
War: June 1967, we might as well ask him to contrast Israel's war capabilites then with its controversial
fight in Lebanon last summer. Oren is also the author of Making of the Modern Middle East, which won the Los Angeles Times
Book Award, as well as dozens of scholarly and popular articles
on history and the politics of the Middle East.
With the U.S. continuing to add troops in Baghdad, David Enders joins us to discuss how
Iraqis view the surge. Enders is author of the book Baghdad Bulletin. He is a freelance correspondent who
spent 18 months in Iraq, focusing especially on America's Shiite "allies."
March 17
Is U.S. foreign policy run the way it should be? We discuss the principles of
international relations with Robert Naiman, Senior Policy Analyst and National
Coordinator of Just Foreign Policy. He has worked as a policy analyst, researcher, union
organizer, and teacher of economics and mathematics. He has worked and studied in the
Middle East, and has a basic knowledge of spoken and written Arabic and Hebrew. Naiman
produces the Just Foreign Policy daily news summary and podcast. He has masters degrees
in economics and mathematics from the University of Illinois. He is co-author, with
Mark Weisbrot, of a blog on Huffington Post.
Why did Bill Clinton let pass opportunities to deal with bin Laden in the 1990’s?
What made it possible for the CIA and other intelligence agencies to fail to share
information that might have lead to the preemption of 9/11? We talk with Michael
Scheuer, a 22 year veteran of the CIA who served as the Chief of the bin Laden Unit at
the Counterterrorist Center from 1996 to 1999. He is the once anonymous author of
Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror and Through Our Enemies'
Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam, and the Future of America. Dr. Scheuer is a
Senior Fellow with The Jamestown Foundation.
March 3
After years of refusing to join Iran and Syria in discussing the future of the
region, the U.S. is now going to meet with them in Baghdad. We discuss this with Mark
Gasiorowski, Director of the International Studies Program at Louisiana State University.
Gasiorowski specializes in Middle East politics and comparative and international
political economy. He is the author of U.S. Foreign Policy and the Shah: Building a
Client State in Iran. He has traveled to Iran many times to
teach and conduct research.
We discuss the war in Iraq with Ann Wright, a former State Department diplomat and retired Army Colonel.
Wright was most recently the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Ulaanbaatar,
Mongolia. Ms. Wright served in Grenada, Panama, Greece, the Netherlands, Somalia,
Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia and Mongolia. She was on the small
team that reopened the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, in December 2001. She resigned
from the US diplomatic corps in March 2003 in opposition to the Iraq war.
February 24
In his book, One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palesitnian Impass, Ali Abunimah argues
that the best idea for middle east peace lies in a one state solution. Israel should encompass the current
Palestinian territories, and Israel should grant total equality to all non-Jewish citizens. We discuss this
concept with Abunimah, a writer and commentator on Middle East and Arab-American affairs. Abunimah travels
often to the Middle East and is a full-time researcher in social policy at the University of Chicago.
Pressuring Iran into giving up on its nuclear ambitions, or even toppling the current regime, would
be relatively easy if the world could agree on strategy. So argues Olivier Guitta, a DC based foreign
affairs consultant. Mr. Guitta has broad expertise in Israel, the Arab world , Europe and terrorism. He
is a consultant on the Middle East, Europe and terrorism. His clients include prestigious think tanks,
lobbying firms and law firms needing assistance on terrorism cases. He is a contributing expert along with
Steve Emerson, Evan Kohlmann and other eminent analysts to the prestigious Counterterrorism blog
(www.counterterrorismblog.org), always ranked in the top 100 blogs in the world.
February 17
We discuss the Palestinian unity deal, and other current topics from the region, with Les Janka,
Chairman of the Council for American-Saudi Dialog and former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Near
Eastern Affairs. Janka served in the White House under three presidents—as a senior staff member of the
National Security Council and Special Assistant to Henry Kissinger under Presidents Nixon and Ford, and as
deputy press secretary for Foreign Affairs under President Reagan. He also served in the Pentagon as deputy
assistant secretary of defense for Near Eastern Affairs.
Is U.S. intelligence as bad in general as we’re lead to believe by the bad information on Saddam?
We’re joined by Richard Russell, author of Sharpening Strategic Intelligence: Why the CIA Gets It Wrong
and What Needs to be Done to Get It Right. Russell is a Professor of National Security Affairs at the
National Defense University’s Near East-South Asia Center for Strategic Studies. He also holds appointments
as Adjunct Associate Professor in the Security Studies Program and Research Associate in the Institute for
the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. He served
seventeen years as a political-military analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency, where Russell analyzed
security issues in the Middle East and Europe.
February 10
The troop surge is underway in Iraq even as Congress considers whether to oppose the idea. We check in
with Beau Grosscup on what's developing in attempts to turn Iraq around. Grosscup is a professor of international relations at
California State University, Chico and author of Strategic Terror: The Politics and Ethics of Aerial
Bombardment. He has been researching, teaching and lecturing about terrorism for the media and in print for over 20 years.
Iran and potential responses to its move towards nukes continue to dominate the news. We discuss
the hazards with Kaveh Afrasiabi, a political scientist and a former adviser to Iran's nuclear negotiation
team (2004-2005). He is the director of an NGO, Global Interfaith Peace. Dr. Afrasiabi is the author of
several books and numerous articles including: Iran's Nuclear Program: Debating Facts versus Fiction
(forthcoming). Afrasiabi has taught at Tehran University and is a former consultant to UN's program of Dialogue Among Civilizations and a consultant to CBS' 60 Minutes.
January 27
It was a tough week in Lebanon, as Hezbollah supporters try to force the government out of power.
We get analysis from Geoff Porter from Eurasia Group’s Middle East and Africa practice. He is primarily
responsible for analyzing North Africa – covering Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco and Mauritania.
In addition, Dr. Porter covers and coordinates the practice's research on Middle East issues including
the eastern Mediterranean and the Arabian peninsula. Prior to joining Eurasia Group, Dr. Porter was an
Assistant Professor of International Studies and Middle Eastern History at Trinity College in Hartford, CT.
During the course of his academic career he lived and worked in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia.
The U.S. relationship with Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia are on the table as we’re joined by Flynt
Leverett, a Senior Fellow and the Director of the Geopolitics of Energy Initiative of the American
Strategy Program at the New America Foundation. Most recently, Dr. Leverett was a Senior Fellow at The
Brookings Institution’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy. He has had a distinguished career in government,
serving as senior director for Middle East affairs at the National Security Council, Middle East expert on
the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff, and Senior Analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency.
Dr. Leverett is the author of Inheriting Syria: Bashar’s Trial by Fire. He has appeared on TV news shows from
the BBC’s The Doha Debates TV The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
January 20
Secretary of State Condi Rice was in the Middle East this week. We discuss the reasons and results of
her trip with Bahman Baktiari, Director of the International Affairs program and Professor of Political
Science at the University of Maine. He received his Ph.D. from the Woodrow Wilson Department of Government
and Foreign Affairs at the University of Virginia. His most recent publications are Dilemmas of Reform and
Democracy in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and
Voices of Muslim Tolerance. Professor Baktiari has traveled and taught in most Middle Eastern countries.
January 13
We discuss the U.S. attack on terrorists in Somalia with Khalid Medani, an assistant professor of
political science and Islamic studies at McGill University. Medani was an assistant professor of politics
at Oberlin College from 2003-2005. He has also worked as a researcher at the Brookings Institution and
served as a research consultant on humanitarian issues for a number of United Nations agencies in the Horn
of Africa. Last summer he conducted an evaluation of U.N. and nongovernmental organizations' humanitarian
relief efforts in Northern and Western Darfur, Sudan. Medani wrote a piece titled "Financing Terrorism or
Survival? Informal Finance, State Collapse in Somalia and the U.S. War on Terrorism."
We often hear the question, “Is Saudia Arabia our friend?” Let’s turn that question around with Afshin Molavi,
the author of the critically acclaimed book Persian Pilgrimages: Journeys Across Iran, published in
paperback as The Soul of Iran, and discuss how the Saudis view the U.S. Born in Iran, but raised and educated in the U.S, Molavi has written
widely on the Middle East, the Muslim world and the United States – and the links between the three --
as a journalist and scholar for more than ten years, with postings in Riyadh, Dubai, Jeddah, Washington and
Tehran, and assignments across the region. He has covered Iran and the Persian Gulf region for Reuters and
the Washington Post. Molavi is currently a fellow at the New America Foundation, a non-partisan,
Washington-based think tank devoted to pragmatic solutions to global problems.
January 6, 2007
We discuss the President’s latest plan for the war in Iraq with Daniel Serwer, vice president of
the Center for Post-Conflict Peace and Stability Operations and the Centers of Innovation at the United
States Institute of Peace. He coordinates USIP’s efforts in societies emerging from conflict, especially
Afghanistan, the Balkans, Haiti, Iraq, and Sudan. He served as the executive director of the Iraq Study
Group and led its Political Development Expert Working Group. He also leads USIP's innovative programs in
rule of law, religion and peacemaking, economics of peace and conflict, media and conflict, and diaspora
contributions to peace and conflict. Serwer has worked on preventing interethnic and interreligious
conflict in Iraq, and has been deeply engaged in facilitating dialogue between Serbs and Albanians.
Serwer is co-author of USIP publications on Iraq as well as Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia.
We get a different perspective on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict with Nonie Darwish, an
American of Arab/Moslem origin. A freelance writer and public speaker, she runs the website
www.ArabsForIsrael.com. Darwish discusses her latest book, Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad
for America, Israel, and The War On Terror.
December 23, 2006
We discuss the Palestinian civil war with Ray Hanania, who writes an award winning syndicated
column analyzing Middle East events, is an author of several books, and is a humorist, satirist and
professional stand-up comedian who launched his public comedy performances after September 11th to help
break through the growing hatred and animosity. Hanania is the only Palestinian-American to write a regular
nationally and internationally syndicated column. He is also a founder of Yalla, Salam! (Palestinians for
Peace Now) which seeks to express a Palestinian voice of peace in today's bitter conflict. His most recent
book is The Moral Jihad, which explores why Arabs and Muslims must face the growing extremism from within
and denounce violence and injustices committed in their name.
Iranians went to the polls last week. While they weren’t voting for President, the elections have significant
repercussions for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. We analyze the results with Mehran Kamrava, Chair of the
Department of Political Science at California State University, Northridge. He is the author of many books, including
Politics and Society in the Developing World and The Political History of Modern Iran From
Tribalism to Theocracy.
December 16
We examine Iran and its pursuit of a dramatic increase in power with Raymond Tanter, a professor of
political science at Georgetown University and an adjunct scholar of The Washington Institute, researching
U.S. policy options toward Iran. Tanter’s most recent book is What Makes Tehran Tick: Islamist Ideology and
Hegemonic Interests. From 1981 to 1982, Dr. Tanter served on the National Security Council staff and was
personal representative of the secretary of defense to the 1983-1984 arms control talks held in Madrid,
Helsinki, Stockholm, and Vienna. Currently, he is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
The new Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. resigned suddenly this week. We discuss the development with Fahad Nazer,
a native of Saudi Arabia who currently resides in the Washington, DC area. He is the resident fellow at the
Institute for Gulf Affairs in Washington DC. In addition, he is contributing to a monograph to be published
by the American Enterprise Institute in the spring of 2006. Nazer is a former employee of the Royal Embassy
of Saudi Arabia in Washington, DC, where he was a political analyst at the Department of Political Affairs
and a media analyst at the Information Office. He is currently a PhD candidate in Political Science at the
Catholic University of America.
December 9
One of the critical problems for the United States in the Middle East is the conflict between the Israelis
and Palestinians. This point is noted in the Iraq Study Group report, which suggests tackling the problem
as part of a resolution of the war in Iraq. We analyze this suggestion with Daniel Levy, a senior Fellow at
the New America Foundation and the Century Foundation who directs their respective Middle East and Peace
initiatives. Levy formerly worked as an adviser in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and as an official
Israeli negotiator at Oslo under Rabin and at Taba under Barak. He was the lead Israeli drafter of the
unofficial Geneva Initiative detailed peace plan.
We breakdown the Iraq Study Group report with Robert Zelnick, Chairman of the Department of Journalism at
Boston University and a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Before joining
Boston University, Zelnick spent
21 years with ABC News. Bob is in the process of completing a book on the Israeli-Palestinian situation.
December 2, 2006
President Bush traveled over 4,000 miles this week for diplomacy talks. We discuss his
meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Amman with James Petras, Professor Emeritus of Sociology
at Binghamton University, New York. Petras is author of numerous books about world affairs including
Empire or Republic? American Global Power and Domestic Decay and most recently The Power of Israel in
the United States.
If the U.S. leaves Iraq, some say that Saudi Arabia will insert itself into the vacuum in order to head
off Iranian control there. We explore Saudi concerns and possible actions with Thomas Lippman, an adjunct
scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington. He spent four years as the Washington Post's Middle
East bureau chief, three years as the Post's oil and energy reporter and a decade as the newspaper's
national security and diplomatic correspondent. He is the author of books such as Inside the Mirage:
America's Fragile Partnership with Saudi Arabia and Madeleine Albright and the New American Diplomacy.
November 18
Will the nuclear stalemate with Iran lead to an attack on Iranian nuke development sites? Should the U.S.,
or Israel, attack? We talk with
Kenneth Timmerman, a reporter who has spent 20 years covering Europe and the Middle East. His latest book
is Countdown to Crisis: The Coming Nuclear Showdown with Iran.
General John Abizaid spoke at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government yesterday, telling a forum on the Middle
East that "We have not failed yet" in Iraq. We discuss his remarks with Dr. Ivan Eland, Drector of the Center
on Peace and Liberty at the Independent Institute and Assistant Editor of The Independent Review. He is the
author of The Empire Has No Clothes.
November 11
Eblan Farris is communications coordinator for the World Council for the Cedars Revolution, an
organization working to bring about an end to terrorism in Lebanon. Farris discusses Hamas’ recent call for
retaliation after the accidental Israeli strike.
We discuss the implications of Saddam’s guilty verdict and death sentence with Richard Falk,
professor emeritus of International Law and Practice at Princeton University, and a distinguished visiting
profess at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He is a founding member of IALANA and of the
World Order Models Project, WOMP. Falk discusses the Saddam verdict.
November 4, 2006
Has Europe been lax on immigration leading to a “muslim problem?” We discuss the question with British
commentator David Pryce-Jones, author of Betrayal: France, the Arabs and the Jews.
Pryce-Jones, a senior editor of National Review, is the author of several books and contributes regularly
to The New Criterion and Commentary. He has appeared on Milt Rosenberg’s “Extension 720” show.
He often writes about the contemporary events and the history of the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and
intelligence matters.
.
We discuss Middle East events with Caroline Glick, Deputy Managing Editor of the Jerusalem Post.
Born in the United States, Glick made aliyah to Israel immediately after graduating from Columbia
University. After finishing in the IDF, Glick worked her way up to have a key position in the Oslo
Negotiations under former Prime Minister Rabin. After retiring from the political sphere, Glick entered
journalism, and now has a weekly column on the front page of the Jerusalem Post.
During the recent Iraqi War, Glick was embedded with US Troops, joining the infantry unit that was first to
reach Baghdad.
October 28
In a change of strategy just before the mid-term elections, President Bush has begun acknowledging
frustration with the direction of events in Iraq. We discuss this adjustment with Professor Henri J. Barkey,
Chairman of the International Relations Department at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. He served as a
member of the U.S. State Department Policy Planning Staff (1998-2000) working primarily on issues related
to the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean. His areas of expertise are the international relations
and domestic politics of the Middle East (especially Turkey and the Kurds); U.S. policy toward the Middle
East; and international political economy.
Terror groups allied with Hamas in the Gaza Strip are reportedly planning a series of large-scale
attacks against Israeli positions near Gaza "within the coming days." We discuss this development with
Aaron Klein, Jerusalem Bureau Chief for the popular news website WorldNetDaily. He served as a co-host of
ABC Radio's national "The John Batchelor Show," and he writes a weekly for The Jewish Press, the largest
weekly Jewish newspaper. Klein is known for his regular interviews with notorious Middle East "Bad Guys,"
including the leaders of every major Palestinian terror organization.
October 21
Beau Grosscup joins us to discuss civilian deaths in Iraq. A recent report estimates 650,000 Iraqis
have been killed since the start of the war, a figure that must be considered, Grosscup argues, in estimating the war?s
success and morality. Grosscup is a professor of international relations at California State University, Chico and
author of Strategic Terror: The Politics and Ethics of Aerial Bombardment. He has been researching,
teaching and lecturing about terrorism for the media and in print for over 20 years.
Iranian President Ahmadinejad warned the west this week that they ?could get hurt? by a wave of anger
if their support of Israel continues. With this as a backdrop, we take a look at current events in the
middle east with Robert Satloff, Executive Director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. An
expert on Arab and Islamic politics as well as U.S. Middle East policy, Dr. Satloff has written and spoken
widely on the Arab-Israeli peace process, the Islamist challenge to the growth of democracy in the region,
and the need for bold and innovative public diplomacy to Arabs and Muslims. Dr. Satloff is the creator and
host of Dakhil Washington (Inside Washington), a weekly news and interview program on al-Hurra, the U.S.
government-supported Arabic satellite television channel that beams throughout the Middle East and Europe.
He is the only non-Arab to host a program on an Arab satellite channel.
October 14
We get an update on the status of Lebanon/Hezzbollah and the UN from Tom Harb, the Secretary General
of the International Lebanese Committee for UN Security Council Resolution 1559, the resolution mandating
the disarmament of Hezbollah. He is also the Chairman of the Commission on International Relations for the
World Lebanese Cultural Union. The WLCU is the legitimate representative of the Lebanese Diaspora of 12
million people.
"Frontline" Producer Michael Kirk discusses his latest film, "The Lost Year in Iraq," which airs
Tuesday, Oct 17 and looks at the critical decisions made after the fall of Saddam Hussein and how
those decisions impact Iraq today. He recently won an Emmy Award
for his documentary on detainee abuse, “The Torture Question.” “The Lost Year in Iraq” is his eighth
documentary about the War on Terror. Kirk has won every major award in broadcast journalism, including the Peabody Award, The DuPont Columbia
Award, and eight Emmys. He frequently discusses his work on television and radio, including numerous
appearances on the Today Show, The O’Reilly Factor and CNN.
September 23
The Pope’s recent comments about Islam are seen by some as an attempt to create a divide between
religions. Some say the U.S. is fighting a war between cultures. Geneive Abdo, author of Mecca and Main
Street: Muslim Life in America After 9/11, helps provide perspective. She is the Liaison for the United
Nations’ Alliance of Civilizations, a project created by the UN Secretary General to improve relations
between Western and Islamic societies. Her 20-year journalism career centered upon coverage of the Middle
East and the Islamic world. She was the first American journalist to be based in Tehran since the United
States cut off ties with Iran in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Her stories prompted
published threats of imprisonment by the government. Ms. Abdo was forced to flee the country in 2001, and
is not allowed to return.
Are there really terror cells in the U.S? We talk with Harvey Kushner, author of "Holy War on the
Home Front: The Secret Islamic Terror Network in the United States.” Dr. Kushner is a well-known authority on
terrorism, consultant to the FBI, the FAA, the INS, and other government agencies. Dr. Kushner appears
regularly on Fox News Network, CNN, and MSNBC. He also wrote the expert's report in the civil litigation
investigating the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Kushner also discusses the Pope’s recent comments that
have sparked harsh and violent reaction in the Muslim world.
September 9
Brigitte Gabriel founded ACT, "American Congress For Truth," in 2002 to provide
information about the Middle East conflict. Gabriel discusses her new book, Because They
Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America. She began her career as the News Anchor for "World News," the evening news broadcast for Middle East. Gabriel is the former Production Coordinator for ARD (German Television) in South Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank. She is also the former Satellite Video Distribution Coordinator for METV/WTN (Worldwide Television News) studios in London for daily Eurovision Satellite Distribution to networks worldwide. She relocated to the United States in 1989 where she founded an entertainment company providing services to national and international media clients.
As the former President of Iran tours America, some are questioning the
appropriateness of his being welcomed at institutions such as Harvard and Columbia, and
the timing of his visit, which overlaps with the fifth anniversary of September 11. We
talk with Arang Keshavarzian, an assistant professor of government at Connecticut
College and an editor of Middle East Report. His research and writing focuses on Iranian
politics, economic development and structures of markets, clergy-state relations and
democratization. His book, Bazaar and State in Iran: The Politics of the Tehran
Marketplace, is a study of the Tehran bazaar under the Pahlavi monarchy and the Islamic
Republic.
September 2
How different is the Middle East after the events of this summer? We ask Uri Dromi,
the former spokesperson for Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres who currently is the Director
of International Outreach for the Israel Democracy Institute, a non-partisan independent
think-tank working to promote democratic values in Israel.
Iran is working to gain more influence throughout the Middle East. A key
component of their strategy is the pursuit of nuclear weapons. We explore how to fight
Iran's nuclear ambitions with Muhammad Sahimi, professor
and chairman of the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Southern
California. He co-wrote, with Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi,
the op-ed "Defusing Iran with Democracy."
August 26
Did Israel lose its war with Hezbollah, or just the PR war? We flesh out the real
results with Alon Ben-Meir, a professor of at the Center for Global Affairs at New
York University. He is the author of several books and many essays and writes a weekly
syndicated column on the Arab-Israeli conflict, international terrorism and U.S. foreign
policy. A frequent traveler to the Middle East, Dr. Ben Meir maintains extensive contact
with high officials and offers policy decisions on current events.
Has the U.S. invasion of Iraq destroyed that country for the foreseeable future? We
talk with Peter Galbraith about his new book The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence
Created a War Without End. Galbraith is the Senior Diplomatic Fellow at the Center for
Arms Control and Non-Proliferation and principal of a Vermont based firm that specializes
in international negotiations. He served as the first U.S. Ambassador to Croatia where
he was co-mediator and principal architect of the 1995 Erdut Agreement that ended the
war in Croatia by providing for peaceful reintegration of Serb-held Eastern Slavonia
into Croatia.. He has followed Iraq for the twenty-six years, mostly in different roles
for the US government.
August 19
As Americans struggle to understand the nature of Islam and how the differences between
our cultures can lead to trouble, we consult Steven Simon, the Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior
Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the coauthor of
The Age of Sacred Terror and The Next Attack, and former Director for
Global Issues and Senior Director for Transnational Threats at the National Security
Council. His current work examines the consequences of the American intervention in Iraq,
Muslim/non-Muslim relations, and the role of religion in U.S. foreign policy.
Whatever happened to peace in the Middle East? We talk with Dr. Mitchell Bard, the
Executive Director of the nonprofit American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE) and a
foreign policy analyst who lectures frequently on U.S.-Middle East policy. Dr. Bard is
also the director of the Jewish Virtual Library, the world’s most comprehensive online
encyclopedia of Jewish history and culture. For three years he was the editor of the
Near East Report, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's (AIPAC) weekly
newsletter on U.S. Middle East policy. Prior to working at AIPAC, Dr. Bard served as a
senior analyst in the polling division of the 1988 Bush campaign. He is the author/editor
of 17 books.
August 12
As the Middle East considers a peace proposal, we talk with Habib Malik on the
nature of that proposal and the prospects for peace. Malik is a professor of history and
cultural studies at the Lebanese American University (Byblos campus), and is the author
of Between Damascus and Jerusalem: Lebanon and Middle East Peace. He is the American-born
son of the late Lebanese diplomat Charles Malik. He is a graduate of the American
University of Beirut with a B.A. in history (1977), and from Harvard University with an
M.A. in European history (1979) and a Ph.D. in modern European intellectual history (1985).
We pick apart the details of the terror plot uncovered this week with Olivier Guitta,
a Washington based foreign affairs consultant. Mr. Guitta has broad expertise in Israel,
the Arab world , Europe and terrorism. His clients include think tanks, lobbying firms
and law firms needing assistance on terrorism cases. He has
written in depth studies on Hezbollah for the Brookings Institution, on France's Arab
policy for the "Middle East Quarterly", on Euro-US cooperation on terrorism for the
American Legislative Exchange Council. He is a contributing expert to the prestigious
Counterterrorism blog (www.counterterrorismblog.org).
August 5, 2006
Today we discuss the Syria connection to the fighting in the Middle East with
Scott Davis, an independent scholar and the founder of CUNE Press. What exactly is
Syria’s role in the relationship with
Iran and Hezbollah? Having traveled to Syria and Lebanon since 1987, Davis has met high
officials in both countries, including members of the Hariri entourage, and he
has acquired and edited books by some of the most important Syrian political analysts.
Davis is author of The Road from Damascus.
Whenever there is conflict in the Middle East, we are reminded of a laundry list of
U.N. resolutions, mostly ignored, that each side claims in support of the legitimacy of
its actions. We review international law and its relevance to the fighting with Lisa
Hajjar, an associate professor in the Law and Society Program at the University of
California-Santa Barbara. She is the author of Courting Conflict: The Israeli Military
Court System in the West Bank and Gaza. Hajjar is a member of the editorial committee of
Middle East Report.
July 29
As the fighting in Lebanon continues, Syria's role there, and its support of
Hezbollah, are receiving more focus. We discuss this with Bassam Haddad, who teaches
political science at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia and is scholar-in-residence
at the University of Pennsylvania. Haddad was in Lebanon for the start of the bombing.
He is author of "The Formation and Development of Economic Networks in Syria:
Implications for Economic and Fiscal Reforms, 1986-2000," in Networks of Privilege: The
Politics of Economic Reform in the Middle East. He is currently working on his
first book on Syria's political economy. Haddad is co-producer and director of the
award-winning documentary film, "About Baghdad," and the director and executive producer
of the documentary series "Arabs and Terrorism."
If you were an advisor on U.S. foreign policy, what would you recommend for the
situation in Lebanon? We ask that question to Firas Maksad, an Associate in the Middle
East and Africa Practice Group at Eurasia Group. Prior to joining Eurasia Group, Maksad
was a consultant on Middle East Affairs in Washington D.C. and a Research Associate to
former Middle East Presidential envoy Ambassador Dennis Ross. He has worked for the
House International Relations Committee on Capitol Hill and at the United Nations
Development Program in Beirut, Lebanon. Firas holds a Masters of Science in Foreign
Service degree and an honors certificate in International Business from Georgetown
University. He completed his undergraduate degree in Political Science with distinction
at the American University of Beirut.
July 22
We have heard much over the past couple of weeks about where Hezbollah's base of
support lies. Are they really funded and controlled by Iran and Syria?
We explore the source of their power, and that of Hamas, with Pierre Rehov, a French/Israeli
documentary filmmaker. He’s filmed six documentaries on the intifada by going undercover
in the Palestinian areas. Rehov discusses his latest work, From the River to the Sea,
which paints a graphic picture of the worldwide forces that have empowered the Hamas
and Hezbollah terror organizations.
What is U.S. foreign policy regarding Lebanon, Hezbollah and the Arab/Israeli
conflict in general? We talk with Charles Smith, a specialist in modern Middle East
history at the University of Arizona, Department of Near Eastern Studies. He has been a
visiting professor at a number of academic institutions and has lectured at various
military institutes including the Marine War College. He is long-time member of the
Board of Directors of the American Research Center in Egypt. Dr. Smith is the author of
Islam and the Search for Social Order in Modern Egypt and Palestine and the
Arab-Israeli Conflict, along with numerous articles and reviews.
Not all Arab states stand in support of Hezbollah in the current conflict with
Israel. We discuss why with Ussama Makdisi, an Associate Professor of History and the
first holder of the Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair of Arab Studies at Rice
University. He is the author of The Culture of Sectarianism: Community, History, and
Violence in Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Lebanon. He is also the author of Anti-Americanism in the ArabWorld: An Interpretation of Brief
History, which appeared in the Journal of American History. His current research
focuses on American missionaries in the Middle East.
July 15
Israel is at war with Hezballah, which means its also at war with Lebanon and,
perhaps, indirectly with other countries. At a very dangerous moment in Middle East
affairs, we speak with Dr. Ariel Cohen, Senior Research Fellow at the Davis Institute
for International Studies at the Heritage Foundation.
What is happening with the Israeli invasion of Gaza now that Israel has engaged
Hezballah? We talk with Dr. Mona El-Farra, a physician, community and human rights
activist, Vice President for the Palestine Red Crescent Society, and MECA (Middle East
Children’s Alliance) Projects Director for Gaza. Dr. El-Farra was at the hospital that
received many of the victims of the June 9 bombing. El-Farra runs the blog From Gaza
With Love.
July 8
In March 2004, the United States launched the Arabic language satellite network
Alhurra, the biggest news media project aimed at the Middle East since “Voice of America”
was first launched in 1942. Predictions for its impact were very optimistic, but some,
such as our guest today, Magdi Khalil, say the network has been a failure. Khalil is a
political analyst, researcher, author and Executive Editor of the Egyptian weekly Watani
International. He is also a columnist for Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, London, a free-lance
writer for several Arabic language newspapers, and a frequent contributor to Middle East
broadcast news TV.
The recent kidnapping of an Israeli soldier lead to an Israeli incursion into Gaza.
We take a look at the politics behind the violence with Zachary Lockman, professor of
modern Middle East history and director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern
Studies at New York University. He is a contributing editor of Middle East Report. His
most recent book is Contending Visions of the Middle East: The History and Politics of
Orientalism.
July 1
Women have voted for the first time in Kuwait, taking part in elections for
parliament. Although none of the women running for Parliament was elected, political
upheaval is taking place. We talk with Jennifer McElhinny, managing editor of The Middle
East Journal, the premier peer-reviewed journal focusing exclusively on the contemporary
Middle East. Ms. McElhinny has written on women’s rights and political reform in Kuwait.
She spent two years serving as a teacher in southern Jordan with the U.S. Peace Corps.
Ann Coulter is the bombastic conservative commentator who rode a huge wave of publicity
last month over the release of her latest book, Godless: The Church of Liberalism. Our
goal today will be to find out if Ann is as outrageous as she seems. Other Colter books
include four New York Times bestsellers — How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)(October,
2004), Treason: Liberal Treachery From the Cold War to the War on Terrorism (June 2003);
Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right (June 2002); and High Crimes and
Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton (August 1998).
18 years ago, a U.S. passenger jet was shot down over Lockerbie, Scotland. The
victims’ families are still struggling to collect restitution from Libya, even as the
Bush administration prepares to remove the nation from the list of terrorist regimes. We
discuss the normalization of relations with Libya with Ali Abdullatif Ahmida, professor
of political science at the University of New England. He is the author of several books,
including Forgotten Voices: Power and Agency in Colonial and Postcolonial Libya.
June 24
The Arab-Israeli conflict and Egypts role in the Bush administration's approach to
the Middle East are on the table as we talk with Joel Beinen, who has taught Middle East
history at Stanford since 1983, including a broad range of courses from the rise of
Islam to the present. Since 1965 he has lived and worked for extended periods in Israel
and Egypt and traveled broadly throughout the Middle East and North Africa. He received
his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1982, his A.M. from Harvard University in
1974, and his A.B. from Princeton University in 1970. He is a past president of the
Middle East Studies Association of North America (2001-02) and an editor of Middle East
Report, published by the Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP).
We discuss Iranian relations and the war in Iraq with Gareth Porter, an independent scholar and
journalist and news analyst for Inter Press Service on the war in Iraq and U.S.-Iran
conflict. Dr. Porter has just published the first full account, in The American
Prospect magazine of the 2003 Secret Iranian negotiating proposal to the United States
for a "Grand Bargain" settling all major issues between the two countries. He wrote the
first detailed analysis of and proposal for a negotiated peace settlement in Iraq
published in Middle East Policy Journal. He is also the author of Perils of Dominance:
Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam. Porter wrote the article "Iran
Proposal to U.S. Offered Peace with Israel," and several other pieces over the last
several months on the offer from Iran.
June 17
Congress debated a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq this week. Had they decided on
such a measure, the question would become what does withdrawal involve and how difficult
would it be to do. We are joined by Chris Toensing, editor of Middle East Report and
director of the Middle East Research and Information Project. Toensing has written for
the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The Progressive and other US newspapers and magazines,
and has appeared hundreds of times on radio and TV programs to discuss Middle East
politics. He holds an MA in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University. Chris speaks
Arabic and lived in Egypt for three years.
We talk current events with Bernard Goldberg, the television news reporter and
author of Bias, a New York Times
number one bestseller about how the media distort the news. He has covered stories all
over the world for CBS News and won six Emmy awards for his work at that network. His
second book is Arrogance, another New York Times bestseller about the media. Goldberg’s
third book, 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America -- And Al Franken is #37, is now out
in paperback.
June 10
Pundits argue that the death of Zarqawi will result in everything from no change to a
dramatically tamed insurgency in Iraq. We do our own assessment with Christopher Preble,
the director of foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute. Preble was a commissioned
officer in the U.S. Navy and is a veteran of the Gulf War, having served onboard USS
Ticonderoga (CG-47) from 1990 to 1993. He is the author of John F. Kennedy and the
Missile Gap, a book discussing the political and economic roots of national security
strategy in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
After September 11, Saudi Arabia was accused of having an education system that
helped breed terrorists. The Saudis acknowledged some of the problems, and today we check
to see how reforms are going with Ali Al-Ahmed, the director of the Institute of Gulf
Affairs. Al-Ahmed is a Saudi scholar and expert on Saudi political affairs including
terrorism, Wahhabi Islam and the history of the ruling family. As a journalist, he
exposed major news stories such as the Pentagon's botched translation of the 9-11 Bin
Laden tape and the video of Daniel Pearl's murder. He is a frequent consultant to major
world media outlets such as CBS News, CNN, PBS, Fox News and the Washington Post.
June 3
How do democratic principles jibe with Islamic principles? Does our inability to understand
Islamic culture lead us to bad conclusions in dealing with situations such as Iran's pursuit
of nuclear weapons? Abdeslam Maghraoui helps us with these questions. He is Associate Director of Research and Studies for the Muslim World Initiative
at the United States Institute of Pearce. His research focuses on political power,
authority, and legitimacy in contemporary Muslim societies. Prior to joining the
Institute, Maghraoui was visiting lecturer and resident scholar at Princeton University's
Department of Politics and the Institute for the Transregional Study of the Contemporary
Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia. Previously, he was director of Al-Madina,
a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting accountable governance in the Arab world.
Is it time for a U.S. exit strategy from Iraq? Such a plan was independently
proposed recently with the help of Mounzer Sleiman, who joins us today, a vice president and founding
member of the National Council of Arab Americans. He is an independent political-military
analyst with expertise in U.S. national security affairs, the subject of his doctorate
dissertation. In addition, he is an independent media consultant with more than twenty
five years of experience in Middle East diplomacy and media relations. He is a frequent
commentator and guest analyst on radio and television broadcasts. Sleiman was consulted
the recently proposed 21-point plan, which was developed by the director of the Center
for Arab Unity Studies, Iraqi native Dr. Kheir deen Haseeb. This was done in consultation
with groups in Iraq, including members of the non-terrorist resistance.
May 27
Will the terror group Hamas, now the elected Palestinian leaders, transition into an entity
that respects the right of Israel to exist? We speak with Khaled Hroub,
director of the Cambridge Arab Media Project, a neutral and unbiased organization that
is affiliated with the Centre of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the University of
Cambridge. He is author of Hamas: Political Thought and Practice and the soon to
be released Hamas: A Beginner's Guide.
The Iranians are good at talking tough, but are they really as dangerous as they
sound? We are joined once again by Thomas Lippman, an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute
in Washington. He spent four years as the Washington Post's Middle East bureau chief,
three years as the Post's oil and energy reporter and a decade as the newspaper's
national security and diplomatic correspondent. He is the author of books such as Inside the Mirage:
America's Fragile Partnership with Saudi Arabia and Madeleine Albright and the New American
Diplomacy.
May 20
How did London become a haven for Islamic fanatic foot soldiers? We visit with
Melanie Phillips, a British journalist and author. She is best known for her
controversial column about political and social issues which currently appears in the
Daily Mail. Awarded the Orwell Prize for journalism in 1996, she is the author of All
Must Have Prizes, an acclaimed study of Britain's educational
and moral crisis. Phillips discusses her soon to be published book, Londonistan.
The power of the insurgency in Iraq is our topic with Nir Rosen, 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, Harper’s and
The New Republic. Rosen discusses his book on Iraq, In the Belly of the Green Bird:
The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq.
May 13
A Western embargo of the Palestinians since Hamas took power is leading to economic and
humanitarian crisis. We talk about the situation with Leila Farsakh, assistant professor
of political science at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. She has worked with the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Palestine Economic
Policy Research Institute in Ramallah. She has published articles and studies on the
Palestinian economy and the Oslo Process, international migration and regional
integration. She is author of Palestinian Labor Migration.
President Bush got a letter this week from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. We
examine its implications with Lionel Beehner, a staff writer for the
Council on Foreign Relations, covering a
variety of international subjects, including Iraq, Europe, and former Soviet Union. He
has written for the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Baltimore Sun, Chicago
Tribune, Foreign Policy, Russia Journal, Seed, and Worth Magazine. His commentary has
appeared on CNN International, CNBC, C-SPAN's Washington Journal, and Voice of America.
He is the recipient of a German Marshall Fund journalism fellowship for a research
project on post-Soviet youth movements in Ukraine and Belarus.
May 6
What is the future of Iraq? Will it melt down into civil war and splinter? We sort things
out with Peter Sluglett, a professor of history at the University of Utah and a
Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. He is one of the world's leading
historians of modern Iraq and is the author (with the late Marion Farouk-Sluglett)
of Iraq since 1958: from Revolution to Dictatorship.
We explore relations with two key middle east allies, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, with
David Dumke, a principal of MidAmr Group, an organization that works to
facilitate understanding of US and Arab policy making for decision-makers in Washington
and the Arab world. He previously served in a variety of capacities in Congress,
including serving as legislative director for Representative John D. Dingell
(D-Michigan), the longest serving member of the House of Representatives.
April 29
Iran continues to insist that its nuclear ambitions are peaceful as the world becomes
more sure that they are not. We discuss the latest developments with someone who has
been there recently, Dr. David Smith, an associate professor of geography in the
Department of History and Political Science at Ohio Northern University. Dr. Smith
recently returned from Iran where he was part of a UN General Assembly’s World Summit.
“Do we trust them at their word not to produce nuclear weapons? No one does,” says Smith.
“Do they have a legitimate excuse to create nuclear power plants? Yes, I think they do.
This is what makes a solution to this problem more difficult." Smith served in Army
Intelligence in the late 1970s and has lived and worked in the Soviet Union.
As congress considers a supplemental spending bill for the Iraq war, we discuss
progress there, particularly now that a new Prime Minister is in place. We are joined by
Erik Leaver, a Research Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and Policy Outreach
Director for the Foreign Policy In Focus project. His current work includes conducting
education and Congressional outreach on Iraq and multilateral institutions.
April 22
With the third anniversary of the Iraq liberation behind us, we discuss the future
of Iraq and the region with Walid Phares, an expert in terrorism, senior fellow at the
Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and a professor of Conflict and Middle East
Studies at Florida Atlantic University. Phares argues that while the final outcome
cannot be known in Iraq, the ripple effects have been far reaching – and often beneficial.
Phares is the Terrorism Expert with the Family Security Matters based in New York.
Phares served as an Expert on Jihadism and Terrorism for the US Department of Justice and
for the Dutch Government in 2002-2003. He has produced a master video presentation for
US security agencies on "Profile of the Terrorists" in 2001. He is a Terrorism Analyst
with NBC-MSNBC, and appears on Fox News, CNN, BBC, al Hurra, al Jazeera and other
networks.
Has the U.S. strained its relationships with other countries in recent years? And if
so, can the situation be corrected, particularly in the Arab world. We cover these
questions with Don De Marino, chairman of the National US-Arab Chamber of Commerce. De
Marino served in the Bush Administration as deputy assistant secretary of Commerce for
Africa, the Near East and South Asia, and in the Reagan Administration as director of the
US-Saudi Arabian Joint Economic Commission. He frequently represented the US in trade
talks, concluded bilateral commerce agreements and success- fully resolved major
commercial disputes on behalf of American companies. He is also a businessman and advisor
to several corporations.
April 15
Pakistan is a mess of a country but still a critical ally to the U.S.
We tackle whether the relationship is a constructive one with Anita Weiss, Professor
of International Studies at the University of Oregon. Her current research is analyzing
the social reform agenda of the MMA (the conservative party that now rules the North West
Frontier Province and Baluchistan)in the NWFP (Northwest Frontier Province) in Pakistan.
She has published four books on social development and gender issues in Pakistan,
and has also authored numerous articles on culture, women and development in Pakistan.
She is chair of the South Asia Council of the Association of Asian Studies.
Iran continues to play hardball with a world concerned about its drive for nuclear
weapons. Is an embargo next? Is that the best next step? We are joined by Dr. Muhammad Sahimi, a professor and chairman of the Department of
Chemical Engineering at the University of Southern California. He co-wrote, with Nobel
Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, the op-ed "Defusing Iran with Democracy."
April 8
We talk about Presidential honesty with Howard Zinn an historian, playwright,
and social activist who is best known for A People's History of the United States, which presents American history
through the eyes of those he feels are outside of the political and economic
establishment. He is also the co-author, with Anthony Arnove, of Voices of a People’s
History of the United States.
We find out why the U.S. was attacked by terrorists from Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed,
executive director of the Institute for Policy Research
and Development in England, and the bestselling author of The War on Freedom: How & Why
America was Attacked: September 11, 2001. He has a first-class Masters degree in Contemporary War and
Peace Studies from the University of Sussex, where he is currently a PhD candidate in
International Relations. A regular political commentator on BBC Southern Counties Radio,
Ahmed has been named a Global Expert on War, Peace and International Affairs by The
Freedom Network of the International Society for Individual Liberty in California. A
hmed discusses his latest books, Behind the War on Terror: Western Secret Strategy
and the Struggle for Iraq and The War on Truth: 9/11, Disinformation and the Anatomy
of Terrorism.
April 1
We discuss the situation in Iraq with Aaron Glantz, author of How America Lost Iraq.
A reporter for Pacifica Radio and other media outlets, Glantz has visited Iraq three times during the U.S.
occupation: for a month immediately after the fall of Saddam Hussein; from February to May 2004; and
during the elections in January of 2005. His work from Iraq has also been syndicated to newspapers around
the world by Inter Press News
Service. Glantz is a founding producer of Pacifica Radio’s national newscast, Free Speech Radio News.
Our relationship with Saudi Arabia is the topic with Rachel Bronson, author of the just
released Thicker Than Oil: America’s Uneasy Partnership with Saudi Arabia. Bronson is senior fellow and
director of Middle East Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Her expertise lies in U.S.
national security and foreign policy toward the Middle East, Middle East politics and strategy,
particularly in the Persian Gulf; and Iraq.
March 11
The deal is dead, but the argument continues about whether Dubai Ports World should have been allowed
to take over port operations here. We are joined by William Rugh, who was U.S. Ambassador to
the UAE from 1992-1995. Rugh is an adjunct scholar in the Public Policy Center at the Middle East
Institute. He was a United States Foreign Service officer for 31 years, from 1964 to 1995. He served in
Washington, and at seven Middle Eastern diplomatic posts – two of those assignments, to Yemen and to the
United Arab Emirates, were as the US ambassador. He has taught as an adjunct professor at the Fletcher
School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University (1987-89). He is the author of the book The Arab Press,
and several journal articles and op-ed pieces on Middle Eastern subjects.
Are Americans biased against Arabs? If so, is it possible that this bias has its roots in the way Arabs
have been portrayed historically in American cinema? We discuss the issue, and its possible relevance to
the Dubai Ports World issue with Jack Shaheen, Professor Emeritus of Mass Communications at Southern
Illinois University. A former CBS News consultant on the Middle East, Shaheen is a leading scholar of Arab
representations in US popular culture. He is author of the groundbreaking study The TV Arab and, most
recently, Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People, the most comprehensive review of Arab screen
images ever published.
March 4, 2006
Iran continues to toy with the West, claiming today an eagerness to talk about the nuke crisis but
showing no signs of compromise. We seek clarity from Michael Rubin, just back from several months in Iran
doing research. Rubin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and editor of the Middle
East Quarterly and a former Iran-watcher at the Pentagon. Rubin studies domestic politics in Iran, Iraq,
and Turkey; Kurdish society; and Arab democracy. He most recently co-authored Eternal Iran: Continuity and
Chaos.
She’s been on assignment there six times, so let’s learn more about Iraq from Hadani Ditmars, an
international journalist based in Canada whose work has been published by major news sources around the
world. Her Ms. Magazine essay on Iraqi women has been adopted for many university courses. Ditmars,
who has been reporting from the middle east since 1992, discusses her book Dancing in the No Fly Zone: A
Woman’s Journey Through Iraq and the civil war in Iraq.
February 25
Is Dubai a friend or a foe? We get an education on the United Arab Emirates from David Andelman, Executive Editor of Forbes.com, who is on assignment
there. He joined Forbes.com from The New York Daily News, where he had served as business editor since
2001. Previously, he was editor in chief of a global business and financial news Web site,
Smallcapcenter.com, and before that he served as news editor at Bloomberg News for four and a half years.
David's work has taken him across the globe covering world events and the people behind them.
For 12 years, he served as both a foreign and domestic correspondent for the New York Times, and was also
Paris correspondent for CBS News and Washington correspondent for CNBC.
Terrorists attempted an attack on a major Saudi oil processing plant this week. We discuss this, and other
events in the war on terror, with Ambassador Paul Bremer, the career diplomat who was the Presidential Envoy to Iraq from May 2003 to
June 2004. During his twenty-three years at the State Department, he served on the personal staffs of six
secretaries of state and on four continents. In the 1980s, he was President Reagan's Ambassador at Large
for Counter Terrorism. After leaving government, he was Managing Director of Kissinger Associates.
He also served as Chairman of the bipartisan National Commission on Terrorism (1999-2000). In December
2004, George W. Bush awarded Bremer the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his service in Iraq. Bremer
discusses his book, My Year in Iraq, and the immense stakes involved in the war in Iraq and this troubled
region.
February 18
Is it possible that the United States might defeat the jihadis by using their own ideology against
them? We take a look inside the mind of al Qaeda with Mary Habeck, a professor at the Nitze School of
Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, one of the world’s foremost foreign policy
institutions. Professor Habeck’s most recent book is Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on
Terror, the first book to present the inner logic of al-Qaeda and like-minded extremist groups by which
they justify September 11 and other terrorist attacks. She is recognized internationally as an authority
on American defense policy; Islamic jihadism and irregular warfare; as well as Russian and western European
military and political affairs.
What impact will Saudi Arabia have on Iraq as the post-Saddam era develops? We explore the changes in
Iraq from the Saudi perspective with Joseph McMillan, a senior research fellow at the National Defense
University's Institute for National Strategic Studies, focusing on issues related to terrorism, the greater
Middle East, and South Asia. Prior to joining NDU, Mr. McMillan served in a series of civilian positions
in the Department of Defense. He has more than 15 years of experience dealing with regional defense and
security issues affecting the Persian Gulf, Levant, South Asia, North Africa, and the former Soviet Union.
McMillan recently wrote a report on Saudi Arabia for the USIP (United States Institute of Peace) series of
special reports on “Iraq and Its Neighbors.”
February 11
We explore the Danish Cartoon Crisis and the idea of a Clash of Civilizations with Charles Kurzman,
Assistant Professor of Sociology and Associate Director of the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle
East and Muslim Civilizations at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Trained at Harvard and
Berkeley, he specializes in cross-cultural studies of anti-authoritarian movements. He has written
extensively on the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and is currently writing a book on constitutional
revolutions.
Iran’s play for nuclear weapons continues to concern the world. We discuss the latest events with
Bahman Baktiari, Director of the International Affairs program and Professor of Political Science at the
University of Maine. He received his Ph.D. from the Woodrow Wilson Department of Government and Foreign
Affairs at the University of Virginia. His most recent publications are Dilemmas of Reform and Democracy
in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Voices of Muslim Tolerance. Professor Baktiari has traveled
and taught in most Middle Eastern countries.
February 4
NSA eavesdropping on international phone calls with a domestic participant continues to be the rage in
Beltway debate. We seek clarity from Jeffrey Addicott, an Assistant Professor of Law and the Director of
the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio Texas. He is the senior
Government consultant for the military commissions trials in Cuba. His latest book (2003) is entitled:
Winning the War on Terror: Legal and Policy Lessons from the Past.
Iran – Nukes. That’s the big story. Again. We talk with Wayne White, an Adjunct Scholar at Washington’s
Middle East Institute on the nuclear fallout in Iran. Mr. White retired last year as Deputy Director of
the Office of Analysis for the Near East and South Asia in the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence
and Research (INR/NESA). He served as editor of the “Arab-Israeli Situation Report,” Analyst for Iraq,
Deputy Director of the Arab-Israeli Division, and Chief of the North Africa, Arabian Peninsula, Iraq and
Iran Division before becoming NESA’s Deputy Director in 2002.
January 28
Julianne Smith joins us in a discussion of US relations with Europe. She is a fellow and Deputy
Director of the Center Strategic International Studies' International Security Program. In addition to
overseeing the management of 30+ security related projects, she focuses on a range of European security
issues, including European defense integration and EU-U.S. counterterrorism cooperation. Ms. Smith co-
directs the Transatlantic Dialogue on Terrorism, which examines European and American disagreements over
the root causes. Most recently, she coauthored America and the World in the Age of Terror
Big changes in Middle East politics this week. We get up to date with Ambassador Edward Peck, who is
currently in Amman on a delegation observing the Palestinian election. Peck is a former U.S. chief of
mission to Iraq and was deputy director of the White House Task Force on Terrorism in the Reagan
administration. He is a Middle East television commentator, and a lecturer and consultant in the U.S. and
overseas; Woodrow Wilson Foundation Visiting Fellow; Distinguished Visitor at the National War College;
member, Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs, Americans for Middle East Understanding, and CNI
(Council for the National Interest).
January 21
Vice President Dick Cheney was in the Middle East this week, touring Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
What was he working on? We turn to Les Janka, Chairman of the Council for American-Saudi Dialog and former
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Near Eastern Affairs. Janka served in the White House under three
presidents—as a senior staff member of the National Security Council and Special Assistant to Henry
Kissinger under Presidents Nixon and Ford, and as deputy press secretary for Foreign Affairs under
President Reagan. He also served in the Pentagon as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Near Eastern
Affairs.
Saudi Arabia is gained admission to the World Trade Organization last fall. We explore what this means
for us and for them with Fahad Nazer, a native of Saudi Arabia who currently resides in the Washington,
DC area. He is the resident fellow at the Institute for Gulf Affairs in Washington DC. In addition, he is
contributing to a monograph to be published by the American Enterprise Institute in the spring of 2006.
Nazer is a former employee of the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, DC, where he was a
political analyst at the Department of Political Affairs and a media analyst at the Information Office,
and is currently a PhD candidate in Political Science at the Catholic University of America.
January 14, 2006
The fifth richest man in the world is Saudi Prince Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud,
the largest single foreign investor in the United States. He has built a $24 billion empire around brands
such as Citigroup and Disney to Apple Computers and the Four Seasons Hotels. We discuss why Prince
Alwaleed is viewed as a twenty-first-century ambassador who could be the ultimate bridge to connect the
Middle East and the West with his biographer, Riz Khan, author of Alwaleed: Businessman, Billionaire,
Prince. Khan is a well-known independent broadcaster and journalist. He worked at CNN International for
eight years, where he hosted the flagship program "Q&A with Riz Khan."
How is the balance of power in the Middle East and the world altered by the end of Ariel Sharon's
political career? We refelct with Peretz Kidron, a freelance journalist and translator living in Jerusalem.
Kidron is an activist in the peace movement, and recently published Refusenik! ? a book about soldiers and reservists who refuse to
serve the occupation.
As Iran continues its march to become one of the world's nuclear powers, the world community wonders how
best to respond. We analyze the situation with Judith Kipper, director of the Middle East Forum at the
Council on Foreign Relations. She also serves as a consultant to ABC News and, in the early 1990's, she
negotiated interviews for Peter Jennings with Iraq's Saddam Hussein and Russia's President Mikhail
Gorbachev. Kipper briefs us on US policy priorities in the region and re-establishing US credibility and
confidence. Kipper discusses Iran?s warning that it will block UN inspectors' access to its nuclear facilities if the UN imposes sancti |
