Linguist Geoff Nunberg on the practice of giving names to military operations, like the misconceived Operation Infinite Justice that was pulled from use.
Our new U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins. His new collection of poems is Sailing Alone Around the Room (Random House). His other collections include Picnic, Lightning (Univ of Pittsburgh), The Art of Drowning (Univ of Pittsburgh Press), and Questions about Angels (William Morrow & Co). John Updike says of Collins' poetry, "Billy Collins writes lovely poems...
Executive director of the USA division of the French medical relief organization Doctors without Borders, Nicolas De Torrente. During August, he was in the Northern Territory of Afghanistan checking on the work of the organization. To do their work, Doctors without Borders had to negotiate with the Taliban. After the attacks, the organization had to evacuate all foreign workers out of the country, leaving their Afhani staff behind. De Torrente was flying to JFK airport on Sept. 11, and his plane was one of the last international planes to land in the U.S.
Journalist Sebastian Junger. Last year he traveled to Afghanistan to profile Ahmad Shah Massoud, (known as the "Lion of Panjshir"), the legendary leader of the guerrilla war against the Soviets, who had been fighting the Taliban. Massoud was assassinated by Osama bin Ladens associates about two weeks ago.
Journalist Mark Bowden is a staff writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is the author of the award-winning bestseller Black Hawk Down about the 1993 ill-fated mission by the U.S. in Somalia. Theres currently a film adaptation of the book. Hes also the author of Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the Worlds Greatest Outlaw an investigation into the U.S. government's role in bringing down Colombian cocaine kingpin and terrorist Pablo Escobar. Bowden will talk about the U.S. military strategy in the war against terrorism.
Film director Andrew Davis. His films include The Fugitive, and Under Seige. His latest film Collateral Damage starring Arnold Schwarzenegger was about to go into distribution but was pulled after the attacks on the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon.
The arts organization brought art, dance, and performance to World Trade Center Plaza. They had offices in WTC building five; a number of their artists had studio space in tower one. One of their artists, sculptor Michael Richards was killed in the attack. Liz Thompson was at a meeting in tower one when the attack took place.
Bruce Goldstein directs the program of repertoire films at The Film Forum in New York City. The Forum is only a couple of miles from where the World Trade Center towers were. The Forum is currently showing a series of films about the New York City police department.
Syndicated columnist and biographer Richard Reeves. His most recent book is President Nixon: Alone in the White House (Simon & Schuster). Hes also written books about Presidents Reagan, Kennedy, Clinton, and Ford. Reeves is former chief political correspondent of The New York Times. He is currently Visiting Professor of Journalism at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California.
Imam Sayed Hassan Qazwini is the religious leader of the Islamic Center of America in Detroit, the biggest such center in the United States. It includes a Mosque in which he preaches.
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. He covered the Middle East for many years, work that won him two Pulitzer Prizes. He's also the author of the book, From Beirut to Jerusalem. The book looked at the inside of Arab and Israeli power circles, and examined the intefadeh and the perceptions American and Israeli Jews have of each other.
Religion scholar and former nun Karen Armstrong. She is the author of many books, including, A History of God, an examination of the fundamentalist movement in Christian, Jewish, and Islamic faiths and Islam: A Short History. She's also the author of the bestsellers Jerusalem, and The History of God.
American Muslim Asma Gull Hasan. She the author of the book, now in paperback, –American Muslims: The New Generation— (Continuum press). ASMA was born in Chicago and is the daughter of Pakistani immigrants.
