Middle East Conflict

New York Times reporter Elaine Sciolino. She was the first American and the first woman to interview the Ayatollah when he came into power in 1979. She was expelled from Iran ten years ago and recently returned there for the first time since to cover the elections. Terry talks with her about the changes she saw in Iran from the ten years previous.

Terry talks with two Iranian exiles who are working to lift the fatwa off of Salman Rushdie: Journalist Huma Sarshar, who lives in L.A., helped to organize a statement of Iranian exiles artists and intellectuals in support of Rushdie; and film maker and playwright Parviz Sayyad who signed the statement.

Iraqi dissident Laith Kubba. Kubba is living in exile in London, where he heads an opposition group called the Democratic Reform Movement. Kubba discusses a meeting of Iraqi dissident groups that was held in December in Damascus.

We look back on the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait one year later:
1) CNN producer Robert Wiener (wee-ner). Wiener was executive producer in Baghdad for 5 months leading up to and including the beginning of the war. His book, Live From Baghdad, tells how Wiener worked with Iraqi officials to cover the war from inside.
2) We speak with Aziz Abu Hamad, senior researcher on Kuwait for Middle East Watch about the current state of human rights in Kuwait..

Deputy General Counsel of Israel in New York, Mark Sofer talks with Terry about the possible arrest of Hanan Ashrawi, a spokesperson and advisor for the Palestinian delegation.

Arab scholar Edward Said ("sigh-eed") discusses the recent Middle East peace conference, and the changing leadership of the Palestinian movement. Said is a member of the Palestine National Council (the Palestinian government in exile) and a professor of English at Columbia University.

Reporter Scott Armstrong. Jones has an article in the current issue of "Mother Jones" magazine, describing the long history of secret military agreements between the governments of the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. Armstrong contends the military deals, which cost more than 150 billion dollars, violate the Constitution.

Terry talks with Roger Fisher, the head of the Harvard Negotiation Project, and author of the bestseller, "Getting To Yes." He'll discuss how to make the Mideast Peace Conference a success.

Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh. In his new book, "The Samson Option," Hersh contends that Israel has had a secret nuclear arms program for years, had those arms aimed at the Soviet Union for years, and was ready to fire those weapons at Arab capitals during the recent Gulf war. Hersh's previous book, "The Target Is Destroyed," looked at what really happened when Korean Airlines flight 007 was shot down near Japan.

Andrew Whitley, the executive director of the human rights organization, Middle-East Watch. Their new book, "Syria Unmasked," documents the brutal human rights violations that have occurred under the rule of Hafez Asad. (It's published by Yale University Press).

Terry Gross interviews Israeli scholar Mark Heller and Palestinian scholar Sari Nusseibeh ("sorry nah-seb-bay"). The pair spent months debating a way to achieve lasting peace. The plan they came up with is the subject of their new book, "No Trumpets, No Drums: A Two-State Settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict." (It's published by Hill and Wang).

International Lawyer and senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace David Scheffer. His writings appear in the book, "Right v. Might," (published by Council on Foreign Relations Press). He's been following the progress of the UN resolutions since the end of the Gulf War. He'll tell Marty how Iraq has been underreporting its weapons and what the United States is allowed to do about it. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Political Science professor Ehud Sprinzak (A-houd Sprin-zack) of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He talks with Terry about how the radical right in Israel is no longer a fringe group but a growing force in Israeli politics and life. His new book is, "The Ascendance of Israel's Radical Right," (Oxford University Press).

Former hostage David Jacobsen. In 1985 he was abducted in Beirut where he was director of the American University of Beirut's Medical Center and was held for 17 months. He was held captive along with Terry Anderson, Tom Sutherland, Ben Weir, and Martin Jenco. He's written about it in, "Hostage: My Nightmare in Beirut." (Published by Donald I. Fine, Inc.) (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

New York Times correspondent Thomas Friedman. Friedman has spent the last decade covering the Middle East, work that has won him two Pulitzer Prizes. Today he looks at the current state of the Mideast, as we approach the first anniversary of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

We look at the connection between the Israeli and U.S. intelligence communities.
We first talk with journalists Andrew and Leslie Cockburn. Their new book, "Dangerous Liaison," alleges the two nations relationship extends far beyond the Mideast, into areas like the war against drugs, the South African nuclear weapons program, and the Contras. (The book's published by Harper Collins).
We also talk with Benny Morris, co

Terry concludes her conversation with veteran NPR reporter Deborah Amos. After nearly ten years covering stories like Lebanon, Afghanistan, and the Gulf War, Amos is back in the states for a one year leave of absence. Today, Amos talks about the problems, and the advantages, of being a woman reporter in the Mideast.

Veteran NPR reporter Deborah Amos. Amos has covered the Gulf War, and reported from Poland, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Israel and China. We'll talk to her about the day to day life of a reporter.

Journalist Milton Viorst of the New Yorker reports on the Middle East. In April, he was in Bagdad to observe the state of Iraq several months after the end of the conflict.

We examine the state of human rights in post-war Kuwait with Ken Roth, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch. He just returned from a nine day visit to Kuwait.