Government & Politics

Pakistani novelist and New Yorker Mohsin Hamid. His debut novel is Moth Smoke

Journalist Ralph Blumenthal writes for The New York Times. He covered the trial following the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. He’ll discuss the information about the workings of Osama Bin Laden’s organization that came to light during the trial.

Director of the Center for Afghanistan Studies at the University of Omaha, Thomas E. Gouttierre. He also served on the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission to Afghanistan, and is the American specialist on Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and South Asia at the meetings of the US-Russian Task Force on Regional Conflicts.

Nigerian-born journalist Ken Wiwa writes for the Toronto Globe and Mail. He is the son of the late Ken Saro-Wiwa, one of Nigerias best-loved writers and vocal critics of the military rule. Saro-Wiwa was executed by the Nigerian military regime in 1995. Ken Wiwa has written the new memoir, In the Shadow of a Saint: A Sons Journey to Understand His Fathers Legacy.

Retired Lt. Col. Bradley Biggs was part of America first all-black paratroop unit called the Triple Nickles. The 555th Battalion of the 82d Airborne. The troop was trained to go to war, but instead was sent to the West Coast to fight forest fires started by Japanese balloon bombs. They were the first parachuters to fight fires, and developed many of the techniques used today. Later they became the first army unit to be integrated into the –regular— army during World War II. Biggs has written a new memoir, The Triple Nickles

A native of Mississippi, Barry Hannah has been writing for over thirty years - short stories, and novels set in the South. His writing is described as intensely personal, frenetic and comic. Truman Capote once called him the maddest writer in the USA His first book, the autobiographical novel Geronimo Rex (published in 1972) won the William Faulkner Prize for writing. He followed that with Airships, a collection of short stories now considered a classic.

Psychiatrist and Director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, Dr. Eyad El-Sarraj. The Programme is a non-profit Palestinian, non-governmental organization, formed to help families cope with the aftermath of torture and violence. El-Sarraj is well known in the occupied territories and Israel as Gazas first practicing psychiatrist and for his efforts to foster co-existence between Arabs and Jews. El-Sarraj is also former Commissioner General of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens rights.

Psychiatrist, peace activist and feminist Dr Ruchama Marton. She teaches at the Tel Aviv University Medical School Institute for Psychotherapy. She is also President of Physicians for Human Rights, Isreal.

Biomedical ethicist Arthur Caplan, Ph.D. We talk about the news that human embryos are being grown by researchers doing stem cell research. Previously, the cells were harvested from aborted fetuses. The idea of fetal farming is quite controversial. Proponents cite the enormous potential for finding cures to cancer, Alzheimer and diabetes. Opponents are aghast at the notion of using and destroying human life for the sole purpose of research. Caplan is the Director of the Center for Bioethics and Trustee Professor of Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania.

New York Times reporter Steve Erlanger returns to the show to talk about the upcoming trial before the International War Crimes Tribunal of Slobodon Milosevic.

Jay Winik's new book, a bestseller, is April 1865: The Month That Saved America (HarperCollins). He writes that April 1865 is a month that could have unraveled the American nation. Instead it saved it. During that month the war ended with Lee surrender, Lincoln was assassinated, and the rebuilding of the nation began. Winik is a senior scholar at the University of Maryland School of Public Affairs and a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal.

New York Times reporters David Barstow and Don Van Natta, Jr. went to Florida following the closest presidential election in history. During a six month investigation, the two journalists found –under intense pressure from the Republicans, Florida officials accepted hundreds of overseas absentee ballots that failed to comply with state election laws.— (NYT 7/15/01) However, the outcome of the investigation is inconclusive. If all invalid overseas ballots had been thrown out, Bush would have still maintained a narrow margin over Gore.

Han Ong, a Filipino writer whose debut novel is Fixer Chao.Its about a Feng Shui con artist operating on New York's elite. Ong is the winner of a 1997 MacArthur award. He is also a playwright.

Film critic Henry Sheehan reviews Swordfish, starring John Travolta.

He commanded the NATO troops during the Kosovo conflict, the first and only NATO war. His new memoir is Waging Modern War

Journalist Michela Wrong is the author of the new book In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in Mobutu's Congo. The book examines the 1960 CIA plot to murder Patrice Lumumba who was then leader of newly independent Congo. The plot led to Lumumba's removal from power and the ascension of Mobutu Sese Seko. Wrong is a staff reporter with The Financial Times.

James Bamford has investigated the inner-workings of the National Security Agency for his new book, Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency: From the Cold War Through the Dawn of a New Century (Doubleday). The book examines the Agency's past and its present activities including the ongoing hunt for the terrorist Osama bin Laden.

Journalists Lou Michel (“Meh-SHELL”) and Dan Herbeck are staff writers for the Buffalo News. The two have collaborated on the new book “American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh & the Oklahoma City Bombing” (ReganBooks). MICHEL lived twenty minutes away from the McVeigh’s father, and over time he developed a relationship with the elder McVeigh which in turn helped him gain access to his son. Michel and Herbeck conducted nearly 80 hours of interviews with Timothy McVeigh.

Journalist Anne Nivet (“NEE-VAH”) is Moscow correspondent for the French paper Liberation. Two years ago, after the Russians denied her press access to Chechnya, she disguised herself as a Chechen peasant woman and snuck across the boarder. For six months she followed the war, traveling with the underground rebels and staying with families. Her reports were published in Liberation. Her new memoir is “Chienne De Guerre: A Woman Reporter Behind the Lines of the War In Chechnya”

His new film Memento, is about a man who is unable to make new memories since the violent murder of his wife. Now without a short term memory, he seeks to avenge her death. The movie stars Guy Pearce, with Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano. The script for Memento was based on a short story written by Johnathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan's brother. Memento is Christopher Nolan's second feature film; his first was the critically acclaimed 1998 film Following.