Government & Politics

Jury selection for the Noriega trial starts today. Los Angeles Times reporter Douglas Frantz (FRANZ) has been following the Noriega story and will review events leading up to the trial. Frantz will also tell us about Noriega's BCCI connection.

Yesterday President Bush voiced his opposition to federally funded needle exchange programs to stop the spread of AIDS. Today Terry talks with activist Rod Sorge (pronounced like George).He's the director of PWA's (People with AIDS Working for Health, Inc.) Harm Reduction Institute, a program that runs a needle-exchange program in New York City. Giving out needles in New York is against the law and Sorge and his group have been arrested for it. Sorge runs ACT-UP's needle exchange program.

Professor of History at Harvard, Richad Pipes. He's written over ten books on the Soviet Union. Including, "The Formation of the Soviet Union," published in 1957 and "The Russian Revolution," published last year. He talks with Terry about the formation of the Soviet Union, so that we can understand the breaking up of the empire.

Political scientist professor William Taubman discusses who wields power in the Soviet Union, in the wake of the past week's events. Taubman had an editorial this weekend in the New York Times saying that the time has come for Mikhail Gorbachev to step down. (Taubman teaches at Amherst College, and is currently working on a biography of Nikita Khrushchev).

Editor Vitalli Korotych (Veh-tal-ee Ka-row-tich) of the reformist Soviet magazine, "Ogonyok" (AH-gone-yuck) He talks with Terry about his own questions about the coup, about the lessons learned from it, and about what he thinks should happen now.

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).

Admiral Stansfield Turner. The former director of the CIA under Jimmy Carter. He talks with Terry about what he thinks is going on in both the American and Soviet intelligence communities in the wake of the Soviet coup attempt. (Turner has just come out with his second book, "Terrorism & Democracy" (Published by Houghton Mifflin)).

We check in again with journalist Robert Cullen, for his take on the latest events in the Soviet Union. He's a former Moscow correspondent for Newsweek, and he writes regularly on Eastern Europe for The Atlantic and the New Yorker. (Cullen has a book coming out this autumn, titled, "Twilight Of Empire: Inside the Crumbling Soviet Bloc").

We get a personal view of recent events in the Soviet Union, with Soviet emigre writer Mikhail Iossel ("YO-sill"). Iossel's latest book, "Every Hunter Wants To Know: A Leningrad Life," is a collection of short stories about life during the Brezhnev years. (It's published by W.W. Norton).

We discuss last night's overthrow of Mikhail Gorbachev, with journalist Robert Cullen. He's a former Moscow correspondent for Newsweek, and he writes regularly on Eastern Europe for The Atlantic and the New Yorker. He was most recently in the USSR this past June, working on an article on the influence of the Soviet military. Cullen has a book coming out this autumn, titled, "Twilight Of Empire: Inside the Crumbling Soviet Bloc."

Writer Stephen Pizzo. Pizzo's the co-author of "Inside Job: The Looting of America's Savings and Loans." Last month he testified before Congress, saying that the proposed further deregulation of the banks will lead to a further banking crisis. He'll discuss that testimony today. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

We look at the recent nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, with Duke University law professor Walter Dellinger. Dellinger's written several articles on how the nomination process has evolved throughout the nation's history. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

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)

Computer programmer Richard Stallman. Stallman's a genius, he's been called "the best programmer who's ever lived", and he received one the MacArthur Foundation's so-called "Genius Awards," but he's become more widely known for his push to make computer programs freely accessible to everyone. Instead of software companies charging hundreds or thousands of dollars for programs and forbidding the purchasers from giving copies to other people, Stallman wants an unrestricted exchange of programs, and thereby the creativity that they represent.

Writer Joyce Schuck (shuck). In 1986, her husband ran for governor of Colorado, and lost in the primaries. But the experience gave Schuck the impetus to interview other wives of politicians. Schuck's book, "Political Wives: Veiled Lives," combines the interviews, along with excerpts from a diary Schuck kept during her husband's campaign. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Mystery writer Sue Grafton. She's known for her "alphabet series" with female detective Kinsey Milhone, "A is for Alibi" through "G is for Gumshoe." Grafton's latest mystery is "H is for Homicide." (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Historian Robert Dallek. Dallek's new biography of President Lyndon Johnson, "Lone Star Rising," has been praised for its scholarship, and for painting a more balanced portrait of LBJ than some other recent biographies. Dallek was nominated for an American Book award for an earlier biography, "Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy." ("Lone Star Rising" is published by Oxford University Press).

Admiral Stansfield Turner. The former director of the CIA under Jimmy Carter, Turner has just come out with his second book, "Terrorism & Democracy."(Houghton Mifflin). Turner looks at the failed and successful policies of eight American presidents in dealing with terrorism.

Time magazine reporter Jonathan Beaty He was covering the BCCI bank scandal months before it erupted, and gives the background on the scandal.

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.