War on terrorism

Two editors from Jane's Information Group talk about the war on terrorism and the potential attack on Iraq. Charles Heyman is the editor of Jane's World Armies and the author of The Armed Forces of the United Kingdom. Alex Standish is the editor of Jane's Intelligence Digest. Standish also produces television and radio documentaries for the BBC.

Muslim journalist M.J. Akbar is founder and editor-in-chief of The Asian Age, an English language newspaper published in India. He's also the author of five books, including his latest, The Shade of Swords: Jihad and the Conflict Between Islam & Christianity.

New York Times journalist Thomas L. Friedman. His new book, Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After September 11, is a collection of recent Times columns. They span the period from December 2000 to June 2002. Friedman was awarded the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Commentary for these columns. This is Friedman's third Pulitzer. His other books are From Beirut to Jerusalem and The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization.

Photographer and reporter Scott Peterson of The Christian Science Monitor has been covering the war on terrorism since the Sept. 11 attacks. He is also the paper's Moscow bureau chief, and a former Middle East correspondent. Peterson recently attended a training camp for journalists to learn how to deal with kidnappers and gunmen. He was also a friend of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl. Peterson is the author of the book Me Against My Brother: At War in Somalia, Sudan, and Rwanda.

Journalist Jeffrey Toobin discusses his profile of Attorney General John Aschroft, published in this week's issue of The New Yorker. Toobin is a staff writer for The New Yorker and a legal analyst for ABC News. His books include Too Close to Call: The Thirty-Six-Day Battle to Decide the 2000 Election (Random House); A Vast Conspiracy; and The Run of His Life.

The two Washington Post journalists have co-written the book, The News about the News: American Journalism in Peril. (Knopf) Downie has been at the paper since 1964. Hes been executive editor since 1991. Kaiser joined the Post in 1963 and is now associate editor and senior correspondent. Their book is an investigation of why the journalism we watch and read is so bad. They offer suggestions on how to improve the institution.

Cass Sunstein talks about the precedent the 1942 case set for the Bush Administration in setting up military tribunals for the al Qaeda suspects. Sunstein is considered by many to be one of the nations authorities when it comes to interpreting the U.S. Constitution. Hes the author of One Case at a Time: Judicial Minimalism on the Supreme Court, (Harvard University Press). Sunstein teaches at the University of Chicago.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. He's the author of a number of books including a memoir about his boyhood, An Hour Before Daylight His latest is a memoir, Christmas in Plains (Simon & Schuster). Carter and his family has spent the last 48 Christmases in Plains, through out his Navy career, his stint as Governor and his tenure as President. The only exception was 1979 when American hostages were being held in Iran.

Israeli journalist David Horovitz is the editor of the Jerusalem Report. He will discuss how Israelis are responding to the Sept. 11th attacks, the war on terrorism, and the continued violence in the Middle east. Horovitz is the author of, A Little Too Close to God. He was the recipient of the Bai Bai International Award for journalism in 1994.

His new book is Warriors of God: Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade (Doubleday). It's the story of the battle for the Holy Land in the late 12th century. It begins as a dual biography of Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt, Syria, Arabia and Mesopotamia, and Richard I, King of England, known as the Lionheart. The two men led the battling Islamic and Christian armies. James Reston is also the author of twelve books, including The Last Apocalypse and Galileo: A Life. He is currently a scholar in residence at the Library of Congress.