Government & Politics

Linguist Geoff Nunberg on the use of the word 'regime.'

Film critic David Edelstein reviews Secretary, starring James Spader and Maggie Gyllenhaal. The film is based on a short story by Mary Gaitskill.

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.

Greg and Lauren Manning. During the attacks on the World Trade Center, Lauren Manning was badly burned. While she was in the hospital, her husband, Greg, sent daily e-mails to friends and family chronicling Lauren's progress. They've been collected in the new book, Love, Greg & Lauren: A Powerful True Story of Courage, Hope, and Survival.

New York City Police Detective Dave Fitzpatrick. He took thousands of photographs on Sept. 11, many of them from a police helicopter high above the city. He also spent two months at Ground Zero photographing the rescue efforts. Many of his photographs and that of other police officers are featured in the book, Above Hallowed Ground: A Photographic Record of September 11, 2001.

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.

He is one of few western reporters to interview Osama bin Laden, which he did in 1998. Hes collaborated on the new book, The Cell: Inside the 9/11 Plot, and Why the FBI and CIA Failed to Stop It. (Hyperion). In the book they retrace the movements of al-Qaeda leading up to the September 11th attacks.

Former fire commissioner of New York City, Thomas Von Essen. He led the department through the Sept. 11 attacks and during rescue and early recovery efforts. During the attacks, the department lost 343 men, many of them Von Essen's friends and colleagues. Von Essen stepped down as fire commissioner on December 31, 2001. He's written a new memoir with Matt Murray, Strong of Heart: Life and Death in the Fire Department of New York.

Journalist Thomas Ricks covers the military for The Washington Post. Last week the Senate held hearings about Iraq. Ricks will discuss possible scenarios for a U.S. attempt to topple Saddam Hussein, and the likelihood of such an action. Ricks has also reported on U.S. military activities in Somalia, Haiti, Korea, Kuwait, the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan. Prior to joining The Post, Ricks wrote about the military for The Wall Street Journal. He's also the author of the novel A Soldier's Duty, about a U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan.

Journalist James Bennet of the New York Times. Hes the papers Jerusalem Bureau Chief. Hes been in the Middle East covering how the crisis there is affecting both Israelis and Palestinians.

Journalist Steven Erlanger is the Berlin Bureau Chief for the New York Times. Hell talk about European reaction to the Bush administration, its planned invasion of Iraq, and its position on the middle east, and its response to September 11th. And about how the European union is changing the lives of Europeans.

Journalist Jon Cohen writes for Science Magazine. He just got back from the 14th International AIDS conference where he reported on the AIDS vaccine and anti-HIV drug therapies. His article "Designer Bugs" in the July/August edition of The Atlantic Monthly is about how scientists have the ability to create synthetic viruses in the lab, like mousepox and polio, and the controversies and dangers this presents.

Leo Litwak is a retired San Francisco State University professor of English. He's the author of the new memoir, The Medic: Life and Death in the Last Days of World War II (Penguin Books). Litwak was a 19-year-old medic. One reviewer writes, "[A] book that should be given to every schoolboy in the country at the age of 13... the Medic teaches us so much, makes clear that sometimes the monsters in war are not only the enemy."

Professor of Islamic law at the University of California at Los Angeles Khaled Abou El Fadl. He's the author of a number of books, including Conference of the Books: The Search for Beauty in Islam (University Press of America), a collection of essays about the problems and challenges that confront Muslims in the contemporary world.

Novelist Alice Sebold. She's the author of the new book, The Lovely Bones which was reviewed last week on Fresh Air. She's also the author of the memoir, Lucky.

Dr. David Zangen, senior pediatrician, and Dr. Radgonde Amer, an ophthalmologist at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. They are part of the group of Arab and Jewish doctors who work side by side at the hospital treating casualties of the conflict in the Middle East.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg considers the obscurity of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Writer Gary Shteyngart. His debut novel, The Russian Debutante's Handbook, is receiving critical acclaim. The main character of the book, like Shteyngart, is a Russian-American Jew who emigrated to the United States as a child. In a New York Times Magazine cover article, Daniel Zalewski wrote, "Gary Shteyngart has rewritten the classic immigrant narrative — starring a sarcastic slacker instead of a grateful striver. And after all his parents have done for him!"

Terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna. His new book is Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror. Gunaratna spent five years conducting interviews with al Qaeda members, doing field research and monitoring the group's infiltration in communities in North America and Europe. He is the author of six books on armed conflict and a research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, University of St. Andrews, Scotland. He's lectured worldwide on terrorism and served as consultant to many governments.

National security expert Loch Johnson. Hes written several books about intelligence and the trade-off of personal freedom, including Bombs, Bugs, Drugs and Thugs: Intelligence and Americas Quest for Security. Johnson is a professor of political science at the University of Georgia. He has served on several US Senate committees on Intelligence.