Free Forum with Terrence McNally

AHMED RASHID – DESCENT INTO CHAOS In his new book, DESCENT INTO CHAOS, AHMED RASHID asks what has gone wrong since the invasion of Afghanistan. This interview was recorded June 13th. This from an editorial in that morning’s New York Times: “There is enormous confusion about what happened Tuesday night on Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan. Pakistani officials say that American air and artillery strikes killed 11 of their paramilitary troops, and some are angrily demanding an end to all military cooperation. The Bush administration says that American forces were firing in self-defense — against Taliban fighters crossing into Afghanistan — and made conflicting statements about whether any Pakistani troops had died.” A center of global instability for many decades, this is just the latest example of why Pakistan may now be the most dangerous place on Earth. Bordering Iran, Afghanistan and its perennial enemy, India, the nation straddles racial and religious fault lines, the impoverished majority Sunni population rubbing up against a minority of wealthy Shiites. The Islamic republic has spawned thousands of religious seminaries whose graduates have gone on to fight across South Asia, Chechnya and the Philippines, and most recently planned attacks in Madrid, London and Frankfurt, Germany. Almost every global terrorist plot carried out or prevented since 2004 has been traced to training, funding or material support from al-Qaeda based in Pakistan's northwest areas. To top things off, there is our allie’s unsecured nuclear weapons program and the nuke bazaar run for years by General Khan which supplied “rogue” states with nuclear technology and expertise. The US has spent over $10 billion in aid to Pakistan since 2001, about half for operations on our behalf against extremists, especially in Afghanistan. Following the murder of Benazir Bhutto, the change in Pakistan's government and military structure, and the recent attempt on the life of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the political climate is no more stable than it was seven years ago -- when AHMED RASHID introduced the English-speaking world to the region in his New York Times bestseller, TALIBAN (translated into 26 languages, English language sales over 1.5 million copies.) AHMED RASHID is a Pakistani journalist, based in Lahore, who writes for "The Daily Telegraph (London)", "The Washington Post", "The International Herald Tribune", "The New York Review of Books", "BBC Online", and "The Nation". His books include JIHAD, TALIBAN, and THE RESURGENCE OF CENTRAL ASIA, and his newest, DESCENT INTO CHAOS. In January 2002 he established the ‘’Open Media Fund for Afghanistan’’ (OMFA), which gives cash grants to newly starting independent print media in Afghanistan.

Aired 05/27/08 What if there were a simple way to provide students with the books, technology, and supplies that they need to learn? What if people from all walks of life could connect directly with public schools, learn about specific classroom needs, and choose how to help? http://www.donorschoose.org makes this possible. Julie has almost 10 years of work experience in advertising, marketing, non-profit finance, and general management. Prior to joining DonorsChoose.Org, she worked at Sempra Energy Utilities promoting low income customer assistance programs. Julie has also worked at the UCLA Johnson & Johnson Management Fellows Program, http://www.SeeitandStopit.org (an organization dedicated to ending teen dating violence), Peace Games, and Oscar Mayer, where she toured the country in a Wienermobile. She has a dual BA in Advertising and Psychology from Syracuse University and an MBA from UCLA.

Aired 05/28/08Glenn Greenwald was previously a constitutional law and civil rights litigator in New York. Glenn is the author of two New York Times Bestselling books: "How Would a Patriot Act?" (May, 2006), a critique of the Bush administration's use of executive power, and "A Tragic Legacy" (June, 2007), which examines the Bush legacy. Glenn's third book, "Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics", examines the manipulative electoral tactics used by the GOP and propagated by the establishment press.

Aired 05/28/08 Executive Director Josh Silver co-founded Free Press with Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols in 2002. He oversees all programs, campaigns, fundraising and special projects. Josh previously served as campaign manager for the successful statewide ballot initiative for public funding of elections in Arizona and as the director of development for the cultural arm of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. He has served as the director of an international youth exchange program and as a development and management consultant. Josh publishes frequently on media, campaign finance and other public policy issues. http://www.freepress.net/ Free Press is a national, nonpartisan organization working to reform the media. Through education, organizing and advocacy, we promote diverse and independent media ownership, strong public media, and universal access to communications. Our work focuses on the following core issues: Media Consolidation is about the takeover of our country's media by a handful of massive corporations and the increasing control these firms exert over the flow of news and information we need to hold our leaders accountable. Through our StopBigMedia.com campaign, Free Press aims to block further media consolidation and to promote diverse, local ownership and the vibrant press that sustains our democracy. The Future of the Internet is being decided right now. We're fighting to preserve the open Internet and make sure all Americans have affordable access to high-speed networks, free from discrimination or interference by would-be corporate gatekeepers. Through SavetheInternet.com, a diverse coalition of millions of people who have banded together with thousands of organizations, small businesses and bloggers, Free Press is working to make sure the free and open Internet stays that way. Public Media includes broadcasting networks like NPR and PBS, community and Low Power FM (LPFM) radio stations that provide local coverage not available elsewhere, public access TV, and independent publications and Web sites. Free Press supports a vibrant and sustainable public and noncommercial media sector that offers diverse fare and serves local communities. We're committed to finding long-term solutions that protect public media from the political whims of Washington and policies that create more opportunities for new voices to be heard. Quality Journalism is essential to providing Americans with the information they need to understand what's happening in their communities, to hold elected leaders accountable, and to serve as a check on government and corporate power. Free Press stands with working journalists who have been squeezed by runaway media consolidation; advocates for a vibrant independent press; and supports efforts to foster investigative reporting, substantive coverage of public affairs, and critical, high-quality journalism. Media is one of the most pressing Civil Rights issues of our time. People of color, women, youth and other disenfranchised communities have long been shut out of our country's media. They own few of our media outlets, and aren't represented on the public airwaves. Free Press supports the struggle for media justice and works to strengthen laws to expand minority ownership, support new independent and ethnic media outlets, and close the digital divide. Free Press is Building a Movement for better media in the United States. We want the American people -- not just big corporations and their high-priced lobbyists -- to have a say in crafting the policies that shape the media system. We're making the media a bona fide political issue that no politician can afford to ignore. Join us.

Aired 05/20/08 Anuradha Mittal (Oakland Institute) http://www.oaklandinstitute.org on the global food crisis.World food prices rose 39% in the last year. Rice alone rose to a 19-year high in March -- an increase of 50% in two weeks alone -- while the real price of wheat has hit a 28-year high.Food riots erupted in Egypt, Guinea, Haiti, Indonesia, Mauritania, Mexico, Senegal, Uzbekistan and Yemen. For the 3 billion people in the world who subsist on $2 a day or less, the leap in food prices is a killer. They spend a majority of their income on food, and when the price goes up, they can't afford to feed themselves or their families.Obvious causes: increased demand from China and India, rising fuel and fertilizer costs, increased use of bio-fuels and climate change. But less obvious causes have also had a profound effect on food prices. In the last 30 years, the US, the World Bank and the IMF have imposed devastating policies on developing countries. By requiring them to open up their agriculture market to giant multinational companies and persuading them to specialize in exportable cash crops, they have turned developing countries that used to be self-sufficient in food into large food importers.

Robert Bryce is a journalist in Austin, Texas and the author of Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron (PublicAffairs, 2002; a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year) and Cronies: Oil, the Bushes, and the Rise of Texas, America's Superstate (PublicAffairs, 2004). Bryce was a reporter for the Austin Chronicle for 12 years, and is now the managing editor of the Energy Tribune. His most recent book is Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of "Energy Independence" (PublicAffairs 2008), which the New York Times said he wrote “with all the gusto of a hunter clubbing baby seals.”

Aired 04/29/08 KEVIN PHILLIPS, Author," THE POLITICS OF RICH & POOR; AMERICAN THEOCRACY" And his newest - "BAD MONEY: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism."KEVIN PHILLIPS describes the consequences of our misguided economic policies, our mounting debt, our collapsing housing market, our threatened oil, and the end of American domination of world markets.

Guns Over Butter - Terry hosts "The Rachel Maddow Show"(Hour 3-April 14)

JOSEPH STIGLITZ is University Professor at Columbia University in New York and Chair of Columbia University's Committee on Global Thought. In 2001, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics for his analyses of markets with asymmetric information. His work has helped explain the circumstances in which markets do not work well, and how selective government intervention can improve their performance.Stiglitz was a member of the Council of Economic Advisers from 1993-95, during the Clinton administration, and served as CEA chairman from 1995-97. He then became Chief Economist and Senior Vice-President of the World Bank from 1997-2000.His book, Globalization and Its Discontents, was translated into 35 languages and has sold more than one million copies worldwide. Other books include Fair Trade for All, Making Globalization Work, and his newest (with Linda Bilmes) THE $3 TRILLION WAR.Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict. According to the book, Americans will spend decades treating the physical and psychological wounds of Iraq veterans — and when the economic consequences of the invasion are taken into account, the costs are staggering.http://www.josephstiglitz.com

DAHR JAMAIL: Book BEYOND THE GREEN ZONE:DISPATCHES FROM AN UNEMBEDDED JOURNALIST IN OCCUPIED IRAQIn late 2003, Weary of the overall failure of the US media to accurately report on the realities of the war in Iraq for the Iraqi people and US soldiers, DAHR JAMAIL an independent journalist from Anchorage, Alaska went to Iraq to report on the war himself.His dispatches were quickly recognized as an important media resource. He is now writing for the Inter Press Service, The Asia Times and many other outlets. His reports have also been published with The Nation, The Sunday Herald, Islam Online, the Guardian, Foreign Policy in Focus, and the Independent to name just a few. On radio as well as television, Dahr reports for Democracy Now!, the BBC, and numerous other stations around the globe. Dahr is also special correspondent for Flashpoints.http://www.dahrjamailiraq.comDahr has spent a total of 8 months in occupied Iraq as one of only a few independent US journalists in the country. In the MidEast, Dahr has also has reported from Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. His first book was recently published, BEYOND THE GREEN ZONE: DISPATCHES FROM AN UNEMBEDDED JOURNALIST IN OCCUPIED IRAQ