Government & Politics

Forensic entomologist M. Lee Goff is the author of the new book “A Fly for the Prosecution: How Insect Evidence Helps Solve Crimes” (Harvard University Press). Goff examines the insect life that inhabits a decomposing corpse, to understand when a person died and other circumstances of death. (THIS INTERVIEW CONTINUES THRU THE END OF THE SHOW).

Writer Michael Ondaatje. His new novel is “Anil’s Ghost” (Knopf), set in Sri Lanka, where Ondaatje was born. The story is about a forensic anthropologist who is working in Sri Lanka during the ethnic wars of the late 1980s and early 90s. This is his first novel since “The English Patient,” which won the Booker Prize. Ondaatje is also a poet. His books of poetry include “The Cinnamon Peeler” and “Handwriting.” He lives in Canada.

South African journalist and anti-rape activist Charlene Smith. Last year, she was raped, and feared the man who raped her could have given her HIV/AIDS. Smith had a hard time obtaining the drugs that could lessen the potential of her getting HIV. Smith then wrote about her experience and helped spread awareness about rape and HIV in South Africa. Statistics say every 26 seconds, a woman is raped in South Africa-- the country with the fastest growing HIV rate. Smith continues to speak about her experience and is pushing for legal and medical reforms in South Africa.

We talk more about HIV and AIDS in South Africa with journalist Phillip Van Niekerk (fawn-KNEE-kirk). Recently, the president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki (TAH-boh mm-BEK-eh) has become very involved in the AIDs policy in his country. Mr. Mbeki is focusing on a medical theory that states that the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, does not cause AIDS. Many leading scientists have criticized MR. Mbeki for wasting his time on what they see as a discredited theory about AIDS. The International AIDS conference is scheduled to be held in South Africa this summer.

Journalist Orville Schell talks about his new book Virtual Tibet: Searching for Shangri-La from the Himalayas to Hollywood (Metropolitan Books). For centuries now, the mountainous and remote nation of Tibet has been the object of Western fascination. Today, Tibet is the subject of movies and Hollywood celebrities have taken on Tibetan Freedom as their cause. Schell talks about Tibet, real and imagined, and takes us through the history of the West’s infatuation. Schell has covered China and Tibet for many years.

We meet Veton Surroi (vi-TON sir-ROY), publisher of the leading independent Albanian newspaper in Kosovo, called Koha Dotire (CO-ha DE TOR-ray). Surroi has just received a democracy award from the National Endowment for Democracy, a US non profit bipartisan organization. During NATO’s bombing of Kosovo, Surroi was in hiding and his newspaper was published underground.
Description (Program)

The new documentary “Well-Founded Fear” goes inside the Immigration and Naturalization Service to document the process by which asylum agents grant or deny asylum to refugees. The INS gave the filmmakers, Shari Robertson and Michael Camerini, unprecedented access. Terry talks with the two, and with Asylum Officer Robert Gerald Brown. (THIS INTERVIEW CONTINUES INTO THE SECOND HALF OF THE SHOW).

Contributing editor for Vanity Fair David Margolick. In his new book “Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday, Café Society, and an Early Cry for Civil Rights” (Running Press), Margolick traces the history and impact of the song “Strange Fruit,” a ballad about lynchings which became Billie Holiday’s signature song. It was written by a Jewish school teacher who was inspired to write the song after seeing a newspaper photograph of a lynching.

We talk about the Taliban with Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid. His new book is called Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia (Yale University Press). In the mid 1990s, the Taliban Movement gained power in Afghanistan, a country in the wake of a civil war. The Taliban declared they wanted to restore peace and enforce traditional Islamic law. Instead, The Taliban has shown itself to be a troubling development in Islamic radicalism. It has launched a genocidal campaign against Shiite Muslims in Afghanistan. It has sanctioned acts of international terrorism.

Journalist Bill Turque is Washington correspondent for Newsweek and author of the new biography, “Inventing Al Gore” (Houghton Mifflin). Turque covered both of Gore’s vice presidential campaigns and the Clinton White House. He began work on the book in 1997

Linguist Geoffrey Nunberg discusses the word hacker.

Tens of thousands of African-American men, women, and children were lynched by mobs in the United States between 1882 and 1968. Some of these lynchings were photographed, and the photos were saved as souvenirs, and were even sometimes used as postcards. Antique dealer James Allen came across these disturbing images and began to collect them. His collection is currently on display at the New York Historical Society. The book about Allen’s collection, called “Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America” (Twin Palms Publishers) was published earlier this year.

Joyce Horman is the widow of Charles Horman, an American living In Chile at the time of Pinochet's 1973 coup which overthrew the Socialist government of Salvador Allende. Horman was executed for his support of the Allende government. His story was told In the 1982 film "Missing" and Is the subject of the book "The Execution of Charles Horman, an American Sacrifice." The U.S. government had denied any complicity In Horman's death, but the recently declassified documents indicate otherwise.

The 84 year-old former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet flew home to Chile today, after the British Home Secretary ruled against extraditing him to Spain where he would have faced trial for torture and human rights violations. He was found mentally unfit to stand trial. Pinochet had been under house arrest In England for over a year, as legal efforts were made to hold him accountable for the thousands of people who died or disappeared during his 17-year regime In Chile. We talk with Peter Kornbluh, ("corn-blue") Senior Analyst at the National Security Archive.

The 84 year-old former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet flew home to Chile today, after the British Home Secretary ruled against extraditing him to Spain where he would have faced trial for torture and human rights violations. He was found mentally unfit to stand trial. Pinochet had been under house arrest In England for over a year, as legal efforts were made to hold him accountable for the thousands of people who died or disappeared during his 17-year regime In Chile. We talk with Peter Kornbluh, ("corn-blue") Senior Analyst at the National Security Archive.

Attorneys Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld. They co-founded the Innocence Project, dedicated to freeing innocent people from jail using DNA tests to do so. Barry Scheck is best known for his DNA analysis on the OJ Simpson defense team. They've collaborated on a new book (along with columnist Jim Dwyer) about their efforts, "Actual Innocence: Five Days to Execution, and Other Dispatches From the Wrongly Convicted." (Doubleday).

New York Times Reporter Roger Cohen ("Coan") talks about national and international reaction to the far right Freedom party in Austria. Roger Cohen is the Times’ Bureau Chief in Berlin. He has also reported from Bosnia and wrote "Hearts Grown Brutal: Sagas of Sarajevo" (Random House) about covering the war in Bosnia.

An expert in forensic anthropology Dr. Clyde Snow He first developed the forensic team approach to investigating human rights abuses and acted as trainer and mentor to the EAAF team.

Anthropologist and co-founder of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, Mercedes Doretti. The group was founded in 1984 to investigate the fate of persons who had been “disappeared” by the former Argentinean military regime. The team consisting of an anthropologist, pathologist, radiologist, ballistic expert, and an archaeologist exhume grave sites, and the sites of massacres to determine the truth behind what happened, and to identify skeletal remains. Since their initial work in Argentina, the EAAF has worked in many other countries to investigate human rights abuses.

Film director and Tibetan Buddhist lama Khyentse Norbu. He's making his directorial debut with the new film "The Cup" about a group of Monk's who are soccer fans. The film was shot In a actual Monastery, and the cast is the Monks who live there. "The Cup" Is also the first feature-length movie shot In Bhutan. The film was shown at last year's The Cannes Film Festival.