Government & Politics

Historian Jon Wiener spent 14 years fighting to gain access to the FBI’s secret files on former Beatle John Lennon. Wiener’s Freedom of Information case went all the way to the Supreme Court before the FBI decided to settle. His new book “Gimme Some Truth” (University of California Press) outlines and reproduces the most important pages of the file, revealing that the Nixon administration plotted to deport Lennon in 1972 and silence him as a voice of the anti-war movement.

Book Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction by historian Linda Gordon (Harvard Press).

Correspondent from the New York Times Moscow bureau, Celestine Bohlen (CELL-es-teen BO-lin). She'll discuss the role of the new acting Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in the conflict. Bohlen will also talk about the reaction of Russian citizens to the war.

Moscow Bureau chief for the New York Times, Michael Gordon. He's been covering the war in Chechnya. The New York Times is one of only two western news organizations allowed in Chechnya by the Russian military. Gordon also covered the Gulf war and the war in Kosovo, and is co-author of the book "The Generals' War" about the Gulf War.

Staff writer for The New Yorker and legal analyst at ABC News, Jeffrey Toobin. He's been a frequent guest on Fresh Air. He wrote about the O.J. Simpson trial in his bestseller "The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson." His new book is "A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal that Nearly Brought Down a President." (Random House).

Rubin "Hurricane" Carter. In the early 60s, Carter was a top contender for the middleweight boxing crown. Then in 1967, he was convicted of three murders he did not commit. He was in prison for nearly 20 years, but continued to fight for his freedom in state and federal courts. Finally in 1985, he was found innocent and set free. We talk with Carter, and his biographer, James Hirsch, author of "Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of Rubin Carter" (Houghton Mifflin Company). A new movie about Carter, called Hurricane, just opened.

We talk about the state of welfare with journalist Jason DeParle (dee- PARL). De Parle has been covering welfare for the last 10 years. He has been monitoring welfare programs in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where work requirements have been the toughest. He just finished a yearlong series for the New York Times, about the changes in the welfare system. He says that although there are far fewer people on welfare, the lives of the poor haven’t changed much.

Pulitzer-Prize winning writer Garry Wills. His new book is "A Necessary Evil: A History of American Distrust of Government" (Simon & Schuster). Wills is also the author of "Lincoln At Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America." And he's written other books on Nixon, Reagan and Kennedy, as well as a look at the relationship between politics and popular culture via celebrity, "John Wayne's America: the Politics of Celebrity."

Retired CIA intelligence officer, Antonio J. Mendex was the agency's Chief of Disguise. He retired in 1990. In his 25 year career with the agency, he participated in many missions. In 1980 he helped six American diplomats escape from Tehran. Masquerading as a movie producer, he entered Iran supposedly to scout locations for a science-fiction movie. He then coached the diplomats to pose as the film crew, allowing them to leave the country. His new book is "The Master of Disguise: My Secret Life in the CIA." (William and Morrow Company).

International security expert George Robert Perkovich (Per-KO-vich) is author of the new book, "India's Nuclear Bomb: The Impact on Global Proliferation" (University of California Press) is about India's 50 year secret nuclear program, which began in 1947, and the forces internal and external that led to their detonation last year of 5 nuclear test bombs. Perkovich is deputy director for programs, and director of the Secure World Program for the W. Alton Jones Foundation, a philanthropic institution.

We remember crime novelist George V. Higgins. He was found dead at his home on Saturday, apparently of natural causes. He was 59. He was best known for his best seller, "Friends of Eddie Coyle," published in 1972. (REBROADCAST from 9/30/1986)

Writer and director Ziad Doueiri ("ZEE-odd Doe-AIR-ee") is making his feature film debut with, "West Beirut." It's set in 1975 during the Lebanese civil war and is largely autobiographical. The film received accolades from the Cannes Film Festival, and the Toronto International Film Festival. Doueiri and his family left Lebanon for California in 1983. Before making this film, Doueiri, was cameraman for all of Quentin Tarantino's films.

Journalist Bill Minutaglio writes for The Dallas Morning News. He's also just written a biography of presidential hopeful and Texas Governor George W. Bush. It's called "First Son: George W. Bush and the Bush Family Dynasty" (Times Books).

Journalist Allan Nairn has covered U.S. foreign policy since 1980. In September after most journalists, UN officials, and independent observers were forced out of East Timor, Nairn stayed to report on events there. He witnessed the destruction and violence in Dili by the militia following the vote for independence by East Timorese. He was then arrested, detained, and deported. Nairn writes for "The Nation", Pacifica Radio and The New Yorker.

Writer Edmund Morris. His biography of former president Ronald Reagan, "Dutch," (Random House) has garnered a lot of controversy. Morris uses a fictional narrator to tell much of the story, taking unprecedented artistic liberties. This is the first biography authorized by a sitting president, and it took Morris fourteen years to finally complete the work. Morris, a South African by birth, is the author of "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt," which won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award. He is currently at work on a second volume of the Roosevelt biography.

Jose Ramos-Horta ("Joe-zay Ra-MOSH Horta") is an exiled East Timorese resistance leader. In 1996 he shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Bishop Belo from East Timor. Since 1975, when Indonesia invaded and annexed the newly independent East Timor, Ramos-Horta has denounced Indonesia's actions and defended the rights of East Timorese, as an ambassador to the U.N. and a representative for independence groups.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter discusses his work helping monitor elections in East Timor at the time of the referendum for independence.

Journalist Patrick Tyler is a correspondent for the New York Times, based in Moscow. Previously he was the Beijing Bureau Chief for the paper. He's written a new book about 30 years of U.S./China relations: "A Great Wall: Six Presidents and China: In Investigative History." (A Century Foundation Book)