Iraq-Kuwait Crisis (1990-1991)

Simon was killed in a car accident Wednesday. He was 73. He was a CBS reporter for nearly 50 years. In 1991, he was detained by Iraqi soldiers. He talked with guest host Marty Moss Coane in 1992.

Milton Viorst is a frequent contributor to the New Yorker who's written extensively about the Middle East. He talks with Fresh Air producer Pat Ford about the relationship between the U.S. and Jordan under the leadership of King Hussein.

Fresh Air producer Amy Salit interviews Joe Stork, the editor-chief of "Middle East Report." He'll discuss the unequal distribution of wealth in the Middle East. Kuwait's has a strong economy tied to their oil production; their reluctance to share it with other, poorer, Arab countries has been cited as one of the motives behind Iraq's invasion.

Native Kuwaities of Palestinian heritage Shafeeq Ghabra and Taghreed Alqudsi-Ghabra are both former professors at the University of Kuwait and activists against the Iraqi occupation. Now in exile the United States, the married couple joins Fresh Air to give a first-hand account of the beginning of the crisis in the region.

Dan Pipes, the Director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, talks about what should happen after a potential war in Iraq, including who'll take power, and the diplomatic mistakes we should avoid. While he wouldn't oppose the killing of Saddam Hussein, Pipes doesn't believe targeting the dictator should be a goal of the mission.

Defense Correspondent for The Sunday Times of London James Adams gives his scenario for a war in the Gulf. Among other points, he says the war will be brief, and that Iraqis troops will be totally unprepared for the opening air assault.

Reporter Pat Ford talks with Reverend Emory Searcy, Jr., the executive director of Clergy and Laity Concerned. They'll talk about the irony of the UN deadline on Iraq falling on Martin Luther King's Birthday, and the role minorities have played in American conflicts.

Janet Aviad of "Peace Now," an organization dedicated to finding peaceful solutions to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, speaks with Terry about her group's position on Saddam Hussein's linking the invasion of Kuwait with the Palestinian question. Terry also talks with David McReynolds, co-secretary of the War Resistors League. The group is advising military men and women who don't want to fight in the Gulf, and co-ordinating the peace movement.

Retired Admiral Gene LaRocque, founder of the Center for Defense Information, gives his scenario for war in the Gulf, which is more pessimistic than those of the Bush administration and the House Armed Services Committee. The Center for Defense Information is an independent monitor of the military and is made up of retired military officers as well as civilians with training and experience in military analysis.

In this two-part interview, Terry speaks first with Trudy Rubin, a Mideast expert on the editorial board at the "Philadelphia Inquirer." Rubin's just left Baghdad. We speak to her from Amman, Jordan. Next, Terry is joined by David Fromkin. They talk about the colonial interventions in the Middle East around World War I, and how those actions resonate today.

Terry talks with Albert Mokhiber, President of the American Arab Anti Discrimination Committee, about the FBI's recent questioning of prominent members of the Arab American community. She also speaks with Bill Baker, the Assistant Director of FBI's Criminal Investigative Division, who defends the practice, which many find invasive or discriminatory, claiming it's intended to protect Arab Americans from hate crimes.

Rashid Khalidi is a professor of modern Middle East history at the University of Chicago. He and Terry talk about the proposal for an international peace conference on the Mideast, which includes calls for further negotiations in the Israel-Palestine conflict.

We talk about the crisis in the Gulf and the state of the Israeli and Palestine with Joel Brinkley, the Jerusalem Bureau Chief for the New York Times.

In light of the Gulf crisis, Terry talks with Andrew Whitley, executive director of Middle East Watch. That group is a division of Human Rights Watch, an organization that monitors human rights violations in different regions of the world. Next, Terry talks with Sergeant George Rowen, of the of the New York National Guard. Rowen leaves for the Gulf in two weeks; his wife, who's also in the Guard, is stationed in Saudi Arabia.

Daniel Yergi is president of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, an international energy consulting firm. He is one of the leading authorities on the oil business, and has a new book called, "The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power," which details how European interventions in the Middle East in the wake of World War I shaped the modern petroleum trade.

Terry talks with Marie Burke, a wife and mother in Calhoun, Georgia. Burke has three sons, all of whom are in the Georgia National Guard and have been called to active duty.

Roger Fisher, director of the Harvard Negotiation Project and Professor of Law at Harvard, joins Fresh Air by phone to talk about alternatives to military intervention in the current conflict between Iraq and Kuwait.