Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Dec. 2006 Show


Thursday December 14, 2006 - 6 PM
KBOO 90.7 FM
Click here to listen to this program!

The Baker-Hamilton report and recommendations
A regional point of view.
An interview with Trita Parsi, Ph.D.

Dr. Trita Parsi is the author of the forthcoming book Treacherous Triangle - The Secret Dealings of Iran , Israel and the United States (Yale University Press, 2007.) He is also the President of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), the largest Iranian-American organization in the US.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Nov. 2006 Show


Thursday at 6PM PST
KBOO 90.7 FM
live at www.kboo.fm

A lecture delivered by Professor Gary Sick at Reed College's Public Policy Series. Dr. Sick has served on National Security Council during Presidents Ford, Carter and Reagan and currently teaches at Columbia University. He is director of the Gulf 2000 Project a research think tank on security and development in the Persian Gulf Region.

Click here for this broadcast.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Oct. 2006 Show


Alison Weir, Executive Director of "If Americans Knew"
Thursday Oct 12th at 6 PM.
KBOO 90.7 FM or webcast at www.kboo.fm
Click here to listen on-demand

Ms. Weir will speak in Portland on Oct. 14 (Sat. 7:30 pm) at Central Lutheran Church, 1820 NE 21st Ave.

She is a national expert and award-winning investigative journalist on U.S. media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, documenting media bias statistically, etc.. Recently her organization released a study on The Associated Press newswire, which was partly motivated by the Oregonian news editors telling us that the AP is the "gold standard." She'd be especially timely as Jimmy Carter's book "Palestine: Peace not apartheid" comes out Nov. 15.

Weir has provided briefings on Capitol Hill and her speech at the Center for Policy Analysis in Washington D.C. was broadcast nationally on C-Span. Harvard Law School, Columbia, Stanford, Berkeley, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and the Naval Postgraduate Institute are among the numerous universities and colleges where she has been invited to speak.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

September 2006 Show

September 14, 2006
6-7 PM
KBOO 90.7 FM

Clisk here to listen to this program on-line.

Please join me in a live interview with Chris Toensing and Farideh Farhi about the impacts of the 9-11response on the Middle East, and Iranian nuclear crisis.

Farideh Farhi is an independent researcher and an adjunct professor of political science at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. Her publications include States and Urban-Based Revolutions in Iran and Nicaragua (1990), as well as numerous articles and book chapters on comparative analysis of revolutions, contemporary Iranian politics and foreign policy. She recently returned from several months in Iran. She writes: "Should the US join its European allies in offering to assist Iran with nuclear power generation, this time without preconditions, the resulting negotiations could resolve not only the nuclear issue, but larger concerns as well, an outcome that may well benefit the whole region."

Chris Toensing is editor of Middle East Report and executive director of the Middle East Research and Information Project. Toensing has written for the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The Progressive and other US newspapers and magazines, and has appeared hundreds of times on radio and TV programs to discuss Middle East politics. He commented today: "What was once beyond the pale -- the idea that the September 11 attacks should have been treated as crimes against humanity instead of acts of war -- has now almost become common sense. If the US had pursued that route, much of the death and destruction that followed September 11 could have been avoided."

Sunday, June 11, 2006

June 2006 Show

Ervand Abrahamian
US and Iran Relations - Ups and Downs,
an interview with Professor Ervand Abrahamian


Thursday June 8th, 2006 at 6 PM

For listening to this program click here!
Ervand Abrahamian is a CUNY Distinguished Professor in the department of history, Baruch College and the Graduate Center in the City University of New York. He has written a number of books on modern Iran, including Iran Between Two Revolutions, The Iranian Mojahedin, Khomeinism, Tortured Confessions and most recently Inventing the Axis of Evil: The Truth About North Korea, Iran and Syria, coauthored with Bruce Cumings and Moshe Mo'az. He said today: "Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's recent statement about America's willingness to talk to Iran has another more important modification in US position, that the US is willing to accept Iran's civil nuclear program. This is different from the earlier US position that Iran could not be trusted with any nuclear program. Iran may take the opportunity to explore this modification."

Saturday, May 06, 2006

May 2006 Show




Live interview with Dr. Shirin Ebadi
The 2003 Nobel Peace Laureate.

Thursday May 11th, 2006
6-7 PM KBOO 90.7 fm
To listen to this Radio interview click here!
Click here to listen to Dr. Ebadi's lecture in Portland:
~in English
~in Persian!



Shirin Ebadi is an attorney and former judge who has worked passionately for the rights of the politically oppressed in Iran for over 30 years. The first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Prize, she asserts that it is patriarchal attitudes in the Muslim world that restrict human rights, not Islam itself, which she views as a religion of peace and tolerance. A vocal opponent of foreign interference in Iran’s domestic politics, she will challenge our thinking about the future of Islamic societies.

Dr. Ebadi will be the World Afairs Council of Oregon's International Speakers Series Guest at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 7:00 p.m., Friday, May 19, 2006

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

April 2006 Show


Plan to attack Iran--Fool Me Twice!
Thursday April 13th, 2006
6-7 PM (PST)

Click here for on-line archive of this interview!

Recently several articles in the US and UK have pointed out the administration’s planning of attacks on Iran. Seymore Hershe’s New Yorker report is the latest with details on why and how these attacks are being developed. Joseph Cirincione a month ago revealed the same story in an article for the Journal of Foreign Policy, titled “Fool Me Twice”.

In the first part VOME program hosts Joe Cirincione for a live interview about this issue and the Iranian nuclear program and its potential threat (if any). Second part of the show covers the paper recently published about Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy in an interview with Jeff Blankfort.

Joseph Cirincione is the Director for Non-Proliferation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and author of Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Threats, (Second Edition, 2005) and co-author of Universal Compliance: A Strategy for Nuclear Security (March 2005). He teaches at the Georgetown University Graduate School of Foreign Service and is one of America’s best known weapons experts, appearing frequently in print and on FOX News, CNN, ABC, NBC, PBS, NPR and occasionally on Comedy Central.

Cirincione worked for nine years in the U.S. House of Representatives on the professional staff of the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Government Operations. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Joseph Cirincione appeared in the 2005 award-winning documentary, "Why We Fight," by Eugene Jarecki. He is the author of numerous articles on proliferation and weapons issues, a co-author of WMD in Iraq: Evidence and Implication (January 2004), the editor of Repairing the Regime (Routledge, 2000) and producer of the award-winning DVD, The Proliferation Threat.

Fool Me Twice


Second Part: Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy
Two Political Science scholars, professors John J. Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago's Department of Political Science and Stephen M.Walt of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government recently published a research paper about “The Israel Lobby and U.S Foreign Policy”.

The 83-page Mearsheimer-Walt paper is a downloadable PDF file at the following links:

Original research paper as was initially released.

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Against the Next War?

I am not affiliated with any of the following organizations but I support their cause to stop the nexr war before it starts:

Thursday, March 09, 2006

March 2006 Show;

Iraq 3 years after the occupation;
March 9th, 2006 - 6PM
To listen to this show on-line, Click Here!

Within two weeks the 3rd anniversary of the Iraqi invasion will arrive, a look at personal accounts of the people who are affected by the war will be presented.

Part I: An interview with Farnaz Fassihi chief Middle East correspondant for the Wall Street Journal. (Goudarz Eghtedari)
Part II: Absent Voices: Iraqi Americans on War and Peace (Miae Kim)



Farnaz Fassihi was stationed in Iraq for 3.5 years from before the start of the invaision until recently when she was relocated to become the WSJ's Middle East chief correspondant. I have talked to her today from her home in Beirut.

A self Biography of Farnaz Fassihi from Association of Newspaper Editor's web site, click here!
Farnaz Fassihi's article after she left Baghdad. Click Here!
And for Farnaz's infamous e-mail of 2004 that created some controversy in the media click here!

Part II:

Absent Voices: Iraqi Americans on War and Peace
with Dr. Enas Mohamed, who has returned to Iraq frequently since the war began, and others. Produced by KBOO's Miae Kim

Friday, March 03, 2006

A Commentary:

An Honest Conflict Resolution!!
Goudarz Eghtedari

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is expected to send a report on the Iranian nuclear program to the UN Security Council on March 6th. After almost 4 years of meetings and extensive monitoring, UK, France, and Germany (EU-3) have called off the negotiations due to an impasse on these talks.

Last week German former foreign minister Joschka Fischer and Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Advisor to President Carter, appeared together to discuss foreign policy problems at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and called on the US administration to get directly involved in the nuclear negotiations with Iran. However, when Adam Ereli, deputy spokesman for U.S. Department of State, was asked about the Fischer-Brzezinski’s comments, he responded that the US is happy with the outcome of the EU-3 negotiations and does not think there is a need for direct talks with Iran. Considering that negotiations between the EU and Iran were halted a month ago without a positive result, one would ask what exactly the US administration is calling successful. And what is in the outcome that our State Department is happy about?

The fact of the matter is that one can not enter an honest conflict resolution process hoping for stalemate negotiations. Parties who are directly benefiting or feeling harmed by the situation should be involved for the remedies to be meaningful. In this case however, the US’s objective must have not been to resolve the problem, but to take Iran to the UN-SC similar to the case of Iraq. Perhaps that is why Mr. Ereli calls it a success; otherwise this is clearly a failed process, as Mr. Fischer and the rest of the diplomatic community believe. Joschka Fischer was directly involved in the negotiations until Germany’s new chancellor came to office and has the most insights. Hassan Rowhani, the chief Iranian negotiator at the time has recently disclosed in a published report that “… cooperating with the Europeans would not change anything because Europe was not independent from the US which was committed on taking us to the Security Council.” (Raahbord, journal of Iranian Center for Strategic Studies, Fall Issue 2005)

Two points that have been conveniently ignored by the Western media were that right before the formal breakdown of the negotiations last January, Iran agreed to a ban for up to two years on industrial uranium enrichment process, while negotiations continue, and in return asked for a guarantee that the country will not be attacked militarily. Unfortunately the European negotiators could not offer such security guarantees while Americans were not at the table. President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and Secretary Rumsfeld on the other hand have continuously reminded the world that a military option is still on the table. As Mr. Brzezinski noted in his appearance in Portland last year, you can not stop a country from the pursuit of nuclear capability if you constantly threaten them with military attack and regime change.

One last minute announcement from the Russian and Iranian Nuclear Energy Agency chairmen this week brought some hope that there might still be a way to resolve the issues in hand. Reports from Tehran and Moscow indicate that Iran has accepted in principle the Russian proposal (endorsed by President Bush) to establish a joint venture that would enrich Iranian uranium to reactor level outside of the country to defuse the suspicions that Iran might divert some nuclear fuel into a weapons program.

Considering Russia's record with providing natural gas to Ukraine, the Iranian party understandably has asked for other partners, such as China, in the deal. Iran again has linked this agreement to guarantees of its territorial sovereignty. It is time for President Bush to refrain from his unilateral strategy in dealing with world affairs and become an involved partner in solving this problem.

As President Bush mentioned in his state of the union speech and is followed up with India and Pakistan, it is every country’s right to have peaceful nuclear energy--he is in fact proposing it as an alternative energy source in the US. So why not call on the Iranian proposal to get involved in their energy project, give them modern and safe nuclear reactors and monitor their activities on the ground under IAEA safeguards. After all we should remember that the master plan for Iran’s nuclear program was designed and endorsed by President Ford’s administration, and the Iranian regime is just following the steps that the US Department of Energy and Stanford University outlined back in 1976. The US should actively participate in the discussion and use its economic and strategic advantages to concurrently pursue other important issues such as Human Rights, the Middle East peace process, and the fight against drugs and terrorism. If we have learned anything from the Iraqi adventure, it is that we should stop the bloodshed before it starts.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

February 2006 Show;

Thursday February 9th, 2006
6-7 PM on KBOO 90.7 FM
Call-in number: (503) 231 8187

To listen to this show on-line, Click Here!

On Saturday February 4th the board of Governors of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) voted to report Iran to the United Nations Security Council with regards to its nuclear activities. Iran claims that it only aims to use the nuclear energy in a peaceful manner and has no intention to produce weapons. United States and some European countries on the other hand charge that Islamic Republic of Iran pursues a nuclear program that can eventually produce weapons of mass destruction.

My guests this week is Cyrus Safdari. Mr. Safdari is a lawyer and a political analyst on Iranian affairs.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

January 2006 Show

Palestinian/Israeli Peace Process after Ariel Sharon

Interviews with Dr. Joel Beinin and Dr. Robert Blecher
Thursday January 12th, 2006 at 6 PM
KBOO 90.7 FM
webcast at www.kboo.fm

Departure of Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon from the helm will bring new opportunities or obstacles? Who Ariel Sharon was and how his departure will affect the Peace process? Join Goudarz Eghtedari in an interview with two scholars in the field for answers to these questions;

Click here to listen to this show on-line!

Robert Blecher is director of scenario planning at Strategic Assessments Initiative, where he directs a team of Israeli and Palestinian scholars investigating unorthodox solutions to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. He is also an editor of Middle East Report. Previously, he was an assistant professor of history at the University of Richmond and has consulted with International Crisis Group and United Nations High Commission for Refugees.

Joel Beinin has taught Middle East history at Stanford since 1983, including a broad range of courses from the rise of Islam to the present. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1982, his A.M. from Harvard University in 1974, and his A.B. from Princeton University in 1970. His principal areas of research have been the social histories of modern Egypt, Israel and Palestine, radical movements, minorities, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. His intellectual profile has been formed by engagement with political economy, cultural studies, and comparative empire studies. His most recent books are The Struggle for Sovereignty: Palestine and Israel, 1993-2005 (Stanford University Press, forthcoming 2006); co-edited with Rebecca L. Stein and Workers and Peasants in the Modern Middle East (Cambridge University Press, 2001). He is the past president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America and a member of the editorial committee of Middle East Report, published by the Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP).