History

Actress Maria Bello often seems to find herself playing characters involved with men in trouble -- take the films A History of Violence and The Cooler, for example. She now stars as the wife of a Port Authority officer trapped in the rubble of the Sept. 11 attacks, in Oliver Stone's upcoming film World Trade Center.

Deputy Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Ginger Cruz oversees the audit, inspection and investigation operations established to prevent waste, fraud and abuse in the U.S. reconstruction of Iraq. Cruz just returned from Iraq.

Oliver Stone's new film World Trade Center, starring Nicolas Cage and Michael Pena, follows two Port Authority policemen trapped in the rubble of the towers. Our critic says the film raises a lot of questions about how we grieve.

British diplomat and journalist Rory Stewart walked alone across Afghanistan following the fall of the Taliban. The former fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Havard's Kennedy School of Government wrote about it in the memoir The Places in Between. Stewart was later appointed a provincial governor in post-invasion Iraq, and has a memoir about that experience as well.

Palestinian author, journalist and literary critic Samir El-Youssef was born in a refugee camp in Lebanon. He now lives in London, and has collaborated with his friend, Israeli writer Etgar Keret, on a book, Gaza Blues. El-Youssef provides his views on recent events in the Middle East.

Etgar Keret, a best-selling author in Israel whose books have also been published in the United States, talks about recent events in the Middle East. Keret collaborated with Palestinian author Samir El-Youssef for the book Gaza Blues. Keret contributed a collection of short stories and El-Youssef, a novella.

Syrian dissident Ammar Abdulhamid is a visiting fellow with the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. He says that while growing up in Syria in the '70s and '80s, it wasn’t fears of an Israeli attack that kept him up at night. His concern was the dreaded Syrian security apparatus and certain government officials.

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman just returned from a trip to Israel, Jordan and Syria. He talks with us about the war between Israel and Hezbollah, and where Syria fits in. Friedman's most recent book is The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century.

Christopher Dickey, Paris bureau chief and Middle East regional editor for Newsweek magazine, discusses the crisis in the Middle East.

Professor Daniel Byman talks about new book, Deadly Connections: States That Sponsor Terrorism. He explores the symbiotic relationship between terrorist organizations and their state sponsors. Byman is associate professor in Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and director of Georgetown's Security Studies Program and Center for Peace and Security Studies.

Thomas Ricks, senior Pentagon correspondent for The Washington Post, talks about his new book, Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, Ricks, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, takes a hard look at the American military invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Washington Post senior Pentagon correspondent Thomas Ricks. His new book is called Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq. Ricks is a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter. He talks about the possibility of U.S. involvement in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. This is the first of a two part interview.

Julia Choucair is an associate in the Democracy and Rule of Law Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the deputy editor of the Carnegie's e-monthly, the Arab Reform Bulletin.

A few years ago, writer Jeffrey Goldberg spoke with Hezbollah leaders for a 2002 article in called "In the Party of God: Are Terrorists in Lebanon Preparing for a Larger War?" Goldberg will help us understand the background of the current unrest in Lebanon. Goldberg serves as Washington correspondent for The New Yorker.

New York Times reporter Dexter Filkins has been covering the war in Iraq and is back for a brief visit to the United States. Filkins updates us on the situation in the Middle East. Last year, he received the George Polk Award for War Reporting for his riveting, firsthand account of an eight-day attack on Iraqi insurgents in Falluja.

Steven Erlanger, New York Times bureau chief in Jerusalem, joins us to talk about intensified fighting in the region. Erlanger has reported from all over the world, serving in Moscow, Bangkok, Prague and other cities. Prior to his tenure at the Times, he wrote for The Boston Globe.

Philanthropist and investor George Soros is the chairman of Soros Fund Management and the Open Society Institute. His new book is The Age of Fallibility: Consequences of The War on Terror. Soros, whose worth has been estimated at over $7 billion, has directed his philanthropic efforts toward defeating George W. Bush in 2004, overthrowing communism in Eastern Europe, helping black students attend university in apartheid South Africa and repealing drug prohibition laws internationally.

Jed Horne of the New Orleans Times-Picayune discusses his new book, Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of a Great American City.

Coach Bill Resler and former player Devon Crosby Helms are at the heart of the basketball documentary The Heart of the Game. The film follows the Roosevelt High School Roughriders, a Seattle-area girls' team, for six seasons.

Army chaplain and captain Ran Dolinger has 20 years of experience in the army, ministering to soldiers in the field, and training other chaplains. He was in Iraq from July 2003 to February 2004, and returns there September. He currently serves at the Chief of Chaplains Office as media liaison officer.