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LIFE AND DEATH IN IRAQ

Program 07-06-03-B

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Two years ago a professor in Wisconsin checked her mail and found a most unusual letter...from an Iraqi graduate student asking for scholarly advice. Since then professor Susan Friedman has exchanged hundreds of e-mails with academics in Iraq. And she's heard harrowing accounts of academic life there, where hundreds of professors have been killed. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll talk about the dangers facing Iraqi Intellectuals and hear from a celebrated Iraqi poet.

SEGMENT 1:

Susan Friedman is a University of Wisconsin English professor specializing in feminist interpretations of literature. She maintains an e-mail correspondence with a colleague in Iraq whose messages describe the hardships and terror of life in Iraq and the constant threat of assassination. Also, Jo Tatchell has written a biography of Iraqi poet Nabeel Yasin called "Nabeel's Song." Yasin and Tatchell recently visited New York and spoke with Steve Paulson about poetry in Iraq, how Yasin got out of the country, and what it was like for him to go back after 27 years.

SEGMENT 2:

Lawrence Anthony is an acclaimed conservationist in South Africa. Shortly after the U.S. Invaded Iraq in 2003, he traveled on his own to Baghdad to do what he could to save the animals in the Baghdad Zoo. He tells his story to Jim Fleming and in the book "Babylon's Ark." Also, Rajiv Joseph is a New York playwright. He tells Jim he wrote "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" based on a small newspaper story, and reads excerpts from the play.

SEGMENT 3:

Ali Allawi is the former finance minister of the Iraqi government and the author of "The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace." He tells Steve Paulson why the in-fighting of the transitional government in Iraq forced him to resign and why he feels the American efforts there were doomed.

CD copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 07-06-03-B.

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Books:

Alli A. Allawi, The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace (Yale)
Lawrence Anthony (with Graham Spence), Babylon's Ark: The incredible wartime rescue of the Baghdad Zoo (St. Martin's Press)
Jo Tatchell, Nabeel's Song: a family story of survival in Iraq (Doubleday)

Music:

• After Friedman:
  Anouar Brahem w/ “Etincelles”
  On “Conte de l’incroyable amour”
  BMG Classics
• After Yasin & Tatchell:
  Anouar Brahem w/ “Nayzak”
• After Anthony:
  Miles Davis w/ “Assassinat”
  On “Ascenseur pour l’echafaud”
  Fontana
• After Joseph:
  Charlie Haden & Pat Metheny w/ “Tears of Rain”
  On “Beyond the Missouri Sky”
  Verve
• After Allawi:
  S-Tone Inc. w/ “Limbe”
  On Putumayo Presents Euro Lounge

Distribution dates: week of 06/03/2007 - hour 2 click here for timings and cues

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Questions and comments can be addressed to: flemingj@wpr.org

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