Can we talk about what actually happened on 9/11?

On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation about the questions that remain seven years after the 9/11 Commission delivered its report. What were their conclusions? And what is still missing? Join us at 10 or email feedback@yourcallradio.org. A wide range of people are calling for an independent investigation. Ten years after the attacks, is this warranted? And what would it reveal? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Ann Wright, Retired Col. and a diplomat in the State Department for 15 years, serving in the U.S. embassies of Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Grenada and Nicaragua. She resigned in 2003 in protest of the then-impending invasion of Iraq. In 2009, she co-authored Dissent, Voices of Conscience.

Anthony Summers, an investigative journalist and author

Paul Thompson, a 9/11 researcher and co-author of The Terror Timeline: Year by Year, Day by Day, Minute by Minute: A Comprehensive Chronicle of the Road to 9/11 and America's Response

Click to Listen: Can we talk about what actually happened on 9/11?

What does the death of Osama bin Laden mean?

What does the death of Osama bin Laden mean to the world today, after ten years of the so-called "War on Terror"? On the next Your Call, we'll open the lines to talk about the significance of Osama bin Laden's death. His body has reportedly been buried at sea. What do you think about President Obama saying we brought Osama bin Laden to "justice"? How will this impact people in Afghanistan and Pakistan? Join us at 10 or send an email to feedback@yourcallradio.org. What is bin Laden's legacy? How did he change the world? And how did the US shape him as a symbol by framing him as terrorist #1? It's Your Call with Holly Kernan and you.

Guests:
Aunohita Mojumdar is a freelance journalist currently based in Kabul. She has reported from the South Asian region for 19 years.

Ali Kamran Asdar, associate professor of anthropology, Middle East Studies and Asian Studies at the University of Texas, Austin.

Paul Fitzgerald is co-author of Crossing Zero: The AfPak War at the Turning Point of American Empire.

Click to Listen: What does the death of Osama bin Laden mean?

What do you think of Bradley Manning's detention?

What do you think of the way the US is treating Bradley Manning? On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation about the 23-year-old US army officer accused of leaking classified information to Wikileaks. Manning faces 22 charges, including "aiding the enemy." His lawyer says he's being held in solitary confinement in a tiny cell at a Navy brig in Quantico, Virginia. Why has his treatment and confinement been so extreme? And what do you think of the charges against Bradley Manning? Join us at 10 or send an email to feedback@yourcallradio.org. It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar, and you.

Guests:
Ann Wright, former United States Army colonel and retired official of the U.S. State Department, outspoken opposer of the Iraq War

David MacMichael, former CIA analyst and current member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity

Greg Mitchell, journalist with The Nation and author of Bradley Manning: Truth and Consequences

Click to Listen: What do you think of Bradley Manning's detention?

Is torture still standard practice for the U.S.?

On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation about U.S. torture policies. Revelations about the treatment of detainees in Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and other prisons, have shed light on U.S. torture policies. What happened to that conversation? Join us at 11 or send an email to feedback@yourcallradio.org. What do we know about the use of torture today? Has anything changed since President Obama took office? What will it take to bring this issue back into the public consciousness? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Andy Worthington, British journalist and author of The Guantanamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison

Justine Sharrock, author of Tortured: When Good Soldiers Do Bad Things

Patricia Isasa, Argentinian torture survivor

Click to Listen: Is torture still standard practice for the U.S.?

Event:
Rose Aguilar is speaking at this weekend's Bioneers conference in San Rafael.
Women, Gender and Media: Changing the Conversation
Sunday, October 17, at 4:30pm

How can we take on our vast secret government?

On the next Your Call, we'll talk about government secrecy and how it has exploded since 9/11. The Washington Post ran a series last week about the multi-billion dollar industry of "secret intelligence." Independent journalists have been reporting on this for years. Why is so much of U.S. intelligence secret? What should be secret? Join us live at 11 or send us an email at feedback@yourcallradio.org. What does this secrecy say about our democracy? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Trevor Paglen, artist and author of Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon's Secret World and Invisible: Covert Operations and Classified Landscapes

Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst and army intelligence officer; founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity

Click to Listen: How can we take on our vast secret government?

Media Roundtable

On the next Your Call, it's our Friday Media Roundable. This week, the Washington Post began a series on the secret world of privatized intelligence. What did we learn from their two-year investigation? What was missing? We'll also discuss coverage of the economy, unemployment, and the latest news on the oil disaster. We'll be joined by Tim Shorrock, investigative reporter and author of Spies for Hire, and Andy Kroll, an economics reporter for Mother Jones. Where did you see the best reporting this week? What grabbed your attention? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Andy Kroll, a reporter in the Washington, DC, bureau of Mother Jones magazine. He's written for The Wall Street Journal, The Nation, and Salon, and is also an associate editor at TomDispatch.com.

Tim Shorrock, investigative journalist and labor activist. He is the author of Spies For Hire: The Secret World of Outsourced Intelligence.

Click to Listen: Media Roundtable

What Happens When the War on Terror Comes to You?

What happens when the focus of the war on terror turns to your country? Yemen, nearly unknown to most Americans, is now headline news. How does that sudden focus affect the way Yemenis and their country are perceived? What are we learning, and what's being missed? Got questions about Yemen that have nothing to do with Al Qaeda? Join the conversation live at 11 a.m. or send your questions and comments to feedback@yourcallradio.org. What happens when the War on Terror turns to your country? It's Your Call with Sandip Roy, and you.

Guests:
Dr. Sheila Carapico, professor of political science and international studies at the University of Richmond

Charles Schmitz, of the American Institute for Yemeni studies

Click to Listen: What Happens When the War on Terror Comes to You?

Your Call 093009 What are we going to do with Afghanistan?

On the next Your Call we will be looking at alternatives to the plan in General McChrystal's report to President Obama. McChrystal says that without a significant increase in U.S. troops, failure is likely for the international mission in Afghanistan. What is America's national interest in Afghanistan? What would success look like and are we willing to provide the resources we need to bring that success to fruition? It's Your Call with Sandip Roy and you.

Click to Listen: What are we going to do with Afghanistan?

Your Call 070209 What changed in Iraq this week?

What has changed now that American troops have redeployed out of urban centers in Iraq? What still hangs in the balance? On the next Your Call we'll talk about who withdrew and where they went and what it all means. President Maliki declared it National Sovereignty Day, but how much will Iraqi police and military control? Send us an email at feedback@yourcallradio.org or join us live at 11 a.m. A majority of Americans and Iraqis want the troops out of Iraq. Is this a step in the right direction? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Vijay Prashad in Hartford, Connecticut
George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and professor of International Studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. He is the author of eleven books, most recently The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World.

Nabil Al-Tikriti in Fredericksburg, Virginia
Assistant professor of History of the University of Mary Washington. From 1992-2003, Dr. Al-Tikriti was a context and liaison officer, administrator and logistician for Mdecins Sans Frontires. Al-Tikriti was a member of the team that operated the Catholic Relief Services humanitarian assistance project in Iraq in 1991-1992.

Basma AlKhateeb in Baghdad
Gender and Youth Project manager for the Iraqi AlAmal Association in Baghdad.

Click to Listen: What changed in Iraq this week?

Your Call 060409 Has the Obama Administration learned the lessons of the Bush failures?

Has the Obama Administration learned the lessons of the Bush failures? On the next Your Call we speak with Andrew Bacevich, author of The Limits of Power. Bacevich rose to prominence as a fierce critic of the Bush administration's aspirations for and execution of military policy. Have we learned the lessons of imperial overreach? Are we shifting our military and diplomatic resources in a way that would protect the American people and improve the chances for reformers overseas? Send us an email at feedback@yourcallradio.org or join us live at 11 am. Is Imperial America a thing of the past? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guest:
Andrew Bacevich in San Francisco
Professor of international relations and history at Boston University. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and retired with the rank of colonel. He is the author of several books, including American Empire: The Realities and Consequences of U. S. Diplomacy and The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War. His most recent book The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism is now out on paperback.

On May 13, 2007, Bacevich's son, also named Andrew J. Bacevich, was killed in action in Iraq. He was 27 and a first lieutenant assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 8th U.S. Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division.

Click to Listen: Has the Obama Administration learned the lessons of the Bush failures?

Your Call 042909 Why does torture capture the public's imagination?

Why does torture capture the public's imagination in a way that death wrought by war does not? On the next Your Call we will discuss the disparity between our national conversation on torture and the relative quiet about the death and destruction in Iraq and Afghanistan. Is it easier to imagine ourselves as the tortured, or the torturer, than as a soldier in the field? Send us an email at feedback@yourcallradio.org or join us live at 11 a.m. Does the scale of war make it harder to fathom, while torture is intimate enough to come alive in the imagination? It's Your Call with Sandip Roy and you.

Guests:
Richard Falk in Santa Barbara
Professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, writer (the author or co-author of 20 books), speaker, activist on world affairs, and an appointee to two United Nations positions on the Palestinian territories.

Scott Horton in New York
Professor at Columbia Law School where he teaches law of armed conflict. He is also a contributing editor to Harper's Magazine and writes the No Comment blog

Uwe Jacobs in San Francisco
Clinical director for Survivor's International

Click to Listen: Why does torture capture the public's imagination?

Your Call 020209 What's our plan in Afghanistan?

President Obama is in the beginning stages of shifting military resources from Iraq to Afghanistan. What is his goal? On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation with Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald, authors of Afghanistan's Untold Story. Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently said Afghanistan is "our greatest military challenge." The U.S. plans to send 30,000 additional troops to the region. What has failed to this point? And what is the U.S. trying to accomplish by escalating the seven-year occupation? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar, and you.

Guests:

Elizabeth Gould & Paul Fitzgerald, journalists and authors of Invisible History: Afghanistan's Untold Story

Click to Listen: What's our plan in Afghanistan?

Your Call 122908 Who Controls Space?

Who controls space? On the next Your Call, we'll revisit a show we did as part of our series on the commons. Control of space is at the crux of the debate about the future of U.S. military space policy. What rules apply? Do military and commercial uses of space threaten its status as a shared resource? Is it time for a new space treaty? It's Your Call with Sandip Roy and you.

Guests: Mike Moore, author of Twilight War: The Folly of U.S. Space Dominance  

Kim Alaine Rathman, member of the Society for Philosophy and Technology 

Click to Listen: Who controls space?

Your Call 102908 The Shadow Factory

When you start a secret program to spy on everyone, how can you ever be sure it's been unplugged for good? On the next Your Call we'll be joined by James Bamford, who has done more to pull back the curtain on the ultra-secret National Security Agency than anyone else. Bamford's new book The Shadow Factory recounts how the Bush Administration transformed epic failures by American intelligence agencies into arguments for massively increasing their power. How does the NSA skim the emails, faxes, phone calls and Internet traffic of the entire world? What is the NSA listening to right now? It may be Your Call, with me, Sandip Roy and you.

Guests: James Bamford in DC
Our nation's chronicler of the dark side. He's a regular contributor to the New York Times Magazine, Harpers and his article in Rolling Stone "The Man who Sold the War" won the National Magazine Award for Reporting. Mr. Bamford joins us from DC.

Click to Listen: The Shadow Factory

Your Call 090208 Coming Home: Health Care for Veterans

What do veterans face upon returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan? On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation about the VA, healthcare, PTSD, and suicides. What's really changed since the Walter Reed scandal broke last year? Both presidential candidates say they will make healthcare for veterans a priority, but do their voting records match their rhetoric? Is the posturing on Capitol Hill having an effect on services delivered to veterans on the ground? And how has the treatment of recent veterans affected their political allegiances? It's Your Call at 11 with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Aaron Glantz, independent journalist who reported from Iraq from 2003 to 2005 and has been reporting the stories of American veterans since his return. He is author of two upcoming books on the Iraq War: "The War Comes Home: Washington's Battle Against America's Veterans" (UC Press) and "Winter Soldier Iraq and Afghanistan: Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations," (Haymarket) which he is co-authoring with Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Joe Wheeler served in Iraq from March of 2003 until November of 2003 as a surgical assistant. He is a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Tia Christopher, Swords to Plowshares

Joseph A. Violante, National Legislative Director, Disabled American Veterans

Click to Listen: Coming Home: Health Care for Veterans

Your Call 081808 Assessing the Georgia-Russian War

What's really happening in Georgia? On the next Your Call, we'll dig beneath the headlines with the New York Times' James Traub, CIA critic Mel Goodman, and the Independent Institute's Ivan Eland. The United States sent advisers to build up the Georgian military, including an exercise last month with more than 1,000 American troops and Israel has sold weapons to Georgia. What is this conflict about? Is it about oil? Disputed territory? Why are the U.S. and Israel interfering in Russia's backyard? It's Your Call, Monday at 11, with me, Rose Aguilar.

Guests:
Mel Goodman
Senior fellow and director of the national security program at the Center for International Policy. He is former professor of international security studies and chairman of the international relations department at the National War College. He was division chief and senior analyst at the CIA's Office of Soviet Affairs from 1976 to 1986. He is author Failure of Intelligence: The Decline and Fall of the CIA and The Wars of Edvard Shevardnadze.

James Traub in New York
Contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, where he has worked since 1998. On August 10th he wrote the Week in Review article about the Georgia-Russia war, entitled, "Battle Cry- Taunting the Bear." James Traub is author of the forthoming book, The Freedom Agenda: Why America Must Spread Democracy (Just Not the Way George Bush Did).

Ivan Eland in Washington DC
Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Peace & Liberty at The Independent Institute. He spent 15 years working for Congress on national security issues, including stints as an investigator for the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Principal Defense Analyst at the Congressional Budget Office. His book The Empire Has No Clothes: U.S. Foreign Policy Exposed has just been updated and re-released.

Click to Listen: Assessing the Georgia-Russian War

Your Call 072408 Spies for Hire

When intelligence is privatized, how do you ever get it back under public control? On the next Your Call we talk with investigative journalist Tim Shorrock, author of Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing. Private contractors have been a part of the American military since the war of independence, but American spies used to have government employee ids. Shorrock tells how all of that changed since 9-11, and now more than three-quarters of the $60 billion intelligence budget is spent on intelligence contracting. When the contractors who collect the intelligence work for the same companies that will be hired to act on the intelligence, who will know what the true picture is? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guest:

Tim Shorrock in San Francisco
Author of Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing

Click to Listen: Spies for Hire

Your Call 071508 Afghanistan Update

Why was June the most violent month in Afghanistan? On the next Your Call, we'll speak with three women about the forgotten war. Last week, a car bomb killed 41 Afghans and on Sunday, nine U.S. troops were killed and 15 were wounded. From Kabul, we'll speak with the New York Times' Carlotta Gall and independent reporter Roya Aziz. We'll also be joined by Malalai Joya, the first woman elected to the Afghan parliament. She was suspended for calling politicians warlords. She's currently on a Bay Area speaking tour. Where is America's other war headed? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar.

Guest:
Malalai Joya in San Francisco
The youngest person and one of 68 women elected to the 249- seat National Assembly or Wolesi Jirga in 2005. In 2007, Joya was suspended from her seat because of controversial remarks she made about warlords in parliament.

Roya Aziz in Kabul
Reporter, documentary film maker and editor of the English language section of the Kabul Weekly. Roya was born in Kabul, raised in the U.S., and returned to Afghanistan 4 years ago.

Carlotta Gall in Afghanistan
New York Times correspondent in Afghanistan. Gall broke the story of an Afghan taxi driver named Dilawar who was beaten to death in 2002 while in U.S. military custody. Gall's reporting revealed the official military explanation of death from natural causes to have been a lie.

Click to Listen: Afghanistan Update

Your Call 071108 Media Roundtable

On the next Your Call it is our Friday Media Roundtable. This week we'll speak with Tom Lasseter, Moscow Bureau Chief for McClatchy and the lead reporter on a recent five part series about the prisoners at Guantanamo, many whom were radicalized by their treatment. What was the response to 8 months of investigation? We'll also speak with National Public Radio's Ombudswoman Lisa Shepard. Where did the news media succeed and where did it fall short this week? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guest:
Tom Lasseter in Moscow
Bureau chief for McClatchy and the lead reporter for a recently published a five-part series detailing the U.S.'s treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay and Afghanistan. The series was the culmination of an eight-month investigation, during which McClatchy interviewed 66 former detainees, few of whom had talked before with reporters.

Lisa Shepard in Washington DC
Ombudsman for NPR. Prior to joining NPR for the 2 year appointment, Shepard was a journalism instructor and analyst.

Click to Listen: Media Roundtable

Your Call 071008 Guantanamo Diary

What was it like to come face to face with the men called the worst of the worst, only to find out they were no such thing? On the next Your Call we speak with Mahvish Khan, author of My Guantanamo Diary: The Detainees and the Stories They Told Me. Khan, an American lawyer born to immigrant Afghan parents, volunteered to be a translator for detainees in Guantanamo. Instead of the worst killers she found innocent men caged by the worst excesses of the War on Terror. How is it that a country can illegally imprison innocent people, and also give an immigrant's child the opportunity to intervene on their behalf? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guest:
Mahvish Rukhsana Khan in San Francisco
Author of My Guantanamo Diary: The Detainees and the Stories They Told Me. Khan, an American Lawyer with Afghan immigrant parents, made more than 30 trips to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base to interpret for the Pashto speaking detainees.

Click to Listen: Guantanamo Diary