It was the endorsement heard around the world: President Bush’s approval of Ariel Sharon’s plan to pull out of Gaza, keep some West Bank settlements, and refuse the right of return to Palestinian refugees. That was three weeks ago. Since then, the Israeli Prime Minster’s own Likud Party has rejected his pullout plan; American diplomats have written a letter expressing concern over what they call the President’s “unabashed support” for Israel; and obituaries have been written for America’s honest broker status.

Later today, when Jordan’s King Abdullah meets Bush in Washington, many observers will be watching, waiting, for a sign that the dialogue is not dead. Among those people are those with their own plans, their own ideas for peace.

Guests:

Hanan Ashrawi, founder and secretary general of the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy

A White House official says the treatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison is “shameless and unacceptable.” Stronger language is being used elsewhere. “The six morons who lost the war,” is how one Pentagon official was quoted, referring to the American soldiers and contractors said to be responsible for everything from sexual abuse to murder.

Beyond the name calling are the very serious questions of how the abuses are being viewed both here and abroad, and who will be held accountable. As George W. Bush prepares to make his case in front of two Arab networks, some American politicians are calling for more than a public relations Band-Aid. They want heads to roll at the highest level.

Guests:

William Arkin, columnist for “The Los Angeles Times” and military analyst for NBC

Ken Allard, Retired army colonel, who teaches history of military technology at Georgetown University

Khaled Al-Maeena, editor in chief, Arab News

In the year when the world marks the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, there are new and disturbing echoes of what happened a decade ago. For the past few months, in Sudan, government-backed militia have been sacking villages in the western region of Darfur. Thousands of people are dead and nearly a million displaced, many without shelter, food, or water.

A recent U.N. mission has called the situation in Darfur “a massive humanitarian crisis.” Perhaps the most frightening echo of what happened in Rwanda ten years ago is that the world seems to be ignoring the disaster in Darfur.

Guests:

Omer Ismail, director and co-founder of Darfur Peace and Development

Samantha Power, lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard’s JFK School of Government, and author of the Pulitzer Prize winning book, “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide”

Ambassador Michael Ranneberger, special advisor on Sudan at the U.S. State Department

James Morris Executive Director of the United
Nation’s World Food Program.

Call it the original pyramid scheme: The systematic looting of ancient Egyptian treasures between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries. That’s when foreign Egyptologists, some with the help of local tomb raiders, made important finds, and promptly ushered them out of Egypt. The goods, everything from gold coins to mummified remains, landed in the hands of private dealers and in the permanent collections of major museums.

Now, not all archaeological excavations have been illegal, and many have advanced what we know about the ancient world. But in recent years, the Egyptian government has stepped up its efforts to recover ill-gotten artifacts, and it’s calling on the international community to help. Zahi Hawass, the man in charge of Egypt’s antiquities, is leading that hunt.

Dr. Zahi Hawass will be signing books in the Remis Auditorium at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston Wedneday from 10:30 am to noon. For tickets, or information, call 617-369-3770, or click the link below.

Guests:

Dr. Zahi Hawass, Egyptologist, Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, and National Geographic explorer-in-residence

Bonnie Speed, director, the Michael C. Carlos Museum of Atlanta

It’s as if the dot-bomb never happened. Google, the internet search engine, is now going public, delivering the IPO that investors hope could breathe new life into the sagging silicon of Dot-com Valley.

But it came with a strange owner’s manual a letter from the Google founders insisting their IPO would be done on their terms, not on Wall Street’s. The thirty-something engineers say they want to democratize the IPO process, declaring that company shares will be sold by auction to the public, rather than through inside deals with investment banks. And guess what? Some market observers say this is an IPO your grandmother could love, others say it’s an unfair grab for power and profits. The Google search for a way to go public, without the public.

Guests:

Chris Legg, Venture Capitalist, Principal at ARGO

Josh Macht, editor of TIME Magazine’s online edition

William Sahlman, Harvard Business School Professor

Mitch Ratcliffe, blog editor and writer for “Red Herring” magazine

Call it pester power or the nag factor, it’s the language of “gimme” that many American children have adopted and perfected. There have always been the demands, the foot stomping, and crying for the latest toy, or sugary treat. But now, many parents are complaining their children’s consumer appetites are getting worse, all thanks to the sophisticated marketing efforts of Madison Avenue.

Some of these parents are now asking lawmakers to help curb the $15 billion in ads and marketing directed at their kids. But others say that children under 8 years old are too young to understand what advertising is, let alone grasp, the complex messages hyping the latest rocket gun or Lingerie Barbie. And besides, they say, parents hold the power to just say no.

Guests:

Dr. Susan Linn, child psychiatrist and author of “Consuming Kids, The Hostile Takeover of Childhood.”;
Elizabeth Lascoutx, Director of the Childrens Advertising Review Unit
Paul Kernit. President of KidShop, a kids marketing firm

One year ago this weekend, President Bush stood in front of a banner reading “Mission Accomplished” and announced the end of hostilities in Iraq. Now with the death toll of American troops numbering around 700, and the number of Iraqi casualties in the thousands, people are starting to ask if the United States should actually stay the course in Iraq.

Anger at American troops is at a fever pitch, fueled by the violence in Fallujah and the horrifying photos of Iraqi prisoners being tortured at the hands of their American captors. Opinion polls now show that a solid majority of Iraqis support the withdrawal of American troops, despite earlier fears that such a move would plunge them into civil war. Is it cutting and running, or is it time for an honorable exit?

Guests:

Retired General William E. Odom, director of National Security Studies at the Hudson Institute

Jon Lee Anderson, senior writer at the New Yorker

Emad Saleh, President of the Mansour Neighborhood Council in Bagdad

Ahmed al-Rahim, professor of Arabic at
Harvard University