Brian Drolet is currently acting director of Deep Dish TV. There he was the coordinating producer of "Shocking and Awful--A Grassroots Response to War and Occupation" (2006), a twelve part documentary series on the US war on Iraq. From October 2002 to April 2003 he produced live national and international saltellite TV coverage of the major U.S. anti-war demonstratons and in June 2006 co-produced live coverage of the World Tribunal on Iraq from Istanbul, Turkey.

Curtis White is professor of English at Illinois State University and President of the Board of Directors of the Center for Book Culture.

Helena Cobban has written about (and often from) the Middle East since 1975. She writes a column on global affairs for The Christian Science Monitor essays for Boston Review, and books for whoever will publish them. Her main blog is Just World News. She thinks she may be the only Quaker who's also a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Her home website is here .

Howard Zinn is a historian, playwright, and social activist. He has written many books including A People's History of the United States and Terrorism and War (with Anthony Arnove).

Joost Hiltermann is Middle East Project Director for the International Crisis Group. He currently manages a team of analysts based in Amman and Beirut conducting research in the countries of the Middle East and writing policy-focused reports on the factors that increase the risk of and drive armed conflict.

Kevin Baker's most recent novel, Strivers Row, is the final installment in his "City of Fire" trilogy about New York City. He was the chief historical researcher on Harold Evans' best-selling history, The American Century. He currently writes the monthly "In the News" column for American Heritage magazine.

Matthew Stevenson is a writer and bank advisor living in Geneva, Switzerland. He is the author of Letters of Transit: Essays on Travel, History, Politics, and Family Life Abroad, Mentioned in Dispatches: The Travel Essays of an Expatriate American, and the forthcoming An April Across America (www.odysseusbooks.com). He has traveled extensively in the Middle East and Asia, and is a contributing editor to Harper's magazine. His e-mail address is: matthewstevenson@freesurf.ch.

Raghida Dergham has been Columnist and Senior Diplomatic Correspondent for the London-based Al Hayat since 1989. She is a Contributing Editor for LA Times Syndicate Global Viewpoint and has contributed to: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune and Newsweek Magazine. www.raghidadergham.com

Reidar Visser is a research fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and editor of the Iraq website historiae.org. His latest book is Basra, the Failed Gulf State: Separatism and Nationalism in Southern Iraq (New Brunswick: Transaction, 2006).

W. Patrick Lang, a retired Colonel in the U.S. Army, served as an intelligence expert in the Middle East for many years. Author of Intelligence: The Human Factor, and Sic Temper Tyrannis, a noted weblog, he was also the first professor of Arabic at the United States Military Academy.