Wild Pitch: Curveball and Selling the Iraq War

In 1999, a mysterious Iraqi applied for political asylum in Munich. The young chemical engineer offered compelling testimony of Saddam Hussein’s secret program to build weapons of mass destruction. He claimed that the dictator had constructed germ factories on trucks, creating a deadly hell on wheels. His German hosts passed along his account to their CIA counterparts, but denied CIA agents access to their star informant. The Americans dubbed him with an unforgettable code name: Curveball. After September 11, 2001, the Bush administration seized on Curveball’s account as evidence that Saddam’s government needed to be overthrown—in spite of numerous indicators that the informant’s credibility was unraveling. Bob Drogin answers the crucial question of the Iraq war: how and why was America’s intelligence so wrong?
Bob Drogin is the national security correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. He previously served for the Times in Asia and Africa, and as a national correspondent based in New York. He has won or shared multiple journalism awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and the George Polk Award.
Join the New America Foundation for an engaging discussion on intelligence failure in the run-up to the Iraq war, followed by a robust Q&A session led by Dr. Jeffrey Lewis.
Featured SpeakerBob DroginNational security correspondent, Los Angeles TimesAuthor, Curveball: Spies, Lies, and the Con Man Who Caused a War ModeratorDr. Jeffrey LewisDirector, Nuclear Nonproliferation and Strategy InitiativeAmerican Strategy Program
To RSVP for this event, reply to this email: communications@newamerica.net with name, affiliation, and contact information.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

12:15 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.

New America Foundation1630 Connecticut Ave, NW, 7th FloorWashington, DC

America’s Changing Social Contract

Despite the sustained economic growth of recent years, Americans are increasingly concerned with economic security. Even before economists began reporting signs of recession, skyrocketing health care costs, faltering pensions, and burgeoning inequality frayed the fabric of the American social contract. America's social contract is an evolving, complex web of legal and informal relationships between households, employers, government, and civil society that extends beyond particular federal programs. Now is the time to strike a new bargain between these sectors, rethinking the rights and responsibilities of each. Breathing new life into the American social contract is needed to keep pace with our 21st century economy and build the conditions for sustained growth and healthy families.
The New America Foundation/Next Social Contract Initiative invites you to join a discussion to help redesign the American social contract. Speakers, discussants, and panelists will return to first principles and address the roles that government, business, families, and civil society have to play in the next social contract.
The Next Social Contract Initiative aims to reinvent American social policy for the twenty-first century. Through a program of research and public education, the initiative will explore the origins of our modern social contract, articulate the guiding principles for constructing a new contract, and advance a set of promising policy reforms. For the full agenda, please visit the New America website.

Monday, December 3, 2007

9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

(Lunch will be provided)

The Mayflower Hotel - East Room1127 Connecticut Ave, NWWashington, DC

Martyrs Without Borders

The rate of suicide attacks in the Iraqi insurgency has surpassed the number of suicide operations by all previous insurgent groups combined, including those by Hezbollah in Lebanon, Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, and Hamas in Israel. Many of the suicide bombers are foreign volunteers--they come from neighboring countries such as Saudi Arabia and Syria, and from as far away as North Africa and Europe. What motivates these foreign fighters to make this journey of death? Dr. Mohammed Hafez, author of Suicide Bombers in Iraq, will answer this and other vexing questions by examining the varied factions that comprise the Iraqi insurgency, the ideology and theology of martyrdom, and the prospects for a new generation of global jihadists forged in the crucible of Iraq.
Dr. Mohammed Hafez earned a Ph.D. in international relations from the London School of Economics and has received major research grants from the United States Institute of Peace and the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. He is the author of Suicide Bombers in Iraq: The Strategy and Ideology of Martyrdom (2007); Manufacturing Human Bombs: The Making of Palestinian Suicide Bombers (2006); and Why Muslims Rebel: Repression and Resistance in the Islamic World (2003). Next year, he will join the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, as an associate professor of national security affairs.
Join the New America Foundation for an engaging discussion on suicide bombers with Dr. Hafez, followed by a robust Q&A session led by Patrick C. Doherty.

Friday, November 30, 2007

12:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

New America Foundation 1630 Connecticut Ave, NW, 7th FloorWashington, DC

Fall 2007 Farewell Dinner

Friday, December 7th, 6pm-8pm, Room ABC


UCLA, UCSB, UCD, UCSD, UCI, UCR, and UCR Join your fellow Fall UCDC 2007 class for a night of dinner and fun!

UCDC Alumni Network

Did you love your UCDC experience? Are you planning on coming back to Washington? If so, please join the newly created UCDC Alumni Database!

We hope to stay connected with YOU, our awesome alums and to continue to grow as a program and as a Center.

As you know, The UC Washington Center is hosting more events and creating new opportunities for alumni, students and the DC community. You are an integral part of that community whether you are in DC or California.

Please join the UCDC Alumni Network by signing up on this page (http://www.ucdc.edu/students/alumni.cfm) it will take less than 5 minutes and once you register you will receive e-mails about local DC and Center events or receive the newsletter and specific events for Californians. In addition to events information, you will also have the opportunity to serve as a career contact to help incoming interns or find that old roommate or UCDC friend. We keep the e-mails to a minimum and will not share your information with outside parties.

For questions or more information please contact Roya Soleimani at roya.soleimani@ucdc.edu or (202)974-6345. We look forward to welcoming you in the network.

Center Forum

James Miller, GWU Professor and United States Black History Expert



Jim Miller is Professor of English and American Studies at The George Washington University, where he has been teaching since 1998. Dr. Miller received his A.B. degree from Brown University and his Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he directed the Black Studies Program from 1969-1971.

His major teaching fields are African American Literature and Culture, Twentieth Century American Studies, and Literary/Historical criticism. Professor Miller's essays and reviews have appeared in a wide range of publications, including Critical Studies in Mass Communications, The Year Left, Callaloo, Journal of American Studies, The Boston Sunday Globe, Tikkun, Cineaste, American Literature, Village Voice Literary Supplement, Z Magazine, The Nation, and The Washington Post Book World.

MONDAY, November 19th

6:30pm-7:30pm

Auditorium

Free BURRITOS will be served at 6: