The following UC Davis experts are available to comment as the nation approaches the first-year anniversary of the U.S. attack on Osama bin Laden’s compound on May 2, 2011, in which bin Laden was killed.

Al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden

UC Davis religious studies professor Flagg Miller has examined how Western intelligence and terrorism experts, together with global media networks, helped fuel Bin Ladin’s growing reputation in ways that were exploited by Osama and those who supported his militant vision. Miller’s paper: “Re-reading the Origins of al-Qa`ida through Usama Bin Ladin's Former Audiocassette Collection,” was published this spring in a collection of papers, Ten Years Later: Insights on al-Qaeda’s Past & Future Through Captured Records, published by Johns Hopkins University Center for Advanced Governmental Studies and Conflict Records Research Center (http://issuu.com/johnshopkinsaap/docs/gov1220_ndu-final-issuu?mode=window&viewMode=doublePage). Miller and others presented papers in September 2011 at a conference at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., that focused on the effects of the 9/11 attacks on the United States a decade later. Miller is writing a book that investigates the contents of bin Laden’s personal audiotape library, a collection of more than 1,500 tapes acquired from his residence in Qandahar, Afghanistan, by CNN in 2001. Miller was the first academic researcher to study the tapes. He has worked as a linguistic anthropologist in Yemen, bin Laden’s ancestral homeland, and is the author of the book, "The Moral Resonance of Arab Media: Audiocassette Poetry and Culture in Yemen" (2007). Contact: Flagg Miller, Religious Studies, (530) 574-3758, fmiller@ucdavis.edu.

Civil rights at home

Kevin R. Johnson, a professor and dean of the UC Davis School of Law, has written extensively about how security measures adopted in the war on terrorism have adversely affected the civil rights of Arab and Muslim noncitizens and impacted immigration enforcement generally. Contact: Kevin Johnson, School of Law, (530) 752 -0243, krjohnson@ucdavis.edu.

9/11 conspiracy theories

UC Davis history professor Kathryn Olmsted can talk about conspiracy theories related to 9/11, including a poll showing that one-third of Americans believe the U.S. government was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. She is the author of “Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11” (2009), and has given numerous talks on 9/11 theories. Contact: Kathryn Olmsted, History, ksolmsted@ucdavis.edu.

War on terrorism

Scott Cutler Shershow, professor of English at UC Davis, can talk about the legal, political and philosophic issues raised by the war on terrorism. He is the co-author of recent essays examining indefinite detention, torture and warrantless wiretapping. A condensed version of his co-authored work, “The Guantánamo ‘Black Hole’: The Law of War and the Sovereign Exception,” is available online at http://www.mafhoum.com/press6/177C31.htm. Contact: Scott C. Shershow, English, (530) 400-4751, scshershow@ucdavis.edu.

Representations of terrorism in fiction

Noha Radwan, assistant professor of Arabic and comparative literature, can talk about representations of terrorism, especially related to 9/11, in Arabic and western literature. She is the author of a paper, “Fictional Terrorists: Representations of 9/11 in Contemporary Narrative,” which is due to be published by Fairleigh Dickenson Press. She can also discuss Arab reactions to the “War on Terror,” which is taking on new significance in Egypt as Umar Sueliman, a key Egyptian military figure involved in the American rendition program and war against terrorism, is running for president in Egypt. Contact: Noha Radwan, Comparative Literature, 510 334 6223, nmradwan@ucdavis.edu.

Human rights

Historian Keith David Watenpaugh, an associate professor in the Religious Studies Program at UC Davis, can speak about modern Islamists, particularly in Europe and North America. Watenpaugh has lived and conducted research in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq. He is the author of the book, “Being Modern in the Middle East: Revolution, Nationalism, Colonialism and the Arab Middle Class” and has written articles on Middle East culture and politics for the American Historical Review, the International Journal of Middle East Studies and others. His work has been translated into Arabic, French, German and Persian. Contact: Keith David Watenpaugh, Religious Studies, (530) 752-1344, kwatenpaugh@ucdavis.edu.

Guantánamo and post 9/11 detention policies and practices

Almerindo E. Ojeda is the founding director of the UC Davis Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas and the principal investigator for its flagship project, The Guantánamo Testimonials Project. He can talk about his research, which shows that the U.S. government underreported the number of juvenile detainees at Guantánamo and raised questions about the circumstances surrounding the first three deaths in detention at the base. He started The Davis Group, a gathering of military and civilian lawyers, human rights defenders and academics that drafted specific recommendations for investigating U.S. detention policies and practices post 9/11. See http://humanrights.ucdavis.edu/. Contact: Almerindo Ojeda, Linguistics, (530) 574-4865, aeojeda@ucdavis.edu.