assistant to president clinton for arab/israeli affairs, and he was the executive assistant to samuel berger as national security adviser from 1996-1998. he is published widely, he is a leading analyst on middle east affairs, and we're very glad to have him with us today. um, to my right is ashraf khalil, not from washington. um, and a fresh voice for us in d.c. um, he is a cairo-based journalist, and he's been covering the middle east for saw years -- 15 years. he was a correspondent with the los angeles times and covering baghdad and jerusalem, based in both places. [inaudible] he has previously reported for "the wall street journal", um, foreign policy and the times of london and the economist as well. he is a blogger at the very popular "the arabist" which was founded by cassandra el rani. so we are here largely to launch ashraf's new book. it was published just last month. we have copies outside. it's entitled "inside the egyptian revolution and the rebirth of a nation: liberation square," an emotive cover. this book has been received to quite critical acclaim. it was noted it was perfe