On the next Beloved Community, John Shuck will speak live with Catherine Shakdam, Scott Bennett, and Aisha Jumaan. They will be three of the headliners at a conference taking place at Portland State University on February 3rd, entitled, "U.S. - Saudi Coalition: Bringing Peace or War?" The conference is hosted by Roots of Conflict. Joining John in the studio will be Hanan Alzubaidy and Manijeh Mehrnoosh, who are hosting the conference.
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Catherine Shakdam has been instrumental in breaking media silence over Yemen’s war. She is the author of Arabia’s Rising – Under The Banner Of The First Imam, A Tale Of Grand Resistance – Yemen, the Wahhabi, and the House of Saud, and From Mecca to Karbala – Walking with the Holy household of the Prophet.
Scott Bennett is a former US Psychological Operations-Counterterrorism Analyst. He is a whistleblower and the author of Shell Game: A Military Whistleblowing Report to Congress.
Aisha Jumaan is a public-health specialist working as a consultant on heath-related projects in Yemen. Jumaan worked at PATH directing their HPV vaccine project from 2008-2010; at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 1995-2008; and as a CDC consultant from 2010-2012.
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Conference information: Date: February 3, 2018 Time: 2 - 5 pm Lincoln Performance Hall Portland State University 1620 SW Park Avenue Portland, OR 97201 Facebook Event Page
Catherine Shakdam
Catherine Shakdam is a political analyst and commentator for the Middle East with a special focus on Yemen and radical movements. She is the Director of Programs for the Shafaqna Institute for Middle Eastern Studies in the UK, and serves as Special Adviser for the Middle East for Prince Ali Seraj of Afghanistan. She also sits as the Executive Director of PASI (Prince Ali Seraj of Afghanistan Institute for Peace and Reconstruction) Her latest book: A Tale of Grand Resistance, Yemen, the Wahhabi and the House of Saud garnered such attention it was described as ground-breaking by such personalities as Dr John Andrew Morrow.
Her writings have appeared on RT, Press TV, Mehr News, The Foreign Policy Journal, The Duran, MintPress, the American Herald Tribune, Open Democracy, the Age of Reflection and many others. She's the director and founder of Veritas-Consulting: www.veritas-consulting.one is a political analyst and commentator for the Middle East with a special focus on Yemen and radical movements. She is the Director of Programs for the Shafaqna Institute for Middle Eastern Studies in the UK, and serves as Special Adviser for the Middle East for Prince Ali Seraj of Afghanistan. She also sits as the Executive Director of PASI (Prince Ali Seraj of Afghanistan Institute for Peace and Reconstruction) Her latest book: A Tale of Grand Resistance, Yemen, the Wahhabi and the House of Saud garnered such attention it was described as ground-breaking by such personalities as Dr John Andrew Morrow. Her writings have appeared on RT, Press TV, Mehr News, The Foreign Policy Journal, The Duran, MintPress, the American Herald Tribune, Open Democracy, the Age of Reflection and many others. She's the director and founder of Veritas-Consulting: www.veritas-consulting.one
Scott Bennett
Scott Bennett is a U.S. Army Special Operations Officer (11th Psychological Operations Battalion, Civil Affairs-Psychological Operations Command), and a global psychological warfare-counterterrorism analyst, formerly with defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. He received a Direct Commission as an Officer, held a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmentalized Information (TS/SCI) security clearance, and worked in the highest levels of international counterterrorism in Washington DC and MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida. He has developed and managed psychological warfare theories, products, and operations for U.S. Special Operations Command, U.S. Central Command, the State Department Coordinator for Counterterrorism, and other government agencies.
He served in the G.W. Bush Administration from 2003 to 2008, and was a Social Science Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation. His writings and lectures seek to enhance global awareness and understanding of modern psychological warfare, the international military-intelligence community, and global surveillance operations being artificially generated under the spectre of “National Security”. He has written extensively on the intelligence community’s surveillance activities addressed by Edward Snowden’s National Security Agency-Central Intelligence Agency materials; and since 2010 has filed numerous military-government whistle-blowing reports with Congressional Committees, including; ‘The Intelligence, ‘The Armed Services, ‘The Government Oversight and Reform, ‘The Homeland Security, ‘The Judiciary, ’The Foreign Affairs, ‘The Banking, and ‘The Terrorism Committees. He has communicated with over a hundred Federal Representatives, Senators, senior military officers and Pentagon officials, and journalists about the scandalous abuses of power and deception being employed against the American people by its own military-intelligence community; and filed legal action against Booz Allen Hamilton and the Department of Defense for their involvement in secret Swiss Bank Terrorist Finance Operations, which he uncovered with the help of Union Bank of Switzerland whistleblower, Brad Birkenfeld.
His educational background includes a Bachelor of Science in Advertising and Spanish Minor from San Jose State University in California, a Master of Arts in International Business and Public Policy from George Mason University in Virginia, and a Ph.D. (ABD) in Political Theory from the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. He currently resides in California.
Aisha Jumaan
Aisha has been working as an independent consultant in health related projects since April 2013. She manages and coordinates Health funded projects in Yemen, including the Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP). Prior to this Aisha was a consultant for CDC FETP program supporting FETP programs in the Middle East. In 2011 she helped establish the Yemen program (amid social and political unrest) in collaboration with CDC, WHO and the Ministry of Public Health and Population. Between 2008 and 2010, Aisha was the Director of the HPV vaccine project at PATH working in India, Peru, Vietnam and Uganda. She has served as a Senior Epidemiologist for over 10 years in several divisions at CDC, including Cancer, Immunizations, Nutrition and Environmental Health. She has been the primary investigator on several research projects and provided epidemiological and statistical technical expertise. As an Assistant Professor at both Emory University School of Public Health in the Epidemiology Department and at Sana’s University in Yemen under the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Aisha developed and taught intermediate epidemiology to graduate students as well as epidemiology and biostatistics to medical students. While in Yemen, Aisha served as a National Program Officer for the United Nations Population Fund and as a Health Program Officer for the United Nations Development Fund, supervising several major programs in collaboration with local government institutions. She developed and implemented training programs for US Peace Corps Primary Health Care Volunteers in Yemen, and has evaluated training programs for Primary Healthcare Workers for the Dutch Volunteer Organization SNV. Aisha holds a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina, an MPH in Epidemiology from Emory University, and a BA in Biology from Mills College.
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