Reese Erlich “A reporter’s perspective: Islamic State, Assad, Russia, and the failure of US Policy”

Based on numerous reporting trips to the region, freelance foreign correspondent Reese Erlich discusses the growth of Syrian extremist rebel groups, the status of the Assad regime, foreign intervention and the failure of US policy. He provides up to date analysis and what President Trump will likely face.

Erlich is a Peabody winning journalist and author of Inside Syria: The Backstory of Their Civil War and What the World Can Expect (Foreword by Noam Chomsky), just out in paperback. He has written a total of five books on US foreign policy. He reports for NPR, Foreign Policy, VICE News, and The Progressive, among others.

Reese Erlich’s Biographical Information

Reese Erlich’s history in journalism goes back over 40 years. He first worked as a staff writer and research editor for Ramparts, an investigative reporting magazine published in San Francisco. Today he works as a full-time print and broadcast, freelance reporter. He reports regularly for ABC (Australia), Radio Deutsche Welle and National Public Radio. His articles have appeared in Politico, Foreign Policy, GlobalPost and VICE News. His television documentaries have aired on PBS stations nationwide.

Erlich’s book, Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn’t Tell You co-authored with Norman Solomon, became a best seller in 2003. The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of US Policy and the Middle East Crisis was published in 2007. Dateline Havana: The Real Story of US Policy and the Future of Cuba was published in 2009. Conversations with Terrorists: Middle East Leaders on Politics, Violence and Empire, was published in September 2010. Inside Syria: the Backstory of Their Civil War and What the World Can Expect,” foreword by Noam Chomsky, appeared in October 2014. The updated, paperback edition will be released in September 2016.

Erlich shared a Peabody Award in 2006 as a segment producer for Crossing East, a radio documentary on the history of Asians in the US. In 2004 Erlich’s radio special “Children of War: Fighting, Dying, Surviving,” won a Clarion Award presented by the Alliance for Women in Communication and second and third place from the National Headlines Awards. His article about the U.S. use of depleted uranium ammunition was voted the eighth most censored story in America for 2003 by Project Censored at Sonoma State University. In 2002 his radio documentary, “The Russia Project,” hosted by Walter Cronkite, won the depth reporting prize for broadcast journalism awarded by the Northern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors declared Sept. 14, 2010, to be “Reese Erlich Day” in honor of his investigative journalistic work. The resolution read, in part, “Investigative reporters are under attack in the U.S. and around the world. Mr. Erlich exhibits the finest qualities of such reporters willing to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”