Purdue News

November 15, 2002 British journalist Fisk to speak on 9/11 events WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – British journalist Robert Fisk will give a lecture entitled "September 11: Ask Who Did It, But For Heaven's Sake Don't Ask Why" at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 20, in Fowler Hall. Fisk's talk is free and open to the public. The lecture is being presented by Peace Studies and the Department of Political Science, the Diversity Resource Office, the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and Purdue Convocations. Fisk is one of Britain's most renowned international journalists and one of the few journalists to have met Osama bin Laden on several occasions at his various hideouts inside Afghanistan (most recently in 1997). Fisk is the Middle East correspondent for the London Independent and author of many books including "Pity the Nation," about Lebanon's civil war. Fisk has a doctorate in political science from Trinity College in Dublin and has received an honorary degree in journalism from the University of Lancaster. Fisk was the Irish correspondent of the London Times based in Belfast between 1971 and 1975. Since 1976 he has been reporting from the Middle East. He has covered the Israeli invasions of Lebanon (1978 and 1982), the Iranian Revolution (1979), the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1980), the Gulf War (1991), the war in Bosnia (1992-1996) and the Algerian conflict (1992-onward). In 1996 he broke the story about the Israeli shelling of the U.N. compound in Qana, Lebanon. Fisk has been the recipient of the Amnesty International Overall Media Award (1998), the British International Journalist of the Year Award (seven times, most recently in 1995 and 1996), the United Nations Press Award (1986) and the Johns Hopkins SIAS-CIBA prize for international journalism (1996). CONTACT: William Shaffer, professor and head of the Department of Political Science, (765) 494-4162, shaffer@polsci.purdue.edu. Writer: Larry Sommers, Purdue Convocations, (765) 494-5045, lsommers@purdue.edu Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu To the Purdue News and Photos Page