City of Oakland Proclaims Oct 2 "Reese Erlich Day"

Reese Erlich began his journalism career in 1968 as a staff writer and research editor for Ramparts, an investigative reporting magazine based in San Francisco. He taught journalism for ten years at San Francisco State University and California State University, East Bay. His reporting appears in Mother Jones, Dallas Morning News, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune and St. Petersburg Times. He also works regularly for National Public Radio, Latino USA, Radio Deutche Welle, Australian Broadcasting Corp. Radio, and Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Radio.

Erlich has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalism (Northern California), the Association for Women in Communications, the Chicago International Film Festival, and Project Censored. Erlich, who has covered the Middle East since 1987, is coauthor with Norman Solomon of the national bestseller Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You (2003). In 2001, Erlich produced a one-hour radio documentary, "The Struggle for Iran," hosted by Walter Cronkite. Erlich is the winner of a 2006 Peabody Award for his work as a segment producer on Crossing East: Our History, Our Stories, Our America, aired on Public Radio International.

In his new book, The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of U.S. Policy and the Middle East Crisis, Erlich outlines the Bush Administration's plans to subvert the Iranian government and lie about it to the American people. He traces the troubled history between the two countries that has led to the current showdown over nuclear technology, and he reports from Iran and northern Iraq to uncover details of how the U.S. has funded ethnic minorities to carry out guerrilla raids and terrorist bombings inside Iran. In addition to covering the political story, Erlich offers first-hand insights on Iran's domestic politics and diverse population. He also interviews the former Shah's son, Reza Pahlavi, as well as members of Southern California's large Iranian expatriate community and reports on their efforts to shape Iran's future.

The reception to honor Erlich takes place on Reese Erlich Day, Tuesday, October 2, 2007 from 6-7pm at Oakland City Hall, 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, between 14th and 15th Streets at Clay Street, Oakland, CA. The event is co-sponsored by Erlich's publisher PoliPointPress of Sausalito, CA (http://www.p3books.com) and the Persian Center (http://www.persiancenter.org). Refreshments will feature Iranian hors d' oeuvres.

For more information about the reception, The Iran Agenda, or to interview Reese Erlich, contact Anita Fieldman 415-686-8841.

Following the reception will be a dinner to benefit the book tour and the National Radio Project, producer of Making Contact and several of Reese's radio documentaries. It will take place
Tuesday, October 2, 7:30pm at the Saigon Restaurant, 326 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, across from City Hall. Tickets are $50/person or $80/couple, includes one copy of The Iran Agenda.

R.S.V.P. for the dinner to Lisa Rudman, National Radio Project, 510-251-1332, ext. 105.



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