WHEN: Thursday, March 27, 3:30 p.m.
WHERE: Lied Center for Performing Arts, 301 N. 12th St.

Clifford D. May, president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies,
and Qubad Talabany, the deputy representative of the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan and the PUK-led Kurdistan Regional Government, will lecture
March 27 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on the U.S.-led war against
Saddam Hussein and Iraq.

"The War Against Hussein: Necessary, Just and Winnable," will be delivered
at 3:30 p.m. at the Lied Center for Performing Arts, 301 N. 12th St., as
part of the E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues.

May is president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a
Washington, D.C., -based bipartisan antiterrorism think tank. He has had a
long and distinguished career in international relations, journalism,
communications and politics, having worked as foreign correspondent and
editor at news organizations like the New York Times, Newsweek and CBS
Radio News, and has covered stories in areas including Iran, Pakistan and
Northern Ireland. From 1997-2001 he served as director of communications
for the Republican National Committee, and appeared often on national
television and radio as spokesperson and strategist for the RNC. He later
was senior managing director of the Washington, D.C., office of BSMG
Worldwide, a firm specializing in public affairs advocacy, public relations
and media relations.

May holds master's degrees from Columbia University's School of Public and
International Affairs and its School of Journalism.

As deputy representative of the PUK and the KRG, Talabany works closely
with both the executive and legislative branches of the U.S. government as
well as American-based media outlets. He served for a year as special
assistant to Dr. Barham Salih, a previous PUK representative, who is now
prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Talabany's family has been involved in Kurdish politics for decades and he
has had an active role in these issues since 1996. He is living in
Washington, D.C., and earned his bachelor's degree in mechanical
engineering in London.

The lecture is a replacement for the canceled March 6 forum by Ahmad
Chalabi, president of the Iraqi National Congress. Forum planners strive to
provide timely and interesting speakers on world issues that will enlighten
university students and faculty and residents of Nebraska and the nation as
a whole who desire more insight into world issues.

"The E.N. Thompson Forums on World Issues believe in presenting all sides
of important policy issues, but it is not possible for each individual
lecture to represent the full range of opinions," said Art Thompson,
president of the Cooper Foundation, cosponsor with UNL of the Thompson
Forums. "The Ahmad Chalabi forum canceled March 6 and this replacement
forum represent informed arguments for the issue of going to war in Iraq,
but this does not represent a position taken by the E.N. Thompson Forum.
This forum presentation will be in a context of an ongoing campus debate on
the issue of war in Iraq, and the forums have and will continue to sponsor
speakers with different views on the issue."

The lecture is free and open to the public and will be broadcast live on
the UNL Web site (www.unl.edu), Lincoln cable Channel 21, UNL's KRNU radio
station (90.3 FM) and UNL campus TV. It will also be available on the
NebSat satellite system and at satellite sites in Grand Island, Norfolk,
North Platte and Scottsbluff.

Co-hosts for the event are P.R.O.T.E.C.T. (Pursuing Realistic Options to
Effectively Combat Terrorism), a UNL student group affiliated with the
Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, the Innocents Society, the
Nebraska Model United Nations and the College Republicans.

The Thompson Forum is a cooperative project of the Cooper Foundation and
UNL. The next scheduled forum is April 30 with Peter Gleick, co-founder and
president of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment
and Security.

Laura Levy
Director--Audience Development/Communications
Lied Center for Performing Arts
direct phone 402.472.8321
fax 402.472.2725

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