Oberlin College Invites Speakers on War in Iraq to Campus

At the invitation of Oberlin College, a soldier, an author, and a filmmaker with unique vantage points on the war in Iraq will come to campus the first week in March to express their views in a series of free public events.

Monday, March 3 - 4:30 p.m. – Hallock Auditorium
Bob Drogin '73 - Los Angeles Times reporter and author of Curveball: Spies, Lies and the Con Man Who Caused a War

Wednesday, March 5 - 7:00 p.m. – West Lecture Hall
Tom Yellin - Executive Producer of Operation Homecoming

Friday, March 7 - 12:15 p.m. – West Lecture Hall
Quammie Semper '04 - U.S. Army First Lieutenant–“The Experiences of a Deployed Platoon.”

Award-winning Los Angeles Times r eporter Bob Drogin '73 will discuss his dramatic and explosive book Curveball: Spies, Lies and the Con Man Who Caused a War in a talk Monday, March 3. Drogin, who originally broke the story, answers the crucial question of the Iraq war: how and why was America's intelligence so catastrophically wrong? The New York Times hailed Curveball as “a story of willful blindness masquerading as secret intelligence that is worthy of Somerset Maugham or Graham Greene.”  

Drogin will speak at 4:30 p.m. in Oberlin's Hallock Auditorium, located in the Adam J. Lewis Center for Environmental Studies, 122 Elm Street. Following the talk will be a Q&A session and book signing.   Co-sponsors of the event include the Office of the President, Oberlin Alumni Association, and History Department.

On Wednesday, March 5, filmmaker Tom Yellin will screen and discuss the 2008 Oscar nominated Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience . Yellin is the executive producer of Operation Homecoming , a unique documentary that explores the firsthand accounts of American servicemen and women through their own words. Operation Homecoming was shown in theaters nationwide and will air on PBS on April 14 as part of the series America at a Crossroads.

The screening will take place at 7:00 p.m. in West Lecture Hall of the Oberlin College Science Center, located at 119 Woodland Street, and will be followed by a Q&A session. The event co-sponsors are the Office of the President, Program Board, and Cinema Studies Program.

On Friday, March 7, U.S. Army First Lieutenant Quammie Semper '04, who served in Iraq from November 2006 until February 2008, will discuss “The Experiences of a Deployed Platoon.”   In 2007, just before leading his platoon on patrol into Baghdad, Semper told NBC Nightly News' Brian Williams, “I think we should stay here until the job is done.” “You feel you have an investment?” Williams asked.   “We do. We do,” Semper replied. “I see that every day, every time I roll out this gate.”

Semper's talk will take place at 12:15 p.m. in the Science Building's West Lecture Hall, 119 Woodland Street. Co-sponsors are the Office of the President, the Department of Athletics and Physical Education, the Alumni Association, and the Oberlin College Dialogue Center.

Speakers' bios:

Bob Drogin reports on intelligence and national security in the Los Angeles Times Washington bureau. While a student at Oberlin, he served as managing editor of the student newspaper, the Oberlin Review, and received a BA degree in Asian Studies in 1973. After graduation, he worked for UNICEF in Indonesia as a Shansi representative for two years, and later rejoined UNICEF in Cambodia as deputy relief coordinator during the killing fields crisis.

Drogin received his Master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and went on to win a Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Service at The Charlotte Observer in 1981 for the series “Brown Lung: A Case of Deadly Neglect.”   He has been a national security correspondent for the Los Angeles Times since 1998.

Tom Yellin is the founder of The Documentary Group, a company that produces theatrical documentaries, primetime programs for ABC News, and documentaries for other broadcasters and distributors. He has spent 15 years as an executive producer at ABC News and almost three decades in network television. The Documentary Group's most recent projects include “To Iraq and Back: Bob Woodruff Reports”, an ABC News special aired on February 27 that tells the story of Woodruff's life-threatening injury and painstaking recovery and reports on inadequacies in the treatment of veterans with similar brain injuries.

Yellin was the executive producer of Peter Jennings Reporting from its inception in 1990. Together he and Jennings collaborated on more that 50 hours of prime-time documentaries.  He was also the executive producer of numerous award-winning programs and series, and several of Jennings' children's programs, town meetings and breaking news specials.  

First Lieutenant Semper majored in sociology at Oberlin, served as a student senator, and had an outstanding career on the football field as a ball-hawking defensive back, holding the Oberlin Yeoman record for most interceptions in a career with 21, and the Oberlin and North Coast Athletic Conference records for most interceptions in a season with 10.

In 2001, he enlisted in the Army Reserve and after graduating in 2004, enlisted in the United States Army as a construction equipment mechanic and was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. After a year, Semper enrolled in Officer Candidate School and graduated on Feb. 23, 2006. He subsequently attended and graduated from the Engineer Officer Basic Course in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and served a tour of duty as a platoon leader with III Corps in Fort Hood, Texas.

Since his return from Iraq, Lt. Semper is serving as his company's Executive Officer in HHC, STB. His military honors include the Bronze Star Medal, the Army Achievement Medal, and a Combat Action Badge for being engaged by the enemy.

Media Contact:
Scott.Wargo@Oberlin.edu
440-775-5197