KEYNOTE – LOWELL BERGMAN:  MORE THAN FIVE YEARS AFTER 9/11, WHAT IS THE TRUE THREAT OF AL QAEDA?

Keynote speaker Lowell Bergman challenges the notion of an Al-Qaeda threat in North America more than five years after 9/11. A Pulitzer Prize winner, Bergman is a producer/correspondent for the PBS documentary program “Frontline.” Bergman is the professor in charge of the investigative reporting program at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley. Working with ABC News, “20/20” and CBS News “60 Minutes,” he produced more than 50 stories about organized crime, international arms and drug trafficking, terrorism, and corporate crime. His investigation about the tobacco industry was chronicled in the Academy Award nominated feature film “The Insider.”

Bergman examines terrorist investigations in the US. He says there is no “Second Wave” of terrorism after 9/11 despite repeated warnings, custom officials have not seized any radioactive material connected to any attacks, and the FBI concluded that there is no evidence of an active Al Qaeda-connected cell inside the US. Bergman believes that the news media has capitalized on the fear of terrorism trumpeted in the US. He says it hunts for the sensational threat rather than asking questions about what is going on because it’s simply a better story, adding that by comparison, re-educating the public is not just difficult but also potentially boring.

Highlights From Lowell Bergman's Keynote Address
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