Dr. Rolef is Editor of the Israeli Knesset website and a Senior Researcher in the Knesset Research and Information Center. She has taught International Relations at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem from 1969 to 1975. She also contributed as a regular Columnist at the Jerusalem Post from 1983 to 1994.

Dr. Rolef provided us with her insightful positions on two specific issues regarding Judaism and its relation to democracy and to the state of Israel. Her intellectual contributions have been posted to Israeli-Palestinian ProCon.org in the sections: "Is Judaism compatible with democracy?" and "Is Judaism compatible with the concept of the separation of religion and state?"

Dr. Rolef has written four books about Israeli-Palestinian issues: Political Dictionary of the State of Israel: Supplement 1987-1993 (1993), Israel's Anti-Boycott Policy (1989), Political Dictionary of the Arab World, Pictorial Dictionary of the State of Israel, Co-editor (1988), and The Political Geography of Palestine: A History and Definition (1993).

Dr. Jones is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Iowa, a Principal Investigator for the National Science Foundation’s A Center for Correct, Usable, Reliable, Accurate, and Transparent Elections (ACCURATE), and has served on the Iowa Board of Examiners for Voting Machines and Electronic Voting Systems from 1994 to 2004, including a term as Chair from 1999 to 2003.

Dr. Jones provided us with detailed information about twenty-three 19th and 20th century voting technology patents dated from 1848 to 2005. His contribution will be included on the historical timeline of voting system technology at Voting Machines ProCon.org.

As a computer scientist and a former voting machine examiner, Dr. Jones is considered a top expert on electronic voting machines, with a deep understanding of both voting machine technology and the election process. Dr. Jones has written extensively about these subjects, and he has testified before several federal and local government bodies, including the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Civil Rights Commission, the Federal Election Commission, and the Election Assistance Commission. His book Who’s Minding the Vote with co-author Barbara Simons will be released in late 2006.

Dr. Tucker, a former weapons inspector in Iraq and a Senior Analyst at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, where he directs the Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Program, explained to us that the term “weapon of mass destruction” is problematic for a variety of reasons. He submitted an article from Foreign Affairs journal articulating his point. He also clarified for us that “white phosphorous” should not be considered a weapon of mass destruction although it does qualify as an incendiary weapon.

As a result of Dr. Tucker’s insights, we posted the new question “What is a weapon of mass destruction?” where we included a quote from the Foreign Affairs article he shared with us. We also included a few definitions of “weapons of mass destruction” in our WMD chart so our readers could better understand the data and its context.

Dr. Tucker has written three books: Toxic Terror: Assessing Terrorist Use of Chemical and Biological Weapons (2000), Scourge: The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox (2001), and the 2006 release War of Nerves: Chemical Warfare from World War I & Al-Qaeda.