Author: Peter Maass

I was born and raised in Los Angeles. In 1983, after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, I went to Brussels as a copy editor for The Wall Street Journal/Europe. I left the Journal in 1985 to write for The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune, covering NATO and the European Union. In 1987 I moved to Seoul, South Korea, where I wrote primarily for The Washington Post. After three years in Asia I moved to Budapest to cover Eastern Europe and the Balkans. I spent most of 1992 and 1993 covering the war in Bosnia for the Post.

Tech Solutions in Far-Out Places

Popular Science
An ode to the Thuraya 7101 Satphone.
October 2004
After weeks in the Iraq desert covering the war for the New York Times Magazine, I can say confidently that it is not the place to be lost or hungry. Fortunately, my Thuraya Hughes 7101 satellite phone prevented both.

I’ll get to ... (Read more)

Mind Wars

Gilles Kepel’s ideas about the Middle East have always intrigued me, and David Ignatius, in today’s Washington Post, writes an opinion piece about Kepel’s newest book. The opinion piece is worth ... (Read more)

Bosnia, Exhumed

Courtney Angela Brkic went to Bosnia to exhume mass graves but found much more than skeletons. My review of her book, “The Stone Fields,” was published in the Los Angeles Times Book Review; a copy is posted here.

20th Century Horrors, Exhumed

Los Angeles Times
The Stone Fields: An Epitah for the Living. By Courtney Angela Brkic
August 15, 2004
It used to be that a young American, seeking adventure or enlightenment, would join the Peace Corps and, after two years in a distant locale, return home with an abundance of exotic memories ... (Read more)

The Quiet Tycoon

What is life like for a man who is worth $4 billion and controls as much oil as ExxonMobil? My profile of Vagit Alekperov, the president of Lukoil, is the cover story of this week’s New York Times Magazine. The ... (Read more)

The Triumph of the Quiet Tycoon

The New York Times Magazine
This is a bad time to be a big-spending Russian oil billionaire. But Vagit Alekperov has figured out how to beat the system — you just play by Putin’s rules.
August 2, 2004
Pity, if you can, the richest man in Russia. With a fortune estimated at ... (Read more)

A Bad Barrel

If you want to understand how the abuses occurred at Abu Ghraib, the best explanation is contained in a story in today’s New York Times. The story recounts a 1971 experiment at Stanford University in which 24 ... (Read more)

The Things We Carry

Gizmodo, the tech website, wanted to know what gadgets journalists carry in warzones. Here’s my answer.

What’s In Your Gadget Bag?

Gizmodo
A War Correspondent’s Digital Gear
May 3, 2004
Although we started out aiming for other topics, Gizmodo being what it is, we tended toward the technical, and ended up asking accomplished war correspondent Peter Maass something very much like “What’s in your Gadget ... (Read more)

Watching North Korea

For anyone interested in updates on North Korea, a CNN journalist, Rebecca Mackinnon, has started a new website, NKzone, which tracks developments there and includes a useful variety of links and discussions.