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.

A Bulletproof Mind

My newest story, about the Special Forces, is in today’s New York Times Magazine, and is posted here and here. This is how it begins:

Major Christopher Miller lay awake on a cot in a filthy room, no larger than a prison cell and cluttered with weapons and ammunition. He couldn’t sleep. ... (Read more)

A Bulletproof Mind

The New York Times Magazine
The Special Forces are being engineered not only for the traumas of battle but also for its aftermath.
November 10, 2002
Major Christopher Miller lay awake on a cot in a filthy room, no larger than a prison cell and cluttered with weapons and ammunition. ... (Read more)

John Burns Talks About Iraq

It’s not easy competing against John Burns, who has won two Pulitzer Prizes for his overseas reporting. I learned this the hard way, when he was based in Sarajevo for The New York Times in the early 1990s and I was working there for The Washington Post. We nearly got into a fistfight, ... (Read more)

Being Peter Maass, or Peter Maas, or Peter Moss

A year ago, Peter Maas died. M-a-a-s. I did not rejoice, but I thought his passing would make my life less complicated, because for as long as I’ve been a writer I’ve been confused with Peter Maas (one “s”, not two), who wrote “Serpico”, “The Valachi Papers” ... (Read more)

Does Torture Work?

On a recent trip to Pakistan, I spent a fair amount of time with Jameel Yusuf, who heads a semi-official crime-fighting organization in Karachi. He described to me his interrogation of two members of a kidnapping gang: “When we get two guys, it is very nice, very easy. One guy was weaker ... (Read more)

Dirty War

The New Republic
How America’s friends really fight terrorism.
November 2002
If you happen to believe the only good terrorist is a dead terrorist, you are quite possibly a member of the U.S. government. I realized this while visiting the home of a U.S. official in Pakistan one ... (Read more)

When Fear Kills

The Washington Post has a terrific story about the manner in which fear, rather than the at-large sniper, is raising the risks of living in the D.C. area. “Is it meaningful,” the story asks, “to ... (Read more)

Four Arguments Against Invading Iraq

One.
Two.
Three.
Four.

Crossfire Meets C-Span, on the Web

If you’ve been waiting, as I have, for an intelligent, focused and spirited debate about invading Iraq, your wait is over. No, it’s not occurring in the halls of Congress or in the opinion pages of The New York Times or on CNN in non-primetime hours. It’s taking place at Slate, ... (Read more)

Journalists and War Crimes (cont.)

Public Radio International interviewed me yesterday about journalists being called upon to testify, against their wishes, at the war crimes tribunal in the Hague. If you have an idle six minutes in which you would enjoy nothing more than listening to the interview, click here ... (Read more)