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.

Prisoner Milosevic: The Diaries

If a prize existed for the oddest diary of the year, Dragisa Blanusa would be the surefire winner. He was the governor of the Belgrade jail in which Slobodan Milosevic was held for 89 days before being extradited to the Hague. Last year Blanusa published his diary in Serbia, and Granta ... (Read more)

Where’s Osama?

Not in President Bush’s vocabulary. According to The Washington Post, “a search of the White House Web site indicates Bush has not made an unprompted mention of bin Laden’s name since March 8. ... (Read more)

The Jetsons Go To Afghanistan

File this in the “department of little-known tales about the Special Forces”: the Taliban, fearful and confused, believed the Americans possessed a “death ray” that could incinerate any target. This and other colorful nuggets about the Special Forces can be found on an ... (Read more)

How To Decapitate Iraq’s Government

Today’s Washington Post has an intriguing story about the Pentagon’s plans for invading Iraq. A rapid assault is being considered in which a softening-up bombing campaign could be as short as two or ... (Read more)

Eastern Europe’s New Wave

What’s with the emergence of exceptional novels by Eastern Europeans or about Eastern Europe? The trend began a few months ago, with new books by Jonathan Safran Foer, Gary Shteyngart and Arthur Phillips. Joining the list is Aleksandar Hemon, whose new novel, “Nowhere ... (Read more)

Who Gets Iraq’s Oil?

It’s possible to disagree with the Bush team, but it’s not possible to accuse them of being stupid. One of the levers they are using to gain support for an invasion of Iraq is the control of oil resources after Saddam becomes a former dictator. As The Washington Post helpfully ... (Read more)

Big Brother Goes To School

A sign of the times: a high school in southern California is using wireless cameras to track every person and car arriving on campus. Hall monitors will soon carry wireless computers to access the database, and the school is considering an upgrade to face-recognition software. According to The ... (Read more)

The Best Reason To Not Watch TV On 9/11

If you are not already suffering 9/11-itis, you will after reading this. A game-show winner has been invited to sing the national anthem at the Lincoln Memorial tribute.

I was in the Balkans when the WTC attack happened last year, so I’m less emotionally invested in its anniversary than my New ... (Read more)

The Journalist and the Dictator

Jacky Rowland, who reported for the BBC from Belgrade for several years, did not see Slobodan Milosevic in the flesh until this week, when she testified against him at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in the Hague. It was an intriguing encounter that she writes ... (Read more)

“You will never understand.”

Tony Kushner has never been to Afghanistan yet in a hallucinatory passage in his play, “Homebody/Kabul,” he conveys the utter strangeness of the country and its unfortunate people. The script has recently been published ... (Read more)