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.

Enough About Steve Bannon. Rupert Murdoch’s Influence on Donald Trump Is More Dangerous

The Intercept
January 6, 2018
For quite a while, there has been a bull market in stories about Steve Bannon calling the shots in the incorrigible tangle of neurons that passes for Donald Trump’s brain. Michael Wolff’s new book about the dysfunctional White House, “Fire and Fury,” ...  (Read more)

Interrogation of Reality Winner Reveals Deceptive Tactics of “Exceedingly Friendly” FBI Agents

The Intercept
Dec. 28, 2017
In late January, George Papadopoulos did what a lot of Americans do when FBI agents ask for a few minutes of their time — he agreed to talk. It’s a decision he likely regrets, because in October the former adviser to President Donald Trump’s election ...  (Read more)

Ratko Mladic Was Convicted of Seige Warfare in Bosnia. Will U.S.-Backed Siege in Yemen Face Justice?

The Intercept
Nov. 22, 2017
Ratko Mladic got what he deserved, which is the beginning of the story.

Forget, for a moment, the legal jargon that defines what are known as crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide. Think, instead, of this simpler thing: siege warfare. In plain language, that’s ...  (Read more)

North Korea Is the Most Predictable Regime on Earth. The Real Threat Is the Erratic U.S. Government.

The Intercept
September 26, 2017
The nuclear shouting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un often seems like a maddening version of whack-a-crazy-mole, in which an unhinged comment by one of them is hastily followed by a lunatic retort from the other. Trump ...  (Read more)

Bannon Said He Learned to Fear Muslims When He Visited Pakistan. But He Was Probably in Hong Kong.

The Intercept
August 11, 2017
If you ask Steve Bannon how he got the idea that Muslims in the Middle East are a civilizational threat to America, he will say that his eyes were first opened when he served on a Navy destroyer in the Arabian Sea. At least that’s what he told the journalist ...  (Read more)

Brad Pitt’s “War Machine” Offers an Absurd and Scathing Critique of America’s Generals

The Intercept
June 17, 2017
How do military leaders persuade their soldiers to fight an insane war?

Here’s one way. The setting is a bitter outpost of the American war in Afghanistan. The years-long nightmare has no prospect of ending so long as American troops stay in a country that has a nearly unblemished ...  (Read more)

Donald Trump’s War on Journalism Has Begun. But Journalists Are Not His Main Target.

The Intercept
May 28, 2017
Wars are rarely announced in advance, but President Trump provided an abundance of warning about his intention to wage an assault on journalism. During the election campaign, he called journalists an “enemy of the people” and described media organizations ...  (Read more)

White Fear in the White House: Young Bannon Disciple Julia Hahn Is a Case Study in Extremism

The Intercept
May 7, 2017
Steve Bannon, who is no stranger to controversy, faced a torrent of reproval when it was revealed not long ago that he had praised a detestable novel envisioning France invaded by an armada of brown-skinned migrants from India. The French novel is called “The ...  (Read more)