The Intercept
May 28, 2015
AS MEMBERS OF CONGRESS struggle to agree on which surveillance programs to re-authorize before the Patriot Act expires, they might consider the unusual advice of an intelligence analyst at the National Security Agency who warned about the danger of collecting ...
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.
The CIA and the Myths of the Bin Laden Raid
The Intercept
May 19, 2015
If you read the sketchy New York Times article on the Delta Force raid into Syria ...
Obama’s War on Leaks Faces Backlash in Court
The Intercept
May 13, 2015
Nearly a decade ago, at a federal courthouse in northern Virginia, Judge Leonie Brinkema set a new standard for taking a tough stance against people who inflict harm on America.
Brinkema presided over the lengthy trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, who was convicted as a co-conspirator ...
Why Should Bowe Bergdahl Suffer More Than Generals Who Did Far Worse?
The Intercept
March 27, 2015
What punishment should Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl receive for allegedly deserting his post in Afghanistan? The answer comes by asking another question: What punishment has been handed out to American generals and politicians whose incompetence caused far more bloodshed ...
Atrocities Committed by U.S.-Trained Iraqi Forces–Again
The Intercept
March 13, 2015
Investigative reporter James Gordon Meek broke an important story this week: he revealed that U.S.-backed forces in Iraq are committing the same type of horrific war crimes — wanton killings of prisoners, beheadings, torture — as the Islamic State fighters ...
Petraeus Plea Deal Reveals Two-Tier Justice System for Leaks
The Intercept
March 3, 2015
David Petraeus, the former Army general and CIA director, admitted today that he gave highly-classified journals to his onetime lover and that he lied to the FBI about it. But he only has to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor that will not involve a jail ...
Destroyed By The Espionage Act
The Intercept
Stephen Kim Spoke To A Reporter. Now He’s In Jail. This Is His Story
February 18, 2015
ON THE MORNING of June 11, 2009, James Rosen stepped inside the State Department, scanned his building badge and made his way to the Fox News office in the busy press room on ...
Oscars Make History, So Hollywood’s War Stories Need To Be True
The Intercept
February 13, 2015
When the Academy Awards are handed out, history will be made.
I’m not referring to the Oscars that particular films might win, but our embrace of their narratives of history. If “American Sniper” gathers a fistful of statues, even more people will see a film that ...
How Clint Eastwood Ignores History in ‘American Sniper’
The Intercept
January 8, 2015
Just a few pages into “American Sniper,” Chris Kyle used an epithet to describe the Arabs on the wrong side of his gun scope. “A lot of people, myself included, called the enemy ‘savages,’” he wrote. “I only wish I had killed more. Not for bragging ...
The Sound of Torture
The Intercept
Dec. 16, 2014
Have you heard the screams of a prisoner who is being tortured in America’s war on terror? I can’t forget them.
They pierced the walls of a detention center I visited in Samarra during an offensive by American and Iraqi forces in 2005. In a small room, I was interviewing ...