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 NSA Has An Advice Columnist. Seriously.

The Intercept
March 7, 2014

What if the National Security Agency had its own advice columnist? What would the eavesdroppers ask about?
You don’t need to guess. An NSA official, writing under the pen name “Zelda,” has actually served at the agency as a Dear Abby for ... (Read more)

My New Job at First Look

This is just a quick note to announce that I have joined First Look Media as a senior writer. I’m quite delighted and excited to be working with Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, Laura Poitras and many others at First Look. For more, here’s the announcement.

New Mexico ACLU

Albuquerque, New Mexico
A speech at an ACLU event focusing on surveillance in the digital era. Event starts at 6 pm. Ticketed event. For more info, please contact http://www.aclu-nm.org/borc2013/2013/10/

Foreign Policy Association

New York, NY
Talk on surveillance in the era of the NSA and Edward Snowden, and the challenges to both the first and fourth amendments. Tickets required. Contact otr@fpa.org or 212-481-8100 ext. 223 or visit https://off-the-record.org/. Event will be held at the New York ... (Read more)

Boston College Law School

Newton, MA
Panel discussion with Tim McLaughlin and Gary Knight about our joint exhibit, “Invasion: Diaries and Memories of War in Iraq,” which will be on display at Boston College from October 28-November 20. Panel starts at 6:30 in East Wing Room 120 at ... (Read more)

Institute for Public Knowledge

New York, NY
A panel discussion on “The State of Surveillance: Legal, Cultural and Technological Perspectives,” with Clay Shirky, Eyal Press, Carrie Cordero, Faiza Patel and Peter Maass. At NYU’s Global Center for Academic and Spiritual Life, 238 Thompson ... (Read more)

Behind the Cover Story: How I Reported on Poitras, Greenwald and Snowden

The following is a question-and-answer interview published on the New York Times Magazine’s blog, “The 6th Floor.” Rachel Nolan conducted the interview.

RN: Everyone wants to talk to Snowden, and, failing that, everyone wants to talk to the two people talking ... (Read more)

The Secret Breakers: How Laura Poitras Helped Edward Snowden Spill His Secrets

The New York Times Magazine
August 18, 2013

This past January, Laura Poitras received a curious e-mail from an anonymous stranger requesting her public encryption key. For almost two years, Poitras had been working on a documentary about surveillance, and she occasionally ... (Read more)

The Snowden Interview

In the course of reporting my profile of Laura Poitras for The New York Times Magazine, I conducted an encrypted question-and-answer interview, for which Poitras served as intermediary, with Edward J. Snowden. Below is a full transcript of that conversation.

Peter Maass: ... (Read more)

On Leakers, Heroes and Traitors

Julian Assange, Bradley Manning and, now, Edward Snowden. Heroes or traitors? My latest story in The Nation argues that character questions of this ... (Read more)