From the cover story in this weekend’s New York Times Magazine: “War seldom creates democracy; according to a recent article in The Christian Science Monitor, of the 18 regime changes forced by the United States in the ...
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 Not-So-Quiet Americans
President Bush believes that getting rid of Saddam Hussein will bring democracy to the Middle East. “A new regime in Iraq would serve as a dramatic and inspiring example of freedom for other nations in the region,” he ...
Gone
BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP)–Lawmakers formally abolished Yugoslavia on Tuesday and replaced it with a loose union of its remaining two republics, Serbia and Montenegro, marking the final demise of the troubled Balkan federation.
Photos from the Front
Because we live in a time of war, one of the best websites of our times is The Digital Journalist. It is a monthly magazine, published only on the web, that features the best war photography of the day and of the past. The current issue ...
When Al Qaeda Calls: An Arab Journalist’s Close Encounter With Terrorists
The New York Times Magazine
February 2, 2003
On an April day in London last year, Yosri Fouda’s cellphone rang, and a stranger introduced himself by saying, “I’m a viewer of your show.” He claimed to be in a position to “provide something top secret” and asked for ...
When Al Qaeda Calls
On an April day in London last year, Yosri Fouda’s cellphone rang, and a stranger introduced himself by saying, “I’m a viewer of your show.” He claimed to be in a position to “provide something top secret” and asked for Fouda’s fax number. Then he hung up.
For ...
Moonlighting in Iraq
From The Los Angeles Times: “If past is precedent, argues Benjamin Works, executive director of the Strategic Issues Research Institute, a military think tank in Arlington, Va., the phases of the moon would ...
Tarantino Meets Zola in Brazil
The most exciting film of the year is City of God, by the Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles. The movie is so fast-paced, so complicated yet seamless, so intricately shot, that it’s hard to get it out of your mind hours or ...
“Now you are kidnapped”
A year after the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl, The Wall Street Journal has published a lengthy article that provides new details, including the email exchanges between Pearl and his kidnappers in the days leading ...
The Military, the Journalists, the Product
During the Gulf and Afghan wars, the Pentagon had a clear policy about press access to U.S. troops—the less the better. That’s changing. Victoria Clarke, the Pentagon spokeswoman, outlined a new policy in a background meeting with Washington bureau chiefs this week, and the Pentagon helpfully ...