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.

Riot in October: Inside a Roiling Soccer Stadium in Belgrade

Details
January 2001

2:30 P.M.

The scent of revenge is in the air, and it smells a lot like beer.

Fans of the Red Star soccer team are pouring into a Belgrade stadium, where their squad will shortly face its archrival, Partizan. The last time these Serbian teams met, a fan was shot and killed with a flare ... (Read more)

Death and Taxis

The Washington Post
December 24, 2000

(Review of “This House Has Fallen: Nigeria in Crisis” by Karl Maier)

A book that begins with a taxi story usually begins colorfully. Karl Maier opens This House Has Fallen with a wild brawl that broke out when his taxi got caught in traffic in Port Harcourt, ... (Read more)

The Accidental Warlord: How Hussein Aideed Was Drafted to Replace His Father in Somalia

Talk Magazine
December 2000

It is nearly lunchtime, and the phone rings.

A distant voice announces, “This is a call from His Excellency Hussein Aideed.”

I wait to be put through to His Excellency, whom I have been trying to reach for several weeks now. This has not been easy, because Hussein ... (Read more)

Serbia Is Not Freed of Its Ugly Illusions

The New York Times
October 24, 2000

BELGRADE, Serbia–Several days ago a Serbian law student told me, in excellent English, that he wanted to become a judge so that he could help clean up the corrupt legal system that is one of the poisonous legacies of Slobodan Milosevic. When our conversation ... (Read more)

Mittel Hizzoner: The New Mayor of Belgrade Explains One of His Mandates

The New York Times Magazine
October 22, 2000

Peter Maass: There was a revolution here in Belgrade on Oct. 5. Protesters stormed the federal Parliament, stormed the main television station, stormed the main police station, and then the next day you started as mayor of the city. What was your first day ... (Read more)

The Supercool Top-Secret DVD-Decoder Song

The New Yorker
October 16, 2000

Since 1998, the Internet site MP3.com has served as an on-line bazaar, where any garage band in the universe can offer up its music and wait for the accolades to pour in. More than half a million songs are posted on the site, but Joseph Wecker’s “Descramble” ... (Read more)

Mogadishu Dispatch: Tennis Helps Bring Somalia’s Capital Back to Life

The New Republic
October 2, 2000

The tennis courts at Casa d’Italia, a country club in Mogadishu, have nourished several generations of players. First, there were the Italians who built the club and who controlled Somalia in the days of Mussolini; apparently, you had to develop a good backhand ... (Read more)

Diary From Belgrade: Five Days in Serbia’s Turbulent Capital

Slate
October 2000

Posted: Monday, Oct. 9, 2000, at 10:30 a.m. PT

It may not have been the polite thing to do, but I just gate-crashed a revolution. Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was not in the mood to provide journalists with invitations, in the form of visas, as his judgment day neared, so ... (Read more)

Milosevic May Not Relinquish Hold So Readily

San Jose Mercury News
October 1, 2000

The dictator is reeling. After mesmerizing and manipulating his country for more than a decade, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is suddenly a wounded tyrant who could be toppled by one more blow from an opposition that is, for once, united and strong.

The ... (Read more)

Deadly Competition: How the Risks Proved Fatal for Kurt Schork and Miguel Gil Moreno

Brill’s Content
September 2000

Unlike the wild weeks that preceded it, May 24 seemed destined to be a slow and easy day for Miguel Gil Moreno de Mora. The world’s attention was fixed on the sudden Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, so there was little demand for news footage from ... (Read more)