Why Obama Should Pardon All Whistleblowers and Leakers — Not Just Edward Snowden

The Intercept
Sept. 19, 2016

Of course President Obama should pardon Edward Snowden — and Chelsea Manning, too.

But this story is not about the excellent reasons for thanking rather than locking up the two most famous whistleblowers of the post-9/11 era. Plenty of people are already calling for that ...  (Read more)

He Was a Hacker for the NSA and He Was Willing to Talk. I Was Willing to Listen.

The Intercept
June 28, 2016

The message arrived at night and consisted of three words: “Good evening sir!”

The sender was a hacker who had written a series of provocative memos at the National Security Agency. His secret memos had explained — with an earthy use of slang and emojis that was unusual ...  (Read more)

Obama’s Gift to Trump: A Policy of Cracking Down on Journalists and Their Sources

The Intercept
April 6, 2016

ONE OF THE intellectual gargoyles that has crawled out of Donald Trump’s brain is the idea that we should “open up” libel laws to make it easier to punish the media for negative or unfair stories. Trump also wants top officials to sign nondisclosure agreements, so they ...  (Read more)

’13 Hours’ Splashes Blood Across the Screen and Misses the Real Story of Benghazi

The Intercept
January 14, 2016

Would you give the story of Benghazi to the producer of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Someone did. The result is the new film directed by Michael Bay, 13 Hours, which makes Rambo look like War and Peace.

In 13 Hours, Bay displays a fetish for fake blood and heads ...  (Read more)

Firing Blind: Flawed Intelligence and the Limits of Drone Technology

The Intercept
Oct. 15, 2015

(This article was co-authored with Cora Currier and is part of a series of stories, The Drone Papers, that The Intercept published based on secret military documents. For a version of this story with links to the source documents, please click here.)

The Obama administration ...  (Read more)

How the Makers of ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Seduced the CIA with Fake Earrings

The Intercept
September 9, 2015

The plot behind the plot of Zero Dark Thirty just gets better and better.

From the moment it premiered in 2012, the film by Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal about the hunt for Osama bin Laden has been criticized as pro-torture propaganda. According to its many detractors, ...  (Read more)