Spies for Hire

In 2008, I published SPIES FOR HIRE, the first and only book on the privatization of US intelligence. I began my reporting on the nexus of national security and capitalism five years earlier, when I was thunderstruck to discover that the Pentagon had hired private contractors to “interrogate” Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. The best of my reporting on privatization, much of it from The Nation, is displayed here.

Five Corporations Dominate the U.S. Intelligence Industry

The recent integration of two military contractors into a $10 billion behemoth is the latest in a wave of mergers and acquisitions that have transformed America’s privatized, high-tech intelligence system into what looks like an old-fashioned monopoly. An update of an article I originally posted in The Nation in 2016. Ever hear of Leidos? You should have.

Oligarchy of Spies

The Five Pure-Plays that Dominate US Intelligence Just out, in The Nation: By Tim Shorrock The recent integration of two military contractors into a $10 billion behemoth is the latest in a wave of mergers and acquisitions that have transformed…

Cryptome’s searing critique of Snowden Inc.

"The current corporate media business model of celebrity as an income producer and celebrity as a sensationalizing, titillating device for increasing the value of content is something we stay away from. It’s deeply cynical to sensationalize this trusted transaction, when someone come to you with a document and puts it forward to you."