Tim Shorrock

Tim Shorrock

Tim Shorrock is a Washington-based investigative journalist who grew up in Japan and South Korea. He is the author of SPIES FOR HIRE: The Secret World of Outsourced Intelligence, published in 2008 by Simon & Schuster (see him talking about his book here). Over the past 35 years, his work has appeared in many publications in the United States and abroad, including The Nation, Salon, Daily Beast, Mother Jones, The Progressive, Foreign Policy in Focus and Asia Times. He also appears frequently on the radio as a commentator on intelligence, contracting, foreign policy, East Asia and North and South Korea. He has been interviewed on Democracy Now, NPR’s Fresh Air, HuffPostLive and many other outlets.

SPIES FOR HIRE

Out today, Tuesday, May 6! Watch this page for updates on upcoming interviews and book appearances. Available for web purchases at Powell’s Books, Amazon and Barnes & Noble. And in audio CD too.

USA! USA!

“The beauty of this country is that someone who makes a statement and disrupts a public meeting won’t be taken out and shot.” — Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee, after an antiwar protestor from Code Pink was removed from a…

Repression, from Birmingham to Gaza

Birmingham 1963 Gaza 2008 AP: Egyptian security personnel use a water cannon to disperse Palestinian women, supporters of Hamas, during a demonstration at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008. Hundreds of Palestinian…

Stories of Katrina and the Gulf Coast

In 2006 and 2007, I had the tremendous honor of working under a Katrina Media Fellowship from the Open Society Institute to write stories about the social and economic impact of Hurricane Katrina. About 25 print journalists, film makers, photographers…

Domestic Spying Inc.

My latest, from CorpWatch. “A new U.S. intelligence institution will allow government spy agencies to conduct broad surveillance and reconnaissance inside the country for the first time. Contractors like Boeing, BAE Systems, Harris Corporation, L-3 Communications and Science Applications International…

Christian diplomacy in North Korea

From Hankyoreh, via H.K. Suh in DC: “Imagine an American Christian rock band going to North Korea, a country accused of being one of the most oppressed in terms of religious freedom, and not only performing a Christian hymn but…

Bush and Kim, Peacemakers

Bruce Cumings, the nation’s foremost historian of US-Korean relations, analyzes the Bush administration’s recent deal with Kim Jong Il: “Bizarre events may well place Bush and ‘evildoer’ Kim Jong Il side by side as peacemakers. If so, all well and…

Memphis Gospel

Darrel Petties & Strength in Praise rock out at the Cooper-Young Festival, Memphis, Tennessee, September 15, 2007. Photo by Tim Shorrock.

“Ashes” Revisited

“Legacy of Ashes,” the new book on the CIA by the New York Times’ Tim Weiner, has been getting rave reviews from the mainstream press. Now, finally, people with historical knowledge of the agency are beginning to poke holes in…

Down in Mississippi

Despite the casinos, things are still tough down on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast two years after Hurricane Katrina. Read my piece, “Hurricane Recovery, Republican Style” today in Salon. My reporting from the Gulf over the past year has been subsidized by…

Korea breakthrough

Direct US negotiations with North Korea finally bear fruit for the two Koreas: the leaders of South and North will meet August 28-30 for a summit. Details from Hankyoreh. Update: The summit was postponed until October.

Summertime…

…and if you’re a music fan, don’t miss Respect Yourself, the new PBS documentary on Memphis’ Stax Records, produced by my fellow Memphian, Robert Gordon. It’s a beautifully done tribute to the label that produced some of the greatest American…

Nuke danger in Japan

Japan’s nuclear power industry has a terrible record of cover-ups, and the recent earthquake in Niigata has triggered another one. The quake caused fires and a significant leak of radioactive fuel, forcing the government to shut down the world’s largest…