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.

Economic warfare

US and the UK put the screws on Iran, with the US running the show. The Independent: “A senior executive at one of the (British) banks affected said: ‘The consequences of not toeing the American line on Iran have not…

Good f***ing riddance!

LAST PUBLIC WORDS: “The great respect that I have for your leadership, Mr. President, in this little understood, unfamiliar war, the first war of the 21st century, is not well-known, it was not well understood, it is complex for people…

Who’s worse? Bush?…or Kim Jong Il?

THE BRITS CHOOSE BUSH. London Guardian: “British voters see George Bush as a greater danger to world peace than either the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, or the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Both countries were once cited by the US…

Iranian missile barrage

WHOA… NYT: “Iran fired several missiles with a range of more than 1,000 miles during a military maneuver today, apparently to send a message to the United States and several of its allies in the Persian Gulf after they conducted…

North Koreans seek a way out

The International Crisis Group has a harrowing report out on the large numbers of people leaving North Korea for an uncertain and sometimes perilous life overseas. A sobering assessment of the human costs of the US-North Korea standoff and a…

Nuke for a nuke?

Kim Jong Il got his bomb. So now we’re going to start planning nuclear war? Apparently so, according to the Korea Times. Key grafs; scary: “Gen. B. B. Bell, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), has been mandated by…

Gulf Coast: Casino Economy

My latest article, posted on Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch: As tens of thousands of Katrina victims continue to live in dilapidated trailers and thousands more remain stranded in states as far away as Utah and Georgia, multinational corporations loaded with…

We have some victories: Unions and the IMF

Last year I wrote a report for the Washington office of the International Confederation of Trade Unions on how unions around the world have successfully fought back against privatization and other schemes pushed on their countries by the International Monetary…

Koizumi insults Asia once again

Japan’s Elvis-loving Prime Minister has visited Yasukuni Shrine for the umpteenth time. The Germans have left behind their Nazi past. Isn’t it about time Japan does the same for its reactionary emperor system and helping to trigger World War II?…

Lebanon: Economic terrorism

An editorial in today’s business section of Haaretz, Israel’s most insightful newspaper, gives voice to opinions that are all but missing from the American media. Nimrod Halpern writes: The sweeping assault on transport, energy and communications infrastructure in Lebanon have…

Lewis Black, American hero

From Raw Story: “During an interview on CNN, comedian Lewis Black complained about CNN’s “overuse” of key graphic banners and tickers. 24 hour news networks use similar banners and news tickers, that often prevent viewers from seeing the lower portion…

DPRK: In your face

When Democrats like Ashton Carter and William Perry make Dick Cheney look like a moderate, its time to rethink US policy towards North Korea. How about taking the North Koreans up on their offer, made more than five years ago,…