“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…
The Shorrock Files
New, Rare and Unreleased Material from the DMZ Empire
The Shorrock Files
New, Rare and Unreleased Material from the DMZ Empire
Uncategorized
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…
America under surveillance
My latest: The role of US intelligence in Hurricane Katrina. Read an update on the domestic use of military spy satellites here.
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.
Health care crisis in New Orleans (still)
In October, 2005, one month after Hurricane Katrina, I spent three weeks living in New Orleans to learn about the Common Ground free clinic. Located in Algiers, just across the Mississippi River from the French Quarter, the clinic served anyone…
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…
‘Outsourced’ author on intel contracting
R.J. Hillhouse, the author of Outsourced, the latest in espionage fiction, takes an interesting look at real, live outsourcing at the CIA in Sunday’s Washington Post. Here’s an excerpt: “Although the contracting system is Byzantine, there’s no question that the…
NSA subpoenas follow the money
There’s an important detail in the NSA subpoena requests issued by the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday that’s been left out of most news accounts. In addition to asking for documents pertaining to the telecommunication industry’s collaboration with the NSA, the…
How to get the attention of U.S. Intelligence
I never in a thousand years imagined that I could force the Director of National Intelligence to make a statement about a document I obtained as a journalist. But it happened. Earlier this month, in Salon, I reported that 70…
Korea: It’s about time
NYT: Bush sends envoy to talk to the DPRK. “For years the administration has refused to engage one on one with the North Koreans. Ms. Rice had to maneuver around Vice President Dick Cheney, officials said in February, to reach…
Expert Witness
Just posted: My interview Sunday (6/17) with former DEA agent Mike Levine, on The Expert Witness Radio Show on Pacifica’s WBAI in New York. To listen, click here. Plus: Thanks to WBAI’s Mark Marshall, I can post here for the…
Cover-up of US eco-damage in ROK charged
HANKYOREH: “Amid a furor over the alleged contamination of U.S. military bases being returned to South Korea, the National Assembly environmental committee on Friday urged the government to release classified documents on its agreement with Washington or face legal action.…
A $60 billion intel budget?
R.J. Hillhouse, who publishes an excellent blog on intelligence outsourcing, has parsed the DNI Powerpoint slides I obtained last week and come up with some surprising conclusions. “By reverse engineering the numbers in an underlying data element embedded in the…
DPRK: Nukes, national pride & goats
Mark Magnier of the L.A. Times is one of the best American correspondents in Asia. I used to work with him at the Journal of Commerce, where he was the paper’s Tokyo correspondent and trade editor. He recently spent four…
“We can’t spy…If we can’t buy!”
My latest, from Salon: “On May 14, at an industry conference in Colorado sponsored by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the U.S. government revealed for the first time how much of its classified intelligence budget is spent on private contracts: a…
Kwangju: May 18, 1980
Today marks the 27th anniversary of the Kwangju Uprising in South Korea. On May 18, 1980, students, workers and citizens of the southwestern city of Kwangju took up arms after Special Forces under the command of Lt. Gen. Chun Doo…
CIA in a Fog(go)
AP: Former CIA official Kyle “Dusty” Foggo was indicted Friday for accepting bribes in return for steering contracts towards an old buddy. “According to the new indictment, Foggo provided (Brent) Wilkes with ‘sensitive, internal information related to our national security,’…
DPRK backs Congress on WW2 sex-slaves
YONHAP: “North Korea expressed support for a House resolution demanding Japan’s apology for sexual enslavement during World War II as more congressmen were signing on as resolution co-sponsors, campaign leaders said Wednesday. Soh Ok-cha, president of the Washington Coalition for…
US-Korea FTA: Enough Already!
My latest piece, from Foreign Policy in Focus: “The FTA cannot be seen apart from U.S.-South Korean security ties, the presence in South Korea of more than 30,000 US troops and a 50-year economic relationship that has been heavily weighted…
David Halberstam, Presente!
One of America’s greatest journalists died today in a tragic car accident. I will never forget Halberstam’s reporting from Vietnam for the New York Times. It helped shape my understanding of the Indochina War and inspired me to become a…
Historic deal in Korea
Gavan McCormack, an Australian analyst of Korean affairs, sees the deal as a major turning point in East Asian history. Worth reading. “The tectonic plates under East Asia have begun to shift. In a world where gloom predominates and resort…
Hallelujah! Bush and Kim come to their senses
Bush & company finally got off their collective asses and cut a deal ending North Korea’s nuclear program that should have, and could have, been signed five years ago. Two well-informed Korea experts have explained the intricacies of the deal…
BOOZing it up at the DNI
My latest article, in Salon. Jan. 8, 2007 | The Bush administration’s choice last week of J. Michael McConnell to be director of national intelligence is a major blunder — and not just because the man who will be overseeing…
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…