About the Author
For more than fifteen years, I have worked as an independent journalist who specializes in magazine features, profiles, and investigative stories in the areas of politics and national security. In 2001, I was profiled as a leading investigative journalist by the Columbia Journalism Review, and two of my articles have won awards from The Washington Monthly. In 2003, I was awarded Project Censored’s first prize for a story on the role of oil in U.S. policy toward Iraq. I have appeared on scores of radio and television talk shows, including Hannity and Colmes on Fox News, C-Span, CNBC, MSNBC, Court TV, and, on National Public Radio, The Diane Rehm Show and Public Interest with Kojo Nnamdi, and Pacifica's Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman.Based in Alexandria, Va., I have been writing for Rolling Stone for at least a decade, and currently I cover national security for Rolling Stone’s National Affairs section. I’m a contributing editor at The Nation, a contributing writer at Mother Jones, and a senior correspondent for The American Prospect. My articles have also appeared in The Washington Monthly, The New Republic, Newsday, Worth, California Lawyer, The Texas Observer, E, In These Times, The Detroit Metro Times, Public Citizen, Extra!, and, in Japan, in Esquire, Foresight and Nikkei Business.Perhaps I am best known for what I consider to be ground-breaking stories about the war in Iraq, the war on terrorism, and post-9/11 U.S. foreign policy. In 2002, I wrote the first significant profile of Ahmed Chalabi by a journalist, for The American Prospect. Also in 2002, I also wrote the first analysis of the war between the Pentagon and the CIA over policy toward Iraq, which included the first important account of the Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans. Other stories in The American Prospect included detailed accounts of neoconservative war plans for the broader Middle East. In 2004, I co-authored what is still the most complete account of the work of the Office of Special Plans in manufacturing misleading or false intelligence about Iraq, for Mother Jones, entitled “The Lie Factory.”Before 9/11, I wrote extensively about intelligence issues, including pieces about post-Cold War excursions by the CIA into economic espionage, about the CIA’s nonofficial cover (NOC) program, and about lobbying by U.S. defense and intelligence contractors over the annual secret intelligence budget.Among my many other pieces, I’ve profiled organizations, including the Democratic Leadership Council, the Center for American Progress, the National Rifle Association, the NAACP, the Human Rights Campaign, and Handgun Control. I’ve profiled Vermont Governor Howard Dean, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, conservative activist Grover Norquist, House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, Senator John McCain, and, in 1999, Texas Governor George W. Bush. One of my most important pieces was the result of a weeks-long visit to Vietnam in 1999, where I wrote about the effects of Agent Orange dioxin in Vietnam since the 1970s. My stories on the privatization of Social Security and the politics of Medicare and Medical Savings Accounts have been widely cited.I’m a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE). I graduated from Columbia University.
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