Newsletter The Virgin Rome And The Chad Constantinople Do you think about the Roman Empire a lot? Obviously. But which Roman Empire? And which successor to the Roman Empire? PLUS: Some appearances I'm doing.
Paid-members only Newsletter Writing Villains: A Place To Put Bad Feelings Waller Vs. Wildstorm #3, the big action issue, is in stores now! No spoilers, just notes on the catharsis of scripting people who do evil things, like "peace operations officer" Slade Wilson.
The War Abroad Military Judge Rejects CIA's 'Rectal Feeding' Narrative for Post-9/11 Sexual Assault No previous judge has challenged the agency's line about what it did to 9/11-era detainees. PLUS: The absence of the U.S. military for the relief of Maui.
The War Abroad CIA Story Time: From Patrice Lumumba's Assassination To Post-9/11 Torture Before his death in 2008, CIA operator Larry Devlin lamented the persecution of agency interrogators. A forthcoming book sheds light on his role overthrowing Congo's first post-colonial government.
The War Abroad The Bipartisan Parts of the Defense Bill Suck, Too House Republicans used $886 billion (!) NDAA as a pitchfork for a culture-war witchhunt. That just scratches the surface of what's wrong with this thing.
The War Abroad Babylon Makes The Rules-Based International Order You know what clarifies the difference between the U.S.' order and international law? Syria. Guidance…
The War Abroad The Foreign Policy Elite Can't Understand How They Got Us Here Richard Haass of the Council on Foreign Relations thinks the biggest danger to the world is the United States. But he doesn't mean it in the way that's, y'know, true.
The War Abroad U.N.: U.S. Must 'Make Full Reparation For The Injuries Caused' by Gitmo "Without accountability, there is no moving forward on Guantánamo," said a U.N. special rapporteur, shouting a truth into the void of U.S. foreign policy.
The War Abroad From Dan Ellsberg and Vietnam to Bob Gates and NATO Expansion The ex-defense secretary wrote in his 2014 memoir that expanding NATO inevitably provoked Russia—and kept silent to George W. Bush instead of doing something about it.
The War Abroad The Three Laws of Robotics Will Be Violated Like All Other Laws The Air Force might not have run an AI test that prompted a machine to kill its overseer with a drone. The Air Force colonel who brought it up did so as a warning.
The War Abroad U.N.: Free Abu Zubaydah—and Pay Him An extraordinary report from the United Nations says the detention of the first forever-prisoner the U.S. tortured after 9/11 and then threw into Gitmo amounts to an "enforced disappearance."
Paid-members only The War Abroad How To Read an Intelligence Leak One of the recent ChudLeaks claims Afghanistan is fertile soil for the so-called Islamic State. Let's step back for some perspective. PLUS: The Pegasus cyberweapon is back.
The War Abroad 'This Was Nineveh, After All…' Have you read Salar Abdoh's Out Of Mesopotamia? Because I can't stop thinking about it. PLUS: Tortuguita's autopsy; Guantanamo and the Yemen war; and are we sure we're not incentivizing China to invade Taiwan?
The War Abroad Eating King Crab Legs During The Fall That's what Iraqis call the 2003-2011 U.S. Occupation. Here's my call for reparations at Notre Dame's 2023 War & Peace Forum. PLUS: Does MAGA want to join the ranks of those who attack lower Manhattan on a Tuesday morning?
The War Abroad What Gives You The Right To Fuck With Our Lives? Disconnected thoughts, memories and podcasts 20 years after the invasion of Iraq. PLUS: Lee Harris, an innocent man railroaded by a Chicago cop turned Gitmo torturer, is free!
The War Abroad The 'Indispensable Nation' Learns It Might Not Be Great-Power-Competitive Longtime U.S.-client Saudi Arabia is out for "a diversified portfolio of relationships," says a source close to the royals. The China-brokered detente with Iran shows that yesterday's price is not today's price
The War Abroad 'Even Our Breath Will Be For Sale' A few notes on my Rolling Stone piece about the 20th anniversary of Iraq, as well as a video of a panel I was on in D.C. on the subject. PLUS: Worldwide Threats, Nordstream counternarratives, and a legendary natsec blazing session
The War Abroad The Worst Argument For The China Cold War Conflict with China will not "cure American political polarization," so let's pop this balloon. PLUS: Ilhan Omar's defenestration! A fake China missile gap! And the F-22 has its bar mitzvah!
The War Abroad Brandon's Weapons Bazaar New arms-sales data just dropped. Joe Biden has been so good for the weapons-export market that an analyst wonders if this is "a new normal," rather than a Ukraine-specific uptick. PLUS: Majid Khan is free! ALSO: A corrupt spyhunter mook at the NY FBI, you say?
The War Abroad Of Course Davos Wants To Hear from Henry Kissinger What better forum could there be for one of the 20th century's ghouls to tell those who most benefit from the world as it is what they want to hear? PLUS: The U.S. arms market in Yemen will not be undersold!
The War Abroad A Yemen War Resolution Will Be A Moment of Truth for Biden "Consequences" for MBS seems like a quaint idea, post-Ukraine. PLUS: Biden's December 2022 War on Terror disclosure form shows an increase in U.S. troops in Niger.
The War Abroad As Xi Visits Saudi Arabia, U.S. Tells Mideast Allies Not To Comparison Shop How to wage two Cold Wars at the same time? With security architecture that works like a walled garden. Would the Gulfies buy a Mac when all their stuff runs on Windows?
The War Abroad Blaming The Afghans One Last Time U.S. watchdog SIGAR told true stories about the trees of the Afghanistan war. It avoided talking about the forest—and the people trying to survive the changing ecosystem.
The War Abroad U.S. Intelligence Begins To Rethink Its Analysts' Emirati Career Path A War-on-Terror retirement plan for U.S. intelligence officers grows into an espionage problem. PLUS: WALLER VS. WILDSTORM is delayed, but not canceled! AND: A note on trans panic and the midterms.
The War Abroad Joe Biden's Disposition Matrix The Obama administration created a bureaucratic entity with life-or-death power to "dispose" of suspected terrorists. A senior official confirms that Biden has brought it back.
