Spencer Ackerman

word of advice to reporters seeking to embed in Iraq: it helps to avoid the whole WMD thing. In March, I met an Army officer for dinner at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. In the course of a general discussion about whether the war’s fortunes were as bad as they seemed, the conversation turned to […]

n 2003, an optimist could hope that the United States would establish a liberal democracy in Iraq. Four years into the war in Iraq, an optimist can hope that a surge of 30,000 troops will help stabilize an illiberal, Iran-aligned Shiite government. The tactical merits of the surge matter little when set against a simple […]

Few can doubt the vigor of Donald Rumsfeld, the defense secretary who cant be made to resign. (The 74-year-old eschews a chair at his desk, for instance, preferring to stand for over eight hours a day at a raised drafting table.) Not even an unprecedented onslaught against Rummy by retired Army and Marine generals earlier […]

But there isn’t much more in State of War (Free Press, $26.00) about the warrantless eavesdropping program than what the Times has already published. Instead, there is a wealth of information and insight into how the intelligence community has been pushed by the Bush administration–and, in many cases, willingly jumped–into its own shameful acts. Far […]

After we parked at a Saugerties firing range, Warren unpacked his M-14, 12-gauge shotgun, and AK-47–the insurgent assault rifle of choice–then hauled out the experimental armor, which he calls Magmacore. It was a two-inch thick panel about a foot in length and width. Despite weighing 18 pounds or so, it didn’t look too sturdy. Its […]

Any post-Saddam euphoria felt by the Iraqi people–who, Vice President Dick Cheney declared before the war, would greet U.S. troops “as liberators”–has given way to ambivalence, as a recent Gallup poll attests; meanwhile, American troops are fighting a protracted guerrilla war in central Iraq which claims, on average, the life of one soldier every day. […]