New York Times
Investigative reporter for the New York Times and author of State of War: Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration
PROFILE
James Risen
Guest
FROM James Risen
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
National security reporter James Risen on fighting his editors and the government James Risen is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Courtesy of Virginia Lozano for The Intercept Investigative reporter James Risen has spent his career revealing the secret activities of the federal government, specifically the CIA and NSA. He won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting that the NSA was secretly - and illegally - wiretapping Americans during the Bush years. But his employer at the time, the New York Times, refused to publish that story for more than a year. Risen has written a lengthy account as to why his bosses were reluctant to publish, and why both the Bush and Obama administrations aggressively pursued him and his sources.
To the Point
The psychological impact of US torture In the aftermath of September 11, during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, legal advisors in the George W. Bush Administration signed off on so-called "enhanced interrogation" techniques to gather intelligence. They argued that it wasn't "torture" because there would not be long-term physical or psychological damage. But nobody in the government has bothered to check to make sure that was true. Photo by Mike Benedetti Now the New York Times has published the first in a series of reports, " How US Torture Left a Legacy of Damaged Minds ." The author is investigative reporter James Risen.
To the Point
Blackwater’s Misconduct Before US Troops Pulled Out of Iraq In 2007, the private security firm Blackwater was at the height of its influence in Iraq and making millions of dollars off government contracts. But in September of that year, Blackwater personnel fired into a crowd of men, women and children at Baghdad’s Nisour Square, killing 17 and badly damaging relations between the two countries. US officials had already heard that the military contractors saw themselves as “above the law” and Iraq as a variation on the ‘OK Corral.’ That’s according to newly released documents obtained by James Risen of the New York Times.
To the Point
Blackwater Indictment: Accountability or Whitewash? Charges filed yesterday against five Blackwater security guards reveal details of an incident in Iraq last year that provoked international outrage. Seventeen unsuspecting civilians were killed and 20 were wounded. The guards are charged with voluntary manslaughter, based on testimony from one of their comrades. The six used automatic rifles and grenade launchers to fire on cars, houses, a traffic officer and a girls' school. James Risen is reporting the story for the New York Times .
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To the Point
Is the threat from Russia missing from the Russia meddling probe? There's much being made about the Trump administration's possible ties with Russia. But the bottom line is Russia's effort to influence American democracy. Do the President and his aides care enough to take action before voters go back to the polls?
To the Point
Trump plays scolder-in-chief with NATO allies At the opening of NATO’s dramatic new headquarters in Brussels today, President Trump acknowledged that Article 5 — promising that “an attack on one nation is an attack on all” -- has only been invoked one time: in the aftermath of September 11. But the President failed to provide what 27 other Alliance members have been waiting for: a re-commitment by America’s new leader to Article 5. Instead, they got a scolding.
To the Point
Trump's 'America First' goes missing abroad In the Middle East, President Trump is changing some policies of the Obama Administration—and reversing his own campaign attacks on Islam as a religion that "hates us." We hear about his visit to Saudi Arabia and what's at stake for the rest of his foreign excursion.
To the Point
Who's to blame for the opioid crisis? Some of the lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are now going after Big Pharma. It’s all about the deadly epidemic of opioid use. Are the drug companies to blame? What about the users? Later, on today’s Talking Point: making sense of Britain’s upset election.