Mayday

I worked on a quick piece for The Intercept recently, that's up now.  From the trove of documents provided by Edward Snowden is a report detailing the classified info that may have been obtained by China, after a collision between a Navy spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet in 2001.

The Navy's EP-3E plane was badly damaged and needed to make an emergency landing on China's Hainan Island. Although the crew was blamed by many for allowing secrets to fall into the hands of the Chinese government, the report makes clear that higher-ups did not provide the crew with the training or equipment needed to destroy all sensitive material on board. A very interesting read, check it out here. I was very excited to hear from The Intercept, I've been a big fan since its inception. Thank you to Philipp, my AD for this.

Declassify it

This piece ran in The New York Times on Saturday, but was online Friday evening. It concerns the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the CIA's use of torture, and the future of that report in upcoming administrations. Former Senators Carl Levin and Jay Rockefeller are urging President Obama to declassify the report, in order to protect it from being destroyed after he leaves office in January.

The Op-Ed includes a little background on the approximately 6,700 page report, including the fact that only little more than 500 of those pages have been declassified, leaving the vast majority of it in "limbo." The president has the power to unlock these other 6,200 pages, thereby giving a full accounting of what happened during the Bush administration's torture regime, and making it more likely these shameful deeds will not be repeated.

Here's an alternate take. Providing a glimpse of what's in the report:

Thank you to Jim, my awesome AD on this.


Even now the crosshairs are centered on the back of your neck.