Espionage and Intelligence

Latest Articles

Review: Killers

Did we ask to see Ashton Kutcher as 007?
As a CIA operative in Robert Luketic's spy thriller/rom-com, Ashton Kutcher looks strapping, if nothing else.
By TOM MEEK | June 09, 2010

Civil liberties' limits grow
Recent decisions by President Barack Obama and Maine Governor John Baldacci have dampened progressive hopes that the Republican-inspired war on civil liberties might be winding down.
By JEFF INGLIS | June 10, 2009

00-Panetta

Why Leon might be right for the CIA. Plus: Al Franken, Roland Burris, and Caroline Kennedy.
President-elect Barack Obama's pick of Leon Panetta as director of the Central Intelligence Agency caught Washington by surprise.
By EDITORIAL | January 12, 2009

McCain’s crooked talk on torture

Critics, including a local former army interrogator, say he’s trying to play both sides of the issue
It might surprise some that McCain’s record in opposing torture and the Bush administration’s terror-war approach is more complicated than his comments suggest.
By IAN DONNIS | September 18, 2008

Light Reading

The Coen Brothers have talent to Burn
Every now and then so-called independent filmmakers have to make money and prove to the studios that they have some traction at the box office.
By PETER KEOUGH | September 09, 2008

Interview: Joseph Finder

True fiction
"Since 9/11, thousands of CIA employees have quit to go private. Basically, these guys are private spies."
By CLEA SIMON | August 18, 2009

Chinese democracy

A field guide to oppression in the home of the 2008 summer games
With Beijing 2008 finally at hand, China’s Tibetan occupation remains Hollywood’s cause célèbre .
By ADAM MATTHEWS | August 08, 2008

Lynch sides with Bush in opposing shield law

Talking Politics
As he gears up for a gubernatorial run in 2010, Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch has assembled an eclectic and sometimes contrary portfolio of issue-related stances.
By IAN DONNIS | July 09, 2008

Intelligence deficit

Bush fooled voters and the press once on Iraq. Can McCain get away with the same thing?
The American press and public rarely get riled up these days over new revelations concerning President George W. Bush and his administration’s sorry history.
By EDITORIAL | June 11, 2008

March to war

Why isn’t the press paying more attention to a possible attack on Iran?
During the course of two weeks in May, America’s top-ranking military officer went from warning that war with Iran could cripple the US military to rattling his saber at Tehran.
By ADAM REILLY | June 04, 2008

Campaign spying is an old, old game

Ward 8
This article originally appeared in the May 22, 1973 issue of the Boston Phoenix.
By MARTIN LOMANSEY JR. | May 22, 2008

Running toward truth

A fast-paced spy thriller explores the ambiguities of wartime
The first wave of current-war fiction is washing up on American shores, and Alex Carr’s The Prince of Bagram Prison is a prime example.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | April 09, 2008

Patrick Lynch goes for broke

In gunning for Governor, the term-limited AG has little to lose
One small basketball photo lurks inconspicuously on a far wall in the spacious South Main Street office of Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch.
By IAN DONNIS | January 23, 2008

Ring of fire

The deadbeat FBI fails to pay its phone bills and jeopardizes its wiretapping program
An ugly squabble between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the nation’s biggest phone companies has, in one nasty blow, recast the image of all the entities involved.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | January 23, 2008

Torture-tapes template

Bush-administration lawyers could be nailed for their role in destroying evidence in the CIA scandal, thanks to a quiet Connecticut child-porn case
Did the Bush-administration lawyers, and the CIA operatives they advised, commit obstruction of justice by destroying the now-infamous CIA-interrogation videotapes?
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | December 16, 2008

Know nukes

Why is our worst national nightmare so misunderstood?
I’ll never shake the sense memory of that numbed shiver.
By MIKE MILIARD | December 31, 2007

Dumb or dishonest?

Bush and Iran. Plus, disturbing news about AIDS, and Romney’s illegal problem
For some reason, wisdom maintains that Republicans hold an edge over Democrats when it comes to commanding the military and conducting foreign policy.
By EDITORIAL | December 05, 2007

War stories

Pressuring the press
In his new book, Reporting the War: Freedom of the Press from the American Revolution to the War on Terrorism , author John Byrne Cooke tracks press influence on public opinion.
By ADAM REILLY | November 28, 2007

A tragicomedy of errors

In an excerpt from his new book, The Fall of the House of Bush, author Craig Unger details how Bush is, well, screwing up the world
It was not until after George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were narrowly re-elected that many Americans began to realize that the Iraq War represented a dangerous moment in American history.
By CRAIG UNGER | November 20, 2007

He had his reasons

Going, going, Gonzo
So why did Alberto Gonzales resign?
By MIKE MILIARD | August 29, 2007

Federal judge says PUC's Verizon inquiry can continue

That's gotta sting
Almost exactly a year ago, the state Public Utilities Commission stepped up to guard Mainers’ privacy and phone records from Verizon.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | August 01, 2007

Heroes of our time

From Bond to Bourne, the good guys (and girls) buck the system
In interviews promoting The Bourne Ultimatum , Matt Damon has argued that his Jason Bourne has supplanted James Bond as the hero of our time.
By PETER KEOUGH | July 31, 2007

Whitehouse on Iraq, the Democratic Congress, and more

Talking politics
Whitehouse has enjoyed more than his share of attention as a freshman US senator.
By IAN DONNIS | July 11, 2007

What lies beneath

Exploring Portsmouth's Underbelly
Rife with prostitution, espionage, booze, and murder, Portsmouth once supported a rich red-light culture in the shadows of its refinery.
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | May 30, 2007

Getting spooked

Charles McCarry looks back at the Nazis — and ahead to Bush?
The politics of celebrated spy-novel writer (and one-time deep-cover CIA operative) Charles McCarry aren’t simplistic.
By CLIF GARBODEN | May 08, 2007

Annals of termination

Yet another mission to accomplish
George W. Bush is guilty of a lot of things. But in her just-released book, former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega gets specific.
By MIKE MILIARD | May 02, 2007

Situation

Too cartoonish for truth
That situation in Iraq sure is something.
By PETER KEOUGH | April 11, 2007

Bush's secret army

Meet the American mercenaries of Blackwater, who fight outside of the law and take direction from the radical Christian right
The 9/11 attacks provided a catalyst: an unprecedented justification to forge ahead with a radical agenda molded by a small cadre of neoconservative operatives.
By JEREMY SCAHILL | March 21, 2007