In late 2009, I returned to Baghdad after a lengthy absence. I was living alone, in the Hamra Hotel, the twice bombed-out de facto international news bureau.
I was very fortunate to have fallen in love with an amazing woman. She was killed in a very horrible, horrific way in Iraq. We can have this intellectual conversation about Iraq, and I can throw these numbers out there, but at the end of the day, not...
Janet Malcolm had famously described journalism as the art of seduction and betrayal. Any reporter who didn't see journalism as "morally indefensible" was either "too stupid" or "too full of himself," she wrote. I disagreed. Without shutting the door...
The simple and terrifying reality, forbidden from discussion in America, was that despite spending $600 billion a year on the military, despite having the best fighting force the world had ever known, they were getting their asses kicked by illiterat...
It was either write or die for me.
I went into journalism to do journalism, not advertising.
I want to be the greatest investigative reporter of my generation.
The fact is, psychiatric help is not widely available to CIA agents - and as in the military, there is a stigma attached to admitting post-traumatic stress.
During the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the military conducted only a handful of drone missions.
The genius of David Petraeus has always been his masterful manipulation of the media.
My younger brother is a decorated combat veteran and was a platoon leader in Iraq.
If someone tells you something is off the record, I don't print it. If they don't tell me something is off the record, then it's fair game.
When writing for a mass audience, put a fact in every sentence.
By the second sentence of a pitch, the entirety of the story should be explained.
I thought Gen. McChrystal was unfireable, that his position was secure.
I write for fun. I had written a kind of media satire, but I doubt it will see the light of day. It was just a personal project.
General McChrystal wanted to be on the cover of 'Rolling Stone.'
I think it's very difficult to make people care about natives in another country.
As the CIA tried to find itself, the threat of international terrorism emanating from the Middle East, Africa, North Africa and Central and Southeast Asia grew with each strike: the first World Trade Center attack in 1993, the bombings of U.S. embass...
For me, when I go in to write a profile, and no ground rules are laid down, and I'm there to write an on-the-record profile and cover readings while in the room, then that means it's on the record.
