‘fundamental mistakes’
In his new book, “Reign of Terror,” Spencer Ackerman lays out how Trump understood the nativist power of the 9/11 era better than the elites who built a war around it.
Spencer Ackerman is a contributing editor at the Daily Beast. From 2017 to 2021, he was senior national security correspondent for The Daily Beast. He is the author of forthcoming REIGN OF TERROR: How The 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump. The former U.S. national security editor for the Guardian, Ackerman was part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team reporting on Edward Snowden's surveillance revelations.
opinion
KNOWN KNOWNS
Do not mourn the defense secretary. Mourn his victims. There were nearly too many to tally, but his Pentagon refused to count anyway.
FOREVER PRISONERS
Asadullah Haroon took Biden to court on Monday to win his freedom after 14 years. The prospects are far less promising for Mohammad Fahim, whom the CIA tortured.
FORGOTTEN MAN
Abu Zubaydah was a human guinea pig for the CIA’s post-9/11 torture. Almost 20 years later, as the U.S. moves on, he’s still trying to get out of Guantanamo.
BACK DOOR
A secret court warned the FBI in 2018 about warrantless searches. But the bureau still went looking for “racially motivated violent extremists” in NSA troves without a court order.
FOREVER WARS; PLURAL
Joe Biden gave the most forthright antiwar argument of any post-9/11 president. Then he spared the broader War on Terror from its implications.
ASTERISK
This is how America withdraws from unwinnable conflicts in the 21st century: with assurances that it will continue to launch airstrikes as it sees fit.
DIPLO EX MACHINA
The new hope for getting the U.S. out of its longest war rests on a diplomatic Hail Mary. Failure could mean a return to open conflict—against a motivated enemy.
TURNAROUND
It was a huge election-time story that prompted cries of treason. But according to a newly disclosed assessment, Donald Trump might have been right to call it a “hoax.”
TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT
The Yemen war that President Biden vowed to end is getting worse. Some are starting to criticize Biden’s special envoy as too close to the Saudis.