The Buzz Board
Picks from the Inner Circle
Gerald Posner
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Gerald Posner is The Daily Beast's Chief Investigative Reporter. He's the award-winning author of 10 investigative nonfiction bestsellers, ranging from political assassinations, to Nazi war criminals, to 9/11, to terrorism. His latest book, Miami Babylon: Crime, Wealth and Power—A Dispatch from the Beach, was published in October. He lives in Miami Beach with his wife, the author Trisha Posner. Chief investigative reporter at The Daily Beast and author of Miami Babylon |
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Rent Scarface this weekend—no one has seen it in 20 years. Where else can you find the combustible mixture of Oliver Stone's hallucinatory and violent screenplay, molded by Brian De Palma at the peak of his directing career, all fueled by the spot-on Al Pacino and then-ingenue Michelle Pfeiffer. When I originally saw it, I thought it was a cartoonish and over-the-top film. Only since moving to Miami six years ago did I learn that it was a cinematic documentary. There were many Tony Montanas. Some survived their days as drug kingpins and today are prominent Miamians, having turned from cocaine dons into civic leaders. Now, when you watch Scarface, think of it not only as a seminal film about Miami as ground zero during the heyday of the cocaine cowboys, but also see it as the fulfillment of the American Dream for an immigrant. |
Gerald Posner
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RSS
Gerald Posner is The Daily Beast's Chief Investigative Reporter. He's the award-winning author of 10 investigative nonfiction bestsellers, ranging from political assassinations, to Nazi war criminals, to 9/11, to terrorism. His latest book, Miami Babylon: Crime, Wealth and Power—A Dispatch from the Beach, was published in October. He lives in Miami Beach with his wife, the author Trisha Posner. Chief investigative reporter at The Daily Beast and author of Miami Babylon |
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 One of my favorite magazine pieces on Ted Kennedy is Time’s Jan 10, 1969 “The Ascent of Ted Kennedy.” It captures Teddy’s rise before everything changed at Chappaquiddick. This is, for me, the most interesting Teddy period, with his brothers gone, but before the summer of ’69 tragedy that changed everything. |
Gerald Posner
Info
RSS
Gerald Posner is The Daily Beast's Chief Investigative Reporter. He's the award-winning author of 10 investigative nonfiction bestsellers, ranging from political assassinations, to Nazi war criminals, to 9/11, to terrorism. His latest book, Miami Babylon: Crime, Wealth and Power—A Dispatch from the Beach, was published in October. He lives in Miami Beach with his wife, the author Trisha Posner. Chief investigative reporter at The Daily Beast and author of Miami Babylon |
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 Thomas Joscelyn, in the Weekly Standard, has the best piece of journalism—“The Zubaydah Dossier”—I’ve read in years about the controversy over whether or not the terrorist Abu Zubaydah was a high-value terror suspect. Zubaydah was described by the Bush administration as one of al Qaeda's top operatives when he was captured in March 2002. Since then, after disclosures that the CIA destroyed many of his key interrogations, the government has downplayed Zubaydah's importance. He was a key figure about possible Saudi and Pakistani links to the 9/11 attacks, in two books I authored, Why America Slept and Secrets of the Kingdom. |
Gerald Posner
Info
RSS
Gerald Posner is The Daily Beast's Chief Investigative Reporter. He's the award-winning author of 10 investigative nonfiction bestsellers, ranging from political assassinations, to Nazi war criminals, to 9/11, to terrorism. His latest book, Miami Babylon: Crime, Wealth and Power—A Dispatch from the Beach, was published in October. He lives in Miami Beach with his wife, the author Trisha Posner. Chief investigative reporter at The Daily Beast and author of Miami Babylon |
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 The Amnesty International report is spot on. The Saudis, who used to pay extortion money to al Qaeda in order to avoid the terror threat, now have institutionalized one of the most brutal justice systems under the guise of counterterrorism. Hardcore Islamists earn their freedom through a suspect rehab program while political dissidents to the royal family earn years of harsh prison life without charges. The Western silence about the Saudi human-rights abuses is a shameful but not surprising sellout for oil. |
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