The Biggest Secret - My Life as a New York Times Reporter in the Shadow of the War on Terror

[PoliticAverse]

by James Risen

Bundled against the freezing wind, my lawyers and I were about to reach the courthouse door when two news photographers launched into a perp-walk shoot. As a reporter, I had witnessed this classic scene dozens of times, watching in bemusement from the sidelines while frenetic photographers and TV crews did their business. I never thought I would be the perp, facing those whirring cameras.

As I walked past the photographers into the courthouse that morning in January 2015, I saw a group of reporters, some of whom I knew personally. They were here to cover my case, and now they were waiting and watching me. I felt isolated and alone.

My lawyers and I took over a cramped conference room just outside the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, where we waited for her to begin the pretrial hearing that would determine my fate. My lawyers had been working with me on this case for so many years that they now felt more like friends. We often engaged in gallows humor about what it was going to be like for me once I went to jail. But they had used all their skills to make sure that didn’t happen and had even managed to keep me out of a courtroom and away from any questioning by federal prosecutors.

Until now.

Read the rest at: https://theintercept.com/2018/01/03/my-life-as-a-new-york-times-reporter-in-the-shadow-of-the-war-on-terror/

[Va Lefty]

1. Excellent article. Thanks for posting!

[murielm99]

2. The Intercept?

Really?

[PoliticAverse]

3. James Risen. Really. n/t

[mr_lebowski]

4. Interesting but could've used some judicious editing ...

Too long IMHO, a bit unfocused, and repetitive.

But an interesting story on a very important topic.

[ret5hd]

5. Excellent and interesting story.

[UpInArms]

6. Fascinating read ... thank you for posting

From the article:

By 2002, I was also starting to clash with the editors over our coverage of the Bush administration’s claims about pre-war intelligence on Iraq. My stories raising questions about the intelligence, particularly the administration’s claims of a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda, were being cut, buried, or held out of the paper altogether.

[Scruffy1]

7. The New York Times bent over backwards for the Bushes war.

They also got rid of Chris Hedges right away. Of course, the rest of the MSM marched in lockstep.