Observers from the National Lawyers Guild monitored the scene, watching for police misconduct. In the days before the march, police raided activists’ homes, along with the headquarters of several protest groups. Originally published in Indy Week. GROWING UP IN MOUNT AIRY, N.C., 26-year-old Jeremy Miller was a preacher’s son for whom “standing up for what is right” meant […]
When Wounded Vets Come Home
As more troops than ever are surviving the fearsome injuries of war, parents are increasingly being thrust into the role of long-term caregiver. Originally published in AARP The Magazine. CYNTHIA LEFEVER DIDN’T GET A CHANCE TO SEE HER SON Army Specialist Rory Dunn before he shipped out to Iraq on 24 hours’ notice in March […]
Portrait of an ‘American Patriot’
Francis Brooke, a Democrat, joined GOP efforts to depose Saddam Hussein, serving as right-hand man to controversial Iraqi dissident Ahmad Chalabi. His motivation, he says, sprang from a combination of religious calling and noblesse oblige. Originally published in Duke Magazine. Above: A 2004 C-SPAN interview with Brooke. FRANCIS BROOKE WAS STILL ASLEEP in Baghdad’s Mansour neighborhood when […]
Whitewash
In his new autobiography, Jesse Helms sees himself as a humanitarian—not a racist supporter of brutal right-wing regimes who turned obstructionism into a foreign policy. Originally published in Indy Week. I’VE ONLY MET JESSE HELMS ONCE. I was profiling him for two national magazines during his 1996 Senate race, and for two days I shadowed him […]
Dirty Warriors
How South African hit men, Serbian paramilitaries, and other human rights violators became guns for hire for military contractors in Iraq. Originally published in Mother Jones. WHEN THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION TURNED OVER much of its Iraqi security operations to the private sector last year, one of the companies that stood to profit was the London-based Hart Group. […]
Deadly Dependence
The South’s economic reliance on military bases has left a toxic legacy throughout the region. Originally published in Creative Loafing and The Weekly Planet. ON A SUMMER DAY THREE YEARS AGO, Elijah Robinson was digging in the yard of his brand-new patio home in Columbia, S.C., when an unexpected sensation washed over him. Even though he was covered in […]
Need An Army? Just Pick Up the Phone
Originally published in The New York Times. THE MURDEROUS ATTACK ON FOUR AMERICAN CIVILIANS in Falluja, Iraq, brought home gruesome images of charred bodies dangling from a bridge over the Euphrates River. It also introduced Americans to a company few had heard of: Blackwater USA, which was providing security for food delivery convoys when its employees were […]
Soldiers of Good Fortune
They fly helicopters, guard military bases, and provide reconnaissance. They’re private military companies—and they’re replacing U.S. soldiers in the war on terrorism. Originally published in Mother Jones. AT A REMOTE TACTICAL training camp, in a swamp 25 miles from the world’s largest naval base, six U.S. sailors are gearing up for their part in President Bush’s war […]
Secondhand Diplomacy
After closed-door meetings with cigarette makers, the Bush administration is seeking to derail a global tobacco treaty. Originally published in Mother Jones. IT WAS GETTING TOWARD MIDNIGHT when the phone rang in Thomas Novotny’s hotel room in Geneva. It was a May evening in 2001, and Novotny, then the assistant surgeon general, was leading the U.S. delegation […]
Statesmanship vs. Helmsmanship
How the senator from North Carolina holds the world hostage Originally published in The Nation. NOT TOO LONG AGO, JESSE FRIEDMAN, the deputy director of the American Institute for Free Labor Development, and several Nicaraguan union leaders came up with an idea to help low-income workers in that country: a home-improvement loan fund, from which union members […]
