When the Feds announced last week that they were indicting Democratic Representative James Traficant from Ohio on a slew of racketeering, bribery and corruption charges, the acerbic, polyester-clad legislator and former sheriff of Mahoning County let fly one of his usual anti-federal rants: “You’d best beat me,” he said of the U.S. Attorneys prosecuting his […]
Jason Vest
Jason Vest is a Senior Correspondent for The American Prospect and a contributor to the Boston Phoenix and The Nation, specializing in intelligence and national security affairs. He also holds an Ochberg Fellowship with the University of Washington's Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. Recognized by American Journalism Review in 2002 as an "Unsung Hero of Washington Journalism," Vest has previously done staff stints at the Washington Post, US News & World Report and Village Voice. He covered the Eritrea-Ethiopia border war (1999-2000), as a correspondent for The Scotsman, and was awarded a 1999 Fund For Investigative Journalism grant to examine both the war and media coverage.
Originally a reporter for alternative weeklies in Indiana, Vest has also written for The Atlantic Monthly, Columbia Journalism Review, Mother Jones, AlterNet and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, among others. His work for the Prospect in 2004 has been supported by grant awards from the Foundation for Constitutional Goverment and the Ettinger Foundation. His book on national security during the current Bush Administration will be published by Wiley & Sons in 2005.
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Ridge’s Troubled Waters:
Every new administration begets its share of policy buzzwords. At the moment, “homeland security” is very much in vogue. An important concept saddled with an ill-chosen moniker (it’s hard not to detect a whiff of the worst kind of retro-nationalism), the fundamental notion is finally incarnate in the form of the newly created Office of […]
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Our Man in Little Havana:
It was the summer of 1985 and John Lantigua, then The Washington Post‘s Nicaragua stringer, discovered he had a new nickname, at least among American right-wingers: “Johnny Sandinista.” For many senior politicos in the Reagan Administration, Nicaragua was a black and white issue. If you weren’t pro-Contra and anti-Sandinista, you were a dupe of two […]
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The Dubious Genius of Andrew Marshall
Early next month, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld‘s Adviser on Net Assessment will produce a report that will be the working blueprint for the Pentagon’s future. Given that the Adviser — Andrew Marshall — is a futurist fascinated with the most advanced technologies, observers expect the report to be chock full of recommendations emphasizing an […]
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Kill this Idea
No employee of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, political assassination. –Executive Order 11905, signed by President Gerald Ford (February 18, 1976) No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Governmentshall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination. –Executive Order 12333, signed by President […]
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Darth Rumsfeld
See the online sidebar “Punch-Drunk on Hardball“ Since Donald Rumsfeld’s appointment as secretary of defense was announced on December 28, approbatory phrases have been the order of the day. The Washington Post cast him as “elder statesman,” while The New York Times characterized him as a “tough-minded manager.” At his January 11 confirmation hearing, the […]
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Humble Pie
If we are an arrogant nation, they will resent us. If we’re a humble nation, but strong, they’ll welcome us. –George W. Bush, encapsulating his diplomatic philosophy, October 11, 2000 Bush’s America is certainly not more “humble,” as the president promised. On the contrary, he has managed to give himself an image as an international […]
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Punch-Drunk on Hardball:
See “Darth Rumsfeld“ When Gerald Ford fired James Schlesinger from the Pentagon in 1975 and replaced him with Donald Rumsfeld, Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater — a fan of Schlesinger’s owing to the latter’s advocacy of massive defense expenditure — angrily asked Ford what qualified Rumsfeld to run the Department of Defense. As The New Republic‘s […]