Spencer Ackerman

Columnist

attackerman

Spencer Ackerman, a Pulitzer Prize and National Magazine Award–winning reporter, is the author of Reign of Terror: How The 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump.

The 9/11 Museum Is an Atrocity Exhibition

The 9/11 Museum Is an Atrocity Exhibition The 9/11 Museum Is an Atrocity Exhibition

These New Yorkers want to transform the September 11 museum, but can it be anything other than a purveyor of War on Terror propaganda?

Oct 3, 2023 / Column / Spencer Ackerman

US Foreign Policy Has an Extinction Agenda

US Foreign Policy Has an Extinction Agenda US Foreign Policy Has an Extinction Agenda

As the world loses time to act, US elites are working to dominate the remains of a ruined planet.

Sep 5, 2023 / Column / Spencer Ackerman

Donald Trump in 2016

This Is How Trump Becomes a Dictator This Is How Trump Becomes a Dictator

The former president doesn’t want to destroy the security state. He wants to bend it to his will.

Aug 3, 2023 / Column / Spencer Ackerman

West Point graduates throw their caps

Affirmative Action—but Only for Military Academies Affirmative Action—but Only for Military Academies

In a footnote, the Supreme Court directs Black and brown advancement away from civilian universities and into a uniform.

Jun 29, 2023 / Spencer Ackerman

Daniel Ellsberg at a podium

Daniel Ellsberg’s Heroism Began With Listening to the Anti-War Left Daniel Ellsberg’s Heroism Began With Listening to the Anti-War Left

The whistleblower confronted his complicity in the Vietnam-era war machine. His successors within it prefer to show up at Henry Kissinger’s gala.

Jun 16, 2023 / Spencer Ackerman

NSA surveillance protesters, organized by the “Stop Watching Us” coalition, march from Union Station to the US Capitol in 2013.

The FBI Is Back to Its Old Habits: Illegally Spying on Protesters The FBI Is Back to Its Old Habits: Illegally Spying on Protesters

There should be no future for Section 702, an enduring vestige of the post-9/11 security state. To kill it, all Congress has to do is do nothing.

Jun 9, 2023 / Column / Spencer Ackerman

Demonstrations went on in New York City on Saturday on May 6, 2023, five days Jordan Neely was allegedly choked to death by 24-year-old US Marine veteran Daniel Penny on a subway in the city

Why the Right Embraces Military-Veteran Vigilantes Why the Right Embraces Military-Veteran Vigilantes

The right is often misconstrued as anti-war. In reality, it wants to wage its war on American soil—against people whose Americanness it won’t recognize.

May 19, 2023 / Spencer Ackerman

soldier leads prisoner in Guant´namo Bay

Emptying Guantánamo Is Not the Same as Closing Guantánamo Emptying Guantánamo Is Not the Same as Closing Guantánamo

Unless the post-9/11 forever prison is permanently shuttered, it’s only a matter of time before one of Biden’s successors takes up Trump’s unrealized call to fill it back up with “...

May 2, 2023 / Column / Spencer Ackerman

The Unlearned Lessons From the War in Iraq

The Unlearned Lessons From the War in Iraq The Unlearned Lessons From the War in Iraq

You don’t have to reflect on a war if that war doesn’t end, let alone pay reparations for your crimes.

Mar 17, 2023 / Column / Spencer Ackerman

The CIA’s Failures The CIA’s Failures

The history of American intelligence-gathering is rife with incompetence, dysfunction and contempt toward legislative oversight.

Jun 26, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Spencer Ackerman

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