ackerman
Spencer Ackerman on the Rachel Maddow Show
Last night, TWI’s Spencer Ackerman appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC to discuss President Bush’s “magical mystery tour,” as he calls it — a last-ditch effort to shore up his questionable legacy. It’s a great segment, and a motion picture must be worth about a billion words, so I’ll let it speak for [...]
Afghans Talk Security Troubles
COMBAT OUTPOST ZORMAT, Afghanistan — Walking through a local bazaar, national security reporter Spencer Ackerman speaks with locals about life in the region.
It’s Official: Army Brigade, Marine Battalion Heading To Afghanistan In The Fall
COMBAT OUTPOST ZORMAT, Afghanistan — This just in from the Pentagon. That troop boost, totaling 5,700 soldiers, is on its way to Afghanistan in the fall:
Hooligan Top Ten Playlist
COMBAT OUTPOST ZORMAT, Afghanistan – A friend emailed me to say that all my journalism is for naught if I don’t report what 1st Platoon Hooligans are listening to these days. While I don’t concede the point, I did put the question to the platoon as they waited — in vain, it turned out — [...]
Portrait of Paktika Province
FORWARD OPERATING BASE SALERNO, Afghanistan – Early in the late Michael Bhatia’s December 2007 report on Paktika Province — which I referred to in “Through Afghan Eyes” — he gives an overview of what previous studies have found about conditions in the province.
It’s a stark picture of what it’s like to live in one of [...]
Pitch Black
FORWARD OPERATING BASE SALERNO, Afghanistan – This is by far the darkest FOB I’ve ever been on.
By 7 p.m., it’s pitch black out here, and to leave a lighted area like the dining facility results in a few seconds of total blindness.
Salerno does not accommodate you with any lights, presumably because they’d make the base [...]
U.S. Forces Spread Thin
The Salerno army base offers a window into the hard counterinsurgency battle at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
Dark Side of the Moon
BETWEEN BAGRAM AIR FIELD AND FORWARD OPERATING BASE SALERNO, Afghanistan – When I arrived at Bagram, a public-affairs officer named Chuck asked me what I thought of Afghanistan, notwithstanding the fact that all I had seen so far was Kabul. I told him that the place reminded me of the moon. Chuck laughed as he [...]
Ackerman In Afghanistan
As part of my continuing quest to one-up Laura McGann — you guys have been reading her great Alaska stuff, right? — I’ve got an announcement. By this time tomorrow, I’ll be on a plane heading for Afghanistan. I’ll be near the Pakistan border with U.S. troops, trying to learn how a deteriorating war can [...]
