spencer ackerman

While the State Department is fending off questions about why it didn’t revoke Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s visa and points fingers at the National Counterterrorism Center, it’s worth noting that the FBI last year was told, following an in-depth audit by its inspector general, that it had a big problem with failing to place terror suspects [...]

After debating Pat Buchanan on “Morning Joe” earlier in the day about the efficacy of torturing terror suspects, TWI’s Spencer Ackerman returned to MSNBC last night to resume the conversation with Rachel Maddow. Video after the jump.

The Wall Street Journal, Pat Buchanan and others are already condemning the Obama administration for treating Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as a civilian criminal rather than an illegal warrior to whom we can presumably do whatever we please. We are in “a war,” The Journal reiterated today — as did Buchanan, debating my colleague Spencer Ackerman [...]

If you weren’t watching MSNBC at around 7 a.m. EST today, you missed some great television. TWI’s Spencer Ackerman appeared on “Morning Joe” alongside NBC chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel and MSNBC contributor Pat Buchanan to talk about the failed Christmas terror plot. The conversation took a sharp turn, however, when Buchanan took a Cheney-ite [...]

TWI national security reporter Spencer Ackerman appeared on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” last night to talk about his “game-changing” story on the limited number of troops available for an Afghanistan escalation. Video after the jump.

Writing about the role Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan played in the Bush counterterror surveillance program, Marcy Wheeler, blogging for Glenn Greenwald at Salon today, argues that as NSA adviser, rather than CIA director (a position Brennan was nominated for, but Glenn helped torpedo the nomination by highlighting his previous role in the Bush [...]

The explosive inspectors general report released on Friday makes one thing increasingly clear: the Bush White House knew that it was probably breaking the law.
From the report itself, John Yoo’s Office of Legal Counsel memo — and the lightning-fast reporting of Spencer Ackerman, Marc Ambinder and others on Friday — we now know that President [...]

FORWARD OPERATING BASE SALERNO, Afghanistan — Spencer Ackerman reports from a dangerous region 12 miles from the porous Pakistan border, where Taliban insurgents cross into the country to fire rockets at the base home to 5,500 U.S. troops.

COMBAT OUTPOST ZORMAT, Afghanistan – The Washington Independent’s Spencer Ackerman rides along with the Alpha Cavalry Troop’s First Platoon in search of a Taliban weapons cache.

COMBAT OUTPOST ZORMAT, Afghanistan -– Leaving Salerno, I asked someone what he knew about Zormat, an area in southwestern Paktia Province to the west of the large Khost-Province base where I was heading. He responded immediately: “Lotta IEDs.” Someone else asked me if I was a reporter. I said I was. “Aw, man,” he said. [...]