James Risen
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James Risen is a reporter for The New York Times and previously the Los Angeles Times. He has written or co-written several articles concerning United States government activities, as well as two books about the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
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[edit] Reports on government surveillance programs
Risen along with Eric Lichtblau authored a highly controversial news story about the National Security Agency's surveillance of international communications originating or terminating in the United States and a controversial story about a government program called Terrorist Finance Tracking Program designed to detect terrorist financiers, which involved searches of money transfer records in the international SWIFT database.
[edit] State of War
Risen is the author of the book State of War (January 2006). The book makes numerous controversial allegations about Central Intelligence Agency activities. It alleges that the CIA carried out an operation in 2000 (Operation Merlin) intended to delay Iran's nuclear weapons program by feeding it flawed blueprints for key missing components - which backfired and may actually have aided Iran, as the flaw was likely detected and corrected by a former Soviet nuclear scientist the operation used to make the delivery.
The CIA Public Affairs Office issued a press release indicating that Risen's book contains serious errors in every chapter.
Risen writes in State of War that "Several of the Iranian [CIA] agents were arrested and jailed, while the fate of some of the others is still unknown" after a CIA official sent in 2004 to an Iranian agent an encrypted electronic message, mistakenly including data that could potentially identify "virtually every spy the CIA had inside Iran". The Iranian was a double agent and handed over the information to Iranian intelligence. This also has been denied by an intelligence official. Risen also alleges that the Bush Administration is responsible for transformation of Afghanistan into a "narco-state", which provides a purported 80% of the world's heroin supply.
The publication of this book was expedited following the December 16, 2005 NSA leak story. The timing of The New York Times story after the Iraq election in mid December 2005 is a source of controversy since the story was held for over a year. The New York Times story appeared two days before a former NSA employee, dismissed in May 2005, requested permission to testify to two Congressional intelligence oversight committees. Byron Calame, the Public Editor of The New York Times wrote in early January 2006 that two senior Times officials refused to comment on the timing of the article.
Risen says this book is based on information from a variety of anonymous sources. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has begun an investigation of the sources of the national security leak involving NSA. This DOJ investigation follows an earlier investigation of the Valerie Plame leak that resulted in former New York Times reporter, Judith Miller, being jailed before she agreed to reveal her source. The Attorney General hinted in a Washington Post article on May 22, 2006 that journalists may be charged for any disclosure of classified national security information. President George W. Bush in a June 25, 2006 news conference was critical of the publication of information of classified programs by the New York Times.
[edit] Wen Ho Lee
A 1999 New York Times story, coauthored with Jeff Gerth, alleged that "a Los Alamos computer scientist who is Chinese-American" had stolen nuclear secrets for China. The suspect, later identified as Wen Ho Lee, pled guilty to a single charge of improper handling of classified data, with 58 other counts against him dropped, and was released from jail. No espionage charges were brought or proven. The New York Times later apologized for significant errors in reporting of the case. The New York Times and Los Angeles Times were among five newspapers who jointly agreed to pay damages to settle a lawsuit concerning their coverage of the case. [1]
[edit] Books
- James Risen (2006), State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration, Simon & Schuster; Free Press, January 2006, ISBN 0-7432-7066-5
- Milton Bearden and James Risen (2004), The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB, Random House
- James Risen and Judy Thomas (1998), Wrath of Angels: The American Abortion War, Perseus Publishing
[edit] See also
- Wen Ho Lee - Chinese-American Los Alamos scientist accused of espionage
- COINTELPRO - FBI counter-intelligence program investigating and disrupting dissident political organizations within the United States
- ECHELON - secretive world-wide signals intelligence and analysis network run by the UKUSA Community, capturing radio and satellite communications, telephone calls, faxes and e-mails nearly anywhere in the world
- Carnivore - FBI wiretapping of email and internet communications through proxy computers installed at Internet Service Providers
- CALEA - to make clear a telecommunications carrier's duty to cooperate in the interception of communications for Law Enforcement purposes, and for other purposes
- Operation Mockingbird - alleged Central Intelligence Agency operation to influence domestic and foreign media
[edit] References
- ^ "U.S., Media Settle With Wen Ho Lee", Washington Post, 2006-06-03.
[edit] External links
- Robert Scheer. No Defense: How The New York Times Convicted Wen Ho Lee, The Nation, October 5, 2000.
- James Risen’s speech: Global Agenda 2003, University of Delaware, May 7, 2003.
- James Risen. Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts, The New York Times, December 16, 2005.
- 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting, Pulitzer site - NY Times Bios with photos.
- The Guardian, 5 January 2006, "George Bush insists that Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. So why, six years ago in the Clinton administration, did the CIA give the Iranians blueprints to build a bomb?" (extract from State of War)
