James Risen

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James Risen (2014)

James E. Risen (born April 27, 1955 ) is an American journalist whose reporting is mainly about topics of national security. He has been working for The Intercept from Washington, DC since 2017 .

Risen is the author of many books, two of them on the Central Intelligence Agency . He is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner . In 2002 he was a member of the team of journalists that received the Pulitzer Prize for Background Reporting on September 11, 2001. In 2004 he was the first reporter to report on " waterboarding ", a form of drowning torture that the CIA practiced. Together with his colleague Eric Lichtblau, he uncovered the extensive NSA surveillance programs against their own citizens in 2004; for his reporting he was awarded the second Pulitzer Prize. A legal battle lasted from 2008 to 2015 in which the court was supposed to force him to reveal a source.

Life

James Risen grew up in Bethesda , Maryland , graduated from Brown University in 1977 with a bachelor's degree in history and in 1978 with a master's degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University . He lives in Maryland, is married with three children.

Journalistic activities

As an employee of The Detroit Free Press from 1981 to 1984, he covered topics related to the local automotive industry and the labor market in general. He then worked for the Los Angeles Times from 1984 and was there a. a. senior correspondent for economics , head of the Detroit office (1984–1990) and Washington, DC (1990–1995) before joining the New York Times in 1998 ; there he writes on domestic politics , in particular homeland security and intelligence in the United States.

State of War

The book " State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration " (2006) contains extensive information about Operation MERLIN (2000), in which forged key information for the construction of nuclear weapons by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ) were directed to Iran . These could be exposed quickly and possibly corrected, so that the USA inadvertently provided elementary support to the nuclear program. Risen received the details from former CIA employee Jeffrey Alexander Sterling , but communications were bugged and Sterling was charged with his leak and Risen himself was subsequently fully monitored .

NSA before Snowden

Risen exposed the NSA's domestic surveillance programs prior to the Edward Snowden revelations , in a 2005 report in the New York Times. Bill Keller , the newspaper's editor-in-chief at the time, prevented the report from being published before the 2004 presidential election because it could have harmed the Bush administration. The fact that Keller allowed its publication the following year was only due to the fact that Risen had threatened to hand his material over to a book publisher and denounce the Times for censorship.

United States v. sterling

In the proceedings under the Espionage Act of 1917 against Sterling, which has been ongoing since 2010, Subpoenas ordered several times that Risen had to hand over documents and give a testimony to " prove that the source was Jeffrey Sterling ". After a lengthy legal battle, a statute of limitations for the first subpoena of the George W. Bush administration in 2008/2009 and an extension of Barack Obama's administration in 2010, the United States Court of Appeals decided in 2013 that Risen had to obey, source protection since secondary, even if a judge the three-person vote wrote:

"[...] so long as the subpoena is issued in good faith and is based on a legitimate need of law enforcement, the government need not make any special showing to obtain evidence of criminal conduct from a reporter in a criminal proceeding. The majority exalts the interests of the government while unduly trampling those of the press, and in doing so, severely impinges on the press and the free flow of information in our society. "

"[...] as long as the subpoena is issued in good faith and based on the legitimate claims of law enforcement officials, the government does not need to make any special expenditures to obtain evidence of criminal conduct by a journalist during a criminal prosecution. Our majority glorifies the interests of the government while those of the press are trampled - with severe repercussions on the press and the free flow of information in our society. "

- Judge Roger Gregory

Another appeal to the United States Supreme Court was denied in June 2014, but the Obama administration and the prosecution are free to enforce the detention . The Attorney General Eric Holder was quoted in response to a question about the Subpoena von Risen without making direct reference to the case in his answer:

"As long as I'm attorney general, no reporter who is doing his job is going to go to jail."

"As long as I am Attorney General, no journalist who does his job will go to jail."

- Eric Holder

James Risen has reiterated the position not to disclose his source.

Breach at Los Alamos

Together with Jeff Gerth , Risen published the article “ BREACH AT LOS ALAMOS: A special report .; China Stole Nuclear Secrets For Bombs, US Aides Say " Break at Los Alamos National Laboratory : United States Development Agency Says China Stole Nuclear Secrets For Bombs " in the New York Times , in which the authors describe how one Sino - American scientist stole classified nuclear weapons documents and passed them on to the Chinese government. Subsequently, the Taiwanese American Wen Ho Lee was identified, on whom 58 of the 59 charges in the resulting lawsuit were dropped for inadequate handling of information concerning national security . Lee pleaded guilty to him. Allegations of espionage could not be proved, the judging judge apologized to Lee for the suffered from this forced measure embarrass, as well as the solitary confinement .

Along with Helen Zia published Lee the book " My Country Versus Me " ( My country against me ), in the Risen and Gerth shoddy work and ax-the-woods - mentality is accused. Along with the Los Angeles Times and three other newspapers made the New York Times payments of 750,000 US dollars in reparation, was prevented by the one action and the forced disclosure of sources before the news corporations were ever indicted. The US government paid $ 895,000 in compensation in an out-of-court decision.

Pay Any Price: Greed, Power, and Endless War

(Power, and Endless War Greed: In his 2014 book, Pay Any Price to pay any price: greed, power and endless war ), Risen writes the post-9/11 America sees itself with a fear industry in an endless war in corruption and demolition of democracy would have turned the US into a security state. Thirteen years later, the war declared by George W. Bush was fought more vehemently under Barack Obama than his predecessor could have dreamed of. The Pentagon and the secret services were provided with more money than they could afford to do this. This endless war is comparable to the Thirty Years War in Europe in the 17th century, when a "new class of mercenaries " emerged for the endless war.

First look media

In 2017, Risen left The New York Times to work for media company First Look Media . There he has two areas of responsibility. He is the Senior National Security Correspondent at the non-profit journalistic website The Intercept . In one of his first articles on The Intercept , he described the suppression of his research results regarding the CIA by the editors of the New York Times .

His second task is the management of The Press Freedom Defense Fund , a nonprofit organization providing legal assistance to journalists, news organizations and whistleblowers offering, the goals have become of attacks because they look after the interests of the common good and for a well-functioning democracy used to have.

Awards

"[...] revelations of excessive government surveillance to exposing the CIA's controversial 'Operation Merlin' in Iran [...] Risen has fought bravely to protect his sources [...]"

"[...] Revelations of excessive public surveillance and the exposure of the controversial CIA operation" Merlin "in Iran [...] Risen fought valiantly to protect his sources [...]."

- Fertel Foundation

"[...] courage in his commitment to protect his sources and combat pressures that would undermine his work and that of other journalists."

"[...] [the] courage in his dedication to protect his sources and to withstand the pressures that undermine his work and that of other journalists."

- Colby College

"[...] their carefully sourced stories on secret domestic eavesdropping that stirred a national debate on the boundary line betrween fighting terrorism an protecting civil liberty."

"Their thoroughly laid back articles on clandestine domestic wiretapping that stirred the national debate on the boundary between counter-terrorism and civil rights."

- pulitzer.org

"[...] distinguished example of explanatory reporting that illuminates a significant and complex subject."

"An exceptional example of exploratory journalism that illuminates a significant and complex topic."

- pulitzer.org

literature

  • James Risen: Pay Any Price: Greed, Power, and Endless War. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2014, ISBN 978-0-544-34141-8 .
    • War at all costs. Greed, abuse of power and the billion dollar business with the fight against terror. Westend, Frankfurt am Main 2015, ISBN 978-3-86489-107-6 .
  • James Risen: State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration. Simon & Schuster, 2006, ISBN 0-7432-7066-5 .
    • State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-45509-522-7 .
  • Milton Bearden and James Risen: The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB. Random House, 2004, ISBN 0-345-47250-0 .
  • James Risen, Judy Thomas: Wrath of Angels: The American Abortion War. Perseus Publishing, 1999, ISBN 0-465-09273-X .

Web links

"The pursuit of Risen is a warning to potential sources that journalists cannot promise them confidentiality for disclosing Executive Branch criminality, recklessness, deception, unconstitutional policies or lying us into war."

"The persecution of Risen is a warning to all potential sources that journalists cannot promise their source protection when it comes to crime, ruthlessness, misleading or unconstitutionality or lying to us in the war."

- Daniel Ellsberg

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c The 2006 Pulitzer Prize Winners: James E. Risen and Eric Lichtblau , pulitzer.org. Retrieved August 10, 2014.
  2. ↑ Michael Isikoff: Ex-CIA Officer Charged with Leak to Reporter , nbcnewyork.com, January 6, 2011. Retrieved August 10, 2014.
  3. ↑ Michael Isikoff: DOJ gets reporter's phone, credit card records in leak probe: Trying to show ex-CIA officer leaked agency secrets, feds target newspaperman nbcnewyork.com. Retrieved August 10, 2014.
  4. ^ A b Adam Liptak: Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From Times Reporter Over Refusal to Identify Source , The New York Times - Website, June 2, 2014. Retrieved August 10, 2014.
  5. ↑ United States Court of Appeals for the fourth Circuit: Appeal: 11-5028 Doc: 78 (PDF) typepad.legaltimes.com, July 19, 2013. Retrieved August 10, 2014.
  6. ↑ Charlie Savage: Holder Hints Reporter May Be Spared Jail in Leak , The New York Times website, May 27, 2014. Retrieved August 10, 2014.
  7. ↑ Paul Farhi: US, Media Settle With Wen Ho Lee: News Organizations Pay To Keep Sources Secret , The Washington Post Web site, June 3, 2006. Retrieved August 10, 2014.
  8. ↑ [Johanna Adorján: America's War Why 9/11 Doesn't End. Who is the war on terror good for? Why is it still going on? Journalist James Risen wrote a harrowing book about America's war.] FAZ, December 25, 2014
  9. ^ Betsy Reed: Reporter and Press Freedom Advocate James Risen to Join The Intercept and First Look Media. The Intercept , August 14, 2017, accessed May 26, 2020 .
  10. ↑ James Risen: The Biggest Secret. My Life as a New York Reporter in the Shadow of the War on Terror. The Intercept , January 3, 2018, accessed May 26, 2020 .
  11. ^ The Press Freedom Defense Fund. August 9, 2018, accessed May 26, 2020 .
  12. ^ The Ridenhour Courage Prize 2015 , ridenhour.org website. Retrieved July 31, 2015.
  13. ↑ colby.edu/lovejoy , Colby College - site. Retrieved August 10, 2014.
  14. ^ The 2002 Pulitzer Prize Winners , pulitzer.org. Retrieved August 4, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Risen, James
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Risen, James E.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American journalist and author
DATE OF BIRTH April 27, 1955