Shane Harris writes feature and investigative stories about intelligence, homeland security, and counterterrorism. He is a staff correspondent for National Journal, and he speaks to the public and the news media. In 2007, he was named a finalist for the prestigious Livingston Awards for Young Journalists, which honor the best journalists in America under the age of 35.
Harris focuses on the inner workings of the war on terror, and how this affects Americans’ day-to-day lives. He has broken several important stories, including the transfer of the controversial Total Information Awareness program into a secret intelligence agency; classified ties between private security companies and U.S. law enforcement; and key elements of the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program.
In the course of his journalism career, Harris has written about a range of topics, including diplomacy, technology, government contracting, and the U.S. reconstruction program in Iraq. He has written profiles of prominent figures of past and present, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former National Security Adviser John Poindexter, and Pennsylvania congressman Curt Weldon.
Harris has written for other national publications including Slate, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, The Washington Post, Adbusters and the U.S. Naval Institute’s Proceedings. He is a frequent guest on national radio and television programs, and his work has been cited by other media organizations and journalists, including The New York Times, Newsweek, The Washington Post, National Public Radio, and Ted Koppel at the Discovery Channel.
Prior to joining National Journal, in 2005, Harris was the technology editor and a staff correspondent at Government Executive magazine, the premiere publication covering management in the federal government. He spent five years at the magazine, and continues to write a regular column on the intelligence community. Harris also was the managing editor for Movieline magazine in Los Angeles, for which he covered the film industry and oversaw the work of the publication’s editorial staff and its Web site. Harris began his journalism career in 1999, as the research coordinator and a writer for Governing magazine in Washington, where he covered issues and trends affecting state and local government officials nationwide.
Harris graduated from Wake Forest University with a B.A. in Politics in 1998. He is also a fiction writer. While living in Los Angeles, he helped found and served as the artistic director of a sketch comedy troupe. Harris is a Sundance Film Festival screenwriting finalist, and also is the winner of the inaugural Atlantic Media Chairman’s Award for Force of Language, a writing honor that recognized a year’s worth of stories that appeared in Government Executive.
We started the week talking about viable military options for halting Iran’s nuclear capabilities. But let’s turn this question around a bit, because the consensus among our experts seems to be that a U.S. strike against Iran is too costly, in terms of military force expended, as well as strategic consequences for the United States. And it’s highly doubtful that the strike would be all that effective. Indeed, some of our experts offer detailed plans about how a strike might be accomplished, but even Wayne White, who has laid out a number of options, concludes that any use of force… Read more
Here's the final Summer Reading List, a broad, eclectic, and thoughtful collection. Thanks very much for sharing a bit of your seasonal reading with the group. An Elephant for Aristotle by L. Sprague de Camp Fighting Identity: Sacred War and World Change by Michael Vlahos “The U.S. Army’s Future Force Capstone Concept” Tides of War by Steven Pressfield Number: The Language of Science by Tobias Dantzig Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow Modern Industrial Progress by Charles H. Cochrane Titan by Ron Chernow Wired for… Read more
Just a quick note to transmit the summer reading list, as it stands now. Many of you have recommended several titles and have provided the group with compelling synopses of why you think these make for good reading. So far we have 32 recommendations from 14 experts. An Elephant for Aristotle by L. Sprague de Camp Fighting Identity: Sacred War and World Change by Michael Vlahos “The U.S. Army’s Future Force Capstone Concept” Tides of War by Steven Pressfield Number: The Language of Science by Tobias Dantzig Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife The Drunkard’s Walk:… Read more
Thanks to those who’ve shared your summer readings lists. It’s an eclectic collection that reflects the wide range of interests among our experts. Please keep your suggestions coming, and update us on any works that you’ve finished or on any titles you pick up at the suggestion of fellow experts. For your convenience, I’ve collected the titles you’ve mentioned and provided links to sites where you can read or purchase them. On a separate note, with the passing of Sen. Edward Kennedy, National Journal has published a collection of reminiscences provided by those who knew and worked with… Read more
In all my time moderating this blog, I haven’t seen every one of our respondents agree on a single idea. But in this case, there is almost complete unanimity on the following: 1.) No one should be surprised that the CIA was pondering how to kill terrorists, and 2.) Those who proclaim shock and outrage now either haven’t been paying attention or have some ulterior political motivation. To points 1 and 2, many of you have pointed out that news reports of CIA targeted killing programs, as well as the Defense Department’s own foray into that territory, preceded the… Read more
We’ve had a lively discussion the past few days on the blog. In all honestly, I’d been concerned that the techy details of the topic might scare off some of our experts, or be greeted with a yawn, but we’ve drawn a wide range of responses from experts, lawmakers, and skeptics. I’m going to provide a quick recap on some of the highlights, but I also wanted to pose another variation on the question, in order to bring in some of our military experts. Should the military devise what I’ll broadly call a “cyber war doctrine?” The Defense Department… Read more
Here's a new comment from Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute: Please, everyone, just settle down. Take a deep breath. You're getting into a lather. The Internet is important. It is a useful, powerful, and resilient communications medium. But it is not "the backbone of global commerce, communications, and our basic way of life." That metaphor is chosen to imply something that can be broken with paralyzing results. Witness Senator Rockefeller's recent statement briefly questioning whether we would have been better off without the Internet given the "fearsome, awesome problem" of securing it. The Internet is the opposite of that. It's more like a circulatory system, or… Read more
Well, it has certainly been an engaging, thoughtful, and provocative discussion so far—and it’s only Wednesday. Many of you have posted lengthy and insightful comments about Congress’ role in intelligence oversight. And you all have a lot to say about the current controversy over Speaker Pelosi and briefings on interrogation techniques. I’ve assembled a list of highlights here, but I encourage everyone to read the posts in full. I’d also like to note that two lawmakers have posted responses: Rep. Mac Thornberry, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, and Sen. Kit Bond, the current vice chairman of the… Read more
Just a quick mid-week update on our Cuba discussion, as well as a pointer to news out of Havana that President Obama may have “misinterpreted” some of Raul Castro’s recent statements about talking with the United States. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090422/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_cuba_castro Here are some nuggets from our experts’ posts: Kellie Meiman: The issue at this point is one of expectations. I was in Brasil last week, a country that has served as a virtual bridge between the United States and some of the more populist regimes in the region. Public reaction to President Obama’s pre-Summit policy declarations on Cuba varied… Read more
Peter Hakim, President of the Inter-American Dialogue, has the following guest entry on Cuba: Washington’s 50-year-old policy of isolating and sanctioning Cuba has never accomplished much. Today, it is an anachronism that serves mainly to isolate the United States from the rest of the hemisphere. The Obama Administration has wisely started to fashion a new Cuba policy by taking the very modest steps of scrapping all restrictions on family travel and remittances to the island. These are measure that most Cuban Americans support . The Cuban American community, which has zealously blocked any easing of Cuba policy, may be politically… Read more
Just a quick note. Yesterday, the Justice Department released four memos from the Office of Legal Counsel that provide details of interrogation techniques used on certain terrorist suspects in U.S. custody. You can find links to all the memos here. http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/olc_memos.html (The ACLU had sued for the memos' release.) The documents also provide fresh insights into the Bush administration's legal rationale for why certain "enhanced interrogation techniques" did not violate U.S. law against torture or international treaties against cruel and inhuman treatment of prisoners. None of these memos reflects the current position of the Obama administration, and intelligence officials have been instructed not… Read more
Experts, It’s been a lively and productive few days of discussion—many thanks. I wanted to pass along some of the highlights from our posts thus far. But before I do that, I’ll draw your attention to two items from our fellow bloggers over at The Atlantic. First, Marc Ambinder has a piece on tomorrow’s expected release of DOJ interrogation memos. I’m sure many of you will have thoughts to share on the memos. I’ll post a link to them here as soon as they are released. Second, our colleague Andrew Sullivan blogged our discussion and added his views, as… Read more
Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} Some more excellent and provocative ideas on our roundtable, most recently Robert Baer’s suggestion that Dennis Blair “give covert action to the Pentagon.” Baer has other interesting ideas, too, but that one jumped out at me. Probably Jim Clapper, too, if he’s reading. Along the lines of what can DNI Blair and company do to ignite the kind of change—cultural or otherwise—that our experts have said the intelligence… Read more
Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} Let me sum up the discussion so far with a set of medical analogies. (I’m not a doctor, but I play one online.) Most of our experts appear to agree that legislative prescriptions are not the best course of treatment for what ails the intelligence community. At base, our patient is suffering from a “cultural” sickness, and we see the symptoms manifest in various ways. Excessive… Read more
A note to the group from your moderator. A tally of our experts shows that the looming crises are: Iran: 4 votes India-Pakistan: 3 votes Homeland Security, domestic terrorism: 2 votes Lack of coherent national strategy: 2 votes Iraq: 2 votes Mideastern instability broadly: 1 vote Somali piracy: 1 vote… Read more
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