Spencer Ackerman

Author of REIGN OF TERROR: HOW THE 9/11 ERA DESTABILIZED AMERICA & PRODUCED TRUMP. Pulitzer/National Magazine Award/etc winning journalist. WALLER VS WILDSTORM for DC Comics, IRON MAN for Marvel.

Paid-members only

The Nation

Abolish Section 702

There should be no future for Section 702, an enduring vestige of the post-9/11 security state. To kill it, all Congress has to do is do nothing.

The War at Home

If 9/11 Was God's Vengeance for Homosexuality, What's Pat Robertson's Death During Pride Month?

God was very, very far from the War on Terror. Those who wanted to make it an explicit religious war were not.

The War at Home

When Protest Is 'Terrorism,' Material-Support Charges Are Next

Wednesday's arrests of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund over Cop City could be a strike against protest infrastructure nationwide, warns Cat Brooks of the Anti-Police Terror Project.

The War Abroad

The Three Laws of Robotics Will Be Violated Like All Other Laws

The Air Force might not have run an AI test that prompted a machine to kill its overseer with a drone. The Air Force colonel who brought it up did so as a warning.

The War at Home

How To Deter FBI Surveillance Crime: Make Them Write It Down

A recent spy-court document suggests that fear of getting caught stops the FBI from a lot of its "backdoor searches." How might a criminologist view this phenomenon?!

The War at Home

Based Fiona Hill

Here's a rare example of an eminence willing to take clear-eyed stock of most of the world's rejection of coalescing Cold Wars. PLUS: Elon Musk, antisemitism, capitalism and Magneto! AND: Get used to being a needle in U.S. intelligence's HAYSTAC!

Paid-members only

The Nation

Why the Right Embraces Military-Veteran Vigilantes

The extreme right is often misconstrued as anti-war. In reality, it wants to wage its war on American soil—against people whose Americanness it won’t recognize.

The War at Home

The Killing of Jordan Neely In The Shadow of The Rent Guidelines Board

Homelessness can happen to anyone in this economy, and anyone means you and me. Don't live in New York if you're afraid of New Yorkers.

Paid-members only

The Nation

Emptying Guantanamo Is Not The Same As Closing Guantanamo

New column for The Nation – and you, the FOREVER WARS subscriber – just dropped. Unless the post-9/11 forever prison is permanently shuttered, it’s only a matter of time before one of Biden’s successors takes up Trump’s unrealized call to fill it back up with “some bad dudes.”

The War Abroad

U.N.: Free Abu Zubaydah—and Pay Him

An extraordinary report from the United Nations says the detention of the first forever-prisoner the U.S. tortured after 9/11 and then threw into Gitmo amounts to an "enforced disappearance."

Paid-members only

The War Abroad

How To Read an Intelligence Leak

One of the recent ChudLeaks claims Afghanistan is fertile soil for the so-called Islamic State. Let's step back for some perspective. PLUS: The Pegasus cyberweapon is back.

The War Abroad

'This Was Nineveh, After All…'

Have you read Salar Abdoh's Out Of Mesopotamia? Because I can't stop thinking about it. PLUS: Tortuguita's autopsy; Guantanamo and the Yemen war; and are we sure we're not incentivizing China to invade Taiwan?

The War at Home

The Chud Era of National Security Leaks

Expanding the Security State means relying on millions of people with secret clearances. As time passes, more and more of them are going to be inveterate posters. PLUS: Tech bros kill each other and blame the homeless!

The War at Home

Will Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson Close The Homan Square Black Site?

The incoming mayor put closing Homan Square in his platform. Veteran organizers and abolitionists are optimistic he'll follow through. PLUS: Is Chinese diplomacy ending the Yemen war?

The War Abroad

Eating King Crab Legs During The Fall

That's what Iraqis call the 2003-2011 U.S. Occupation. Here's my call for reparations at Notre Dame's 2023 War & Peace Forum. PLUS: Does MAGA want to join the ranks of those who attack lower Manhattan on a Tuesday morning?

Chromium Cover

Kane of Terror

WALLER VS WILDSTORM #1 is here! That can only mean one thing: this edition is going to talk about writing one of the major characters in the miniseries. Minor spoilers follow, so get the issue!

The War Abroad

What Gives You The Right To Fuck With Our Lives?

Disconnected thoughts, memories and podcasts 20 years after the invasion of Iraq. PLUS: Lee Harris, an innocent man railroaded by a Chicago cop turned Gitmo torturer, is free!

Paid-members only

Unlearned Lessons from An Endless War

The War Abroad

The 'Indispensable Nation' Learns It Might Not Be Great-Power-Competitive

Longtime U.S.-client Saudi Arabia is out for "a diversified portfolio of relationships," says a source close to the royals. The China-brokered detente with Iran shows that yesterday's price is not today's price

The War Abroad

'Even Our Breath Will Be For Sale'

A few notes on my Rolling Stone piece about the 20th anniversary of Iraq, as well as a video of a panel I was on in D.C. on the subject. PLUS: Worldwide Threats, Nordstream counternarratives, and a legendary natsec blazing session

The War at Home

Biden: Department of Homeland Security 'As Important As It’s Ever Been'

Maybe in the sense that it's never been important. But as DHS turns 20, the administration is signaling that the post-9/11 institution is here to stay

The War at Home

When They're White, They're 'Tactical Athletes'

Edited by Sam Thielman IN REIGN OF TERROR, now available in paperback, I wrote: Never would America acknowledge that the violent, reactionary dangers that it attributed to its enemies were also part of its own history. That was the meaning of Oklahoma City. It was the meaning of January 6.

The War at Home

Michael Molcher on Judge Dredd and The Endpoint of 'Policing by Consent'

Molcher's new book, I Am The Law: How Judge Dredd Predicted Our Future, is a great one. He speaks to FOREVER WARS about the politics of crime

Chromium Cover

FOREVER WARS: The Escalation

I'm going to start writing a column for The Nation. But this newsletter will continue—independently. I'll even reprint the paywalled columns here, for paid subscribers.

We Will Remember Who Collaborates With The Aliens

I don't know what these weird flying objects are either, but just in case, let's let this be said. PLUS: While we overfocus on UFOs, avoidable railroad horrors lead to avoidable disaster in Ohio. And the first page of WALLER VS. WILDSTORM!