Spencer Ackerman

I'm a senior fellow at The Washington Independent. Though it may sound like I'm a think-tanker, I'm just a reporter, covering national security and foreign policy for the Only Investigative Journalism Website That Matters. E-mail me at sackerman-at-washingtonindependent-dot-com.

• Mondo Aggro: Iraq Contractors Edition 05/12/2008
• How to Manipulate the Press 05/09/2008 | 1 Comment
• Hezbollah On The Verge Of A Coup In Lebanon 05/09/2008
• The Berkeley Tempest 05/08/2008 | 3 Comments
• Sources Holler Back: Petraeus Edition 05/08/2008 | 1 Comment
• Petraeus on -- What Else? -- Counterinsurgency 05/07/2008
• Petraeus Answers: How Does The War End? 05/07/2008
• Petraeus on The Costs of Being An Occupying Force 05/07/2008
• Let's See What's in Those Pentagon Files! 05/07/2008
• I Walk the Line (ft/ Moqtada Sadr) 05/07/2008
• King David 05/06/2008 | 1 Comment
• This Couldn't Possibly Be Provocative 05/05/2008
• Is John Nagl an Iranian Agent? 05/05/2008 | 1 Comment
• Welcome To Al Qaeda's Next Recruitment Poster 05/05/2008
• Now That's What I Call Justice 05/02/2008
• The Insurgent as Counterinsurgent 05/02/2008
• Happy Birthday Israel! 05/01/2008 | 2 Comments
• Poor Baby 05/01/2008 | 2 Comments
• Gates Lies About Maliki And Sadr 04/30/2008
• Levin Gets Gates To Scale Back Iraq Reconstruction Cash 04/29/2008
• Death Ray! 04/29/2008 | 1 Comment
• The Iran Back Channel 04/29/2008
• Clean for Moqtada 04/29/2008
• Depressing War-On-Terror Fact Of The Day 04/28/2008
• Sadr's Peaceful Protest Gambit 04/28/2008
• U.S. Lacks Pakistan Strategy 04/25/2008 | 5 Comments
• Next Week: Iran Mischief Briefing, Part Deux 04/25/2008
• NYT on J Street 04/25/2008
• 'Rewarding Failure'? 04/24/2008 | 1 Comment
• Waterboarding Without Euphemism 04/24/2008
• When Are Petraeus' and Odierno's Confirmation Hearings? 04/24/2008
• Or Maybe Petraeus is Freer to Care About More Than Iraq! 04/24/2008
• 7,000 Pages of Justice Dept-CIA Torture Documents 04/24/2008
• Petraeus' Ascension 04/23/2008 | 4 Comments
• Andrews: State of the Antiwar Movement Is 'Complex' 04/21/2008
• Condi Must Go.com 04/18/2008
• The Liberal Narrative on Iraq Might Not Be Going Official Yet! 04/18/2008 | 4 Comments
• The Liberal Narrative on Iraq Goes Official 04/18/2008 | 1 Comment
• Torture and the Law 04/18/2008 | 24 Comments
• 'Bin Laden Determined To Strike In U.S.' Pt. 2 04/17/2008 | 5 Comments
• Yemen: al-Qaeda's New Target? 04/17/2008 | 2 Comments
• Lights, Tunnels, Endless Repetition 04/17/2008 | 1 Comment
• Digby on Torture 04/17/2008
• O'Really, O'Hanlon? 04/16/2008
• Iraq: A Gun At The Head of U.S. Diplomats 04/16/2008 | 2 Comments
• A Quick J Street Clarification 04/16/2008
• Reframing the Israel Debate 04/15/2008 | 10 Comments
• Hayes vs. Feith: Everyone Wins 04/14/2008
• Can You Fire Deserters? 04/14/2008 | 1 Comment
• Pause at the Gates 04/14/2008
• Al Qaeda's 'Red Lines'? 04/14/2008
• Petraeus Plays Defense in Testimony 04/09/2008 | 3 Comments
• And That's That 04/09/2008 | 1 Comment
• McCaul: You Just Gotta Want Victory Bad Enough! 04/09/2008 | 1 Comment
• Success: Now Functional Equivalent of 'Failure-Lite' 04/09/2008 | 1 Comment
• Pence Gets Crocker To Slap Obama 04/09/2008 | 1 Comment
• Ron Paul Says It All 04/09/2008
• Tancredo: Isn't Our Real Enemy In Iraq The Latino? 04/09/2008 | 4 Comments
• Wexler: What Did My Consitutents' Son Die For On Sunday? 04/09/2008
• Rohrabacher to Iraqis: Pay For The Privilege Of Being Occupied Forever! 04/09/2008 | 1 Comment
• Petraeus AGAIN Won't Say He'll Prepare A Withdrawal Plan 04/09/2008
• Burton: If We Withdraw, Won't The Planet Explode and The Baby Jesus Cry? 04/09/2008
• What Could Possibly Be Wrong With Paying Sunni Ex-Insurgents Who Promise To Kill Shiites? 04/09/2008
• Ackerman: 'How Do We Pull Out When Your Mission Is To Stay In?' 04/09/2008
• Berman: How To Mitigate Withdrawal's Consequences? 04/09/2008
• Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: Cool Glasses, But Barking Mad 04/09/2008 | 1 Comment
• Hallelujah: Berman Asks For The Cliff-Notes Version of Opening Statements 04/09/2008
• Another Reminder of the Stakes 04/09/2008
• Petraeus Won't Say He'd Advise on Withdrawal 04/09/2008 | 2 Comments
• A Reminder of What's at Stake 04/09/2008
• Crocker's Benchmark Crock (Say It 3x Fast) 04/09/2008
• How Not To Ask Questions of Petraeus And Crocker 04/09/2008 | 1 Comment
• Reyes and the Hollowness of 'Conditions-Based' Withdrawal 04/09/2008
• AQI Will Follow Us Home? Really? 04/09/2008 | 1 Comment
• Petraeus: Best COIN-Ready Army Ever 04/09/2008
• C-Span Cruelly Mocks Bloggers, Plays With Fire 04/09/2008
• Succcess Is A Well-Functioning Iraqi-Army Logistics Chain 04/09/2008 | 1 Comment
• Skelton's Requiem For The Surge 04/09/2008
• Here We Go Again 04/09/2008
• George Voinovich Is Also Insane 04/08/2008
• Barbara Boxer and David Petraeus Are Totally Getting Married 04/08/2008
• Feingold to Petraeus: 'Don't Take It Personally' but Al Qaeda Wants Us In Iraq 04/08/2008 | 1 Comment
• John Kerry, Please God, Shut Your Mouth 04/08/2008 | 1 Comment
• Petraeus: 'We Don't Arm' The Sunnis 04/08/2008 | 1 Comment
• Lugar: You Can't Tread Water in a Counterinsurgency 04/08/2008 | 1 Comment
• Biden Punks Crocker: 'I Would Therefore Pick Al Qaeda on The Afghanistan-Pakistan Border' 04/08/2008 | 11 Comments
• Biden: You Need Congressional Permission For Any Long-Term Commitment to Iraq 04/08/2008
• Pulling On The Udders of The Cache Cow 04/08/2008
• Ryan Crocker, PLEASE Stop Speaking 04/08/2008
• Biden: 'We're Stuck Where We Were Before The Surge' 04/08/2008 | 1 Comment
• Petraeus Gets Testy 04/08/2008
• Cornyn Tries To Manipulate Petraeus 04/08/2008
• Webb Ice-Grills Petraeus 04/08/2008
• But... Didn't Sadr Win The Battle of Basra? 04/08/2008
• 'Sons Of Iraq': After The Money's Gone 04/08/2008
• A Numbers Game? 04/08/2008 | 1 Comment
• About that Iraqi Readiness 04/08/2008
• Clinton vs. Petraeus: Ackerman Loses 04/08/2008
• C-SPAN, Ugh 04/08/2008
• Bill Nelson Might Have Had the Best Moment So Far 04/08/2008
• McCain: Sunni, Shi'ite -- God, What-EVER 04/08/2008
• Did Petraeus Just Say Iran Wants Iraq to Succeed? 04/08/2008
• But Doesn't Iran Fund Our Friends As Well? 04/08/2008
• How Can JAM Disband? 04/08/2008
• Lieberman: Two Wars Just Aren't Enough! 04/08/2008
• Is The War Worth It? Meh. 04/08/2008
• McCain Asks Petraeus Good Questions! 04/08/2008
• How Long Will The Troop Pause Be? 04/08/2008
• Crocker Loves Iron Maiden 04/08/2008
• Crocker: 'Strengthened Spirit of Reconciliation' 04/08/2008
• Petraeus: Security 'Significantly Better Than It Was 15 Months Ago' 04/08/2008
• McCain: 'We Must Choose Instead to Succeed' 04/08/2008 | 1 Comment
• Levin: 'Open-Ended Troop Pause Just Another Page in a War Plan With No Strategy' 04/08/2008
• Pre-traeus 04/08/2008
• Shock and Awe 04/07/2008
• MSM Acknowledges: The Surge is Backsliding! 04/07/2008
• War Is On 04/07/2008
• The White House, Treasury Department And Pentagon Are Full of Terrorist Sympathizers! 04/04/2008 | 2 Comments
• A Shining Interrogation Center on a Hill 04/04/2008 | 1 Comment
• Petraeus Testimony Field Manual 04/04/2008 | 3 Comments
• McCain Hearts War After All 04/03/2008 | 3 Comments
• Putting it Crudely 04/02/2008 | 2 Comments
• Sadr Fighting Marks Surge Limits 04/02/2008 | 6 Comments
• Holt on the Quasi-NIE 04/02/2008 | 1 Comment
• A Surge of Advisers 04/02/2008
• How the Torture 'Migrated' 04/02/2008 | 1 Comment
• No Iraq Intelligence Update For You! 04/01/2008 | 2 Comments
• I Know That You Want the Candy 04/01/2008 | 2 Comments
• Status Quo Antes Up 04/01/2008 | 1 Comment
• 'It Becomes Almost Impossible To Find A Purpose In What We Do.' 03/31/2008 | 2 Comments
• Sadr: Holding All the Cards 03/31/2008 | 4 Comments
• Bush Is Right! 03/28/2008 | 4 Comments
• I Don't Wanna Do Your Dirty Work No More 03/28/2008
• McCain Foreign Policy: Bush Doctrine Plus 03/27/2008 | 7 Comments
• Really? He Looks Like Andy Samberg 03/27/2008
• Chaos While We're There, Chaos After We Leave? 03/27/2008 | 2 Comments
• Most Prescient. Op-ed. Ever. 03/26/2008 | 2 Comments
• Ensuring Permanence 03/26/2008 | 2 Comments
• Maliki, Sadr, and the Wages of Sin 03/26/2008 | 8 Comments
• Yeah, The End of the Sadrist Ceasefire 03/25/2008 | 1 Comment
• Did the AP Rip Off CQ? 03/25/2008
• The End of The Sadrist Ceasefire? 03/25/2008
• Like Chocolate and Peanut Butter 03/24/2008 | 1 Comment
• Bush's War 03/24/2008 | 3 Comments
• 'No Democracy In Iraq. Ever' 03/24/2008 | 2 Comments
• You Are Looking At The Future of The Media 03/24/2008
• Steve Hayes and "Journalistic Sanity" 03/24/2008
• The Morning Paper's Ink Stains My Fingers 03/24/2008 | 1 Comment
• The New Viceroys 03/21/2008
• Et Tu, Washington Times? 03/21/2008 | 5 Comments
• Goldberg's Non Mea Culpa 03/20/2008 | 3 Comments
• Fast and Loose With the Facts 03/19/2008 | 16 Comments
• So? 03/19/2008 | 4 Comments
• Five Years Later: The Chickens Come Home to Roost 03/17/2008 | 2 Comments
• Five Years Later 03/17/2008
• Soldiers Testify at Second Winter Soldier 03/17/2008 | 4 Comments
• 'I Don't Work For You No More' 03/14/2008 | 2 Comments
• 'We Were Put Out There To Be Bodyguards for Kellogg Brown & Root' 03/14/2008
• 'You Really Think I'm Gonna Pull Out the Card and Say 'Kif', 'Stop' Before People Do That?' 03/14/2008
• Cruelty and Silence 03/14/2008 | 1 Comment
• 'We Care So You Don't Have To' 03/14/2008
• 'That Was the Worst Thing I Have Ever Done' 03/14/2008
• 'Telling Lies While Good Men Die' 03/14/2008
• 'I Can Speak Human' 03/14/2008
• Live at Winter Soldier II 03/14/2008
• Who Should Take the Heat for Torture? 03/13/2008 | 4 Comments
• Every Mistake Imaginable 03/13/2008 | 1 Comment
• McConnell Can't Take Criticism, Confirmed 03/13/2008 | 2 Comments
• McConnell Gives Misleading Talk 03/13/2008
• Joint Force Command Report, in 3 to 5 Business Days 03/12/2008
• Central Command Musical Chairs 03/12/2008
• Since U Been Gone, I Can Bomb For The First Time 03/11/2008 | 3 Comments
• Sadrists Rebel Against Sadr for Being Too Pro-American! 03/11/2008
• A World Frozen Over With Over-Exposure 03/11/2008
• What, More O'Hanlon Now? 03/11/2008
• The Death of a Lie 03/11/2008 | 1 Comment
• Brookings Benchmarks: An (Incomplete, Kinda-Sorta-Not Really) Explanation 03/10/2008 | 1 Comment
• More on the 'Brookings Benchmarks' 03/10/2008
• The Decline and Fall of Brookings 03/10/2008
• Senate Panel Can't Even Call a Lie a Lie? 03/10/2008
• A Famous Enigma 03/09/2008 | 3 Comments
• The Colonels and 'The Matrix' 03/06/2008 | 11 Comments
• Legendary Warlord Arrested in Thailand 03/06/2008 | 1 Comment
• An IED in Times Square? 03/06/2008
• Cynical Manipulation at the Petraeus Testimony? Never! 03/04/2008 | 1 Comment
• Score One for the Rule of Law 03/04/2008
• Bringing the War Home 02/29/2008 | 1 Comment
• Edwards Moves on With MoveOn 02/28/2008 | 3 Comments
• Sons of Iraq, Chickens, Roost, etc. 02/28/2008 | 1 Comment
• Holt Hits Bush on Surveillance 02/28/2008
• The Banality of Evil 02/28/2008 | 3 Comments
• Communication Shakedown 02/28/2008
• Irony is For Suckers 02/28/2008 | 3 Comments
• Surveillance Attack Ad Deja Vu 02/27/2008
• McConnell: Buckley's Death Inspires Me! 02/27/2008 | 5 Comments
• RIP WFB 02/27/2008 | 2 Comments
• No Country for Tony Blair 02/27/2008 | 2 Comments
• What's Another War in Iraq? 02/27/2008 | 3 Comments
• 'Bipartisan' Think Tank Attacks Democrats 02/26/2008 | 4 Comments
• Never Put "Heartened" and "Iraq" in the Same Sentence 02/26/2008
• Chiarelli likely to take over for Petraeus 02/26/2008
• What Did the Surge Accomplish? 02/26/2008
• Musharraf to Step Down 02/25/2008
• And on The Subject of Pentagon Announcements 02/25/2008
• Pentagon Torture Official Quits 02/25/2008 | 1 Comment
• Nadler: Justice Official Lied on Waterboarding 02/22/2008 | 3 Comments
• Pepco Take Note 02/22/2008
• U.S. Intelligence Agencies Militarizing 02/21/2008 | 3 Comments
• Now, What Would Make You Think There's Anti-muslim Bias in the USA? 02/20/2008 | 3 Comments
• ISO Terrorist For Iraq NS D/D Free 02/20/2008
• McCain: Weak on Terrorism, Strong on Dictators Who Exploit the U.S. 02/20/2008 | 1 Comment
• Act Three of Five 02/20/2008
• Ricks: Iraq Still a 'Fiasco' 02/19/2008 | 1 Comment
• A New Day for Journalism Dawns 02/19/2008 | 2 Comments
• Provincial Governor in Iraq Arrested for No Apparent Reason 02/19/2008
• Your Government Failed You 02/19/2008 | 1 Comment
• The Legality of Waterboarding Depends on the Amount of Water 02/14/2008 | 1 Comment
• Irrational Syria Hostility 02/14/2008
• Michael O'Hanlon: Please, No More 02/14/2008
• Wait, Wasn't McCain Anti-Torture? 02/14/2008
• The Fate of the World Depends on Your Reading This Blog Post!! 02/14/2008 | 1 Comment
• Intelligence Experts Fear Hezbollah Retaliation 02/13/2008 | 3 Comments
• McClatchy Notices Rising Iraq Violence 02/13/2008
• Infamous Hezbollah Terrorist Mughniyeh Killed in Damascus 02/13/2008
• What is Leon Wieseltier Talking About? 02/12/2008 | 2 Comments
• Scenes From a Forthcoming Comedy of Errors 02/12/2008
• Heckuva Job, Etc. 02/12/2008
• Tortured Rationale 02/12/2008
• Palestinian PM: 'Open and Democratic' Palestine Is Crucial 02/11/2008 | 2 Comments
• Sons of Iraq=Putschists? 02/11/2008
• Army Censorship Aided Bush 02/11/2008 | 2 Comments
• Foreign Service 'Simply Not Up To The Task' of Iraq? 02/08/2008 | 3 Comments
• Complexity, Intellectuals and Iraq 02/08/2008 | 6 Comments
• Soldiers Holler Back 02/08/2008
• Save Our Freedoms by Taking Them Away! 02/08/2008
• In Solidarity With TPM Muckraker 02/08/2008 | 1 Comment
• McCain Silent on Torture at CPAC 02/07/2008
• Cheney: What's So Wrong With Torture Anyway? 02/07/2008 | 1 Comment
• US Has 'Moral Obligation' to Fight Iraq's Wars 02/07/2008
• My Offer to You Gentleman, Is This: Nothing! 02/07/2008
• Fuel for the Meme Game 02/07/2008 | 2 Comments
• FISA Parade of Horribles 02/06/2008
• Best Pun Ever 02/06/2008
• Tenet's Interrogation Techniques 02/06/2008 | 1 Comment
• Waterboarding Today, Waterboarding Tomorrah, Waterboarding F'revah... 02/06/2008 | 1 Comment
• Euphemism Watch 02/06/2008 | 1 Comment
• Hayden's Humanity 02/06/2008 | 1 Comment
• Mitt Out of Luck? 02/06/2008 | 1 Comment
• Vice Squad 02/06/2008
• Obama Wins Delaware 02/05/2008
• Bill Richardson Has Become...Evil 02/05/2008 | 1 Comment
• The World's Worst Watersport 02/05/2008
• Clinton Devised Both Pro-war and Anti-war Candidacy 02/05/2008 | 14 Comments
• Exporting the Anbar Awakening 02/04/2008
• US Casualties Rise in Iraq 02/01/2008 | 4 Comments
• 'Appalling Gap' 02/01/2008 | 1 Comment
• In Solidarity With Jim Risen 02/01/2008 | 7 Comments
• Terrorists to US: Can You Hear Me Now? 02/01/2008
• Requiem For an Iraqi City 02/01/2008
• At Least 64 Die in Baghdad 02/01/2008 | 1 Comment
• More War Blogging 01/31/2008 | 1 Comment
• CLC Pricetag So Far: $123 Million 01/31/2008
• Concern Over 'Concerned Local Citizens' 01/31/2008
• More on Iraq Detainee Deaths 01/31/2008
• Clinton and The Ticking Bomb 01/31/2008 | 2 Comments
• Security Gains From 'Surge' Backsliding 01/31/2008 | 2 Comments
• More on Detainee Slayings 01/30/2008
• So About That Waterboarding 01/30/2008
• It's Not Like We're In Two Resource-Intensive Ground Wars Where Economy of Force is Crucial or Anything 01/29/2008 | 9 Comments
• More on Interrogations 01/29/2008 | 1 Comment
• Who to Believe? 01/29/2008 | 2 Comments
• State of the Union Liveblog 01/28/2008 | 4 Comments
• Sources Holler Back: Part II 01/28/2008 | 4 Comments
• Old Folks Scream 'Stop the Violence' 01/28/2008 | 1 Comment
• Sources Holler Back: Torture Edition 01/28/2008 | 4 Comments
• Killing Iraqi Detainees? 01/28/2008 | 1 Comment
• Cookies and Gardening: Lessons from an FBI Interrogator 01/28/2008
• CIA Largely in the Dark on Interrogation Tactics 01/28/2008 | 30 Comments
• 'Tough Negotiators' 01/25/2008
• The Woody Allen Counterinsurgency 01/24/2008
• Donald Rumsfeld: Still There 01/23/2008 | 5 Comments
• 'It Boils Down to Trust' 01/23/2008
• Binge and Purge 01/23/2008
• Iraq Veterans To Testify at Their Own 'Winter Soldier' 01/22/2008 | 5 Comments
• Mary, Help! 01/22/2008
• What Is Mowaffaq al-Rubaie Talking About? 01/18/2008
• Gates: Surge Done By July 01/17/2008
• Line of the Day 01/17/2008
• Now That Totally Belongs on an Inside Page 01/17/2008
• The Crime vs. The Cover-Up 01/17/2008 | 1 Comment
• I Could Write Something About Iraq's Fractured Politics... 01/16/2008
• State For Hillary? 01/16/2008
• Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap 01/16/2008
• State Dept. Security Holds Diplomats in Limbo 01/16/2008 | 1 Comment
• I Don't Want to See it on My Windowsill 01/15/2008
• Stay, Stay Monkey With Me 01/15/2008 | 1 Comment
• The Disco Before the Breakdown 01/15/2008
• Let's Buy Both! 12/17/2007 | 2 Comments

• Richard, feel like dropping me a line at sackerman-at-washingtonindependent-dot-com?

  01/29/2008 01:14PM on CIA Largely in the Dark on Interrogation Tactics

• ‘splain, please.

  01/29/2008 10:00PM on It's Not Like We're In Two Resource-Intensive Ground Wars Where Economy of Force is Crucial or Anything

• Wow, Taylor Marsh! Thanks for reading!

  02/02/2008 10:03PM on US Casualties Rise in Iraq

• Egads. Thanks guys. Wrote this on the way out the door yesterday. Corrected now. Thanks for calli… 02/09/2008 10:36AM on Foreign Service 'Simply Not Up To The Task' of Iraq?

• AmiBlue, I didn’t think of that, but yeah, I guess it is.

  02/09/2008 05:37PM on Complexity, Intellectuals and Iraq

• Holly, the story I’d love to see from you if/when HRC… 02/27/2008 11:21AM on Life After Tuesday

• Skulz, don’t you think “smart” is a value-neutral adjective? Couldn’t a p… 02/28/2008 12:02PM on Irony is For Suckers

• Also, you can’t lay Abu Ghraib on Gates, since it happened three years before he became Sec… 02/28/2008 12:03PM on Irony is For Suckers

• I didn’t see that, Regis. I’ll reinspect & change the post as necessary. Thanks f… 02/28/2008 02:50PM on The Banality of Evil

• That it does. Jeff Goldberg Representing Universal Love Eternally’s Slate piece went up as … 03/20/2008 09:22AM on Fast and Loose With the Facts

• That’s a tremendously strained reading. The report cites documents written in the early 199… 03/21/2008 02:37PM on Et Tu, Washington Times?

• Dan, email me with your address and I’ll mail you the DVDs. sackerman-at-washingtonindepend… 03/25/2008 11:28AM on Bush's War

• What are you talking about Skulz.

  03/28/2008 09:07AM on McCain Foreign Policy: Bush Doctrine Plus

• Ufred is the forces of chaos and anarchy. Everything we say he is, he is.

  04/01/2008 08:44AM on Sadr: Holding All the Cards

• Skulz, I’ve had it with you. I have Jewish friends who’ve served in Iraq and Afghanis… 04/16/2008 08:19AM on Reframing the Israel Debate

• Mark, I know, we killed Harithi there with the Predator in ‘02, the 04/18/2008 07:48AM on Yemen: al-Qaeda's New Target?

• Mark, is it really necessary to invent a position for me and then say I’m inconsistent or h… 04/18/2008 07:52AM on 'Bin Laden Determined To Strike In U.S.' Pt. 2

• If I was trying to conceal something, why would I link to the 04/18/2008 11:25AM on The Liberal Narrative on Iraq Might Not Be Going Official Yet!

• Can we not have comments here accusing John McCain of selling out the country while he was a 04/21/2008 08:58AM on Torture and the Law

• I know, I know. I can’t compete with that!

  04/28/2008 07:35AM on U.S. Lacks Pakistan Strategy