National security

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• *PBS Frontline - The Man Who Knew (90 min)
  Produced by Michael Kirk, Oct. 3, 2002. As an FBI agent who specialized in counter-terrorism, John P. O’Neill investigated the bombing of the American embassies in Africa, the USS Cole in Yemen, the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, and the first attack on the World Trade Center. O’Neill came to believe America should kill Osama bin Laden before Al Qaeda launched a devastating attack, but his was often a lonely voice. A controversial figure inside the buttoned-down world of the FBI, he was forced out of the job he loved and entered the private sector – as director of security for the World Trade Center.
• American Experience - Command and Control
  Command and Control. PBS American Experience. Aired April 25, 2017 The long-hidden story of the day our luck almost ran out. From Robert Kenner, the director of the groundbreaking film Food, Inc., comes Command and Control, the long-hidden story of a deadly accident at a Titan II missile complex in Damascus, Arkansas in 1980. Based on the critically-acclaimed book by Eric Schlosser, this chilling documentary exposes the terrifying truth about the management of America’s nuclear arsenal and shows what can happen when the weapons built to protect us threaten to destroy us. Filmed in a decommissioned Titan II missile silo in Arizona, the documentary features the minute-by-minute accounts of Air Force personnel, weapon designers, and first responders who were on the scene that night. Command and Control reveals the unlikely chain of events that caused the accident and the feverish efforts to prevent the explosion of a ballistic missile carrying the most powerful nuclear warhead ever built by the United States – a warhead 600 times more powerful than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. Woven through the Damascus story is a riveting history of America’s nuclear weapons program, from World War II through the Cold War, much of it based on recently declassified documents. A cautionary tale of freak accidents, near misses, human fallibility and extraordinary heroism, Command and Control forces viewers to confront the great dilemma that the U.S. has faced since the dawn of the nuclear age: how do you manage weapons of mass destruction without being destroyed by them?
• Confronting "the Enemy Within": Security Intelligence, the Police, and Counterterrorism in Four Democracies
  Confronting "the Enemy Within" Security Intelligence, the Police, and Counterterrorism in Four Democracies Peter Chalk, William Rosenau, RAND
• Diane Rehm Show - Fritz Schwarz: “Democracy In The Dark: The Seduction Of Government Secrecy”
  Frederick A.O. Schwarz Jr.: “Democracy In The Dark: The Seduction Of Government Secrecy”
  Diane Rehm Show, Monday, Apr 06 2015 • 11 a.m. (ET)
  
  "Since the dawn of time, leaders have tried to control access to information. Even in the early days of the democratic United States, the founding fathers struggled to define how open a society the new country should be. In this debate, Thomas Jefferson won the day and the American government, by and large, favored openness over secrecy. But Frederick A.O. Schwarz Jr., the author of the new book 'Democracy In The Dark' says the U.S. government has shifted far from this founding principle and that we are currently living in a 'secrecy era' in which a lack of transparency threatens to undermine democracy. He joins Diane in studio to talk about the culture of secrecy in American government."
  
  Frederick A.O. Schwarz chief counsel, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. He was chief counsel for the U.S. Senate's Church Committee.
  
• Former CIA Analyst Ray McGovern: Obama Is ‘Afraid’ Of The CIA And The NSA
  McGovern says he believes the president can’t hold either agency accountable for their violations of the law and human rights because of the power they hold over him. MintPress News Desk | March 10, 2016
• NY Times - The Secret Casualties of Iraq’s Abandoned Chemical Weapons
  By C. J. Chivers New York Times, Oct 14, 2014 Thousands of aging chemical weapons, many constructed from components supplied by the U.S. and European nations, have been encountered in Iraq by U.S. troops and Iraqi police. Secrecy and improper medical care have exacerbated the problems.
• NY Times - U.S. Wrestles With How to Fight Back Against Cyberattacks
  U.S. Wrestles With How to Fight Back Against Cyberattacks By David E. Sanger, NY Times, July 30, 2016
• PBS FRONTLINE - Gunned Down: The Power of the NRA (54 min)
  1/6/2014
  FRONTLINE investigates the politics and power of the NRA
• Peter Baker - For Real - Torture American Style
  For Real - Torture American Style
  Peter C. Baker, July 24, 2012 | This article appeared in the August 13-20, 2012 edition of The Nation.
  Institutionalized torture says not look what we can do, but look what we disown, what only the bad apples among us require.
• RadioLab - 60 words (60 min)
  RadioLab, Season 12, Episode 7 In the hours after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a lawyer sat down in front of a computer and started writing a legal justification for taking action against those responsible. The language that he drafted and that President George W. Bush signed into law - called the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) - has at its heart one single sentence, 60 words long. Over the last decade, those 60 words have become the legal foundation for the "war on terror." In this collaboration with BuzzFeed, reporter Gregory Johnsen tells us the story of how this has come to be one of the most important, confusing, troubling sentences of the past 12 years. We go into the meetings that took place in the chaotic days just after 9/11, speak with Congresswoman Barbara Lee and former Congressman Ron Dellums about the vote on the AUMF. We hear from former White House and State Department lawyers John Bellinger & Harold Koh. We learn how this legal language unleashed Guantanamo, Navy Seal raids and drone strikes. And we speak with journalist Daniel Klaidman, legal expert Benjamin Wittes and Virginia Senator Tim Kaine about how these words came to be interpreted, and what they mean for the future of war and peace. Produced by Matt Kielty and Kelsey Padgett with original music by Dylan Keefe.
• Spy agencies are pushed to reveal extent of US surveillance
  Deb Riechmann, Associated Press, May 7, 2016 The National Security Agency acquires more than 250 million Internet communications each year under this program. Given the ubiquity of international communication, this number is virtually certain to include tens of millions of exchanges that involve Americans, but there is no official public data on how many Americans' communications are swept up.
• The U.S. Has An 'Active Cyber War Underway' To Thwart The North Korean Nuclear Threat
  NPR, Fresh Air, March 29, 2017 Dave Davies interviews New York Times reporter David Sanger talks about North Korea's nuclear program and warns that the regime, which has been "fodder for late night comedians for many many years," is no joke.
• Why so many former intelligence officers are speaking out
  John McLaughlin, September 7, 2018, Opinion, The Washington Post John McLaughlin teaches at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. He was deputy director of the CIA from 2000 to 2004, serving as acting director in 2004.
• ‘Black budget’ summary details U.S. spy network’s successes, failures and objectives
  Barton Gellman and Greg Miller, Washington Post, August 29, 2013