Barry Eisler spent three years in a covert position with the CIA's Directorate of Operations, then worked as a technology lawyer and startup executive in Silicon Valley and Japan, earning his black belt at the Kodokan International Judo Center along the way. Eisler's bestselling thrillers have won the Barry Award and the Gumshoe Award for Best Thriller of the Year, have been included in numerous "Best Of" lists, and have been translated into nearly twenty languages. Eisler lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and, when he's not writing novels, blogs about torture, civil liberties, and the rule of law.
That Power of Accurate Observation Is Called Political By Those Who Have Not Got It
I'm glad to say that most of the Amazon customer reviews for my new short novel, London Twist, have been positive. Among the negative ones, there's an interesting theme: that the story is either disturbingly pro-gay or disturbingly anti-drone, and in all events too liberal. I think it's worth examining ...
There really ought to be some sort of remedial civics licensing course for the David Ignatiuses of the world. Here's the pundit's latest in the Washington Post. It's about Katheryn Bigelow's new film Zero Dark Thirty, her "almost journalistic" account of the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Note that in ...
Interrogators Speak Out: Why Not a Torture Turing Test?
I'm proud to be part of a series of articles by intelligence and military interrogators denouncing torture this week at the Huff Post. Here's my entry. When I wrote my eighth thriller, Inside Out, in 2009, the villains were a group of CIA and other government officials who colluded to destroy a ...
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta wants you to be scared. In a letter to Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain, Panetta warned that after possible cuts in the military budget, "we would have the smallest ground force since 1940, the smallest number of ships since 1915, and the smallest Air Force ...
2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake
Even as the aftershocks of the March 11 Touhoku quake continued to rock Japan, a group of people came together and determined to do something in response. The Wall Street Journal chronicled their efforts, and the result is a remarkable book, called "2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake." Recorded, ...
Donald Rumsfeld, Defender of the Constitution (Really)
Cross-posted at the American Constitution Society.Here's what I thought when I heard the Conservative Political Action Conference has decided to honor former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with something CPAC calls the "Defender of the Constitution Award."As I imagine CPAC is aware, Rumsfeld is the man who signed the very ...
The strangest thing about the low quality of Internet argument is that effective argument isn't really so difficult. Sure, not everyone can be Clarence Darrow, but anyone who wants to be at least competent at argument can do it. Here are a few guidelines.I'll start with a hint: note the ...
Earlier this month, the Washington Post published an op-ed by Jack Devine, former CIA deputy director of operations and chief of the CIA Afghan Task Force. When I read it, I thought it was perhaps the most insane op-ed I'd ever come across. But leave it to David Broder, "Dean ...
Though it's replete with action, sex, badass characters, and exotic locations, I'm gratified that my latest novel, Inside Out, has also garnered attention for its politics. Generally speaking, anything that gets people talking about your books is good, but the reaction to Inside Out is also interesting because of what ...
The Overton Window: More Poodle Than Panther
I'm pleased to announce that At the Tea Party: The Wing Nuts, Whack Jobs and Whitey-Whiteness of the New Republican Right... and Why We Should Take It Seriously is available today! Edited by GritTV's Laura Flanders, it includes essays from an amazing lineup of writers: Max Blumenthal, Alexander Cockburn, Lisa ...
Andrew Sullivan's defense of President Obama's claimed power to have American citizens assassinated nicely reveals much of the illogic behind, and many of the dangers inherent in, America's Forever War. Let's examine it point by point. 1. Assassination of American citizens, even if arguably extreme, has only been ordered applied, ...
Militarization and the Authoritarian Right
Yes, former Bush administration speechwriter and current Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen's demand that "WikiLeaks Must Be Stopped" is, as his colleague Eva Rodriguez notes, "more than a little whacky." But it's useful, too, because an infatuation with the notion of using the military in non-military operations, particularly domestic ones, ...
Recently, I had the good fortune to be invited by NPR to submit an essay on a favorite thriller of mine. I decided to write about George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, which is both an excellent thriller and an increasingly powerful and relevant political warning -- a combination readers of my ...
One of the great things about being a novelist is that the form enables me to dramatize the way the government and establishment media collude to manipulate public opinion. The phenomenon of the mainstream media laundering government talking points into news in exchange for access to even more such talking ...
Torture Talisman, Torture Taboo
Recently an otherwise seemingly thoughtful person said to me, "I know torture ordinarily doesn't work because you can't coerce someone into giving you trustworthy information. But don't you think there are times when the government has to step over the line to save lives? You know, if terrorists have a ...
Death-Defying Institutional Brands
I'm increasingly intrigued by the ability of certain brands to outlast the loss of their underlying substance. Facts are stubborn things, John Adams said, but sometimes, it seems, not as stubborn as brands. Let me offer a few examples, and then let's see if we can identify any principles at ...
There are a number of factors behind America's growing embrace of torture, but among them, largely overlooked, is a brilliant campaign of cross-promotion between right-wing ideologues and right-wing entertainment.First, the right reduced the entirety of torture to a simple talking point: "Can you really say torture never works?" And then ...
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March 25th, 2013
That Power of Accurate Observation Is Called Political By Those Who Have Not Got It
I'm glad to say that most of the Amazon customer reviews for my new short novel, London Twist, have been positive. Among the negative ones, ...
December 13th, 2012
There really ought to be some sort of remedial civics licensing course for the David Ignatiuses of the world. Here's the pundit's latest in the ...
April 30th, 2012
Interrogators Speak Out: Why Not a Torture Turing Test?
I'm proud to be part of a series of articles by intelligence and military interrogators denouncing torture this week at the Huff Post. Here's my entry. ...
December 6th, 2011
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta wants you to be scared. In a letter to Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain, Panetta warned that after possible cuts ...
April 12th, 2011
2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake
Even as the aftershocks of the March 11 Touhoku quake continued to rock Japan, a group of people came together and determined to do something ...
February 1st, 2011
Donald Rumsfeld, Defender of the Constitution (Really)
Cross-posted at the American Constitution Society.Here's what I thought when I heard the Conservative Political Action Conference has decided to honor former Secretary of Defense ...
November 15th, 2010
The strangest thing about the low quality of Internet argument is that effective argument isn't really so difficult. Sure, not everyone can be Clarence Darrow, ...
November 15th, 2010
The strangest thing about the low quality of Internet argument is that effective argument isn't really so difficult. Sure, not everyone can be Clarence Darrow, ...
March 25th, 2013
That Power of Accurate Observation Is Called Political By Those Who Have Not Got It
I'm glad to say that most of the Amazon customer reviews for my new short novel, London Twist, have been positive. Among the negative ones, ...
October 2nd, 2010
Andrew Sullivan's defense of President Obama's claimed power to have American citizens assassinated nicely reveals much of the illogic behind, and many of the dangers ...
October 20th, 2010
The Overton Window: More Poodle Than Panther
I'm pleased to announce that At the Tea Party: The Wing Nuts, Whack Jobs and Whitey-Whiteness of the New Republican Right... and Why We Should ...
October 29th, 2010
Though it's replete with action, sex, badass characters, and exotic locations, I'm gratified that my latest novel, Inside Out, has also garnered attention for its ...
November 1st, 2010
Earlier this month, the Washington Post published an op-ed by Jack Devine, former CIA deputy director of operations and chief of the CIA Afghan Task ...
February 1st, 2011
Donald Rumsfeld, Defender of the Constitution (Really)
Cross-posted at the American Constitution Society.Here's what I thought when I heard the Conservative Political Action Conference has decided to honor former Secretary of Defense ...
'Dirty Wars' by Jeremy Scahill
Why have you started a comedy festival in northern Michigan in the middle of winter?
Because if you were here in the dead of winter in the middle of nowhere (which is actually somewhere to us), you'd need a few laughs too ... Continue Reading
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Michael Moore on the Rachel Maddow Show, 2/27/12
