Dana Priest
Encyclopedia
Dana Priest is an American author and Pulitzer Prize
-winning journalist. Priest has worked almost 20 years for The Washington Post
. As one of the Post's specialists on National Security she has written many articles on the United States
' "War on terror
." In 2006 she won the Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting
for her reporting on black site
prisons and in 2008 The Washington Post
was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service
for the reporting of Priest and Anne Hull
and photographer Michel du Cille at Walter Reed Army Medical Center
.
In February 2006, Priest was awarded the George Polk Award for National Reporting for her November 2005 article on secret CIA detention facilities in foreign countries. Priest also revealed the existence of the Counterterrorist Intelligence Center
s (CTIC) in a Nov. 17, 2005, front page article, which are counter-terrorist operations centers run jointly by the CIA and foreign intelligence
services. The Alliance Base
in Paris, involving the DGSE and other foreign intelligence agencies, is one of the most important CTIC.
on Nov. 2, 2005, asserts the existence of clandestine, extraterritorial, CIA interrogation
sites. This article triggered a worldwide debate on these "black site
s." Priest's article states that in addition to the 750 Guantanamo Bay detainees in military custody, the CIA held approximately 30 senior members of the al Qaeda and Taliban leadership and approximately 100 foot soldiers in their own facilities around the world. She wrote that several former Soviet Bloc countries had allowed the CIA to run interrogation facilities on their territory. On April 21, 2006, The New York Times
claimed that a European Union
investigation, under the direction of Swiss senator Dick Marty
, has not proved the existence of secret CIA prisons in Europe. However, Dick Marty's report, published in June 2006, showed that 14 European countries had participated in the CIA's extraordinary rendition
s, using various airports and military bases (i.e. Ramstein Air Base
in Germany, Lajes Field
in the Azores
, etc.). US President
George W. Bush
later acknowledged the existence of secret prisons operated by the CIA during a speech on Sept. 6, 2006.
In an interview, Priest confirmed that the CIA had referred her story to the Justice Department, and that various Congressmembers
have called for an inquiry, to determine whether she or her sources had broken any laws. The Washington Post reported on April 21, 2006, that a CIA employee, Mary O. McCarthy
, was fired for allegedly leaking classified information to Priest and other journalists. The allegation has been disputed by McCarthy and then by The Washington Post.
In an extended interview with FRONTLINE, Priest responded to criticism that her Post reporting could have damaged national security by saying, "There's no floodgate of information out there in the realm of intelligence; there just isn't. That defies looking at the newspapers every day. People who say that, they're just taking the word of the government. I think we did do a very responsible job at what we did. We tried to figure out a way to get as much as information to the public as we could without damaging national security." Replying to a follow-up question about the possibility of damaging U.S. interests by publicizing or alluding to various intelligence capabilities, sources and methods, Priest said, "Does that make sense to you? Letting the bad guys know that we can eavesdrop on them, they don't know that? I think one of the revealing facts about the NSA [wiretapping] case
, if you take the government on the face value, is the extent to which they are underestimating the enemy, which is not a good thing if you want to defeat the enemy."
exposed
degrading conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center
for outpatient Iraq War veterans. The story caused an uproar across the United States and resulted in the resignation of Secretary of the Army, Francis J. Harvey
.
The story exposed the existence of mold, mice and rust in outpatient facilities and showed the presence of the deteriorating conditions for wounded soldiers and veterans. This resulted in severe investigations by Rep. Henry Waxman
(D-CA), who chaired the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in the House and by Sen. Carl Levin
(D-MI), on the Senate side, who chaired the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services
.
Republicans and Democrats joined hands in criticizing the respective parties responsible for the conditions there. This prompted President George W. Bush
to appoint former Senate Majority Leader and 1996 Presidential Candidate Sen. Bob Dole
(R-KS) and former United States Secretary of Health and Human Services
Donna Shalala
to oversee the process of healthcare for wounded soldiers. The stories also won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize
in Public Service.
. The report, which took almost two years to complete, details the national security buildup in the United States following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The Public Broadcasting System featured Priest and Arkin's work on Top Secret America in a September 6, 2011 broadcast of the news documentary series FRONTLINE.video That same month, the book "Top Secret America" was published by Little, Brown and Company.
, the Gerald R. Ford Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the National Defense in 2001, and the 2004 New York Public Library
's Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism.
Priest regularly engages in detailed on-line chats with readers on national security subjects on the Post website. In April, 2011, Priest participated in a panel discussion entitled "Could the media break a story like Watergate today?" with Bob Woodward
and Carl Bernstein
at the University of Texas.
An alumna of UC Santa Cruz, and former editor of City on a Hill Press
, she lives in Washington, D.C., has two children and is married to William Goodfellow
the executive director of the Center for International Policy
.
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning journalist. Priest has worked almost 20 years for The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
. As one of the Post's specialists on National Security she has written many articles on the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
' "War on terror
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
." In 2006 she won the Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting
Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting
The Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting was presented from 1991 to 2006 for a distinguished example of beat reporting characterized by sustained and knowledgeable coverage of a particular subject or activity....
for her reporting on black site
Black site
In military terminology, a black site is a location at which an unacknowledged black project is conducted. Recently, the term has gained notoriety in describing secret prisons operated by the United States Central Intelligence Agency , generally outside of U.S. territory and legal jurisdiction. It...
prisons and in 2008 The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service
Pulitzer Prize for Public Service
The Pulitzer Prize for Public Service has been awarded since 1918 for a distinguished example of meritorious public service by a newspaper or news site through the use of its journalistic resources. Those resources, as well as reporting, may include editorials, cartoons, photographs, graphics,...
for the reporting of Priest and Anne Hull
Anne Hull
Anne Hull is an American journalist, on the national staff of the Washington Post.She won a 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.-Life:...
and photographer Michel du Cille at Walter Reed Army Medical Center
Walter Reed Army Medical Center
The Walter Reed Army Medical Center was the United States Army's flagship medical center until 2011. Located on 113 acres in Washington, D.C., it served more than 150,000 active and retired personnel from all branches of the military...
.
In February 2006, Priest was awarded the George Polk Award for National Reporting for her November 2005 article on secret CIA detention facilities in foreign countries. Priest also revealed the existence of the Counterterrorist Intelligence Center
Counterterrorist Intelligence Center
A Counterterrorist Intelligence Center is, according to a Washington Post November 18, 2005 front page article by Dana Priest, a counterterrorist operations center run jointly by the CIA and foreign intelligence services as part of the US "War on Terror" .- Description of CTIC :According to Dana...
s (CTIC) in a Nov. 17, 2005, front page article, which are counter-terrorist operations centers run jointly by the CIA and foreign intelligence
Intelligence (information gathering)
Intelligence assessment is the development of forecasts of behaviour or recommended courses of action to the leadership of an organization, based on a wide range of available information sources both overt and covert. Assessments are developed in response to requirements declared by the leadership...
services. The Alliance Base
Alliance Base
Alliance Base was the cover name for a secret Western Counterterrorist Intelligence Center that existed between 2002 and 2009 in Paris. The existence of CTICs were first revealed by Dana Priest in a November 17, 2005 Washington Post article, while she referred to the Alliance Base in a July 2,...
in Paris, involving the DGSE and other foreign intelligence agencies, is one of the most important CTIC.
"Black sites"
Titled "CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons," the article, published by The Washington Post above the foldAbove the fold
"Above the fold" is a graphic design concept that refers to the location of an important news story or a visually appealing photograph on the upper half of the front page of a newspaper, or in case of webpages, the part of a page that's visible without scrolling. Most papers are delivered and...
on Nov. 2, 2005, asserts the existence of clandestine, extraterritorial, CIA interrogation
Interrogation
Interrogation is interviewing as commonly employed by officers of the police, military, and Intelligence agencies with the goal of extracting a confession or obtaining information. Subjects of interrogation are often the suspects, victims, or witnesses of a crime...
sites. This article triggered a worldwide debate on these "black site
Black site
In military terminology, a black site is a location at which an unacknowledged black project is conducted. Recently, the term has gained notoriety in describing secret prisons operated by the United States Central Intelligence Agency , generally outside of U.S. territory and legal jurisdiction. It...
s." Priest's article states that in addition to the 750 Guantanamo Bay detainees in military custody, the CIA held approximately 30 senior members of the al Qaeda and Taliban leadership and approximately 100 foot soldiers in their own facilities around the world. She wrote that several former Soviet Bloc countries had allowed the CIA to run interrogation facilities on their territory. On April 21, 2006, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
claimed that a European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
investigation, under the direction of Swiss senator Dick Marty
Dick Marty
Dick Marty is a Swiss politician and former state prosecutor of the canton of Ticino. He is a member of the Swiss Council of States , and a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.-Education:Marty holds a doctorate in law from the University of Neuchâtel with the thesis:...
, has not proved the existence of secret CIA prisons in Europe. However, Dick Marty's report, published in June 2006, showed that 14 European countries had participated in the CIA's extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition is the abduction and illegal transfer of a person from one nation to another. "Torture by proxy" is used by some critics to describe situations in which the United States and the United Kingdom have transferred suspected terrorists to other countries in order to torture the...
s, using various airports and military bases (i.e. Ramstein Air Base
Ramstein Air Base
Ramstein Air Base is a United States Air Force base in the German state of Rheinland-Pfalz. It serves as headquarters for the United States Air Forces in Europe and is also a North Atlantic Treaty Organization installation...
in Germany, Lajes Field
Lajes Field
Lajes Field or Lajes Air Base , officially designated Air Base No. 4 , is a multi-use air field, home to the Portuguese Air Force Base Aérea Nº4 and Azores Air Zone Command , a United States Air Force detachment , and a regional air passenger terminal located near Lajes...
in the Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
, etc.). US President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
later acknowledged the existence of secret prisons operated by the CIA during a speech on Sept. 6, 2006.
In an interview, Priest confirmed that the CIA had referred her story to the Justice Department, and that various Congressmembers
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
have called for an inquiry, to determine whether she or her sources had broken any laws. The Washington Post reported on April 21, 2006, that a CIA employee, Mary O. McCarthy
Mary McCarthy (CIA)
Mary O'Neil McCarthy is a former United States Central Intelligence Agency employee who last worked in the Office of the Inspector General. In her career, she was an intelligence analyst and National Intelligence Officer for Warning...
, was fired for allegedly leaking classified information to Priest and other journalists. The allegation has been disputed by McCarthy and then by The Washington Post.
In an extended interview with FRONTLINE, Priest responded to criticism that her Post reporting could have damaged national security by saying, "There's no floodgate of information out there in the realm of intelligence; there just isn't. That defies looking at the newspapers every day. People who say that, they're just taking the word of the government. I think we did do a very responsible job at what we did. We tried to figure out a way to get as much as information to the public as we could without damaging national security." Replying to a follow-up question about the possibility of damaging U.S. interests by publicizing or alluding to various intelligence capabilities, sources and methods, Priest said, "Does that make sense to you? Letting the bad guys know that we can eavesdrop on them, they don't know that? I think one of the revealing facts about the NSA [wiretapping] case
NSA warrantless surveillance controversy
The NSA warrantless surveillance controversy concerns surveillance of persons within the United States during the collection of foreign intelligence by the U.S. National Security Agency as part of the war on terror...
, if you take the government on the face value, is the extent to which they are underestimating the enemy, which is not a good thing if you want to defeat the enemy."
Walter Reed conditions
On Feb. 18, 2007 Priest and Anne HullAnne Hull
Anne Hull is an American journalist, on the national staff of the Washington Post.She won a 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.-Life:...
exposed
Walter Reed Army Medical Center neglect scandal
The Walter Reed Army Medical Center neglect scandal resulted from a series of allegations of unsatisfactory conditions and management at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. culminating in two articles published by The Washington Post in February 2007...
degrading conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center
Walter Reed Army Medical Center
The Walter Reed Army Medical Center was the United States Army's flagship medical center until 2011. Located on 113 acres in Washington, D.C., it served more than 150,000 active and retired personnel from all branches of the military...
for outpatient Iraq War veterans. The story caused an uproar across the United States and resulted in the resignation of Secretary of the Army, Francis J. Harvey
Francis J. Harvey
Francis Joseph Harvey served as the 19th Secretary of the United States Army from November 19, 2004 to March 9, 2007.-Education and family:Harvey was born and raised in Latrobe, Pennsylvania...
.
The story exposed the existence of mold, mice and rust in outpatient facilities and showed the presence of the deteriorating conditions for wounded soldiers and veterans. This resulted in severe investigations by Rep. Henry Waxman
Henry Waxman
Henry Arnold Waxman is the U.S. Representative for , serving in Congress since 1975. He is a member of the Democratic Party. He is considered to be one of the most influential liberal members of Congress...
(D-CA), who chaired the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in the House and by Sen. Carl Levin
Carl Levin
Carl Milton Levin is a Jewish-American United States Senator from Michigan, serving since 1979. He is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services. He is a member of the Democratic Party....
(D-MI), on the Senate side, who chaired the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services
United States Senate Committee on Armed Services
The Committee on Armed Services is a committee of the United States Senate empowered with legislative oversight of the nation's military, including the Department of Defense, military research and development, nuclear energy , benefits for members of the military, the Selective Service System and...
.
Republicans and Democrats joined hands in criticizing the respective parties responsible for the conditions there. This prompted President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
to appoint former Senate Majority Leader and 1996 Presidential Candidate Sen. Bob Dole
Bob Dole
Robert Joseph "Bob" Dole is an American attorney and politician. Dole represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996, was Gerald Ford's Vice Presidential running mate in the 1976 presidential election, and was Senate Majority Leader from 1985 to 1987 and in 1995 and 1996...
(R-KS) and former United States Secretary of Health and Human Services
United States Secretary of Health and Human Services
The United States Secretary of Health and Human Services is the head of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, concerned with health matters. The Secretary is a member of the President's Cabinet...
Donna Shalala
Donna Shalala
Donna Edna Shalala served for eight years as Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Bill Clinton and has been president of the University of Miami, a private university in Coral Gables, Florida, since 2001. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest...
to oversee the process of healthcare for wounded soldiers. The stories also won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize
2008 Pulitzer Prize
The 2008 Pulitzer Prizes were announced on April 7, 2008, the 92nd annual awards.The Washington Post won six awards, second only to the seven won by The New York Times in 2002. Three organizations were awarded prizes for the first time: Reuters, Investor's Business Daily and the Concord Monitor...
in Public Service.
Top Secret America
On July 19, 2010, The Washington Post published Top Secret America on their website, a collaborative effort between Priest and William ArkinWilliam Arkin
William M. Arkin is an American political commentator, activist, journalist, blogger, and former United States Army soldier.-Biography:Arkin served in U.S. Army intelligence from 1974 to 1978...
. The report, which took almost two years to complete, details the national security buildup in the United States following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The Public Broadcasting System featured Priest and Arkin's work on Top Secret America in a September 6, 2011 broadcast of the news documentary series FRONTLINE.video That same month, the book "Top Secret America" was published by Little, Brown and Company.
Others
Priest is the author of a book entitled: The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace With America's Military. She was a guest scholar at the U.S. Institute of Peace. She was a recipient of the MacArthur grantMacArthur Foundation
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is one of the largest private foundations in the United States. Based in Chicago but supporting non-profit organizations that work in 60 countries, MacArthur has awarded more than US$4 billion since its inception in 1978...
, the Gerald R. Ford Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the National Defense in 2001, and the 2004 New York Public Library
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...
's Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism.
Priest regularly engages in detailed on-line chats with readers on national security subjects on the Post website. In April, 2011, Priest participated in a panel discussion entitled "Could the media break a story like Watergate today?" with Bob Woodward
Bob Woodward
Robert Upshur Woodward is an American investigative journalist and non-fiction author. He has worked for The Washington Post since 1971 as a reporter, and is currently an associate editor of the Post....
and Carl Bernstein
Carl Bernstein
Carl Bernstein is an American investigative journalist who, at The Washington Post, teamed up with Bob Woodward; the two did the majority of the most important news reporting on the Watergate scandal. These scandals led to numerous government investigations, the indictment of a vast number of...
at the University of Texas.
An alumna of UC Santa Cruz, and former editor of City on a Hill Press
City on a Hill Press
City on a Hill Press, originally launched in 1966 as The Fulcrum, is the weekly student newspaper of the University of California, Santa Cruz...
, she lives in Washington, D.C., has two children and is married to William Goodfellow
William Goodfellow
William Chester Goodfellow is a founding member and Executive director of the Center for International Policy.Goodfellow earned his undergraduate degree in 1970 from Boston University and received his Masters from the Cambridge-Goddard Graduate School for Social Change in 1972. He served as an...
the executive director of the Center for International Policy
Center for International Policy
The Center for International Policy is a non-profit public policy research and advocacy think tank with offices in Washington, D.C. and New York City. It was founded in 1975 in response to the Vietnam War. The Center describes its mission as "promoting a U.S...
.
External links
- Washington Post biography
- Biography from Washington Week in Review, PBSPublic Broadcasting ServiceThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....