Author Archive

Conor Friedersdorf

Conor Friedersdorf

Conor Friedersdorf is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he focuses on politics and national affairs. He lives in Venice, California, and is the founding editor of The Best of Journalism, a newsletter devoted to exceptional nonfiction.
Conor Friedersdorf is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he focuses on politics and national affairs. He lives in Venice, California, and is the founding editor of The Best of Journalism, a newsletter devoted to exceptional nonfiction.
Management

The Regulatory State Is Failing Us

Tyler Cowen suggests how to address some of the biggest obstacles to fighting COVID-19.

Tech

Analysis: How to Protect Civil Liberties in a Pandemic

There are much bigger worries than temporary stay-at-home orders.

Management

Trump Defended Cuts to Public-Health Agencies, on Video

In a 2018 press briefing, the president said of public-health professionals, “I don’t like having thousands of people around when you don’t need them.”

Tech

The Costs of Spying

A new study reveals that from 2015 to 2019, the NSA’s call-metadata program cost taxpayers $100 million and provided practically no useful information.

Defense

The Torturers Wanted to Stop, but the CIA Kept Going

An interrogator testified that even after prisoner Abu Zubaydah started cooperating, the waterboarding continued.

Oversight

Viewpoint: Look Who’s Trying to Seize Private Property

The Trump administration wants to use eminent domain to build the border wall.

Management

A Once Unthinkable Proposal for Refugee Camps

A political scientist has suggested closed camps on Western soil. Only the awfulness of the status quo makes it worth considering.

Management

Why Did the Border Patrol Union Switch Its Position on the Wall?

The NBPC once opposed “wasting taxpayer money on building fences and walls along the border.”

Oversight

Analysis: Oversight Is the Biggest Winner of the Midterm Elections

The Democratic victory in the House provides an opportunity to drain the swamp, after two years of willful Republican cover for dodgy behavior.

Defense

The American Who Says He’s Been the Target of Five Air Strikes

A federal judge is allowing his suit to proceed, finding that his “interest in avoiding the erroneous deprivation of his life is uniquely compelling.”

Management

What the New JFK Papers Will Reveal About Excessive Secrecy

How many of the documents being released a half century after his assassination could’ve been made public a decade or two ago without harming the public?

Defense

Analysis: Giving the Deep State More Leeway to Kill With Drones

President Trump is poised to compound the most grave moral failing of his predecessor by making targeted killings less safe, less legal, and less rare.

Defense

Trump Shows the Flaws of NSA Surveillance

His call for Russian hackers to break into Hillary Clinton’s email validate the worst suspicions of security-state critics.

Defense

John Kerry: "We Are Not Frozen in a Nightmare"

Defending the Obama Administration’s geopolitical record, the secretary of state laid out a vision of an America that is globalist, engaged, and deeply interventionist.

Defense

The Senate's Anti-Encryption Bill Could Become a Problem

A newly proposed anti-encryption bill would put every American at greater risk from foreign governments, hackers, and President Trump.

Defense

Explosions Hit Brussels Airport and Metro Station, Killing at Least 26

U.S. Embassy in Brussels asks American citizens to shelter in place and avoid public transportation.

Defense

The Obama Administration's Drone-Strike Dissembling

Debunking John Brennan’s claim that “the president requires near-certainty of no collateral damage” to allow a drone killing to go forward.

Defense

The Rise of Federal Surveillance Drones in the U.S.

A lot of government agencies are exercising their ability to look down on ordinary citizens.

Oversight

Will Conservatives Mount a Third-Party Challenge If Trump Is the Nominee?

Doing so would hobble the billionaire’s ability to take the White House—making it the most potent piece of leverage left to conservatives.