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Barry Eisler

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Barry Eisler commented on the diary post Interrogators Speak Out: Why Not a Torture Turing Test? by Barry Eisler.
2012-04-30 22:08:01View | Delete

Thanks for the comments, everyone. TVT, what I mean by the Turing Test reference is a simple, elegant test. If you can’t tell whether the machine engaging with you in an online conversation is human or a machine, we can judge the machine to be an artificial intelligence. If Jose Rodriguez, with all the countervailing [...]
Barry Eisler wrote a new diary post: Interrogators Speak Out: Why Not a Torture Turing Test?
2012-04-30 15:24:13View | Delete

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 series of tapes depicting Americans torturing [...]
Barry Eisler commented on the diary post Leon Panetta is Full of Shit by Barry Eisler.
2011-12-07 00:03:25View | Delete

See the update in the post regarding a tweet in response from George Little, Secretary Panetta’s spokesperson at the Pentagon.
Barry Eisler commented on the diary post Leon Panetta is Full of Shit by Barry Eisler.
2011-12-06 20:48:34View | Delete

Thanks for the thoughts, everyone, and KilgourTrout, if only the system could be that transparent! :)
Barry Eisler wrote a new diary post: Leon Panetta is Full of Shit
2011-12-06 15:43:31View | Delete

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 in its history.” Which would be [...]
Barry Eisler commented on the blog post Firedoglake Book Salon Welcomes Glenn Greenwald, With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful
2011-10-29 14:51:07View | Delete

See also Martin Joel Erzinger, Morgan Stanley banker who walked from a hit and run, discussed in Chapter 3:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/08/martin-erzinger-morgan-stanley-hit-and-run-_n_780294.html
Barry Eisler commented on the blog post Firedoglake Book Salon Welcomes Glenn Greenwald, With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful
2011-10-29 14:42:39View | Delete

Jonathan, thanks for hosting. Glenn, I’m halfway through the book and loving it despite all the righteous outrage it provokes. And I’m thrilled at how the timing of publication coincided with the Occupy movement. For once, I’m pleased at those long legacy publisher lead times. :)
Barry Eisler commented on the blog post Netroots Nation Recap: Saving the Middle Class
2011-06-19 21:12:06View | Delete

Marcy, it was great meeting you and bmaz and getting to enjoy the healthful and nutritious Brits fare, too. Thanks for appreciating that the fictional Marcy Wheeler got neither laid nor killed, as for most of my characters it’s one or the other or even occasionally both.

Seriously, thanks for the invaluable work you do here and hope to see you somewhere again soon.
Barry Eisler commented on the blog post The Blowjob that Shall Not Be Named
2011-04-28 12:55:44View | Delete

Great piece, Marcy, and I was only half-kidding on Twitter when I said this needs to be a book title…
Barry Eisler wrote a new diary post: 2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake
2011-04-11 22:15:43View | Delete

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, written, and published in just over one [...]
Barry Eisler wrote a new diary post: Libya: Does America Have No Choice?
2011-04-03 10:49:00View | Delete

This post is in response to a post by Juan Cole, a blogger and expert on the Arab and Muslim worlds from whom I’ve learned a great deal and who I greatly respect, arguing that America has a moral obligation to assist its NATO allies in the war against Libya. Hi Juan, I’m no expert on [...]
Barry Eisler commented on the blog post FDL Book Salon Welcomes Dan Gillmor, Mediactive
2011-03-20 15:56:54View | Delete

Thanks everyone for your questions and Dan, for all your thoughtful responses. And Bev, for making it all happen as always! For anyone who hasn’t read Mediactive yet, don’t miss it — it’s a terrific book, going broader and deeper on all the topics we touched on today.
Barry Eisler commented on the blog post FDL Book Salon Welcomes Dan Gillmor, Mediactive
2011-03-20 15:47:28View | Delete

Dan, we have less than 15 minutes remaining, so selfishly I wanted to sneak in one more question. As I mention in my intro, Mediactive isn’t just about encouraging more active consumption of the news; it’s also a manifesto for citizen-journalists. I love this concept and wonder if you could share what you consider to be a premier example or two of recent citizen journalism? If you have time.
Barry Eisler commented on the blog post FDL Book Salon Welcomes Dan Gillmor, Mediactive
2011-03-20 15:05:53View | Delete

My pleasure, Catherine — always glad to see some of my efforts to draw more attention to real journalists and real journalism paying off!
Barry Eisler commented on the blog post FDL Book Salon Welcomes Dan Gillmor, Mediactive
2011-03-20 14:48:45View | Delete

That last one is huge, IMO. I’ve been a news junkie most of my adult life, and over time have found myself trusting bloggers like the FDL crew more and more, and trusting corporate media less and less. I know the bloggers have a better product: more insightful, better argued, and peer-reviewed. So it frustrates me that so many of my otherwise reasonably well-informed friends still cling to the notion of, for example, the NYT as the serious, objective, disinterested, trustworthy news source, while looking at bloggers as a bunch of DFHs. I’ve been trying in a variety of ways to correct this misapprehension, but branding and rebranding is a slow process. Still, you do what you can, and other things being equal, over time the better product should have a better chance of success.
Barry Eisler commented on the blog post FDL Book Salon Welcomes Dan Gillmor, Mediactive
2011-03-20 14:42:44View | Delete

My pleasure, Bmaz, great to have you here.
Barry Eisler commented on the blog post FDL Book Salon Welcomes Dan Gillmor, Mediactive
2011-03-20 14:30:40View | Delete

I wonder if ombuds are to corporate journalism as corporate journalism is to government — always in danger of being suborned. Interestingly, the blogosphere seems a powerful response to both problems.
Barry Eisler commented on the blog post FDL Book Salon Welcomes Dan Gillmor, Mediactive
2011-03-20 14:28:15View | Delete

Ah, read your comment after sending mine…
Barry Eisler commented on the blog post FDL Book Salon Welcomes Dan Gillmor, Mediactive
2011-03-20 14:27:29View | Delete

I’d like to hear more about what we consumers can do to make journalism better. For example, to persuade corporate media not just to hire someone called an ombud, but to structure the position so that it works as advertised. I know this is a huge topic, and is in fact what makes Mediactive such a terrific and terrifically useful book, but a few highlights, for those who haven’t read it yet…?
Barry Eisler commented on the blog post FDL Book Salon Welcomes Dan Gillmor, Mediactive
2011-03-20 14:22:24View | Delete

I think Priest and Arkin did a nice job of drawing attention to a huge danger to democracy, but as far as the original reporting goes, Tim Shorrock was there much earlier and more comprehensively. Which makes me wonder whether the primary value of corporate media today is more in getting a message out (when they choose to) rather than in developing the story in the first place?

Of course, the downside is when they get out the wrong story. Aluminum tubes, “harsh interrogation techniques,” etc.
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