Wayne Madsen

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Wayne Madsen is a Washington, D.C.-based investigative journalist, author, and syndicated columnist. His articles have appeared in The Village Voice, Wired, CounterPunch, The Progressive, CorpWatch, Multinational Monitor, In These Times, and The American Conservative.

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[edit] Career

Madsen was a Senior Fellow of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.[1] He was an intelligence officer in the US Navy[2] and a communications security analyst with the National Security Agency[3]

Madsen edits the Wayne Madsen Report, which he describes as following in the tradition of Drew Pearson's and Jack Anderson's famous "Washington Merry-Go-Round" syndicated column and columns by I.F. Stone. Among others, his columns have appeared in The Miami Herald, Houston Chronicle, Philadelphia Inquirer, Columbus Dispatch, Sacramento Bee, and Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

In 2001 Madsen was denied a press pass as an Internet journalist to cover the first inauguration of George W. Bush. He said about this:

"Perhaps the Republican fat cats and party elders who plan such events miss the days when reporters from Look, Life, the Washington Evening Star and the New York Herald-Tribune swarmed around new administration officials, with notebooks in hand and a pocket full of dimes and nickels. Maybe these old-timers miss the days when a disagreeable story destined for the next day's papers could be headed off at the pass by a midnight phone call to a publisher or editor."[4]

[edit] Investigations

In 2000 Madsen expressed concern over the Carnivore Internet information monitoring program of the FBI and Project Echelon of the National Security Agency which he said were threats to the privacy rights of Americans.[5][6] In 2002 he wrote that the United States Navy had aided in an attempted overthrow of Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez.[7] In January 2002 he expressed concern over the possible use of torture by the United States government against suspected terorrists[8], as well as possible plans to use the military in domestic law enforcement, in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.[9]

In 2003 he said that he had uncovered information linking the September 11 attacks to the government of Saudi Arabia as well as to Bush administration.[10] Later that year he wrote that a Thanksgiving dinner eaten by George W. Bush with troops in Bagdad was really served in the early morning, not at traditional dinner time in the afternoon or evening.[11]

In 2005 he said that the pro-Israel lobby, AIPAC, had pressured American politicians to stay away from protests against the Iraq war.[12]

In 2006 he criticized the Iraq Study Group, saying:

"I think it is a whitewash group and nothing will come of it, except that they may concoct some reason for the US to stay the course in Iraq, with perhaps a little more international support, like Germany and Canada. The commission is a whitewash because the members are all consummate Washington insiders, many of whom have a political and financial stake in the successful outcome of the war. The longer the war goes on the more money they make."[13]

Later that year he criticized the movie industry for indirectly causing suffering in Africa by promoting diamonds in movies like Breakfast at Tiffany's and Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend. He included Leonardo DiCaprio, whose film Blood Diamond dealt with the issue, as well as Russell Simmons who is selling a line of "nonconflict diamonds." Madsen said about them, "It's a p.r. campaign. They should be saying, 'Don't buy diamonds at all.'"[14]

In 2008 Madsen suggested that the criminal prosecution of New York State governor Eliot Spitzer was partly due to the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad.[15]

On July 7, 2009, he released a report revealing the existence of the Q Group within the National Security Agency. [16]

[edit] Bibliography

  • Jaded Tasks—Brass Plates, Black Ops & Big Oil: The Blood Politics of Bush & Co. (TrineDay, 2006) ISBN 0-9752906-9-X
  • America's Nightmare: The Presidency of George Bush II with John Stanton (Dandelion Books, 2003) ISBN 1893302296
  • Forbidden Truth: U.S.-Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy, Saudi Arabia and the Failed Search for bin Laden (foreword) Jean-Charles Brisard, Guillaume Dasquie (Nation Books, 2002) ISBN 1560254149
  • Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa 1993-1999 (African Studies) (Edwin Mellen Press, 1999) ISBN 0773480021
  • Handbook of Personal Data Protection (Grove's Dictionaries, 1992) ISBN 1561590460

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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