William M. Arkin (born May 15, 1956^[2]) is an American political commentator, activist, journalist, blogger, and former United States Army soldier.

Biography[link]

Arkin served in U.S. Army intelligence from 1974 to 1978. He has served as an independent consultant and held positions at the Institute for Policy Studies, Center for Defense Information, Greenpeace, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Human Rights Watch. He has worked as a NBC News military analyst and written columns for the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post. From 2007-2008, he was Policy Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government in the Carr Centre for Human Rights Policy, Harvard University.

A later work is Code Names: Deciphering U.S. Military Plans, Programs and Operations in the 9/11 World.

On October 15, 2003, William Arkin released video and audiotapes documenting General William Boykin's framing of the "War on Terrorism" in religious terms in speeches at churches. Arkin followed up with a Los Angeles Times op-ed piece that accused the general of being "an intolerant extremist" and a man "who believes in Christian 'jihad'." Arkin further wrote, "Boykin has made it clear that he takes his orders not from his Army superiors but from God — which is a worrisome line of command."^{[citation needed]} Arkin refused to release the full transcripts of the talks that Boykin gave, despite numerous requests from various media sources.^[3]

In February 2007, Arkin responded to an NBC Nightly News report on U.S. soldiers in Iraq who said they were frustrated by antiwar sentiment at home, and especially by people who say they support the troops, but not the war. In his Washington Post blog, Arkin wrote, "We pay the soldiers a decent wage, take care of their families, provide them with housing and medical care and vast social support systems and ship obscene amenities into the war zone for them, we support them in every possible way, and their attitude is that we should in addition roll over and play dead, defer to the military and the generals and let them fight their war, and give up our rights and responsibilities to speak up because they are above society?" He went on, "But it is the United States, and the recent NBC report is just an ugly reminder of the price we pay for a mercenary - oops sorry, volunteer - force that thinks it is doing the dirty work." ^[4]

Top Secret America[link]

On July 19, 2010, The Washington Post began to publish a multi-part series entitled "Top Secret America," a collaborative effort between Arkin and Dana Priest. The articles, which took almost two years to complete, report that the post-9/11 U.S. intelligence system has grown so large that no one can know its size or estimate its effectiveness.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Early Warning: Arkin's blog at the Washington Post
• Interview on Liberadio

Biographical[link]

• Washington Post profile

Douglas Miles
Born	(1963-12-27)December 27, 1963 Phoenix, Arizona
Nationality	San Carlos Apache-Akimel O'odham
Field	Street art, skateboard art, stencil art, painting, printmaking
Movement	Apache art, Native pop
Influenced by	Anime, punk
Influenced	Douglas Miles, Jr.

Douglas Miles is a San Carlos Apache-Akimel O'odham painter and printmaker from Arizona, who founded Apache Skateboards and Apache Skate Team.

Background[link]

Douglas Miles grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, then moved back to the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona.^[1] He drew images from cartoons, sci-fi, and comic books and attended the Al Collins Graphic Design School in Phoenix. From 1978 to 1980, Miles attended the Bostrom Alternative High School, when he created street art.^[1]

Artwork and Apache Skateboards[link]

Watching his son practice skateboarding, Miles drew corollaries between skateboarding and the Apache warrior tradition, as both involved increase concentration, stamina, and the ability to withstand pain. After finding no skate decks available relevant to Apache culture, Miles painted a skateboard deck himself. He gave it to his son, and this spawned Apache Skateboards.^[2]

Founded in 2002, Apache Skateboards is one of the earlier Native American-owned skateboard companies, following Wounded Knee Skateboards and Propaganda, founded in 1997 by Jim Murphy (Lenni Lenape) and Four Wheel Warpony, founded in 2000 by Dustinn Craig (White Mountain Apache).^[3] Native artists working on the Apache Skateboard project with Miles include Razelle Bennally; Tracy Polk Jr.; Douglas Miles, Jr.; Keith Secola; Reuben Ringlero; Irwin Lewis; Tony Steele; and Tashadawn Hastings. As Apache Skate Team, the group gives skating demonstrations, organizes skateboard contests and concerts, and curates art shows around the country, and especially on Indian reservations in the American Southwest.^[4]

"Painting on the skateboards ... opens up a whole new medium for me," Miles told Shade magazine. "My skateboards are both traditional and contemporary by design. Are they fine art or pop art? Why can't they be both?”^[1] He emphasizes Native American youth, Apache culture, and reservation lifestyles in his work. "You need to show 'Indian people' in the 21st century and not so much as museum pieces," Miles says.^[1]

Miles and Apache Skateboards have succeeded in finding new venues for art and skateboarding, blending the arenas of fine art, pop culture, and sport. They have successfully challenged outmoded categorization of Native American art based on anthropological perspectives. Together they have helped form the artist collective, Native Agents, and added visual artists Micah Wesley (Muscogee Creek-Kiowa), Rose Simpson (Santa Clara Pueblo-descent), and Yatika Fields (Osage-Muscogee Creek-Cherokee) to the Apache Skateboard group. Native Agents curate "Pop Life" events, which combine visual art, music, and skateboarding, and are informed by the DIY ethic of punk culture.

Apache Skateboards work continually in film, photography, fine art, skateboarding, murals, multimedia projects, community projects, skate park planning, skateboard events, apparel design, television, film, youth conferences and speaking engagements. They produced a documentary, "Walk Like a Warrior: The Apache Skateboards Story," which was co-directed by Douglas Miles and Franck Boistel.^[5]

In 2008, Apache Skateboards collaborated with iPath Footwear to create the I-PACHE collection of sneakers, fitted hats, and t-shirts, all of which feature Douglas Miles' original designs.^[6]

Notable exhibits[link]

• 2011 Indian Ink II. Pravus Gallery. Phoenix, Arizona.
• 2010 Indian Ink I. Legends Santa Fe. Santa Fe, New Mexico.
• 2008 Apache: Douglas Miles. Officially Closed: Dead Letter Department. Los Angeles, California.
• 2005 Pop Life. Wilson College, Princeton University.^[7]
• 2005 Reservation Radical/Apache Skateboards: The Art of Douglas Miles. Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History. Santa Cruz, California.
• 2004–2007 Native Views: Influences of Modern Culture. Art Train USA. Traveling exhibit.^[1]
• 2004 Native Nollies: Skateboard Deck Art. Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico.^[1]
• 2003 Santa Fe Indian Market. SWAIA. First Place, Mixed Media.^[8]
• 2003 Heard Museum Indian Art Market. Heard Museum. Phoenix, Arizona. Won Best of Painting.^[8]

Apache Skateboards has worked with the Gila River Tribe (twice), Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, Navajo Nation (twice), White Mountain Apache Tribe, San Carlos Apache Tribe, Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians (twice), Tohono O'Odham Nation, Jicarilla Apache Nation, University of New Mexico-Gallup, Brown University, Harvard University, Peabody Essex Museum, and soon, the Mashantucket Pequot Museum.

Collections[link]

Several pieces of his work are in the collection of the National Museum of the American Indian.^[6] His paintings are in private collections in France, Germany, New York, and Los Angeles.^[8] Miles' and Apache Skateboard's art is also in the permanent collections of the Montclair Art Museum, Eiteljorg Museum, IAIA Museum, and Warner Brothers Studios.

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

• SWAIA video interview with Douglas Miles
• Rez Style interview with Douglas Miles, via News from Indian Country
• Douglas Miles, Vision Project, by Barry Ace
• Apache Skateboards Presents "Tweak Bird (The Bones)", video

Dana Priest
Dana Priest speaking at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy about investigative reporting, October 20, 2009
Born	(1957-05-23) May 23, 1957 (age 55) Canoga Park, California
Education	B.A., University of California Santa Cruz
Occupation	Reporter
Notable credit(s)	Washington Post
Website
Washington Post archive

Dana Louise Priest (born May 23, 1957) is an American author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. Priest has worked almost 20 years for The Washington Post. Before becoming a full-time investigative reporter, Priest specialized in national security reporting for The Post, and wrote 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.^[1]

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.^[2] Priest also revealed the existence of the Counterterrorist Intelligence Centers (CTIC) in a November 17, 2005, front page article, which are counter-terrorist operations centers run jointly by the CIA and foreign intelligence services.^[3] The Alliance Base in Paris, involving the DGSE and other foreign intelligence agencies, is one of the most important CTIC.

"Black sites"[link]

Titled "CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons," the article, published by The Washington Post above the fold on November 2, 2005, asserts the existence of clandestine, extraterritorial, CIA interrogation sites.^[4] This article triggered a worldwide debate on these "black sites." The article updated revelations first revealed a year earlier in an article co-written with investigative reporter Joe Stephens.^[5] 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.^[6] However, Dick Marty's report, published in June 2006, showed that 14 European countries had participated in the CIA's extraordinary renditions, using various airports and military bases (i.e. Ramstein Air Base in Germany, Lajes Field in the Azores, etc.).^[7] US President George W. Bush later acknowledged the existence of secret prisons operated by the CIA during a speech on September 6, 2006.^[8]

Speaking about the methods she used to develop the story, Priest said that President Bush, former vice president Cheney and other National Security Council members personally tried to persuade the Post not to publish the story in a White House meeting, but that executive edtitor Leonard Downie made the decision to proceed.^[9] 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.^[10] 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.^[11]

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."^[12]

Walter Reed conditions[link]

On February 18, 2007 Priest and Anne Hull 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.^[13]

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.

Top Secret America[link]

On July 19, 2010, The Washington Post published Top Secret America on their website, a collaborative effort between Priest and William Arkin. The report, which took almost two years to complete, details the national security buildup in the United States following the September 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 [14]} That same month, the book "Top Secret America" was published by Little, Brown and Company.^{[15][16][17][18][19]}

Others[link]

Priest is the author of a book entitled: The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace With America's Military.^[20] She was a guest scholar at the U.S. Institute of Peace. She was a recipient of the MacArthur grant, 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.^[21]

When she was a national security reporter, Priest regularly engaged in detailed on-line chats with readers regarding those subjects on the Post website.^[22] 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.^[23]

An alumna of UC Santa Cruz,^[24] and former editor of City on a Hill Press,^[25] she lives in Washington, D.C., has two children and is married to William Goodfellow the executive director of the Center for International Policy.

Bibliography[link]

• The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America's Military. W. W. Norton & Company. 2003. ISBN 978-0-393-01024-4. 
• Top Secret America (with William Arkin). Little, Brown and Company. 2011. ISBN 978-0-316-18221-8. 

References[link]

External links[link]

• Washington Post biography
• Biography from Washington Week in Review, PBS
• Dana Priest at the Internet Movie Database
• Dana Priest speaks at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy about investigative reporting, October 20, 2009 - video
• Dana Priest interviewed by Charles Lewis, executive editor of Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University of Washington, D.C. - video
• Dana Priest speaks about "Top Secret America" at Authors at Google event, September 15, 2011 - video
• Booknotes interview with Priest on The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America's Military, March 9, 2003.