WASHINGTON, June 27 DC-CQ-Politics-Blog
New blog penned by Jeff Stein provides daily 'Intelligence to Thinking People'
WASHINGTON, June 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Congressional Quarterly Inc., the nation's premier provider of news, analysis and information on Congress, politics and public policy, today announced the launch of SpyTalk (http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/spytalk/), a new blog written by CQ's National Security Editor Jeff Stein. SpyTalk, which focuses on U.S. intelligence, defense and foreign policy issues, joins CQ Politics' growing roster of popular blogs from noteworthy bloggers, including Craig Crawford, David Corn and Taegan Goddard.
SpyTalk launched as a weekly column in 2005 and quickly built a loyal following, spurred by regular exclusives that drew national attention. Foremost among these were Stein's interviews with top U.S. counterterrorism officials and members of the House Intelligence Committee, including its chairman, Rep. Sylvestre Reyes (D-Tex.). The interviews revealed a shocking lack of elementary knowledge about the basic issues and religious tensions fueling the war in Iraq.
This week SpyTalk expands from a weekly column to a daily blog with an emphasis on reporting new information and advancing important new stories, rather than providing opinion alone without noteworthy new facts. The column will continue to be published every Friday and can be found on the CQ Politics home page. The blog will be updated throughout the week and is located in the CQ Politics Blog Network.
"I look forward to continuing a dialogue with past readers and friends, and opening a new one with readers yet unknown," said Stein. "I hope to have some fun here, but let's face it: with U.S. troops and secret warriors fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and carrying the battle to al Qaeda in back alleys around the world, this is serious business."
"Jeff is a talented investigative reporter with an uncanny ability to ferret out, and then shine the light on unseen issues that are often critical to our national security," said Bruce Drake, CQ's general manager of consumer publishing. "His findings ultimately provoke the necessary action to correct the problem or oversight, and remind us all to pay closer attention."
The content of the reporting originates from inside the U.S. intelligence community, its overseers on Capitol Hill, the experts in Washington's think tanks, and from Stein's fellow columnists and bloggers who specialize in national security issues. Stein gathers intelligence in many ways, including:
- Monitoring and reporting on "backchannel" intelligence chatter.
- Breaking newsworthy exclusives.
- Identifying and pulling out excerpts that are buried deep within the texts of current books that hold significance to the intelligence community.
- Uncovering and adding insight to noteworthy developments revealed at overlooked events, including think tank seminars, congressional hearings and events sponsored by the U.S. intelligence agencies.
- Scouring newspaper articles and blog posts around the Web for stories of special interest or that have received little attention.
Stein is an investigative reporter of long standing in
Washington, DC, specializing in U.S. intelligence, defense and foreign policy issues. In
July 2002, he became the founding editor of CQ Homeland Security, which was an instant success, winning honors as a finalist in the Online News Association's award for best new Web sites in the under 250,000 circulation range.
A decorated military intelligence case officer in
Vietnam, Stein has written for most major American newspapers and magazines through the years, from The Washington Post,
New York Times and Christian Science Monitor to Vanity Fair, Esquire, GQ, Rolling Stone, The Nation, The New Republic and Playboy. He is also the author of three well-received books.
TIME magazine called the first, A Murder in Wartime (
St. Martin's Press 1992), about a counterintelligence case gone awry, "the best military morality tale since The Caine Mutiny ... exhaustively researched and heavily documented." The Chicago Tribune called it "gripping ... a story as strong as the one
Bob Woodward and
Carl Bernstein told in All the President's Men."
In 2002 Stein wrote Saddam's Bombmaker
(with former Iraqi nuclear scientist Khidhir Hamza), which The Washington Post described as "not only stranger, but frequently bloodier than fiction." The book," said the reviewer, retired Gen.
William E. Odom, a former chief of the NSA, "should attract a wide range of readers, from foreign policy and security specialists to bored airplane passengers looking for a thriller."
In the 1980s Stein was deputy foreign editor for UPI. He still contributes occasionally to the
New York Times and Washington Post and appears frequently on CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox, the BBC and NPR as a commentator on national security issues.
About Congressional Quarterly Inc.
With more than 150 reporters, editors and researchers covering Capitol Hill and
Washington, CQ keeps its readers updated in print and online on a weekly, daily and real-time basis. With a readership that includes nearly every member of Congress, as well as Executive Branch officials, leaders in business and associations, top academic institutions and important media outlets, Congressional Quarterly provides opinion leaders comprehensive, credible, current and objective information on Congress, politics and public policy. CQ's award-winning product line includes: CQ Weekly, CQ Today,
CQ.com, CQ Homeland Security, CQ Budget Tracker, CQ HealthBeat, CQ MoneyLine, CQ Politics and Governing Magazine. CQ is owned by the Times Publishing Co. of
St. Petersburg, Fla., publisher of the
St. Petersburg Times and other publications. For more information, visit
www.cq.com or
www.cqpolitics.com.
SOURCE Congressional Quarterly
