Dana Priest

Dana L. Priest is National Security Correspondent for The Washington Post. Priest covers the intelligence community and "spent the previous eight years writing about the U.S. military," according to a PBS Washington Week profile.

Priest has "worked at the Post for 15 years, where she was the Post's Pentagon correspondent for six years and then wrote exclusively about the military as an investigative reporter. She was one of the first reporters on the ground for the invasion of Panama (1989), reported from Iraq in late 1990 just before the war began, and covered the 1999 Kosovo war from air bases in Europe.

"She has written extensively for The Post about the nation's four regional commanders-in-chief, Army Special Forces training programs overseas, the 1999 Kosovo air war and the Army's peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and Kosovo.

"In 2001, Priest was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Foundation Research and Writing grant. The same year, she won a the Gerald R. Ford Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the National Defense for her series 'The Proconsuls: A Four-Star Foreign Policy?' and the State Department's Excellence in Journalism Award for the same series. She was the guest speaker and host for a four-part speaking series on the U.S. Military and Foreign Policy for the Secretary's Open Forum. She also was a guest scholar in the residence" at the United States Institute of Peace

In May 2004, Priest won the 2004 New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism for her book "The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America's Military." 

"Priest holds a B.A. in political science from the University of California at Santa Cruz." 

Dana Priest is married to William Goodfellow, Executive Director of the Center for International Policy (CIP).

CIA secret prisons
Priest broke the story of the CIA's secret prison operations in Europe on November 2, 2005, for which she won a 2006 Pulitzer Prize.

Published Works

 * "The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America's Military", W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (February 24, 2003), (Hardcover) ISBN 0393010244; W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (March 2004) (Paperback) ISBN 0393325504.

Contact Information
Email link at the Washington Post.

Related SourceWatch Resources

 * Bush administration and the press
 * extraordinary rendition
 * global detention system
 * Treasongate: Beyond Karl Rove

Profiles

 * Dana Priest in the Wikipedia.

Interviews

 * Transcript: CNN Saturday: Interview With Dana Priest, CNN, March 1, 2003.
 * Transcript: CNN Live on Location: Interview With Washington Post's Dana Priest, CNN, April 8, 2003.
 * Transcript: "History's Second Draft," NPR's On the Media, June 20, 2003. re Jessica Lynch
 * Michelle Norris, "Private Army: Security Firms in Iraq," NPR's All Things Considered, April 8, 2004. Interview with Dana Priest.
 * "Interview: Dana Priest on secret gulags, CIA and war," Pulse of the Twin Cities, December 1, 2005.

Speeches

 * "The Changing Roles of the Regional Commanders In Chief," Dana Priest, Military Affairs Correspondent, The Washington Post; and Guest Scholar, U.S. Institute for Peace, Washington, DC, March 23, 2001. Posted on U.S. Department of State website.
 * "Progress against terror: a reporter's view," Minnesota Public Radio, December 5, 2005.

2005

 * Nat Hentoff, "Cheney's 'Dark Arts'. Vice president exposed as being above the law, just like the commander in chief," Village Voice, November 11, 2005.
 * Christopher Fotos, "Actions, Consequences, and Washington Post's Dana Priest," NewsBusters, November 15, 2005.
 * "Wash. Post staff writer Dana Priest used falsehood to defend Powell U.N. speech leading up to Iraq war," Media Matters for America, December 14, 2005.

2006

 * Steven C. Clemons, "Dana Priest Online at Washington Post Forum," The Washington Note, January 19, 2006.
 * Robert Windrem and Andrea Mitchell, "NBC: CIA officer fired after admitting leak. Officer allegedly failed polygraph, admitted giving reporter information," MSNBC, April 21, 2006.
 * Christopher Fotos, "For Dana Priest, Only Motives Are Classified," NewsBusters, April 22, 2006.
 * Steven C. Clemons, "Bush Should Polygraph Staff on Plame Outing: Dana Priest's Sources were Multiple and Were Most Likely in Europe," The Washington Note, April 25, 2006.
 * Cliff Kincaid, "Dana Priest Needs A Priest," Accuracy in Media, April 25, 2006.
 * "AIM Falsely Attacks Post Reporter," ConWebWatch, April 26, 2006.
 * Nat Hentoff, "Nat Hentoff on the Government Crackdown on Information From Whistleblowers to Journalists," Democracy Now!, April 26, 2006.
 * Jennifer Verner, "Post Reporter Dana Priest's Troubling Connections," Accuracy in Media, May 9, 2006.
 * Robert G. Kaiser, "Public Secrets," Washington Post, June 11, 2006.
 * Brent Baker, "MSM Outlets Ignore or Cite Political Motives for the Criticism of the NY Times," NewsBusters, June 27, 2006.
 * "Top Reporters Respond to Press Critics," Editor & Publisher, July 2, 2006.
 * "Dana Priest Smacks Down Bill Bennett," Truthdig, July 2, 2006: "Washington Post reporter Dana Priest threw Bill Bennett’s gambling history back in his face when the conservative pundit attempted to lecture Priest on ethics."
 * John Amato, "Dana Priest smacks Bill Bennett around," Crooks and Liars, July 2, 2006.
 * Tim Graham, "WashPost Reporter Mocks Bill Bennett's Gambling Problems on 'Meet the Press'," NewsBusters, July 2, 2006.
 * Comment: "Nattering Nabobs," The New Yorker, posted July 3, 2006; July 10, 2006 (issue).
 * Ehsan Ahrari, "US media ensnared in liberty vs security debate," Asia Times, July 4, 2006.