Hiding in Uniform

On being gay in the military, three years before Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell:

A vast majority of those interviewed had been interrogated at least once, and what they described was nearly the same. They said those under suspicion of homosexuality suffer bright lights in their eyes and sometimes handcuffs on their wrists, warnings that their parents will be informed or their hometown newspapers called, threats that their stripes will be torn off and they will pushed through the gates of the base before a jeering crowd.

A Last Whiff of Fulton's Fish, Bringing a Tear

On the closing of New York’s Fulton Fish Market.

It smells of truck exhaust and fish guts. Of glistening skipjacks and smoldering cigarettes; fluke, salmon and Joe Tuna's cigar. Of Canada, Florida, and the squid-ink East River. Of funny fish-talk riffs that end with profanities spat onto the mucky pavement, there to mix with coffee spills, beer blessings, and the flowing melt of sea-scented ice. This fragrance of fish and man pinpoints one place in the New York vastness: a small stretch of South Street where peddlers have sung the song of the catch since at least 1831, while all around them, change. They were hawking fish here when an ale house called McSorley's opened up; when a presidential aspirant named Lincoln spoke at Cooper Union; when the building of a bridge to Brooklyn ruined their upriver view.

The Road to Gay Marriage in New York

Over the last several weeks, dozens of lawmakers, strategists and advocates described the closed-door meetings and tactical decisions that led to approval of same-sex marriage in New York, about two years after it was rejected by the Legislature. This account is based on those interviews, most of which were granted on the condition of anonymity to describe conversations that were intended to be confidential.

Did My Brother Invent E-Mail With Tom Van Vleck?

Noel Morris’s place in history? Noel Morris was my older brother, who had dropped out of MIT and spent most of his waking hours holed up in an apartment working at a computer terminal. This was in the ‘60s, long before there was anything close to a home computer. The name Tom Van Vleck was not unfamiliar. He was a friend of my brother’s who worked with him at MIT in those days. I called him.
  1. Part One

  2. Part Two

  3. Part Three

  4. Part Four

  5. Part Five

Blackwater Founder Forms Secret Army for Arab State

Since being revealed as a CIA operative and selling Blackwater, Erik Prince has set to work building U.A.E. a mercenary army, made up heavily of Colombian and South African troops, to be used “if the Emirates faced unrest or were challenged by pro-democracy demonstrations in its crowded labor camps or democracy protests like those sweeping the Arab world this year.”

Held by the Taliban

NYT journalist David Rohde’s alternately terrifying and absurd first person account of his kidnapping en route to an interview in Southern Afghanistan and the subsequent seven months he, along with his translator and driver, spent in captivity in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

  1. 7 Months, 10 Days in Captivity

  2. Inside the Islamic Emirate

  3. ‘You Have Atomic Bombs, but We Have Suicide Bombers.’

  4. A Drone Strike and Dwindling Hope

  5. A Rope and a Prayer

  6. Epilogue

2011 Pulitzer Prize: International Reporting: Above the Law

On Russia’s faltering justice system.

  1. Part 1: Intimidating the MessengersJournalists, Fighting Graft, Pay in Blood

  2. Part II: The Czar’s EyeRussia Turns a Deaf Ear as Killing Cries for Justice

  3. Part III: Resort of the EliteRussian Mayor Irks Security Agency, and Suffers

  4. Part IV: On the TakeVideos Rouse Russian Anger Toward Police

  5. Part V: Unlikely PartnersRussia Uses Microsoft to Suppress Dissent

  6. Part VI: Prosecutors’ Upper HandIn Russia, Jury Is Something to Work Around

  7. Part VII: Hampered ElectionsIn Siberia Race, Ruling Party Uses Clenched Fist

  8. Part VIII: A Search for AnswersAfter Russian Death, Inquiry Doors Open and Shut

  9. Part IX: An Official’s Long ReachIn Russia, an Advocate Is Killed, and an Accuser Tried