Ron Suskind

Ron Suskind (b. 1959 [http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/bullpen/ron_suskind/backgrounder/] in Kingston, New York) is an American investigative journalist and author. A former "Wall Street Journal" reporter (1993-2000), he won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing in 1995.

Career

Suskind was born in Kingston, New York, to a Jewish family. [http://www.ronsuskind.com/articles/000033.html] He attended the University of Virginia, lived on The Lawn during the 1980-1981 school year, and was the university's 2005 valediction speaker. He received a master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1983.

The stories that won him the Pulitzer involved inner-city honors students in Washington, D.C.; those stories were the starting point for his book, "" (1998). The novelistic nonfiction work follows the three-year path of a religious African-American student from a blighted Washington, D.C. high school to Brown University. It became a favorite in book clubs and was critically acclaimed as reframing national debates on race and education.

Suskind left the "Wall Street Journal" in 2000 as the paper's senior national affairs reporter.

Articles

In 2002 he wrote two stories in "Esquire" that marked some of the first stories to show the inner workings of the Bush White House. The first one was about presidential adviser Karen Hughes (June 2002), White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card said that the pragmatic Hughes was "the beauty to Karl's beast", referring to the more ideological Karl Rove, and that her imminent resignation would mean the administration may veer to the right. Suskind's second "Esquire" story (December 2002) about Rove carried the comments and a long memo from Bush's former head of the White House Office of Faith-based and Community initiatives John DiIulio, the first top official to leave the White House and speak candidly about his experiences. DiIulio criticized the Bush administration for having "no policy apparatus" and fixating on political calculation, and was quoted as saying "it's the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis," although he later recanted that characterization.

On October 17, 2004, Suskind's cover story in the "New York Times Magazine", titled "Without a Doubt: Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W. Bush", revealed that the president was planning to partially privatize Social Security as his first initiative if re-elected—a disclosure that prompted controversy in the final two weeks of the campaign. The article popularized the term "reality-based community", based on a conversation with a Bush aide who criticized Suskind and other people who "believe solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality".

Books

"A Hope in the Unseen"

Mr. Suskind is the author of "A Hope in the Unseen, An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League" (Doubleday/Broadway, 1998), which follows the two year journey of a prickly, religious honor student as he escapes from a blighted, Washington, D.C. terrain to find a home at Brown University. The book, which was launched by a series in the Wall Street Journal that won him the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing, has been a favorite on U.S. campuses and in book clubs.

"The Price of Loyalty"

On January 13, 2004, his book on former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill and the Bush administration, "The Price of Loyalty", was published, revealing details about the early years of the Bush administration. Among the many claims in the book, which drew from numerous sources and more than 19,000 internal government documents, was that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and the U.S. occupation of Iraq was planned from Bush's first U.S. National Security Council meeting in January 2001. [Suskind, Ron. " [http://thepriceofloyalty.ronsuskind.com/ The Price of Loyalty] " Simon & Schuster. 2004] Administration officials have contended that O'Neill confused contingency plans with actual plans for invasion. [ [http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/01/11/oneill.bush/ Cabinet members defend Bush from O'Neill] CNN. January 12, 2004]

"The One Percent Doctrine"

Suskind's investigative report, published in his book "The One Percent Doctrine," claimed that al-Qaeda leaders were plotting to attack the New York City Subway. Excerpts of the book were published in the June 18, 2006 issue of "Time." The book, based on interviews with more than a hundred sources, concluded that U.S. foreign policy since 9/11 has been driven by Vice President Dick Cheney and his doctrine that "if there's a one percent chance" of weapons of mass destruction being given to terrorists "we need to treat it as a certainty." The doctrine, Suskind asserts, freed the administration from the dictates of evidence and allowed suspicion to be a guide for action.

One of Suskind's many assertions, that a suspect in the London subway bombings was on a US "no fly" list and attempted to enter the US, has been challenged by the US government. The FBI described Suskind's reporting on this single matter as "inaccurate", and issued a statement saying "the author has intertwined facts... causing some confusion." [Press release. [http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel06/london_bomber062206.htm FBI Responds to Report on London Bomber] Federal Bureau of Investigation. June 22, 2006.]

"The Way of the World"

"" was published on August 5, 2008. The book weaves together an array of stories that follow a diverse group of individuals engaged in the modern challenges of national security and cultural connection. Among these stories are the tales of an intelligence official working to combat nuclear terrorism, a detainee lawyer fighting for rights at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, a young Pakistani man interrogated under the White House, an Afghan teenager who spends a year in American high school, and former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto as she returns to Pakistan to challenge President Pervez Musharraf. [ Jenkins, Simon. [http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/non-fiction/article4588715.ece "Sunday Times" book review] "Sunday Times" (London). August 24, 2008.]

Mark Danner, reviewing the book for "The New York Times", writes that "These narratives and others perform, in Mr. Suskind’s hands, an intricate arabesque and manage, to a rather remarkable degree, to show us, in this age of terror, 'the true way of the world.'" [Danner, Mark. [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/27/books/27danner.html?em Weapons of Mass Destruction and Other Imaginative Acts] "The New York Times". August 27, 2008.] It is around the stories of these characters that the book frames the debate about how America lost much of its moral authority in recent years and how it is struggling, often through the actions and initiative of individuals, to restore it. [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2008/08/08/DI2008080802640.html Ron Suskind interview on "The Washington Post"s Book World Live] . August 12, 2008.]

"The Way of the World" sparked controversy upon publication for a series of disclosures centered on Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, the head of Iraqi intelligence under Saddam Hussein. The book reveals that British and American intelligence entered into a dialogue with Habbush before the invasion of Iraq, in which he revealed that Saddam possessed no weapons of mass destruction and did not take an American invasion seriously. The book also contends that the CIA resettled Habbush, paid him $5 million, and forged a document in his name alleging that 9/11 hijacker Mohammad Atta trained in Iraq. [ [http://www.democracynow.org/2008/8/14/after_ron_suskind_reveals_bush_admin Ron Suskind interview on "Democracy Now!"] August 14, 2008.]

The White House, former CIA director George Tenet, and former CIA officer Robert Richer, an important figure in the book, were quick to deny involvement in fabricating the Habbush letter, denials that were echoed in an official CIA statement, saying of Suskind's claim that the White House ordered the agency to forge a letter from Habbush: "It did not happen." [Warrick, Joby. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/22/AR2008082202681.html CIA More Fully Denies Deception About Iraq] "The Washington Post". August 23, 2008.]

Suskind responded to the Rob Richer's denial, circulated by the White House, by posting on his website a partial transcript of a taped conversation with Richer in which the two discuss the Habbush forgery. [ [http://www.ronsuskind.com/thewayoftheworld/transcripts/ Rob Richer and Ron Suskind discuss Habbush letter] In response to the official CIA statement, Suskind told "The Washington Post" that the disclosures and details in his book are backed up by hours of interviews and that there is "not a shred of doubt about any of it." [Warrick, Joby. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/22/AR2008082202681.html CIA More Fully Denies Deception About Iraq] . "The Washington Post". August 23, 2008.] On August 11, House Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers announced that his committee would look into the matter of the Habbush letter and a variety of other disclosures in the book. [ [http://judiciary.house.gov/news/080811.html Conyers announces review of allegations in Ron Suskind's "The Way of the World"] ]

"The Way of the World" debuted at #3 on the New York Times bestseller list, [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/books/bestseller/besthardnonfiction.html?_r=1&oref=slogin "New York Times" nonfiction bestsellers, August 24, 2008] ] but some remarked that it's revelations did not produce the outrage or scandal that would seem to attend a White House-run disinformation campaign aimed at U.S. public opinion. [Crook, Clive. [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/7c6225f8-673a-11dd-808f-0000779fd18c,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2F7c6225f8-673a-11dd-808f-0000779fd18c.html%3Fnclick_check%3D1&_i_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FThe_Way_of_the_World_%28book%29&nclick_check=1 Whispers of Watergate for Bush] "Financial Times". August 11, 2008.] The layers of the controversy have nonetheless deepened with the revelation that Ayad Allawi, the initial source of the Habbush letter, was at CIA headquarters the week before the letter emerged, [Conason, Joe. [http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2008/08/08/suskind/ New evidence suggests Ron Suskind is right] . Salon. August 8, 2008] , and a piece in "The American Conservative" by Philip Giraldi that claims an "extremely reliable and well placed source in the intelligence community" confirmed that the Vice President's Office was behind the Habbush letter, but that "Doug Feith’s Office of Special Plans", not the CIA, carried out the forgery. [Giraldi, Philip. [http://www.amconmag.com/blog/2008/08/07/suskind-revisited/ Suskind Revisited] . "The American Conservative". August 7, 2008.]

Many of the disclosures in the "The Way of the World" received less attention than the Habbush controversy, but the inside story the book tells about Pervez Musharraf's actions toward Benazir Bhutto during the last months of the her life was picked up in the Pakistani press and dovetailed with a growing movement calling for the impeachment of the (now former) Pakistani president. [Loudon, Bruce. [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24159569-2703,00.html Musharraf defies calls to quit] "The Australian". August 11, 2008.] Speaking to another aspect of the book, Mark Danner, in his review for the "The New York Times", writes that "the revelation of an effort to steal and sell fissile material in Georgia’s now celebrated 'breakaway region' of South Ossetia . . . is only the most terrifying of a dozen or more newsworthy disclosures in this book." [Danner, Mark. [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/27/books/27danner.html?em Weapons of Mass Destruction and Other Imaginative Acts] . "New York Times". August 27, 2008.] Suskind cites the battle against nuclear terrorism as the most pressing crisis the United States needs to restore its moral authority in order to combat and details an ambitious attempt to infiltrate the worldwide nuclear black market, called the "Armageddon Test." [Rosenberg, Alyssa. [http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/08/07/speed-reading-suskind-war-games.aspx Speed Reading Suskind: War Games] . "The New Republic". August 7, 2008.]

References

External links

* [http://www.ronsuskind.com/ Official website]
*
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/17BUSH.html "Without a Doubt: Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W. Bush",] cover story in "The New York Times Magazine," October 17, 2004
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2008/08/08/DI2008080802640.html Online discussion with Ron Suskind] at Washingtonpost.com
* [http://www.democracynow.org/2008/8/13/the_way_of_the_world_ron In-depth discussion] of "The Way of the World," with Amy Goodman on "Democracy Now!," August 13, 2008 (video, audio, and print transcript)
*Suskind Interview on Hannity & Colmes, air date August 15, 2008 [http://www.foxnews.com/video/index.html?playerId=videolandingpage&streamingFormat=FLASH&referralObject=3032103&referralPlaylistId=playlist]