halftheanswer

Half the Answer #51: National Delirium: NatSec in Post-9/11 America, from Dubya to Donny

Caitlin M. Green, Trent R. Nelson, Spencer Ackerman

24 Nov 2025 — 1 min read

Trent and Caitlin speak with journalist Spencer Ackerman about the CIA, DHS, and other parts of the US government ostensibly protecting us from terrorism. How have they achieved this level of impunity? What are the precedents for the intolerable level of human rights and privacy violations we see today? What have we allowed to be done to the “other” in the past and present?

Half the Answer can be heard on Spotify, on Apple, on YouTube, on Amazon, and elsewhere via its RSS feed.

Resources

https://www.forever-wars.com/

Spencer’s upcoming book https://www.forever-wars.com/book-two-majid-khan-iran-troops/

Spencer’s Iron Man issue https://www.marvel.com/comics/issue/114934/iron_man_2024_1

Homan Square https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/24/chicago-police-detain-americans-black-site

USS Gerald Ford in Caribbean https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/uss-gerald-r-ford-caribeean-venezuela-rcna244193

Sexual abuse in ICE detention https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/hundreds-of-immigrants-have-reported-sexual-abuse-at-ice-facilities-most-cases-arent-investigated

CIA abusive practices https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/enhanced-interrogation-tactics-included-lunch-tray-gruesome-force-feeding-methods

Susan Sontag https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/09/24/tuesday-and-after-talk-of-the-town

Stellar Wind https://www.theguardian.com/nsa-inspector-general-report-document-data-collection

"surveillance capitalism" https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/03/harvard-professor-says-surveillance-capitalism-is-undermining-democracy/

Palantir and the CIA https://www.fastcompany.com/91446398/cia-police-palantir-alex-karp-predictive-peter-thiel-paypal-sequoia

"white innocence" https://www.dukeupress.edu/white-innocence

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