Murray Waas is a writer and an investigative reporter. Most recently, Waas has reported on national security affairs and law enforcement matters. He is currently a contributing editor of the National Journal and also contributes reporting for ABC News' investigative unit.

For the National Journal, he reported about the misue of prewar intelligence by then-President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney to make the case to go to war (see here, here, and here), the criminal investigation relating to the disclosure of the identity of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame(see here, here, and here) , and the firings of nine U.S. attorneys by the Bush administraion (see here, here, and here.)

Waas has been a winner of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School's Goldsmith Prize. He has also been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the category of national reporting. And he has been a fellow with the Alicia Patterson Foundation.

New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen wrote about his work in April, 2006:

It should be obvious from the work who the Woodward of Now is.... The guy's name is Murray Waas; he's an independent journalist... [who} has been in the game since he was 18...

By Woodward Now I mean the reporter who is actually doing what Woodward has a reputation for doing: finding, tracking, breaking into reportable parts—and then publishing—the biggest story in town. He’s also putting those parts together for us.


Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz wrote about Waas the following month:

After a quarter-century in the journalistic shadows, Murray Waas is getting his day in the sun.

The freelance investigative reporter has racked up a series of scoops. He's been cited by New York Times columnists Frank Rich and Paul Krugman. And New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen calls him the new Bob Woodward.

But Waas -- whose blog is called Whatever, Already -- doesn't toot his own horn much and only reluctantly granted an interview. "My theory is, avoid the limelight, do what's important and leave your mark. . . . If my journalism has had impact, it has been because I have spent more time in county courthouses than greenrooms," he says.

More information about Waas can be found in this profile of him in U.S. News & World Report, and this commentary about his work in Nieman Reports.

Waas' journalism career began as teenage reporter for columnist Jack Anderson. In his twenties, he was an investigative correspondent for the Village Voice, where he wrote the cover story for the weekly newspaper more than a dozen times.

Murray Waas has also during his career written for the New Yorker, the Atlantic, (see here and here.) the Los Angeles Times (see here and here), the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, ABC News, (see here, here, here, and here.)Salon.com, (see here, here, here, and here.) the American Prospect (see here, here, and here.), the Nation, the New Republic, Harper's, the Hill, the Arkansas Times,Talking Points Memo(see here and here.), and National Journal.

His work has been reviewed by the Online Journalism Review, the American Journalism Review, and the Columbia Journalism Review.

Most recenly, GQ Magazine named Waas as one of four of "The Best Reporters You Don't Know About," saying:

Years of groundbreaking watchdog journalism have resulted in this nickname: the new Bob Woodward. His pieces on the Plame leaks and U.S. attorney firings inadvertently provided candidates with more ammunition against the current administration than any campaign strategist could hope for."


Waas currently blogs on his personal website and resides in Washington D.C.
His former blog can be found here.

Collections of his articles from previous years can be found here,here, here, here,here, here,here, and at sourcewatch.org

In the spring of 2007, Waas was the co-editor with Jeff Lomonaco, of the United States v. I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby.

Lengthier biographies of Murray Waas can be found hereand here.

Murray Waas can be contacted through his Facebook account or at murraywaasATgmail.com. He can also be followed on twitter.

Blog Entries by Murray Waas

Insurance Company Must Pay $10 Million For Revoking Policy Of Teen With HIV

5327 Comments | Posted September 17, 2009 | 09:56 AM (EST)


The South Carolina Supreme Court has ordered an insurance company to pay $10 million for wrongly revoking the insurance policy of a 17-year-old college student after he tested positive for HIV. The court called the 2002 decision by the insurance company "reprehensible."

That appears to be the most an...

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Former U.S. Attorney Condemns Bush White House Interference With Renzi Probe

186 Comments | Posted August 12, 2009 | 03:43 PM (EST)


With the 2006 mid-term congressional elections rapidly approaching, a top aide to Karl Rove warned Harriet Miers that Republican Rep. Rick Renzi's re-election was in serious jeopardy because of rumors that Renzi was the target of a federal criminal investigation.

Later the same day, Miers, then the White House counsel,...

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Former U.S. Attorney condemns Bush White House Interference with Corruption Probe

Posted August 12, 2009 | 03:41 PM (EST)


With the 2006 mid-term congressional elections rapidly approaching, a top aide to Karl Rove warned Harriett Miers that a Republican congressman's re-election was in serious jeopardy because of rumors that the congressman was the target of a federal criminal investigation.

Later the same day, the-then White House counsel pressed the...

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Torture Memo Author Advocated Presidential Pardons, Jury Nullification

905 Comments | Posted May 6, 2009 | 01:10 PM (EST)


A Bush administration attorney who approved harsh interrogation techniques of terror suspects advocated in 2006 that President Bush set aside recommendations by his own Justice Department to bring prosecutions for such practices, that the President should consider pardoning anyone convicted of such offenses, and even that jurors hearing criminal cases...

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Rumsfeld on Detainees: "I Stand for 8-10 Hours a Day. Why is Standing Limited to 4 Hours?"

Posted April 22, 2009 | 12:10 AM (EST)


It was a historic moment. On Dec. 2, 2002, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld signed a memorandum authorizing interrogation techniques against detainees at Guantanamo that the current President of the United States, Barack Obama, has described as "torture."

In a handwritten notation he scrawled at the bottom of the memo,...

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Official Who Lobbied For Saddam Donated Heavily To GOP Committees

Posted October 31, 2008 | 01:54 PM (EST)


John Venners, a Washington D.C. based public relations man who aided an influence effort to ease international economic sanctions against the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, made $40,000 in campaign contributions since 2004 to the Republican House and Senate Campaign Committees, according to public records.

Venners was a partner...

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Former Bush Counselor Dan Bartlett Unloads on Cheney: "Doesn't Do Touchy-Feely" or "Hug Babies"

Posted September 15, 2008 | 07:05 AM (EST)


Washington Post reporter Barton Gelman's book on Dick Cheney is embargoed until Tuesday, although two excerpts have run in the Post on Sunday and Monday. But the publisher is keeping the rest of the book under wraps for a while.

Here is a gem from a still embargoed portion...

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New Justice Department Push To Keep Bush Aides From Testifying

Posted August 19, 2008 | 11:11 AM (EST)


The Justice Department filed papers in court late Monday asking a federal judge to temporarily set aside his own order directing White House officials to testify before Congress about the firings of nine U.S. attorneys.

The filing was in response to a July 31 opinion by U.S. District Court Judge...

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U.S. Attorney Scandal Probe Enters White House Circle

Posted August 7, 2008 | 02:16 PM (EST)


The Justice Department investigation into the firings of nine U.S. attorneys has been extended to encompass allegations that senior White House officials played a role in providing false and misleading information to Congress, according to numerous sources involved in the inquiry.

The widened scope raises the possibility that investigators will...

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Justice Department Subpoenas Its Former Lawyers In Civil Rights Probe

Posted August 6, 2008 | 12:27 PM (EST)


A federal grand jury has subpoenaed several former senior Justice Department attorneys for an investigation into the politicization of the Department's own Civil Rights Division, according to sources close to the investigation.

The extraordinary step by the Justice Department of subpoenaing attorneys once from within its own...

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In Memory of Spc. Nicholas Peters and the Other Boys of Kelly Park

Posted July 4, 2008 | 12:25 AM (EST)


Somerville, Mass, June 28, 2008 --

The rules are simple enough for the kids playing in the stickball tournament this morning in Kelly Park: There are to be three people to a team. There are four innings per game. Two outs per inning. You walk on three balls....

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The Price of Favoritism and Cronyism: Lost Lives and Teenage Suicides

Posted June 18, 2008 | 11:16 PM (EST)


In the broader scheme of things, the Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is a fairly obscure agency. By law its core missions are to decrease the disproportional numbers of minority children incarcerated, prevent teenage delinquency, and act to remove children from adult jails, where they...

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Justice Department Reopens Probe Into Warrantless Domestic Spying

Posted November 13, 2007 | 09:42 PM (EST)


The Bush administration has reversed course and will now allow a Justice Department inquiry to move forward regarding whether former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other government attorneys acted within the law in authorizing and overseeing the administration's domestic warrantless wiretapping program, the Department informed Congress today.

President Bush had...

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The Ninth Man Out: A Fired U.S. Attorney Tells His Story

Posted June 4, 2007 | 11:03 AM (EST)


The first sign that crimes may have been committed was when the victims no longer felt nauseous and their hair stopped falling out. Also, it wasn't cold going deep into the vein the way it was before. They needed that hurt. And when it was too long in coming, they...

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Favoritism Shown Towards Wolfowitz's Girlfriend

Posted April 4, 2007 | 11:04 PM (EST)


Employees of the World Bank have been "expressing concern, dismay, and outrage" regarding favoritism shown by the bank and the Bush administration towards the one-time girlfriend of World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, according to an internal memo circulated within the bank by the World Bank Group Association, which represents...

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Exclusive: The Paradox That Is Scooter Libby

Posted January 17, 2007 | 05:39 PM (EST)


"Paradox seems to define I. Lewis Libby Jr." So says a New York Times profile of him last night as his federal trial on five counts of making false statements, perjury, and obstruction of justice was about to get underway.

Said the Times: "He is the White House...

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What Lincoln Might Have Said About Ford

Posted December 27, 2006 | 08:51 PM (EST)


The very first thing that Gerald Ford did upon ascending to the presidency was diminish expectations: "I am a Ford, not a Lincoln."

In making that simple comment, Ford was attempting to reassure a troubled and divided nation--low on trust--that he was one of us; he intuitively understood that...

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The Wag Time Pet Spa Conspiracy... And a Cancer Survivor's Right to Respect

Posted December 21, 2006 | 08:59 PM (EST)


As an investigative reporter and independent journalist, I have pursued a career course of independence so as to not be beholden to anyone. A grandiose notion, perhaps, and I will perhaps leave it to others to judge my work against the ideal. But the independence that emboldens my journalism...

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A Reporter's Bias

Posted June 26, 2006 | 02:12 AM (EST)


On the evening of January 14, 1991, shortly after I had watched the U.S. Senate authorize war against Saddam Hussein for the first time, the Vietnam War Memorial, at other end of the mall, is nearly abandoned. It is a chilly day and there is a soft rain. But then...

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Did the White House "Authorize" Leaks to Woodward?

Posted February 24, 2006 | 12:07 AM (EST)


Did the Bush administration "authorize" the leak of classified information to Bob Woodward? And did those leaks damage national security?

The vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) made exactly that charge tonight in a letter to John Negroponte, the Director of National Intelligence. What prompted Rockefeller to...

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