Author Archive
Conor Friedersdorf is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he focuses on politics and national affairs. He lives in Venice, California, and is the founding editor of The Best of Journalism, a newsletter devoted to exceptional nonfiction.
Management
The Regulatory State Is Failing Us
Tyler Cowen suggests how to address some of the biggest obstacles to fighting COVID-19.
- Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic
Tech
Analysis: How to Protect Civil Liberties in a Pandemic
There are much bigger worries than temporary stay-at-home orders.
- Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic
Management
Trump Defended Cuts to Public-Health Agencies, on Video
In a 2018 press briefing, the president said of public-health professionals, “I don’t like having thousands of people around when you don’t need them.”
- Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic
Tech
The Costs of Spying
A new study reveals that from 2015 to 2019, the NSA’s call-metadata program cost taxpayers $100 million and provided practically no useful information.
- Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic
Management
Analysis: A Real Solution for Airport Security
Keep calm and wash your hands.
- Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic
Defense
The Torturers Wanted to Stop, but the CIA Kept Going
An interrogator testified that even after prisoner Abu Zubaydah started cooperating, the waterboarding continued.
- Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic
Oversight
Viewpoint: Look Who’s Trying to Seize Private Property
The Trump administration wants to use eminent domain to build the border wall.
- Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic
Management
A Once Unthinkable Proposal for Refugee Camps
A political scientist has suggested closed camps on Western soil. Only the awfulness of the status quo makes it worth considering.
- Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic
Management
Why Did the Border Patrol Union Switch Its Position on the Wall?
The NBPC once opposed “wasting taxpayer money on building fences and walls along the border.”
- Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic
Oversight
Analysis: Oversight Is the Biggest Winner of the Midterm Elections
The Democratic victory in the House provides an opportunity to drain the swamp, after two years of willful Republican cover for dodgy behavior.
- Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic
Defense
The American Who Says He’s Been the Target of Five Air Strikes
A federal judge is allowing his suit to proceed, finding that his “interest in avoiding the erroneous deprivation of his life is uniquely compelling.”
- Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic
Management
What the New JFK Papers Will Reveal About Excessive Secrecy
How many of the documents being released a half century after his assassination could’ve been made public a decade or two ago without harming the public?
- Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic
Defense
Analysis: Giving the Deep State More Leeway to Kill With Drones
President Trump is poised to compound the most grave moral failing of his predecessor by making targeted killings less safe, less legal, and less rare.
- Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic
Defense
Trump Shows the Flaws of NSA Surveillance
His call for Russian hackers to break into Hillary Clinton’s email validate the worst suspicions of security-state critics.
- Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic
Defense
John Kerry: "We Are Not Frozen in a Nightmare"
Defending the Obama Administration’s geopolitical record, the secretary of state laid out a vision of an America that is globalist, engaged, and deeply interventionist.
- Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic
Defense
The Senate's Anti-Encryption Bill Could Become a Problem
A newly proposed anti-encryption bill would put every American at greater risk from foreign governments, hackers, and President Trump.
- Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic
Defense
Explosions Hit Brussels Airport and Metro Station, Killing at Least 26
U.S. Embassy in Brussels asks American citizens to shelter in place and avoid public transportation.
- Krishnadev Calamur, Conor Friedersdorf and J. Weston Phippen, The Atlantic
Defense
The Obama Administration's Drone-Strike Dissembling
Debunking John Brennan’s claim that “the president requires near-certainty of no collateral damage” to allow a drone killing to go forward.
- Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic
Defense
The Rise of Federal Surveillance Drones in the U.S.
A lot of government agencies are exercising their ability to look down on ordinary citizens.
- Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic
Oversight
Will Conservatives Mount a Third-Party Challenge If Trump Is the Nominee?
Doing so would hobble the billionaire’s ability to take the White House—making it the most potent piece of leverage left to conservatives.
- Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic