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Richard Miniter | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1967 (age 57–58) |
| Occupation(s) | Journalist, author |
| Years active | 1990–present |
| Website | http://richardminiter.com |
Richard Miniter (born 1967) is an American investigative journalist and author. A former editorial writer and columnist forTheWall Street Journal in Europe, as well as a member of the investigative reporting team ofThe Sunday Times of London, he is currently the National Security columnist forForbes. He has authored threeNew York Times best-selling books,Losing bin Laden,Shadow War,Leading From Behind, and most recentlyEyes On Target. His articles have appeared inPolitico,The New York Times,The Washington Times,The Washington Post,The Wall Street Journal,The Atlantic Monthly,Newsweek,The New Republic,National Review,PJ Media, andReader’s Digest.
Miniter was born in New York City and grew up inRosendale, New York.[1] Among his siblings are several writers and journalists, including Frank Miniter, executive editor ofAmerican Hunter magazine,[1] andBrendan Miniter, formerly ofThe Wall Street Journal, who is the editor of the bookThe 4% Solution: Unleashing the Economic Growth America Needs.
He studied philosophy atVassar College, graduating in 1990.[2] He was an editor of theVassar Spectator, one of the school's student periodicals, where he worked withMark Thiessen andJonathan Karl.[1]
In 1989, he was a summer fellow at theInstitute for Humane Studies. He later worked as an environmental policy analyst at theCompetitive Enterprise Institute.[3] From 1992 to 1994, Miniter was an associate producer of the PBS talk showTechnoPolitics.[4][5] In 1996, he produced a radio series profiling female executives and entrepreneurs,Enterprising Women, that was distributed to more than a hundred radio stations in the United States.[6] He was also a fellow and senior editor of theHudson Institute.[7][8]
Miniter published in a number of newspapers, includingThe New York Times,The Wall Street Journal,The Washington Post,The Sunday Times (London),South China Morning Post, andAustralian Financial Review.[9] He travelled to South Sudan, Uganda and Kenya to write about modern-day slavery forThe Atlantic Monthly in "The False Promise of Slave Redemption".
Miniter worked for the Dow Jones Newswires during the summers of 1987 and 1988.
Hired byThe Wall Street Journal editorRobert Bartley in 2000, Miniter was sent toBrussels as an editorial page writer atThe Wall Street Journal Europe and editor of its weekly "Business Europe" column.[10] He also wrote a weekly column, "The Visible Hand", forThe Wall Street Journal's OpinionJournal.com.[11]
Miniter left theJournal after less than two years to take a position with the Centre for the New Europe in Brussels, Belgium. He left there after a short stint as a senior fellow.
Miniter was the editorial page editor and Vice President of Opinion atThe Washington Times from March[12] until October 2009.[13] Miniter later sued for breach of contract and other claims.
In September 2010, the case of Miniter v. Moonet al. and the related EEOC complaint was settled. Miniter refused to disclose the terms, but said "I am very, very happy with the equitable and just result."[14]
Miniter wrote the "National Security" column for Forbes.com. Miniter's June 2014 Forbes exposé ofPresident Joseph Kabila, the leader of theDemocratic Republic of Congo, reportedly provoked Kabila's younger brother,Zoe, to beat unconscious Congo parliament speakerÉvariste Boshab.[15] The Kabila family accused Boshab of having been an anonymous source for Miniter's article, which estimated President Kabila had extracted and secreted away as much as $15 billion from the impoverished Congo.
Miniter wrote a regular national security column forForbes.com.[16][17] and wrote about the growing al Qaeda presence in Africa.
In 2012, Richard Miniter founded theAmerican Media Institute, a501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides investigative news stories to leading newspapers, magazines, radio and television news outlets around the world.[citation needed]
Richard Miniter's attendance at a controversial 2014 Passover dinner hosted by Israel's ambassador to the U.S. was revealed pursuant to an Israeli Supreme Court order in 2016.[18]Ambassador Ron Dermer had fought media requests for information about the gathering, but the court rejected his argument that Israel's national security required the guest list to remain secret. Miniter was one of three American journalists present at the Seder, which was also attended byU.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
Miniter's first book,The Myth of Market Share, was published in 2002 by Crown Publishing, an imprint ofRandom House. The book asserts that business strategy that focuses on increasingmarket share is wrong-headed and distracts from profit-seeking.[19] According to a review byThe Washington Post, the book "although at times repetitious ... makes it clear why there is zero correlation between profitability and market share."[20]
In 2003, Miniter'sLosing bin Laden, was published. The book is the result of eighteen months of reporting fromKhartoum,Cairo,Frankfurt,Hamburg,London,Paris, andWashington, D.C. It offers an account of United States policy relating to Al Qaeda and bin Laden during theClinton administration. According toGeorge Will,
Miniter suggests that the appointment of[Richard] Clarke on May 22, 1998, as the government's first coordinator of the counterterrorism efforts that were dispersed to 40 agencies, "could have been the beginning of the end of al Qaeda. But the lack of presidential leadership, government inertia and bureaucratic squabbling often got in the way."[21]
It became aNew York Times bestseller, peaking at number ten in September 2003.[22]Losing bin Laden was cited on NBC'sMeet the Press by hostTim Russert in an interview withMadeleine Albright.[23]Steve Forbes praised the book, stating that Miniter "tapped an extraordinary array of sources to piece this sorry tale together."[24] Miniter appeared on CNN in 2006 and disputed portions of ABC's miniseriesThe Path to 9/11, which included a scene depicting Clinton National Security AdvisorSandy Berger as failing to kill bin Laden when presented with the opportunity to do so. Miniter stated on theSituation Room program that "if people wanted to be critical of the Clinton years there's things they could have said, but the idea that someone had bin Laden in his sights in 1998 or any other time and Sandy Berger refused to pull the trigger, there's zero factual basis for that."[25]
TheWashington Times printed a critical reply to the book fromRoger Cressey, a former member of theUnited States National Security Council staff during the Clinton administration, and Gayle Smith, who participated in the NSC as a Special Assistant to the President.[26] Cressey and Smith characterized four specific allegations in the book as "erroneous," and questioned the veracity of Miniter's sources.[26] Miniter's rejoinder was published with Cressey and Smith's criticism.[27]
Miniter's next book was based on research inIraq,Kuwait,Egypt,Sudan,Hong Kong,Singapore and thePhilippines.Shadow War: The Untold Story of How America is Winning the War on Terror, became his secondNew York Times bestseller, debuting at number seven on the November 7, 2004 edition of the newspaper's non-fiction bestseller list.[28]
Disinformation: 22 Media Myths That Undermine the War on Terror, was published by Regnery in 2005. Miniter traveled to Egypt, Sudan and corresponded with sources in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan while working on the book.[29] Among other claims, Miniter asserts in the book thatOsama bin Laden was not ondialysis.[29][30]
Miniter edited a 2008 book entitledJack Bauer for President: Terrorism and Politics in 24. Published byBenBella Books, the volume "addresses how much of the show [24] is realistic and what it has to say about modern politics and foreign policy in America’s fight against terrorism."[31]
Sentinel, a division ofPenguin Group, published Miniter's 2011 bookMastermind aboutKhalid Sheikh Mohammed. In the book, Miniter examines his subject's childhood in Kuwait and Pakistan and his college education in the United States. He draws conclusions about Mohammed's involvement in such events as the killing ofMeir Kahane, the kidnapping and killing ofDaniel Pearl, and theSeptember 11, 2001 attacks.[citation needed]
St. Martin's Press, publishedLeading From Behind: The Reluctant President and the Advisors Who Decide for Him in August, 2012, just as the 2012 presidential campaign entered its national phase. The book almost immediately became Miniter's thirdNew York Times best seller.[32]
Miniter was attacked by CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen. Miniter's book alleged that Obama was indecisive and delayed when action was needed on the attack of bin Laden, which brought Bergen to state "Miniter's account of the intelligence that led to bin Laden and the decision-making surrounding the operation that killed him is a pile of poppycock served up with heaps of hogwash".[33] Responding to this, Miniter wrote to CNN saying that reporters rely too heavily on White House officials and Pakistani government officials, and marginalize those who were actually present during the hours and days after the operation, hence standing behind his account detailed in his latest book.
Publishers Weekly debuted Miniter's work as #13 on Week's Best Sellers in late August and discussed how Miniter's book received major press from publication through the election, appearance on Sean Hannity's television show and The Drudge Report, in addition to national television appearances, national radio shows, and so on.[34]
Center Street, publishedEyes on Target: Inside Stories from the Brotherhood of the U.S. Navy SEALs in February, 2014. This latest book, co-authored with Scott McEwen, chronicles the history and long standing traditions of the Navy SEALs and provides details on some of the key battles these brave men fought such as Red Wings and the attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi.[35]
