Hear the radio interview here

America needed the French to defeat the Brits, but it was Paris that lost in the end

At the outbreak of the American Revolution, England and France had been waging almost uninterrupted war with each other for nearly a century. From King William’s War in 1689 through the Seven Years’ War that wrapped up in 1763, it was a century of bloodletting and territorial trading that played out like a colossal game of Risk. It was little surprise that the French saw the nascent American insurgency, which came to a boil in 1775, as a new front in their battle for world dominance with London. Read the rest of this entry »

Returning from a vacation to Germany in February, freelance journalist Bill Hogan was selected for additional screening by customs officials at Dulles International Airport outside Washington. Agents searched his luggage, he said, “then they told me that they were impounding my laptop.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Returning from a brief vacation to Germany in February, Bill Hogan was selected for additional screening by customs officials at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C. Agents searched Hogan’s luggage and then popped an unexpected question: Was he carrying any digital media cards or drives in his pockets? “Then they told me that they were impounding my laptop,” says Hogan, a freelance investigative reporter whose recent stories have ranged from the origins of the Iraq war to the impact of money in presidential politics.

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