:Jeff Stein (author)
{{Short description|American editor and journalist}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Jeff Stein
| image = Jeff_Stein_Picture.jpeg
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| birth_date = {{birth date|1944|02|13|mf=y}}
| birth_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
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| occupation = Investigative reporter, columnist, non-fiction author
| period = 1973–present
| genre = U.S. intelligence, defense and foreign policy issues
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}}{{Primary sources|date=October 2023}}
Jeff Stein (born February 13, 1944) is the editor-in-chief of SpyTalk, a newsletter covering U.S. intelligence, defense and foreign policy, on the Substack platform. Previously, he was the SpyTalk columnist (and national security correspondent) at Newsweek, and before that, the SpyTalk blogger at The Washington Post. From 2002 to 2009, he was the founding editor of CQ/Homeland Security, and later national security editor at Congressional Quarterly, where he first launched his SpyTalk column. He had already covered the spy agencies and national policy topics for decades.{{Cite news |title=Jeff Stein |url=https://www.newsweek.com/authors/jeff-stein |access-date=2016-10-08 |newspaper=Newsweek}}
Biography
Stein was born in Philadelphia but grew up in New England, moving with his family to Maine in 1954. After attending school in Providence, Rhode Island, he moved to Hingham, Massachusetts, where he graduated from high school in 1962. Following high school, he attended Boston University, earning a bachelor's degree in American history. Stein then attended the University of California, Berkeley, for a master's degree in China studies. He entered the U.S. Army in 1967 and served with U.S. Army Intelligence as a case officer from 1968 to 1969.{{cite web|url=http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/spytalk/about.html |title=CQ Politics about Jeff Stein |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091003061006/http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/spytalk/about.html |archivedate=2009-10-03 }} While stationed in Vietnam, he was awarded a Bronze Star.{{Cite web |last= |date=2017-09-20 |title=9/20/17 Jeff Stein reviews Ken Burns's "The Vietnam War" |url=https://scotthorton.org/interviews/92017-jeff-stein-reviews-ken-burnss-the-vietnam-war/ |access-date=2025-05-11 |website=The Scott Horton Show |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Longman |first=Martin |date=2020-01-06 |title=The Iran-Contra Affair Never Ended |url=https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/01/06/the-iran-contra-affair-never-ended/ |access-date=2025-05-11 |website=Washington Monthly |language=en-US}}
Stein began his journalism career at a suburban Washington, D.C. weekly. He reported for NPR during its early years, while freelancing for major newspapers and magazines. In 1981, he briefly edited the Washington City Paper before founding his own paper, The Washington Weekly, which folded in 1984, after a year of publication. He then joined United Press International (UPI), rising to deputy foreign editor.{{cite news| url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-stein |title= Huffington Post biography of Jeff Stein |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161011060901/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/jeff-stein |archive-date=11 October 2016}} During this period he also wrote his first book, The Vietnam Factbook, published in 1987.{{cn|date=October 2023}} In 1992, Stein followed up with A Murder in Wartime, a book which detailed a Green Beret murder case that occurred during the Vietnam War.
In the 1990s, Stein began writing for Salon.com eventually becoming a national security correspondent. In 2000, alongside Khidhir Hamza, a scientist who worked on Saddam Hussein's nuclear program before defecting in 1994, Stein wrote Saddam's Bombmaker. In 2002, Congressional Quarterly hired Stein to launch and edit CQ/Homeland Security which was nominated for an award in its first year of existence.{{cn|date=October 2023}}
In 2005, Stein began writing a weekly column for CQ, entitled "SpyTalk", which evolved into a daily blog. In October 2006, Stein wrote in The New York Times that many top counter-terrorism officials and members of the House Intelligence Committee did not know the difference between Sunnis and Shiites.{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/opinion/17stein.html?_r=1 |title= Can You Tell a Sunni From a Shiite? | work=The New York Times | first=Jeff | last=Stein | date=October 17, 2006 | accessdate=May 6, 2010}} In April 2009, Stein, writing for CQ Politics, broke the story that Representative Jane Harman had been wiretapped discussing aid for AIPAC defendants.{{cite web| url=http://antiwar.com/radio/2009/04/21/jeff-stein/ |title= Jeff Stein discusses the Harman case |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160507165925/https://antiwar.com/radio/2009/04/21/jeff-stein/ |archive-date=2016-05-07}} The scandal brought additional attention to the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy and implicated a number of other figures.
In addition to his SpyTalk work, Stein continues to write op-ed pieces and book reviews for The New York Times and The Washington Post. He has also written for other publications, including Esquire, Vanity Fair, GQ, Playboy, The New Republic, The Nation and The Christian Science Monitor.{{cite web| url=http://www.thecapitol.net/Faculty/facultybior.html |title= Jeff Stein Biography}} He also appears on CBS, CNN, MSNBC, NPR and BBC, among others, to comment on U.S. national security issues.
Personal life
Stein resides in Northwest Washington, DC, in a restored Victorian era farmhouse. He is a member of both the Association of Former Intelligence Officers and Investigative Reporters and Editors.{{cn|date=October 2023}}
Books
- Saddam's Bombmaker:The Daring Escape of the Man Who Built Iraq's Secret Weapon — 2000 (with Khidhir Hamza) {{ISBN|0-7432-1135-9}}
- A Murder in Wartime: The Untold Spy Story That Changed the Course of the Vietnam War — 1992 {{ISBN|0-312-92919-6}}
- The Vietnam Factbook — 1987 {{ISBN|0-440-19336-2}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://m.huffpost.com/us/author/jeff-stein Huffington Post archive and biography]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stein, Jeff}}
Category:American political writers
Category:American male non-fiction writers
Category:American military writers
Category:United States Army personnel of the Vietnam War
Category:Boston University College of Arts and Sciences alumni
Category:Historians of the Vietnam War
Category:Writers from Philadelphia
Category:United States Army soldiers