Jason Leopold

A startling spotlight on the darkest corners of America’s ? War on Terror,” where nothing is quite what it seems. The Convenient Terrorist is the definitive inside account of the capture, torture, and detention of Abu Zubaydah, the first ?high-value target” captured by the CIA after 9/11. But was Abu Zubaydah, who is still being indefinitely held by the United States under shadowy circumstances, the blue-ribbon capture that the Bush White House claimed he was? Authors John Kiriakou, who led the capture of Zubaydah, and Joseph Hickman, who took custody of him at Guantanamo, draw a far more complex and intriguing portrait of the al-Qaeda ?mastermind” who became a symbol of torture and the ?dark side” of US security. From a one-time American collaborator to a poster boy for waterboarding, Abu Zubaydah became a ?convenient terrorist”?a way for US authorities to sell their ? War on Terror” to the American people.

In News Junkie, the cutthroat worlds of journalism, politics, and high finance are laid bare by Jason Leopold, whose addictive tendencies led him from a life of drug abuse and petty crime to become an award-winning investigative journalist who exposed some of the biggest corporate and political scandals in recent American history. Leopold broke key stories about the California energy crisis and Enron Corporation's infamous phony trading floor as a reporter for the Dow Jones Newswires. While he exposed high-rolling hucksters and double-dealing politicians, Leopold hid the secrets of his own felonious past, terrified that he would be discovered. When the news junkie closed in on his biggest story--one that implicated a Bush administration member--he found himself pilloried by angry colleagues and the president's press secretary, all attempting to destroy his career. Introducing an unforgettable array of characters--from weepy editors and love-starved politicos to steroid-pumped mobsters who intimidate the author into selling drugs and stolen goods--News Junkie shows how a man once fueled by raging fear and self-hatred transforms his life, regenerated by love, sobriety, and a new, harmonious career with the media.