Pentagon (Va.)

Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Tom Ricks says the writings of Winston Churchill and George Orwell still resonate today. Ricks also discusses the generals serving in the Trump administration.

Now a military expert for Human Rights Watch, Marc Garlasco was a Pentagon analyst for seven years — and he was there when terrorists attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. He tells Fresh Air about his experiences that morning.

After American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, it took firefighters three days to stop the blaze. Firefighter Patrick Creed and journalist Rick Newman discuss the Pentagon blaze and the book they wrote about it, Firefight.

A talk about the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness Program, and other post-Sept. 11 security measures. The Total Information Awareness Program would allow federal agencies to share information about American citizens and aliens through the mining of databases from driver's licenses, bank statements, telephone records and more. Lawyer David Cole thinks such measures violate the American tradition of civil liberties.

Journalist Jon Cohen writes for Science Magazine. He just got back from the 14th International AIDS conference where he reported on the AIDS vaccine and anti-HIV drug therapies. His article "Designer Bugs" in the July/August edition of The Atlantic Monthly is about how scientists have the ability to create synthetic viruses in the lab, like mousepox and polio, and the controversies and dangers this presents.

Tim Weiner reports on national security issues and the justice department for the Philadelphia Inquirer. In 1988, he won his second Pulitzer Prize for a series of articles on secret Pentagon spending. He discusses the A-X weapon - a stealth bomber which has just been put into production. It's predecessor, the A12, was cancelled because of cost overruns and unnaccountability.