In this new video the American News Project sits down with Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times reporter James Risen to discuss the expansion of executive power under George W. Bush, and the prospect for reform in the next four years. Risen, whose reporting on the Bush administration’s warrant-less wiretapping scandal nearly landed him in prison for refusing to name his sources, reflected on President Bush’s legacy. He explained that while 9/11 caused a significant paradigm shift in the United States, the actual threat has been overblown. “9/11 was a fluke,” he said. The government was unready for such an attack, but it would be foolhardy to expect, in light of 9/11, for constant terrorist siege. Rather the attack is more representative of a “failure of imagination” by those whose job it is to protect us.

–Marissa Colón-Margolies

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