‘Nation’ Exclusive: Edward Snowden and Laura Poitras Take on America’s Runaway Surveillance State

“The first principle of any American intelligence official is not an oath to secrecy but a duty to the public, a commitment to speak truth to power.”

Edward Snowden and Laura Poitras

Snapshot: Last Supper Denied

Plates by artist Julie Green illustrating final-meal requests by death-row inmates, including Clayton Lockett’s requested last meal: steak with A-1 sauce, shrimp with cocktail sauce, a baked potato, garlic butter toast, a pecan pie and Coca-Cola Classic with ice. The request was denied because it exceeded $15. He refused an alternative. Read More

Julie Green

Obama’s Pundit Problem

Critics like Maureen Dowd of the Times live in an Oz-like dream world.

Eric Alterman

Condoleezza Rice Withdraws as Rutgers Commencement Speaker in Face of Protest Over Her Promotion of the War in Iraq

Calvin Trillin

The Oklahoma Way of Death

The “botched” execution of Clayton Lockett should shatter the illusion that lethal injection is neither cruel nor unusual.

Richard Kim

Letters

Al Jazeera—just the news… BDS: Palestinians’ “best hope”… younger than springtime…

Our Readers and Eric Alterman