The Loss of Transparency in the Military, and the Rise of Secret Warfare

 A picture taken on July 5, 2005 shows contractors of the US private security firm Blackwater securing the site of a roadside bomb attack near the Iranian embassy in central Baghdad.

Journalist and lawyer Scott Horton explores the role of secrecy in American politics in his new book Lords of Secrecy: The National Security Elite and America's Stealth Warfare. In the book, Horton discusses the legal and moral issues surrounding the turn to private security contractors, the sweeping surveillance methods of intelligence agencies, and the use of robotic weapons such as drones.