William M. Arkin (born 1956) is an American political commentator, activist, journalist, blogger, and former United States Army soldier.
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Arkin served in U.S. Army intelligence from 1974 to 1978. He has served as an independent consultant and held positions at the Institute for Policy Studies, Center for Defense Information, Greenpeace, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Human Rights Watch. He has worked as a NBC News military analyst and written columns for the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post. From 2007-2008, he was Policy Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government in the Carr Centre for Human Rights Policy, Harvard University, United States.
A later work is 'Code Names: Deciphering U.S. Military Plans, Programs and Operations in the 9/11 World.'
On October 15, 2003, William Arkin released video and audiotapes documenting General William Boykin's framing of the "War on Terrorism" in religious terms in speeches at churches. Arkin followed up with a Los Angeles Times op-ed piece that accused the general of being "an intolerant extremist" and a man "who believes in Christian 'jihad'." Arkin further wrote, "Boykin has made it clear that he takes his orders not from his Army superiors but from God — which is a worrisome line of command." Arkin refused to release the full transcripts of the talks that Boykin gave, despite numerous requests from various media sources.[1]
In February 2007, Arkin responded to an NBC Nightly News report on U.S. soldiers in Iraq who said they were frustrated by antiwar sentiment at home, and especially by people who say they support the troops, but not the war. In his Washington Post blog, Arkin wrote, "We pay the soldiers a decent wage, take care of their families, provide them with housing and medical care and vast social support systems and ship obscene amenities into the war zone for them, we support them in every possible way, and their attitude is that we should in addition roll over and play dead, defer to the military and the generals and let them fight their war, and give up our rights and responsibilities to speak up because they are above society?" He went on, "But it is the United States, and the recent NBC report is just an ugly reminder of the price we pay for a mercenary - oops sorry, volunteer - force that thinks it is doing the dirty work." [2]
On July 19, 2010, The Washington Post began to publish a multi-part series entitled "Top Secret America," a collaborative effort between Arkin and Dana Priest. The articles, which took almost two years to complete, report that the post-9/11 U.S. intelligence system has grown so large that no one can know its size or estimate its effectiveness.