State secrecy is increasingly used as the explanation for the shrinking of public discussion surrounding national security issues. The phrase "that's classified" is increasingly used not to protect national secrets from legitimate enemies, but rather to stifle public discourse regarding national security. Washington today is inclined to see secrecy as a convenient cure to many of its problems. But too often these problems are not challenges to national security, they involve the embarrassment of political figures, disclosure of mismanagement, incompetence and corruption and even outright...

On December 9, 2014, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a 576-page report that strongly condemns the CIA for its secret and brutal use of torture in the treatment of prisoners during the George W. Bush Administration after 9/11. This deeply researched and fully documented investigation caused monumental controversy, interest, and concern, yet much of the American public found the report to be dense and inaccessible to the general reader. Using their tried, tested, and celebrated graphic storytelling method, Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon have summarized, illustrated, and made accessible...