Matt Apuzzo

We interviewed many, many men and women from the NYPD and the NYPD Intelligence Division, specifically, and they're really good, dedicated people who want to keep the city safe.

We're a country that allowed waterboarding and indefinite detention, and we're a country where the NYPD Intelligence Division has police files on what Muslims think of the State of the Union address.

We don't want our government building files on what people think about their government.

The question is, really, does the nonexistence of another attack prove that the programs that are in place are working?

Under Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., the Justice Department prosecuted more people for having unauthorized discussions with reporters than all prior administrations combined.

We don't push back hard enough against the government. We could use, the country in general could use a more adversarial press corps, especially when it comes to matters of national security.

Muslim Americans in general tend to be an underrepresented political group.

A highway sign used to welcome people to New Haven, birthplace of President George W. Bush. But it was vandalized so much, it was finally taken down for good.

Bob Levinson was in Iran serving his government, and Bob Levinson was not well served by his government.

It's a social contract we make. We're willing to give up certain things. We give you the right to tax us. We give you the right to lock us up. We give you the right to put us on surveillance, search our homes, whatever and, in exchange, we get a functioning society that keeps us relatively safe, and that's the tradeoff we make.

When I write that I've known about something for a long time, that's not a boast. That's a confession. It's me acknowledging that I have withheld something important from the public.

I'm fortunate to work for a company that supports investigative journalism with strong editors and lawyers. That's the benefit of working for a company that's been around for more than a century.