Shaun Waterman
Shaun Waterman is the Homeland and National Security Editor for United Press International. He has covered the Department of Homeland Security since the agency was stood up in 2003. His reporting on the Sept. 11 Commission and the tortuous process by which some of its recommendations finally became law in the 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act earned him a "Dateline Washington" award from the Society of Professional Journalists. These days he writes mainly about emerging threats to U.S. and global security: trans-national terrorism; cyber threats; weapons proliferation and other asymmetric dangers. His stories appear two to three times a week on the UPI Web site and in The Washington Times.
Prior to joining UPI, Waterman worked as a senior producer for the British Broadcasting Corporation’s flagship evening radio news program, The World Tonight. Waterman joined the BBC in 1992 as a news trainee, and worked in local TV and radio news for three years before joining TWT team. In 1999, he was appointed to run the BBC’s American radio news desk in Washington, providing round-the-clock news from all over both American continents for the corporation’s six radio networks.
Before joining the BBC, Waterman worked as a freelance journalist and parliamentary aide, writing for numerous publications including the investigative magazine Private Eye and doing press and research work for a number of members of the British Parliament.
Waterman, who is British, has a master’s degree in social and political sciences from King’s College, Cambridge. He lives in Washington, DC and has a four-and-a-half year old American son, Miles.
Articles by Shaun Waterman:
WASHINGTON, March 10 (UPI) -- The official in charge of coordinating the U.S. government's cybersecurity operations has quit, saying the expanding control of the National Security Agency over the nation's computer security efforts poses "threats to our democratic processes."
WASHINGTON, March 9 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security plans to study the possibility that human body odor could be used to tell when people are lying or to identify individuals in the same way that fingerprints can.
WASHINGTON, March 9 (UPI) -- The illegal use of trademarked brand names online, known as brand-jacking, continued to rise last year, and the great majority of abusive sites are now mature e-commerce efforts with life spans of up to two years, according to a new survey.
WASHINGTON, March 3 (UPI) -- The CIA destroyed 92 videotapes showing interrogation of terror suspects using water-boarding and other "enhanced techniques" that critics say amount to torture -- a far greater number than previously known -- according to court documents.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- Lawmakers in both chambers of Congress announced hearings Thursday on the possible cross-border impact of spiraling drug violence in Mexico, amid concerns that it is spilling over into the United States.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- An Iraqi-born naturalized Dutchman will be the first man ever convicted by a U.S. criminal court for his part in the Iraq insurgency.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- The Drug Enforcement Administration operation aimed at a Mexican drug cartel that was unveiled Wednesday by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder highlights the links such groups have across the United States.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- The Department of Homeland Security has contingency plans to surge personnel and other resources, including the U.S. military, to parts of the southern border if law enforcement agencies on the ground are overwhelmed by the spillover effects of escalating criminal violence in Mexico, department officials say.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- The acknowledgment by U.S. forces that an airstrike last week killed more than a dozen Afghan civilians -- not the insurgents commanders originally claimed -- shows how, in the words of one non-profit, "The international coalition in Afghanistan is losing public support, one fallen civilian at a time."
WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- A Democratic senator and chairman of a key terrorism and homeland security panel says he is dissatisfied with the answers he's received from federal officials about the surveillance of Maryland peace activists.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- President Obama's decision to deploy an additional 17,000 troops to Afghanistan is the first concrete sign of his administration's much heralded determination to switch the focus of the war on terror he inherited from Iraq to Afghanistan.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- The Obama administration is planning a series of "game changing" moves on the issue of global nuclear disarmament, members of an international commission said at the weekend.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., says that in his new role as chairman of a key terrorism and homeland security panel, he will be keeping a weather eye on the way the Obama administration is using the legal authorities granted it by Congress.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Wednesday's brazen series of deadly, coordinated suicide attacks in Kabul brought immediate comparisons with last year's three-day rampage by terrorists in Mumbai and highlighted the worsening security situation that the Obama administration has inherited in Afghanistan.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- William Lynn's nomination by President Obama to be No. 2 at the Pentagon was confirmed by the full Senate Wednesday after a debate that revealed dramatically different perceptions about his record.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- With the combined cost of the economic stimulus package and the Wall Street bailout now projected by some estimates to top $2 trillion, and the federal deficit spiraling, U.S. officials are fretting that current levels of defense spending may be unsustainable.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- William Lynn, whose nomination by President Obama to be No. 2 at the Pentagon is expected to be confirmed by the Senate this week, has recused himself from making decisions on six major defense programs that he lobbied on last year when he worked for giant defense contractor Raytheon. And the forest of ethics restrictions that will hedge around his decision-making authority is already leading some to question whether he will be able to effectively do his job.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- President Obama's visit to the Energy Department Thursday was in danger of being overshadowed by a growing row over a proposal to strip the department of one of its crown jewels -- the agency that builds and guards the nation's nuclear weapons.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- New software being tested by U.S. Central Command would enable military computers for the first time ever to be connected at the same time to both classified and unclassified networks -- including the public Internet.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- Federal investigators remained tight-lipped Sunday about what was behind the searches carried out last week at Windber, Pa.-based defense contractors Kuchera Defense Systems and Kuchera Industries.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- President Obama's top Pentagon nominee hit an unexpected bump in the road to confirmation Thursday, after officials said he would need a waiver from the administration's strict new ethics rules.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- Adm. Dennis Blair is expected to sail through his confirmation hearing to be director of national intelligence Thursday, despite questions about his efforts to strengthen relations with the Indonesian military at a time when U.S. policy was publicly critical of its human-rights abuses.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- Osama bin Laden's latest public pronouncement, addressing the continuing Israeli military action in Gaza, illustrates the extent to which the globally televised suffering of the Palestinian people -- and perceptions about the American role in perpetuating it -- are undermining U.S. efforts to defeat al-Qaida.
