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Nick Paumgarten, staff writer for The New Yorker, explains what drones are, how they work, and the technological advancements that are making drones more prevalent in military and civilian life. He’s the author of “Here’s Looking at You” in the May 14 issue of The New Yorker.

Henry Crumpton discusses leading the CIA's global covert operations against terrorists, including al Qaeda. His book The Art of Intelligence: Lessons from a Life in the CIA's Clandestine Service, details how the campaign changed the way America wages war.

Peter Bergen gives an account of the decade-long hunt for the world's most wanted man. In Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden—from 9/11 to Abbottabad, he gives new details of bin Laden’s flight after the defeat of the Taliban. As the only journalist to gain access to bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound before the Pakistani government demolished it, Bergen paints a vivid picture of bin Laden’s life in hiding and his struggle to maintain control of al-Qaeda.

Eleven Secret Service employees are accused of bringing prostitutes back to their hotel in Cartagena ahead of President Obama's visit for a summit in Colombia. The agents and officers have been placed on leave while the agency investigates their conduct. Although prostitution is legal in parts of Colombia and no law was broken, if the reports are true, the employees still violated rules of conduct. Tim Weiner, author of "Enemies: A History of the FBI," has won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for his work on national security. Weiner explains what happened and why the employees' alleged indiscretions could have put the President Obama's life at risk.

Josh Meyer and Terry McDermott give an account of the decade-long pursuit and capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Their book The Hunt for KSM: Inside the Pursuit and Takedown of the Real 9/11 Mastermind tells the story of the 18 months between the 9/11 attacks and the capture the actual mastermind of the attacks, the man behind bin Laden himself.

Wired correspondent James Bamford describes the $2 billion Utah Data Center that is being constructed for the National Security Agency. It’s expected to be up and running in 2013 and will house their database for all forms of communication—emails, cell phone calls, Internet searches, and even bookstore purchases.

Journalist Ahmed Rashid examines the complicated relationship between the United States, Pakistan, and Afghanistan as America prepares for its withdraw from Afghanistan. In Pakistan on the Brink: The Future of America, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, he investigates the future of international terrorism, the Taliban, and strategies to bring stability to a fractured region saddled with a legacy of violence and corruption.

Recap from It's a Free Country.

Welcome to Politics Bites, where every afternoon at It's A Free Country, we bring you the unmissable quotes from the morning's political conversations on WNYC. Today on the Brian Lehrer Show, Russ Feingold, former U.S. senator (D-WI) and now author of While America Sleeps: A Wake-up Call for the Post 9/11 Era , discusses his book and current political news.

Senior New York Times reporter David Unger investigates the hidden costs of America’s pursuit of absolute national security. In The Emergency State: America’s Pursuit of Absolute Security at All Costs Unger argues that the emphasis on security has distorted national politics and has failed to make us safer.

Former Democratic senator from Wisconsin Russ Feingold explains why he thinks the American public has gotten inadequate information to explain 9/11, Al Qaeda, and events related to the war on terror. In While America Sleeps: A Wake-up Call for the Post-9/11 Era, Feingold argues that the nation’s inadequate response to 9/11 have undermined our ability to adjust to America’s new place in the world, and has weakened our national security and our constitutional values. He suggests ways to engage with the rest of the world and fellow citizens in a more thoughtful way.

In Anonymous's move away from denial of service attacks and toward real-world interactions — such as recent threats against the Los Zetas Cartel — the hacktivists have attracted the attention of the National Security Agency. In private meetings at the White House, NSA director General Keith Alexander warned that in a year or two the group could attack the energy grid and shut off power for millions. 

Tim Weiner offers the first definitive history of the FBI’s secret intelligence operations. Enemies: A History of the FBI is the story of how presidents have used the FBI, and Weiner exposes the hidden history of America’s hundred-year war on terror, in which the FBI has fought against terrorists, spies, and anyone it deemed subversive.

Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice and Tom Robbins, investigative journalist in residence at the CUNY School of Journalism and former longtime columnist at the Village Voice, discuss the investigation into the NYPD's involvement in the controversial film "The Third Jihad."

Watch the full video below. Note: Ray Kelly appears at 55:45 in a section on "Nuclear Threat"

Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor under Carter; counselor and trustee at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and co-author of Strategic Vision:  America and the Crisis of Global Power, offers a foreign policy blueprint for the 21st century.

EVENT: Booksigning at Barnes & Noble Union Square 1/24 at 7PM in conversation with Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough.

The U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, turned 10 years old yesterday. Carol Rosenberg, Miami Herald reporter, looks back at a decade of Gitmo.

Quinn Norton, a contributor to Wired magazine’s Threat Level blog, talks about the online collective Anonymous.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is expected to announce plans this week to cut hundreds of billions of dollars from the Pentagon's budget. The cuts, precipitated by both the United States' fiscal situation and a deal passed to raise the debt ceiling last summer, will shrink the military so it will no longer be able to sustain two ground wars at once. The Pentagon will trim about $450 billion, or about 8 percent of its budget. However, it may be forced to cut an additional $500 billion if lawmakers on Capitol Hill go through with deeper reductions. Defense hawks say cutting $1 trillion from the Pentagon's budget would have a deleterious impact on national security.

Misha Glenny explores the three fundamental threats facing us in the 21st century: cybercrime, cyberwarfare, and cyberindustrial espionage. Darkmarket: Cyberthieves, Cybercops and You explores the rise and fall of the criminal website DarkMarket and looks at the new, ever-changing, often invisible, breed of criminal: the hacker.

It's been a tumultuous year for U.S.-Pakistan relations. First came the arrest of a CIA contractor in Lahore who killed two Pakistani citizens, then the raid by U.S. special forces that ended in the death of Osama bin Laden. But relations hit a new low last month when a NATO air strike killed 26 Pakistani soldiers. A Pentagon report released Thursday says both countries share in the blame for the deadly attack, that Pakistani forces fired first.

Liza Goitein, co-director of the Liberty & National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, joins us to discuss the trial of Bradley Manning as it wraps up.