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In 2021, investigative reporter Azmat Khan published The Civilian Casualty Files in The New York Times, a multi-part investigation into the civilian casualties from America’s air wars across the Middle East. With legal support from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Khan obtained more than 1,300 of the military’s own internal reviews into allegations of civilian casualties in Iraq and Syria. The investigation, which was also based on ground reporting at the sites of 100 civilian casualty incidents in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan and scores of interviews, revealed how American wars of ‘precision strikes’ were systematically marred by flawed intelligence, faulty targeting and scant accountability. Hear from Azmat and RCFP senior staff attorney Adam Marshall about the investigation and how to obtain public records from the Pentagon.

Adam A. Marshall is a senior staff attorney at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. His work includes litigation in federal and state courts and training journalists on government transparency. Adam is the co-author of chapters in Troubling Transparency, and COVID-19: The Legal Challenges. Adam is a recipient of the President’s Volunteer Service Award and the GW Law Pro Bono Service Recognition Award. In 2017, he was named to the Forbes “30 Under 30: Media” list for his work promoting government transparency, including the development of the FOIA Wiki. You can find Adam on Twitter (@a_marshall_plan).

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During this year’s International Journalism Festival: Last September marked the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington. Just a month earlier, the United States’ withdrawal after a two-decade war in Afghanistan and the return of the Taliban appeared to bookend two decades of the U.S.-led “war on terror.” While that war is far from over, this panel explores the ways in which U.S. actions post-9/11 have changed countless lives, both abroad and at home. The panel focuses on the ways in which the media covered and in many cases contributed to the narrative of the war on terror, from the failure of journalism that helped justify the invasion of Iraq to some of the outstanding investigative reporting that has exposed this war's true cost.

Panelists Azmat Khan, Murtaza Hussain, and Spencer Ackerman, moderated by Alice Speri, will discuss how journalists covered one of the most consequential stories of our time, the stories they missed, and the blind spots in their coverage, as well as how the war on terror “came home” to the United States.

The Colloquium on Law and Security explores a broad array of emerging issues in the rapidly changing field of national security. The aim of the seminar, therefore, is to define and debate the new, complex and evolving threat environment facing the country in the third decade of the twenty-first century. We will look abroad, including at deteriorating relations with an increasingly powerful China and a belligerent Russia, the threat of cyber warfare and “gray zone” tactics, the weakening of America’s traditional alliances and values, and emerging conflicts in regions such as the Middle East. Each week we will engage with a presentation by an eminent national security expert—including former government officials, legal academics, international relations specialists, journalists, and human rights advocates—as we explore the defining features and dilemmas of today’s national security law and policy.

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The Conflict Resolution Collective, Women in Leadership, and the Progressive Security Working Group at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) are excited to present Women Journalists in Conflict Zones: Stories from Ground Zero.

Please join us for an engaging panel discussion with three renowned journalists as they share their first-hand experiences covering areas affected by violence, including Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. This event will be moderated by Anya Schiffrin, the director of the Technology, Media, and Communications at SIPA and a lecturer on global media, innovation, and human rights. Speakers include Anne Barnard, Azmat Khan, and Valerie Plesch.

Participants include Rachel Aviv, Brian Goldstone, Jonathan Katz, Azmat Khan, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, Rachel Nolan, Lizzie Presser, Matthew Shaer, Sarah Stillman. Learn more.

Join investigative journalists for a discussion at New America about the media’s coverage of civilian casualties in the war against ISIS.

Learn more or RSVP here.

Participants & Moderator:
Alexa O’Brien — Author, News in Brief
Azmat Khan — Future of War Fellow, ASU & New America
Greg Jaffe — National Security Correspondent, Washington Post
Chris Woods — Executive Director, Airwars
Peter Bergen — Vice President, New America

New America and Arizona State University’s annual Future Security Forum on April 29, 2019 brings together leaders from government, academia, journalism, the military, and the private sector to explore pressing issues in international security and defense. — Read more or watch here.

Kevin Baron, Executive Editor, DefenseOne (Moderator)

Azmat Khan, Contributing Writer, New York Times Magazine; ASU Future of War Fellow

Masha Gessen, Staff Writer, New Yorker; Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fellow, New America

Nick Waters, Open Source Analyst, Bellingcat

The YLS Human Rights Workshop provides students an opportunity to discuss scholarship, practice, and policy bearing on issues broadly related to human rights. Read more.

A rare convergence of experts on the human costs of war will discuss the often-ignored outgrowth of the global war on terror: two decades of civilian casualties. Times journalist and Marine Corps infantry veteran C. J. Chivers,  winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his 2016 story about an Afghan war veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, will moderate the discussion. The panelists are Alissa J. Rubin, the Times Paris bureau chief who won a Pulitzer Prize for foreign reporting on Afghanistan in 2015; Azmat Khan, an investigative reporter and New York Times Magazine contributor, who uncovered civilian casualties among nearly 150 airstrike sites across northern Iraq; and writer Brian Castner, a veteran of the Iraq war and weapons expert for Amnesty International’s crisis team, who also investigates war crimes and human rights violations.

Read More.

“Precision Strike: Interrogating U.S. Data about Civilian Deaths in Aerial Warfare“

The Yale MacMillan Political Violence and its Legacies (PVL) workshop is an interdisciplinary forum for work in progress by Yale faculty and graduate students, as well as scholars from other universities. PVL is designed to foster a wide-ranging conversation at Yale and beyond about political violence and its effects that transcends narrow disciplinary and methodological divisions.

A conversation with Nick McDonell, author of The Bodies In Person: An Account of Civilian Casualties in American Wars.

The Dart Awards for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma recognize exemplary journalism on the impact of violence, crime, disaster and other traumatic events on individuals, families or communities. To honor the 2018 Dart Award winners, the Dart Center will host a reception, awards presentation and winners’ roundtable on May 3 from 5:30-8:00pm at the Columbia Journalism School. The roundtable discussion will illuminate the questions of craft, ethics and storytelling in their work, and explore innovative best practices in hard-hitting, humane reporting on violence and tragedy. his event is free and open to the public.

Speakers include: Neil Barsky, Founder, The Marshall Project | John Woodrow Cox, Enterprise Reporter, Washington Post | Azmat Khan, Investigative Reporter | Lizzie Presser, Contributing Writer, The California Sunday Magazine

Moderator: Bruce Shapiro, Executive Director, Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma

New York Times Magazine contributing writer Azmat Khan, and 2018 Macdowell Fellow, will talk about her project and its “ground-level investigation of the U.S.-led air war” in Iraq and Syria at the next edition of MacDowell Downtown. 

Join investigative journalist Azmat Khan in this discussion about civilian casualties in the war against ISIS at the MIT Center for International Studies (CIS).

An academic research center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the center focuses on international relations, security studies, international migration, human rights and justice, political economy and technology policy. RSVP or get more information here.

Join ELLE.com for an International Women’s Day panel featuring Brooke Baldwin, Azmat Khan and Emily Steel. Moderated by Mattie Kahn.

This is a closed event. Please contact for RSVP information.

“Hondros,” a Special Advanced Screening of the Tribeca Film Festival-Winning Documentary - Followed by a conversation led by Azmat Khan

Known for his probing, humane coverage of countries ravaged by conflict, Chris Hondros was one of the world's most acclaimed war photographers, shooting for The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, when he was killed in a mortar attack in Libya at the age of 41, just three months before he was scheduled to be married.

In Hondros, Director Greg Campbell honors the life of his life-long best friend and explores his drive and deep commitment to capturing the images that convey the human cost of war. Featuring interviews with Chris's colleagues on the frontlines and his photographic subjects, Hondros presents a stirring portrait of a pioneering photographer who devoted himself to bearing witness and making sure the stories of even war’s littlest victims were told with dignity and compassion.

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This is a private event. Please contact for an invitation.

Among the people making appearances this season (left to right): journalist Chris Hedges, journalist Azmat Khan, and filmmaker Parvez Sharma. The upcoming fall season of events at The Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy is out. As in seasons past, it includes music, talks, films, and community events. 

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Closed event. Please contact for invitation.