Judith Miller is a journalist and author specializing in terrorism, the Middle East and other national security issues. She won the Pulitzer Prize while working for New York Times from 1977 to 2005, and was its first female bureau chief in the Arab World. She reported on the first Iraq war and then became famous—some would say infamous—for her reporting on weapons of mass destruction leading up to the second Iraq War. In 2005, she spent 85 days in jail to protect a confidential source, receiving a First Amendment Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. She is author of four books, most recently The Story: A Reporter’s Journey. Judy blogs at www.judithmiller.com and can be seen as a regular commentator for Fox News. She will be here it 1 p.m. to answer your questions under the Kinja user name @jmfreespeech.

Andrew Cockburn is one third of a famous Irish journalist trio of brothers (along with Patrick and the late Alexander), and an intrepid reporter in his own right. He’s covered Iraq, both before and after the 2003 invasion, the Colombian cocaine cartels, the Red Princes that rule China, the rise of modern slavery, blood diamonds in Africa, and the covert U.S.-Israeli defense and intelligence connection. He co-produced the 1997 DreamWorks feature movie The Peacemaker, and American Casino, the 2009 feature documentary on the Wall Street crash; and, for the Gawkerverse, he’s the father of actress Olivia Wilde.

Today marks the beginning of what I hope will be many opportunities to introduce true practitioners in the world of spying and killing to Phase Zero readers. Our first guest is Malcolm Nance, a 34-year veteran intelligence officer who has worked the Iraq mission since 1987, fighting in all of our Middle East wars since 1983. He has lived in and out of Iraq since 2003.