Alexa O'Brien

Alexa O'Brien
Alexa O'Brien at the 30th Chaos Communication Congress, 2013
Born	Seattle, Washington, U.S.

Alexa O'Brien is an American journalist.

In 2013, O'Brien was shortlisted for the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism in the United Kingdom. O'Brien's work has been published in The Cairo Review of Global Affairs,The Guardian,Salon,The Daily Beast, and featured on the BBC, PBS Frontline, NPR's On The Media, Democracy Now!,Public Radio International (PRI), and Days of Revolt.

O'Brien provided an extensive archive of the only available pre-trial transcripts of the court-martial of source Chelsea Manning. After the court-martial, O'Brien obtained the first exclusive interview with Manning's lead civilian defense counsel, David Coombs.

In late 2015 and early 2016, O'Brien collaborated with military scholar, William M. Arkin, on a multi-month VICE News investigation into U.S. institutions of higher education with the greatest number of students employed by the Intelligence Community (IC), with the closest relationships with the national security state, and with the greatest profit from the U.S. war footing.

In early 2016, a follow-up investigation by Arkin and O'Brien revealed that one in 50 members of the Intelligence Community with Top Secret security clearances and doctoral degrees had obtained the degrees from unaccredited schools.