scott shane is an american journalist currently employed by the new york times reporting principally about the united states intelligence communityprior to joining the times from 1983 to 2004 shane was a reporter for the baltimore sun covering a range of beats he was the suns moscow correspondent from 1988 to 1991 shane witnessed and reported on a crucial time in russias modern history his book dismantling utopia how information ended the soviet union provided a brilliant insight into the root causes of the demise of the soviet regime one of the main protagonists in the book was a dissident and political prisoner andrei mironov in 1995 he and tom bowman cowrote a sixpart explanatory series of articles on the national security agency the first major investigation of nsa since james bamfords 1982 book the puzzle palace the baltimore sun is the homedelivery newspaper for many nsa employees working at its ft meade maryland headquartersapart from his role as a reporter of the news shane became part of the news himself for his contact with former cia officer john kiriakou who was sentenced to 30 months in prison on january 25 2013 after entering into a pleabargain agreement in which he accepted conviction for violation of one count of the intelligence identities protection act in return for all other charges against him by the government being dropped kiriakous attorneys had sought to depose shane named as journalist b in the indictment as part of his defense but withdrew their subpoena to do so the prosecution had contended that kiriakou had been a source for shanes 2008 report that named noncovert cia employee deuce martinez as having been an interrogator of khalid shaikh mohammed the mastermind of the attacks of september 11 2001 although martinez did not participate in the extensive prequestioning waterboarding of ksm shane wrote about his relationship with kiriakou in a rare firstperson account published by the times of a reporters role in a story involving national security and secrecy