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Outlet profile

Long War Journal

U.S. right / hawkish national-security

Owned byOwned and operated by Public Multimedia Inc. (PMI), a nonprofit founded in 2007 by Bill Roggio and Paul Hanusz; published as a project of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington, D.C.-based think tank
FundingPrimarily donor-funded through FDD, which receives contributions from foundations including the Abramson Family Foundation, Newton Becker family foundation, and Sarah Scaife Foundation; also accepts direct reader donations
On the administrationbroadly supportive

Background

Long War Journal originated around 2004–2005 as a personal blog by Bill Roggio, a former U.S. Army and New Jersey National Guard soldier who began covering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan using open-source reporting and contacts in the U.S. intelligence community. Roggio embedded with U.S. Marine Corps, Army, and Canadian forces in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2005 and 2008, building a following for detailed battlefield tracking. In September 2007, Roggio and business partner Paul Hanusz incorporated Public Multimedia Inc. (PMI) as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit to house the outlet. The site later came under the umbrella of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a think tank founded shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks and originally organized as a pro-Israel donor network called EMET. FDD, led by founder Clifford May and CEO Mark Dubowitz, is widely characterized as neoconservative and strongly pro-Israel, with a focus on countering Iran, jihadist movements, and what it calls authoritarian regimes. Long War Journal is best known for its granular tracking of Taliban territorial control in Afghanistan, Islamic State and al-Qaeda activity globally, and, more recently, U.S. and allied military operations against Iran and the Houthis. Critics note the outlet's close alignment with hawkish think-tank priorities and government sources, while supporters credit it as one of the few outlets providing detailed, map-level battlefield data unavailable from mainstream news organizations.

Sources

  1. FDD's Long War Journal – About
  2. FDD's Long War Journal – Wikipedia
  3. Bill Roggio – Wikipedia
  4. Foundation for Defense of Democracies – Wikipedia
  5. FDD's Long War Journal – Media Bias/Fact Check
  6. Foundation for Defense of Democracies – Influence Watch
  7. Blogging the Long War – Columbia Journalism Review

Profile compiled 2026-09-16; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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