Nita M. Renfrew was an independent journalist until 2000. Earlier, she had focused on stories having to do with U.S. national security, mainly concerning Central America and the Middle East. She was a correspondent for Europe's leading international affairs monthly, Le Monde Diplomatique (of the French Le Monde).

Her articles appeared in the U.S. in New York Magazine, Aperture, The Wall Street Journal, Newsday and Foreign Policy, and she was a consultant to Frontline and ABC News.

In 1986-'87 she was a member of the Iran Study Group, and after the Gulf War, of another on Iraq, at the Council on Foreign Relations. In 1989, during the invasion of Panama and its aftermath, and during the 1990-'91 Gulf crisis, Renfrew was a frequent guest and commentator on television and radio, including ABC Talk Radio, Pacifica Radio/WBAI (daily commentary, The War Report), and a number of times on CNN. She continued to appear regularly on WBAI and CNN, discussing a variety of subjects, including religious fundamentalism and terrorism.

Born in New York City, Renfrew grew up in Mexico speaking fluent Spanish and studied in Europe, where she learned French, German and Italian. She traveled to Central America and the Middle East many times, living for nearly a year on a kibbutz in Israel. (At the time she became a journalist in the mid-'80s, she had a background in public affairs and conflict resolution, to which field she contributed pioneering papers in the early '80s.) In 1992, Ms. Renfrew's book, Saddam Hussein, was published by Chelsea House. It told a different story from the official one in the U.S., and was recommended by the BBC as one of the three books to read on Saddam. Afterwards, Renfrew co-founded the Vigil Anti zine: Writers Union's Unauthorized Underground Publication, which appeared monthly for over two years.

In 1999, Renfrew finished a manuscript she had been working for over six years titled America's Shooting Edge: The Militia Is You, about the Militia movement in the U.S., which was never published. The manuscript will remain the same, and the 48 chapters will appear, one a week, in this blog. The new title is A History of the American Militia Movement: America's Shooting Edge.