Tom Gjelten
Tom Gjelten reports on religion, faith, and belief for NPR News, a beat that encompasses such areas as the changing religious landscape in America, the formation of personal identity, the role of religion in politics, and conflict arising from religious differences. His reporting draws on his many years covering national and international news from posts in Washington and around the world.
In 1986, Gjelten became one of NPR's pioneer foreign correspondents, posted first in Latin America and then in Central Europe. Over the next decade, he covered social and political strife in Central and South America, the first Gulf War, the wars in the former Yugoslavia, and the transitions to democracy in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
His reporting from Sarajevo from 1992 to 1994 was the basis for his book Sarajevo Daily: A City and Its Newspaper Under Siege (HarperCollins), praised by the New York Times as "a chilling portrayal of a city's slow murder." He is also the author of Professionalism in War Reporting: A Correspondent's View (Carnegie Corporation) and a contributor to Crimes of War: What the Public Should Know (W. W. Norton).
After returning from his overseas assignments, Gjelten covered U.S. diplomacy and military affairs, first from the State Department and then from the Pentagon. He was reporting live from the Pentagon at the moment it was hit on September 11, 2001, and he was NPR's lead Pentagon reporter during the early war in Afghanistan and the invasion of Iraq. Gjelten has also reported extensively from Cuba in recent years. His 2008 book, Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba: The Biography of a Cause (Viking), is a unique history of modern Cuba, told through the life and times of the Bacardi rum family. The New York Times selected it as a "Notable Nonfiction Book," and the Washington Post, Kansas City Star, and San Francisco Chronicle all listed it among their "Best Books of 2008." His latest book, A Nation of Nations: A Great American Immigration Story (Simon & Schuster), published in 2015, recounts the impact on America of the 1965 Immigration Act, which officially opened the country's doors to immigrants of color. He has also contributed to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and other outlets.
Since joining NPR in 1982 as labor and education reporter, Gjelten has won numerous awards for his work, including two Overseas Press Club Awards, a George Polk Award, and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. A graduate of the University of Minnesota, he began his professional career as a public school teacher and freelance writer.
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The failure of the FBI and the CIA to keep track of Tamerlan Dsarnaev in the months preceding the Boston Marathon bombing has prompted criticism that U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials ignored important warning signs. The case is reminiscent of criticism leveled at counterterrorism officials after Army Maj. Nidal Hasan's shooting rampage at Fort Hood Texas in November 2009 and after the al-Qaida-directed attempt to blow up a civilian airliner on Christmas Day of that year. In both cases, counterterrorism officials subsequently acknowledged that mistakes had been made. Whether authorities missed important evidence of Dsarnaev's intentions, however, is far less clear. Veteran intelligence officers say resource and legal constraints make it very difficult to follow suspicious individuals closely unless their behavior is genuinely alarming.
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Investigators are trying to determine if the bombing suspects acted alone. The bombs that exploded at the marathon were simple and similar to ones law enforcement officials come across on a regular basis. -
The FBI held a press conference on Thursday about the latest news in the Boston Marathon bombing investigation. Robert Siegel talks to Tom Gjelten for more.
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Hundreds of people gathered at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston's South End, about a mile from the bombing site, for an interfaith memorial service Thursday.
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A Defense Intelligence Agency report suggests that North Korea has the ability to make nuclear weapons small enough to put on a missile. That does not necessarily mean that North Korea has the capacity to launch a nuclear attack.
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During his presidency, Hugo Chavez gave Venezuelan consumers cheap gasoline. He propped up the Cuban regime, and he offered oil on preferential terms to 18 regional countries. But Chavez died before he had to confront the economic and political problems certain to plague his successor. -
When it comes to North Korea's latest belligerence, U.S. officials can sound more like an exasperated parent responding to a child's tantrum. That's just their first warning, though.
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As North Korean leader Kim Jong Un threatens nuclear strikes on South Korea, Japan and the U.S., there is a new determination across the region to adopt a tougher line. There's talk now in Japan and South Korea that they should have nuclear weapons of their own — a position the U.S. opposes. -
The Obama administration is taking steps to put the CIA's drone program under Pentagon control. The CIA has been covertly using drones to target and kill suspected terrorists. Putting the program under Pentagon control would make it more transparent and legally restricted.
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In his annual assessment of threats, the director of national intelligence also cited Iran and North Korea. He warned the spending cuts mandated under the sequestration jeopardized the nation's safety.
