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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A look at major cyberattacks that have rocked the Internet in recent years
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Climate scientists say Colombia's glaciers could disappear within 15 years. Wet highland areas that provide much of the country's fresh water are getting warmer and drier. And each year, flooding becomes more severe. The coastal area of Tumaco has become an example of how environmental and security pressures are undermining previously stable communities. -
Senior investigators say they did know that accused Fort Hood, Texas, shooter Nidal Hasan had communicated with people with links to al-Qaida. They say the leads were checked, and the content of the communications seemed in line with Hasan's professional research as a psychiatrist studying post-traumatic stress disorder.
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The steps taken to prevent an economic collapse have challenged longstanding assumptions about the operation of modern free-market capitalism championed by Adam Smith, and the role of the government in the economy.
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Lawyers for Roxana Saberi say the American journalist has been released from a Tehran prison. A court on Sunday suspended her eight-year prison setence.
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President Barack Obama's choice to lead the National Intelligence Council has withdrawn his agreement to serve in that position. Chas Freeman, a veteran diplomat, had come under fire for statements he has made in the past about China and Israel.
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Leon Panetta, President Barack Obama's nominee to lead the CIA, told lawmakers at his confirmation hearing Thursday he sought advice from former agency chiefs about how to make up for his lack of experience. Panetta has almost no experience in the intelligence field.
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Along with the order to shut down the Guantanamo detention camp, President Obama put a stop to the CIA's use of extreme interrogation techniques on suspected terrorists. That order requires U.S. intelligence agencies to abide by guidelines laid down in the Army Field Manual. Still, the new order left some questions unanswered.
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President-elect Barack Obama has named former White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta as his choice to head the CIA. He also picked retired Adm. Dennis Blair to be director of national intelligence, which oversees all intelligence operations.
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U.S. officials tell NPR about what they say is a "significant" victory in the war against al-Qaida in Pakistan. A CIA strike on New Year's Day is said to have killed the terrorist organization's chief of operations in Pakistan, along with his top lieutenant. If the U.S. intelligence is true, this is an important development.
