Larry Abramson
Larry Abramson is NPR's National Security Correspondent. He covers the Pentagon, as well as issues relating to the thousands of vets returning home from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Prior to his current role, Abramson was NPR's Education Correspondent covering a wide variety of issues related to education, from federal policy to testing to instructional techniques in the classroom. His reporting focused on the impact of for-profit colleges and universities, and on the role of technology in the classroom. He made a number of trips to New Orleans to chart the progress of school reform there since Hurricane Katrina. Abramson also covers a variety of news stories beyond the education beat.
In 2006, Abramson returned to the education beat after spending nine years covering national security and technology issues for NPR. Since 9/11, Abramson has covered telecommunications regulation, computer privacy, legal issues in cyberspace, and legal issues related to the war on terrorism.
During the late 1990s, Abramson was involved in several special projects related to education. He followed the efforts of a school in Fairfax County, Virginia, to include severely disabled students in regular classroom settings. He joined the National Desk reporting staff in 1997.
For seven years prior to his position as a reporter on the National Desk, Abramson was senior editor for NPR's National Desk. His department was responsible for approximately 25 staff reporters across the United States, five editors in Washington, and news bureaus in Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. The National Desk also coordinated domestic news coverage with news departments at many of NPR's member stations. The desk doubled in size during Abramson's tenure. He oversaw the development of specialized beats in general business, high-technology, workplace issues, small business, education, and criminal justice.
Abramson joined NPR in 1985 as a production assistant with Morning Edition. He moved to the National Desk, where he served for two years as Western editor. From there, he became the deputy science editor with NPR's Science Unit, where he helped win a duPont-Columbia Award as editor of a special series on Black Americans and AIDS.
Prior to his work at NPR, Abramson was a freelance reporter in San Francisco and worked with Voice of America in California and in Washington, D.C.
He has a master's degree in comparative literature from the University of California at Berkeley. Abramson also studied overseas at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, and at the Free University in Berlin, Germany.
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The Zacarias Moussaoui sentencing trial continues with testimony from the families of World Trade Center attack victims. The prosecutors also presented evidence of suffering from the Pentagon attack. The government is trying to convince the jury to vote for the death penalty for Moussaoui.
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Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was among those giving emotional testimony at the sentencing trial of Zacarias Moussaoui about the horror of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Prosecutors want Moussaoui to get the death penalty for his role in the attacks. The defense will try to show that Moussaoui deserves a life sentence. -
Members of Congress hope to block a deal that would place control of several U.S. ports in foreign hands. Dubai Ports World has agreed to buy a company that operates six major seaports. Federal officials insist the purchase does not pose a security risk.
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Defendant Zacarias Moussaoui repeatedly interrupts efforts to select a jury during the first day of his sentencing trial. Moussaoui has pleaded guilty to conspiracy in the Sept. 11 attacks. The jurors will determine whether Moussaoui receives the death penalty.
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After four years of delays and legal detours, jury selection will begin Monday for the sentencing of admitted terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui. He has already pleaded guilty to complicity in the Sept. 11 plots. But federal law lays down a high standard of proof before a jury can impose the death penalty, the sentence prosecutors are seeking.
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A new expiration date looms for some parts of the USA Patriot Act. Congress apparently is not close to agreement on some provisions, including authorization for the FBI to demand library and other business records.
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Attorneys for Zacarias Moussaoui plan to provide evidence of a troubled childhood in order to save their client from a possible death sentence. Moussaoui pleaded guilty to complicity in the Sept. 11 plot last year and faces a sentencing trial that begins next month. -
Gen. Michael Hayden headed the National Security Agency when now-contested domestic surveillance procedures were put into play. Monday, he defended the choices made by the NSA and the Bush administration.
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Two civil liberties groups file lawsuits against the Bush administration, charging the government's domestic eavesdropping program is illegal and unconstitutional. The suits say the program has had a chilling effect on free speech, and the groups are seeking a court injunction to shut down the effort.
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A report in The New York Times Friday says in 2002, President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to monitor the international phone calls and e-mails of hundreds of people inside the United States. The surveillance went on for years and was conducted without court approval in order to search for evidence of terrorist activity.
