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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Thousands of pages of secret military reports obtained by The New York Times and shared with NPR put a name, a history and a face on some of the hundreds of men held at the detention camp. -
Nuclear and biological weapons are covered under arms control pacts. But no such agreement exists for cyberweapons. The reason, experts say, is that some countries see "cyber disarmament" as a way to quash pro-democracy activists.
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While the U.S. has unequaled offensive cyberwar capability, experts say it is unprepared to fend off a massive cyberattack. "I see this as possibly one of the gravest intelligence battles the U.S. has ever fought, and it's a battle we're currently losing," says cyberpolicy analyst James Lewis. -
No country in the world is more dependent on its computers than the U.S., making it uniquely vulnerable to attack. One official tells NPR that the Pentagon has experienced an "explosion" of computer attacks, currently averaging about 5,000 each day. But is the country ready to wage a cyberwar? -
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. -
Jan. 1, 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. Led by a young Fidel Castro, the revolution wrenched power from the American-backed Batista regime. Today, Cuba remains the only communist nation in the Western hemisphere, making Castro one of the most polarizing figures of modern times. NPR's Tom Gjelten, who spent decades reporting on Cuba, takes a look back.
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Hurricane Gustav pummeled Cuba last week before the storm made landfall in the U.S. Now, Hurricane Ike is sweeping across the island, days after Cuba rejected storm aid from the U.S. Michael Voss, a Cuba-based journalist for the BBC, and NPR's Tom Gjelten, offer an update on Cuba and the political implications of the storm.
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In Serbia, one of the world's most wanted war criminals was arrested Monday. Radovan Karadzic, the former leader of Serb nationalist forces in Bosnia, was captured in a raid. He had been a fugitive since his indictment on war crimes charges more than a decade ago.
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Intelligence agencies are debating the effects of climate change on national security. A classified assessment delivered to Congress concludes that rising global temperatures would indirectly present a security threat to the United States.
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Two top intelligence officials have testified in Congress about the implications of climate change for U.S. national security. They discussed an assessment that identifies parts of the world where climate change could produce political instability.
