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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Gen. John Abizaid, the new head of U.S. Central Command, calls the daily attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq a "classical guerrilla-type campaign" -- a characterization that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has repeatedly resisted. Abizaid blames most of the attacks on mid-level Baathists, and says the resistance is becoming more coordinated. Hear NPR's Tom Gjelten.
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A group of Iraqis fires rocket-propelled grenades at a U.S. military convoy in Baghdad, killing one U.S. soldier and wounding six others. The attack comes a day after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned that the United States might need to deploy more troops to Iraq to counter a growing resistance movement. Hear NPR's Tom Gjelten.
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CIA Director George Tenet acknowledges that his agency allowed an erroneous statement about Iraq to appear in President Bush's State of the Union address in January. Bush said that Iraq had tried to purchase uranium to build nuclear weapons. This week, the White House acknowledged that the claim was incorrect. Hear NPR's Tom Gjelten.
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Gen. Tommy Franks tells a House committee that U.S. troop strength in Iraq will remain at current levels until at least the end of the year. Franks, who directed U.S. forces during the war, acknowledges the possibility that U.S. troops could still be in Iraq four years from now. NPR's Tom Gjelten reports.
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Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Tommy Franks tell a Senate committee that attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq are increasing. But they insist that the United States will stay in Iraq as long as it takes to stabilize the country. Senators from both parties urge the Pentagon to be honest about the costs and dangers that commitment could entail. NPR's Tom Gjelten reports.
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Two Arab TV stations broadcast audiotapes they say are by Saddam Hussein. The voice on the tapes calls for resistance to U.S.-led forces. U.S. officials say the perception that Saddam is alive and plotting a return to power may be fueling recent attacks on foreign troops. Hear NPR's Tom Gjelten and NPR's Guy Raz.
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Pentagon officials say they still don't know what happened to two American soldiers who disappeared from their guard post in Iraq Wednesday. As attacks on U.S. and British forces continue, some analysts suggest a full-blown guerrilla war may be developing in Iraq. The Pentagon says the attacks may be coordinated but blames them largely on Saddam Hussein loyalists. NPR's Tom Gjelten reports.
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Unidentified Iraqis ambush British troops in southern Iraq, wounding eight British soldiers. The circumstances surrounding the deaths of six British soldiers in a separate incident are not fully known, but officials believe they were killed by hostile fire. Meanwhile, Pentagon officials say the level of coordination involved in the ongoing attacks on U.S. and British troops in Iraq is "unclear." NPR's Tom Gjelten reports.
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The Pentagon reveals that U.S. forces attacked a convoy of vehicles near the Iraq-Syria border last week. U.S. officials say the attacks targeted "someone" associated with Saddam Hussein's regime, but will not confirm reports from a British newspaper suggesting Saddam himself may have been in the convoy. Hear NPR's Tom Gjelten.
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American forces in Iraq have captured Abid Hamid Mahmud, Saddam Hussein's security chief and No. 4 on the U.S. list of 55 most-wanted Iraqi leaders. The U.S. military says Mahmud could have knowledge of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and Saddam's whereabouts. Hear NPR's Tom Gjelten.