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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A federal appeals court rules the Bush administration can deny legal rights to combatants seized on the battlefield -- even if they are U.S. citizens. The ruling specifically affects Yaser Esam Hamdi, who was captured with Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. NPR's Larry Abramson reports.
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A federal appeals court rules the Bush administration can deny legal rights to combatants seized on the battlefield — even if they are U.S. citizens. The ruling specifically affects Yaser Hamdi, captured in Afghanistan while allegedly fighting for the Taliban. Hear NPR's Larry Abramson and NPR's Michele Norris.
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The FBI drops its search for five Middle Eastern men believed to have entered the United States illegally on Christmas Eve. Bureau officials expressed growing doubts about the credibility of their informant. Hear more from NPR's Michele Norris and NPR's Larry Abramson.
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The FBI continues its search for five men who are believed to have entered the United States illegally from Canada around Christmas Day. Authorities say the men are not linked to terrorism. NPR's Larry Abramson reports.
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Homeland security warriors at the Pentagon and the CIA say the next terrorist attack may be prevented by investing in data-mining -- the science of finding patterns in colossal amounts of information. Companies are lining up to supply the government with the equipment to process the raw data. NPR's Larry Abramson reports.
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The Federal Trade Commission offers consumers relief from annoying telemarketer calls. It's a new, national do-not-call list. The action follows an unprecedented number of consumer complaints about unwanted calls. But the telemarketing industry is complaining and threatening a lawsuit. NPR's Larry Abramson reports.
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A report from the joint House-Senate intelligence panel recommends overhauling the U.S. intelligence system. Sources familiar with the congressional report say it blames the FBI and the CIA in general, but no individuals specifically, for mishandling intelligence about possible terrorist attacks. Hear NPR's Larry Abramson.
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A special congressional committee today released its long-awaited report on intelligence failures prior to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. The committee faulted the FBI, the CIA and other governmental agencies for organizational problems that kept them from detecting the terrorist plot, according to the report. The bipartisan committee issued 19 recommendations for improving the nation's intelligence services, but did not single out individuals for blame. NPR's Larry Abramson reports.
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Some lawmakers want to create a new domestic intelligence agency. They say the FBI can't handle the dual roles of law enforcement and gathering intelligence to thwart terrorism. But others worry civil liberties will be curtailed. NPR's Larry Abramson reports.
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Some FBI officials are privately upbraiding staff for moving too slowly on a reorganization following the Sept. 11 attacks. Meanwhile, Congress wants to know -- is the FBI ready to fight the war on terror? NPR's Larry Abramson reports.
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The Department of Homeland Security prepares to deal with the tangle of different -- and incompatible -- computer systems at the various agencies from which the department is being created. NPR's Larry Abramson reports.
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NPR's Larry Abramson reports on the Total Information Awareness program. The project is intended to develop a method of tracking individuals' transactions for clues to a planned terrorist attack. The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is in charge of the project.