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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Francis Gary Powers became an iconic Cold War figure when his U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960. Yet when he returned home, a shadow hung over him. On Friday, the Pentagon honored him posthumously. -
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has arrived in Afghanistan to review the progress of the war and to discuss plans for withdrawing forces. Panetta's trip comes a day after a Taliban attack in southern Afghanistan left more than 20 people dead and at least 50 wounded.
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When Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and the reporters traveling with him were driven from Hanoi's airport into the city, the police officers escorting the motorcade were tough on the city's scooter riders. -
In Hanoi, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta returned a North Vietnamese soldier's diary. Vietnam's defense minister gave Panetta an American Army sergeant's letters. The exchange marks another milestone in the countries' relations.
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With its step-by-step return to Asia, the U.S. is looking for ways to send a message to China without picking a fight. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is visiting the region, emphasizing that the U.S. is back but with a much lighter touch. In Vietnam, he's hoping to build stronger defense ties. -
In the early days of the Cold War, the U-2 spy plane helped the U.S. collect intelligence on the Soviet Union. More than a half-century later, not only is the U-2 still in commission, but it's also successfully competing against the more expensive, remotely piloted Global Hawk. -
The military wants to encourage more veterans to get treatment if they think they have PTSD. But that would add more cases to an already overburdened system. -
The former al-Qaida leader was planning attacks throughout his years in Pakistan, which included a wish to kill President Obama. But the plots were far beyond the capability of his weakened organization. And bin Laden was upset with the actions of affiliated groups he couldn't control. -
Some of the documents found during the raid on Osama bin Laden's hideaway in Pakistan were released Thursday. West Point's Combating Terrorism Center has been reviewing those documents.
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The Department of Veterans Affairs says any veteran who seeks mental health services gets help within days. But a new investigation by the agency's inspector general says the statistics are skewed to make wait times appear shorter. The VA will have a chance at a Senate hearing Wednesday to explain how it's going to do better.
