Carol Rosenberg (original) (raw)

Portrait of Carol Rosenberg

What I Cover

I have been reporting on the Pentagon’s offshore prison since the first detainees were brought there from Afghanistan in January 2002, four months to the day after the 9/11 attacks. I bring to this complex, ideologically fraught assignment thousands of days reporting from the base, earlier experience as a reporter in the Middle East and a deep well of sources. My focus is on the offshore U.S. military operation that has held about 780 men and boys there across two decades, and the tens of thousands of men and women who served there as members of the military and government contractors.

To do this, I sift through leads, conduct background and on-the-record interviews, keep up with a constant flow of court filings and other legal documents. I ask and re-ask questions of prison and military authorities. I spend weeks at a time at Guantánamo, and regularly observe hearings in the war crimes cases to track developments and report and gather the news.

My Background

I made my first trip to Guantánamo in 1999 to report on a Clinton administration initiative to empty the base’s minefield. I have logged more time at Guantánamo Bay than any other reporter. The American Bar Association awarded me a Silver Gavel for my war court reporting. From 1987-1994, I was based in the Middle East, primarily for my previous employer, the Miami Herald. There I covered war, peace talks, politics and popular culture, and periodically returned there as news assignments required. I joined The Times in 2019.

I grew up in New England and obtained a bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where I began my journalism career as a stringer for United Press International.

Journalistic Ethics

The Times has strict ethical standards that I follow. Reporting from Guantánamo requires signing Pentagon ground rules, a contract with the government. In it, I agree to show government representatives every photograph I take, even a selfie, and they decide which ones I get to keep. I also agree to not disclose certain security features I observe, for example the number of soldiers the prison commander posts inside the courtroom. The Times pays for all travel, guest quarters and meals. We maintain our journalistic independence and do not shy away from questioning the authorities and invocations of national security.

Contact Me

I welcome all news tips and will keep your confidence and pursue them with journalistic rigor.


  1. CreditMarisa Schwartz Taylor/The New York Times

  2. CreditBtihal Remli for The New York Times

  3. CreditCristina Baussan for The New York Times

  4. CreditDoug Mills/The New York Times

  5. CreditStaff Sgt. Jeremy Lock, Air Force

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