Eric Schmitt

Eric Schmitt is a senior writer for The New York Times who covers domestic and internationalism terrorism issues.

For nearly 20 years, he has covered military and national security affairs for the newspaper. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, he has made 10 reporting trips to Iraq and five trips to Afghanistan to cover American military operations there. In the past year, he has also reported on counter-terrorism operations in Pakistan, Mali and Southeast Asia.

Previously, Schmitt reported on demographic and national immigration issues for The Times and covered Congress for five years. During that time, he one of newspaper's main reporters assigned to the 2000 congressional elections as well as the House and Senate impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton in 1999.

Schmitt joined the Washington bureau of The Times in May 1990 as one of the paper's two Pentagon correspondents. He covered military operations Somalia, Haiti and the Middle East in the 1991 Persian Gulf war.

Schmitt has been a reporter with The Times since 1983, with assignments including business news and Long Island regional correspondent. Schmitt was the assistant to New York Times senior columnist James Reston in 1983-84. Before joining The Times, Schmitt covered education issues for The Tri-City Herald in Kennewick, Wash.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in International Relations at Williams College, and during that time studied at El Instituto Internacional in Madrid for a year. He received a Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University for the 2006-07 academic year.

Schmitt has shared two Pulitzer Prizes. In 1999, he was part of a team of New York Times reporters awarded the Pulitzer for coverage of the transfer of sensitive military technology to China. In 2009, he was a part of a team of New York Times reporters awarded the Pulitzer for coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan. He is co-author of Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America’s Secret Campaign Against Al Qaeda.

Schmitt lives with his wife, Felice Berkowitz, and two daughters in Fairfax, Va.