Center for a New American Security

David Cloud was the Pentagon Correspondent for The New York Times from 2005 to 2007 and a national security reporter with The Wall Street Journal for eight years before that. Based in Washington, he has focused since 2001 on the United States military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq, which he has reported from in numerous visits. He also has reported from throughout the Middle East and North Africa. He is now working with Greg Jaffe of the Wall Street Journal on a book about the United States Army in Iraq. It will examine the role played by four generals – John Abizaid, George Casey, Peter Chiarelli, and David Petraeus – who have had the greatest impact on the conduct of the Iraq war. The book, which is being published by Crown/Random House in Spring 2009, reveals how the Army's winnowing process led to the four generals’ ascension, and how each man's theories about modern warfare have been – and are being – tested. He has also worked at The Chicago Tribune, where he covered foreign affairs, and at Congressional Quarterly. In 2002, he was one of several Wall Street Journal reporters awarded the Jesse Laventhol Prize by the American Association of Newspaper Editors for coverage of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. Cloud is a graduate of The College of William and Mary, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and he did graduate studies in international relations at the Elliott School of International Relations. He and his wife, Jennifer, have a son and live in Bethesda, Maryland.