Matthew Rosenberg

Early life

Rosenberg was born in New York. He holds a Bachelor's degree from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Career

Rosenberg began his reporting career at The Associated Press, and served as a foreign correspondent for the news agency in India, East Africa and the Caribbean.

in 2007, Rosenberg joined The Wall Street Journal. There, he interviewed Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of what is considered one of Afghanistan’s most potent insurgent factions, and uncovered the massive amount of cash that flows daily through Kabul’s airport, prompting the temporary suspension of $3.9 billion in American aid to Afghanistan. He also was part of the Journal team that covered the 2008 attack on Mumbai.

Rosenberg joined The New York Times in 2011. His stories have included one of the few detailed accounts of an attack by Afghan soldiers on their American allies, and a look at how Iran has skirted American-imposed sanctions by buying up dollars in Afghanistan, which was awash in hard currency because of massive American cash infusions. He also christened Afghanistan’s first international boxing match "The Squabble in Kabul."

On April 29, 2013, the Times published an investigative report by Rosenberg detailing how the Central Intelligence Agency had delivered bags of cash to the offices of Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, for more than a decade to finance a slush fund for the Afghan leader. Mr. Karzai acknowledged the payments the day the story appeared, and later thanked the C.I.A. for providing the money and said he had been assured the flow of money would continue.

Rosenberg subsequently reported that roughly $1 million in cash provided by the C.I.A to Mr. Karzai’s office was used by the Afghan government to pay a ransom to al Qaeda.

Espionage Accusations

On November 5, 2009, The Nation newspaper in Pakistan printed a front page story that falsely accused Rosenberg of being a spy. The story claimed that Rosenberg worked for the CIA, the U.S. security contractor formerly known as Blackwater and had ties to Israeli intelligence.” Wall Street Journal Managing Editor Robert Thomson wrote to the editor of The Nation, Shireen Mazari, to protest the false story about Rosenberg soon after the article appeared. The Wall Street Journal '​s Daniel Pearl, kidnapped and killed in 2002 in Pakistan, was labelled a Jewish spy in a similar manner by some sections of Pakistani media before his death. Twenty-one editors from the world's major international news organizations also signed a letter of protest, criticizing the unsubstantiated article for compromising Rosenberg's security.

In August 2014, Rosenberg was barred from leaving Afghanistan and interrogated by the country’s attorney general after writing a story about how senior Afghan security officials were considering whether to stage what would, in essence, amount to a coup because of a mounting political crisis.

The following day, the travel ban was abruptly reversed, and Rosenberg was ordered to leave Afghanistan within 24 hours. He departed Afghanistan on August 21, in compliance with the government order. Defending the decision to order out Rosenberg, a government statement called his story "an act of espionage", and Aimal Faizi, a spokesman for President Karzai, said the expulsion had been ordered at "the highest levels."

Personal life

Rosenberg is currently based in Washington, DC.