An award-winning foreign correspondent and investigative reporter, Sebastian worked for almost 23 years for the Los Angeles Times, covering everything from terrorism to arts to the Mexican border. He served most recently as a national security correspondent in Washington, D.C., and his previous posts include international investigative correspondent and bureau chief in Paris and Buenos Aires, with assignments in the Middle East and North Africa.
Rotella has been honored with numerous journalism awards throughout his career. In 2013, his multi-faceted "Finding Oscar" investigation won a Peabody Award, Dart Center Award for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma, and was a finalist for the Scripps Howard Ernie Pyle Award. He was recognized with an Urbino Press Award in 2012 for excellence in journalism. His "A Perfect Terrorist" investigation of the Mumbai attacks (in conjunction with Frontline) was nominated for an Emmy and the online version of the story resulted in his third Overseas Press Club Award in 2011.
In 2006, he was named a Pulitzer finalist for international reporting for his coverage of terrorism and Muslim communities in Europe. He won the German Marshall Fund's senior award for excellence in European reporting the same year. He was part of a team whose coverage of al-Qaida received an award from the Overseas Press Club and finalist honors for Harvard University's Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting in 2002. In 2001, he won Columbia University's Maria Moors Cabot Prize for his career coverage of Latin America. His work in Latin America also won honors from the Overseas Press Club, the Inter-American Press Association and the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
He is the author of two books: Twilight on the Line: Underworlds and Politics at the U.S.-Mexico Border, which was named a New York Times Notable Book in 1998; and the novel, Triple Crossing, published by Little, Brown/Mulholland Books in August, 2011. He speaks Spanish, French and Italian. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and was born in Chicago.
Articles
April 26, 1:58 p.m.
Sophisticated lessons in spycraft, explosives and arms detailed in a Cyprus court case that is forcing the European Union to consider designating the Lebanese-based group as a terrorist organization.
April 19, 4:30 p.m.
Counterterror officials say the emerging portrait suggests the brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev slipped into Islamic extremism under the influence of Internet propaganda.
April 4, 12:08 p.m.
A new study of 917 fallen Lashkar-e-Taiba fighters documents the group’s extensive integration in Pakistani society and helps explain its impunity for the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
Feb. 22, 9:46 a.m.
Despite extensive evidence and a U.S. indictment, Pakistani authorities haven’t moved to arrest accused masterminds in the 2008 massacre or explain the alleged involvement of officers in Pakistan’s spy agency.
Feb. 5, 4:35 p.m.
Bulgarian Investigators say the July 18 explosion that killed six appears to be part of a continuing covert offensive by Iran and Hezbollah to retaliate against Israel and the West.
Jan. 24, 4:44 p.m.
Although David Coleman Headley avoided the death penalty, Judge Harry Leinenweber said he hopes the sentence “will keep him under lock and key for the rest of his natural life.”
Jan. 24, 2:17 p.m.
Officials say David Coleman Headley slipped through the cracks despite repeated warnings to U.S. law enforcement. Indian authorities think the U.S. knew more than it has revealed about the ex-informant’s activities before the 2008 siege that killed 166 people, including six U.S. citizens. Both scenarios suggest breakdowns in counterterror systems.
Jan. 17, 5 p.m.
Tahawwur Rana, 52, had been convicted in 2011 on two counts of material support of terrorism for aiding Pakistan’s Lashkar-i-Taiba militant group and of a plot to attack a Danish newspaper.
Jan. 9, 10:32 a.m.
ProPublica’s reporting last year about the search for perpetrators of the Dos Erres masscare led to the discovery that an ex-colonel who is a leading suspect had lived openly in an upscale Guatemala City neighborhood.
Dec. 6, 2012, 12:01 a.m.
As the net flow of immigrants from Mexico nears zero, violent and impoverished Central American countries have emerged as the fastest-rising source of illegal immigrants to the U.S. Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala — a hotbed of smuggling — highlights the challenges of managing immigration in the years ahead.
Oct. 18, 2012, 9 a.m.
Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes denies any role in the slaughter of 250 villagers at Dos Erres in 1982, but investigators say he concealed his background as an army commando and manipulated the immigration system.
Oct. 18, 2012, 9 a.m.
Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes niega cualquier participación en la masacre de 250 campesinos en Dos Erres en 1982, pero los investigadores dicen que escondió su pasado como comando militar y manipuló el sistema.
Sept. 24, 2012, 1:30 p.m.
As a boy,
Oscar Ramírez Castañeda
was abducted by an officer in the squad that conducted one of the worst
massacres in Guatemala’s civil war.
Sept. 21, 2012, 5:53 p.m.
Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes had become a
U.S. citizen while allegedly concealing his military service and involvement in
the infamous 1982 attack that left more than 250 people dead in a remote
Guatemalan village.
Aug. 31, 2012, 12:02 p.m.
Treasury Department issued an order against eight leaders of Lashkar-e-Taiba that prohibits Americans from doing business with them and freezes assets.
Aug. 9, 2012, 6 a.m.
U.S. and Indian officials say weeks of interrogating Zabiuddin Ansari yielded new evidence that Pakistani intelligence officers helped plan and direct the 2008 terror onslaught that cost six Americans and 160 others their lives.
July 30, 2012, 2 p.m.
Bent on avenging attacks on its nuclear program, Iran and Hezbollah have allegedly spun at least 10 terror plots in the past year, most of them failures. With this month’s deadly bombing in the beach resort of Burgas, Western counterterror officials say, the Shiite alliance has crossed a dangerous line.
May 29, 2012, 2:21 p.m.
Tranquilino Castañeda believed his son Oscar was dead, killed by Guatemalan Army commandos at Dos Erres. Oscar believed the lieutenant who abducted him was real father.
