Tom Carver

Tom Carver is Newsnight's Washington Correspondent.

He joined the BBC as a trainee in 1986, hoping for adventure after three uneventful years as a British Army officer. After a year as the Isle of Wight reporter - his first 'overseas posting' - he fled to Afghanistan where he lived with the mujihadeen for a summer and witnessed the retreat of the Soviet Army.

In 1989, he became a reporter for the Today Programme and covered the collapse of Communism and the first Gulf War.

His reports made worldwide headlines in 1991 when he smuggled himself into northern Iraq and joined one million Kurds fleeing over the mountains of eastern Turkey pursued by Saddam's army.

In the 1990s, he spent three years as BBC's Southern Africa Correspondent. In the space of one week he witnessed the end of white rule in South Africa and the start of the Rwandan genocide.

Appointed the BBC's Defence Correspondent, he covered the war in Bosnia where he was imprisoned briefly for flying over the frontline in a UN helicopter.

He has been a BBC Washington Correspondent since 1997. He has reported on three American elections, two hurricanes and one presidential impeachment. He was part of the BBC's award-winning coverage of September 11th.

He joined the Newsnight team in 2001. He lives with his wife and three children within commuting distance of the White House.