Lipton was among the first reporters to be assigned to cover the Department of Homeland Security full-time . He started shortly after it was created , writing stories that examined the challenges associated with the largest change in federal bureaucracy since Harry S. Truman was president , and chronicling the agency 's struggle as it spent billions of dollars on flawed airport security screening equipment and ships for the Coast Guard . His assignment ended up taking him to disaster zones around the world , including weeks spend in Mississippi and Louisiana in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina , examining flaws in the government response and waste and fraud in hurricane aid . He was also sent in December 2004 to Banda Aceh , along with a team of reporters from '' The New York Times '' , to cover the earthquake and tsunami there that killed more than 150,000
earthquake and tsunami
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
Eric Lipton