Dion Nissenbaum left McClatchy's Washington Bureau in February 2011.

He covered Afghanistan and South Asia as McClatchy's bureau chief in Kabul, and before that was the McClatchy bureau chief in Jerusalem.

He also covered the conflict in Iraq, working as both an embedded reporter with the U.S. Marines and as a unilateral reporter based in Baghdad.

In 2004, Dion helped cover the landmark Palestinian elections after the death of Yasser Arafat. He spent more than five years covering California politics for the San Jose Mercury News, where he won awards for his coverage of Arnold Schwarzenegger's historic run for governor.