After two years in Chicago Crewdson was made the Tribune's chief West Coast correspondent, based in Los Angeles.
[3] In 1996, Crewdson authored a 12-page special report for the Tribune about commercial airplanes' inadequate medical equipment for passenger health emergencies.
[4] Following 9/11 Crewdson published numerous Tribune articles about terrorism, including more than a dozen revealing previously unpublished details of the CIA’s illegal "rendition" of Abu Omar, a Milanese Imam, from Italy to Egypt.
AS a result of Crewdson's reporting, Abu Omar was released after four years in an Egyptian prison where he had been held without charges and tortured.
The piece was entitled, "Tribune Special Report: The Strike on the USS Liberty: New revelations in attack on American spy ship," and the drop deck said, "Veterans, documents suggest U.S., Israel didn't tell full story of deadly '67 incident.
After 28 years at the Chicago Tribune, Crewdson joined the Washington-based investigative reporting team at Bloomberg News, where he produced exclusive stories on campaign finance which garnered the National Press Foundation’s Dirksen Award for coverage of congress, the National Press Club’s Lee Walczak Award for Political Analysis, and honorable mention for the Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting.