"Business of the Bomb: The Modern Nuclear Marketplace"
Michael Montgomery, of American RadioWorks, and Mark Schapiro, of the Center for Investigative Reporting, teamed up to explore the growing nuclear black market which is making it difficult to contain the proliferation of atomic weapons throughout the world. "Experts cite two ominous trends: an increase in the number of nations seeking to enrich uranium, and the emergence of international nuclear smuggling networks." The hour-long radio documentary can be heard here. (The program will be re-broadcast on KQED in the Bay Area April 30 at 8 p.m. PST. Check your local public radio schedules for broadcast dates in your area.)
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The global food crisis
A series by The Washington Post explores the causes and implications of the current global food crisis, the likes of which have not been seen since the 1970s. "A complex combination of poor harvests, competition with biofuels, higher energy prices, surging demand in China and India, and a blockage in global trade is driving food prices up worldwide." The impact is not limited to impoverished countries; consumers in the U.S. and other countries are feeling the impact of rising food costs.
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High price of diplomacy with China
The first of two investigative reports from the Center for Investigative Reporting's James Sandler examines the Bush administration's efforts to squelch legal proceedings against two high ranking Chinese officials accused of torturing members of religious groups, including Fulan Gong. The two accused officials are former trade minister Bo Xilai and Beijing’s Olympic Organizing Committee President Liu Qi. Despite the extent of the abuse allegations — including deaths and organ harvesting, the Bush administration claims the suit would have "immediate adverse foreign policy consequences." Supporting documents for the investigation can be found here.
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Declassified memo reveals claims to president's unfettered wartime power
Dan Eggen and Josh White of The Washington Post report on the recently declassified 2003 Justice Department memo that was responsible for creating the "legal foundation for the Defense Department's use of aggressive interrogation practices" in the run up to the war in Iraq. The memo suggested that presidential power was nearly unlimited during a time of war and should override laws forbidding torture. The Post provides links to pdfs of the 81-page memo (part 1 & 2).
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A glimpse into the counterfeit trade
This series by The Columbus Dispatch delved into the origins of fake goods that are so common throughout the U.S. The paper sent reporter Jeffrey Sheban and photographer Jeff Hinckley to China, Hong-Kong, Taiwan and Thailand to trace the path that brings counterfeit goods from Asia into the U.S. The series covers how fakes are made, how they find their way to the U.S. and how some companies are trying to fight them.
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Death rates rise at Kabul maternity hospital supported by U.S. training
Maternal and infant death rates spiked at a major Kabul maternity hospital that was promoted as a model of U.S. medical training in Afghanistan. Alison Young of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reveals that "the rate of normal-sized babies dying in labor and delivery at Rabia Balkhi jumped 67 percent last year." The statistics, including death rates from C-sections, raised concern at U.S. Centers for Disease Control. The same U.S.-funded healthcare program also spent $1.3 million on a no-bid contract for LeapFrog talking books "The idea was to teach illiterate Afghan women about hygiene, prenatal care, immunizations and nutrition from talking picture books popular with U.S. children." Documents from the CDC, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson are posted online.
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Investigative journalism challenged in China
The Washington Post's Edward Cody reports on the case of Pang Jiaoming, a reporter in China who lost his job in the wake of publishing investigative stories "reporting that substandard coal ash was being used in construction of a showcase railroad, the $12 billion high-speed line running 500 miles." The Post says that due to a pair of stories on the ash situation, "The Communist Party's Central Propaganda Department and the official All-China Journalists Association issued a directive ordering Pang's employer, the China Economic Times, not only to fire him, but also to 'reinforce the Marxist ideological education of its journalists.'"
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American Imports, Chinese Deaths
Over a 12-month period, investigative reporter Loretta Tofani traveled to China, examining worker conditions and "observed first-hand how Chinese workers routinely risk their health and sometimes their lives making products for export to the United States and other countries." Her series, printed in the Salt Lake Tribune, tells of workers using dangerous, outdated machines, sometimes resulting in serious injury. Also, the air in some factories has proven toxic, with workers exposed to benzene fumes and cadmium dust. The six-part series ends with an examination of who is to blame for these conditions, and what can be done.
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Billions disappear in Baghdad
An investigation by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele in the October issue of Vanity Fair traces $12 billion in U.S. currency which was sent from the Federal Reserve to Baghdad between April 2003 and June 2004. While some of the money was spent on special projects and ministries, Barlett and Steele report that over $9 billion is missing. "Following a trail that leads from a safe in one of Saddam's palaces to a house near San Diego, to a P.O. box in the Bahamas, the authors discover just how little anyone cared about how the money was handled." The story is accompanied on the web by a Q&A with Barlett and Steele.
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US exports unsafe products
While much hoopla was made of the recall of certain Chinese-made products by the Consumer Product Safety Division, United States companies have been allowed to export unsafe products overseas, according to a report by Russell Carrollo of The Sacramento Bee. These items included very flammable children’s clothing, toys and wax crayons with toxic chemicals in them and other goods banned in the U.S., but deemed fit to ship.
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Contractors' murders blamed on Blackwater manager
The gruesome 2004 massacre of four Blackwater USA security guards is being blamed on their Baghdad site manager, Tom Powell, accoring to documents obtained by The (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer. Joseph Neff reports that memos reveal the Bravo 2 and November 1 squads were commanded by Powell to go on a mission despite being undermanned and underprepared. Bravo 2 disregarded directions to drive through Fallujah, instead skirting the city, and returned safely to Baghdad. November 1 drove through Fallujah as directed and was ambushed. All four guards were killed in the attack. The News & Observer's extensive coverage of the Blackwater killings can be found here.
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Sex and the CIA
David E. Kaplan of U.S. News & World Report reveals how female spy veterans of the CIA are taking legal action for being disciplined over “close and continuing relationships” with foreigners. Kaplan reports on the CIA's secret disciplinary hearings and internal investigations, detailing how top female spies lost their jobs after falling in love overseas — while men with foreign relationships, they say, escaped scot-free.
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"Lead Astray"
In a piece for MotherJones, CIR correspondents Sara Shipley Hiles and Marina Walker Guevara reveal how the St. Louis-based firm, Doe Run, expanded its operations abroad at a time when it was facing increasing scrutiny and regulation in the United States, milking money from its Peruvian operation while claiming it couldn't afford to finish its mandatory cleanup plan there. Meanwhile, ninety-nine percent of La Oroya's children are lead-poisoned - a price some families think they have to pay to put food on the table.
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"Murdering the Messengers"
U.S. News and World Report's David Kaplan writes about the killing of Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya and the Russian government's shocking and atrocious lack of response to the execution-style slaying of journalists there. "For those of us in international journalism training, Anna was something of a legend--a relentless investigative reporter who refused to back down as Putin and his cronies have stifled, squeezed, and squelched that nation's once-promising independent media. We muckrakers in the West are fond of saying that we speak truth to power, but what we do is nothing compared with what Anna Politkovskaya did on a regular basis, exposing war crimes in Chechnya and hypocrisy in the Kremlin. Her work was required reading for anyone--journalists, political scientists, intelligence analysts–interested in how post-Soviet Russia really operates."
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Faith and foreign aid
Farah Stockman, Michael Kranish, and Peter S. Canellos of The Boston Globe, with Globe correspondent Kevin Baron, examined the complete database of USAID prime awards from 2001 to 2005, containing more than 52,000 funding actions, to reveal that USAID gave more than $1.7 billion to 159 "faith-based" organizations. The percentage of USAID funds to NGOs that are faith-based doubled from 2001 to 2005, and 98.3% of the faith-based funds go to Christian groups. Bush's orders altered the longstanding practice that groups preach religion in one space and run government programs in another. The administration said religious organizations can conduct services in the same space as they hand out government aid, so long as the services don't take place while the aid is being delivered. The newspaper found many Christian groups are leveraging their proselytizing and missionary activities with US funding - doing the bare minimun, if that, to separate out their church and state functions.
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Workplace safety in Canada
The CBC's investigative unit obtained data from workplace safety insurance boards across Canada to track top national trends in the workplace of today. "Canada's record for reducing workplace fatalities over the previous 20 years was the worst. The project looks at health-care workers, mines, fatalities by province, and more. Audio reports are included in the package. The CBC says the project, the first of its kind, "is the result of three years of research. Journalists with CBC's Investigative Unit navigated freedom of information laws and negotiated for data from workplace safety insurance boards across Canada."
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Planes dangerously close in Canadian skies
Robert Cribb, Fred Vallance-Jones and Tamsin McMahon of The Toronto Star analyzed the aviation data and found that "more than 80,000 passengers have been put at risk over the last five years when airplanes they were travelling in came dangerously close together in Canadian skies." Between 2001 and mid-2005, there were more than 800 incidents in which planes got too close to each other. "The investigation found a safety system straining at the seams. Experts — pilots, mechanics, airline workers and people who study aviation data — warn significant changes must be made to prevent a major catastrophe."
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Contractors are invisible casualties in Iraq
Alejandra Fernandez-Morera of the Scripps Howard News Service found there are significant invisible casualties of the Iraqi occupation. Almost 505 civilian contractors have died in Iraq since the beginning of the war. "Another 4,744 contractors have been injured, according to insurance claims by 209 companies on file at the Department of Labor." The investigation found that neither the Pentagon nor American corporations who hire contractors to support the U.S. military in Iraq will identify the Americans and foreign nationals who have died, citing privacy and security reasons. The unnamed civilians have become a significant part of the cost of the Iraqi occupation, accounting for at least one-sixth of U.S. fatalities suffered. Because the Pentagon has outsourced thousands of jobs, American contractors have become a new kind of Unknown Soldier.
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Data on European farm subsidy payments made available
Farmsubsidy.org is a project coordinated by the Danish International Center for Analytical Reporting (DICAR) and EU Transparency, a nonprofit organization in the United Kingdom. The Web site obtains detailed data relating to payments and recipients of farm subsidies in every EU member state and makes this data available to European citizens. Subsidies paid to farmers under the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy amount to approximately €43.5 billion a year, more than 40% of European Union's entire annual budget, or around €100 a year for each EU citizen. Coordinated from Denmark and the UK, the Web site is the product of intensive collaboration across more than 10 countries.
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Price of gold too high for the environment
Lowell Bergman, Jane Perlez, Kirk Johnson with other contributing reporters of the FRONTLINE/World and The New York Times examined the growing conflict between the local people and the Yanacocha Mine in Peru along with tours of gold mines in the American West, Latin America, Africa and Europe to provide a rare look inside an insular industry with a troubled environmental legacy and an uncertain future. "Some metal mines, including gold mines, have become the near-equivalent of nuclear waste dumps that must be tended in perpetuity. " Hard-rock mining generates more toxic waste than any other industry in the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The agency estimated last year that the cost of cleaning up metal mines could reach $54 billion. The 6 month project revealed that with costs and suspicions of mining companies on the rise in rich countries, 70 percent of gold is now mined in developing countries like Guatemala and Ghana. See the " entire documentary and extra website features " including interview transcripts, FOIA documents and " recent developments " .
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Getty museum had clues it was buying looted pieces
Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino of the Los Angeles Times report the J. Paul Getty Museum, the world's richest art institution, knew as early as 1985 that "three of their principal suppliers were selling objects that probably had been looted and that the museum continued to buy from them anyway." The Times obtained Getty documents that "include memos, purchase agreements, correspondence and other records going back 20 years."
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Loophole endangers drivers in Canada
Kevin McGran of The Toronto Star used federal and provincial records to show that "if you rent a U-Haul, you've got a 50-50 chance of getting a truck that won't pass a road safety check." Ontario police failed nearly half of such vehicles during road examinations between 2002 and 2004, and Ministry of Transportation data suggested a similar pattern at the federal level.
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Thousands of civilians risk lives running bases, protecting officials
Producers Martin Smith and Marcela Gaviria of Frontline worked with the Center for Public Integrity reporters André Verlöy and Bob Williams on "Private Warriors," a collaborative effort between Frontline, RAINMedia and the Center for Public Integrity. The documentary investigates private contractors servicing U.S. military supply lines, running U.S. military bases, and protecting U.S. diplomats and generals. "There are as many as 100,000 civilian contractors and approximately 20,000 private security forces." The investigation includes transcripts of interviews and a frequently asked questions section.
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U.S. implements secret policy to win over Islam
David E. Kaplan of U.S. News & World Reports details how the White House is implementing a secret policy to intervene not just in the Muslim world, but within Islam itself, and how Washington has set up a program of political warfare unmatched since the height of the Cold War forty years ago. The project details how the U.S. government is quietly funding Islamic schools, mosques, think tanks, and media around the world. The piece also includes a graphic detailing the United States' projects to influence Islam globally, and two sidebars, the first describing the role of rocket scientists in the strategy, and the second examining Sufi, a moderate sect of Islam and an enemy to al-Qaeda and other extremists organizations.
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Agency withholds Iraq contract details
Kevin Begos of the Winston-Salem Journal reports on the secrecy surrounding a "$236 million contract to promote democracy in Iraq." The the U.S. Agency for International Development is withholding all "financial information about Research Triangle International's government contract" after the newspaper filed a Freedom of Information request. A founder of the company and the leader of North Carolina's congressional delegation have expressed concern over the secrecy. In December, a three-part Journal investigation into RTI's work revealed a wide range of security and management problems that called into question the effectiveness of the program.
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Britain helps fund illegal street meetings for cleric
Sean O'Neill of the The Times of London used Britain's new Freedom of Information law to obtain records showing that "almost €900,000 has been spent by police to steward illegal street meetings by the radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri and his followers.... The figure is far in excess of previous estimates for the 22-month police operation." Police provided protection for weekly meetings outside the Finsbury Park Mosque.
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Europe filling shoes of EPA, FDA
Mark Schapiro of the Center for Investigative Reporting reports for public radio's Marketplace that "while the Bush Administration unravels decades of hard-fought environmental protections, a new global force is emerging with the power to reshape American industrial practices: the European Union." The three-part series finds that the EU is filling the void left by weakened health and environmental agencies in the United States. "The E.U. is confronting American manufacturers with a dilemma: either conform to Europe's stricter health and environmental standards, or give up the European market." The second and third parts will air in the next month.
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College apparel still made in sweatshops
Matthew Kauffman and Lisa Chedekel of The Hartford Courant find that college-licensed apparel is produced in sweatshop conditions, despite pledges made by academic leaders five years ago. "But today, the $20 T-shirts and $40 sweat shirts that bear the logos of UConn and other major universities are sewn under conditions that are as dismal as those that prompted the pledges — and rapidly getting worse."
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Police chases more deadly than shootings
Debra Jopson and Gerard Ryle of the Sydney Morning Herald report on police chases in New South Wales, finding that " more than 1800 police pursuits in NSW over the past 10 years have ended with a crash, resulting in at least 54 deaths and hundreds of injuries. Eleven people died as a result of police shootings over that same period." Police disciplinary records about the incidents are tough to come by, too: "NSW Police failed to respond to a Freedom of Information request made by the Herald two months ago for documents showing how many police had faced criminal charges arising from police pursuits."
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Iraq contractors tack on multiple costs
Joseph Neff and Jay Price of The (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer looked at the contracts of private military contractors in Iraq and revealed "how costs can add up when the government uses private military contractors to perform tasks once handled by the Army." They detail one case in which, Blackwater, a company based in North Carolina, added a 36 percent markup and its overhead costs, then sent the bill to a Kuwaiti company that tacked on its costs for vehicles and weapons and a profit and then sent an invoice to a German company called ESS. That company added its costs and profit and sent its bill to Halliburton, which added overhead and a profit and presented the final bill to the Pentagon.
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380 tons of explosives missing in Iraq
James Glanz, William J. Broad and David E. Sanger of The New York Times, in cooperation with CBS News' 60 Minutes, report that nearly 380 tons of conventional explosives are missing from one of Iraq's former military installations. The facility was supposed to be under American military control, but White House and Pentagon officials said the explosives vanished sometime after the invasion last year. U.S. officials said they could not explain why the explosives were left unguarded, beyond the fact that coalition forces were overwhelmed by the amount of munitions found throughout Iraq. In a follow-up story, the leader of the military unit that visited the complex said they did not have orders to search for explosives there. The Times published a timeline of events.
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Data reveals claims made by Iraqis against U.S.
Russell Carollo, Larry Kaplow, Mike Wagner and Ken McCall of the Dayton Daily News report on thousands of civil claims made by Iraqis against the U.S. Army in Iraq, cases found in a database obtained by the paper under the Freedom of Information Act. "The records provide a previously unseen portrait of the toll the war has had on civilians in Iraq, and the kinds of incidents described in the records have fueled the growing insurgency and hatred toward the American-led coalition. About 78 percent of the claims are for incidents that occurred after President Bush declared major combat operations over on May 2, 2003." The claims involve more than 400 deaths, although the paper reports that an Army official estimated that as many as 18,000 were filed in 2003. Some of the claims are from people detained in prisons by the military.
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Australian schools profit from land sales
Bruce McDougall and Kelvin Bissett of Australia's Daily Telegraph used records released under the Freedom of Information law to find that "scores of public schools are making millions of dollars selling off part of their grounds and using the cash to bankroll new halls, canteens and libraries." The paper found more than 80 transactions that range from the sale of an entire school to smaller lots of unused land. "Sales of land and other property assets on education sites have topped $80 million over the last two years."
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Australian judges double dipping for expenses
Samantha Maiden of The Australian used data from the Australian Taxation Office to show that "judges who enjoy extensive travel entitlements as part of their salary package are taking a second dip at the public purse by claiming additional trips as work-related expenses." The 1,200 judges claimed an average of $4,077 in work-related expenses such as education and transportation. "High Court judges receive an open-ended entitlement to first-class overseas and domestic travel with their partner. Judges can claim a range of work-related tax deductions from the ATO, including depreciation for robes and wigs."
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Theme park spends thousands on travel
Alan Findlay of The London Free Press in Ontario used Canada's Freedom of Information law to obtain records showing that theme park Ontario Place "has been shelling out more than $3,000 a month in travel expenses to fly its part-time vice-chairperson to and from Timmins for board meetings." The expenses for Peter Doucet include flights to Toronto from his home "three or four times a month" for three-hour meetings. "Adding up airfares, hotel rooms and taxi and limousine charges from 2001 to last March, Doucet's travel costs have totalled $128,599.07."
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Justice Dept: Copying database could destroy it
In response to a Freedom of Information Act request for a database on lobbying activities by foreign governments, the U.S. Department of Justice told The Center for Public Integrity that the database is so "fragile" that making an electronic copy of it "could result in a major loss of data, which would be devastating." The Justice Department's Foreign Agent Registration Unit has refused to answer follow-up questions about the database.
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More children placed in adult psychiatric wards
Liam McDougall of Glasgow, Scotland's Sunday Herald found that a year after doctors raised concerns, "the number of vulnerable children being placed in adult psychiatric wards has increased to record levels in Scotland." The paper found 144 youths under 18 in such facilities; 28 were less than 16 years old. "Doctors say that among those sent to the units were boys in need of treatment for schizophrenia or autism, and girls who were self-harming after being sexually abused."
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Accused priests relocate, often with church's help
Reese Dunklin, Brendan M. Case, Brooks Egerton and Andrew Fa'asau of The Dallas Morning News spent a year tracking Catholic priests accused of sexually abusing children, finding that "from Africa to Latin America to Europe to Asia, these priests have started new lives in unsuspecting communities, often with the help of church officials. They are leading parishes, teaching and continuing to work in settings that bring them into contact with children, despite church claims to the contrary." The first story focuses on the Rev. Frank Klep, a convicted child molester and Australian priest who was sent in 1998 to Samoa, where "Australian police can't touch him now because their country has no extradition treaty with Samoa." A second piece reports that "a prominent candidate to succeed Pope John Paul II recently sheltered a priest who is an admitted child molester and now an international fugitive." The paper has posted a timeline and other resources on its site.
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Ex-officials lobby for aid to oil-rich nations with poor human rights records
Ken Silverstein of the Los Angeles Times has a series on oil companies' efforts in Kazakhstan and Angola, based on internal company documents and other records. In the first piece, Silverstein writes that a group of influential Americans, including a former Secretary of State and the former executive director of the Democratic National Committee, pressed for U.S. support of the authoritarian Kazakh government. "The campaign got results: It rallied supporters in Congress and helped win key concessions from the current Bush administration that allowed the release of U.S. aid despite continuing corruption and human rights problems." The paper found dozens of former government officials "who have worked for the oil industry or for foreign governments with extensive energy reserves — and, almost invariably, poor human rights records." The second story, on Angola, details how oil firms "have won favor with the Dos Santos regime by steering contracts to Angolan insiders and by giving millions of dollars to foundations controlled by the ruling family." Other stories are forthcoming.
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Australian officials use taxpayer money to customize cars
Kelvin Bissett of The Daily Telegraph in Australia used documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request to show that "top State MPs have spent more than $100,000 of taxpayers' money souping up their official limousines with sports suspension, sunroofs, spoilers, mag wheels and even satellite navigation systems." The Holden Caprice vehicles have leather seats, ABS brakes, cruise control and alloy wheels standard, but some MPs added items such as mag wheels and Pirelli tires. "Even the usually frugal Treasurer Michael Egan, who often drives his white Caprice himself, added a $2000 sunroof, as well as cigarette lighter and ashtray. The extras total $2451."
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IRE awards three medals
An astonishing story of brutal war crimes by The (Toledo, Ohio) Blade and a book on the American tax system by David Cay Johnston took top honors in the 2003 IRE Awards. In addition, the Freedom of Information Award went to a team from the (Sioux Falls, S.D.) Argus Leader for exposing a massive secret pardons program rife with questions and conflicts for the governor.
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Australians waiting longest for hip replacements
Jill Pengelley of Australia's The Adelaide Advertiser used hospital records obtained under the Freedom of Information law to show that patients getting hip replacements have the longest waits for surgery. "In the 2003 December quarter, the number waiting more than a year for orthopaedic surgery was 21 per cent higher than it was three years ago, despite the orthopaedic waiting list growing only 6 per cent in that time." Ear, nose and throat surgeries had the second-longest waiting list.
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Special interests hire congressional relatives
The Los Angeles Times details the success of a small public relations firm run by the daughter of U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon. Her foreign clients include people trying to get her father's help. It's the latest example of special interests hiring relatives of important members of Congress as lobbyists and consultants. Over the last year, The Times has identified 11 other House members and 17 senators with relatives who lobby or consult, many of them for clients the members have helped through legislative or other action.
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Aging oil tankers a risk on high seas
Reporter Mark Schapiro, in a project from the Center for Investigative Reporting and Frontline, looks at the maritime industry, "long shrouded in secrecy and protected from accountability by complex corporate structures and foreign flags." Aging tankers are allowed to continue carrying oil around the world as a result of a "tangled web of responsibility" and "elements of the international maritime system," according to "The Lawless Sea." The Los Angeles Times published a column about the subject written by Schapiro.
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Electronic waste poses problems for developing countries
Karl Schoenberger of the San Jose Mercury News reports on scrap yards in India that process waste from discarded computers. "As India emerges as a technology powerhouse, poverty, cheap labor and rampant corruption make it a prime market for the dumping and burning of unregulated electronic waste, environmental activists say." The Indian government maintains that electronic waste is not brought into the country and therefore isn't a problem.
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Widespread poverty, crime a problem for easter Romania
The Romanian Centre for Investigative Journalism spent three months exploring conditions along the eastern border of Romania, which soon will become the far reaches of an enlarged European Union. Reporters found widespread poverty, poaching and smuggling in the region, including a large black market for cigarettes. Stefan Candea, Sorin Ozon and Roman Olearciuc contributed reporting to the project, which is set to be published in four newspapers in Romania, Moldova and Ukraine.
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Saudi charities financed terrorism as U.S. looked away
David E. Kaplan of U.S. News & World Report spent five months tracing the relationship between Saudi Arabian money and terrorism, finding that "over the past 25 years, the desert kingdom has been the single greatest force in spreading Islamic fundamentalism, while its huge, unregulated charities funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to jihad groups and al Qaeda cells around the world." Saudi charities played an important role in a $70 billion campaign to spread the message of the ruling Wahhabi sect. "Saudi largess encouraged U.S. officials to look the other way, some veteran intelligence officers say. Billions of dollars in contracts, grants, and salaries have gone to a broad range of former U.S. officials who had dealt with the Saudis: ambassadors, CIA station chiefs, even cabinet secretaries."
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Examining immigrant "slavery" in Florida
Christine Evans, John Lantigua, Christine Stapleton, Jane Daugherty and Connie Piloto of The Palm Beach Post explore the condition of illegal migrant workers in Florida, finding that "five modern-day slavery cases prosecuted in the past six years by the U.S. government have roots in Florida. In addition,The Post has found two new cases in which men and women say they were locked up while employed in Florida tomato fields." In addition, the paper found widespread Social Security fraud among the workers, often orchestrated by employers in the citrus industry. The series includes a story describing a trip across the Mexican-U.S. border and the financial and human costs of t! he pract ice.
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Marine cover-up: Massacre of POWs by U.S. troops in Korea
Eric Longabardi, Kit R. Roane, and Edward T. Pound of U.S. News & World Report investigate the cover-up of a secret Marine-IG investigation into a former soldier’s claims that North Korean prisoners of war were murdered during a battle in Seoul in 1950. "The Marine Corps investigators failed to pursue a critical piece of evidence: the after-action report for Easy Company, written on Feb. 15, 1951. The 10-page report covered combat operations that began with the Sept. 15, 1950, ... " The report contains this question: "How long did it take you to go through Seoul?" The detailed response includes this damaging statement on Page 4: "The killing of prisoners is something that should be watched. We had some of that going on."
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Series about Hezbollah's global network wins ICIJ Award
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has honored an investigation "that revealed the inner workings of the Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah and its global reach" with the 2003 ICIJ Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting. The series, "In the Party of God," was reported by Jeffrey Goldberg and published in the New Yorker.
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Russian candidates linked to businesses
Francesca Mereu of The Moscow Times studied the lists of state Duma candidates put forth by Russia's major parties to find that "roughly 20 percent of the candidates are directly linked to big or medium businesses, with most of them high up on the lists." The paper analyzed lists from United Russia, the Communist Party, Yabloko, the Union of Right Forces and the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. "One candidate linked to one of the major oil companies, who spoke on condition he not be identified further, said once in the Duma, deputies representing the interests of big oil will try 'to take control of the budget and tax committee to avoid an increased tax burden.'"
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Contracts in Iraq present problems
Rod Nordland and Michael Hirsh of Newsweek investigate allegations of "overspending, favoritism and corruption" in the contracts awarded to help rebuild Iraq. "Six months ago the administration decided to cut corners on normal bidding procedures and hand over large contracts to defense contractors like Bechtel and Halliburton on a limited-bid or no-bid basis." The magazine says there may be "just as many problems ahead, raising serious questions about the vast amounts of money Bush has demanded for Iraq with little tolerance for debate."
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Political donations made by contractors examined
In a six-month investigation, The Center for Public Integrity finds that more than 70 companies and people have been awarded contracts for work in Afghanistan and Iraq, and that they have "donated more money to the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush — a little over $500,000 — than to any other politician over the last dozen years." The Center says it has compiled "the most comprehensive list to date of American contractors in the two nations that were attacked in Washington's war on terror."
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Records reveal dangers faced by Peace Corps volunteers
Russell Carollo and Mei-Ling Hopgood of the Dayton Daily News have a special report on violent attacks on Peace Corps volunteers, using statistics from reports covering the past four decades. "Records from a never-before-released computer database show that reported assault cases involving Peace Corps volunteers increased 125 percent from 1991-2002, while the number of volunteers increased by 29 percent, according to the Peace Corps. Last year, the number of assaults and robberies averaged one every 23 hours." The paper analyzed records from the Peace Corps' Assault Notification and Surveillance System database, concentrating on incidents that occurred in the past 12 years. The Peace Corps responded to the Daily News, claiming that the paper's reporting was flawed and that its crime reporting system "is more effective and has proven to be successful at Peace Corps." With a number of sidebars and additional stories.
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Army unit's actions in Vietnam went unpunished
Michael D. Sallah and Mitch Weiss of The (Toledo, Ohio) Blade investigate alleged war crimes by an American Army platoon in 1967, finding that although "the Army substantiated 20 war crimes by 18 Tiger Force soldiers committed in 1967 — with numerous eyewitnesses — no charges were filed. ... Instead, the case was hidden in the Army's archives, and key suspects were allowed to continue their military careers." Included with the several stories are audio files of platoon members interviewed years after the incidents
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Canadian businesses benefit from war in Iraq
Steven Theobald, Chris Sorensen and Jim Rankin of The Toronto Star report that while Canada declined to send troops to participate in the war in Iraq, Canadian businesses have received more than 4,300 U.S. government contracts from 1997 to 2002, including $1.8 billion in work for the Pentagon. "From big-ticket light armoured vehicles and sophisticated weaponry to protective gear and mundane, low-tech products, Canadian business is cashing in." The paper used federal contract data compiled by the General Services Administration for its analysis.
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Depleted uranium goes undetected during journey
To test security measures, ABC News' Brian Ross carried a suitcase containing 15 pounds of depleted uranium across Europe and then shipped it to New York. The shipment went undiscovered during its "secret 25-day, seven-country journey," despite inspections using X-ray scanning machines and radiation detectors.
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Iran's nuclear program advancing toward bomb-building
Iran is likely to become the world's next nuclear power and "in the late stages of developing the capacity to build a nuclear bomb," according to a three-month investigation by the Los Angeles Times. Douglas Frantz writes that "the country has been engaged in a pattern of clandestine activity that has concealed weapons work from international inspectors. Technology and scientists from Russia, China, North Korea and Pakistan have propelled Iran's nuclear program much closer to producing a bomb than Iraq ever was." Among the findings: "So many North Koreans are working on nuclear and missile projects in Iran that a resort on the Caspian coast is set aside for their exclusive use."
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Arizona-Mexico border deaths undercounted by Border Patrol
Claudine LoMonaco of the Tucson Citizen checked federal statistics on border deaths of illegal immigrants in Arizona with reports filed by local offices of the Border Patrol and other law enforcement agencies, finding that "from the start of the fiscal year in October 2002 through Sunday, as many as 171 people have died in Arizona -- 43 percent more than the official Border Patrol figure of 119." Among the reasons for the Border Patrol's lower numbers, the paper explains, is poor coordination with police departments and geographic limitations. The agency only counts deaths in counties along the border. In addition, there is no requirement to notify the Border Patrol when a foreign national dies, even though other local authorities get such notice.
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Canadian political parties find way around Finances Act
Fred Vallance-Jones, Laurie Monsebraaten and Phinjo Gombu of the Toronto Star investigated the financing of Ontario's political parties, finding that by using local "ridings" they have been able to raise thousands of dollars in excess of the province's Election Finances Act. "The manoeuvre enabled the Progressive Conservatives to raise nearly a million dollars extra in 1999 and 2000. The Liberals, doing the same thing, raised an extra $72,000 in 1999. By collecting large sums and circulating them through ridings, parties have increased the amount they can raise by up to two-thirds."
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FBI turned down chance to buy biological weapons
Joby Warrick and John Mintz of The Washington Post have a startling tale of biological weapons from South Africa. In the first of a two-part series, the paper details how a former South African government scientist offered a deadly bacteria sample to the FBI, seeking in return American citizenship and as much as $5 million. The FBI turned him down and others fear that the privately held germs could fall into the wrong hands.
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USOC failed to penalize athletes who failed drug tests
Scott M. Reid, William Heisel and Tony Saavedra of the Orange County Register detailed this week a massive failure by the U.S. Olympic Committee in dealing with drug use by American athletes. For more than 10 years, the USOC and other federations "allowed athletes who failed drug tests in qualifying events to compete in the Olympic Games and other world-class competitions." Internal documents reviewed by the paper show that officials also kept positive test results secret, including tests in 1988 that showed sprinter Carl Lewis had taken banned stimulants.
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