"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.)
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Pentagon emerges as puppeteer of favorable wartime coverage
A report by David Barstow of The New York Times reveals how the Pentagon has used a cadre of retired military officers to "generate favorable news coverage of the [Bush] administration’s wartime performance...Records and interviews show how the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to transform the analysts into a kind of media Trojan horse — an instrument intended to shape terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks." The Times successfully sued the Defense Department for over 8,000 pages of material that outlines the Pentagon's use of these analysts to "deliver administration 'themes and messages' to millions of Americans 'in the form of their own opinions.'" Many of the analysts have close ties to contractors operating in the war zone that are rarely disclosed in the context of their commentary.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Accuracy questioned in military's hand-held lie detectors
U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan will be issued hand-held lie detectors this month, but Bill Dedman of MSNBC.com uncovered conflicting evidence about their effectiveness. "The Defense Department says the portable device isn't perfect, but is accurate enough to save American lives by screening local police officers, interpreters and allied forces for access to U.S. military bases, and by helping narrow the list of suspects after a roadside bombing." The Pentagon, in a PowerPoint presentation released to msnbc.com through a Freedom of Information Act request, says the PCASS is 82 to 90 percent accurate. But other studies obtained by msnbc.com show that testers discarded inconclusive readings when calculating its accuracy.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

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).
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

No-Fly Fiasco
Deborah Sherman of KUSA-Denver looked into U.S. government's No-Fly List and found thousands of innocent travelers who have trouble getting on airplanes nationwide because they're misidentified as terrorists. While people snagged by false matches are forced to arrive hours early at airports to be cleared, a new government report found terrorists on the list are still getting on airplanes. Sherman found that a new program to fix those problems, called Secure Flight, has cost taxpayers $200 million so far and may leave participating passengers vulnerable to identity theft.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Mohamed Atta and 9/11: The Secret FAA Files
Eric Longabardi, reporting for "The Enterprise Report" at ERSNews.com, reports on the "secret FAA airmen files" of Mohamed Atta, the lead pilot in the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The files, posted on the site, and additional exclusive materials provide details about the extensive flight training that helped Atta earn a commercial pilot's license in the U.S. Longabardi writes that the records show that Atta and his co-conspirators had far more sophisticated skills than previous media accounts acknowledged.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Collateral Damage - Human Rights and Military Aid after 9/11
The Center for Public Integrity has published "one of the most comprehensive resources on U.S. military aid and assistance in the post-9/11 era. 'Collateral Damage' couples the reporting of 10 of the world's leading investigative journalists on four continents with a powerful database combining U.S. military assistance, foreign lobbying expenditures, and human rights abuses into a single, easily accessible toolkit."
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

FBI's terrorism mission leaves white-collar crime unpunished
A story by Paul Shukovsky, Tracy Johnson and Daniel Lathrop of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports on a profound shift in the FBI's mission. Due to a shift in focus to national security following 9/11, the FBI has failed to pursue thousands of white-collar crimes. "Five-and-a-half years later, the White House and the Justice Department have failed to replace at least 2,400 agents transferred to counterterrorism squads, leaving far fewer agents on the trial of identity thieves, con artists, hatemongers and other criminals." Lathrop built a database from the records the P-I collected for their investigation and "the newspaper was able for the first time to fully measure the dramatic decline in the number of cases and convictions resulting from the FBI moving resources to terrorism and walking away from areas of criminal enforcement. Copies of the analysis were given to federal officials in Seattle and in Washington, D.C., who did not dispute the newspaper's findings but wouldn't make database experts available to discuss the analysis."
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Undercover agents sneak bomb past TSA screeners
Deborah Sherman of KUSA-Denver reports that "Checkpoint security screeners at Denver International Airport last month failed to find liquid explosives packed in carry-on luggage and also improvised explosive devices, or IED's, worn by undercover agents, sources told 9NEWS." The agents testing the TSA security were part of the "Red Team," a group of covert agents organized in 1988 by the Federal Aviation Administration. Since 2003, they have investigated security measures at 735 airports.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

TRAC data suggests shortcomings in FBI's dealing with international terrorism
Data from the Justice Department indicates that federal prosecutors appear to have big doubts about the FBI's criminal enforcement activities when it comes to fighting international terrorism. According to a TRAC report, federal prosecutors so far in FY 2006 have rejected 87% of the FBI's referrals on international terrorism. The report also shows that despite across-the-board staffing increases in the last few years, FBI investigations of all kinds have consistently resulted in fewer federal prosecutions. And detailed graphs and tables reveal how FBI staffing and enforcement priorities have been constantly changing since 1986.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

"The Long Shadow of 9/11"
The Las Vegas Review-Journal is running a series entitled "The Long Shadow of 9/11" in which they've localized the big-picture security issues facing the nation. The stories include an examination of how local police have poured vast resources into anti-terrorism policing; how the FBI has sent national security letters to casino-hotels to access guest information; and how Nevada and Utah have had among the most cases per capita in the nation categorized as terrorism-related.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Student data from financial aid forms shared with FBI
Jonathan D. Glater of The New York Times reports that, as part of post-9/11 counterterrorism efforts, that Federal Education Department shared personal information obtained on student loan applications with the FBI. "Under the program, called Project Strikeback, the Education Department received names from the F.B.I. and checked them against its student aid database, forwarding information...Neither agency would say whether any investigations resulted." This story was broken by Laura McGann, a graduate student at the Medill School of Journalism "as part of a reporting project that focused on national security and civil liberties."
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

U.S. secretly monitoring radiation levels at Muslim sites in D.C. area
David E. Kaplan of U.S. News & World Report finds the U.S. government has been monitoring more than 100 "Muslim sites in the Washington, D.C., area, including mosques, homes, businesses, and warehouses, plus similar sites in at least five other cities" since 9/11 in search of a terrorist nuclear bomb. As part of the top-secret program, investigators went "on to the property under surveillance, although no search warrants or court orders were ever obtained, according to those with knowledge of the program."
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Terrorism funded by organized criminal activity
David E. Kaplan, with Bay Fang and Soni Sangwan, of U.S. News & World Report found that Dawood Ibrahim, a world-class mobster and engineer of the 1993 multiple bomb blasts in Bombay, is on Washington's radar screen for lending his smuggling routes to al Qaeda and supporting jihadists in Pakistan, based on interviews with counterterrorism and law enforcement officials from six countries. Sheltered by Pakistan, he is the alleged godfather of strong-arm protection, drug trafficking, extortion, murder-for-hire — all stock-in-trade rackets. " He is far and away India's most wanted man, his name invoked time and again by Indian officials in their discussions of terrorism with U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers. " The investigation reveals growing U.S. concerns over how increasing numbers of terrorist groups have come to rely on the tactics — and profits — of organized criminal activity to finance their operations across the globe. Read accompanying stories on Dawood Ibrahim and how U.A.E. serves as the region's criminal crossroads.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Navy contracted for planes in CIA operation
Seth Hettena of The Associated Press reports the Navy issued contracts for planes "reportedly used to fly terror suspects to countries known to practice torture." The AP says documents from the Department of Defense, obtained through a FOIA request, involve more planes (33) than previously reported. While there was "scrutiny in 2001, but what hasn't been disclosed is the Navy's role in contracting planes involved in operations the CIA terms 'rendition' and what Italian prosecutors call kidnapping."
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Disaster planning focused on terror threats
In a Web exclusive report, Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball of Newsweek report that state emergency management directors have complained FEMA has concentrated too much on preparing for terror threats and not enough on natural disasters. "Internal Homeland Security documents obtained by Newsweek lend support to the state directors' complaints. Out of 15 'all hazards' disaster-planning scenarios approved by DHS and the White House Homeland Security Council last May, only three involved natural disasters, one document shows." (Note: For more stories looking at what went wrong in the Katrina disaster, please see IRE's Katrina resources page.)
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Human smuggling networks linked to terrorist groups
Pauline Arrillaga and Olga R. Rodriguez of the Associated Press reviewed court records from Mexico and the United States as part of an investigation into "the many pipelines in Central and South America, Mexico and Canada that have illegally channeled thousands of people into the United States from so-called 'special-interest' countries - those identified by the U.S. government as sponsors or supporters of terrorism." Individuals affiliated with Hezbollah and the Tamil Tigers were among those who attempted to or were able to cross the border into America. "Even when caught, illegal immigrants from those countries and other nations are sometimes released while awaiting deportation hearings, then miss those court dates, according to the AP's investigation, which also documented deep concerns about security threats along the lightly patrolled, 4,000-mile U.S.-Canada border."
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Anti-terrorism spending problems plague state
Greg Barrett of The (Baltimore) Sun reviewed thousands of pages detailing homeland security spending in Maryland, finding that while most of the $161 million since 2002 has gone to assist first responders, "Maryland is so flush with anti-terrorism grant funds and spending authority is so broad that the state has struggled, at times, to manage the money." In one case, the state used more than $17,000 to conduct an exercise in which veterinarians "rescued" a llama and walking horse "injured" in a fake attack.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Potential terrorism targets find lax security efforts
David Kocieniewski of The New York Times uses public records to investigate the homeland security threat, specifically along a two-mile stretch, deemed the most vulnerable by terrorism experts. The investigation looked into "... a chemical plant that processes chlorine gas, so close to Manhattan that the Empire State Building seems to rise up behind its storage tanks." A reporter and photographer for The Times spent five minutes snapping photos in front of the plant without being questioned. "... New Jersey officials have spent more than $350 million in state tax money on counterterrorism, building an apparatus that is run by seasoned law enforcement experts and is generally well regarded.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

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.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Panel warned of attacks 30 years ago
Frank Bass and Randy Herschaft of The Associated Press, using declassified documents, found that a panel established by President Nixon warned of dirty bombs and the vulnerability of commercial jets. "The panel's experts fretted that terrorists might gather loose nuclear materials for a "dirty bomb" that could devastate an American city by spreading lethal radioactivity across many blocks." The panel was established in the wake of the 1972 terrorist attacks at the Olympics in Munich. The full panel met only once, but its experts gathered twice a month over nearly five years to identify threats and debate solutions. Links to key documents (PDF) are provided.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

The collapse of a spy case
Ray Rivera of The Seattle Times made heavy use of FOIA in his series on James Yee, the Army chaplain accused of espionage but later honorably discharged. The paper posted a collection of documents it obtained in reporting the story and also described its methodology.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Charity has links to global terror group
Mark Morris of The Kansas City Star, working with Jaimi Dowdell and Aaron Kessler, used documents from the Treasury Department and other agencies to compile a list of organizations and individuals connected to a Columbia, Mo., charity that federal officials allege is "part of the Islamic African Relief Agency, a global charity whose officers had raised at least $5 million for terrorists." The reporters used social network analysis software to produce a visual representation of the network. "The analysis showed that IARA officials allegedly performed services or favors for bin Laden and his organizations. Other times, IARA was alleged to have teamed with bin Laden to support other terrorists." The story includes a graphic representation of the IARA connections around the world. (Warning: Large PDF)
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Distribution of homeland security money flawed
The Oakland Tribune, the Los Angeles Daily News and smaller sister newspapers are publishing localized versions of "Missing the Mark: A Flawed Plan to Protect the Homeland." The four-part series looks at where homeland security money is being allocated. Thh investigation finds that California "replicated a widely criticized federal funding formula that steers millions to isolated rural areas and leaves target-rich communities high and dry." The Daily News says "Three years later, California's public safety agencies are certainly better equipped — but not necessarily for terrorism, a newspaper investigation found after reviewing more than 2,500 homeland security documents and conducting dozens of interviews." The Oakland Tribune explains "Congress set up the federal grant program to distribute 40 percent of the grant money equally among states, without regard to risk."
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Lack of collaboration doomed reform efforts
David E. Kaplan of U.S. News & World Report writes about why U.S. intelligence agencies have been "stubbornly, and successfully, resistant to change." The review also reveals efforts several years ago to reform the intelligence community and why that effort failed. "Individual spy agencies resembled not so much modern corporations as feudal fiefdoms."
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Links to terrorism weak in Iowa cases
Bert Dalmer of The Des Moines Register used Department of Justice data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse to show that of the 35 terrorism cases in Iowa since 9/11, "most defendants had questionable links to violent extremism. Those defendants who could be identified by the newspaper were, in most cases, charged with fraud or theft and served just a few months in jail." The number of anti-terror prosecutions surprised one judge who had heard at least six of the cases: "If there have been terrorism-related arrests in Iowa, I haven't heard about them," he said. Among those charged were five Mexicans who stole baby formula and sold it to an Arab man.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

TSA in crisis attributed to lax security, low morale
Cheryl Phillips, Steve Miletich and Ken Armstrong of The Seattle Times have a three-part series on security at the nation's airports, finding that "lax security and low morale seep through the federal agency responsible" for protecting air travelers. "Management memos, as well as firsthand accounts of more than 100 screeners and supervisors interviewed by The Times, depict an agency in crisis." Documents reveal that Transportation Security Administration employees face inhospitable working conditions as well. The paper described its methodology and the resistance of the TSA to the reporting.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Conditions at Gitmo detailed; prisoners identified
Scott Higham, Joe Stephens and Margot Williams of The Washington Post tracked the development of the prison at Guantanamo Bay naval base and its detainees, compiling "the largest public list of detainee names, encompassing 370 out of the 745 or so men detained at the camp since January 2002." Saudi Arabian nationals make up the largest contingent among identified prisoners held at Gitmo. The report describes some of the interrogation techniques used at the base, which had shrunk in size before the 2001 terrorist attacks but now costs about $118 million a year to run. The full list of names compiled by Williams, the Post's research editor, includes an explanation of how it was compiled.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Anti-terrorism money goes to rural areas
Bert Dalmer of The Des Moines Register analyzed federal anti-terrorism spending in Iowa to find that "Iowa's five largest counties — Polk, Linn, Scott, Black Hawk and Johnson — are home to 33 percent of the state's population. But those five counties combined will receive 15 percent of the federal grant money. Polk County, with 13 percent of Iowa's people, will get 4 percent of the state's total." Some officials complain that the allocation gives too much to rural counties and the state government, while short-changing more populated areas. "Pocahontas County, which ranks 86th in population, is using $20,000 in grant money to purchase eight helmets, shields and body armor designed to withstand sniper bullets and shrapnel. But Des Moines police will have to forgo purchasing 35 such helmets because there is not enough money."
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

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.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

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."
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Money intended to protect against terrorism used for other purposes
Jo Becker, Sarah Cohen and Spencer S. Hsu of The Washington Post find that much of the $324 million earmarked to protect the Washington, D.C., area against terrorism "remains unspent or is funding projects with questionable connections to homeland security." The Post found some of the money used for a jobs program, to buy leather jackets for police and to assess environmental problems. Officials say they received little guidance on how the money should be spent. (Note: Similar stories could be done around the country using data from the Federal Assistance Awards Data System, the Consolidated Federal Funds Report and the Federal Procurement Data System, all available from IRE and NICAR.)
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

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.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

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."
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Crackdown on terrorism, civil liberties in conflict
In a four-day series of stories, the Sacramento Bee looks at "how the crackdown on terrorism has come into conflict with the civil liberties that set America apart." Staff writers Sam Stanton and Emily Bazar, with photographer Paul Kitagaki Jr., look at the effect on libraries, mosques, activists and everyday people when the government exercises its "broad new investigative powers in an effort to flush out and neutralize terrorist threats." The series also looks at other times in the country's history in which constitutional rights fell by the wayside to "to quell resistance and protect the government."
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Criminal cases against Arabs in Detroit triple since 9/11
John Bebow of The Detroit News tracked federal terrorism cases in the Detroit area since 9/11, finding that "federal prosecutors in Detroit have tripled the number of criminal cases brought against Arabs and Muslims in the past two years while dozens of people have been labeled as terror suspects. But the government has so far proven terror connections against only three of 155 terror suspects considered for prosecution." The paper used Justice Department to identify 34 people of Arab descent who have been charged with lesser crimes but who are targets of anti-terror probes.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Cyber terrorists could exploit security lapses and wreak havoc
Ed Meyer of the Akron Beacon Journal reports on flaws in the computer system that controls the nation's electrical grid. It finds that the flaws leave it open to cyber terrorists. An expert quoted in the story says "security was not the highest priority" when the system was designed. He also told the paper that "A relatively small number of computer vendors devised the system, using training procedures that are virtually the same in the United States as in countries suspected of harboring terrorists."
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

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.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

Investigation reveals U.S. tactics in war on terror
David E. Kaplan of U.S. News & World Report has a lengthy piece retracing the war on terrorism after 9/11, explaining that agents have "hacked into foreign banks, used secret prisons overseas, and spent over $20 million bankrolling friendly Muslim intelligence services. They have assassinated al Qaeda leaders, spirited prisoners to nations with brutal human-rights records, and amassed files equal to a thousand encyclopedias." Although Kaplan's review found that officials believe remaining al Qaeda operatives number about 180, the organization "has one more 9/11 in them," according to an FBI veteran.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post

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.
Direct LINK to This Extra! Extra! Post