The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "CIA officer" ...
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Curveball: Spies, Lies, and the Conman who caused a war
The book lays out the defining story of the pre-intelligence failure in Iraq. It focuses on CURVE BALL, the American-issued code name for a young Iraqi chemical engineer who defected to Germany in 1999. During dozens of debriefings with German intelligence officers, he claimed that he had helped design and build sophisticated biological weapons for Saddam Hussein." The story was a hoax, yet the CIA used this evidence as its pretext for war despite numerous warnings about the validity of the claims. Only after its invasion of Iraq did the US formally acknowledge that CURVE BALL was a fraud.
Tags: CIA; Iraq; weapons of mass destruction; WMD; war on terror; terrorism; George Tenet; George W. Bush; Colin Powell; intelligence; Dick Cheney; Bill Drogin; spies
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Brian Ross Investigates: Conduct Unbecoming
"In a year-long series of stories for World News and Nightline, ABC News' chief investigative correspondent and his team reported on a pattern of unbecoming and unethical behavior in offficial Washington that culminated in the revelation's of Congreeman Mark Foley's sexually-explicit internet messages with high school students who served as Congressional pages." Stories in the series also examine some of the consequences from the lack of an ethics code for the Supreme Court and a probe of unethical behavior of a retired U.S. General.
Tags: broadcast; financial disclosure forms; lobbyist Jack Abramoff; Congressman Tom Delay; Congressman Mark Foley; instant messaging; Congressional Pages; House Ethics Committee; Kyle "Dusty" Foggo; CIA; Air Force; Department of Defense Inspector General's Office; Federal Election Commission; Political Money Line; Federalist Sociey; legal ethics; Supreme Court; Congress; Pentagon; influence peddling; FBI; IRS; Brent Wilkes; Taxpayers for Common Sense; Keith Ashdown; Porter Goss; Thunderbirds; General T. Michael Mosely; Senator Tom Coburn; General Hal Hornburg; Project on Government Oversight; Danielle Brian; U.S. Trademark Office; General John Jumper; Blue Angels; midterm elections; access; Campaign Legal Center; Gerry Hebert; pay to play; House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children; sexually explicit messages; sexual exploitation; graphic language; solicitation; Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert; Internet sex; FBI investigation; Congressman Tom Reynolds
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The Wrong Man
Brian Kelley, a decorated undercover CIA officer was investigated by the FBI to the point of nearly destroying his life, and his career. Kelley was the wrong man. The man the FBI actually arrested was Robert Hanssen, for selling secrets to Russia. Breaking his silence, Kelley spoke to 60 Minutes about his ordeal and about efforts by top FBI officials to keep their mistakes secret.
Tags: TAPE; spy; FBI; CIA; secret; CIA officer; arrest; agent; undercover officer; Justice Department; spy catcher; spy map; secret evidence; top secret; espionage; KGB; Brian Kelley; Robert Hansen; strip club; strip joint; porn sites; diamonds; mole; capital offense; capital crime; investigator.
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"The Spies Who Lost $4 Million Dollars."
This story about the National Reconnaissance Office, the world's most expensive spy agency, focuses on its problems in accounting for $ 4 billion in funds and an issue with its new headquarters.
Tags: National Reconnaissance Office; NRO; spies; espionage; Senate Intelligence Committee; satellite photos; CIA
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CIA Gave at Least $10 Million to Peru's ex-Spymaster Montesinos
Angel Paez, a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists links the U.S. government to Vladimiro Montesinos, a "corrupt advisor to former Peruvian President Fujimori, who stands accused of human rights abuses and murder. Not only did the story confirm a long-suspected belief that there was a relationship between the two offices, but it also affirmed that even though U.S. authorities knew about Montesinos' corrupt ways, they were willing to support him financially (with at least $1 million a year) in order to have Peru as an ally in the drug war. All the while, Montesinos was buying weapons from Jordan and selling them to the very Colombia guerrillas the United States was at war with."
Tags: Center for Public Integrity; International Consortium of Investigative Journalists; CIA; Peru; Fujimori; Montesinos; Colombia; guerrillas; drug war; Jordan
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U.S. pads its arrest record on terrorism
A Philadelphia Inquirer investigative series reveals that the Department of Justice has overstated its record of arresting and convicting terrorists, inflating the numbers it gives Congress with crimes that have no connection to terrorism. Improperly labeled cases involve mostly erratic behavior by mentally ill or drunk people, the Inquirer reports. The Department invented a new crime category, "domestic terrorism," to apply to such cases. The inflated figures were needed to justify budget requests, according to government official quoted in the first story. The latest annual report by the Justice Department listed 236 terrorism convictions, but would not disclose any information about the cases.
Tags: law; September 11; FBI; CIA; statistics; intelligence; lawyers; attorneys; John Ashcroft; Senate; Congress; prosecutors; General Accounting Office (GAO)
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The Germ Front
The American Prospect looks at the threat of biological weapons. "Our public-health system would buckle under a massive epidemic," is one of the main findings, based on a report of the General Accounting Office. The story follows the history of bioterrorism through the centuries, and depicts major developments in the field during the Cold War and in recent decades. The reporter finds that the threat of biological weapons is indisputably growing.
Tags: Biological Weapons Convention; bioweapons; Iran; Iraq; China; anthrax; smallpox; plague; biowarfare; Mideast; Afghanistan; CIA; Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies; Epidemic Intelligence Service; vaccines; medicine; Marburg virus; Ebola; Osama bin Laden
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Annals of National Security: What Went Wrong
The New Yorker investigates the failure of the American intelligence, exposed after the September 11th terrorist attacks. The author cites high-ranking intelligence officers who expect that C.I.A. director George Tenet will leave his office. The story reveals that the intelligence community still lacks sound evidence on who initiated and completed the attacks, and how the plan of the terrorists worked over the years. The article also looks at the possibilities for a second terrorist attack and points to the helplessness of the intelligence community to anticipate and prevent it. The investigation depicts the bureaucratic path that American intelligence has been following in the 90s.
Tags: intelligence; Middle East; C.I.A.; Worlds Trade Center; Pentagon; F.B.I.; investigations; security; defense; New York City; Afghanistan; Russia; surveillance
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Nameless Stars: Covert Lives and Covert Deaths at the CIA
At CIA headquarters are 70 stars etched into a marble wall and below it, the Book of Honor commemorating those 70 covert officers killed in the line of duty. All but 29 of their identities have been classified top secret. This story reveals the identities of six of those anonymous fatalities.
Tags: None
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Exposing the Black Budget
Wired magazine reports that "The Cold War is over. So why, Paul McGinnis wanted to know, are major CIA, NSA, and Department of Defense programs still being kept secret from Congress and US taxpayers?... The black budget is the government's illusory and tangled accounting of what it spends on intelligence gathering, covert operations, and - less noticeably - secret military research and weapons programs. It admits to no easy calculation, but by estimates of those who watch it, the black budget may hit US$30 billion a year - a figure larger than current federal expenditures for education."