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 "Classified information" ...
-
Rápido y Furioso (Fast & Furious)
In this special edition of the newsmagazine program “Aqui y Ahora” (“Here and Now”), Univision news reports on the drug trade’s violent impact in Mexico, an aspect of the story that is often lost. We are submitting this report for your consideration in the FOI category. Although the hundreds of classified us and Mexican government documents weren’t obtained through a FOI request, we believe our process of gathering and comparing comprehensive information from two different governments, resulted in a story that did “open records and open government” in a unique and revealing way that could not be achieved by simply filing a FOI request.
Tags: gun; border; Mexico; U.S. border patrol
-
Secret Deadly Earmarks
Congressman Duke Cunningham was bribed with a yacht, antiques, and campaign contributions from a company owner seeking a government contract to fight roadside bombs in Iraq. Major Eric Egland was assigned to discover why troop deaths were increasing from roadside bombs despite the millions being paid, and in his search he came across "classified" information revealing the truth behind the contract.
Tags: lobbying; military; whistleblower; IEd; American soldiers; MZM; Mitchell Wade;
-
Code Names: Deciphering U.S. Military Plans, Programs, and Operations in the 9/11 World
Arkin catalogues 3,000 code-named, secret U.S. military plans and missions, indexing them by name and location He describes the military operations in every country in which it has a presence. He found that many secrets remain in the open and others have a questionable basis for classification.
Tags: military; intelligence; battle plans; classified information; CIA; army; national security; terrorism; secrets; operations
-
"For your eyes only"
The story analyzes the cooperation between CIA and American academia to solve intelligence problems. Some scholars, like Bruce Cummings (University of Chicago) and David Gibbs (University of Arizona) criticize this cooperation. The cooperation grants scholars access to classified information. The intelligence-academia relationship is sometimes a source of conflict; some universities have explicit rules that forbid faculty members to conduct classified research, and one of the most controversial CIA policies is "its insistence that scholars sign a lifetime secrecy agreement before receiving a security clearance", Mooney says. Contrary to Cummings and Gibbs' opinion, Joseph Nye (Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School) says his intelligence ties with CIA, State Dept., Defense Dept. and National Security Council have not prejudiced his scholarship.
-
National Security Nightmare
CBS News interviews the director of the National Security Agency, General Mike Hayden. The production "represents the first time a network news team has gotten inside the NSA, an organization so secret even the number of people who work there is classified." The interview reveals that the agency had failed to warn of the impending terrorist attacks because it had fallen behind the curve of the information revolution. "The NSA we uncovered is not the all-hearing Big Brother of popular myth it is a government bureaucracy on the brink of disaster," David Martin reports. Other findings are that terrorists like Osama bin Laden now have access to very sophisticated communication equipment and encryption technology, as unbreakable codes can be downloaded for free off the Internet.
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; intelligence; computers; terrorism; Pentagon; privacy; secrecy; Phil Zimmermann
-
At FBI, a Traitor Helped in Search for Subversives
A joint investigation by the Center for Investigative Reporting and the Los Angeles Times reveals that Robert Philip Hanssen, a confessed spy for the Soviet Union in the 1980s, headed up a domestic spying program for the FBI during that same decade."The role -- and historical irony -- of confessed traitor Hanssen has not been reported before..." The Times and CIR broke the story with the help of 2,815 pages of "formerly classified documents recently obtained under a federal Freedom of Information Act request submitted nearly 15 years ago."
Tags: Robert Philip Hanssen; spying; espionage; Soviet Union; FBI; domestic spying; Regan Administration; Bush Administration
-
Al Qaeda Terrorist Dupes FBI, Army
The News & Observer tells the story of Ali Mohamed, a double agent, who served both "in the heart of the U.S. military at Fort Bragg and in the inner circle of Osama bin Laden's Islamic fundamentalist terrorists' network." Mohamed was among those arrested after the 1998 attacks on the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, the story is used to exemplify how a terrorist can harness "the openness and modern technology of secular Western society, transforming them into weapons to be turned on America." Mohamed - who spent two decades working for the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and had three years of training and service with the U.S. Special Forces - acquired sensitive documents and passed them along to radical Muslims, the newspaper reports. Though the CIA, the FBI and the Defense Department knew all about Mohamed, they failed to stop him from playing a central role in the 1998 bombings.
Tags: FOIA requests; Defense Intelligence Agency; September 11; World Trade Center; Pentagon; military; State Department; CIA; classified information; Army
-
Limiting What Bureaucrats Rubber-Stamp As "Top Secret"
With over three million federal employees who can mark documents classified, the amount of classified information has grown into stacks billions of pages deep, the Christian Science Monitor reports. New efforts are underway in Washington to both limit what can be classified and to declassify already classified material.
Tags: classified information; Public Interest Declassification Act
-
The Book of Honor: Covert Lives and Classified Deaths at the CIA
The Book of Honor "reveals for the first time the identities of thirty-five CIA covert operatives killed while on classified missions. Those deaths spanned five decades and five continents. Some were hushed up for as long as fifty years. The CIA has always maintained that it could not divulge the identities of its casualties because it would compromise national security and the agency's 'sources and methods' -- how it gathers intelligence. The truth, however, was that secrecy was not used to protect the nation and its security, but rather to escape accountability...."
Tags: BOOK; CIA; Classified information; Covert operations
-
"Webling," and "Fraud on the Internet"
In this special e-commerce report, Business Week details how "companies are using your personal data to limit your choices - and force you to pay more for profits." Increasing use of "profiling" allows companies to compile detailed information on anyone using the Internet, and classify them according to their buying power. A related article lists the top ten scams waiting to rip off novice web surfers.
Tags: computer; syberspace; e-business; credit card fraud