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 "National Security Agency" ...
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Sabotaging the System
This story includes the “first confirmed account of a successful cyber attack against an electric utility company, resulting in major blackouts that lasted for days”. The electric grid not only supplies electricity but also keeps water, telephones, trains, and air traffic control up and running. Also in the U.S., government agencies, defense contractors, and banks are hacked everyday by foreign spy agencies.
Tags: National Intelligence; Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); cyber security; Central Intelligence Agency (CIA); computers; technology
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The Man Who Conned The Pentagon
Dennis Montgomery, a self-proclaimed scientist, believed he could decrypt secret communication between Al Qaeda. He had been doing this for years and convincing the US national security establishments of this information. His bizarre intelligence caused plane cancellations, orange alerts, and chaos throughout America. Further, this story reveals specific contracts and a number of events caused by certain people.
Tags: War on Terror; Dennis Montgomery; Al Qaeda; Terrorists attacks; US Intelligence agencies; US Government; Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
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The Fed Who Blew the Whistle
Justice Department official Tom Tamm leaked information during the Bush administration and its secret domestic surveillance program.
Tags: Stellar Wind; Office of Intelligence Policy and Review; FBI investigation; National Security Agency;
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The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America
This book is Bamford's latest expose' of the National Security Agency. Among his findings, Bamford reveals that the agency had been targeting the Yemeni home that served as Osama bin Laden's operations center prior to 9/11 but had never told the FBI that the al-Qaida terrorists were there. Bamford's book demonstrates an unparalleled ability to penetrate the most secretive of institutions.
Tags: National Security Agency; NSA; al-Qaida; al-Qaeda; national security; 9/11; September 11; Pentagon; CIA; Central Intelligence Agency; secrecy; FBI; Federal Bureau of Investigation
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Cyber-War
The series contains three articles detailing the extent of computer breaches, technology blunders and data theft that puts the U.S. defense industry, military and space agency in a vulnerable position.
Tags: NASA; Booz Allen Hamilton; computer; satellite; national security; espionage; microchip; networks;
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System Error
The Sun used a FOIA request to obtain a declassified version of a 2003 NSA report on Trailblazer, the program designed to "fix the holes" in NSA's information filter. In the report the agency's inspector general found "'inadequate management and oversight' of private contractors and overpayment for the work done." A govenment official told The Sun, "The government has been standing by while the agency has been gradually 'going deaf' as unimportant communications drown out key pieces of information."
Tags: National Security Agency; NSA; Lt. General Keith B. Alexander; Trailblazer; 9/11; post-9/11 investigations; Science Applications International Corporation; SAIC; Freedom of Information Act; FOIA; Fort Meade; Threat Operations Center; Jared Adams; General Michael V. Hayden; FBI's Virtual Case File program; TASC
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The No-Fly List
CBS News reported that the No-Fly List, compiled after 9/11 to "prevent an Islamic terrorist who's associated with al-Queda from getting on a plane" is "incomplete, inaccurate, outdated, and a source of aggravation to thousands of innocent Americans." The version available to airport screeners is "sanitized of the most sensitive information", because "intelligence agencies that supply the names don't want them circulated to airport employees in foreign countries for fear that they could end up in the hands of terrorists." Before 9/11 the list had 16 names on it; after 9/11, the list grew to include 44 thousand names, not including an additional 75 thousand names on the additional security screening list. Now there's another list: names of people who have shouldn't be on the first list. You have to apply to get on that list. The list airport screeners see has no birth dates or physical descriptions. For the past three years, the TSA has spent about 144 million dollars to develop a program called Secure Flight-- it hasn't been implemented yet.
Tags: Department of Homeland Security; anti-war activists; Iraq; No-Fly List; wiretaps; FBI; Excel; heads-of-state; Transportation Security Administration; TSA; data dump; National Security News Service; Joe Trento; NSA; Zaccarias Moussaoui; FBI Terrorist's Screening Center; Donna Bucella; Dawud Salahuddin; David Belfield; Kip Hawley; Cathy Berrick; General Accounting Office; Secure Flight
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State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration
The Bush Administration has pushed many policies that allow for more intrusive law enforcement and investigation during its War on Terror. Author James Risen examines the National Security Agency's wireless wiretaps, a CIA report that showed that Iraq's WMD program had ceased, but which was buried; politics' heavy involvement of post-invasion intelligence in Iraq, as well as snafus involving relations with Iran.
Tags: Bush Administration; War on Terror; warrantless wiretaps; CIA; Iraq; Weapons of Mass Destruction; WMD; Iraq War
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Information War
This group of stories from The New York Times focuses on how the United States government, in the name of a war on terror, has quietly been changing long-held information practices.
Tags: National Security Agency; corruption; illegal spying; kidnapping; torture; Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
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Secret Surveillance
This story uncovered the fact that President Bush had authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop without warrants on some domestic phone calls and email.
Tags: surveillance; national security; domestic surveillance; NSA warrantless wiretapping