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 "September 11 attacks" ...
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Benghazi: US Consulate Attack
On September 11, when a militant group overran the US consulate in Benghazi resulting in the death of the ambassador, the initial information was contradictory. Much of it got mixed up with other reports out of the Middle East about anti-American demonstrations over an inflammatory film on the Internet that was said to insult Islam. Damon arrived quickly in Benghazi to sort out the conflicting information and went to the burnt consulate ruins, which, though looted, held valuable clues to the truth. Her reporting revealed that there was not a demonstration and that it appeared to have been a planned attack that unfolded simultaneously from three sides. She discovered that U.S. diplomats had been warned by Libyan officials three days before the attack that the security situation in the city was out of their control. Though her reporting received harsh public criticism from the State Department at the time, the U.S. government’s own investigation later proved her reporting to be accurate in an episode that continues to reverberate politically. Damon also spoke to Libyans that tried to save the ambassador that night, shedding light on what happened to him during his final hours. While she was in Benghazi, demonstrations erupted against the militia believed to be responsible for the attack, and Damon further reported on the rise in extremism in the newly-liberated country. Her reporting provided additional valuable context about the milieu in which the consulate attack occurred.
Tags: Middle East; Libya; U.S. ambassador; Benghazi; militant group
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9/11 Redux: Thousands of Aliens' in U.S. Flight School Illegally
This investigation exposed the fact that thousands of foreign national were still obtaining U.S. pilot training and U.S pilot licenses illegally without the required security background checks implemented after the 9-11 terrorists attacks. The story exposed serious flaws in the TSA and FAA system of insuring pilots had successfully done in obtaining piloting skills in the USA prior to the September 11 attacks of 2001.
Tags: September 11, 2001; terrorism; flight schools; Department of Homeland Security; DHS; Transportation Security Administration; TSA; Federal Aviation Administration; FAA; pilot licenses
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Iraq -- The War Card: Orchestrated Deception on the Path to War
The project, the product of two and half years of reporting and research, produced a 380,000-word database that juxtaposes what President Bush and seven top officials were saying for public consumption against what was known, or should have been known, on a day-to-day basis. This fully searchable database includes the public statements, drawn from both primary sources (such as official transcripts) and secondary sources (such as major news organizations) over the two years beginning on September 11, 2001. It also interlaces relevant information from government reports, books, articles, speeches and interviews. An interactive timeline shows the examination of the records. All 935 records highlighted false statements and hundreds of secondary accounts that illuminate the discrepancies between what was being said against what was known privately, for a two-year time span.
Tags: September 11 attacks; 9/11; World Trade Center attacks; Bush administration; George W. Bush; Richard Cheney; Condoleeza Rice; Donald Rumsfeld; Colin Powell; Paul Wolfowitz; Ari Fleisher; Scott McClellan
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September 11 Lax Loans
"The government's $5 billion effort to help small businesses recover from the Sept. 11 attacks was so loosely managed that it gave low-interest loans to companies that didn't need terrorism relief - or even know they were getting it."
Tags: September 11, 2001; loans; companies; Ground Zero;
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Why Aren't We Safer?
Five years later, ABC News examines the question of how much safer we are after the attacks of September 11, 2001. The report mentioned how easy it remains to acquire ammonium nitrate fertilizer, which is used in explosive devices. The investigation found that customers paying cash can get the substance at local agricultural supply stores and "move it to a storage warehouse a few miles from the White House, undetected."
Tags: September 11, 2001; terrorism; ammonium nitrate; fertilizer bombs; improvised explosive devices
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UNLV Institute for Security Studies
"The institute, formed in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, was intended as UNLV's contribution to the war on terrorism. The institute began with a promise of delivering research and education in part by tapping into professionals who had worked at the Nevada Test Site." Yet it seems to not be meeting its promise.
Tags: terrorism; college; studies; September 11; security
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Private Security in a Post-9/11 World
As the focal point of a study of the private guard industry in New York state, WNYC looks at Tristar Patrol Services, "which had seen a dramatic expansion after the September 11 attack in NYC, getting more than $80 million in contract work with the City of New York." The company had more than a thousand employees, mostly young minority males, and they had the task of protecting all of the city's office space, infrastructure and Fire Department facilities. The investigation found that Tristar's owner, Gary Zimmer, had been convicted of assault and had to resign as a police officer for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, yet attained the right to hold a security guard company license when a judge, believing the owner's misrepresentation of his criminal case, granted him an exemption from state law. In addition, there were other issues as Tristar "had been disqualified from doing state work for misrepresenting it had properly credentialed guards, but went on to win a multi-million dollar, multi-year City contract." The company failed to properly compensate guards, including not paying for vacation or advanced state security credentials, and Tristar also did not pay "hundreds of thousands of dollars it was required to pay the union representing the guards to cover union dues and health and welfare benefits required by the contract." But because of the New York Secretary of State's lack of investigators, regulations were not enforced. Also, there is no uniform requirement across the country for the training and qualifications for security guards and companies.
Tags: Private security; Sept. 11, 2001; Tristar Patrol Services; Gary Zimmer; New York City security
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Jaded Tasks: Brass Plates, Black Ops, & Big Oil
The details of how the September 11,2001 attacks were caused in part by America's economic and intelligence associations with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Madsen looks into how George W. Bush used private militaries to conduct his "new world order."
Tags: George Bush; Rwanda; covert operations; FOIA; Septemeber 11; Iraq; terrorism; mass destruction; intelligence agency; Pakistan; Saudi Arabia; politics
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Post-9/11 funds often used for routine items
Over the past five years Maine has spent around $66 million in homeland security funds on items that would be useful in case of a terrorist attack. However the items are being used for more routine purposes.
Tags: 9/11; September 11, 2001; Homeland Security; terrorism; money
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The Churchill Files
The Rocky Mountain News tells how University of Colorado-Boulder ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill ignited a major controversy when he called the victims of the World Trade Center terrorist attack "Little Eichmanns." After calls for his firing, he was also accused of plagiarism and misrepresenting himself as having American Indian heritage. The News investigated and found evidence of academic misconduct through unauthorized use of others' material and language, inaccurate historical references in his scholarly work and no Indian ancestry.
Tags: Ward Churchill; University of Colorado; CAR; September 11; 9/11; Cherokee; corruption