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 "USAID" ...
-
The Dark Side of Plan Colombia
Plan Colombia, which is a multibillion-dollar US assistance package aimed at fighting the cocaine trade. This program supports agriculture projects as an alternative to drug-related crops and violence. Though, this investigation found that most of the program’s funds were supporting the drug-trafficking terrorist networks that Plan Colombia was supposed to defeat. The investigation raises the question of whether the US knew or should have known that it was supporting this trafficking and violence with taxpayer-funded assistance.
Tags: USAID; Grants; Oil Plantations; Drug-trafficking; Alternative development; Violence; Corruption
-
Exporting Faith
The Boston Globe used "a complete raw database of all USAID awards (prime contracts, grants and agreements) obligated from FY 2001 to FY 2005" to investigate the results of President Bush's Executive Orders that "created the faith based initiative and relaxed federal regulations for religious groups using government funds that once sought to protect church-state separations." The series shows that the percentage of USAID awards going to ngo faith based organizations in 2005 was almost doubled the percentage in 2001, from 10.5% to 19.9%. This creates the potential for problems where aid recipients "might forgo assistance because they don't share in the religion of the provider."
Tags: separation of church and state; faith-based initiatives; foreign aid; executive orders; church-state ties; White House Office of Faith and Community Based Initiatives; President Bush; USAID; NGO; Christian evangelicals; Kenya; Angola; Pakistan; Focus on the Family; James Dobb; FOIA; UNICEF; UNDP; State Department; Samaritan's Purse; National Association of Evangelicals; Americans United for Separation of the Church and State; Global Health Outreach; Offfice of Volunteers for Prosperity; Youth for Christ; World Vision; Yellowbook;
-
Imperial Life in the Emerald City
This book uses the Coalition Provisional Authority's Green Zone Headquarters in Baghdad to detail "the incompetence and arrogance that bedevilled the [American government's]effort to reconstruct and govern Iraq in the crucial first year after the fall of Saddam Hussein's government." Chandasekaran's sources included former CPA employees who had returned to the U.S. after sovereignty was re-established in Iraq.
Tags: Coalition Provisional Authority; CPA; Green Zone; Washington Post; FOIA; Department of Defense; DOD; Pentagon; Government Accountability Office; GAO; State Department; Ambassador Paul L. Bremer; Kurdish Regional Government; de-Baathification; U.S. Agency for International Development; USAID; Persian Gulf War; Sunni Tiangle; Abu Ghraib Prison; Paul Wolfowitz
-
U.S. Support for Tobacco Overseas: Going Out of Business?
This article examines "... has U.S. support for tobacco abroad really ended? Six years after an interagency task force was created to formulate a coherent tobacco platform, U.S. policy on tobacco overseas is as clouded as ever. ...discusses new legislative and administrative efforts to limit U.S. support for tobacco companies abroad."
Tags: Malawi Africa U.S. Agriculture Department; State Department; USAID; Congress The World Bank burley tobacco
-
Bulls in the China Shop
ARTNews reports that "the sale of the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory in St. Petersburg, Russia, to foreign investors was opposed by Russian cultural figures. The fate of the factory's museum of priceless ceramics was uncertain. (The) investigation revealed that the factory had been privatized in an extremely questionable way and had involved some shady characters. The US government was involved because some of the investment money came from a government agency, USAID. A major private investor was Kohlberg Kravis & Co. (KKR)."
-
No title (id: 13244)
The Nation looks at Senator Jesse Helms. The Nation claims that Helms's bumbling persona covers a brilliant staff-driven operation that has turned the Foreign Relations Committee into a vehicle for Helms's own isolationist agenda. (Feb. 5, 1996)
-
No title (id: 10322)
Common Cause reveals waste in the U.S. Agency for International Development; problems include cutting planning and research projects while spending lavishly for consultants, offices, automobiles and other facilities, May 1994.
Tags: DC Thomas USAID 4 pages
-
No title (id: 9970)
Legal Times reveals that as the United States Agency for International Development has increased its programs in former Communist countries, much of its largesse has gone to questionable U.S. businesses and contributed to a muddled foreign policy; finds businesses fined in the U.S. for environmental concerns are awarded contracts and U.S. businesses and law firms receive too much government pork, May 31, 1993.
Tags: DC Kaplan USAID 10 pages
-
No title (id: 7316)
Chronicle of Higher Education reports on a federally funded program run by Georgetown University that brings poor students from Central America to study at American community colleges; the program is mismanaged and may not meet the needs of the students, but Georgetown's congressional allies make sure the funds keep coming, Jan. 24, 1990.
Tags: Jaschik USAID Central American Scholarship Program CASP Kasten