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 "diplomat" ...
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Truthout on the Border
The true intent of United States Foreign Policy in regards to the war on drugs in Mexico and Latin America is hidden behind many pantallas (screens in Spanish). In ten installments, posted in the first half of 2012, the Truthout on the Mexican Border series exposed the unofficial intentions of the US war on drugs in Latin America and its deadly impact. By connecting the dots in ten successively posted articles, the war on drugs appears to be a screen behind which goals of US military and economic hegemony can more easily be achieved in Latin American nations. Many Mexicans know that when it comes to corruption, drugs and crime in their nation, las pantallas usually prevent them from knowing the truth. The same is true of the US war on drugs, which has resulted in deaths and disappearances that are estimated to reach between 60,000 – 120,000 in the six year rule of Mexican President Felipe Calderón (ending on November 30, 2012). Truthout regularly covers US foreign policy and its impact in Latin America. The Truthout on the Mexican Border series was written to create a comprehensive understanding of what is behind the diplomatic and political screens – weaving in such seemingly diverse topics as US immigration and gun policies to understand the dark underside of US hemispheric intentions in Mexico and Latin America.
Tags: U.S.; foreign policy; Mexico; Latin America; drug war; corruption; crime
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Hidden Wealth of Azerbaijan President
The President of oil-rich Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, has been compared to a Mafia crime boss in US diplomatic cables, and man analysts refer to him as a dictator. OCCRP looked deeper than those labels and found that the Aliyev family has systematically grabbed shares of the most profitable businesses in the country. Investigative reports by OCCRP and Radio Free Europe have revealed and more importantly proven for the first time that the ruling family has secret ownership stakes through offshore companies in the country’s largest businesses, including banks, construction companies, gold mines and phone companies. The government Aliyev runs gave these shares. The family also has secretly amassed high-end property in places like the Czech Republic. The Azeri government responded to the revelations first with silence and now claims that OCCRP is an agent of the rival Armenian government. Aliyev’s administration also failed to investigate the harassment and blackmail of OCCRP and RFE journalist Khadija Ismayilova earlier this year. While Azerbaijan has worked at improving its image worldwide, OCCRP’s reporting makes clear that a petty dictatorship remains in control.
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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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All Mine
"All Mine" details how the U.S. government facilitated a modern-day land grab by a politically connected American company in one of the world's poorest countries. Phoenix-based mining company Freeport McMoRan was able to purchase the world's largest copper mine from the the government of Congo at an extremely cheap rate because it made its play under the cloud of the world's deadliest conflict site since World War II, a climate of corruption and desperation. It did so with the help of $400 million in U.S. government financing, and intense lobbying from an employee of the U.S. Embassy in Congo -- a career diplomat who rushed through the revolving door to work for the mining company just weeks after the deal was finalized. Freeport McMoRan has a generously paid spokesman, not to mention millions in lobbying dollars, to get its story out. The report also includes interviews with Congolese people who were forced from their land and threatened with arrest for speaking with reporters.
Tags: copper; Congo; Freeport McMoRan; embassy; diplomat; mining
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A Matter of Authority
"Jim Dyer, the staff director of the House Appropriations Committee, may be the most powerful aide on the hill. Some say he's too powerful". The National Journal takes us through the diplomatic wizardru of Dyer while he tackles Republican royalty and persistent appropriators. Particularly mentioned is his conciliatory prowess where he can cut a deal between two sides vying for each other's neck. Of course, Dyer has his own share of brickbats with critics unhappy about his continually earmarking funds for "pork" projects.
Tags: Power; appropriations; appropriators
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US Oil Politics in the Kuwait of Africa
Equatorial Guinea has a history of human rights abuses and went so far as to threaten the US Ambassador to the country with death in 1996. Shortly after this incident, diplomatic ties were cut off with the country. Six years later the Bush Administration resumed those connections due to the possibility of 1 billion barrels of oil existing off the coast of the country.
Tags: politics; foreign affairs; oil; africa
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Princess Arrested
WKMG-TV's Tony Pipitone exposed the wrongdoing of a Saudi Arabian princess, Princess Buniah al-Saud, who was charged with battering a servant. After Pipitone was able to interview the victim in the hospital, WKMG-TV's investigation pushed the sheriff's department to re-open the case, and the justice department began looking into the matter as well. "Rather than get diplomatic immunity, she would spend 18 hours in the Orange County, FL, jail without bond, and provoke an international incident."
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; crime; foreign dignitaries; Florida
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Khobar Towers
A CBS News report reveals that some of the terrorists involved on the attack of American military personnel in the Khobar towers in Saudi Arabia in 1995 will probably never be indicted. Although the Attorney General John Ashcroft admitted that Iranian officials had supposedly initiated the attack, not one Iranian official was named in the indictment. CBS attempts to explain the possible diplomatic considerations that played part in this.
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; foreign affairs; Justice Department; oil; energy; business; soldiers; troops; military; bombing; FBI; surveillance; intelligence
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Who Owns the Lubomirski Durers?
ARTworks follows through the centuries the path of Lubomirski Durers, a group of great drawings worth millions of dollars. The paintings were placed in a Polish museum in 1823 by Prince Henryk Lubomirski, later seized by the Soviets, exposed in a Ukrainian library, and finally looted by the Nazis. The art pieces were discovered by U.S. troops and secretly turned over to the grandson of Prince Lubomirski by order of the State department, the story reveals. Now both the Polish museum and the Ukrainian library demand the return, but American high-level diplomats and ten museums in the U.S.A. Canada and Europe have made a decision to reject the claims. "Experts say [this] is the most complicated of all war-loot restitution cases," the magazine reports.
Tags: National Archives; Monuments; Fine Arts & Archives (MFA&A); Central Collecting Point (CCP) Munich; property; National Gallery of ART; Ossolinski National Institute in Lemberg (Lviv; Lvov); CAR
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Nice Work, If You Can Get It
The National Journal looks at "the tradition of tapping well-heeled donors for diplomatic posts." The story focuses on the case of William Farish, the newly appointed U.S. ambassador to Britain, who "is one of more than two dozen people now on track to lead the good life ... to some desirable place because they bet big bucks on the Election 2000 winner." The report reveals that "Bush's first 35 political appointees to the diplomatic corps gave an average of $141,110 to him and other Republican campaigns and committees during 1999-2000." The author cites a number of critics who question "whether the spoil systems ... befits the United States at the cusp of the 21st century," and points to examples of untested diplomats' gaffes.
Tags: diplomacy; embassies; ambassadors; international politics; fundraising; Center for Responsible Politics; foreign policy; PACs; campaign contributors; Department of State