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 "homeland security" ...
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Secret Service Strip Club: El Salvador
Seattle-based investigative reporter Chris Halsne tracks down a reluctant source in El Salvador to expose allegations that getting drunk, partying with strippers, and paying for sex with third-world prostitutes is part of the U.S. Secret Service culture. This investigative series is aired just weeks after agents were caught in Columbia with hookers – and just days after Homeland Security Director announced to Congress that Columbia was an isolated incident.
Tags: corruption; U.S. Secret Service; El Salvador; Seattle
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Wired for Waste
A Charleston Gazette investigation found the state of West Virginia used $24 million in federal stimulus funds to buy oversized routers that weren't needed. The high-end routers were designed to serve research universities, corporations and major medical centers, but the state installed the pricey devices primarily in small schools and libraries. The routers cost $22,600 each. The newspaper discovered that a high-ranking state technology office administrator warned that the routers were "grossly oversized," but the state's homeland security director and commerce secretary ignored the warning and authorized the purchase.
Tags: Federal funds; routers
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Need to Know: Crossing the Line at the Border Parts 1 & 2
Few, if any, pieces published or broadcast in 2012 had as much impact as “Crossing the Line at the Border,” a joint project of the weekly PBS newsmagazine, “Need to Know,” and the Nation Institute that was in the best tradition of American investigative journalism. Within days of its broadcast, 16 members of Congress demanded that the U.S. Justice Department investigate the killing of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas, a 42-year-old Mexican whose death at the hands of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents was detailed in our report. A few months later, a U.S. attorney in convened a federal grand jury. It is currently considering criminal charges in the case. And months after that, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said the incident had prompted it to launch a full-scale review of its use of force. Hernandez Rojas had a fatal heart attack shortly after being subdued by agents, beaten, and shot with a Taser gun at the San Ysidro border crossing on May 28th, 2010. His death was largely ignored until the "Need to Know” team, in partnership with the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute, unearthed never-before-seen eyewitness video of the incident.
Tags: U.S. Justice Department; border; killing; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Taser
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Justice in the Shadows
Although immigration is one of America’s most divisive, visceral, and hotly debated issues, the public rarely gets a close look at the vast law enforcement network that every year detains more than 400,000 suspected illegal immigrants. Courts often operate inside prisons, far from view. Immigration officials play by rules that would not be permitted for the police or the FBI. Here is a system heavily shielded from public scrutiny. Reporting even routine activities is a challenge. Boston Globe reporters Maria Sacchetti and Milton J. Valencia, however, penetrated the wall of secrecy. Their three-part series, “Justice in the Shadows,” revealed a dysfunctional and largely unaccountable system that locks up people who pose little threat while releasing dangerous criminals back to US streets because their home countries won’t take them back. The results, Sacchetti and Valencia showed, at times can be deadly for Americans and foreigners alike. The reporting was anything but quick or easy. Sacchetti and Valencia filed more than 20 Freedom of Information Act requests to federal agencies that comprise the immigration system. Nearly all of them were partially or wholly denied, purportedly to protect the privacy of the immigrants. With the federal government blocking the way, Sacchetti and Valencia found other avenues to document what was happening inside this Byzantine system, investing a year to do so. The effort to shed light on the immigration system continues: The Globe has filed a federal lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security to force the agency to reveal the names of more than 8,000 criminal foreigners released in the US because they couldn’t be deported.
Tags: security; Department of Homeland Security; illegal immigrants; FBI
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Spy Drones Aiding Police
Government surveillance drones have been used, with no public notice, to assist local police departments inside the U.S. find suspects and conduct. A Los Angeles Times/ Tribune Co. Washington Bureau investigation uncovered for the first time over two dozen uses of the Department of Homeland Security drones to help local law enforcement in North Dakota, where two of the department's nine Predator B aircraft are based.
Tags: Government Surveillance; Department of Homeland Security; North Dakota; Drones; Security
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America's War Within
America's War Within, led by the Center for Investigative Reporting, deeply examined the first 10 years of the war on terror. There were several findings stemming from work conducted throughout the year. First, a little-known but costly intelligence arm of the Department of Homeland Security did not meaningfully contribute to the war on terror and instead generated reams of "intelligence spam." Second, a private counterterrorism team at the Mall of America ensnared innocent shoppers by reporting them to authorities for "suspicious activity," part of a national initiative promoted by the federal government to college and analyze threat intelligence, much of which has dubious value. Third, local police around the country have stockpiled combat-style equipment with the help of some $34 billion in federal homeland security grants contributing to a "militarization" of law enforcement, even though violent crime is dropping and terrorist attacks are rare.
Tags: terrorism; violence; grants; Department of Homeland Security
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Lost In Detention
The film takes a look at the Obama administration's expanded immigration net, investigating the controversial Secure Communities enforcement program and going inside the hidden world of immigration detention.
Tags: immigration detention; immigration; immigrants; obama; ICE; FBI; DHS, homeland; securituy; mexico;
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Homeland Security
Colorado officials spent more than $350 million to protect the state from a terrorist attack, but what they purchased was a secret for nearly a decade. The Denver Post discovered that taxpayer money had gone toward hundreds of ballistic shields, body bags, bomb robots and even armored tanks.
Tags: homeland security; terrorism; taxpayer money
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How We Train Our Cops to Fear Islam
Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, regularly declares that the police must be our "eyes and ears" in the effort the secure the United States against terrorism. Over the last ten years, this conviction has fed billions of federal and state dollars to a flourishing market in counterterrorism courses for state and local law enforcement. No one, however, has been paying attention to what cops are actually taught.
Tags: police; Department of Homeland Security; terrorism; counterterrorism
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Amongst Us
An in-depth look at the United States government's immigration policy shows the country is in dire need of immigration reform and that current policies are leading to widespread abuses of immigrants. The story also sheds light on the high cost of the policies.
Tags: immigration; immigration reform; Arizona; Department of Homeland Security; illegal immigration; Mexico