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 "passports" ...
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"Document Dilemma"
In a series of stories, a group of reporters investigates the illegal handling of passports and visas by criminals, the wealthy and the politically connected. Corruption and bribery often overshadow the legal process of global travel and obtaining citizenship.
Tags: Visa; Fraud; Russia; Bulgaria; Macedonia; Moldova; Ukraine; passports; travel; forgery; bribery
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Overseas Donors
The Associated Press investigated whether any donors to presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain with foreign addresses were illegal foreign donors; whether the two campaigns were guarding against illegal foreign money by asking overseas donors for copies of their current U.S. passports as the Federal Election Commission instructs; and to what extent the two campaigns were failing to disclose basic information about donors such as their employers and occupations. The AP reviewed hundreds of thousands of donations from around the globe and found evidence that both campaigns took money first and asked questions later. The reporters found a smattering of illegal foreign donations to Obama as well as missing details in federal paperwork the law requires from Obama and McCain. During interviews with 123 donors in 11 countries, The AP found that Obama accepted illegal contributions from at least three foreigners. In one case, a Canadian noted with is donation that he was not an American; the Obama campaign accepted his money anyway, and the Canadian's note about his foreign citizenship actually appeared in Obama's campaign finance report. A donor in Australia admitted to the AP that he entered a phony passport number when making an Internet contribution to Obama. Just five donors, three for Obama and two for McCain, told the AP that the campaigns asked to see copies of their current U.S. passports.
Tags: Barack Obama; John McCain; campaign finance; illegal donations; foreign donations; campaign regulation; 2008 presidential election
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Enemies at the Gate
"This hour-long NBC News broadcast is an unprecedented investigation into the international black market in passports. It exposes what the head of Interpol considers a "gaping hole" in global security, especially in terms of terrorism."
Tags: black market; passports; criminal networks; fraudulent identity papers; document brokers;
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Detroit's Terror Trial
In 2003, three men in Detroit were tried on charges of terror-related crimes. They were all of Arab descent and had phony passports. After all three were convicted, reporters conducted an investigation of the trial and found that at least a hundred documents had been withheld from defense lawyers and the chief witness against the men was an international con-artist. The convictions were thrown out and the prosecutor was charged with misconduct.
Tags: war on terror; attorney general John Ashcroft; Patriot Act; sleeper-cells; terrorism; consititutional rights; civil rights; FBI; justice department; federal court
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"Nuclear Security Problems: Los Alamos Lab Security"
CBS News reporters uncover security lapses in Los Alamos National Laboratory, a U.S. weapons laboratory. In some cases the labs failed to check visas and passports of foreign workers, even after the 9-11 attacks. Two former employees were fired after trying to expose acts of fraud and mismanagement within the labs. The reports also showed that a large number of equipment and supplies were "missing" and/or "stolen," many of which cost thousands or millions of tax dollars. Reporters also exposed a misappropriation of even more tax dollars as some employees were discovered to have spent millions on "questionable purchases" for VCRs, trips to the spa, and diamond rings. One employee who was trusted with a million dollar a month credit line charged a $30,000 custom Mustang to the government credit card, and received no penalty for her actions.
Tags: nuclear security problems; mismanagement; fraud; waste
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Will the Real Daniel Walcott Please Stand Up?
Los Angeles Times Magazine looks at the complicated story of Daniel Walcott. "He looked and talked the part of an aristocrat. So how did this apparent blueblood end up doing time in India for smuggling diamonds and munitions? Fleeing the Lebanese on espionage charges? Serving a U.S. prison sentence for smuggling drugs? A saga of arrogance and risky business...."
Tags: Interpol aliases bogus passports drug trafficking Gerald R. Ford acquaintance Pan American pilot CIA
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Lost Children
CBS News reports "The story begins in Britain directly after World War II. Battered and poor, Britain embarked on a scheme to clear out its overflowing children's homes. By the thousands, children as young as three were ... shipped halfway across the world to Australia to start a 'new life' with new families. All of these children were told their parents were dead... The children, none older than 15, arrived with no birth certificates, no passports and no families waiting to take them in. Many were condemned to childhoods of virtual slave labor in institutions run by religious orders. Some of the boys were sexually abused.... They weren't orphans at all. Most had families back in Britain who never know what had become of their children and had been lied to by authorities..."
Tags: TAPE TRANSCRIPT abduction child migrants 1947 Bindoon child labor
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People Smuggling
Jerry Stuchiner, a former high-ranking American immigration official, became the center of inquiries by the governments of Hong Kong, the United States, and Honduras. He worked for the Immigration and Naturalization Service and was arrested in July of 1997 at the Hong Kong airport on charges of carrying fraudulent passports. The story investigates his many alleged transgressions, from misuse of a diplomatic passport to people smuggling. The story shows him to be naive and disgruntled, and under the influence of his own undercover informant, Hong Kong businessman Dickson Yao. The story also details the sordid world of people smuggling, a new multi-billion dollar industry rivaling arms and drugs.
Tags: None
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No title (id: 13956)
The story of David Belfield, AKA Dauod Salahuddin, showed that in the late 1970's and throughout the early 1980's the government of Iran recruited disaffected American blacks to commit terrorist acts throughout the United States in the name of Islam. It was a well-organized, well-financed, and intricately planned plot to commit murders, bank robberies, arsons, burglaries and acts of political terrorism. All of the recruits were found in either mosques or prisons in the United States, paid in cash, and given elaborate escape plans and passports to Islamic countries. (January 19, 1996)
Tags: Jarriel Thrasher The assassin Contest entry 6 pgs. TAPE
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No title (id: 13481)
The Progressive investigates the U.S. government's crackdown on illegal immigrants and its effects on legal immigrants who are often confused with the illegal immigrants. The government is kicking illegal immigrants out of universities and making it difficult for legal immigrants to obtain financial aid for college or passports for study abroad programs. The series also looks at the ordeal for female immigrants entering the United States through Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) where agents have been accused of sexually assaulting women. (Sept. 1996)
Tags: de Uriarte Light Baiting immigrants Aliens Pete Wilson Proposition 187 Operation Gatekeeper 7 pgs.