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 "war contractor" ...
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ArmorGroup Conflict of Interest
The Inspector General and his brother have a relationship where one helps the other and vice versa. The Inspector General was supposed to police the security contract at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan, but was protecting is brother an executive at ArmorGroup. ArmorGroup is the company accused of wrongdoing and has continuously gotten away with it.
Tags: Howard Krongard; Board of Directors; corruption; Kubal; State Department; watchdog; war contractor; complaint; scandal
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Disposable Army
In today's American war zones, there are more civilian contractors on the ground than combat troops. However, when a contractor is injured or killed, they must face an insurance system that delivers sub-standard care. Failure to enforce companies to purchase mandated worker's compensation insurance for employees and a lack of awareness among hires has resulted in severs gaps of coverage for individuals working in overseas war zones.
Tags: insurance; workers; war zones; overseas; contractors; civilian; private; profits; employees; troops; care; health; coverage;
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Four Stars for Hire
Retired senior officers are been hired by the US military as senior mentors. These mentors counsel current commanders and run war games. Further, the mentors are being paid at rates much higher than the active-duty officers. Also, they are not just working for the military; many are employed by defense contractors. So these mentors are not only being paid large sums by the US government, they are also receiving income from the defense firms.
Tags: Retired senior officers; Military; Mentors; Commanders; Defense contractors; Financial; Marines; Pentagon; Wages; Generals; Admirals; US government
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Cowboys of Kabul
US Protection and Investigations, a company owned by a Texas couple named Del and Barbara Spier, was, until recently, one of the largest security operations in Afghanistan. The company oversaw security of reconstruction projects but secured no-bid contracts, submitted false invoices, hired men from a notorious Afghan warlord, paid off militants and demonstrated many other corrupt actions. "The Cowboys of Kabul" details the actions of these and other corrupt contractors in America's war on terror.
Tags: USPI; Afghanistan; Spier; contractors; militants; fraud; security; contracts; military; private security;
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Blackwater: Inside America's Private Army
This series focuses on Blackwater USA, one of the most visible players in the private military industry. Tens of thousands of private military soldiers are on the ground in Iraq, armed and engaging in combat, but they are not subject to military justice or chain of command. This situation raises questions about oversight, standards, coordination and accountability. Blackwater's presence in Iraq escalated the war in 2004, when four of its contractors were killed and strung up from a bridge in Fallujah. Now, Blackwater is seeking out new markets, offering itself as an army for hire to police the world's trouble spots.
Tags: war; military; military-industrial complex; army; soldiers; Iraq; contractors; government contracts; diplomacy; federal government; defense; government documents; special forces
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Military Outsourcing in Iraq (series)
The author investigated the outsourcing of the Iraqi War by the US government. The reports covered the use of private contractors to train the Iraqi police force, the problems they encountered despite the positive spin from high ranking American military officials and presented a slide show of the training process, giving a visual indication of the difficulty faced by the trainers.
Tags: military; Iraq; Iraqi War; War on Terrorism; Iraqi Police Force; private security contractors; infiltration; insurgents; exit strategy; troop reductions; U.S State Department; SAIC; DynCorp
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The Man Who Sold the War
The author investigated the company, Rendon Group, and its involvement in selling the Iraq war to Americans. The story focuses on a secretive Washington defense contractor and executive of the Rendon Group, John Rendon.
Tags: war; Iraq; defense; Rendon Group; John Rendon; defense contractor; weapons of mass destruction; Washington; Pentagon; Iraqi National Congress; Judith Miller
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Spoils of War
"Spoils of War" is a three-part series that takes a detailed look at the corruption and fraud that occurred during the reconstruction of Iraq. Davidson and Schapiro found that a substantial amount of the reconstruction money was lost to corruption, bribes, and Haliburton, among others. They also found that U.S. taxpayer money was used fraudulently.
Tags: Iraqi reconstruction; democracy in Iraq; Baghdad; contracts; contractors; Haliburton
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Home front: The government's war on soldiers
This book chronicles how George Bush has cut benefits for both veterans and front-line troops. It reports how the Pentagon has ordered soldiers to take experimental medicines that sometimes prove fatal, how defense contractors deliver faulty weapons to soldiers, and how "the true casualty of war is the subsequent body count -- the medical failures, psychological toll and the uninvestigated suicides -- on the home front."
Tags: BOOK; war; Iraq; veterans; soldiers; veterans benefits; Bush; military; Veterans Administration; Gulf War syndrome
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The Bridge
This seven-day series and the follow-ups shed light on the world of private military contractors. The series chronicles the events leading up to the ambush of four private military contractors in Fallujah who were working for a North Carolina company. The investigation exposes the problems private military contractors create for the military, the cost to taxpayers and their lack of public accountability. They derive their revenue from tax dollars yet exist in a kind of "legal netherworld" between civil and military law.
Tags: private military contractors; Fallujah; Iraq; war; Blackwater