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 "Afghanistan" ...
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Lost to History: When War Records Go Missing
"Lost to History: When War Records Go Missing" revealed that military field records from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were never kept, destroyed or simply could not be found, leaving veterans with combat injuries or disability claims unable to prove they saw action. The widespread failure by the military to keep and preserve these records - records that have been kept since America's Revolutionary War - leaves war historians in the dark about the granular details that, when woven together, tell larger stories hidden from participants in the day-to-day confusion of combat. “Lost to History" showed that dozens of Army units and U.S. Central Command lacked adequate war records, how Pentagon leaders had years of warnings but never sufficiently addressed the problem, and how commanders failed to take record keeping orders seriously. The stories vividly narrate the personal costs of this failure. The lack of field records forced Spc. Christopher Delara to struggle for years before receiving treatment he was entitled to for post-traumatic stress syndrome. And the missing material deepened the grief of Jim Butler, who searched for years to find the truth about his son’s death in combat.
Tags: War; war records; Iraq; Afghanistan; veterans
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Uncounted Casualties
A three-day series that analyzed causes of death for 266 Texas veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. The six-month investigation uncovered previously unknown information, pulling data from a variety of federal, state and local sources. The series, which also depended on extensive interviews with family members and fellow service members, revealed the startling number of Texas veterans dying of prescription drug overdoses, suicides and motor vehicle crashes. The newspaper's analysis was hailed by epidemiologists and former Department of Veterans Affairs researchers as an important step in understanding veteran mortality, and led to calls for better government tracking of how veterans are dying.
Tags: Veterans; Iraq; Afghanistan; prescription drug overdoses; suicides; vehicle crashes
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Bales: Army suspect in Afghan shooting was liable in financial fraud
On the day that tips arose about a U.S. soldier who may have strafed two Afghan villages, I left the office for a flight to Tacoma. Within 48 hours of the soldier’s being identified as Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, I and two colleagues broke the news that the emerging hagiography of Bales drafted by family and attorneys had more to it than the story of a soldier who enlisted at the ripe of 27 driven by outrage over the 2001 terrorist attacks—and then broken down by an unrelenting cycle of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Our story started with pure spidey senses: Bales’ s family and lawyer said he had left a stockbroker’s career to enlist, as they explained his call to serve. Yet he had not finished college and clearly had financial troubles, I had determined. And he was active in brokerage in the late 1990s in Florida I learned by checking assorted online records—which raised my suspicions about the quick-money penny stock trading that was commonplace then. Based on those instincts, while also doing the running daily story from Bales’ Army base in Washington state, I had checked some online brokerage records and enlisted Julie Tate to look at others and run through civil and criminal filings in Ohio (Bales’s home state and then nationally). Within an hour, I had found one suspicious record and Julie had found others and we were off on a 30-hour run of investigative reporting and boots on the ground interviews that yielded the breaking news of Bales’s more complicated—and less laudatory—past in the period just before he joined the Army. We located and I interviewed an elderly couple who had lost substantial savings in accounts managed by Bales and received copies of detailed financial records that corroborated their claims and showed Bales as the account manager. We also peeled back corporate records for a now-shuttered firm run by Bales and his brother with backing from a longtime friend and reached him to further flesh out the checkered professional history of the Staff Sgt. at the center of an explosive, fast-moving and intensely competitive story. The story demanded intense investigative reporting that netted notable results in far far less than 30 days of a breaking event.
Tags: U.S. soldier; Afghanistan; military draft; terrorist attacks; deployment
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Other People's Wars
The book is the story of a close US ally's role in the wars and international politics of the decade after September 11, 2001. Nearly everything about New Zealand's post 9-11 military and intelligence roles was kept secret from the New Zealand public, while news was controlled through an intense military public relations campaign.
Tags: New Zealand; Iraq; Afghanistan; War on Terror
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Terrorists in Love
The book profiles six radical Muslim men from Pakistan, Afhganistan and Saudi Arabia and reveals their mystical dreams and visions, sexual repression and crumbling family structures.
Tags: terrorism; Islam; Pakistan; Afghanistan; Saudi Arabia
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What Really Happened at Bari Alai?
The investigation looks to provide answers to a deadly Taliban attack that received little press attention. The story exposes the tensions that arose between coalition and Afghan forces under austere and stressful conditions, and how growing anger towards American soldiers created an environment of distrust.
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60 Minutes: Never Seen the Lie
The investigation details the Battle of Ganjgal, one of the most remarkable engagements of the war in Afghanistan. Not only was Corporal Dakota Meyer awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Ganjgal, but two Army officers also received career-ending letters of reprimand. Their failures left Meyer and the rest of his unit without the artillery and helicopter support they desperately needed.
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The Horse Soldiers of 9/11
The stories of Special Operations Forces and CIA agents who responded directly after the attacks on 9/11.
Tags: 9/11; Afghanistan; Special; Operations; Forces; CIA; attack
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The Only Thing Worth Dying For
The book tells the story of how Hamid Karzai came to power as the president of Afghanistan. It recounts of the story of the eleven Green Berets tasked with the seemingly impossible mission of fomenting a rebellion among the Pashtun Tribal belt, against the Taliban during the weeks after September 11, 2001.
Tags: Hamid Karzai; Afghanistan; taliban; War on Terror
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Where There's Smoke
"Where There's Smoke" investigates the military's practice of using open burn pits to dispose of the millions of tons of waste, including hazardous materials, generated by base operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.