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 "Amnesty International" ...
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The Daughters of Juarez
The book investigates the series of murders that have been occurring to women and girls in Juarez, Mexico for over ten years. The authors also explore the impact that NAFTA has had on the local economy.
Tags: murder; Mexico; economy; Juarez; El Paso; North American Free Trade; factories; law enforcement; rape; DNA testing; Amnesty International;
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The Case Against Saddam
This documentary delves deep into the war in Iraq, gathering evidence against Saddam Hussein alongside investigators and judges. The investigation focuses on Hussein's 1988 chemical attack on the Kurds, known as "Anfal." Under the command of Saddam's cousin, Ali Hasan al-Majid, the campaign consisted of eight chemical attacks over a period of six months and left behind a mass grave in Al-Hatra.
Tags: Saddam Hussein; Iraq; Ali Hasan al-Majid; Kurds; Anfal; Al-Hatra; Human Rights Watch; Amnesty International; Baathist Rule
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You're in the Hole: A Crackdown on Dissident Prisoners
A Progressive investigation reveals that "in the hours following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, dissident prisoners were singled out from the general population and take to secure housing units." Some of the isolated inmates were denied access to counsel; their lawyers were denied phone conversations and personal visits with their clients. Cusac finds that most of the segregated prisoners happened to be peace-activists or left-wing. Without any public comment, six weeks after Sept. 11 the Justice Department implemented an interim rule that justified the infringement on the detainees' human rights, and explained the new policy with intelligence and law enforcement concerns.
Tags: Amnesty International; human rights; civil rights; terrorism; John Ashcroft; attorneys; lawyers; military
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Plan Columbia
Colombia is now the third-largest recipient of US aid in the world after Israel and Egypt. The two-year, $3.2 billion aid package is to help fight "the war on drugs," by eradicating half of the nation's 300,000 acres of coca fields within five years. Yet others consider the escalating US military presence and its technological aid to the right wing paramilitary forces a thinly veiled military intervention, stabilizing the government in power against guerillas in the coca-producing regions. Kidnappings are up sharply, and others fear they'll increase even more if drugs profits are stymied.
Tags: Columbia; US Aid; War on Drugs; anti-narcotics; School of the Americas; U.S. military advisors; toxic herbicides; Plan Colombia; Pais Libre; kidnapping; FARC; ELN; death squads; human rights; Pentagon's Southern Command; Amnesty International; Paz Colombia; social inequality
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Star of Justice: On the job with America's Toughest Sheriff
Harper's Magazine reports from Phoenix, Arizona, on how Joe Arpaio, the sheriff of Maricopa County, has violated human rights in a number of cases. The story details how inmates in the county's jails are forced "to wear pink underwear... and dig graves," while put on chain gangs. The report finds that "in a city where crime and development are growing together, Arpaio had the answers that the frightened people wanted to hear." The result: "Arpaio is treated not as a politician but as a rock star." The story details how an arrested paraplegic has been put in a restraint chair for six hours and, as a result, his right arm has withered, and his anus has become ulcerated. It describes how other arrested people have been tortured and killed while in jail. The report sheds light on lawsuits that "alleged that Arpaio created and nurtured a climate that encouraged the guards to abuse inmates," and describes his political activities.
Tags: police; Amnesty International; jail; restraint chair; litigation; civil rights; lawyers; politics; fund raising; political campaigns
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Cell Extractions
A KTVT-TV investigation exposes "the violent way some correction officers handle inmates in North Texas jails." The investigation dociments the "overuse of pepper mace and excessive force," and details a case, when an inmate "died at the hands of the correction officers." The story features a letter from an Amnesty International expert, "stating the treatment of the inmates ... was tantamount to to torture and cruel punishment."
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; Texas Public Information Act: jails; criminal justice system; Tarrant; Denton; Dallas
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Echelon
A CBS News 60 Minutes investigation discovers that a top-secret, "little-known system called Echelon is able to intercept virtually any electronic transmission worldwide." The story reports on the European Union concerns over corporate espionage by the NSA. It finds that "the Echelon program is far more vast than the EU had presented, and that the globe is peppered with huge spy stations..." The report reveals that, while the American National Security Agency "is forbidden by American law to spy on American citizens, .... Canada and England do the spying on behalf of the NSA and simply send the information to their American colleagues." The investigation finds that these two countries "use the same loophole to get around their own domestic surveillance rules," and uncovers reports that Echelon has listened in on late Princess Diana, Amnesty International and Greenpeace.
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; FOIA; intelligence; national security; Federation of American Scientists; Menwith Hill; House Intelligence Committee; Congress; traffic; parliament; encryption; law enforcement
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The Devil's Chair
The Progressive "investigated the restraint chair, a popular restraining device used in jails and prisons" and "revealed that at least eleven people have died since 1984 after being placed in restraint chairs..." The story "revealed widespread abuse - including torture - of prisoners in the chairs." Some of the major findings included the use of chair "for punishment of nonthreatening behavior" and cases when "prisoners have been interrogated" or "required to testify while in restraint chairs." The reporter also found that "jails, state and federal prisons, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the U.S. Marshals Service, state mental hospitals, juvenile detention centers are all equipped with the chair."
Tags: diskette; FOIA; Amnesty International; prisons; torture
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Weapons of torture
A Time investigation turns up evidence of loose controls and U.S. companies' shipping stun guns to countries that practice torture.
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No title (id: 13309)
On March 10, the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya erupted on a series of riots aimed at halting the operations of Freeport-McMoRan, a New Orleans-based mining company that runs the world's largest gold mine and third-largest copper mine on the western half of the island of New Guinea. The Progressive looks at this uprising and its causes and possible effects. (June 1996)