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 "Federal Bureau of Investigations" ...
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Trail of the Gun
After a wave of gun violence in Seattle, KING 5 examined some of the most basic techniques that police use to solve gun crimes. By analyzing documents received through public records requests the television station learned that most large police departments in Washington state are not conducting routine ballistics tests on the so-called “crime guns” they seize from suspects and crime scenes. This means that guns, that could hold clues to unsolved crimes, are sitting right under investigators’ noses in their own evidence rooms. The investigative series "Trail of the Gun" also unearthed the results of federal firearms “traces”, which police use to determine how a gun ended up in the hands of a criminal. These trace results revealed that a large number of Seattle’s crime guns came from an unexpected place. After the stories aired, several large police departments pledged to begin ballistics testing programs for their crime guns. The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms offered to assist local police agencies to test every gun in their evidence rooms. And, the feds unveiled a warrant targeting one of the gun dealers identified in the series.
Tags: Guns; gun crimes; police
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Dark Markets
The Wall Street Journal’s coverage of financial markets in 2012 performed a rare and extraordinary service: It exposed evidence of hidden manipulation by corporate executives and professional traders that the markets’ official government watchdogs were utterly unaware of. Reflecting potential widespread harm to millions of ordinary investors, federal prosecutors and securities regulators raced to follow the Journal stories with major investigations. A team of reporters spent six months creating a database examining how more than 20,000 corporate executives traded their own companies’ stocks over the course of eight years. What the team found was disturbing: More than 1,000 executives had generated big profits, or avoided big losses, by trading their company stock in the days ahead of corporate news announcements that led to big moves in the shares. The Journal also exposed a regulatory loophole that had helped the executives take advantage of inside knowledge ahead of other investors. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office and the Securities and Exchange Commission all launched investigations the day the Journal article appeared.
Tags: Financial markets; corporate executives; stocks; Federal Bureau of Investigation
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The Informants
In the package, "Terrorists for the FBI," Mother Jones exposed this pattern with in-depth pieces that drilled deep into what has become federal law enforcement's No. 1 priority. As a part of an 18-month investigation, reporter Trevor Aaronson pulled court documents of all 508 federal terrorism convictions since September 11, 2001, and interviewed everyone from undercover FBI informants to street agents, top bureau officials, and legal and terrorism experts. The investigation found that following 9/11, the FBI built a massive network of domestic informants -15,000 in all- many of them tasked with surveilling and infiltrating Muslim neighborhoods and institutions.
Tags: FBI; informants; undercover; federal agents; terrorism
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Backdoor Branches
The investigation turns up "backdoor branches" where unscrupulous dealers are using loopholes within state and federal business laws to purchase license plates and titles for undocumented drivers.
Tags: license plates; bureau of motor vehicles; I.D.; backdoor branches
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Sabotaging the System
This story includes the “first confirmed account of a successful cyber attack against an electric utility company, resulting in major blackouts that lasted for days”. The electric grid not only supplies electricity but also keeps water, telephones, trains, and air traffic control up and running. Also in the U.S., government agencies, defense contractors, and banks are hacked everyday by foreign spy agencies.
Tags: National Intelligence; Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); cyber security; Central Intelligence Agency (CIA); computers; technology
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Scam-At-Home
A number of online scams are offering work at home opportunities to consumers. In this economic recession, many people are looking for ways to make money and these scams seem to be the perfect way. Some of the major scams are mystery shopping, stuffing envelopes, and rebate processing. The investigation into this story discovered these scams among the many and along the way found the scammers who were running these operations.
Tags: Internet; employment; finances; con job; credit; wealth; debt; website; Better Business Bureau; Federal Trade Commission
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Dallas Crime Stats
“Dallas had the highest reported crime rate among cities with more than 1 million people”. Many people were worried with distinction, so the police came up with a better system to record and report these statistics. Now that Dallas isn’t known to have the highest reported crime rate, it has come to attention that the rates being presented to the public are creating “an artificial image of crime in Dallas”.
Tags: law enforcement; Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); Police Department; Uniform Crime Reporting guidelines; officers; misclassified cases; Police Chief David Kunkle
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Rat Trap
In the story, an FBI informant has been known to hound the targets of the investigation with money and gifts, but also “led them by the nose”. He has also “prodded, persuaded and cajoled the targets to advance plans to launder money supposedly used to purchase an anti-aircraft missile”. So this article brought up the FBI’s use of informants and the ethical lines crossed by some of them.
Tags: Federal Bureau of Investigation; anti-American; violent; terrorists; corruption; Middle Eastern descent
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WAMU: Inside The Collapse
It's October 2008: major banks are failing, Congress is bailing them out with taxpayer dollars. The public deserves to know how we got into the mess. ABC News Nightline's "Inside the Collapse" was first to expose a top-down, company-wide reckless lending strategy that led to the biggest bank failure in U.S. history: Washington Mutual Bank. Senior Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas got inside Washington Mutual's culture and uncovered what really went wrong using original reporting, an exclusive whistleblower interview, a video of a jubilant company party, exclusive internal company documents, former employee interviews and victim interviews. His piece, as well as a follow-up on World news with Charles Gibson and articles on ABCNews.com, caught the attention of law enforcement. Two days after the piece aired, federal prosecutors announced that because of "intense public interest" they were investigating the bank's activities with assistance from the FBI, FDIC, SEC and IRS. The story was widely reported in the national media in the following weeks.
Tags: Washington Mutual; Securities and Exchange Commission; Internal Revenue Service; Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; FDIC; Federal Bureau of Investigation; economics
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The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America
This book is Bamford's latest expose' of the National Security Agency. Among his findings, Bamford reveals that the agency had been targeting the Yemeni home that served as Osama bin Laden's operations center prior to 9/11 but had never told the FBI that the al-Qaida terrorists were there. Bamford's book demonstrates an unparalleled ability to penetrate the most secretive of institutions.
Tags: National Security Agency; NSA; al-Qaida; al-Qaeda; national security; 9/11; September 11; Pentagon; CIA; Central Intelligence Agency; secrecy; FBI; Federal Bureau of Investigation