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 "U.S. Agency for International Development" ...
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Imperial Life in the Emerald City
This book uses the Coalition Provisional Authority's Green Zone Headquarters in Baghdad to detail "the incompetence and arrogance that bedevilled the [American government's]effort to reconstruct and govern Iraq in the crucial first year after the fall of Saddam Hussein's government." Chandasekaran's sources included former CPA employees who had returned to the U.S. after sovereignty was re-established in Iraq.
Tags: Coalition Provisional Authority; CPA; Green Zone; Washington Post; FOIA; Department of Defense; DOD; Pentagon; Government Accountability Office; GAO; State Department; Ambassador Paul L. Bremer; Kurdish Regional Government; de-Baathification; U.S. Agency for International Development; USAID; Persian Gulf War; Sunni Tiangle; Abu Ghraib Prison; Paul Wolfowitz
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We Did Nothng Wrong: Why Software Quality Matters
"Software programs are killing people." At the National Cancer Institute in Panama City, five cancer patients died after an overdose of radiation during their treatments. The U.S.-made software that calculated the dosages of these treatments doubled the dosages during treatment of 27 patients. The International Atomic Energy Agency's investigation of the five deaths blamed radiation poisoning, and said that the remaining patients would be at risk for developing "serious complications" from the radiation. Two of the Panamanian technicians were convicted of second-degree murder and are serving four-year sentences in a Panama prison. And the makers of the software, Multidata Systems International in St. Louis, Missouri, deny any wrongdoing.
Tags: Multidata Systems International; software quality; National Cancer Institute in Panama City; radiation therapy; radiation poisoning; software error-prevention system
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Drug Control or Biowarfare?
"The story unveiled a secret government plan to use Colombia as a testing ground for Fusarium oxysporum, a fungus-based herbicide, as a new biological weapon in the war on drugs; the power and personage behind the effort, and the lack of oversight, monitoring, and informed consent from stakeholders on health and environmental concerns. (The) story detailed how the fungus was initially clandestinely isolated and developed by various government agencies and how the U.S. worked to force the experimental agent on Colombian authorities for use against coca, poppy, and marijuana."
Tags: deforestation; USDA; Peru; fungus; Plan Columbia; Rep. Ben Gilman; mycoherbicide (fungus plant killer); human health; farming; immune system; State Department of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement; Monsanto Roundup; United Nations
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American University in Bulgaria
The American University in Bulgaria was established in 1991 a joint venture between the University of Maine, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Soros Foundation and the Bulgarian government. The school, the only American university in Eastern Europe, was meant to be a bastion of western thought and values in the former Communist bloc. Although the school has been open for six years, no one had really looked into whether the American university was living up to its mission as a democratizing force in Eastern Europe. What was found was both heartening and disappointing. For example, the students are highly motivated, but they are sometimes hindered by a faculty and administration that is not of the highest caliber. Faculty turnover is astoundingly high so the university has been unable to build a base of experienced teachers and administrators. In addition, the university faces massive financial problems that would daunt any school administrator.
Tags: None
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No title (id: 10322)
Common Cause reveals waste in the U.S. Agency for International Development; problems include cutting planning and research projects while spending lavishly for consultants, offices, automobiles and other facilities, May 1994.
Tags: DC Thomas USAID 4 pages
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No title (id: 10124)
The Progressive details the struggle to reform the U.S. Agency for International Development; the often scandal-plagued agency is attempting to redefine itself after the cold war, January 1994.
Tags: DC Cohen AID
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No title (id: 9970)
Legal Times reveals that as the United States Agency for International Development has increased its programs in former Communist countries, much of its largesse has gone to questionable U.S. businesses and contributed to a muddled foreign policy; finds businesses fined in the U.S. for environmental concerns are awarded contracts and U.S. businesses and law firms receive too much government pork, May 31, 1993.
Tags: DC Kaplan USAID 10 pages
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No title (id: 8205)
CNN Special Assignment (Atlanta) uncovers a scandal within the U.S. government's international aid program, Agency for International Development; finds the program is fraught with corruption that has wasted tens of millions of U.S. tax dollars, which went to build private tennis courts in Rwanda, assisted in shipping toxic waste to Zimbabwe, shipped animal feed instead of milk to famine-plagued Sudan, and sent contaminated medicine to Peru that ended up killing babies, Dec. 29, 1991.
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT
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No title (id: 2790)
Christian Science Monitor series details the political and social impact of humanitarian aid from the U.S. Agency for International Development on the country of El Salvador; reporter found that food aid was sometimes used as a weapon of war and that AID was funding the sterilization of thousands of Salvadoran women, often without their consent, Jan. 10 - 13, 1984.
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