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. Army and Department of Defense" ...
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"Breach of Trust"
Soldiers on all levels of the U.S. Armed Forces used fake college diplomas to increase chances of "promotions and pay raises." WHNT-TV revealed that several AMCOM employees had also presented "fake degrees" to the "Department of the Army." The investigation spurred a reconstruction of HR Specialist training, as the command's "ability to detect" to false diplomas was severely flawed.
Tags: U.S. Army; National Guard; Army Reserve; Department of the Army; U.S. Army and Department of Defense; General David Grange; Major General Jim Pillsbury; Army Aviation and Missile Command; U.S. Army Human Resource Command
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Dangerous Remedy
Robert Little of The (Baltimore) Sun reported that the U.S. Army has injected over 1000 soldiers wounded in Iraq with a medicine designed for hemophiliacs despite the fact that it is dangerous for people with normal blood. It can give them blood clots that could cause strokes and heart attacks. It costs $6000 per dose. Civilian doctors "have largely rejected it as a standard treatment for trauma patients." Army doctors say, in their experience, the drug saves lives by stopping hemorrhaging. Little says “Doctors in Iraq's emergency rooms, however, almost never care for their patients long enough to see firsthand whether blood clots or other complications have developed." Little reports that "the drug has never been subjected to a large-scale clinical trial to verify that it works and is safe for patients without hemophilia."
Tags: military medical system; Iraq; coagulant; Institute for Surgical Research; Germany; military hospitals; Food and Drug Administration; FDA; U.S. Department of Defense; DoD; Marines; Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs; U.S. Army Surgeon General; HIPPA; actionable intelligence; Recombinant Activated Factor VII; Novo Nordisk; coagulopathic bleeding;
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Lone Wolf: Eric Rudolph: Murder, Myth, and the Pursuit of an American Outlaw
"Lone Wolf is an inside look at a domestic terrorism investigation and prosecution, told from multiple points of view, including those of the FBI, ATF, US Attorney's offices, local law enforcement, defense attorneys and the bomber himself."
Tags: domestic terrorism investigation; FBI; ATF; lone offenders; McVeigh; Kaczynski; PACER electronic filing system; Richard Jewell; Administrative Maximum U.S. Penitentiary; ADX; Justice Department; UNABOM; CENTBOMB; Army of God
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Duty, Honor, Betrayal: How the U.S. turned its back on poisoned WWII vets
Zeman did months and months of research to tell the stories of U.S. army veterans who were exposed to poison gases as part of government experiments before and during World War II. In the early nineties, these stories came to light and the VA promised to help the affected veterans file claims and fight for compensation, but the agency never came through. This report found that the VA never fulfilled its pledge, and that many sick and dying veterans, affected by chemical experiments decades before, were left to handle their illnesses completely on their own.
Tags: military; mustard gas; Nuremburg; Anthony Principi; Pentagon; lewisite; gas chambers; Edgewood Arsenal; Department of Defense; Veterans Affairs
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Al Qaeda Terrorist Dupes FBI, Army
The News & Observer tells the story of Ali Mohamed, a double agent, who served both "in the heart of the U.S. military at Fort Bragg and in the inner circle of Osama bin Laden's Islamic fundamentalist terrorists' network." Mohamed was among those arrested after the 1998 attacks on the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, the story is used to exemplify how a terrorist can harness "the openness and modern technology of secular Western society, transforming them into weapons to be turned on America." Mohamed - who spent two decades working for the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and had three years of training and service with the U.S. Special Forces - acquired sensitive documents and passed them along to radical Muslims, the newspaper reports. Though the CIA, the FBI and the Defense Department knew all about Mohamed, they failed to stop him from playing a central role in the 1998 bombings.
Tags: FOIA requests; Defense Intelligence Agency; September 11; World Trade Center; Pentagon; military; State Department; CIA; classified information; Army
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Death by Chopper; High-flying crime
Seattle Weekly investigates fair-business law violations by Boeing, the world's biggest plane maker. The first story reveals that the corporation was accused of hiding flawed parts on U.S. military choppers, which the government says led to at least one fatal crash. The second story summarizes the claims against Boeing over the last two decades: illegally selling technology to overseas companies, trafficking, involvement in a major military contract-procurement scandal, bribery, and breach of supply contracts. "Boeing's latest fine sends its corporate rap sheet soaring to $100 million in the last three years," Anderson reports. Though the company has admitted some of its export law violations, it claims that "it's a mistake to think of Boeing and corruption in the same sentence," according to a quote by the vice-president of the corporation.
Tags: defense; military contracts; Army; business; Department of Navy; corruption; bribe; Congress; fraud; kickbacks; airplanes; technology; data; know-how; helicopters
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Worries About Safety of Its Anthrax Vaccine Put the Army in a Bind
The Wall Street Journal reports on side effects from anthrax vaccine, which have put the U.S. Army in a difficult position. The story reveals that hundreds of soldiers have claimed harm or disability from the anti-anthrax shots, and 102 people have been court-martialed for refusing to take the vaccine. The article follows the developments in the army anthrax vaccination program in recent years, and exposes failures in the performance of BioPort, the military's anthrax vaccine supplier.
Tags: vaccines; terrorism; biological weapons; FBI; FDA; BioPort; Department of Health and Human Services; defense; Steven-Johnson syndrome
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Peace Is Hell
"Every six month the Pentagon sends nearly 4,000 soldiers to Bosnia and brings nearly 4,000 soldiers home. To see how it's done is to understand why keeping peace has become harder than waging war - and why the Pax Americana has stretched the mighty American military to the limit," reports the Atlantic Monthly. The story details the everyday life, preparation and responsibilities of the Amerian troops in Bosnia, and sheds light on their training and equipment. The article finds that the Bosnian mission requires "all of the subtlety, patience and personal wariness that operating in international coalitions and ambiguous civilian environments entails."
Tags: Army; peacekeeping; Serbia; Bosnia; the Gulf War; Eagle Base; soldiers; troops; U.S. Department of Defense; Kosovo; Macedonia; East Timor; Fort Stewart; Pentagon
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Chemical Weapons Buried In the Backyard
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reports on the burial and sea-dumping of large quantities of chemical weapons by the U.S. Army since World War I. These weapons are not only immediately dangerous if uncovered, they also pose serious environmental and health risks. Expensive clean up programs are underway across the country.
Tags: chemical weapons; mustard gas; Spring Valley; Environmental Protection Agency; War Department; American University; Army Toxis and Hazardous Materials Agency; Chemical and Biological Defense Command; Non-stockpile Chemical Materiel Program
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Weapons of Mass Confusion: How pork trumps preparedness in the fight against terrorism
The 1995 sarin gas attack that killed 12 people and injured 5,000 others on a Tokyo subway alerted U.S. officials to the potential for biological and chemical terrorism on U.S. soil. In 1996, Congress passed the Defense Against Weapons of Mass Destruction Act of 1996, which authorized spending billions to prepare local officials for attacks and to create specialized military response teams. Now, five years after the law was passed, Green writes, pork-barrel politics has prevented the anti-terrorism effort from fulfilling its duties. "The billions of dollars spent to prepare for an attack has only created an expensive and uncoordinated mess...In the end, more than 40 agencies, overseen by a dozen congressional committees, received a role in the nation's terrorism defense plan. The waste was enormous...The (law) spawned 90 different programs for the single purpose of training local officials. Today they compete just to find clients." After 3 years and $137 million, the U.S. Army National Guard team that was designated to respond to terrorist attacks, has not yet been certified by the Defense Department as ready for duty.
Tags: Defense Against Weapons of Mass Destruction Act; Nunn-Lugar-Domenici Act; domestic terrorism; Aum Shinrikyo cult; Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team; chemical weapons; biological weapons; pork barrel politics; U.S. Army National Guard