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 "ambassadors" ...
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Benghazi: US Consulate Attack
On September 11, when a militant group overran the US consulate in Benghazi resulting in the death of the ambassador, the initial information was contradictory. Much of it got mixed up with other reports out of the Middle East about anti-American demonstrations over an inflammatory film on the Internet that was said to insult Islam. Damon arrived quickly in Benghazi to sort out the conflicting information and went to the burnt consulate ruins, which, though looted, held valuable clues to the truth. Her reporting revealed that there was not a demonstration and that it appeared to have been a planned attack that unfolded simultaneously from three sides. She discovered that U.S. diplomats had been warned by Libyan officials three days before the attack that the security situation in the city was out of their control. Though her reporting received harsh public criticism from the State Department at the time, the U.S. government’s own investigation later proved her reporting to be accurate in an episode that continues to reverberate politically. Damon also spoke to Libyans that tried to save the ambassador that night, shedding light on what happened to him during his final hours. While she was in Benghazi, demonstrations erupted against the militia believed to be responsible for the attack, and Damon further reported on the rise in extremism in the newly-liberated country. Her reporting provided additional valuable context about the milieu in which the consulate attack occurred.
Tags: Middle East; Libya; U.S. ambassador; Benghazi; militant group
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National Security and Terrorism Beat
The Brian Ross Investigative Unit looked at various national security issues including the Seattle Bomb Plot, the killing of Osama bin Laden, the war in Libya, the killing of Anwar al Awlaki and the killing of a Saudi ambassador to the U.S. that was thought to have been sought by the Iranian government.
Tags: broadcast; terrorism; Seattle Bomb Plot; Osama bin Laden; Libya; Anwar al Awlaki; national security
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Politics, scholarship and the Armenian Genocide
The first story in the series documented the resignation of Donald Quataert, a distinguished American scholar, who stepped down from the chair of the Georgetown University-based Institute of Turkish Studies. Quataert said he had been forced out by a defunding threat from the Government of Turkey. Several board members also resigned and said political infringement of academic freedom was the reason. The second story in the series looks at evidence of a deliberate attempt to maintain Turkish state control of the U.S. nonprofit. Present and former Turkish ambassadors controlled the endowment that provided almost all the funding for the scholarly institute at the time of Quataert's resignation. Also, founding members of the institute as well as endowment trustees had been party to Ankara's decades-long campaign to suppress international recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
Tags: Armenian Genocide; Institute of Turkish Studies; Turkish scholars; improper financial control; Middle East Studies Association; public denial; politics versus academics
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War Profiteers?
This CBS 60 Minutes segment uses the story of two men with no experience who were awarded multi-million dollar contracts from the Provisional Coalition Authority in Iraq as a lead into the allegations of war profiteering by larger companies like Halliburton and Kellogg, Brown and Root.
Tags: Iraq; Afghanistan; Middle East; Green Zone; corruption; graft; fraud; kickbacks; bribery; waste; Army Rangers; breach of contract; Custer Battles; Scott Custer; Mike Battles; Ambassador Paul Bremer; Colonel Richard Ballard; Frank Willis; procurement; war profiteers; Coalition Provisional Authority; Coalition Authority's Ministry of Finance; Colonel Philip Wilkinson; Robert Isaacson; Cayman Islands; Justice Department; whistleblower lawsuit; Halliburton; Kellogg, Brown and Root; KBR; Senator Byron Dorgan; Special Inspector General Stuart Bowen;
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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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US Oil Politics in the Kuwait of Africa
Equatorial Guinea has a history of human rights abuses and went so far as to threaten the US Ambassador to the country with death in 1996. Shortly after this incident, diplomatic ties were cut off with the country. Six years later the Bush Administration resumed those connections due to the possibility of 1 billion barrels of oil existing off the coast of the country.
Tags: politics; foreign affairs; oil; africa
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Nice Work, If You Can Get It
The National Journal looks at "the tradition of tapping well-heeled donors for diplomatic posts." The story focuses on the case of William Farish, the newly appointed U.S. ambassador to Britain, who "is one of more than two dozen people now on track to lead the good life ... to some desirable place because they bet big bucks on the Election 2000 winner." The report reveals that "Bush's first 35 political appointees to the diplomatic corps gave an average of $141,110 to him and other Republican campaigns and committees during 1999-2000." The author cites a number of critics who question "whether the spoil systems ... befits the United States at the cusp of the 21st century," and points to examples of untested diplomats' gaffes.
Tags: diplomacy; embassies; ambassadors; international politics; fundraising; Center for Responsible Politics; foreign policy; PACs; campaign contributors; Department of State
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The Country Club
Common Cause Magazine investigates how an elite group of corporations, unions and super-rich individuals is financing the political parties, shaping the political agenda and reaping great rewards from huge soft money contributions. Members of an ever-growing group of big political donors come from virtually every segment of the nation's economy and in some cases benefit from their generous donations by receiving titles as lofty as "ambassador" or "Cabinet secretary." (Spring/Summer 1996)
Tags: Kemper Lutterbeck The country club Elections Politics Conflict of interest 20 pgs.
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No title (id: 13343)
The Advocate investigates "Ambassador" Lil Barrow-Veal and her involvement in the HUD program Safety Net. The investigation found that houses leased to Barrow-Veal with the intention that she would then rent them out to homeless or low-income families, instead went to her relatives, employees, business associates and others not eligible for the program. (March 31, April 2, 1996)
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No title (id: 13036)
Safety Net, Inc., a nonprofit corporation founded by Ambassador Lil Barrow-Veal, leases homes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development with the understanding the houses will be rented to homeless and poor people. Safety Net also bought some HUD houses with the understanding those houses would be sold to low-income people. But the Advocate found that Barrow-Veal was selling these houses to friends and relatives who are not eligible for the program. (March 31, 1996)