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 "bioterrorism" ...
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Dirty Bombs
"Radioactive devices are stolen from cars, disappear from construction sites, fall off trucks and generally go astray at a startling pace. A computer database compiled by The Canadian Press showed how dozens of these tools - from a darkroom truck in northern British Columbia to a device used for molecular separation in Montreal - have gone missing in the last five years. The items vanished despite federal disaster planning reports that warn terrorists could wreak multimillion-dollar havoc if a nuclear gauge was used to build a crude 'dirty bomb.'"
Tags: radioactive; dirty bomb; bioterrorism; terrorism
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Biodefense Security Failures in Texas
"Following a watchdog's report that a Texas A&M researcher had been infected with the bioterror agent Brucella in a lab, The Dallas Morning News used state and federal open records laws to pursue dozens of additional security breaches and disease exposures at other state universities."
Tags: bioterror; biodefense; security breaches; lab accidents; disease control; disease exposures
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Curve Ball
"This is the story of how an Iraqi con man fooled the world's top intelligence agencies. He was code named "Curve Ball" and his testimony - that Saddam Hussein had mobile biological weapons - provided the backbone of the administration's case for going to war."
Tags: con job; Curve Ball; war on terror; Iraq war; Iraqi; biological weapons; Rafid Ahmed Alwan; bioterrorism;
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The Killer Strain: Anthrax and a Government Exposed
Thompson's book investigates the U.S. government's failures and incompetencies during 2001's series of Anthrax attacks. The attacks killed five people and left thousands of Americans in fear. The investigation looks at how a number of government agencies from the CDC to the FBI have controlled information under the Bush Administration. "The Killer Strain is the definitive account of the year in which bioterrorism became a reality in the United States, exposing failures in judgement and a flawed understanding of the anthrax bacteria's capacity to kill."
Tags: BOOK; Anthrax attacks; U.S. Postal Service; Center for Disease Control; National Security Council; USAMRIID; FOIA
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Anti-Terror Funds Buy Wide Array of Pet Projects
The Washington Post traced the path of the region's first wave of homeland security aid from its distribution through its final use, a trail that has been largely unexamined by federal regulators. The reporters found that much of the $324 million directed to the Washington region after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks remained unspent or was funding projects with questionable connections to homeland security. The analysis included a review of contracts, grant proposals, and purchasing databases. Results showed millions were spent on items such as leather jackets for police officers.
Tags: anti-terrorism; anti-terrorism funds; terrorism; homeland security; Prince George's County prosecutors; Congress; The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments; World Trade Center; Pentagon; Department of Homeland Security; Bethesda-Chevy Chase Fire Squad; Tom Ridge; District of Columbia Hospital Association; Psychiatric Institute of Washington; Kroll Government Services; bioterrorism; Prince William County; D.C. Department of Mental Health; D.C. Emergency Management Agency; anthrax; Montgomery County; Fairfax County; Federal Communications Commission
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Stonewall
This story addresses clause in Ohio's Bioterrorism Bill, which allows it to hide information gathered during public health investigations. The reporter discovered that hiding this information was more of a pattern than an exception. She found examples of the Department's efforts to bury information, stonewall citizens, and downplay health risks. For example...in one community, data was skewed to show no link between toxins in the soil and local leukemia cases. Not only does the Health Department hide this information, they make it nearly impossible to retrieve, by ignoring information requests...even the State Attorney General couldn't get answers to its health-related inquiry.
Tags: Ohio Department of Health; Bioterrorism Bill; Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry; Ohio Attorney General; EPA; health assessment; public health; stonewall; health risks; public health information; Ohio Attorney General; Centers for Disease Control; Waste Technologies Industries; hazardous waste; cancer rates; air pollution; pollution testing; leukemia; autism; neurological disorders; multiple sclerosis; well water; health hazard; toxic chemicals; Trichlorethylene (TCE); anthrax; e.coli; Greenpeace
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"Operation Enduring Liberty"; "The Cops Are Watching You"; "The Big Chill"; "Vigilante Justice"; "Homeland Security X 50"; "Foreign? Suspicious!"; "D.C.'s Virtual Panopticon"
Series of articles in an issue of The Nation following various aspects of the "war on terror." Dreyfuss details the makeup of Maryland's Joint Terrorism Task Force and local police ties with the FBI field office. Cooper talks to Arabs in California who are seeing their organizations' numbers decline. Bach discusses citizens' groups that are encouraged to act as watchdogs on their neighbors, giving the example of a high school student with an expired visa who was turned in to authorities by his guidance counselor. Pell examines state laws and proposed laws creating new definitions of and punishments for "terrorism." Evans raises the issue of drivers' licenses and documentation of aliens. Parenti follows the installation of closed circuit television (CCTV) in Washington, D.C., and other cities. Several articles touch on the classification of protest groups in America as "terrorists."
Tags: homeland security; terrorism; police; immigrant; immigration; Ashcroft; civil liberties; Patriot Act; detainees; FBI; ACLU; Arab; Muslim; DOJ; INS; Justice Department; bioterrorism; bioterror; CCTV; surveillance
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Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War
The book takes a look at biological weapons programs around the world, including the United States. The book investigates many aspects of biological warfare including secret bioweapons testing by the CIA, the Pentagon's efforts to make a "superbug," and our efforts to combat biological weapons in the Persian Gulf War. The book attempts to shed some light on the changing global climate the lead to everyone at the Department of Defense being inoculated against Anthrax.
Tags: BOOK; bioterrorism; biological weapons; U.S. government; CIA
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The Germ Front
The American Prospect looks at the threat of biological weapons. "Our public-health system would buckle under a massive epidemic," is one of the main findings, based on a report of the General Accounting Office. The story follows the history of bioterrorism through the centuries, and depicts major developments in the field during the Cold War and in recent decades. The reporter finds that the threat of biological weapons is indisputably growing.
Tags: Biological Weapons Convention; bioweapons; Iran; Iraq; China; anthrax; smallpox; plague; biowarfare; Mideast; Afghanistan; CIA; Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies; Epidemic Intelligence Service; vaccines; medicine; Marburg virus; Ebola; Osama bin Laden
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Will the Black Death return
Discover examines the chances for a new plague epidemic, pointing to isolated cases of the disease in recent decades. The article tells the history of the "black death's" dissemination and cites scientific studies on plague epidemics in Europe, China and India. The story reveals that Russian bioweapon scientists have developed an antibiotic-resistant plague, and warns against the risk of using plague or anthrax as formidable weapons in bioterrorism wars. Plague can never be eradicated, because it hides in animal reservoirs, finds Discover.
Tags: terrorism; plague; cholera; hygiene; Middle Ages; death; mortality; genetic engineering; weapons; antibiotics; rodents; rats; DNA; anthrax; epidemics