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 "former Soviet Union" ...
-
Game of Control
While some agencies have chipped away at corruption in football, their efforts have stopped at their national borders. Criminals have observed no boundaries. Reporters for the Organize Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a consortium of investigative reporters, took a months-long look at the business of football in the southeast Europe and the former Soviet Union. They found networks of agents and power stakeholders quietly skimming transfer fees and working through tax havens and companies with shell proxies to avoid taxes. In post-transition Bulgaria some 200 killings have been linked to football. Among the dead are 15 club leaders who attained their posts through questionable means.
Tags: football; soccer; corruption; murder; athletes; organized crime; Eastern Europe
-
Preying on Parents
A California-based international adoption firm is found to be defrauding prospective parents, taking advantage of "legal loopholes and government neglect." The story involves bribes and kickbacks to foreign government officials, the use of internet fraud on prospective parents, and "the withholding of vital medical information about orphans to misstate their health." In some cases, the children adopted through the agency had such severe medical conditions or other issues, and were institutionalized or sent home to their native countries. Meanwhile, "the company ignored complaints and pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees."
Tags: Adoption; former Soviet Union; child adoption; fraud; Internet adoption agency; orphans; medical problems
-
Radioactive
This investigation uncovered just how easy it is to buy enough radioactive material in the former Soviet Union to make a dirty bomb. The investigation was focused on Georgia. The reporters found that radioactive materials were found in Georgia every year since the Russians left, that for $10,000 they could buy enough Cesium - 137 to make a bomb, and that security around the facilities for radioactive material is very lax. The president of Georia discussed his security concerns with the reporters.
Tags: radioactive; nuclear weapons; dirty bomb; sting operation; terrorism; Saakashvili
-
Weapons of Mass Destruction
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union developed the world's largest biological weapons program. Today, the Russian funding for the program has been cut, but the altered diseases and the scientists with the deadly expertise still remain in Russia and the Soviet empire's former republics. Twelve years ago, the United States began paying millions of dollars to employ Russian ex-scientists to protect the hazardous materials. This investigation shows that the United States funded program is not entirely successful; many labs remain in dangerous states of neglect and Russia still refuses to admit entry to its military controlled biological labs.
Tags: biological weapons; security; Kazakhstan; science; plague; smallpox; terrorism
-
Prophecies of Terror, Attacking bin Laden, The Hunt for bin Laden, The Merchants of Mass Destruction
A four-part CBS News investigative series reports into the "closed world of Osama bin Laden." The first part features an interview with a former Pakistani intelligence officer, mentor and friend of bin Laden, who warns that America has no idea of the might of Islam in a potential holy war. The second report examines the 1998 missile attack against bin Laden, and the role it played to transform the terrorist into a hero. The third part looks at bin Laden through the eyes of the people of his inner circle and other Muslims, and reveals that they view him as an "Islamic Robin Hood," who supports widows and orphans. The fourth part discovers that chemical and biological weapons from the old Soviet Union stockpile are being sold in the Afghan black market.
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; charity; orphanages; Islam; Muslims; religion; Jihad; holy war; Saudi Arabia; Sept. 11; World Trade Center
-
At FBI, a Traitor Helped in Search for Subversives
A joint investigation by the Center for Investigative Reporting and the Los Angeles Times reveals that Robert Philip Hanssen, a confessed spy for the Soviet Union in the 1980s, headed up a domestic spying program for the FBI during that same decade."The role -- and historical irony -- of confessed traitor Hanssen has not been reported before..." The Times and CIR broke the story with the help of 2,815 pages of "formerly classified documents recently obtained under a federal Freedom of Information Act request submitted nearly 15 years ago."
Tags: Robert Philip Hanssen; spying; espionage; Soviet Union; FBI; domestic spying; Regan Administration; Bush Administration
-
The Secret History of World War II
A Boston Globe historical series provides an in-depth look into the intelligence machinations behind the World War II and the Cold War. The reporters reveal that Western Allies knew of Hitler's plans to systematically exterminate all of Europe's Jews several months earlier than previously thought; that US intelligence ran a covert operation to stall the creation of a Jewish state in the British colony of Palestine, fearing that such state would create generations of Islamic enmity; that American businesses were involved in commerce with the Nazis but also had espionage functions; and that the United States used 4,000 former German spies to spy on the Soviet Union. A major figure profiled in the series is a German Foreign Ministry official who had supplied the Americans with valuable inside documents but the CIA never really trusted him.
Tags: National Security Act; CIA; declassified records; Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act; Communism; intelligence; espionage; Mussolini; Pearl Harbor; Japan
-
The Last Amigo: Karlheinz Schreiber and the Anatomy of a Scandal
Cameron and Cashore tell the inside story of a "notorious middleman and arms dealer, Karlheinz Schreiber, and his connections to elite circles of power in Germany, Canada and all over the world." The book reveals that Schreiber was a key player in the party finance scandal that discredited the former Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl. The coauthors shed light on the police findings that led to the arrest of the businessmen, and find letters and bank records that document Schreiber's tireless dealmakings. Schreiber was charged with tax evasion and bribery. In fact the scope "disguised web of power and money" was much larger, including shameless political influence and pressure on media coverage.
Tags: BOOK; lobbying; business; international politics; Airbus; airplanes; aviation; Tory party; helicopters; tanks; Saudi Arabia; construction; development; former Soviet Union; Thyssen; Brian Mulroney
-
Clear and present danger
The Washington Post Magazine describes the disastrous epidemics that can ensue, if smallpox is ever used as a biological weapon. The story reveals that smallpox is known as a highly contageous ancient scourge, which "has killed countless millions." The article focuses on the expert knowledge of Ken Alibek, former second-in-command manager of Biopreparat, the Soviet Union's vast biological weapons program. "Bioterrrism experts now believe the smallox virus exists in clandestine biowarfare laboratories in at least three, and possibly more, countries," the magazine reports. The article depicts the symptoms of the deadly disease, and warns about the unbelievable speed that infection can spread with.
Tags: Biopreparat; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; World Health Organization; defense; research; Russia; Iraq; North Korea; variola; immunization; pox; epidemics
-
The price of oil
The New Yorker investigates a ten-year multibillion oil swap involving Kazakhstan, Iran and a subsidiary of the Mobil Corporation. The story reveals that Mobil possibly violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by paying more than a billion of dollars to Russian companies in "unorthodox transactions." The report raises "questions about the company's decisions to enter deals that ultimately benefitted powerful figures in the region, including President Nursultan Nazarbayev, of Kazakhstan, and former Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, of Russia." The investigation exposes the involvement of James Giffin, an American and a trusted aide of the Kazakh president, and looks at the role that some western high-ranking officials played in the corrupted scheme.
Tags: Soviet Union; Russia; Kazakhstan; mafia; Iran; misappropriation of funds; corruption; foreign politics; Exxon Mobil; Vaeko Europe; Caspian Sea; politics