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 "war profiteers" ...
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Self Dealing and Double Dipping in the California National Guard
When the U.S. government decided to boost incentives for National Guard service and combat veterans, no one envisioned a system in which a single bureaucrat could approve tens of millions of payments to officers and others who probably weren't eligible. Yet these and other apparent abuses occurred in California's National Guard even after flags were raised, and they gained top-level attention only after Sacramento Bee reporter Charles Piller revealed them. As Piller reported, up to $100 million in potentially illegal or improper incentive payments were made to service members, including Guard captains and majors who knew they were ineligible for disbursements.
Tags: Military; National Guard; California; Incentive; Payments; Benefits; Student Loans; Combat Veterans; War Profiteering; Finances; Salary
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Disposable Army
In today's American war zones, there are more civilian contractors on the ground than combat troops. However, when a contractor is injured or killed, they must face an insurance system that delivers sub-standard care. Failure to enforce companies to purchase mandated worker's compensation insurance for employees and a lack of awareness among hires has resulted in severs gaps of coverage for individuals working in overseas war zones.
Tags: insurance; workers; war zones; overseas; contractors; civilian; private; profits; employees; troops; care; health; coverage;
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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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LNG: County Caught in the Crossfire
In California there are two warring views toward liquid natural gas (LNG. One is that California faces an imminent energy shortage if LNG isn't used. The other is that LNG is a fireball waiting to happen. Neither are completely correct. While domestic supply is lagging, it is a small gap that has led to highly profitable companies who import LNG. However, there are some real concerns about the locations of LNG import facilities.
Tags: natural gas; liquid natural gas; offshore
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Hearts, Minds and Dollars: In an Unseen Front in the War on Terrorism, America is Spending Millions...To Change the Very Face of Islam
This investigation revealed that the Bush Administration has approved a classified strategy to influence the future of Islam, and that conflicts within the Muslim faith are now considered a matter of "national security" to the United States. In at least two dozen countries, the U.S. government is funding Muslim imams, Islamic radio and TV shows, Muslim think tanks, political workshops and other programs that promote moderate Islam ideas.
Tags: religion; government; international affairs; terrorism; 9/11; Koran; mosques; think tanks; non-profits
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Wheeler Dealer: How Minnesota Cops and the War on Drugs Made a Successful Entrepreneur out of a Small-Time Hustler and Snitch Named Michael Felix
This article tells how a police informant actually abused his protected position and profited from selling drugs himself. The whole time that the police thought he was buying drugs to track down dealers, he was actually dealing them, right across the street from a school. His presence wrecked havoc on the community of Detroit Lakes.
Tags: drugs; narcotics; addiction; dealers; marijuana; methamphetamine; DEA
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Asbestos Testing Wars
Asbestos testing companies screen likely candidates to determine whether or not their lungs have been affected. This series of articles finds that these companies hire workers who are underqualified to perform tests and that they are driven by profits to diagnose as many people as possible with lung damage because they work for or are paid by lawyers who benefit from the cases. One concern is that those who file with little to no illness are depleting the sources of money for those with serious asbestos damage.
Tags: asbestos; Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act; union; cancer; plaintiff; testing company; screening company; lung disease
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A Final Accounting: Arthur Andersen
The Chicago Tribune's four part series about Arthur Andersen. "Part 1: The Fall of Andersen - After decades as the gold standard for U.S. auditing firms, Andersen changed its focus and lost its way. Part 2: Civil War Splits Andersen - A revolution sweeps Andersen, pitting auditors against consultants in a race for higher profit. Part 3: Ties to Enron Blinded Andersen - Andersen struggles to deal with a monster it helped create: Enron. Part 4: Repeat Offender Gets Stiff Justice - Faulty decisions and strategy in Andersen's final months set the firm up for its collapse."
Tags: Arthur Andersen; Enron; accounting; accounting scandal; Chicago; auditor; fraud; justice; auditing firms; integrity; banks; money; corruption; finance; financing; Michael Odom; Nancy Temple; Dorsey Baskin; C.E. Andrews; Mike Gagel; Dean Christensen; firm; Harvey Kapnick; Jim Edwards; Duane Kullberg; reform
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Making a Killing: The Business of War
This 11-part series by the International Consortium of International Journalists and the Center of Public Integrity examines the "economic conflict in the post-Cold War era and those who profit from it. Individual stories looked at how, amid the military downsizing and increasing number of small conflicts that followed the end of the Cold War, governments are turning increasingly to private military companies -- a newly coined euphemism for mercenaries -- to intervene on their behalf in war zones around the globe. Often, these companies work as proxies for national or corporate interests, whose involvement is buried under layers of secrecy. ICIJ also found that a handful of individuals and companies with connections to governments, multinational corporations, and sometimes criminal syndicates, in Europe, the Middle East and the United States, profited from these wars.Entrepreneurs selling arms and companies drilling and mining in unstable regions have prolonged the conflicts, in which up to 10 million people have died. "
Tags: Cold War; mercenaries; business; corporate interests; Middle East; Europe; war; conflict; death; military; ONLINE; cd; irewar03
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America's For-Profit Secret Army. Military Contractors are Hired to do the Pentagon's Bidding far from Washington's View.
With the war on terror a year old and the possibility of war against Iraq growing by the day, a modern version of an ancient practice is reasserting itself at the Pentagon. Mercenaries are thriving; only this time they are called private military contractors, and some are even subsidiaries of Fortune 500 companies. The Pentagon cannot go to war without them.
Tags: Pentagon; Secret Army; American troops