Resource Center

Stories

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 "world trade" ...

  • Blood Ivory: Ivory Worship

    At a time when the elephant is under siege and the world's media and NGOs have long focused attention on poaching in Africa, Bryan Christy went after ivory’s demand side. He spent nearly three years building a groundbreaking investigation into this crucial but poorly understood aspect of the illegal ivory trade. Using court records, official documentation, law enforcement sources, and reporting across five continents, Christy identified, for the first time, that religion plays a huge and ruinous role in the sale and purchase of illegal ivory; that China's government is driving the world's ivory market, has manipulated attempts to control it, and has plans to expand; and that the statistical model used by global regulators to make ivory trade policy decisions is insufficient and has been exploited.

    Tags: elephant; ivory; ivory trade

    By Photographer, Brent Stirton

    National Geographic

    2012

  • Inside Track

    The Wall Street Journal staff exposed how new ways of insider trading have corrupted the U.S. financial, corporate, and political worlds, having enormous impact in the process. The article shows how well-connected investors managed to gain an advantage by getting early clues to the Federal Reserve's forthcoming policy moves, as well as to important legislation from Washington lawmakers.

    Tags: Wall Street; insider trading; washington; lawmaker; federal reserve

    By Susan Pulliam, Brody Mullins, Michael Rothfeld, Jenny Strasberg, Steve Eder

    Wall Street Journal (New York)

    2011

  • Dangers in the Dust: Inside the Global Asbestos Trade

    The investigation finds that a global network of industry groups has spent nearly $100 million to keep asbestos on the market. Public health authorities say this campaign is helping create new epidemics of asbestos-related disease in countries around the world.

    Tags: asbestos; epidemic; disease; ban; toxic

    By Jim Morris; Steve Bradshaw; Ana Avila; Murali Krishnan; Roman Shleynov; Scilla Alecci; Te-Ping Chen; Dan Ettinger; Carlos Eduardo Huertas; Shantanu Guha Ray; Marcelo Soares; Abhishek Upadhyay; David E. Kaplan; Marina Walker Guervara; Anne Koch

    International Consortium of Investigative Reporters & Center for Public Integrity

    2010

  • "The Lost Chalice"

    Author Vernon Silver dives deep into the Italian world of art smuggling. Through court documents and "interviews with modern tomb robbers, smugglers and art dealers," Silver is able to locate a valuable missing vase. The book provides an in-depth look at the world's third largest "underground economy," and how a "network of powerful people and institutions" has been at the center of the "illicit art and cultural property trade."

    Tags: Euphronios; Oxford University; Metropolitan Museum of Art; chalice; Zeus; art smugglers; tomb raiders

    By Vernon Silver

    HarperCollins (New York)

    2009

  • A Crime So Monstrous

    "Skinner digs deep to find slaves, slave traders and slave masters in the frontlines of the third world war zones, in rotting urban ghettos, even in suburban America."

    Tags: third world; modern slavery; human trafficking; sex trade; debt-bondage;

    By E. Benjamin Skinner

    Free Press (New York)

    2008

  • Brian Ross Investigates: Bodies: The China Connection

    The investigation uncovered black market trade that supplies bodies of Chinese executed prisoners for display in Premiere Exhibitions' for-profit "Bodies" show in cities around the world. The shows have been seen by millions and has brought huge profits to the Atlanta-based company.

    Tags: China; inmate rights; black market; body factory; skeleton; plastinate; body parts

    By Brian Ross; Rhonda Schwartz; Anna Schecter; Tom Marcyes; Alan Esner; Carla DeLandri; David Sloan

    ABC News

    2008

  • Iraq -- The War Card: Orchestrated Deception on the Path to War

    The project, the product of two and half years of reporting and research, produced a 380,000-word database that juxtaposes what President Bush and seven top officials were saying for public consumption against what was known, or should have been known, on a day-to-day basis. This fully searchable database includes the public statements, drawn from both primary sources (such as official transcripts) and secondary sources (such as major news organizations) over the two years beginning on September 11, 2001. It also interlaces relevant information from government reports, books, articles, speeches and interviews. An interactive timeline shows the examination of the records. All 935 records highlighted false statements and hundreds of secondary accounts that illuminate the discrepancies between what was being said against what was known privately, for a two-year time span.

    Tags: September 11 attacks; 9/11; World Trade Center attacks; Bush administration; George W. Bush; Richard Cheney; Condoleeza Rice; Donald Rumsfeld; Colin Powell; Paul Wolfowitz; Ari Fleisher; Scott McClellan

    By Charles Lewis; Mark Reading-Smith; Benjamin Turner; Matthew Lewis; Jeanne Brooks; Stephanie Carnes; Jennifer Spector; Mike Holmes; Julia Dahl; Han Nguyen; Bill Buzenberg

    Center for Public Integrity

    2008

  • Tobacco Underground: The Booming Global Trade in Smuggled Cigarettes

    "Tobacco Underground" is groundbreaking series on the global trade in smuggled cigarettes, produced by a team of 14 journalists based in 10 countries. The illicit trafficking of tobacco is a multibillion-dollar business today, fueling organized crime and corruption, robbing governments of needed tax money, and spurring addiction to a deadly product. So profitable is the trade that tobacco is the world's most widely smuggled legal substance. In an interactive, multimedia Web site, ICIJ published a series of nine stories, integrated with undercover footage; audio and video interviews with experts, smugglers and undercover agents; maps and charts; and extensive links to resources ranging from tobacco control groups to repositories of tobacco industry documents.

    Tags: tobacco; smuggling; new media; international journalism; cigarette; tobacco

    By Stefan Candea; Duncan Campbell; Te-Ping Chen; Gong Jing; Alain Lallemand; Vlad Lavrov; William Marsden; Paul Cristian Radu; Roman Shleynov; Leo Sisti; Drew Sullivan; Marina Walker Guevara; Kate Willson; David E. Kaplan

    Center for Public Integrity

    2008

  • Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power

    This book investigates the response by U.S. companies and the U.S. government to the raising of environmental health standards by the European Union. The book reveals the Bush Administration's policy of retreating from environmental responsibility, while the rest of the world embraces it. The book explores the effects of this attitude on the environment, health of U.S. citizens and international relations.

    Tags: environment; international relations; foreign affairs; chemicals; pollution; waste; environmental affairs; international trade;

    By Mark Schapiro

    null

    2007

  • Danger on Your Plate

    The Center for Investigative Reporting hired the food analysis lab of the Sarajevo Veterinary School to test food samples purchased in farmers' markets, food shops and stalls to determine food safety. Center reporters found problems with contamination, government inspection, labeling, waste, and NGO's that collect money but "really do little to guard consumers against bad food."

    Tags: food safety; Mad Cow Disease; CIN; Linking Agricultural Markets to Producers; LAMP; E.coli; proteus; alfotoxins; bacteria; fungi; food handling; TRACES animal tracking; smuggling; World Health Organization; Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations; EU

    By Mirsad Brkic; Mirza Bahic; Svjetlana Celic; Ida Donlagic; Zelijka Kujundzija; Gordana Lukic; Eldina Pleho; Lidja Pisker; Renata Radic

    Center for Investigative Reporting - Bosnia Herzegovina

    2006