Commentary — Total information awareness: A chance encounter raises questions By Charles Lewis December 17, 2002 The Total Information Awareness System, the controversial Pentagon research program that aims to gather and analyze a vast array of information on Americans, has hired at least eight private companies to work on the effort. Since 1997, those companies […]
Posted inDemocracy
Club 100: Over 100 Americans gave more than $100,000 to state political parties
Political party organizations will never do business quite the same way again. Since November 6, the national political parties are no longer permitted to raise and spend “soft money,” the large, unrestricted donations from corporations, unions and wealthy individuals. The ban is the most sweeping change in campaign finance law in the past 25 years. […]
Posted inMaking a Killing, War in Afghanistan and Iraq
The merchant of death
Drugs, diamonds and deadly cargoes By Alain Lallemand November 18, 2002 The field marshal By Alain Lallemand November 15, 2002 Russian arms dealer gets 25-year prison sentence By Aaron Mehta April 6, 2012 From the outside, the $3 million property in the plush, residential Sandhurst area of Johannesburg could easily have been mistaken for a […]
Posted inMaking a Killing
Drugs, diamonds and deadly cargoes
Conflict diamonds are forever By Mungo Soggot November 8, 2002 The merchant of death By André Verlöy November 20, 2002 At ten minutes past midnight on Aug. 5, 2000, police from the Milanese suburb of Cinisello Balsamo received a tip from a confidential source about a man known as “Leo” or “Leon.” He was said […]
Posted inDemocracy
Impending ban hasn’t stopped soft money rush by presidential hopefuls
Potential candidates for the 2004 presidential primaries have raised more than $7.6 million in unregulated soft money contributions since the 2000 elections through their non-federal, 527 committees, the Center for Public Integrity has found. Under the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, better known as McCain-Feingold, such contributions will be banned after the November 5 elections. Documents […]
Posted inMaking a Killing
The field marshal
The merchant of death By André Verlöy November 20, 2002 By the bloody standard set in Africa in the last decade, the 1997 conflict in Congo-Brazzaville between forces loyal to Pascal Lissouba, the elected president of the country, and Denis Sassou Nguesso, who succeeded him, was a small war. It barely merited mention in the […]
Posted inMaking a Killing
The adventure capitalist
Conflict diamonds are forever By Mungo Soggot November 8, 2002 The curious bonds of oil diplomacy By Sunday Dare October 6, 2002 Niko Shefer leaned forward and explained the competitive advantage small entrepreneurs enjoy over corporate multinationals when doing business in war-ravaged countries like Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “I move with […]
Posted inMaking a Killing
Conflict diamonds are forever
Making a killing By Phillip van Niekerk October 28, 2002 The adventure capitalist By Mungo Soggot and Phillip van Niekerk November 11, 2002 Drugs, diamonds and deadly cargoes By Alain Lallemand November 18, 2002 Until the Kimberley Diamond Exchange opened in 1999 – with tight security, surveillance cameras and two double sets of iron gates […]
Posted inMaking a Killing
Greasing the skids of corruption
Marketing the new ‘Dogs of War’ By Duncan Campbell October 30, 2002 The curious bonds of oil diplomacy By Sunday Dare October 6, 2002 On July 15, 2000, the Marathon Oil Company sent $13,717,989.31 to an account in Jersey, an island in the English Channel with stringent bank secrecy laws. The owner of the Jersey […]
Posted inMaking a Killing
Marketing the new ‘Dogs of War’
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have been fighting one of the world’s longest and bloodiest terrorist wars, but July 24, 2001, marked their most devastating attack in 18 years of fighting against the Sri Lankan government. In virtually destroying Bandaranaike International Airport in the capital of Colombo, the Tamil Tigers cut the country’s only […]
Posted inAccountability
Commentary: Paul Wellstone: A lost voice for democracy
A journalist, besides telling us the unvarnished truth each day, is supposed to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, according to those timeless words of Finley Peter Dunne. For a number of reasons we know all too well, that doesn’t happen very often today. Indeed, relatively few journalists regardless of ideology or pay grade, […]
Posted inMaking a Killing, War in Afghanistan and Iraq
Privatizing combat, the new world order
In 1998, unbeknownst to most Americans, the United States had a military presence in a remote African war that drew little attention from the media. Unlike other U.S. interventions in Somalia, Bosnia, Haiti and Kosovo, there was no hand-wringing over whether a deployment was justified by U.S. national interests, whether troops would be spread too […]
Posted inMaking a Killing
Making a killing
Privatizing combat, the new world order By Laura Peterson October 28, 2002 Conflict diamonds are forever By Mungo Soggot November 8, 2002 In February 2002, Belgian authorities issued an international arrest warrant for Russian arms dealer Victor Bout on charges of money laundering and conspiracy. Days later, Bout – who allegedly also supplied weapons to […]
Posted inDemocracy, Elections, Party Lines
National GOP exchanges soft money for hard in Florida
Party of one By Robert Morlino March 25, 2004 Undisclosed By Katy Lewis, Robert Moore, Leah Rush and MaryJo Sylwester September 26, 2002 Disclosure ranking By The Center for Public Integrity September 26, 2002 Federal Election Commission By The Center for Public Integrity September 26, 2002 The National Republican Senatorial Committee sent more unregulated soft […]
Posted inEnergy, Environment, Harken Energy
Harken documents
October 17, 2002 — In the wake of the corporate scandals that began with Enron Corp.’s collapse in October 2001, there has been renewed interest in material the Center for Public Integrity obtained via the Freedom of Information Act from the Securities and Exchange Commission concerning George W. Bush’s tenure at Harken Energy. The Center […]
Posted inEnergy, Environment, Harken Energy
Harken’s Ivy League underwriter
WASHINGTON, October 17, 2002 — The year 1990 started out on a high note for Harken Energy. To the great surprise of industry analysts, the company won the exclusive rights to drill for oil in Bahrain, a tiny Arab nation ringed by some of the world’s largest oil deposits. At the time, Harken was known […]
Posted inEnergy, Environment, Harken Energy
Bush, Harken, and the public’s right to know
Earlier this summer, national media outlets reported on President George W. Bush’s activities as a director with Texas oil company Harken Energy in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The stories referenced documents obtained by the Center during the course of research for the The Buying of the President 2000, as well as two Center […]
Posted inEnergy, Environment, Harken Energy
A brief history of Bush, Harken and the SEC
WASHINGTON, October 16, 2002 — In 1976, George W. Bush was a freshly minted graduate of the Harvard Business School looking for a job. He had $20,000 left over from his education trust fund, a well-known last name and some great connections. He decided to follow in his father’s footsteps by getting into the oil […]
Posted inMaking a Killing
The curious bonds of oil diplomacy
The tongues of yellow flames from flaring gas burn like candlesticks lined up in a cathedral, lighting the night sky of the port city of Malabo and sending black fumes billowing upwards. In the waters offshore, oil rigs and production platforms sit majestically, sucking hundred of thousands of barrels a day from the deep sea […]
Posted inDemocracy, Elections, Party Lines
Soft money primer
State bans on soft money By Eric Marx September 26, 2002 Campaign funds in the U.S. political party system are divided into two categories—”federal” and “non-federal.” Federal “hard” money is spent on campaigns for federal office. Contributions are limited and disclosed. The McCain-Feingold election reform law actually doubles the amount of hard money an individual […]
Posted inDemocracy, Elections, Party Lines
State bans on soft money
The dispersion of disclosure By MaryJo Sylwester and Katy Lewis September 26, 2002 Soft money primer By John Dunbar September 26, 2002 Among the 50 states, only Connecticut has a campaign finance law that prevents the national parties from flooding its elections with transfers of unregulated, soft money donations. Like the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, […]
Posted inDemocracy, Elections, Party Lines
The dispersion of disclosure
State parties collected nearly $570 million in contributions, soft money transfers in 2000 By John Dunbar, MaryJo Sylwester and Robert Moore June 25, 2002 State bans on soft money By Eric Marx September 26, 2002 Gaps in state disclosure laws, incomplete reporting and problems obtaining campaign finance reports make it difficult to track the money […]
Posted inDemocracy, Elections, Party Lines
Federal Election Commission
Operating accounts By Robert Moore September 26, 2002 National GOP exchanges soft money for hard in Florida By John Dunbar October 24, 2002 State parties collected nearly $570 million in contributions, soft money transfers in 2000 By John Dunbar, MaryJo Sylwester and Robert Moore June 25, 2002 Federal campaign finance laws are generally considered to […]
Posted inDemocracy, Elections, Party Lines
Operating accounts
Undisclosed By Katy Lewis, Robert Moore, Leah Rush and MaryJo Sylwester September 26, 2002 Federal Election Commission By The Center for Public Integrity September 26, 2002 Four states explicitly permit political parties to maintain financial accounts where unlimited donations can be received with no disclosure to the public. And a total of 18 states allow […]
Posted inDemocracy, Elections, Party Lines
Washington state
Undisclosed By Katy Lewis, Robert Moore, Leah Rush and MaryJo Sylwester September 26, 2002 Even where disclosure laws are among the strongest in the country, political party committees have succeeded in keeping millions of dollars in receipts off the books and hidden from public view. In the 2000 election cycle, the Washington State Democratic Central […]
Posted inDemocracy, Elections, Party Lines
Disclosure ranking
National GOP exchanges soft money for hard in Florida By John Dunbar October 24, 2002 The Center for Public Integrity conducted a nationwide survey of state agencies that collect and monitor campaign finance reports. The survey focused on the reporting, filing, public access and enforcement of campaign finance reports filed by state-wide political party committees. […]
Posted inDemocracy, Elections, Party Lines
Undisclosed
National GOP exchanges soft money for hard in Florida By John Dunbar October 24, 2002 The old soft money By Derek Willis and Aron Pilhofer March 25, 2004 Washington state By Phillip Caston September 26, 2002 Operating accounts By Robert Moore September 26, 2002 Nearly half the states received a failing grade for the campaign […]
Posted inDemocracy
Fat Cat Hotel still open for business
The White House released last week a list of guests who stayed overnight in the presidential mansion since George W. Bush’s inauguration in January 2001. The list, according to the Associated Press, includes six “pioneers”—the Bush supporters who raised more than $100,000 for his presidential campaign. Ethical questions about hosting donors and friends in official […]
Posted inHealth
Insurance industry battles bill mandating mental health coverage
James Hackett learned about the inequities in the coverage of mental health services after his teenage daughter was the victim of a sexual assault. Her despair left her with severe panic attacks that were so intense that she could no longer attend her high school and had to be treated at an inpatient center, he […]
Posted inAccountability, Global Muckraking
Letter from London: A history lesson on Iraq
LONDON — Before Tony Blair joins the new crusaders trying to impose a “regime change”, a Western “settlement” on Iraq, he should at least look at the historical facts that explain the rise of nationalist leaders such as Saddam Hussein. And while he is at it, since he is good at empathy, he might try […]