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 […]
Posted inAccountability
Commentary: Journalism and patriotism
A lot of very important things came into focus on September 11 last year. Before 9-11 or after 9-11 has become one of those universal markers, a way to date things without explanation, without elaboration. But for the future of journalism in the public interest, one of the things that occurred on 9-11 was that […]
Posted inEnergy, Environment, Harken Energy
More Harken Energy Corporation documents
The New York Daily News reported on July 30 that Harken Energy Corporation set up a Cayman Islands subsidiary, the Harken Bahrain Energy Company, on September 1, 1989, in connection with the company’s $25 million contract to drill for oil off the coast of Bahrain, an island nation in the Persian Gulf. The Cayman Islands […]
Posted inAccountability
Commentary: Enhance democracy in Colombia
The elected Colombian president, Alvaro Uribe, recently visited the United States and Europe and declared that his “get tough” campaign for a sustainable peace would be waged with “absolute respect for human rights.” Meantime in Colombia, Fernando Londoño — his future interior and justice minister — repeated that the new administration would push for a […]
Posted inAccountability
Commentary: So Tim’s death will not have been in vain
AUSTIN, Texas — By a sick coincidence, the Brazilian journalist Tim Lopes was assassinated precisely on the 26th anniversary of the car-bomb explosion that killed his North American colleague, reporter Don Bolles, on June 2, 1976 in Phoenix, Arizona. The death of the reporter for the Arizona Republic brought immense repercussions in the United States, […]
Posted inEnergy, Environment, Harken Energy
Further Harken documents
July 25, 2002 — Documents obtained by the Center for Public Integrity show President George W. Bush met with the president and CEO of Harken Energy Corp. shortly before the controversial sale of the company’s Aloha Petroleum subsidiary. The sale of Aloha led to an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and restatement of […]
Posted inEnergy, Environment, Harken Energy
Harken Energy Corporation internal documents
July 19, 2002 — In his July 8, 2002, press conference, President George W. Bush told reporters “to look back on the directors’ minutes” for details of his knowledge of and involvement in the financial reporting of Harken Energy Corporation that was the subject of a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation in the early 1990s. […]
Posted inEnergy, Environment, Harken Energy
Additional Harken documents
July 12, 2002 — Since posting the last batch of documents yesterday, we received requests for more Harken-related documents. Today, we are posting Harken Energy Corporation’s 1989 Form 10K, which includes information on the Aloha transaction and the loans George W. Bush received from the company, and the company’s quarterly reports from the period ending […]
Posted inEnergy, Environment, Harken Energy
More Harken documents
July 11, 2002 — The Center for Public Integrity, as a public service, is posting a second round of the documents that we obtained from the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Freedom of Information Act. The Center obtained these documents in 2000. The first batch can still be read here. April 20, 1990 Letter […]
Posted inAccountability
Commentary: Freedom of information under attack
Asking the tough questions required of “watchdog journalism” is especially difficult in a national crisis atmosphere of fear, paranoia and patriotism. In the months since the September 11 terrorist attacks, we have been painfully reminded of Senator Hiram Johnson’s famous 1917 observation that “The first casualty when war comes is truth.” Trauma from the worst […]
Posted inEnergy, Environment, Harken Energy
Securities and Exchange Commission documents
July 3, 2002 — Because of a column by Paul Krugman that ran in The New York Times and a follow-up Washington Post story, there has been renewed interest in two reports the Center published concerning George W. Bush’s days as a director of Harken Energy. We published the first on October 2, 2000 and […]
Posted inDemocracy, Elections, Party Lines
State parties collected nearly $570 million in contributions, soft money transfers in 2000
Federal Election Commission By The Center for Public Integrity September 26, 2002 The dispersion of disclosure By MaryJo Sylwester and Katy Lewis September 26, 2002 In the 2000 elections, Democratic and Republican state party committees raised $570 million, with 46 percent comprised of soft money transfers from national party organizations, according to an unprecedented study […]
Posted inIntelligence, National Security, War on Error
Live pictures taken by U.S. planes were freely available
LONDON — The war on terrorism in Europe is being undermined by a military communications system that makes it easier for terrorists to tune in to live video of U.S. intelligence operations than to watch Disney cartoons or new-release movies. For more than six months, live pictures from U.S. aerial spy missions have been broadcast […]
Posted inIntelligence, National Security, War in Afghanistan and Iraq, War on Error
Watching the terror trails
LONDON, June 12, 2002 — If you heard anything, you would think it was a mosquito hovering, hunting for fresh prey. But in the dark night skies over the Balkan mountains, that distant, faint buzzing may mark a hunter of a different sort. Shrouded from view, loitering up to 16,000 feet in the air is […]
Posted inIntelligence, National Security, War in Afghanistan and Iraq, War on Error
The hot line from Virginia to Al Qaeda
LONDON, June 12, 2002 — The flaw in the U.S. communications system is a Pentagon network called the Global Broadcasting Service (GBS), a new military satellite system begun in 1996. The system was designed to “provide efficient, direct broadcast of digital multimedia information” and give “deployed warfighters … high-bandwidth data imagery and video of critical […]
Posted inIntelligence, National Security, War on Error
A Spy Inc. no stranger to controversy
LONDON / WASHINGTON — Even within the secretive world of private military companies, AirScan is noted for being unforthcoming about its operations. The Florida-based company has repeatedly refused to disclose what work it is doing in Europe, choosing instead to discuss the company’s plans to track polar bears hibernating in the Arctic. “We work closely […]
Posted inEnvironment
Smog-forming and toxic gases ‘consistently’ undercounted, major study finds
HOUSTON, May 31, 2002 — In a discovery with national implications, a group of government, academic and private researchers involved in a $20 million study of Houston’s air quality have found that operators of petrochemical plants in the city’s vast industrial complex have been significantly underestimating emissions of key air pollutants in required reports to […]
Posted inEnvironment
Federal board concludes current chemical regulations are inadequate
WASHINGTON, May 15, 2002 — The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, nearing the end of a lengthy investigation, has concluded that federal regulations designed to prevent catastrophic accidents involving a widely used group of hazardous chemicals are “inadequate.” After its own investigation of the same issue, the Center for Public Integrity reported recently […]