National Security

Fake shoes, cigarettes, and more caught at U.S. border

By Kate Willson

American consumers must be hunting for cheap, knock-off shoes. U.S. customs agents certainly are. For the third year in a row, footwear was the top counterfeit product seized by U.S. customs officials, according to a new report released jointly by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

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National Security

Top spy job is no plum

By Peter Newbatt Smith

President-Elect Barack Obama has been slow to name his choice for the government’s top intelligence job, director of national intelligence. Maybe that’s because the position hasn’t been advertised widely enough: There was no entry for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in the government’s “Plum Book,” the quadrennial listing of political appointments available for a new administration.

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National Security

Leaked report details failure to get armored vehicles to Marines in Iraq

By Nick Schwellenbach

The report featured in USA Today. When Marines in Iraq urgently asked for armored vehicles particularly resistant to improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in 2005, what they got from the Marine Corps instead was delays, according to a full, unredacted copy of a Department of Defense Inspector General report PaperTrail has obtained.

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National Security

Lost, stolen, sold? Tracking U.S. weapons in Afghanistan

By Te-Ping Chen

When the headlines first appeared in August 2007, they seemed ironic: Four years after the United States invaded Iraq in search of Saddam Hussein’s weapons, according to the Government Accountability Office, the real problem was keeping track of our own arms. It turns out the Pentagon’s difficulty in keeping tabs on the weaponry it ships isn’t restricted to Iraq. PaperTrail has learned that the GAO is now focusing on U.S. weapons that are unaccounted for in Afghanistan, and a new report is slated for release in January.

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National Security

Europe's future mafia states

By Marina Walker Guevara

The National Intelligence Council released its latest study on the world’s future last week, Global Trends 2025. The report, produced by experts inside and out of the U.S. intelligence community, found, among other things, that Al Qaeda could soon be on the decline and that America will be less dominant as China, India, and other powers rise. But buried on page 33 was also this tantalizing tidbit:

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National Security

Eastern Europe to U.S.: Wait, wait, now we want your missiles!

By Nikola Horejs

The controversy over the missile defense system the United States plans to build in Eastern Europe has taken almost a 360-degree turn recently. Until November the Bush administration had been courting our “new Europe” pals, the Poles and Czechs, offering planes, missiles, discounts, and other goodies to help smooth the way for the Star Wars installation. But on November 4, the tables turned.

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A Funding Bonanza Up North

Homeland Security pays dividends for Alaska

By G.W. Schulz

Despite its go-it-alone spirit, sparsely populated Alaska is one of the greatest per-capita beneficiaries of funding from Washington among the 50 states. A major portion of those federal taxpayer dollars in recent years has come from large infusions of homeland security grants and appropriations handed out to the state since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s hometown of Wasilla, where she was mayor from 1996 to 2002, has benefited immensely from the anti-terrorism bonanza. Wasilla, with a population of 7,028, has acquired a surveillance system for its water wells, a 150-foot tall communications tower that altered the city’s landscape, a half-million dollar mobile command vehicle with off-road capabilities, and more.

According to an analysis of federal spending figures and additional records obtained by the Center for Investigative Reporting from the state of Alaska through open-government laws:

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National Security

IG hopes report will just go away

By Nick Schwellenbach

The Pentagon’s inspector general attempted a quick disappearing act late this week. The IG officially rescinded an audit released this spring on the protection and oversight of classified Joint Strike Fighter information handled by BAE, a UK-based defense contractor. The audit found that classified information "may have been compromised." The audit, Report on Security Controls Over Joint Strike Fighter Classified Technology, was yanked from the IG’s website, according to an October 23 letter from the IG to the Defense Security Service.

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National Security

The U.S. military delves into cultural intelligence in Iran

By Nick Schwellenbach

PaperTrail has obtained an exclusive copy of the military’s field guide for cultural intelligence for possible military operations in Iran, which is designed to help the U.S. military understand foreign cultures. Though nowhere near as enjoyable as the U.S. Army’s 1943 Instructions for American Servicemen in Iraq During World War II, this “For Official Use Only” intelligence document describes in detail what our soldiers are learning about Iran — and it’s everything from paranoia within the military to preferred pants widths.

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National Security

Angola-gate case goes on without ‘extraordinary operator’

By Peter Newbatt Smith

One chapter of the Center’s 2002 report Making a Killing: The Business of War was devoted to Arcadi Gaydamak, whom we described as “one of the most extraordinary operators in world business.” In 1993 and 1994 he and his French business partner, Pierre Falcone, arranged for $633 million in arms to be shipped from Russia and other Eastern European countries to the government of Angola, then engaged in a civil war. The United Nations had imposed an arms embargo on Angola, and France maintained that Falcone’s company did not have government authorization for the sales.

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Writers and editors

R. Jeffrey Smith

Managing Editor, National Security The Center for Public Integrity
jsmith@publicintegrity.org

Smith worked for 25 years in a series of key reporting and editorial roles at The Washington Post, including ... More about R. Jeffrey Smith

Douglas Birch

The Center for Public Integrity
dbirch@publicintegrity.org

Veteran foreign correspondent Douglas Birch has reported from more than 20 countries, covered four wars, a dozen elections, the deat... More about Douglas Birch