Sebastian Rotella and Ana Arana, Finding Oscar: Massacre, Memory and Justice in Guatemala. ProPublica and Fundación MEPI, 25 May 2012. “In 1982 amid Guatemala’s brutal civil war, 20 army commandos invaded the jungle hamlet of Dos Erres disguised as rebels. The squad members, called Kaibiles, cut their way through the town, killing more than 250 people. Only a handful survived. One, a 3-year-old boy, was abducted by a Kaibil officer and raised by his family. It took 30 years for Oscar Alfredo Ramírez Castañeda to learn the truth.”
February 23, 2012
Broken Shield: California’s unique police force fails to protect the state’s most vulnerable residents
Ryan Gabrielson, Broken Shield. The Center for Investigative Reporting. California Watch, 23-24 February, 18 May, 31 July, and 29 November 2012. “Broken Shield [is] an 18-month investigation that uncovered systemic failures at the [California] Office of Protective Services…. [It details] widespread abuses inside the state’s five developmental centers. Gabrielson found that the police force charged with protecting some of the state’s most vulnerable wards almost never gets to the bottom of the abuses.”
October 10, 2011
State for Sale: Art Pope, a conservative multimillionaire, has taken control in North Carolina
Jane Mayer, State for Sale. The New Yorker, 10 October 2011. “A conservative multimillionaire [Art Pope] has taken control in North Carolina, one of 2012’s top battlegrounds…. For years, Pope, like several other farsighted conservative corporate activists, has been spending millions in an attempt to change the direction of American politics. According to an analysis of tax records by Democracy NC, a progressive government watchdog group, in the past decade Pope, his family, his family foundation, and his business have spent more than forty million dollars in this effort.”
August 23, 2011
AP’s Probe Into NYPD Intelligence Operations: Surveillance of Muslims
Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eileen Sullivan and Chris Hawley, AP’s Probe Into NYPD Intelligence Operations. Associated Press, multi-part series beginning on 23 August 2011 and ending on 23 October 2012. “AP’s investigation has revealed that the NYPD dispatched undercover officers into minority neighborhoods as part of a human mapping program. Police also used informants, known as “mosque crawlers,” to monitor sermons, even when there was no evidence of wrongdoing.”
Winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting.
Winner of the 2012 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting.
Update: Matt Apuzzo and Al Baker, New York to Appoint Civilian to Monitor Police’s Counterterrorism Activity. The New York Times, 7 January 2016. “The mayor will appoint an independent civilian to monitor the New York Police Department’s counterterrorism activities, lawyers said in court documents Thursday as they moved to settle a pair of lawsuits over surveillance targeting Muslims in the decade after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The agreement would restore some of the outside oversight that was eliminated after the attacks, when city leaders said they needed more flexibility in conducting investigations. In the years that followed, the Police Department secretly built files on Muslim neighborhoods, recorded sermons, collected license plates of worshipers, and documented the views of everyday people on topics such as drone strikes, politics and foreign policy.”
June 6, 2011
The Invisible Army: For foreign workers on U.S. bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, war can be hell
Sarah Stillman, The Invisible Army: For foreign workers on U.S. bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, war can be hell. The New Yorker, 6 June 2011. “More than seventy thousand ‘third-country nationals’ work for the American military in war zones; many report being held in conditions resembling indentured servitude by subcontractors who operate outside the law.”
May 23, 2011
The Secret Sharer: Is [Whistleblower] Thomas Drake an enemy of the state?
Jane Mayer, The Secret Sharer: Is Thomas Drake an enemy of the state? The New Yorker, 23 May 2011. “Drake, a former senior executive at the National Security Agency, faces some of the gravest charges that can be brought against [a U.S.] citizen.”
January 31, 2011
Does Football Have a Future? The N.F.L. and the concussion crisis
Ben McGrath, Does Football Have a Future? The N.F.L. and the concussion crisis. The New Yorker, 31 January 2011. “The violence of football has always been a matter of concern and the sport has seen periodic attempts at safety and reform. But recent neurological findings have uncovered risks that are more insidious.”