Here are some very important, exceptional investigative reports. Take a moment to read the fine work of these journalists:
How Goldman secretly bet on the U.S. housing crash
In 2006 and 2007, Goldman Sachs Group peddled more than $40 billion in securities backed by at least 200,000 risky home mortgages, but never told the buyers it was secretly betting that a sharp drop in U.S. housing prices would send the value of those securities plummeting.
Goldman's sales and its clandestine wagers, completed at the brink of the housing market meltdown, enabled the nation's premier investment bank to pass most of its potential losses to others before a flood of mortgage defaults staggered the U.S. and global economies.
Only later did investors discover that what Goldman had promoted as triple-A rated investments were closer to junk.
Read the whole thing. It is part of their investigative series, which you can access at the same link.
Brad Jacobson, Raw StoryAlthough Brad, who often blogs here, already posted this a few days ago - I feel it important to mention again.
Pentagon officials won’t confirm Bush propaganda program ended
The covert Bush administration program that used retired military analysts to generate favorable wartime news coverage may not have been terminated, Raw Story has found.
In interviews, Pentagon officials in charge of the press and community relations offices — which worked in partnership on the military analyst program — equivocated on the subject of whether the program has ended.
Last May, the Pentagon’s Office of Inspector General issued a memorandum rescinding a Bush administration investigative report on the retired military analyst program because it “did not meet accepted quality standards for an Inspector General work product.” The now-retracted report had exonerated officials of using propaganda and referred to the program as just "one of many outreach groups."
Cheney and the Plame-Gate Cover-up
In a May 8, 2004, interview with federal investigators, the then-Vice President said he did raise a few internal questions about Wilson’s 2002 fact-finding mission for the CIA, which checked out – and knocked down – Cheney’s suspicion that Iraq was trying to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger.
But Cheney denied that he unleashed a retaliatory campaign to discredit this early Iraq War critic – nor told anyone to leak the fact that Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, worked at the CIA and had a small role in recruiting her husband for the Niger mission.
“The Vice President advised that there was no discussion of ‘pushing back’ on Wilson’s credibility by raising the nepotism issue, and there was no discussion of using Valerie Wilson’s employment with the CIA in countering Joe Wilson’s criticisms and claims about Iraqi efforts to procure yellowcake uranium from Niger,” said the FBI summary of Cheney’s interview.
Additional Reports
Truth of Kerry babies buried in secrets and lies
Austin police internal affairs corruption
Former Blackwater now marketing services to civilians
San Jose police often use force in resisting-arrest cases
Feel free to add stories in the comments.
