And coming soon: A small-town reporter unearths a long-buried secret within the local Boy Scouts, and reveals a pedophile scandal that rocks a community.
>> Watch the trailer for "In a Small Town."
Filmmaker Lee Wang documents living and working conditions on Iraq bases
While EXPOSÉ's "Blame Somebody Else" reveals the illicit human pipeline of foreign workers that keeps American military bases staffed and running, documentary filmmaker Lee Wang takes viewers behind-the-scenes to capture workers' living and working conditions in her film "Someone Else's War." The documentary is told through the eyes of three Filipino service workers on an American military base in Iraq. With interviews and footage smuggled out of the country by Halliburton employees, filmmaker Lee Wang reveals the "invisible army" made up of more than 30,000 low-wage base workers from South and Southeast Asia. CHICAGO TRIBUNE reporter Cam Simpson served as a consultant on the film, and some of the footage of workers can be seen in “Blame Somebody Else.”
After Cam Simpson's investigative report on the trafficking of low-wage foreign workers to U.S. military bases was published in October 2005, the U.S. government promptly responded with base inspections. The inspections found that, indeed, there were deceptive hiring procedures, excessive fees charged by job brokers, substandard living conditions for laborers, violations of Iraqi immigration laws, and a lack of human trafficking "awareness training" on U.S. bases. In April 2006, General George Casey ordered reforms, including a requirement that contractors immediately return passports that had been illegally seized.
But a year later, the same problems have resurfaced. This past July two civilian contractors testified before Congress that foreign workers were brought to Baghdad to work on the new $600 million U.S. embassy there without their consent and that they were abused.
A Kuwaiti firm called First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Co. was awarded the contract to build the embassy after no American company would meet the terms. The Justice Department is investigating First Kuwaiti's labor practices because of trafficking in persons allegations.Rory Mayberry, initially hired by First Kuwaiti as a medical technician, claimed that he had witnessed Filipino workers being “kidnapped” by the company. Mayberry testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that workers put on a plane with him in Kuwait were given boarding passes for Dubai, with no idea they were bound for Iraq, and that passports were confiscated. In addition,First Kuwaiti construction foreman John Owens testified that he found living and working conditions for foreign laborers on the construction site "deplorable," that they were “verbally and physically abused,” and that they worked long hours everyday for very little pay.
The State Department Inspector General Howard Krongard testified he was aware of allegations of trafficking and other abuses but found nothing to support them after two visits himself. Although no one from First Kuwaiti testified before Congress, the company provided a written response and, according to the Post, has called the allegations "ludicrous."
Are U.S. tax dollars fueling an illicit human pipeline that exploits and endangers foreign workers? Reporter Cam Simpson of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE began investigating when he saw a news report about a dozen impoverished men from Nepal who were kidnapped and killed while being transported to Iraq for jobs that supported U.S troops. Simpson retraced their steps back to the subcontractor who originally hired the workers, and uncovered a web of deceit and coercion.
Aired last year, this program has already received a CINE Golden Eagle and has been nominated for a News & Documentary Emmy (winners will be announced September 24).
>> Watch this updated version of EXPOSÉ's award-winning episode about Simpson's reporting: "Blame Somebody Else"
>> Read Cam Simpson's original series "Pipeline to Peril" in the CHICAGO TRIBUNE.
To understand more about larger-than-life businessman Bob Jones and his company, the National Center for Employment of the Disabled (NCED), OREGONIAN photographer Faith Cathcart headed to El Paso, Texas, with reporter Jeff Kosseff. "It just felt like this was a terribly important story, and I wanted to do it right," Cathcart recalls.
Texas businessman under investigation for using funds meant to help the disabled
Since 1971, the government has supported a program to channel federal funds to non-profits that train and employ workers who are blind or severely disabled. Known as JWOD (named after the law that created it, the Javits-Wagner-O'Day act), the program eventually came to have an over $2 billion dollar budget. But no one, it appears, was keeping track of where that money was going.
Enter Bob Jones, an opportunistic businessman in El Paso, Texas. When journalists from The Oregonian took a closer look at his non-profit -- JWOD's number one contractor, the National Center for the Employment of the Disabled -- they found he was using the system, and federal tax dollars, to his advantage. In 2005 alone, NCED had been awarded federal contracts worth $276 million.
JWOD requires that two-thirds of an employer's workforce be blind or severely disabled before it can qualify for federal funds. Jones slipped through the cracks by claiming his Spanish-speaking workers from over the border were "disadvantaged."
Government Inc.: “The Good, the Bad and the Sometimes Very Unsettling”
On July 9, 2007, The Washington Post launched Government Inc., a blog written by investigative reporter Robert O’Harrow, Jr. which promises to “shine the bright light of reporting on the good, the bad, and the sometimes very unsettling” in the often byzantine world of federal contracting. O’Harrow and his reporting partner Scott Higham went deep inside that world for their award-winning investigative reporting,“The High Price of Homeland Security,” which was the basis for EXPOSÉ’s “Nice Work If You Can Get It.” And more recently, Higham and O’Harrow have exposed some “very unsettling” accusations about GSA head Lurita Doan. Watch the end of “Nice Work” to find out what they found out.
While Scott Higham has set his sights elsewhere in recent months, O’Harrow’s decision to blog about the government’s business raises his interest in procurement to a new level. Admitting in his inaugural post that “federal contracting may seem about as enticing as a plate of raw broccoli,” O’Harrow has nevertheless found an impassioned, dedicated core audience for his daily postings on government contractors. Companies like Sun Microsystems , SAIC, and Wackenhut Corp. have been discussed in the blog as well as and how our government is (or isn’t) keeping tabs on them.
Less a forum for breaking news than riffing on it, O’Harrow tells the Blog it's too soon to talk about the tips and kinds of materials he is receiving but that “there's no question the blog is useful for generating ideas and help.” In the meantime, O’Harrow has used his blog to let his readers know what you’re not hearing in the Washington Post’s reporting. Last week, he reminded blog readers that the President had failed to act in response to the Special Counsel’s recommendation that GSA Head Lurita Doan be disciplined “to the fullest extent” for violations of the Hatch Act. (See 8/7/2007 posting: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/). O’Harrow concludes, “I'm standing by,” ready to report.
>>Read more from Robert O'Harrow, Jr.about Government Inc. here.
EXPOSÉ's "Nice Work If You Can Get It" airs tonight on PBS. Check local listings.
>> Producer Joe Rubin talks about working with veteran investigative reporters Scott Higham and Robert O’Harrow, the legacy of "Deep Throat," and a very important parking garage. Read his producer notes here.
Assistant managing editor Jeff Leen knows it was a good decision to pair Scott Higham with Robert O’Harrow, Jr. for their reporting on Department of Homeland Security spending. With over 40 years of reporting experience between them, Higham and O’Harrow are undeniably strong investigative reporters, and, simply put, says Leen, “two good reporters are better than one.” Higham, a cop’s son (a path he almost pursued himself), is comfortable talking to people on the street, cultivating sources. O’Harrow is good with technology, whether sifting through databases or digging up web pages that have been taken down by people because they don’t want anybody to see what used to be up. His reporting partner kids, “he’d be a great CIA agent or NSA spook.” “As they’ve worked together, each has become more like the other,” says Leen, “there’s been kind of almost a perfect blending of skills.”
Billions of dollars in government spending meant to make us safer after 9/11. Airport screeners, portal radiation monitors, explosive detection systems, and an elaborate electronic network to track visitors and ease legitimate travel using fingerprint readers.
This week on EXPOSÉ, the story of two reporters who followed the money flowing out of the Department of Homeland security and found case after case of failed programs.
>> Read The Washington Post’s original reporting on "The High Price of Homeland Security." View The Washington Post’s graphic presentation on where the “billions of dollars worth of contracts for security systems aimed at preventing another terrorist attack” have gone.
>>And explore Higham and O’Harrow’s recent and ongoing coverage on the federal contracting beat, focusing on the politics and the GSA.
Blog content provided this week by the EXPOSÉ production team.
A tip from a legendary Washington Post reporter. A highly sensitive internal government document. Veteran investigative journalists.
>>Find out how Washington Post reporters Scott Higham and Robert O'Harrow, Jr. got the goods on the government contractors and the Department of Homeland Security in EXPOSÉ's "Nice Work If You Can Get It." Watch the preview. The full episode streams online tomorrow.
Funders for Exposé: America's Investigative Reports include: Anderson Family Charitable Fund, The Jacob Burns Foundation, The Betsy & Jesse Fink Foundation, Philip Harper, Park Foundation, Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund, Bernard & Irene Schwartz, and Tracy & Eric Semler.
