In the summer of 2004, Cam Simpson, an investigative reporter for the Chicago Tribune, heard a report on the evening news about 12 Nepalese men kidnapped and brutally executed by an extremist Islamic group in Iraq -- murdered, the group claimed on a Web site, for cooperating with the U.S. To his colleagues on the ground in Baghdad, the story was hardly distinguishable from the constant carnage surrounding them each day. But Simpson, familiar with the military's increasing privatization of support operations -- as well as the Middle East's human trafficking problems -- sensed a bigger story. (Updated Program)
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.