AP Special Projects
Visually rich, in-depth, fact-based reports from the global newsroom of The Associated Press.
AWOL WEAPONS
AP: Some stolen US military guns used in violent crimes
By KRISTIN M. HALL, JAMES LAPORTA, JUSTIN PRITCHARD and JUSTIN MYERS
An Associated Press investigation has found that at least 1,900 U.S. military firearms were lost or stolen over the last decade. These weapons are intended for war -- but some have ended up on America’s streets. Army pistols, for example, were used in violent crimes including shootings and robbery. Pistols, machine guns and automatic assault rifles vanished from military armories, supply warehouses, Navy warships and elsewhere. Security lapses included unlocked doors, sleeping troops and a surveillance system that didn’t record. The Pentagon and armed services say that missing firearms are a tiny fraction of the military’s stockpile, and note that some weapons are recovered.
THE BADGE AND THE CROSS
Inside a KKK murder plot: Grab him up, take him to the river
By JASON DEAREN
In 2015, three Ku Klux Klan members hatched a plot to murder a Black man who had been recently released from a state prison. But the FBI eventually got wind of the scheme. A confidential informant had infiltrated the group, and his recordings provide a rare, detailed look at the inner workings of a modern klan cell and a domestic terrorism probe. The Associated Press has reconstructed the story of the failed murder plot by klansmen who also worked as Florida prison guards using one and a half hours of the FBI informant’s secret recordings, thousands of pages of public records, field reporting and interviews.
HAMAS-ISRAEL WARS
Through four wars, toll mounts in Gaza neighborhood
By ADAM GELLER and FARES AKRAM
Gaza's story can be seen through the prism of Zaki and Jawaher Nassir, their family and their neighbors in the town of Beit Hanoun. Through four wars in 13 years, they have seen death and destruction, a mounting toll of suffering that shows no sign of ending. Since 2008, more than 4,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflicts, according to the U.N., and thousands have been injured. Now, the Nassirs live in the ruins left by the fourth war. Each afternoon, demolition workers arrive so that they and their neighbors can start rebuilding -- again.
ERASING AN ETHNICITY
'Leave no Tigrayan': In Ethiopia, an ethnicity is erased
By CARA ANNA
The atrocities have been seared into the skin and the minds of Tigrayans. They shelter by the thousands within sight of the homeland they fled in Ethiopia. They carry the pain of gunshot wounds, injured vaginas, welts on beaten backs. Less visible are the memories: Dozens of bodies on riverbanks. Fighters raping a woman for speaking her own language. Now, for the first time, they also bring proof of an official attempt at what is being called ethnic cleansing in the form of a new identity card that eliminates all traces of Tigray. They were confirmed to The Associated Press by several refugees.
RACISM IN THE RANKS
‘We just feel it’: Racism plagues US military academies
By AARON MORRISON, HELEN WIEFFERING and NOREEN NASIR
The nation’s military academies provide a key pipeline into the leadership of the armed services and, for the better part of the last decade, they have welcomed more racially diverse students each year. But beyond blanket anti-discrimination policies, these federally funded institutions volunteer little about how they screen for extremist or hateful behavior, or address the racial slights that some graduates of color say they faced daily. Some graduates of color who endured what they viewed as a hostile environment are left questioning the military maxim that all service members wearing the same uniform are equal.
MYANMAR IN CRISIS
Myanmar military uses systematic torture across country
By KRISTEN GELINEAU and VICTORIA MILKO
An investigation by The Associated Press has found that the Myanmar military has been torturing detainees across the country in a methodical and systemic way since its takeover of the government in February. The AP investigation was based on interviews with 28 people imprisoned and released in recent months, photographic evidence, sketches and letters, and testimony from three recently defected military officials. The AP's investigation provides the most comprehensive look since the military takeover into a highly secretive detention system that has held more than 9,000 people. The AP found that the military has also taken steps to hide evidence of its torture.
BURIED VIDEOS, LIES AND COVERUPS
‘I’m scared’: AP obtains video of deadly arrest of Louisiana Black man
By JIM MUSTIAN
Body camera video obtained by The Associated Press shows Louisiana state troopers stunning, punching and dragging a Black man as he apologizes for leading them on a high-speed chase — footage authorities refused to release in the two years since the man died in police custody. Ronald Greene can be heard telling the white troopers “I’m scared!" as he is jolted multiple times with a stun gun. The May 2019 arrest outside of Monroe, Louisiana, is the subject of a federal civil rights investigation. Troopers initially blamed the 49-year-old's death on a crash at the end of the chase.