Dirt Diggers Digest No. 31
March 18, 2003
Editor: Philip Mattera
1. Public interest groups call for end to Homeland Security Act's FOIA curbs
2. The coming bonanza for U.S. contractors in Iraq
3. GAO examines role of investment banks in Enron and Global Crossing scandals
4. LiveEdgar provides full-text searching of annual reports
5. Are you researching Ford Motor?
6. Another way to search the Wall Street Journal
7. World Directory of Think Tanks
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1. Public interest groups call for end to Homeland Security Act's FOIA curbs
Some 50 environmental, civil liberties and other public interest groups have
issued a call for changes to the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to remove
ambiguous language "that could unintentionally allow companies to keep broad
categories of information secret and provisions that restrict the government's
ability to use the information." The groups, which range from Friends of the
Earth to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, expressed support
for legislation (S.609) introduced in the Senate by Vermont Democrat Patrick
Leahy and others that would address the issue. The FOIA exemption in the Act
applies to facilities such as privately operated power plants, bridges, dams, ports
and chemical plants whose owners decide are in the category of "critical infrastructure."
For more information, see the OMB Watch website <www.ombwatch.org>.
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2. The coming bonanza for U.S. contractors in Iraq
The expected U.S. military victory over Iraq will be followed by U.S. occupation of the
country. Even before the invasion starts, the Bush Administration has been making
plans to hire contractors to rebuild the infrastructure damaged by the war. Recent
press reports have revealed that five U.S. engineering firms are being given an
exclusive opporunity to bid on a preliminary contract of some $900 million. The five
include Bechtel Group, Fluor Corp., Parsons Corp., Louis Berger Group and the
Kellogg Brown & Root unit of Dick Cheney's previous employer, Halliburton Co. The
Center for Responsive Politics's Capital Eye newsletter <http://www.capitaleye.org/>
has a report called "Postwar Profiteers" on the campaign contributions made by these
companies. Other recent materials on the subject include a March 17 piece by Farhad
Manjoo called "War Inc." on the Salon.com website and an overview by Dirt Diggers
editor Phil Mattera called "Privatizing the Spoils of War" in the Corporate Research E-Letter
<http://www.corp-research.org/archives.htm>. The latter includes a brief guide to finding
information on current military contracts.
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3. GAO examines role of investment banks in Enron and Global Crossing scandals
This week the General Accounting Office issued a report <http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03511.pdf>
analyzing the role of investment banks in the corporate scandals at Enron and Global
Crossing. The report is written in especially cautious language, given that "the activities
identifed in this report are the subject of ongoing and extensive investigations and litigation."
Still, the implied message of the report is that investment banks were deeply involved,
both as architects and participants, in the questionable financial transactions that led to
Enron's downfall. The report was published on the same day that Merrill Lynch agreed to
pay $80 million to settle SEC charges in connection with sham transactions at Enron.
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4. LiveEdgar provides full-text searching of annual reports
LiveEdgar, the pricy way to get access to SEC filings, has announced that it has introduced
a feature that allows full-text searching in its collection of 113,000 annual reports (the glossy
documents that are not on EDGAR as opposed to 10-Ks) from more than 30,000 companies
in 106 countries. For more info, see http://www.gsionline.com/index.html. For historical company
research, keep in mind that the Accounting library on Lexis-Nexis has full-text annual reports
for the period 1972-1994.
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5. Are you researching Ford Motor?
A subscriber to the Dirt Diggers Digest who is doing research on the Ford
Motor Co. would like to hear from others who are also working on the auto producer.
Contact Dirt Diggers editor Phil Mattera, who will put the two of you together.
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6. Another way to search the Wall Street Journal
ProQuest Information & Learning, a full-text aggregator whose products are widely
available in libraries, announced this week that the Wall Street Journal is being added
to its ABI/INFORM product. See http://www.il.proquest.com/division/pr/03/20030317.shtml
for details. ABI/INFORM, which used to be known for its abstracts of articles from the
business press but now provides full-text access, will contain a full archive of the WSJ
going back to 1986.
Last week Dow Jones, publisher of the Journal, announced that its Factiva joint venture
with Reuters, currently the sole source for WSJ archives, has signed a deal with Microsoft
to integrate Factiva into Office 2003 software. Dow Jones is in the process of phasing out
its Dow Jones Interactive service and shifting subscribers to Factiva.
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7. World Directory of Think Tanks
If you are researching a multinational's operations in a particular country, one
place to contact would be a local research center. The task of finding such a center,
especially in smaller countries, could be made easier by a directory called NIRA's World
Directory of Think Tanks, published by Japan's National Institute for Research
Advancement. A new and expanded version of the work, which covers 77 countries
and regions, is now available in hard-copy form or on the web at
http://www.nira.go.jp/ice/nwdtt/index.html#1.
Philip Mattera