I need websites of Political Research

December 23, 2005 9:35 PM

I am looking for reasonably well-known websites that deal with government corruption. I live in the United States, so I have a particular interest in any US corruption, but I'm interested in other countries as well. Logically, it is easy to find information on corruption of countries we don't like, so I'm mainly looking for websites dealing with the US and its allies. (more info inside) if you know of any respected political websites that issue indepth reports on various things like human rights (Human Rights Watch for example) or that release declassified documents and memos not necessarily from the us, but the US is great too ( http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv for example) then tell me

To be a little more specific, I'm looking for websites that create reports or studies on things such as Human Rights around the world - http://www.hrw.org being one such example, also, any websites that have released declassified documents, secret memos, etc - and example would be the National Security Archives - http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv

I know this is a little broad of a question, but I need better raw research material. Thanks.

posted by VillainousJester to Law & Government (10 answers total)

You want Transparency International. In 2004, the least corrupt was Finland, the most corrupt were Bangladesh and Haiti.
posted by Brian James at 10:38 PM on December 23, 2005

Try The Memory Hole. That site requests and posts documents using the Freedom of Information Act to disseminate recently unclassified information. I quit hitting that site because it usually just adds to my already heightened sense of despair at injustice in our Great Land. Here is a link to the US Dept. of State's FOIA reading room where you can make requests etc.. More journalism FOIA resources here.

BTW: I'm a NOOB...Paging Y2Karl (props).
posted by HyperBlue at 10:42 PM on December 23, 2005

Also, Sourcewatch is good at finding out who's funding who, especially as it related to the media and pr and spin.
posted by amberglow at 11:11 PM on December 23, 2005

Response by poster: HyperBlue, does metafilter provide a way for me to get a hold of another user (namely y2karl) other than asking him in a thread (which would of course be off topic, and thus spammy) or hoping he reads this?

Just the kinds of links I am looking for by the way.

Another example would be http://amnesty.org/
posted by VillainousJester at 11:50 PM on December 23, 2005

OpenSecrets.org is like a roadmap to American corruption. (It can be hard to navigate if you're new but it's very rich. Look for sections like "Tracking the Payback".)
posted by CunningLinguist at 4:59 AM on December 24, 2005

huffingtonpost.com
crooksandliars.com
mediamattersforamerica.org

are a few liberal sites that document the courruption of republicans that currently has it's hands around the neck of democracy and is trying to drown it in the bathtub.
posted by jamie939 at 5:10 AM on December 24, 2005

Public Integrity
Their projectmilitary contracts: http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/

Project on Government Secrecy (Which doesn't necc. deal with corruption)

Project on Government Oversight

Congressional Research Service reports aren't declassified but they do deal with issues you're looking for. Searching for "corruption" brought up a bunch of reports on corruption in foreign countries. The first three that popped up were on Russia, international financial institutions and Mexican drug policy. I read a few reports from them and they're generally ok. They do tend to dance around politically tinged questions.
posted by raaka at 6:21 AM on December 24, 2005

Here is one that was mentioned on This is Hell last week
Exxon Secrets dot org
posted by hortense at 8:08 AM on December 24, 2005

They Rule lets you map relationships between corporations and government officials.
posted by mbrubeck at 8:30 AM on December 24, 2005

statewatch might be useful for info about eu countries
posted by tnai at 8:38 AM on December 24, 2005