Databases
ABOUT DATABASES
INTELWIRE databases are focused collections of primary source documents, including court records and material obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. Document collections are processed and published in Google Pinpoint, creating a searchable database including extracted entities and location information.
DATABASE: SEPTEMBER 11
Explore the data in Google Journalist Studio
INTELWIRE has obtained thousands of pages of U.S. government records through the Freedom of Information Act, in addition to interviews and reports produced and published by the 9/11 Commission. These records have been collected here in a searchable database, including entity and location extraction.
This collection also includes more than 2,000 pages of Freedom of Information Act documents on American al Qaeda ideologue Anwar Awlaki, whose connection to the 9/11 attacks remains ambiguous to this day. For a detailed narrative of Awlaki's links to the hijackers and other 9/11 figures, please read J.M. Berger's article for The Atlantic. This collection includes primary sources for that article, as well as material released by the U.S. after publication.
DATABASE: THE SIEGE OF MECCA
Explore the data in Google Journalist Studio
In 1979, several hundred militants seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest site in Islam. The event was jarring enough at the time, but its long-term consequences were nearly unimaginable. The band of militants intended to launch the apocalypse; the attack was designed to topple the Saudi government and meet certain prophetic requirements (as the militants imagined them) about the start of the "End Times." Although not in the way they intended, the militants were indeed a herald of things to come. INTELWIRE presents exclusive Freedom of Information documents related to the Siege, with entity extraction and full text search through Google Pinpoint. The documents in this collection include cables from the State Department's Jeddah embassy -- a minute-by-minute account of the siege. They reveal the profound confusion and concern felt by the government's most experienced Middle Eastern diplomats. From the first moments, in which virtually no information was available, rampant speculation broke out as to who was behind the attack, with initial suspicions pointing toward Iran or Communist South Yemen. As it turned out, the group was mostly comprised of Saudis, with a strong representation from Egypt, Jordan, Somalia and other regions. Two Americans were members of the group and took part in the siege.
