Robert I. Friedman (November 29, 1950 – July 2, 2002) was an American investigative journalist. In 1993, Friedman castigated the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

for ignoring information it had developed on the Muslim extremists behind the first bombing of the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are the hundreds of sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may also refer to: Buildings * World Trade Center (1973–2001), a building complex that was destroyed during the September 11 at ...

. The report earned him a

Society of Professional Journalists The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is the oldest organization representing journalists in the United States. It was established on April 17, 1909, at DePauw University,2009 SPJ Annual Report, lette ...

(SPJ) Award for Best Investigative Reporting in a Weekly. Friedman wrote about

Meir Kahane Meir David HaKohen Kahane ( ; ; born Martin David Kahane; August 1, 1932 – November 5, 1990) was an American-born Israel, Israeli Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox ordained rabbi, writer and ultra-nationalist politician. Founder of the Israeli pol ...

and the

Jewish Defense League The Jewish Defense League (JDL) is a far-right political organization in the United States and Canada. Its stated goal is to "protect Jews from antisemitism by whatever means necessary"; it has been classified as "right-wing terrorist group" ...

(JDL), and the book ''Red Mafiya'' about the Russian mob and its entry into the U.S. Friedman described the rise of Russian crime boss Vyachelsav Kirillovich Ivankov. His reporting resulted in Friedman receiving death threats throughout his career. The FBI at one point informed him that Russian organized crime boss

Semion Mogilevich Semion Yudkovich Mogilevich (, ; , ; born June 30, 1946) is a Ukrainian-born Russian organized crime boss. He is described by agencies in the European Union and United States as the " boss of all bosses" of most Russian Mafia syndicates in th ...

had put a contract out on his life. Robert I. Friedman died on July 2, 2002, at the age of 51 as the result of a rare disease he contracted while in India working on a story about human trafficking and sexual slavery.

Legacy

The "Robert I. Friedman Award" is given out to investigative journalists by the board of the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

Books by Robert I. Friedman

*(1990): The False Prophet Rabbi

, From FBI Informant To Knesset Member. Published by Lawrence Hill & Co., Brooklyn, NY, *(1992): Zealots for Zion. Inside Israels West Bank Settlement Movement. Published by

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

, New York. *(2000): Red Mafiya: How the Russian Mob Has Invaded America Published by

Little, Brown and Company Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries, it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emil ...

, Boston, New York, London

References

External links

The lobby: Jewish political power and American foreign policy
Book Review by Robert I. Friedman, 1987
India's shame: sexual slavery and political corruption are leading to an AIDS catastrophe
1996
AND DARKNESS COVERED THE LAND : A Report From Israel and Palestine
2001 {{DEFAULTSORT:Friedman, Robert I. 1950 births 2002 deaths Jewish American journalists American male journalists 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews