The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "film" ...
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Benghazi: US Consulate Attack
On September 11, when a militant group overran the US consulate in Benghazi resulting in the death of the ambassador, the initial information was contradictory. Much of it got mixed up with other reports out of the Middle East about anti-American demonstrations over an inflammatory film on the Internet that was said to insult Islam. Damon arrived quickly in Benghazi to sort out the conflicting information and went to the burnt consulate ruins, which, though looted, held valuable clues to the truth. Her reporting revealed that there was not a demonstration and that it appeared to have been a planned attack that unfolded simultaneously from three sides. She discovered that U.S. diplomats had been warned by Libyan officials three days before the attack that the security situation in the city was out of their control. Though her reporting received harsh public criticism from the State Department at the time, the U.S. government’s own investigation later proved her reporting to be accurate in an episode that continues to reverberate politically. Damon also spoke to Libyans that tried to save the ambassador that night, shedding light on what happened to him during his final hours. While she was in Benghazi, demonstrations erupted against the militia believed to be responsible for the attack, and Damon further reported on the rise in extremism in the newly-liberated country. Her reporting provided additional valuable context about the milieu in which the consulate attack occurred.
Tags: Middle East; Libya; U.S. ambassador; Benghazi; militant group
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What Killed Arafat?
This 50-minute film was the result of a nine month long cold case investigation into the suspicious death of Yasser Arafat, Palestine's iconic, revolutionary leader. After obtaining Arafat's entire original medical files, Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit, led by producer and reporter Clayton Swisher, crossed continents to track down and interview the French, Jordanian, Egyptian, and Palestinian doctors who had worked to save Arafat's life. Part I of "What Killed Arafat?" was able to easily shatter popular myths about what caused Arafat's precipitous decline from the onset of his illness on October 12, 2004 until his death on November 11th. Testimony from Arafat's doctors conclusively ruled out liver cirrhosis, cancer, even rumors of HIV. The scientific, evidence-based discoveries made in the Part II result from the work performed by a team of forensic pathologists, toxicologists, and radiation physicists from the University Center for Legal Medicine and Institute for Radiation Physics in Lausanne, Switzerland. Working without payment, they agreed to run a battery of sophisticated tests on a large gym bag containing Arafat’s last personal effects. The scientists discovered significant levels of reactor-made Polonium 210 contaminating areas of Arafat's personal effects that came into contact with his biological fluids. When the final results came back in late June, Al Jazeera hosted Mrs. Arafat in Doha to watch the Swiss explain the results on set. Upon witnessing their testimony, Ms. Arafat made a resolute, unanticipated surprise announcement, calling on the Palestinian Authority to exhume her husband's body for testing. Yasser Arafat’s body was exhumed on November 27, 2012 so that the final samples could be retrieved. Whether the causes of Arafat's death are determined to be natural, inconclusive—or even murder—suffice it to say that Al Jazeera’s "What Killed Arafat?" and the resulting investigations and exhumation will have inched the world closer to understanding what did not, and possibly for the first time, what did claim the life of this historic and controversial personality.
Tags: Science; death; biology; investigation; exhumation; testing
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Lost In Detention
The film takes a look at the Obama administration's expanded immigration net, investigating the controversial Secure Communities enforcement program and going inside the hidden world of immigration detention.
Tags: immigration detention; immigration; immigrants; obama; ICE; FBI; DHS, homeland; securituy; mexico;
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"Iran's Manhattan Project"
This investigative report reveals how Iran has "been able to launder billions" of dollars, with assistance from New York banks, to improve their nuclear weapons program. The U.S. has relied on "unenforceable sanctions" that have allowed Iran to easily bypass the measures in place. After their permission to film was "revoked," the investigative team posed as tourists to get the rest of the story.
Tags: Dubai; Emirate; UAE; nuclear weapons; Islamic Republic; Tehran; Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; Manhattan District Attorney; Robert Morgenthau; Alavi Foundation
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The Wasteland
CBS News found that when well-meaning American consumers give their electronics to so-called recyclers, the waste is often smuggled to China and other parts of the Third World, where it is broken down or melted for the precious metals inside. They investigated a major electronic waste recycler in the Denver area, Executive Recycling, and tracked a container that had been filled with cathode ray tubes at the company's loading docks. They followed this container from Denver, to the port of Tacoma, to Hong Kong, which is the main entryway to the part of southern China where electronic waste is broken down in the worst conditions. There, seven out of ten kids have dangerous levels of lead in their blood. Pregnancies are six times more likely to end in miscarriage. The reporters also went to China and found that wasteland, where workers were cooking circuit boards over open flames and separating the gold from other metals in acid baths on the edge of a river. While filming, the crew was attacked by a gang that protects this gray market enterprise. Back in Denver, CBS News confronted the CEO of Executive Recycling. He denied that his company had sent the CRTs overseas, but the evidence was all but irrefutable.
Tags: recycling; gray market; electronics; China; worker safety; pollution;
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Sky Harbor Security Risks
This investigation exposed major security lapses at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, the fifth busiest airport in the country. Reporters posed as passengers and used hidden cameras to film unchecked bags being allowed into the secure site of the airport. The story had immediate consequences; the TSA took over operations at the airport and corrected the security problems.
Tags: transportation; hidden camera; airplane; federal government; TSA
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Meeting Resistance
A full-length documentary film, "Meeting Resistance" provides personal narratives of people involved in the resistance in Iraq. The documentary clarifies why, to this day, the violence in Iraq continues. It provides a "deeper understanding of both the toll of occupation and the human condition of resistance."
Tags: Iraq; resistance; Iraq war; occupation; insurgents
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Extraordinary Rendition
"The film 'Extraordinary Rendition' explores the truth about CIA rendition and secret detention and sets out to explain not only the extent of US involvement in torture, but also why this program was carried out. It also reveals how rendition continues."
Tags: Egypt; India; CIA; torture; black sites; rendition; Poland; Bisher al Rawi; interrogation
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Mississippi Cold Case
"The process of making the documentary, "Mississippi Cold Case" solved an intractable civil rights era hate crime and helped put a Ku Klux Klansman behind bars for life. The film tells the step-by-step story of how victim's family member Thomas Moore and documentary filmmaker David Ridgen reignite interest in Charles Moore and Henry Dee case..."
Tags: Civil Rights; KKK; Ku Klux Klan; murder; FBI; James Ford Seale; Cold Case Bill;
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An Inconvenient truth: Investigative Stories by Andy Meek
This is a collection of investigative pieces reporter Andy Meek did for the Daily News (Memphis, TN) during the last half of 2006. His election story summarized "the inability of local elected officials to prepare properly for the longest ballot in Shelby County history." "Major Hollywood Studio Eyes Memphis" broke the news that Memphis was being considered as a production hub. Also included is a story on property tax overpayments and three stories that provided "exclusive details about a real estate deal that figured prominently in the arrest of two Memphis City Council members."
Tags: elections; film production; property taxes; Diebold electronic voting machines; Tennessee Board of Equalization; reappraisal; Village Roadshow; political corruption scandals; digital billboards; outdoor advertising