Watch CNN Special Investigations Unit (2007) Online!
CNN Special Investigations Unit is an American investigative documentary program on CNN weekends. Expanding upon CNN Presents, SIU focuses on each episode being an in depth investigative report about news stories being covered, commonly featuring a number of interviews with experts on the issue and people who have witnessed the story taking place. The reports are commonly long-form, allowing for the network to cover more information and perspectives than would be available during a 5-minute report on another CNN program, such as CNN Newsroom. Compared to Presents, the show has taken a slightly larger point of the reporting being done by CNN reporters, the first commercials promoting the program largely showing pictures of anchors and reporters on locations, asking questions to people on the locations. In addition, the look and feel of the show has changed somewhat drastically, adding more emphasis on the graphics used to present the program itself, in addition to the stories being covered. In addition, presentations on SIU are shorter in length than on Presents, which is now used as a special event for larger special reports that take place on a long-term basis. Since the program's introduction, the network has slowly shifted towards relabeling past Presents presentations into SIU formatted ones, changing the graphics to reflect the new general label given to long-form reporting done by the network.
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Episode 1 - On Deadly Ground: The Women of Iraq
Release Date: 2008-03-15Arwa Damon reports on how the Iraq War has impacted Iraqi women. Included: inside al-Kadhimiya, a women's prison.
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Episode 2 - Busted: Mortgage Meltdown
Release Date: 2008-03-28The reasons for the housing crisis are investigated in this collaborative effort with "Fortune" magazine, which features "Fortune" managing editor Andy Serwer, CNN's Gerri Willis, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, securities expert Janet Tavakoli, investment strategist Peter Dunay and Lenox Financial CEO Jon Shibley. Included: insights from former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.
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Episode 3 - Campus Rage
Release Date: 2008-04-11The safety measures colleges have implemented to prevent further campus rampages are examined. Included: whether students should be permitted to have guns on campus; the Northern Illinois University tragedy; a young man whose planned assault on his high school was stopped by his mother. Abbie Boudreau reports.
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Episode 4 - Amanpour Reports: Notes From North Korea
Release Date: 2008-05-10Christiane Amanpour travels to North Korea with the New York Philharmonic for its February 2008 performance in Pyongyang. Included: a tour of a nuclear facility; a visit with a North Korean family; and interviews with Christopher Hill, the lead U.S. negotiator with North Korea; North Korean deputy foreign minister Kim Gye Gwan; Madeleine Albright; former defense secretary William Perry; and the Philharmonic's Lorin Maazel and South Korean-born violinist Lisa Kim.
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Episode 5 - Amanpour Reports: Buddha's Warriors
Release Date: 2008-08-02Expanding upon her award-winning investigative series God’s Warriors, CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour reports in a new documentary that examines the nexus of politics and faith. For Buddha’s Warriors, Amanpour explores a new generation of Buddhists who are actively engaged in political struggle. These believers of love, kindness and nonviolence struggle to remain true to their beliefs while at the same time confronting severe political and cultural oppression. In Buddha’s Warriors, Amanpour investigates the roots of the conflict between Chinese authority and ethnic Tibetans. Nearly 50 years ago, the Dalai Lama fled Tibet after a failed uprising against communist rule. Tibetans say that all but 13 of 6,000 Buddhist monasteries were destroyed under Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976. Those that have been rebuilt are now under the close, watchful eye of the Chinese government. Monks there say that they are forced to denounce the Dalai Lama and swear allegiance to China.
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Episode 6 - Fit to Lead
Release Date: 2008-10-11Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports on the toll that serving as president has taken on the health of past commanders in chief. Also: what the medical records of John McCain and Barack Obama reveal about their readiness to serve as president. Included: interviews with former White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer, Joe Lockhart, Jody Powell and Ron Nessen; former Reagan White House chief of staff Kenneth Duberstein; and former White House physicians Rob Darling, Burton Lee and Connie Mariano.
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Episode 7 - Fall of the Fat Cats
Release Date: 2008-10-18The opulent lifestyles led by some Wall Street insiders, including Lehman Brothers chairman and CEO Richard S. Fuld Jr., are explored. Also: an interview with one-time stockbroker Jordan Belfort ("The Wolf of Wall Street"); who racked up millions---and served time for securities fraud and stock manipulation; a Wall Street cigar party; the reactions of middle-class Americans.