CNN Special Investigations Unit - Season 2007

First aired: 1/20/2007 30 episodes
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Episodes

1. The War Within

Aired: 1/20/2007

Christiane Amanpour examines Muslim extremism in the U.K. Included: the alienation many Muslim youths experience in Western societies.

2. The Journalist and the Jihadi

Aired: 2/10/2007

Christine Amanpour narrates report on the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, whose investigation of Islamic militants resulted in a fateful meeting with Omar Sheikh in Pakistan in 2002. Included are remarks by Pearl family members; and acquaintances of both men.

3. MLK: Words That Changed a Nation

Aired: 2/17/2007

Soledad O'Brien profiles Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., via interviews with former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and activist Dorothy Cotton. Also: how part of King's I Have a Dream speech was ad-libbed; the genesis of his Letter From Birmingham Jail.

4. Ambush at the River of Secrets

Aired: 3/3/2007

A report on a Jan. 26, 2005 ambush on the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit in Haqlaniyah, Iraq, which resulted in the deaths of four soldiers.

5. Fatal Journey

Aired: 3/10/2007

An examination of the March 2, 2007, accident in Atlanta involving a charter bus carrying the Bluffton University baseball team. Seven people died, including the driver and his wife.

6. Death Squads

Aired: 3/17/2007

John Roberts examines the Shia death squads operating in Iraq and their alleged connection to government officials. Included: insights from former Iraqi interior minister Bayan Jabr; L. Paul Bremer III, the former administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority; and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad.

7. Grady's Anatomy

Aired: 3/24/2007

The world of young doctors is examined at Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital, one of the busiest Level 1 trauma centers in the region, through the eyes of four interns and CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who is an attending neurosurgeon at the hospital.

8. What Is a Christian? God, Faith and Hard Science

Aired: 4/6/2007

A look at the tenets of Christianity and how they apply to science. Included: whether science and religion can coexist. Anderson Cooper hosts.

9. Chasing Life

Aired: 4/14/2007

Based on Dr. Sanjay Gupta's 2007 book “Chasing Life,” this episode features the CNN chief medical correspondent's look at longevity. Included: the importance of diet and exercise; stem-cell therapy; the aging process.

10. Massacre at Virginia Tech

Aired: 4/21/2007

Soledad O'Brien anchors an account of the rampage at Virginia Tech that claimed the lives of 32 people, plus the gunman. Included: a minute-by-minute account; how the shooter acquired his weapons.

11. We Were Warned: Edge of Disaster

Aired: 4/28/2007

Anderson Cooper hosts this look at how prepared the U.S. is to face another Hurricane Katrina-level natural disaster or terrorist attack. Included: “soft” targets in the nation's food supply, port security and power grids; the level of readiness for biological and germ attacks.

12. Month of Mayhem

Aired: 5/12/2007

CNN International anchor Michael Holmes reports on what life is like in Iraq. Included: bombings in markets and at universities; attacks on civilians and military troops.

13. Danger: Poisoned Food

Aired: 5/19/2007

Dr. Sanjay Gupta investigates the safety of the nation's food supply, which the CDC estimates is responsible for causing some 76 million people to become sick every year, with an approximate 325,000 requiring hospitalization and 5,000 dying. Included: an interview with Dr. Robert E. Brackett, the director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition; the experiences of a family who became ill after eating E. coli-contaminated greens.

14. Battlefield Breakdown

Aired: 6/30/2007

John King reports on the unintended consequences of the Iraq War, which include more than 3500 American dead; a cost of some $500 billion; and the fact that two-thirds of the Army's 42 active brigades aren't battle ready. Included: comments from Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.); and Stephen and Kay Castner, whose son Stephen died in Iraq.

15. Criminally Insane

Aired: 7/14/2007

Soledad O'Brien reports on criminally insane felons and why the warning signs in individuals are sometimes missed. Included are interviews with Lionel Dahmer, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer's father; and David Kaczynski, brother of the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski.

16. Road to Ruin: Are We Safe?

Aired: 8/3/2007

The Minnesota bridge collapse is investigated by Soledad O'Brien, Drew Griffin, Jim Acosta and Ted Rowlands.

17. Growing Up Diana

Aired: 8/21/2007

Soledad O'Brien examines Princess Diana's early years. Included: inside her childhood home; where she and Prince Charles first met; how her parents' divorce impacted her; and remarks from family members, friends and a childhood nanny.

18. Children of the Storm

Aired: 8/29/2007

CNN's Soledad O'Brien and Spike Lee help 11 Gulf Coast teens tell their Katrina-recovery stories in video-diary form. Filmed between January and August 2007, the entries detail their hopes, as well as challenges they continue to face.

19. Narco State: The Poppy Jihad

Aired: 9/8/2007

Anderson Cooper reports on Afghanistan, where the Taliban is using profits from the poppy trade to fuel its resurgence. Included: efforts by NATO and U.S. forces to eradicate the drug trade; a visit to a Taliban-controlled area.

20. Afghanistan: Lifting the Veil

Aired: 9/15/2007

In this powerful follow-up to the 2001 “CNN Presents” episode “Beneath the Veil,” about life for Afghan women under the Taliban, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy traversed Afghanistan to see whether conditions have improved since the Taliban were ousted. She discovered that while some hope exists, change has been slow. For example, though the government no longer requires women to wear burqas, their husbands and families do. Included: women who committed self-immolation; a girls' school.

21. Judgment in Jena

Aired: 9/22/2007

Kyra Phillips reports on the “Jena 6” case, in which six black Jena, La., high-school students are being prosecuted for injuring a white classmate during a schoolyard brawl, while none of the white youths involved were charged.

22. Fed Up: America's Killer Diet

Aired: 9/22/2007

Dr. Sanjay Gupta examines diet's impact on the brain and the rest of the body. Included: Dr. Mark Jacobsen (Center for Science in the Public Interest); Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa); LaDonna Redmond, a Chicago agriculture activist; and psychiatrist Joseph Hibbeln.

23. Ahmadinejad: Soldier of God

Aired: 9/29/2007

Christiane Amanpour profiles Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and discusses modern-day Iran. Included: an interview with Ahmadinejad about Iran's nuclear program.

24. The Minds of the D.C. Snipers

Aired: 10/10/2007

Soledad O'Brien examines the Beltway sniper case that terrorized the mid-Atlantic region in October 2002. Included: comments from the families of convicted snipers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, and Charles A. Moose, former chief of the Montgomery County (Md.) Police Department; an interview with Muhammad.

25. The Noose: An American Nightmare

Aired: 10/23/2007

Kyra Phillips reports on an upsurge in incidents in which nooses are displayed in an attempt to intimidate black people. Included: the historical significance of the noose; insights from historian James Allan and the Southern Poverty Law Center's Mark Potok; investigating hate crimes in Nassau County, N.Y.; what Philadelphia educators teach students about racial intolerance in America's past.

26. Death Grip: Inside Pro Wrestling

Aired: 11/7/2007

An interview with WWE chairman Vince McMahon accents this look at pro wrestling, whose participants are more likely to die young than their counterparts in other professional sports. Drew Griffin reports.

27. Bloodspilled

Aired: 11/10/2007

Problems facing the Veterans Administration are examined via the experiences of Iraq War veteran Tammy Duckworth, a former Blackhawk pilot and double amputee, who is the director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs. Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports.

28. Amanpour Reports: Czar Putin

Aired: 11/30/2007

Christiane Amanpour examines modern-day Russia, which critics say has devolved from democracy to autocratic rule under the leadership of President Vladimir Putin.

29. Iran: Fact or Fiction

Aired: 12/7/2007

A look at what's known about Iran in light of the NIE report about its nuclear capabilities. Included: remarks from former secretary of state Madeleine Albright; former Afghanistan special envoy James Dobbins; former presidential adviser David Gergen; former UN chief weapons inspector David Kay; and American Enterprise Institute vice president Danielle Pletka. Campbell Brown and Frank Sesno report.

30. Pakistan: Terror Central

Aired: 12/28/2007

A report on terrorism in Pakistan, including the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.