Resource Center

Stories

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 "missionaries" ...

  • "Brian Ross Investigates: CIA Shoot-Down - 10 years later

    Ten years after the CIA "mistakenly ordered the shoot down" of a plane full of U.S. missionaries, Brian Ross and his team exposed a "major" cover-up by the CIA. The order to shoot down the plane resulted in the death of a mother and her young child and injured three other people. In an attempt to hide their mistakes, the CIA "misled the federal government and the public."

    Tags: CIA; missionary; Peru; War on Drugs

    By Brian Ross; Matthew Cole; Avni Patel; Asa Eslocker; Karen Brenner; Rhonda Schwartz; James Goldston; Mark Schone

    ABC News

    2010

  • Mormons in Utah: the Shrinking Majority

    This series of seven stories showed that the Mormon Church is not the fastest growing religion worldwide, as it claims. In fact, active church membership is about a third of what the official numbers are. Traditionally Mormon majority counties in Utah are losing their majority status. And stricter criteria for missionaries have reduced their numbers and converts worldwide.

    Tags: Mormon religion; Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; LDS; Pentecostals; demographics; state planning

    By Matt Canham;Peggy Fletcher Stack

    Salt Lake Tribune

    2005

  • The Few Who Stayed: ARW reporting on Rwanda; U.N. Betrayal

    On the tenth anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda, American Radioworks aired this piece on the only American who stayed back in Rwanda. Carl Wilkens an American missionary helped save an orphanage and scoured the city of Kigali in search of water and medicines for the orphaned Tutsi children.

    Tags: Rwanda; genocide; Carl Wilkens; American in Rwanda; American missionary; missionaries; orphanages; Kigali; Tutsi; Hutu

    By Michael Montgomery;Stephen Smith;Deborah George;Bill Buzenberg

    American Radioworks (NPR)

    2004

  • Enemy of the state

    The Pioneer Press investigates the death of Father John Kaiser, a Minnesotan missionary in Kenya, who died mysteriously of a shotgun blast to the head alongside a road north of Nairobi in August 2000. The series reveals that Kaiser had undertaken a courageous campaign against President Daniel Moi. The stories refute the Kenyan authorities' conclusion that the priest committed suicide. "In fact, [we] were told by a member of the Kenyan government how he was killed by police officers," Laszewski reports.

    Tags: religion; Catholicism; social injustice; government wrongdoing; corruption; United Nations; refugee camps; human rights

    By Charles Laszewski

    Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.)

    2001

  • America's Shadow Drug War

    In this group of stories Time examines the effectiveness of America's "war on drugs" at home and in South America. Ramo investigates the shoot-down of an unarmed American missionary plane over Peru by American and Peruvian anti-drug forces. American anti-drug spending is about $1.9 billion a year and government officials are still convinced that air surveillance and crop eradication methods will work in South America. In the second story Ripley profiles the American missionary, Vernoica Bowers, who was killed along with her seven-month-old daughter when their plane was shot down by Peruvian anti-drug forces. The last piece, written by Margot Roosevelt, looks at America's stance on drug offenders and mandatory drug sentencing in relation with the second Bush Administration. The story finds that many states are finding treatment alternatives for drug offenders instead of locking them up. The piece contains a follow-up story by Davis on the cycle of addiction that many drug users face.

    Tags: Drugs; law enforcement; politics

    By Joshua Ramo;Amanda Ripley;Margot Roosevelt;Patti Davis

    Time

    2001

  • The conviction of Tim Dreste

    Tim Dreste's journey from Christian missionary to anti-abortion racketeer cost him a $6 million federal fine for his role in threatening to "kill, assault or do bodily harm" to abortion providers. But he isn't about to stop his crusade.

    Tags: None

    By Melinda Roth

    Riverfront Times (St. Louis)

    1999

  • Tulsa's Golden Missionary

    KTUL-TV (Tulsa, Okla.) does extensive investigation of Tulsa-based David Livingstone Missionary Foundation, a charity that raises millions for the world's needy then spends most of it on its own top executives, July 29 - Aug. 9, 1985.

    Tags: Tape

    By Jim Lyons, Charles Ely

    KTUL-TV (Tulsa, Okla.)

    1985