In "The Dark Side," FRONTLINE tells the story ....

[Henk op xp]

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http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darkside/view/
In "The Dark Side," FRONTLINE tells the story ....

"Amid revelations about faulty prewar intelligence and a scandal 
surrounding the indictment of the vice president's chief of staff and 
presidential adviser, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, FRONTLINE goes behind 
the headlines to investigate the internal war that was waged between the 
intelligence community and 
(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darkside/themes/cheney.html) 
Richard Bruce Cheney, the most powerful vice president in the nation's 
history. (more) »
...
"

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darkside/view/
Zie de webside voor de 6 video´s:
Klik aldaar de bedoelde plaatjes:

"WATCH ONE" Within Hours of 9/11...
"Dick Cheney seizes the initiative, George
Tenet pulls out the CIA's already architected
plan for attacking the Taliban and Al Qaeda
in Afghanistan, and Donald Rumsfeld puts
Iraq on the table."

"WATCH TWO" Behind Closed Doors
"Conflicts surface between the CIA and military
during the Afghanistan war against the Taliban,
but the war is deemed a CIA success story.  
Meanwhile Cheney works to undercut Tenet's
CIA by building his own intelligence capability."

"WATCH THREE" The Push for War in Iraq
"In Afghanistan, Bin Laden escapes and the CIA
blames the military. At the Pentagon, its secret
intelligence unit funnels Iraq information through
Cheney's office. Cheney continues to assert an
Iraq-Al Qaeda connection, but the CIA denies it."

"WATCH FOUR" The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE)
"At the request of Congress, which is nearing a vote
on war, Tenet produces an NIE on the evidence
of Iraq's WMD programs. The president has doubts
about its strength. Tenet assures him it's a 'slam dunk.'"

"WATCH FIVE" Flawed Intelligence Goes Public
"The questionable analysis on Iraq's WMD threat
makes its way into Bush's State of the Union speech.
It also gets into Powell's U.N. address on the case for
war, even though Powell personally had questioned
the CIA about the evidence."

"WATCH SIX" A Covert Campaign
No WMD is found in Iraq and in June 2004 Tenet
resigns. Tensions grow between the CIA and Cheney
loyalists. The 'Scooter' Libby investigation uncovers
what appears to be a covert campaign waged against
the CIA by the Office of the Vice President.  "


"A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, 
without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to 
our intelligence agencies," Cheney told Americans just after 9/11. He 
warned the public that the government 
(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darkside/themes/darkside.html) 
would have to operate on the "dark side."

In "The Dark Side," FRONTLINE tells the story of the vice president's 
role as the chief architect of the war on terror, and his battle with 
Director of Central Intelligence 
(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darkside/themes/tenet.html) 
George Tenet for control of the "dark side." Drawing on more than 40 
interviews and thousands of documents, the film provides a step-by-step 
examination of what happened inside the councils of war.

Early in the Bush administration, Cheney placed a group of allies 
(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darkside/etc/network.html) 
throughout the government who advocated a robust and pre-emptive foreign 
policy, especially regarding Iraq. But a potential obstacle was Tenet, a 
holdover from the Clinton administration who had survived the transition 
by bypassing Cheney and creating a personal bond with the president.

After the attacks on 9/11, Cheney seized the initiative and pushed for 
expanding presidential power, transforming America's intelligence 
agencies and bringing the war on terror to Iraq. Cheney's primary ally 
in this effort was Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

"You have this wiring diagram that we all know of about national 
security, but now there's a new line on it. There's a line from the vice 
president directly to the secretary of defense, and it's as though 
there's a private line, private communication between those two," former 
National Security Council staffer 
(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darkside/interviews/clarke.html) 
Richard Clarke tells FRONTLINE.

In the initial stages of the war on terror, Tenet's CIA was rising to 
prominence as the lead agency in the Afghanistan war. But when Tenet 
insisted in his personal meetings with the president that there was no 
connection between Al Qaeda and Iraq, Cheney and Rumsfeld initiated a 
secret program to re-examine the evidence and marginalize the agency and 
Tenet. Through interviews with 
(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darkside/interviews/maloof.html) 
DoD staffers who sifted through mountains of raw intelligence, FRONTLINE 
details how questionable intelligence was "stovepiped" to the vice 
president and presented to the public.

 From stories of Iraq buying yellowcake uranium from Niger to claims 
that 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta had met with an Iraqi agent in Prague, 
"The Dark Side" dissects the now-familiar assertions that led the nation 
to war. The program also receounts the vice president's unprecedented 
visits to the CIA, where he questioned mid-level analysts on their 
conclusions. CIA officers who were there at the time say the message was 
clear: Cheney wanted evidence that Iraq was a threat.

At the center of the administration's case for war was a classified 
(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darkside/themes/nie.html) 
October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate that found evidence of an 
Iraqi weapons of mass destruction program. But 
(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darkside/interviews/pillar.html) 
Paul Pillar, one of the report's principal authors, now admits to 
FRONTLINE that the NIE was written quickly in a highly politicized 
environment, one in which the decision to go to war had already been 
made. Pillar also reveals that he regrets participating in writing a 
subsequent public "white paper" on Iraqi WMD. "What was the purpose of 
it? The purpose was to strengthen the case for going to war with the 
American public. Is it proper for the intelligence community to publish 
papers for that purpose? I don't think so, and I regret having had a 
role in it," Pillar says.

For the first time, FRONTLINE tells of George Tenet's personal struggle 
in the run-up to the Iraq war through the accounts of his closest advisers.

"He, I think, asked himself whether or not he wanted to continue on that 
road and to be part of it. And I think there was a lot of agonizing that 
George went through about what would be in the best interest of the 
country and national interest, or whether or not he would stay in that 
position and continue along a course that I think he had misgivings 
about," says 
(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darkside/interviews/brennan.html) 
John Brennan, former deputy executive director of the CIA.

Tenet chose to stay, but after the failure to find Iraqi WMD, the 
tension between the agency and Cheney's allies grew to the point that 
some in the administration believed the CIA had launched a covert war to 
undermine the president. In response, Cheney's office waged a campaign 
to distance itself from the prewar intelligence the vice president had 
helped to cultivate. Under pressure, Tenet resigned. Cheney's chief of 
staff, Scooter Libby, would later admit to leaking key sections of the 
NIE -- authorized, he says, by Cheney. Libby also stated that the vice 
president told him that President Bush had declassified the material. 
Insiders tell FRONTLINE that the leak was part of the battle between the 
vice president and the CIA -- a battle that many believe has destroyed 
the CIA.
"

En voor dergelijke kwats bestaat hier politieke en millitaire steun?

Henk Elegeert

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