Frontline documentary DARK SIDE makes the devastating case that Cheney used 9/11 to go to war with Iraq and indicts Donald Rumsfeld as a co-conspirator: Allen L Roland
Last night PBS's FRONTLINE laid it all out for the world to see and it was a riveting experience ~ especially for myself who clearly saw this historic sting four years ago and had identified Dick Cheney, as the primary culprit, from the very beginning.
The damning 90-minute exposé clearly and brilliantly establishes, through more than 40 interviews with CIA veterans, journalists, politicians and others, that Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld were the ones who ignored, suppressed and manipulated intelligence after the 9/11 attacks to lead us into war with a country that had nothing to do with our attackers.
This film also clearly confirms how Bush has been AWOL and unengaged as our president ~ the oblivious cheerleader mouthing empty platitudes while Cheney and Rumsfeld implement their secretive and unconstitutional schemes.
Sam Allis, Boston Globe, writes an insightful review which fully explains how frontline captured the context of this major scandal and abuse of power.
"Frontline" delivers a devastating look tonight at the efforts of Vice President Dick Cheney to gain control of the war on terror after 9/11. In doing so, the show purports, he compromised the integrity of America's intelligence system.
"The Dark Side" is riveting television, heavily reported, that exemplifies what "Frontline" does best: go inside a major story and give us context. The title is a ripe double-entendre that applies both to Cheney and the turf on which the war against terrorists is fought. "We have to work the dark side, if you will," we hear Cheney say. "Spend time in the shadows of the intelligence world."
To many, Cheney is the dark side of the Bush administration, and this program will only cement that judgment. "Frontline" chronicles the brutal campaign by two consummate political in-fighters ~ Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ~ to decimate the CIA, politically emasculate Secretary of State Colin Powell, and construct a near-limitless concept of executive power during war.
While many of these strands are familiar, they have not been assembled as effectively before on television to present a coherent picture of what happened after 9/11.
Cheney didn't trust the CIA after it missed the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Iranian revolution, and Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, so he created through Rumsfeld's Pentagon his own intelligence network to suit his agenda.
Powell and former CIA director George Tenet were no match for this pair, who have known each other for three decades. By the time that Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was indicted last fall, Powell and Tenet were long gone and the CIA was in shambles.
Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on Conscious talk radio www.conscioustalk.net
