PBS Frontline: "The Dark Side", all about uncle Dick Cheney--June 20th

[Philosoraptor]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darkside/

60 minutes) On September 11, 2001, deep inside a White House bunker, Vice President Dick Cheney was ordering U.S. fighter planes to shoot down any commercial airliner still in the air above America. At that moment, CIA Director George Tenet was meeting with his counter-terrorism team in Langley, Virginia. Both leaders acted fast, to prepare their country for a new kind of war. But soon a debate would grow over the goals of the war on terror, and the decision to go to war in Iraq. Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and others saw Iraq as an important part of a broader plan to remake the Middle East and project American power worldwide. Meanwhile Tenet, facing division in his own organization, saw non-state actors such as Al Qaeda as the highest priority. FRONTLINE's investigation of the ensuing conflict includes more than forty interviews, thousands of pages of documentary evidence, and a substantial photographic archive. It is the third documentary about the war on terror from the team that produced Rumsfeld's War and The Torture Question.
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Focusing on the most powerful vice president in U.S. history, and what he has in plan for us all.

[mom cat]

1. K&R and thanks. >>> Please help get this post seen.

[Philosoraptor]

2. I'll watch it, I loved the last Star Wars Movie.

[mwb970]

3. Something is clearly wrong with the Dickster.

Even people who have known him for decades (e.g. Scowcroft) say they don't know the "new Cheney". He seems to have developed serious paranoia problems, for one thing. He also constantly says things that are false as he says them or turn out to be false later. Saddam has reconstituted his nuclear program, the insurgency in its last throes, I never said it was established that Atta met with Iraqis, etc., etc., ad nauseam.

Cheney's absolute power, combined with the fact that everyone in Washington is terrified of him, has left us with an emotionally disturbed, paranoid, incompetent liar running America, or what used to be America, into the ground.

Have you noticed that every single scandal and un-American act of this administration (and there are so, so many) traces right back to Dick the Prick? Illegal wiretapping - Cheney advocates it. Iraq - Cheney again. Torture - yup, it's the Dick. Outing Plame? Cheney did it. The deficit? Dick says "deficits don't matter".

History will show that the final, tragic decline of our once-great nation was set in motion by one deranged individual who was inexplicably given total, unalloyed power to destroy America and everything it has ever stood for. And the sheep just sit there, watching "American Idol" no doubt.

This is the second time we've had a Dick in the White House. This one is much worse than the other one.

[Philosoraptor]

4. Dick is the Emperor, W is our low budget Darth InVader.

It truly is Dick behind the curtain.

[Roland99]

5. Until then: The Fifth Estate: The Unauthorized Biography of Dick Cheney

The Fifth Estate: The Unauthorized Biography of Dick Cheney
http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/dickcheney/
Cheney's remarkable life story involves the relentless accumulation of power in every form and regardless of the outcome of this fall's election, he will continue to be one of the most powerful and well-connected men in the world. The fifth estate will show how he accomplished this, what it involved in terms of costs for others and what history's judgement could be.

Watch the Video
http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/video_player.html?cheney
Note: This video also shows the LIE involved in justifying the Gulf War in 1991 wherein the U.S. gave fake satellite photos to the Saudis to get them to invite our military into their country. They (the CBC) obtained Russian sat. photos from the same day that did not show Iraqi troops and tanks amassing on the Kuwait/Saudi border. The St. Petersburg Times (FL) and the Christian Science Monitor also have articles discussing these faked satellite photos.

This film also uncovers what was going on in the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans (OSP). They interview Seymour Hersh who wrote Selective Intelligence and also The Stovepipe and they interview Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski who wrote The New Pentagon Papers and worked in the OSP run by Wolfowitz/Feith.

[Philosoraptor]

6. I'm glad someone is paying attention.

Absolutley breathtaking how this man has done what he's done to us all.

[CanSocDem]

23. Also makes you wonder....

....why the CBC was on our recent "terrorists" hit list????

[monk24]

7. No wonder Repugs voted to cut public broadcasting's budget

Only PBS would have the nerve to air a program critical of Cheney.

Thanks for the heads up. A must see for every American.

[Arkansas Granny]

8. I'm looking forward to this. IMO, Frontline does the best

documentaries I've seen.

[emulatorloo]

9. kicking n/t

[Dinger]

10. Oh My, Thanks & K & R nt

[electron_blue]

11. great, thanks for posting, I'llr ead it later.

[autorank]

12. Frontline has been known to carry the water for "management"

I'm not going into detail on this but, given that, it's actually good news.

The fix may be in, time for Cheney to go. I hope so.

Thanks for the heads up. K&R

[DoYouEverWonder]

20. I know what you mean

that's why I take this to be a good sign. Sort of like when they put out your bio on the wires before some big story about you breaks.

[Tin Man]

13. More great stuff from the "Dark Side" promo at the NPR website...

Below is another snippet from the NPR promotional material for "The Dark Side" (emphasis is mine)

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From stories of Nigerian yellowcake to claims that 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta had met with Iraqi agents in Prague, The Dark Side dissects the now-familiar assertions that led the nation to war. The film also examines how that stovepiped intelligence was used by the vice president in 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 October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate that found evidence of an Iraqi weapons of mass destruction program. But 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 runup 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 John O. 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. The film shows how 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.

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WOW! It sounds like "The Dark Side" will pack a powerful punch! K&R baby!

[Philosoraptor]

14. kick for the dick

[Roland99]

15. I'd rather kick the DICK

[Tin Man]

16. Hopefully, Frontline clicks and lands a kick to Sick Dick's prick

...That would be soooo trick!

[Roland99]

17. Wouldn't mind a lick to the hick to stop his tic

[Philosoraptor]

19. 1 more kick for slick dick & w the prick

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

18. I had "The Torture Question" scheduled to TiVo/record, but it was a

different Frontline episode "The Insurgency" which was broadcast instead. I wonder what happened.

[Oilwellian]

21. Dupe

I think Cheney's about to be hung dry. :D

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1447597

[AzDar]

22. Kick...n/t

[Philosoraptor]

24. dick kick tonight

[Disturbed]

25. Unfortunately, most of America does not watch...

Frontline. If this were on Rita Cosby's show or other shows of that ilk then maybe more Americans would watch.