The Dark Side

While the title of this PBS Frontline documentary suggests the machinations of Darth Vader, the villain in the spotlight is actually Vice President Dick Cheney, with the “dark side” specifically referring to his connection to the shadowy world of the post-9/11 American intelligence system. Exercising far more aggressive power than any previous Vice President, Cheney wrested control of intelligence gathering away from CIA director George Tenet and Secretary of State Colin Powell (of course, their ineffectiveness in asserting their leadership helped considerably), eventually enabling the Vice President and his supporters to push for an invasion of Iraq despite no credible evidence that Saddam Hussein posed a threat to American interests or had any connections with al-Qaeda or 9/11. Cheney and his former chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby (currently under indictment in the Valerie Plame scandal), bullied the CIA and manipulated data to justify Iraq-related endeavors, while Cheney himself apparently felt no shame in making public declarations about intelligence findings that were simply not true (and continued to make them long after they were demonstrably proven to be false). Not surprisingly, Cheney himself is not interviewed here, but a number of former CIA officials willingly step forward to comment on the Vice President's actions and the chaos created by his policies. A disturbing and compelling documentary, perfectly timed to coincide with the recent release of Pulitzer Prize-winner Ron Suskind's similarly-themed book The One-Percent Doctrine, this is highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (P. Hall)