“"We also have to work the dark side...we've got to spend time in the shadows..."”
On Sept. 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 40 interviews, thousands of pages of documentary evidence, and a substantial photographic archive.
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Not streaming anywhere
Not on any streaming service in United States, and not available to rent.
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Cast
45 people
Dick Cheney
Self (archive footage)
Also in
Unwarranted Influence
George W. Bush
Self (archive footage)
Also in
George W. Bush: The 9/11 Interview
Flight 149: Hostage of War
Richard Clarke
Self - Dir. NSC Counterterrorism 1998-'01
Also in
Book of Evil: Solid Tales From the Darkside
Gary Schroen
Self - CIA 1970-2002
John McLaughlin
Self - Dpty. Director, CIA 2000-'04
Bob Graham
Self - Senator (D-FL), Select Cmte. on Intel. 2001-'03
James Bamford
Self - Author, 'The Puzzle Palace'
Michael Scheuer
Self - CIA 1982-2004
Bob Woodward
Self - 'The Washington Post'
Also in
Up Your Alley
Ron Suskind
Self - Author, 'The One Percent Doctrine'
Charles Battaglia
Self - Bush-Cheney 2000 Transition
Steve Coll
Self - 'The New Yorker'
Michael Kirk Director
United States release June 20, 2006 · Produced in United States · Production Kirk Documentary Group, WGBH Educational Foundation (US)
Production
FRONTLINE
Production
Kirk Documentary Group
Production
WGBH Educational Foundation (US)
Production
United States
Produced in
Languages
Original language
English
Spoken on screen
English
Release dates
United States · June 20, 2006
TV
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