Dear FRONTLINE,

It is sad to see how a few individuals, most notably George Tenet and Colin Powell, could not stand up to Vice-President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's steamrollers, and how weak, ineffectual, and easily manipulated the President is. Since Cheney and Rumsfeld remain in charge, the future of the nation looks bleak.

Diane North

Dear FRONTLINE,

While this certainly was a most reveting documentary, there is nothing really new about the shabby character of Cheney, Rumsfeld,and even President Bush that had not already been disclosed previously. I'm always amazed and disgusted by those in power who avoided their call to military duty in one way or the other, who don't hesitate to send today's young men and women into harm's way for the totally fabricated reason to invade Iraq. They got everything wrong---and they missed their opportunity to capture the true architect of 9/11 in Afghanistan. As Joseph Welch once asked Sen.McCarthy; "Have you no sense of decency?"

Jim McDonald

Dear FRONTLINE,

Oh...my...gosh. Shock and awe all over again. I am stunned and sickened by what I saw tonight. The most disturbing thought is that all of this will go unnoticed, unacknowledged, and unopposed; politics as usual. It makes Clinton's flaws look like child's play. I grieve for those who have lost family members in Iraq. They were betrayed.

Helene Hilger

Dear FRONTLINE,

The Constitution does not constrain the President to use advice developed by executive branch agencies like the CIA. Many in the CIA were anti Bush political activists from the Clinton administration. Cheney, through his tenure with Halliburtron, had extensive knowledge of Iraq. The CIA, on the other hand, had little knowledge of Iraq. Bush was correct to ignore the CIA and follow his other sources for Iraq intellegence.

I feel your story was poor because it attached too much value to the opinions of an small group of incompetant, politicized, dysfunctional CIA officials. Saddam, or his Baath party successor, would eventually have to be defanged, and we don't need the CIA's blessing to know this. Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney did the world a great service by taking him on sooner rather than later.

Dave Embody
Landover Hills, Maryland

Dear FRONTLINE,

I'm a centrist who leans a little to the right on most political and economic views. To me it's been fairly obvious, even before the war began, that the Bush administration bent intelligence information to bolster the case for attacking Iraq. The big question is, why would the administration go to such lengths to go to war in Iraq? I believe the reason is because Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Bush believe the only real way to eliminate Islamic extremists is to change the culture of the Middle East and bring them into the modern world both politically and economically. I believe this is the reason why we are at war in Iraq. I do not however condone the actions the Bush administration has committed in order to obtain that goal, nor do I think it is the United State's responsibility to accomplish this. Going to war in Iraq was neither worth the risk nor the cost. I would have rather spent the money and saved American lives by strengthening our defenses against terrorism instead of trying to accelerate modernization of Middle Eastern culture.

David Whapham
Wadsworth, OH

Dear FRONTLINE,

I feel that it is important to point out that Cheney would never had the power to confront the CIA had the president not given him that ability. Most strong presidents send their Vice President on ribbon cuttings, or good relation visits to third world countries. I wonder what this says about the strength of character of our president?

John Pastor
Pana, IL

Dear FRONTLINE,

The Dark Side was a superb program - clarity, depth of investigation, range of people interviewed.

You are to be congratulated for going deep, and making it easy for us to follow. I think it's David McKay's statement that "George Tenet traded integrity for access" that carried enorous weight with a viewer because it hit at the human cause of his producing the quick NIE that led to Bush's State of the Nation address and Powell's address to the UN stating unequivocally that Saddam Hussein was preparing nuclear weapons. I happened to be off work that afternoon and watched Colin Powell make that presentation. It certainly swayed me, coming from a man I respected, and it must have swayed the American public. Of course hind vision is 20/20, but your program The Dark Side should make us all aware of how powerful people like Dick Cheney can subtlely coerce the people who want to be close to power, and will "trade integrity for access".

Anne Tait
Toronto, Ont, Canada

Dear FRONTLINE,

I'm still laughing! You ultra-liberals in the media are so very dependable to misrepresent truths, making sure to not include any other angle then whatever will advance a liberal religious belief; you present scowling, grim, evil conservatives in your still photos all while having a preening and carefully make-upped Joe Wilson articulate his message of truth. Of course there was no mention of Karl Rove's non-involvement in the "leak" case. Please by all means keep doing what you are doing! We're all standing by, laughing at the collapse of the drive-by media issuing another drive-by hit -- laughing at the Dan Rathers, the Katie Courics, Russert - just keep them coming! You are doing more to damage your own credibility than we could possibly dream.

David Mangold
Milwaukee, WI

Dear FRONTLINE,

Thank you for the informative program. Never have I been more proud to be a Bush supporter. It appears the CIA was completely clueless going back to at least the Clinton administration. Thank god the Intel has been turned over to the military and the NSA! Seems as though they have done a far better job preventing another attack! Of course frontline failed to mention it was Saddam's responsibility to provide full access. He played a shell game and lost and the world is a far better place because of it!

Looks like a great way to increase Intel funding is to stop funding the Saddam sympathists at PBS.

Brian Meier
Pittsburgh, PA

Dear FRONTLINE,

All of this information has been available for years now. While the program was well done and long overdue, I doubt anybody but the choir has heard the preaching. Much of the congregation was probably watching Fox and the other right-wing media, and will continue to believe Bin Laden and Saddam are one and the same.

Newton McLean

Dear FRONTLINE,

Where were you when it could have made a differance?

James Sheppard

Dear FRONTLINE,

It is what I always felt inside about this evil administration...put right there in front of me on a television screen....with no advertisers to cloud it. Public Television doing what it was meant to do.

Thank you.

Derek Felska

Dear FRONTLINE,

When you present a report with an obvious bias you are trying to shield, you could at least have the courtesy of showing the opposing side in the same manner as your supporting side. The pictures of the vp and all his allies are shown in very grainy, usually black and white photos. Why do you insist on making your bias so obvious?

mark sampson
schenectady, ny

Dear FRONTLINE,

At last, it appears that we have a thoughtful look at the run up to war that questions the faulty connection between Iraq and 9/11.

Our gorvernment has done a terrible thing based on a terribly flawed premise. Our leadership in congress didn't read the NIE? Shame on them and let's hope they lose their seats for being railroaded by a corrupt and evil regime.

George Bush and Dick Chneney and David Rumsfeld will surely go down in history as men who used their power to subvert the will of the American people who trusted them and many of us who never trusted them.

Thank You. I'm sorry to say that most of the American television viewing audience were probably watching something else - maybe Fox News, the misinformation tool of these same liars and traitors.

Kirk Kandle
Louisville, KY

Dear FRONTLINE,

You have soiled yourself, you do not understand the war. The purpose of war is to change the middle east so they don't fly more planes into our buildings. Please wipe the off your pants and start telling the truth.

I have always liked frontline up until now.

Jerry Farish