So much feedback! No wonder you chose to re-broadcast the program. I submitted comments last year because I was fired up about the CBC taking so long to report on The Project for the New American Century. In my previous post I mentioned "Network", the 1976 film by Sidney Lumet, because it was "frighteningly, hilariously prophetic", as Robert Osborne put it.

The perfect companion piece for anyone interested in The Lies that led to War is "3 Days of the Condor", the 1975 film by Sydney Pollack. The finale is unforgettable and, once again, relevant and prophetic.

Thanks to the CBC for again initiating such important discussions among those who saw the broadcast.

(My original post on this forum was on May 7, 2007.)

Regards.

This documentary describes with great accuracy the nightmarish actions of the Bush administration in utilizing the 9/11 attack on America to further its agenda.

Even more chilling is the comment made by Seymour Hersh regarding the ease with which this was done, with the capitulation of the 'independent' media and the suppression of dissent. He asks, "Is our democracy this fragile?" The answer is unfortunately 'yes', as has been made clear by the events of the last 6+ years.

The American system of government is moribund, controlled by outside interests and effectively incapable of change. The most recent major political party to be formed in the US is the Republican party, formed 140 years ago, and there is not much chance of even a billionaire being able to offer voters a real option to the existing structure. As Gore Vidal pointed out many years ago, the US population is almost equally divided into 2 parties: the party of those who vote and the party of those who don't. And for those who vote, the choice is between Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

An interesting response by Vern Martin, eh?

He doesn't like the report and so calls on Parliament to defund CBC.

Listen to yourself, Vern. You sound like an American. President Bush comes to mind. Mission Accomplished, irrespective of the consequences.

If you want one sided reporting take a trip to the USA. Find out how many American citizens know as much as you do about the Iraqi war and when you realise they are fed propaganda on a daily basis, come back and write about it.

You may not like the CBC report but you should thank your lucky stars they can broadcast it without fear or favour. If you are given your way, that may not last much longer.

The Fifth Estate has done a great job exposing the Iraq war as a deliberate manipulation by Bush,
Cheney, Wolfowitz and others to promote U.S. influence and supremacy. Didn't the trials after WWII at
Nuremburg establish that invading countries without provocation and killing its citizens is a
crime? The U.S. should know this, they helped with the prosecution. The world court needs to
charge and prosecute this group of individuals now for the fraud they perpetrated and the resulting war that has caused the needless death of thousands of Iraqis and over 4000 unwitting U.S., British and Australian troops. How fortunate for Canada that Harper wasn't PM at the time
otherwise there'd probably be Canadian dead in that list too given his pandoring to George. This group has failed its objective as this war threatens U.S. standing as a world power by bankrupting it economically and morally.
They control a reckless U.S. administration motived by power and greed, breaking its own laws
and using whatever means are expedient including Nazi-like suppression of the freedoms and
rights of their own press and public. How ironic that these are the same freedoms and rights that
they claim to champion in pursuing this war. Currently, they are making noises for another war, this one with Iran.
This will certainly precipitate the fall of the U.S. (and create a much larger Christian - Islamic
conflict) Who does that leave to fill the void as super power in the world? China. What a mistake
that would be. The world needs to put its foot down. This group of bunglers has to be stopped
now. We can't wait for a change of government in November. It'll be too late. If they're not
censored (charged and prosecuted), they'll attack Iran before then. Are you up for WW III?; cuz
that's where that road is headed.

Thank you very much for having the courage to air something which is totally full of facts.

I like the fact that the girl appeared in the 3 a.m. Hilary Clinton add has put out her own add and is publically denouncing Hilary stating she is using fear to get votes and she does not like it at all. She is a young teenager now and has the wisdom to see with her own eyes what Hilary is trying to do.

I truly believe something more is going. If you search 'New World Order' on Youtube and the internet you will find many videos of United States government (presidents & others) stating these words time and again; including Hilary Clinton.

We need to stand as a nation and not allow United States companies and government takeovers of our banks and other public institutions. (Which happened last week with J.P. Morgan) This puts our country in a vulnerable position for the future. Many things are going on out there, and I know the World Media can see it, and it takes reports from CBC and others to finally have the courage to inform the public.

I have been talking to family, coworkers and friends about what is quietly going on and they do not believe anything until it is on T.V. More reports like yours need to be aired.

Everything has been 'well calculated' exactly as the Fifth Estate piece pointed out.

People, please do your research and open your eyes and ears to exactly what is being stated; is it real? or not real?

If you remember the WND evidences were quite compelling, and they turned out to be false. Now you have quite compelling evidences and they "must" be right. Well I'm going to take your show just as a different point of view... Perhaps you can have a show about Kosovo-Serbia or Darfur or the turks in Germany or the muslims in France etc. But you won't, because that's hard to sell. Also I was surprised to see on CBC a lot of war shows ... on Easter Sunday.

My opinion is as follows. Given the existing space and aircraft based reconnaissance, as well as virtually unlimited amounts of funding for human intelligence gathering there is no way that the US would make any "mistake" in assessing the existence of WMD in possession of Saddam Hussein's regime or the existence of substantial effort or progress in terms of developing WMDs. Just consider the multispectral surface and subsurface reconnaissance systems currently orbiting Mars; the capabilities available to the US intelligence services are probably around 15 to 20 years ahead of what is in the "public" domain.

It is far more believable (to me) that the US (using all of its extensive array of intelligence gathering and analysis tools) was almost absolutely sure there was no danger of any kind of WMDs being used against the invading forces in Iraq. I believe that this fact in addition to an unimaginably overwhelming technological advantage in terms tools for conducting war made it "safe enough" to invade Iraq and casually cruise to a leisurely victory.

I wouldn't want to speculate on what the actual reasons for the invasion were (too complicated in my opinion). I don't believe there was any particular interest in harming Iraqi people but I don't think it was the removal or prevention of WMDs or "bringing freedom" to the Iraqi people either. I think it is safe to assume (looking at human history) that the actual reasons had more to do with economic interests.

I also do not understand why the world (mainly outside the US) is so surprised about the overwhelmingly biased coverage of the invasion by the US media. In a purely market environment journalists and news companies have to sell news that (most) people are willing to watch (and continue to put up with the commercials). In order to achieve this the news content has to make the viewers feel good about themselves. In the context of the US culture (e.g. the religion of American patriotism) this means presenting content that conforms to carefully cultured stereotypes. News source who do not follow this get eliminated by the market. The truth (i.e. reality in my opinion) may be uncomfortable and therefore needs to be skillfully spin-ed or filtered out altogether. I don't think there are actual fabrication and lies involved in this case. I think spin and filtering (self-censorship) works better. I believe that most humans in general (and most Americans in particular) are not terribly interested in the truth - i.e. real facts.

Comfortable/comforting myth is always - well always more comfortable (e.g. religion vs. science). It is infinitely easier to believe than to even try to understand (way more effort required). The American news business recognizes this (perhaps more openly than elsewhere in the world) and always stands by to take advantage (in terms of business, i.e. economic success) of this feature of the human nature.
In all fairness I believe that the US did a good job after WWII - Germany and Japan - and also contributed significantly to avoiding a WWIII (for now).

Bob McKeown/CBC.Nice job but why the eggshell walking?You've only exposed a weasel near the dead chickens.To show evidence connecting the teeth marks to the weasel you need only interview profs.Stephen Jones ,James Fetzer,David Griffin; Engineer Kevin Ryan and retired CIA/Army officer Ray McGovern.Then and only then could you profess to have covered ALL ANGLES.Until that is accomplished,you cannot be deemed as hard nosed journalists and sadly, the 'Vern Martins' of the world will continue to think that a rabid mood altered brain-cell-diminished demonic EASTER BUNNY killed the chickens.

Thank you.

Before we get to smug remember our own Prime Minister (then opposition leader) wanted Canada to join the war and Steve (as Mr. Bush calls him) is a strong supporter of Mr. Bush and his administration. Remember our foreign policy, the one where the world looked to Canada as a peace maker/mediator. Now Canada stands with the moral majority on a platform crowded with George, Dick and the boys.

Really enjoyed the documentary. I couldn't help but shake my head, it is really disheartening learning more and more about the political environment presently leading the way in the United States. I cant help but feel helpless knowing there is little I can do to change what is happening. I suppose being educated is an important step in the right direction.
Just another side note, could interviewing Ann Coulter be one of the most painful and laughable discussions an honest reporter could have? Is she serious?

Even if its "old news" to those who have been keeping up with the war. Its great to see the truth being told publicly by the media.

I am proud of the CBC Network! I only wish we had real news in the U.S.A. We used too, but those day's are gone! FOX , NBC , ABC, there all PAID OFF by the the neo's or what ever you call em'! They have everybody wrapped up in Britany Spears and reality shows and all that kind of B.S, keeping our minds off the real problem's that this BUSH administration has led us into. It's really a form of mind control! spreading fear of so called terrorism.

I mean COME ON! A war against Terror? I have never seen a country on the map of the world called "TERROR"! If there is PLEASE, someone show it to me. There long term goal is a global government. With N.A.F.T.A, a North American Super Highway, open borders, an undeclared war, it's a long term goal in there War Monrering, Money making Oil controling Plan! We are not all blind in the good ol US of A.

Canada & Mexico should be, or better be, taking a long hard look @ there neighbor below and above. Before you know it, some softy's in your government's might be vacationing with G.W.B! There probably working on some kind of plan right now, for another inside 9/11 style job!

To sum up! This country needs to physicly remove this current government with a Revolution, the biggest one in the history of man. Can you imagine it? I can! But unfortunatley it's not gonna happen, were too scared! Revolt is a word that hasen't been used in 200 years. Power to the People is now officially a JOKE! We are in troublesome times right now, with the prices of fuel goin up and the value that piece of paper we call money going down, I could go on and on! The bottom line is " THEY GOT US RITE WHERE THE WANT US!"

Grow up Verne!

Just because the CBC airs a story you don't agree with, or because you refuse to accept the reality of George W Bush's "War on Terror", you demand their funding halted?

Why would the CBC waste their time speaking with the Bush Admin? They've already proved to the world that all they spew are lies. Any time spent listening to them would just make everyone a little less intelligent and educated.

I am a citizen of the European Union and lived in the U.S. from 2003 to 2005. During this time I did not only shake my head about how the war on Iraq was justified by the U.S. government (made-up connection between Al-Qaida and Iraq, made-up existence of WODs) I was also suddenly afraid of the country that I had chosen to study in. The way the media unanimously repeated government talk in an absolutely unreflected and uncritical manner frightened me. How could the government of a democratic country control mass media in such a strong way which reminded me of the methods of communist Russia. I was desperately searching for a critcal voice rising against this strategically aligned set of lies accompanied by the intimidating propaganda backed up by the media.

Today, two and a half years after I had left the U.S. and two days after my arrival in Canada, I found it. This was the first documentary on the war in Iraq I saw in North America which critically asked and answered the relevant questions. It is a great example of "critical journalism" how I know it from my home country. Having seen this documentary made me feel, that this country is the right place to be in America. Thank you for this warm welcome!

Next CBC fifth estate story: " 9/11 was an inside job"

Well to comment on the" NOECON"and TONY BLAIR bushes Partner in this CRIME.www.spirutuallysmart.com
www.jfkmurdersolved.com/bush.htm
www.liberallikechrist.com www.LaRouchepac.com
This website will give you the background of the administration.....
Bush said HE IS A WAR PRESIDENT..well his father and his Grandfather servced and Pay for wars and made monies..Prescott Bush and his firends fincaned WW2....With hitler ....The question come WHY was Tony BLair so hipe-up with Bush ? What is there gain? World "Global" .Why does the Vatican get $ 1 Billon Dollars from the IRAQ war"OIL? Rebuilding Iraq Where no picture are showing on the TV etc..Is Dubai the City of GOLD..666...Tony Blair after his retirement turned Catholic and was "Cahtloic" made by the Pope himself?
The queen visit the White HOUSE ? Americas banks are no longer controled by the local or STATEBaords.Most of them are NOW owned by Overseas RBS, ABN-AMRO..etc...
Yes I wondder too WHO hold the congress Hostage?
love your country

The Fifth Estate is THE Best show on TV, well except for Trailer Park Boys... I've been a big fan for a long time, but have only now felt obligated to write to you guys. As for what's going on these past few years state side, we have to have a look at the older bush. George Sr and his chronies have been wanting to invade and control the Middle East for a long time.

In 1999, Project for a New American Century wrote what could basically be called the new NEO-CON's mantra, which included a passage that went something like this " what we need to succeed in the next century is a new Pearl Harbour, that will justify us going into the middle east (after oil of course" and low and behold a few years later, 911 happened... how convenient.... I watched in horror when that second plane flew into the building on that day and I was numbed... and I even remember thinking back then that those buildings shouldn't have fallen, and they shouldn't have. Designed to withstand a direct hit from a fully fueled 727... then when WTC 7 fell down, that made no sense, it wasn't even hit at all...

There have been so many movies made that basically lay out the fraud of 911, but these movies don't make it to the mainstream media. Movies like Loose Change, Zeitgeist, Terrorstorm and so on. I won't get into all the details here. Go ahead and watch these movies for free on Google Video or Youtube.

I would just like to thank the CBC for scratching the service, that's alot more than any other mainstream outfit has ever done. You just need to go the next step and SAY IT OUT LOUD: George Bush, Cheney, Kissingger and the lot staged 911 to justify the invasion into the middle east for oil. They should be tried and prosecuted for murder, treason, fraud and any other crime against humanity that they have commited. There I said it, why don't you CBC!
You guys still rock. Keep it up.

I have watched the program you have done on Fifth Estate and glad to see someone has finally got it right. I do not however believe that man when he says Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld believe this war it was never about terrorists, Saddam, or 9/11 as they would have many americans believing it was all about the oil.

Any time Cheney goes to the middle east on one of his visits to sneak in, in the middle of the night like a rat it is to look after Halliburtons, Bushes and his interests.

Coulter well she is an absolute moron she needs to be shown for what she is which ignorant towards world affairs. She is like a pimp for the republican party. I guess fox can be put in that categorie as well. I find it insulting to canadians to even interview trash like coulter, when she sits there and insults canada after what the U.S. has done is enough to make me sick.

I do wonder though if these same people realize that Bush is a dictator and if they realize he has committed the same atrocities as they accuse saddam of doing he is responsible for the deaths of almost 4000 american lifes, 10's of thousands of innocent Iraqi's lifes and the death of anyone since he lied about this war.

Where is he any different from North Korea, China, Iraq, or Afghanistan. What is really pitiful is his not going after Bin Laden and now never a mention of that man and I feel he has never wanted to catch Bin Laden can one imagine what he would have to say about the Bush family and there ties to one another.

It is a real shame Pelosi said impeachment is off the table there is so many impeachable items against Bush and Cheney that Clinton saying I never had sex is nothing in comparison yet the republicans went after him with a vengeance. Bush has committed war crimes and numerous other offenses and hopefully his day will come. Well Bushes legacy is one that will be discussed for years and it won't be good it will be this farce of a war, an economy that is going to destroy the U.S. for years to come and his many other failures since taking office illegally by being put there by the supreme court then the faulty voting machines.

Having watched your program supports my view that the White House has manipulated the U.S media for years and will probably continue to do so.

How that country can claim the Republic of China controls it's media and get that over to a gullible American public is practically beyond belief. It shows the total ignorance of many if not most of the American public and if they do by chance get information without a slant to it, they claim it to be anti-American propaganda.

Your program was very well produced for the person that agrees with those views, such as myself. Luckily we in Canada are able to view both sides of the coin and make up our own minds. Americans have no such luxury and probably wouldn't recognise it if it was placed squarely before their eyeballs.

If Macain gets elected, with his view on the war, one has to wonder... " Have all americans been hypnotized? "

I found it interesting that some people think this story is "old news" or more America bashing. I think that it is important that programs like the Fifth Estate continue to remind people of the incredible lies and misinformation by the Bush Administration and how the administration was willingly supported by the mainstream media.

Great story!

So much for our western "free-speech" and non-communistic ways. The USA spent many years bashing & torturing their own for having so-called Communistic ideas, when they now have their own dictatorship and many are 'fearful' of expressing themselves for possible future repercussions.....sounds like the states has gone totally communist in their ideas & thinking (politicians that is...) What an excellent job of propaganda they have fed the world!! America's gone down the crapper.

To Sam Clements:

Since no one else has answered your questions, I'll give it a try:
[SNIP]
>I am still confused about a few things though, such as......How did 3 buildings fall on Sept 11th when only 2 were hit by aircraft?.

The "World Trade Center" is in fact more than just the two towers. It numbered seven buildings on a large campus - the towers were the centerpiece. One of the other buildings (WTC7) was demolished by debris during the collapse of one that tower and collapsed at that time. The other four buildings have been demolished, as they were damaged beyond repair. Several other buildings have been torn down as a result of damage from the tower collapses. The list of damaged buildings is about forty, as I recall.

> or...How could half of the so called '911 terrorists' still be alive?

All of the ones in the aircraft are dead. Others may have planned it, but are they directly responsible? From my point of view, they are conspirators, and should be the subject of intense police action. Some of them have been captured or killed; it is difficult to know everyone involved. Not a satisfying answer, I know.

> or.. Why was the debris from the Twin Towers immediately sent offshore without forensic testing?

This is a misconception. All debris was taken to several sites where it was sorted over the next year, and relevant pieces, including nearly all of the aircraft parts and pieces, were analysed by a variety of agencies, including the NTSB and FBI. Some debris, from buildings destroyed by the tower collapse, was quickly recycled or dumped, when it was not deemed relevant to the investigation.

> or ...How did passengers on the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania make cell phone calls when Qualcom introduced the technology in 2003?.
Most of the callers used the phones available in the airplane. Two calls were made from cellphones, but only at the very end of the flight, when they got into range of cell towers. Those calls were very quickly terminated, as the aircraft climbed again, then crashed. At least, that's my understanding of the event.

> I'm also still waiting for (former) Secretary of State Colin Powell to present the proof he promised back in September of 2001 that 911 was perpetrated by "al Kaida"...or did I miss that?.

I believe he was sacked first, before most evidence was brought to light, thanks to intelligence work in Afghanistan. (This answer is not well researched.)

Speaking for myself, some Americans were not taken in by the lead-up to the war, and have continued to insist that it was a con job. Unfortunately, we live in a republic, which allows the tyranny of the majority over the minority and the triumph of popular opinion over facts.

You have discussed some lies that led to the Iraq war, but you have not dared explore the worse deception ever that these same neo conservative group were the attackers of 9/11, and Bin Laden was just some of their tool they have used.
A proper Fifth Estate show should have some evidence to express its arguments. But, there are already so much evidence of neglect in 9/11 investigation of how 3 WTC buildings collapsed. Ask Jane Standley of the BBC how she predicted in 30 minutes WTC 7 wouldd collapse, and why there is mo mention of WTC 7 in the 9/11 Commission.
Maybe, you are part of the propaganda media you have talked about, that is why you will not mention so many evidences. Maybe after Bush's regime you may able to mention these history you are writing is a fake one.

Hey CBC my name is Paul and im only 13 years old that lives in Canada. Well the thing I dont get , wasnt the whole point was to catch Osama Bin ladin not going to Iraq saying that they have weapons of mass distraction ? And Iraq had no evidence of being part of the September 11 attack what so ever and the goverment saying that there are weapons of mass distraction , and want the whole point in Iraq was to find Saddam and go home which infact there are still troops in Iraq fighting , so what was the whole point in Iraq shoudnt they be foccusing on catching Osama instead still finding weapons of mass distraction which infact the U.S distroyed there nuclear factory since the first war. Well even though im only 13 years old im interested in war and the history of war .

Interesting piece on "lies that led to war". This is old news to anyone who's been reading blogs for the past 5 years.
I am still confused about a few things though, such as......How did 3 buildings fall on Sept 11th when only 2 were hit by aircraft?. or...How could half of the so called '911 terrorists' still be alive? or.. Why was the debris from the Twin Towers immediately sent offshore without forensic testing? or ...How did passengers on the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania make cell phone calls when Qualcom introduced the technology in 2003?.
I'm also still waiting for (former) Secretary of State Colin Powell to present the proof he promised back in September of 2001 that 911 was perpetrated by "al Kaida"...or did I miss that?.
I'll be watching and waiting in 5 years.

I always enjoyed watching your program and I think tonight's documentary is especially powerful and truthful.
thanks you.

Yawn... Another day, another hit piece of anti-American, hate-George Bush, Fox-bashing, liberal drivel. This one was so chalked full of misinformation that a year could be spent taking it apart. You know that the reporting is desperate when they have to resort to dragging out the totally discredited Joe Wilson and leftist Seymour Hersh for their opinions.

Let me get this straight... What we have here is an hour of vitriol and accusations against the US Government without a single opportunity for rebuttal from anyone in support of the government or the War in Iraq (with the exception of Ann Coulter who has already been thoroughly demonized see mindless comments below)? Did it ever occur to Mr. McKeown to speak to anyone in the US Administration when this piece was put together? If you are going to throw out accusations of this type, don't you think that just maybe it would be the responsible thing to do?

What disgusts me is that my tax dollars paid for this nonsense! To all our Members of Parliament, I appeal to you to defund the CBC now!

What a great documentary show that was. Bush is an outright liar and Cheney and Rumsfield are evil, evil men.
Little disappointed Bob McKeown did not give more credence to oil as the motive for the invasion.

Darryl Bolinger a few posts below this really makes a lot of nice points about the Saudi connections in this story.
When the US rolled into Baghdad they immediately took over the Oil Ministry. The other ministry buildings were left to the looters to destroy. And of course all Iraqi oil installations were immediately occupied as well.
Just yesterday I read in the paper that the Iraqi government is signing contracts with almost all the US oil majors with the goal of raising production by at least 500,000 barrels a day in the very near future.

Americas National Energy Policy and their Foreign Policy almost completely overlap. The Democrats will change this if/when they get into power, but will come to the harsh realization that like Bush, they will have to make moral sacrifices and continue to implement their military might to continue to secure the life blood of the American economy - oil. And to secure the 'American way of life' as well.
The next decade will see some severe upheavals in world geopolitics ...

This programme made sense of what seemed to be the USA's endless raids on every rabbit hole in Iraq. We Canadians can once again rest assured that the USA's intelligence is not incompetent - they're just led by a bunch of strategists who have redefined patriotism (though I'm not too sure how reassuring that is considering the death count). Canada just needs to take note so we don't keep getting sucked into senseless games.

Are we as Canadians in the same spot that the americans were at a few years ago when the war started. They wanted to believe that the war was successful and that the war was the right thing to do. We as Canadians are also in a war...as a whole, do we feel that we are behind the war or against it.

We dont hear much about how the war is going bad in Afghanistan but we hear lots of good. Just remember we are in a war too and not to get warped by the media...there is always another story or side and like we seen in the US, the "other side" was the side that was the truth the whole time. They just didn't want to admit it.

I believe that the American/Canadian people are smart enough to handle a tv news program that goes a little deeper into the Iraq war, and exposes the true reasons why this war has occured and is occuring. How can a 1-hour news program against the Iraq war be considered legitimate when it doesn't mention Israel once?

Unwavering U.S. support for Israel is a major cause for anti-American sentiment in the middle East. And why does the U.S. continue to show steadfast support for Israel? $$$$$Money$$$$$ Israel's influence on American foreign policies is no secret. And when the U.S. government is influenced by rich and powerful people who represent the interests of a foreign country, in this case Israel, decisions will be made that go against the interests of the American people.

The majority of Americans oppose the war, yet it continues. And we hear about Bush's lies, and the biased media, but we never hear about the role of Israel. And when the most powerful lobby group in Washington is AIPAC, a group which solely represents the interests of the country of Israel, the issue of Israeli influence is bigger than anything else in the United States right now.

This episode just goes to show that the US is oil hungry. Not going to war with the saudi's-the source/cuase of the terrorist attacks, goes to show that the US has something to gain by rubbing shoulders with them. Guess where the US gets much of its oil...

I have always been scheptical of the war and now I really know that yes, the US or Bush has a big head, but oh they are so wrong about it all. The people of USA now realize this and are showing their disapproval of the war...but are they disapproving because its costing so much or are they disapproving because of the cause of the war?

Do they even hear in the media what we hear here in Canada and other countries or is the media only showing one side of the story...can anyone answer this for me...i'm quite curious to know if the People actually hear that the war is all a bunch of lies.

risking Iraq and american lives and the killing of thousands of Iraq citizens, who is the real Hitler

Your program leaves the impression that intervention in Iraq has been an unmitigated disaster, the consequence of embarking based on false information. The American-led Coalition certainly made errors resulting in unnecessary deaths and unnecessary destruction; but all states believed that Saddam did have WMD's.

In any case, 5 million Kurds in the north are quite happy with the consequences of intervention and an equal number of Shia in the south are at least content. The mayhem occurs in central Iraq and it can be argued that an eventual reconciliation will be achieved among the factions as a result of American efforts.

Yes, the road to success might have been shorter and that's tragic; but, please acknowledge the reality of the situation rather than conventional notions of catastrophe.

How can we stop George Bush? Are there no consequences for such a harsh betrayal of the democratic free world? George Bush lies to the American people and the world day after day, week after week, like a psychopath. Even though everyone knew it was these dozen neo-cons sick little plan. Lies, murder, and treason. Is there no way to remove someone like this from power? George Bush has wasted the lives of all countries.!! Sick sick sick..!

An interesting show that made me think of this point. I think I understand the motivation of what these select group of republicans were trying to do. 10 years of costly sanctions against Iraq were not producing the desired result. The UN through the 1990's was not capable of effective leadership in resolving issues that matched American expectations (as opposed to the successful use of NATO in Kosovo). Repeated attacks against America (USS Cole, embassy's etc) through the 1990's were not dealt with adequately by the Clinton admininstration (He was otherwise occupied). As the sole remaining superpower, they felt that there would be no better time to set a new course in international politics and 9/11 gave them that opportunity.

If the overthrow of Saddam had led to a quick turn to democracy then they would have looked liked geniuses. (America had a good track record rebuilding both Japan and Germany). Unfortunately for everyone, they seriously underestimated the situation on the ground in Iraq as it was not the same as liberating France in 1944. Combine this failure with the fact that they "sold" the war for the wrong reasons and now everyone is against them.

So, I don't understand Seymour Hirsch when he says (increduously) that this group of conservatives actually believed what they were doing. I think I see what their mindset was, I just don't agree with how they chose to solve it. It would have been 1000 times worse if they had of done all this and not believed in what they were doing.

Having recently settled in Canada from the UK, I am painfully aware of the embarrassment caused by the Rt. Hon Tony Blair in siding with George W Bush.

I watched your programme with interest and can only feel that the US media should hang their heads in shame. The most valuable element of democracy is the right to speak freely (and don't the US proudly remind us of this?) however painful or unpalatable the message may be to those in power. Your programme exposed the hypocrisy and blatant lies that were obvious to many.

Regarding the true intention of the current US administration - surely their thinly veiled aim of regime change must have been obvious to all? What made me sick was the way in which the UN objections were conveniently swept aside and ignored so that an oil-seeking invasion (the term "war" conveniently appears to justify the illegal occupation of Iraq) could take place. Imagine how convenient it then was for the US to invite the UN back in when the inevitable humanitarian disaster was too much for "our dear allies" to cope with.

Sadly, it seems unlikely that no lessons will be learned as highlighted by one of those Americans interviewed. No wonder there is such mistrust of the US in the world.

One has only to look at history to see what a mess the British made in Iraq - so they are no innocents in this.

I'm a US citizen. Because my State borders Canada I can get the CBC on my TV antenna on Ch 9 Windsor ONT.

I would like to see some of your Fifth Estate programs on Iraq broadcast unedited over a major US network.

Why did the USA invade Iraq ?

I think it rests in the basic foreign policy principle directed at maintaining a land based armed force in the middle east to watch over the security of oil production.

The US enjoyed such a toe hold in the Muslim world after the success of the First Gulf War. The Saudis let the US maintain military bases in Saudi Arabia because Iraq was being contained by them. Saudi Royalty was happy being protected by the US military but Muslim fundamentalist weren't. They felt that the western infidels were polluting the Muslim fabric of society just by social contact. Because the western infidels didn't leave after the first Gulf War and remained marked the start of the terrorist attacks through out the '90's.

Saudi Royalty saw their power erode and felt threatened by their own citizens when attacks on Americans happened on Saudi Soil. 911 happened by a majority of Saudis and Saudi money when the Muslim fundamentalists in Saudi Arabia saw no movement by Saudi Royalty to kick out the Americans even 10 years after the first gulf war.

After 911 happened, W.Bush knowing the family ties to Saudi Royalty, let the Saudis leave the US on the only flying aircraft in the United States.

The NeoCons saw how well the war in Afghanistan was going and how well the world accepted it. They decided the time was right to move the American military out of Saudi Arabia into Iraq. This would satisfy the Saudi Royalty and still give America the military land bases they wanted in the middle east.

This move could only be done by starting a war again with Iraq and justifying it to the American public. Cheney in his secret energy meetings with the oil companies was able to hold the price of oil for a year or so. It was a basic economic principle accepted throughout the world that a war in the middle east would play hell with gas prices. It has long been stated that average American didn't feel the war, but we are now.

The Iraq war was started by the US because they had to move the military out of Saudi Arabia to appease the Saudi Royalty. The NeoCons thought Iraq would be an easy move for the military and still maintain a land based presence in the middle east. Americans would never had stood for such a foreign policy move so the war had to be dressed up to make everyone afraid and promote democracy to explain a continued presence there that we simply can't afford anymore.

The story "The Lies that Led to War" was excellent

1. "In each country a web of myths evolves that allows the loyal citizenry to feel good about their nation, that depicts it and its people as generous , progressive, decent to a fault in its international behavior. People who question these myths, whether myths about a beneficent past, or the myths currently employed to put today's actions and policies in a favourable light, are thus highly offensive to good taste and basic feelings of right and wrong. These doubters of myths may even pose a threat to communal integration and policy, which rest on this foundation of myths, and societies therefore usually have methods for containing or squelching critics who raise such questions." "Because the media do disclose something of an unpleasant reality that some leaders of the state would suppress altogether, their massive subservience to larger state and corporate interests is frequently denied, obscured or greatly under-rated."

2. "The Great War demonstrated the importance of oil in modern warfare. From that time on, obtaining control of oil became one of the cornerstones of U.S. foreign economic policy. It became the essential ingredient in the expansion and consolidation of the American Empire." "The Arabian peninsula is the major energy reserve of the world, and it's been a major commitment of the United States since World War II that we or our clients control that source of energy and that no independent indigenous force is allowed to have a significant influence. These resources are controlled by the United States, U.S. corporations, and U.S. clients like Saudi Arabia, and we're not going to tolerate any indigenous threat to that control. A large part of our foreign policy turns around that issue."

3. "The argument that the two (political) parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can 'throw the rascals out' at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy. Either party in office becomes in time corrupt, tired, unenterprising, and vigorless. Then it should be possible to replace it, every four years if necessary, by the other party, which will be none of these things but will still pursue, with new vigor, approximately the same basic policies."

4. The citizens of the Western democracies are often told how much we value human life, and yet, mortality studies calculating the number of cumulative Iraqui civilian casualties (Lancet 2006, 368:1421-1428) give us an estimate of 654, 965 deaths directly attributable to the 2003 U.S. managed invasion and its aftermath. It would appear that 'national security interests' coupled with the obsession to 'democratize' ("A study of the inter-American system published by the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London concluded that, while the U.S. pays lip service to democracy, the real commitment is to 'private capitalist enterprise'." "'Freedom' in its application to the Third World in this post-Orwellian age, means the ability of the larger economic interests to operate without constraint.") foreign nations overrides any soft-headed sentimentalities one may have regarding human life.

The American stupidity makes me sick. We see it and are still led into supporting it.

American politics are way off course. The Reuplicans have become like a bad religion and the Conservatives like a fringe cult taking over. I had to abandon that party when it abandoned reason. If McCain gets elected, he will pursue that same self serving falsehood of America's necessity to control the world by divine right. I may just have to move north, then, if Canada accepts political refugees from gross incompetence and stupidity.

How can they enact such a plan and then use the term patriot? How can they incite fear and anguish and not see themselves as terrorists? What kind of mandate did they think they were working under? Have you tracked how often Bush cites God in his speeches? His actions have killed more American's than Bin Laden, it's just a different Holy War....

I watched your program, recommended by a good friend in Ontario, with great interest, and much sadness. I am a veteran of the US military, as were my father, all his brothers, and their father before. I am a firm believer that a real democracy is a constant work in progress and that its critics, internal and external, are great contributors to the process. That said, I think its obvious a democracy fails when it disregards truth and punishes anyone who tells the truth, inconvenient or not (Much sympathy to Al G. and Valerie P.)

There is no greater tragedy in a nation built to defend freedom than see it on its way becoming of the worst oppressors in history. And all to test some "New Century" idea put forward by men of limited conscience and fronted by an admitted draft dodger (Farhenheit 911 covered that).

The world does not need, nor does it want a unilateral self important, self serving police force. Especially when it lies with no regard to facts, and is literally dripping with deceit and hypocracy.

And I still wonder why he was never impeached. Democrats get impeached for sex. Republicans get away with murder.

After watching the program last night I am having a hard time believing that this is the same United States that demonstrated against the Viet Nam war. I was appalled by the jumping on the bandwagon of the media after 9/11 so I am happy to see that people in the United States are finally beginning to demonstrate and speak out. Anyone who has read "A Bright Shining Lie" by Neil Sheehy should wonder about anything that the Pentagon, government or media says.

I find it interesting that most Americans are not suspicious of their government, especially after Viet Nam. Thank heavens for people like Phil Donahue who has paid the price for speaking out. I hope he continues to speak out against the war and question other peoples beliefs. It is also amazing to me that people will swallow the crap that Bill O'Reilly and that horrible woman Anne Coulter have to say - and I believe she was a Canadian - check it out!

The sooner the U.S.A. rids itself of the second Bush, the better! I have a very suspicious mind - remember the Bush's were good friends of the Bin Laden's - just maybe a plot was hatched. I would not underestimate anything done to further the interests of the U.S.A.

When I was in high school (many years ago) we studied the history leading up to WWII. I could not comprehend how the good people of Germany were convinced to follow such a madman as Hitler to their destruction. I understand now!

I have not visited the USA for many years now because I have vehemently disagreed with their foreign policy. A policy that seem to be shared blindly by the American public. You're program summarized what I had noted during those years and crystalized my fear for their (and our ) future. They have clearly lost their way.

I truly grieve for the many thousands of US service men and women who died in previous conflicts defending the rights of their citizens only to see them lost to a cabal of men using fear and lies to convince those in congress and senate to yield up those rights. How shameful.

Now we have "homeland security" to contend with. The very words instill yet more fear, as they were meant to. Their actions and powers are immense. Most americans are glad this organization exists, at least until they are the ones singled out.

America, please listen.....evil exists when good men do nothing.....Canada, please listen.....what is our government doing to criticize or support the US policies? Think about it and then read the previous line.....
dave

It still saddens me to read some of the comments that are posted here in this discussion page. The level at which people will take strikes at the CBC for their depiction of the Iraq War and the road to the War makes me scratch my head.

I still remember the night watching George W Bush make his State of the Union address and state his case for War. Afterwards, I knew we were in for a long messy War. Aside from that however, is something that really moved me and helped me to see how a Media Giant like Fox News can make such an impact on society today.

A close friend of mine was adamant that we Canadians should be supporting the Americans and sending our troops to Iraq to help fight the War. I argued that we needed to stay out of any War in the Middle East. My friend continued on and on about how the US protected our interests etc Now, with our involvement in Afghanistan it seems that our commitment will run well into the next decade.

Looking back now, I wonder if our current government under Stephen Harper would have jumped on the War in Iraq? I would argue that he would have sent our troops without hesitation in support of Mr. Bush. Most Canadians fail to give recognition to our Liberal leaders' of the time that made a strong and conscious decision not to get involved in Iraq or the misleading message of the Conservative government of the US.

Americans should spend more of their resources on trying to fix the problems within their borders before changing the world. I think 'the land of the free' is so far from reality. Take a walk through downtown Miami around midnight and check out the land of the free.

Enjoyed your programme as always, the research is truly outstanding.

Bush, in my opinion, is a liar, a war hungry person who would obviously like to control the world. As to the Weapons of Mass Destruction, didn't the United Nations search teams prove beyond any shadow of doubt that there were no weapons?

The more the american government tries to control other countries, especially those with different religous views, the more problems the world will have, and the innocent will suffer.

As to Canadian participation in either Iraq or Afghanistan, it appears the TV personality Courtier speaks out against Canada as a typical American -"Heads in in Sand" comment.

It is a shame that your programme is not seen by those Americans who are angry at the loss of their many troops in both areas of distress.

Way to go Canada. You guys blow our Journalism out of the water. Tip: Investigate 9/11. America needs it. Keep fighting and keep up the good work

I caught the program for a second time last night and recalled putting my thoughts down when I originally saw it back in March 2007. I didn't submit them then, but thought I would now as follows:

In response to Tom Borzilleri's submission, I find it interesting that he makes reference to propaganda and Joseph Goebbels. It would seem that, unwittingly, he hit the nail on the head. The Nazis under Hitler used misdirection of popular discontent against the Jews, making them the enemy of the state. In Mr. Bush's case, he employed the same tactics only he used l/Liberals as his target.

And to Ann Coulter. Be careful what you wish for. If the neo conservatives you support and, in my opinion, work for had everything on their wish list you would be barefoot, pregnant (age notwithstanding) and in a kitchen right now.

You stated that the media should represent a full view of the story, and I'm not sure the documentary did that, but I'm still very much against all way, and the war in Iraq is no exception.

The fact that George W. Bush thinks that people are with the US or with the terrorists is outrageous. There are many who oppose the war because they oppose any war. I think he's just being anti-peace.

The USA has made some huge mistakes and this is one of them. Yes, Saddam Hussein had chemicals, but hey, no need to mention they were provided by the US. And the fact that Saudi Arabia was ignored aggravated me, and still agravates me. It's appalling to think so many people who were responsible for any terrorism were let to walk free. Also, so America is allowed to have chemicals and weapons etc. but the rest of the world isn't? That just screams "We don't want you to have any military powers so we can walk over you and take over the world!"

And the media in America is scandalous! They have no right to scream 'Shut Up!' at people who have opposing view points. I have to say I am utterly disgusted.

Half-way through the program, the thought of 'How did so many of these people manage to get into government, decieve themselves, decieve the rest of the US Government, decieve the country, and the rest of the world?' This was later pointed out, and I have the same questions.

The Hour hit it spot on, sure deaths and bombings and whatnot are down, but popularity and economy are down too, doesn't matter though, does it? Because oil prices are so high!

Also: Ann Coulter really is appalling. Maybe someone should destroy America under the notion that America is trying to take over the world, and hear from someone else that America, after being destroyed, is definitely a better country and there was no other way to make it such. She is outrageous. What kind of person allows a country be destroyed and considers it good?

I will never believe that any mission in Iraq was actually accomplished.

The War in Iraq and the show just proves that the USA is a lot more deceptive, corrupted, and power-hungry than most people ever suspected.

I enjoyed your show last night, its good to get insight from people outside of the US. As much as the US media wants to be unbias I think we benefit from outside reporting like yours. I don't feel that President Bush has handled the war very well, but I do think that some form of action was necessary.

Some of your comments are misleading though, to say that the US was in WWII for less time than this current war is wrong. We still have troops in Germany and Japan! We spent years in Germany rebuilding the country. I assume you meant that in WWII the time frame for combat was shorter than the Iraq war. And, assuming the chemical weapons found in Iraq are not capable of mass destruction is lying to the public. Mass destruction does not have to mean nuclear weapons.

Why is the war considered pre-emptive? If Toronto or Quebec were bombed would Canada roll over and ignore the loss? Yes, finding and punishing the source is difficult. But with Iraq sticking its tongue out at us, the (ugly) need to seek revenge, and the possiblity of installing a military presense in the middle east, made Iraq an easy target.

I think the intent of a war with Iraq had many reasons, and it is easy for a leader to rally the nation after the 9-11 attack that was bigger than Pearl Harbor in terms of life lost. However, the war was not for oil or to remove an evil dictator, it did create an opportunity for the US to have a military foothold in the middle east, just outside of Russia and next door to China. And of course, it clearly isn't helping our economy!

We all know how easy it is to analyze the past and come up with better solutions - because we now know the outcome. If we wish to speculate on what should have been done concerning the attack on the US, we must also consider the potential outcomes if nothing was done as a result of 9-11. Under President Clinton, we turned a blind eye on the sporadic attacks, almost ignoring them. The result, 9-11. If President Bush took the passive role, maybe more attacks would have occured! Maybe the Pentagon and the White House would be destroyed, maybe we all would be in WWIII. Who knows where the next attacks would occur.

The question to give honest thought to now is: do all of us (US, Canada, England, France, ...) feel safer now versus months after 9-11 due to the actions of President Bush?

A voice in the dessert but getting stronger. Thank you for the enlightening report.
Five years into this crazy created "war" after an insane, unjustified invasion.
Who can believe 9/11? too many things don't add up, it just provided a great justification for what was coming.
There are many examples of ruthless dictators around the world supported, if not encouraged, by the US. This is how they act.
I would welcome an investigation on the US billionare help to Colombia's government under the pretext of fighting terrorists, with the only result of prolonguing the war there. Please investigate who are the real terrorists in Colombia.
We need to see the bigger picture: US governments obscure manipulation did not start with 9/11 and does not stop in Irak.
I commend you for the courage of your investigative work.
Diana

Excellent piece of documentary. Thank you

Kudos to the Fifth Estate and CBC for having the courage to start telling the true story.

Seymour Hersh suggested that it's scarier to contemplate Bush et al believing their own lies than it is to think that the US Administration pulled one over on the "land of the free".

Scarier yet is the fact that "bringing democracy" to another sovereign nation, at the point of a gun, can be considered legitimate by anyone. Anybody who espouses this nonsense should be called on it.

"Liberal Democracies" are more about legitimating free market economic systems than "empowering" people. We vote once every four or so years to legitimate the status quo, but that hardly constitutes real democracy.

Another example of the consistent anti-Bush administration that CBC cannot get over. It sounds like a broken record now. Is CBC capable of broadcasting a documentary thst is not critical of President Bush, the war in Iraq, Republicans or conservatives in general?

Do a simple count on all the documentaries in Fifth Estate and Passionate Eye. For those who are already anti-Bush, pro-CBC converts, you don't care about that because this bias on CBC goes your way and you don't really care about fairness.

But, to many Canadians who do not share your anti-Bush, anti-GOP perspective, this is serious concern. CBC's own policies state that all of CBC, including its documentary unit, must present dissenting views. Perhaps, they missed that one when it came to the Bush presidency.

I really enjoyed your program tonight. It touched on a little of everything. I once heard that the best way to get a nation to pull together and allow their government to have the ability to take away their rights, you have to scare them into begging you to protect them. What better way than to protect us all from WMD's, this is why certain key words are being used all the time, over and over again, words to scare the people.

Some of the words being, terrorism, war on terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, terror, al quada. What better way to take away our rights, now with the war on terrorism, we have to have homeland security, we have to have the right to spy on you, arrest you without charges, hold you with out allowing you your constitutional rights to be represented by an attorney, to have a speedy trial. Even to prevent you from leaving your country or allowing visitors in.

Thank you again, for perhaps showing more people that there is no real reason to be frightened enough to give away their rights as free human beings.

I'm tired of my tax dollars paying for this kind of one-sided, anti-American, left wing drivel. One billion dollars a year could be much better spent on healthcare and education. If I wanted this kind of a laugh I could watch a Michael Moore flick

Excellent show! It's really is tragic that so many americans and especially the media were so blind in the lead up to war that the ability to think critically and ask tough questions was lost in the wave of rabid patriotism that swept the US after 9/11.

And on a slightly personal note: If Hell exists, I hope Satan reserves an especially hot chamber for Ann Coulter.

The only power that protects any country's freedom, prosperity and its citizens is the power of moral authority. No money, army or totalitarian regime can replace it.
Canada still has it, and is continuously building it in Afghanistan, but the US has lost it during the last eight years.

Everything we see happening in that country, starting from the shift of the media to a dark age of self deceiving censorship, to the collapse of the real estate market, and all the way to the deep recession they are facing is, to great extent, an outcome of the lost confidence in what the US stood for.

The saddest thing is that its own citizens cannot see what is happening to them. There is no wake-up call, there is no hope to face the truth and act accordingly. There is so much at stake for the big army and the whole industry built around it, that even elections are a faint or false hope. Being the giant they are they will, most probably, produce the Titanic effect and create the whirlpool capable of compromising societies and countries that live and conduct themselves by real moral values.

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign country.

Dear Mr. McKeown:

I listened to the first ten minutes or so of your comments during tonight's "Fifth Estate" program on the war in Iraq and you were very wrong in some of the things that you had said.

The guiding principles of your comments seem not to have been "What happened?" (good and bad) and "Why?", but "Everything that America does and that George Bush does is wrong and was done for evil motives".

You were especially wrong when you started to discuss Paul Wolfowitz's plans after 1991 war with Iraq and you mentioned that America would "impose democratic values" on the rest of the world. What does America impose on anyone? What does America impose on any other nation, except voluntary economic, cultural, and technological exchange, help during natural disasters, and dead or injured American soldiers when we are there to help in military matters (c.f. World War 1, World War 2, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Lebanese civil war, the liberation of Kuwait in 1991, the protection of Albanians in Kosovo).

And how could you say "impose democratic values" as if democracy is something evil? Is it evil to free people from oppression? Is it evil to give people the freedom to write their own laws and to choose their own government? How could you say something like this?

The only things that the American military did impose on the Iraqi people was that their oppressive and corrupt dictator would not be allowed to continue murdering Kurdish civilians in northern Iraq, that he would not be allowed to continue murdering Shi'ite civilians in southern Iraq, that he would not be allowed to continue breaking his own promises (made to end the 1991 Gulf War), that he would not be allowed to continue to break U.N. Security Council resolutions after 12 years, that he would not be allowed to continue his oppression of the Iraqi people, and that he would not be allowed to sell or give W.M.D. to terrorists to use against innocent western civilians.

Did Hussein's government possess W.M.D. in 2003? No, but it is more likely that this erroneous conclusion was due to faulty intelligence (at the C.I.A.) or self-deception (on the part of Bush administration officials) than to deliberate lies. Was it just for America and Great Britain to start a war because Hussein might give W.M.D. to terrorists? Perhaps not.

Was it wise to have started a war in which so many thousands of American and British soldiers have been killed, so many others have been wounded, and so many more Iraqi civilians have been killed? After the fact, I say "no", but I also say that this was not forseen, and that 99.99% of these casualties are the result of insurgents who want things to go back to the way they used to be, to hateful violent jihadists who hate Westerners and Christians, and to bigots who hate other Iraqis because they do not have the same religious beliefs as they do.

Please Mr. McKeown, do not be a bigot yourself who believes that everything that America does is wrong. You are very wrong.

Very disappointed,
Roman Skikun
Novi, MI

About Ann Coulter:
I liked your inteventions with her. But what about the question: Who is paying you Ann Coulter? yes online or in real world! What is your proof WofMD in Irak... instead of letting her say: are you getting newspapers in Canada?

My problem with a presentation like this is how we could condemn FOX when the rest of CBC or Radio-Canada do nothing about September 11 or the war on terrorism of the Cheney-Bush regime? There is NO END IN SIGHT, we have no LOOSE CHANGE!

There was a Watergate when PROFESSIONAL journalists question the FACT? The fifth estate presentation tonight is great, but it needs to be reflected on more regular Canadian News Broadcast presentation!

The question is who profits from a CONTINUOUS war in Iraq or Afghanistan?

This presentation directly challenges lies from the Cheney-Bush-Rice and fear propaganda group, but no one will be called to court about it! THIS IS A PROBLEM! Being on Fifth Estate is nice, but it is limited broadcasting within the CBC and Radio-Canada realm!

Though the crux of the Bush Admin.'s distortion of the events surrounding the invasion of Iraq have been known for some time, your excellent analysis has brought clarity to the issue as I have not seen before.

For all the proof that exists to support the idea that the Iraq war was a realization of the "BushWhackers" ( my term )dreams of a democratic utopia for Iraq and eventually the entire Middle East, I cannot shake the suspicion that, ultimately, oil is the principal motivator. Not that they are out to steal it; rather, to secure uninterupted supply for the future of the reserves.

The final scene in "Three Days of the Condor" ( 1975 ) has this response to the question: "Do we have plans to invade the Middle East?" To paraphrase, the U.S. government official responds, in part: "What do you think the American people will want us to do when their is less & less fuel for their cars; when their homes run out of oil & they begin to freeze? They're not going to want us to "negotiate" a settlement, they're just going to want us to get it".

I'm not sure this analysis is too far from a possible truth.

The first thing that comes to my mind while watching this program was "THESE ARE THE SAME LIES THAT BROUGHT OUR COUNTRY TO WAR!".

I joined the Canadian military at 16, pre-911, and since 911 have paid more than close attention to the news(I gave up on CNN within the first two weeks following the "attack"), I have also watched several documentaries on the many conspiracies that are possible on the whole subject. This was definetly the best and most informative TO CANADIANS that I have seen yet.

I have lost three friends out of the 81 soldiers currently killed in Afganistan, I often wonder how many more would have been killed if we had followed suite and deployed to Iraq.

I feel many Canadians are misinformed on how we got involved in Afganistan, what our first mission was and how we got to where we are now in the country. I, along with many other of our countrymen am very glad we were not deployed to Iraq, but that's not enough to make me say "it's good we just went to Afgan".

I would like to know what is being done about all the false allegations the USA made in order to get support for the war in both Iraq and Afganistan. We know now that there were no "WMD's" found in IRAQ, we know now that the US funded Sadam Hussain and provided chemicals in the 90's, we know now that USA will persecute their own people in order to quite up those who publicly speak thse truths(in a land who "fights" for the very freedoms like free speech that they are denyng their own citizens). Now is everyone supposed to just carry on and pretend none of these things never happened? We all watched the speach of how the mission was "accomplished" and the fighting was over, meanwhle there was combat going on in the fight for Fallujah.

Why are there no repercussions for these lies, and where do we go from here?

My family and I imigrated to Canada in 1959.
We discussed as to where to imigrate to, either the US.,
Australia or Canada.

My Dad was always convinced that the best choice would be Canada, where as I was more interested to go to the USA.

My dad always indicated the he did NOT like the American foreign policies as he thought they always had a hidden agenda... The US NEVER does anything unless they themselfs would benefit in one way or another.
I,at the time a teenager was always blinded by big cars, big houses etc.

Well, once again, Dad was right and I'm sorry I can no longer tell him so for he passed away in 1998.
There seem to be few governments more apt to be able to fool their peoples than the american government.
I am glad to be able to see your programs and only confirm to me what my Dad was saying all along.
He was indeed a wise man.

First off the Americans are too powerful for their own good
they will destroy themselves before the Iraqs do
But on one side they might have saved many lives in Iraq
But on the other side they got themselves locked into a war that they cannot and will not win

Bush took the approach to this war all wrong, instead of going through the whole country and trying to kill every enemy they should train and give support to a new army and police force. If he would have done that the war would have been over and many american lives would have been saved.

Afganistan should be the focus of Bush not Iraq.

When he mentions Pearl Harbour it makes me sick to my stomch, Pearl Harbour was a major attack by an army that was stronger than the untied states ( at the time ), also this started WWII

In conclusion the american army might be the most powerful army in the world but they cannot win this war.
The only way to win this war is to train the Iraq people to defend themselves as also to rebuild their county because this war cannot be won in a matter of 10 years, by that time the united states will run out of money and have to pull out. If that happens the people of Iraq will suffer.

'As soon as men decide that all means are permitted to fight an evil, then their good becomes indistinguishable from the evil that they set out to destroy' -- Christopher Dawson, English historian, 1889-1970.

Rare as it might seem in today's complex world down to earth concrete thinking and keeping our eyes open can sometimes prove functional. One of the social consequences to the 'shock and awe' and 'catastrophic tragedy' of the 1906 Earthquake in California was a sudden and ongoing increase in adherence to religious fundamentalism in United States. Coincidence? Major Earthquakes in Turkey in 1999. By 2002-03 an ongoing upsurge in religious fundamentalism in Turkey. By 2003, the planned 'shock and awe' and catastrophic damage from the invasion of Iraq and land and behold just years later religious fundamentalism is becoming more and more gripping. Of course, those on the right side of the spectrum would say that these observations are much more than totally irrelevant...but allow me please to add that 'Human evolution could easily take a quantum leap into the distant future the day after mankind realizes that God does not choose sides' J Walker

There seems to be another issue that was missed in tonights report, that apparently in 2000, Saddam converted 20 billion US dollars to the Euro's . Being that the three largest oil producers in OPEC are Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran(known as the triad). If Saddam was successful at changing the mode of currency, Iran would soon follow, leaving Saudi in a very precarious situation. Ultimately, the US hegemony of currency control in the world would be crushed, forcing an immediate depreciation of the US dollar, The European Union on the other hand would have huge gains, entrenching itself as the new world power of the control of global currency.

I just don't know how the American people could have voted George into power in the first place.I always thought he was a little bit slow in the head.But after all thats has gone on in the east I wonder if the American people are just as bad for believing in him!

Ann Coultier seems to be typical of American neo cons attitude toward Canada. In WW 2 Canada was on the front lines standing with Britain from day one while America profited from our fight.Our sacrifice was (as in WW1) far out of proportion to our means. We are now entangled in a war in Afghanistan where no super or imperial power has ever been able to suceed. Thank goodnes CXhretien had the sense to dodge that bullet.

Interesting piece especially that rich interview with that female Bill O'Reilly, read Coulter, who suggested that "while Canada buries its head in the sand..." her country is out delivering democracy to the Middle East...hmmm.

I love the subtle use of the phrase "New World Order", and the subtle showing of Building 7 being Imploded on the day of September Eleventh.

In due time... in due time.

Your piece on the lies, deceptions, and media propoganda concerning the war in Iraq was very thought provocing.

I don't claim to know much about foreign policy, or anything else political, but I have always thought the American war on Iraq was bullsh*t. When I watched Ann wats her name try to defend the war and pretty much say the end justifies the means, especially when she laughed when it was mentioned that tens of thousands of Iraqi civillians lost their lives, I wanted to pound her into a pulp.

It just goes to show that these elitest Americans will go to any lengths to get what they want and even with the evidence of their failures and deceptions, wont admit they did anything wrong.

It sounds like the world and the west is living in a dangerous time, and it's not the mid east I'm afraid of, It's the USA and their shift towards totalitarianism that worries me.

The American people say they are proud of their freedom and democratic ways, well if they want to stay free, they better hold their leaders accountable for what they do and not let them lead there country by deceptions, lies and propoganda.

The media in America should also be impartial, honest, and accountable for their actions.

Years ago I was incredulous when a couple of better informed friends referred to how Henry Kissinger and associates plotted the overthrow Allende (the first September 11). Just couldn't be. Fortunately I am a bit less naive now. But reading a couple of the posts makes me wonder how naive people, perhaps clouded by ideology and vested interest -- it takes a lot to eschew long held beliefs -- can so remain.

Within the last 6 mouths I've heard two Canadian notables -- Rex Murphy and Micheal Ignatieff accuse a caller and another commentator of anti-americanism when said caller opined that US foreign policy has lots of examples of invasion and disruption. Yet in recent times that former NY Times columnist Stephen Kinzer has noted in his recent book "Overthrow" that the 20th century is strewn with presidential lies and a US foreign policy of so-called 'preemption'.

It saddens me that there are such blinders to these patterns in the most powerful state in the world. When will this refusal to acknowledge the obvious end?

I also wonder at the rhetorical effect of that great term: anti-americanism and its use as an 'accusatory' device and terminator of intellectural engagement by luminaries such as Murphy and Ignatieff!

So this program was just re-broadcast and I haven't yet read the old comments. I don't know if the discussion will be re-opened/continued or not. I'm probably wasting my time (again).

Network, the classic film, has never been more relevant: simply substitute the enlightened rantings of the "mentally ill" Howard Beale for the lunacy of Bill O'Reilly whose show is very popular.

The fifth estate is a valuable program and often presents information that would probably be considered too controversial or intellectual to air on a major American network. This being said, I still ask why it took so long for those professional, investigative journalists at the CBC to bring an entity like The Project For the New American Century to the attention of the general public?

Record numbers of people on this planet protested in the streets against the attack on Iraq before it happened. Thousands, including Americans, could have told you about "The Project", how the stated reasons for war were bogus and how they were not convinced by anything in Colin Powell's presentation to the UN. It's not only that none of the 9/11 terrorists were from Iraq but that no one was openly discussing how the "O" word or the security of Israel factored into the equation. Hell, it was a year after 9/11 before the Canadian media dared to suggest that there might be a connection between American Foreign policy and the attacks themselves. Did it really happen out of the clear blue sky or could it be "Blowback" or a far-fetched concept like "cause and effect"?

So we all like to highlight the failures of Washington and the American media but just how unrestricted are Canadian newspapers and networks? I ask this in a week where hockey controversy nonsense is the lead story on The National and the discussion topic on Cross Country Checkup. Wasn't it reported last week that the Government of Canada would be sued by human rights organizations over "prisoner abuses" in Afghanistan? Or why not lead with the suggestion of systemic racism at high levels re. the Air India fiasco? These, of course, being only two of the more important current events that people seem reluctant to discuss and ponder. And then there's "the Environment"...locally and globally.

How does this differ from American networks obsessing about Anna Nicole Smith when they should be focused on analysis of another hell day in Iraq? It's evident that the American media are generally motivated more by ratings and advertising than by a drive to report the complex, often controversial truth. I just hate to see Canadian media dumbed-down or self-censored in any way.

So thanks to the fifth estate. As with my commentary, better late than never, I guess. But there's room for improvement at the CBC.

To Whom it may Concern..

Fantastic program. Must have taken months to prepare and present.Agree with it entirely. My question is..Is there any chance that this program will ever see the airways of the American Networks? My guess is NO!!

However maybe PBS or a similiar Server could be talked into presenting it. We, in Canada seem to know the facts but the Americans, sticking to their political parties will not acknowlege any thing other than their parties and their views. regardless of the facts. Retreat is not in their vocabulary but they have very short memories when Viet Nam is brought into the conversation.

If you do not know your history then you are liable to repeat your mistakes. So hopefull you can try and advise them of this with your excellent expose'

To Sean:

You blow a lot of economic theories around, but you seem to be forgetting that this 'war on terror' got redirected away from the ACTUAL architects of the 9/11 massacre. The purpose of this documentary was to expose the blatant lies that justified America switching, midstream, their focus on Iraq -- who, had absolutely NOTHING to do with 9/11 -- and whose actual threat to the West was marginal on its best day.

Today Iraq is is in ruins, democracy in Iraq is a sham, and Osama Bin Laden (and Al-Qaeda) still runs free world-wide. Get a grip -- America (Bush & Co.) is losing a misdirected campaign that will haunt them, at so many levels, for decades.

Kudos to the CBC for maintaining such a great program as the Fifth Estate! I've been watching it for decades now.

To Sean,

I wasn't specifically referring to the switch from the US Dollars to the Euro in terms of the high costs of the war, the arguments revolve around the notion that Iraq would have been the first oil producing country to dump the US Dollars and take up the Euro as the international reserve currency for oil trade. Other OPEC members like Iran and Venezuela would have followed suit. Today, I believe that idea is less likely, most especially because of the current situation with Iran, in which all members of the UN Security Council voted for sanctions against the Iranian regime in relation to its nuclear program. So from that sense, why would France (and Germany) agree to impose economic restrictions on Tehran that would ultimately go against their interests?

I agree with you that sanctions on Iraq were eroding and that China, Russia, and France did sign oil deals with Saddam. If sanctions would have been lifted, US and British oil interests would have been kept out of the loop for obvious political reasons because they were the ones who initiated severe sanctions in the first place back in the mid 90's.

That's why the Bush administration had to find a way for "regime change", and so it went with the WMD card with resolution 1441 for which all members voted because it specifically called for disarming Iraq by means of inspections. And I believe that the most recent deal made between Beijing and Washington with regards to sanctions against Iran is actually a trade-off for North Korea, and not for any Chinese firm to open shop in Iraq, particularly when the situation is getting worse every day due to the instability and the complete lack of security, and most importantly when China is not willing to send any of its troops to Iraq - on top of US allies already making plans to withdraw this year and the next.

The US occupation from the beginning is in violation of the Geneva Conventions which state that the occupying power is forbidden to change or annul the legal code in place before the invasion of another sovereign country. When the occupying power says that it will transfer sovereignty, regulations imposed by the occupying authority must also end. That's not what happened in July 2004 when Bremer "handed over" sovereignty to the Iraqi Governing Council.

The difference between France and the United States is that the Bush administration used the US military to open up this new market for its corporations, and the ones from its allies who participated in the war. The invasion was illegal because there was absolutely no UN resolution that had authorized for the war in the first place. That's why the Security Council was divided, and Hans Blix asked for inspections to be extended indefinately. But Bush and Blair refused, and invaded anwyay.

And I agree that the bombing of Kosovo and other events did occure without the approval of the United Nations. That's the problem with world powers, they will only will go to the United Nations only if it suits their immediate interests.

AK-47's are considered to be regular weapons, and do not fit the within the WMD definition agreed upon in international weapons conventions. And I disagree with your comment on the mobile labs that the US allegedly found. That claim according to Colin Powell's presentation at the UN in February 2003 has been disproven. No active biological coumpounds were found after the invasion. David Kay and Charles Duelfer reported that fact. That's why the Bush administration officially ended the search for WMD in January 2005. If there were WMD hidden somewhere or "transfered to some other country", according to that logic, the insurgents would be using them against US troops and Iraqi civilians to this day instead of makeshift IEDs, car bombs, low tech RPGs, and suicide bombs.

The anti-war movement has always had a solution to ending the war, that is, to withdraw from Iraq because the occupation is what actually drives the insurgency and governmental paramilitary terrorist death squads in reaction to it. And the idea that "if the US withdraws now, there will be more chaos in the country, and spread out throughout the region" is false due to the fact that the real leaders of Iraq (none of whom are in the Green Zone) have never called for sectarian violence of any kind, and always stated that Iraq should remain united. But what will happen is just the opposite.

What we see now is pure non-stop disinformation by the Bush administration, by some leading Democrats, and the US media as well, and it feeds into the racist and condescending notion that Muslim Arabs are unable or unwilling to live in peace in a real democracy - I'm not talking about one that was imposed through the barrel of a gun from a war sold on lies.

I'm not surprised that you see things differently, but why is it that the wide majority of Americans now believe that the war on Iraq was a mistake ?

It never ceases to amaze me that the United States cannot seem to accept, understand or learn that perhaps other sovereign nations do not want their style of democracy forced upon them. You would think this would be self-evident considering that their closest and most homogenous neighbour, Canada, doesn't practice their form of democracy, little lone nations with thousands of years of diametrically different cultural, political and religious history.

How can this and previous US administrations be so misguided at best and corrupted at worst at the expense of so many, not only outside of their borders, but inside them as well? The muzzling of legitimate news sources signals the first dangerous steps towards totalitarianism.

I worry about our own proximity and vulnerability.

To Aaron

While the idea that the US was annoyed by Iraq's switching to the Euro is sound, the numbers don't add up. Even over a century, the US would be unlikely to recover the money it has spent on this war. Bush is clearly not overly concerned with the value of the American dollar as its recent slide suggests.

Russian and Chinese interests had to be appeased in order to move, Iraqi debt to Russia was maintained, (at least 1/3) and the only exploitation oil deal from the old Saddam government that was kept by the new government, (likely a political favour to the US) was that to a Chinese firm, perhaps some horse trading between superpowers for sanctions on Iran, where China also has significant interests.

I'm not sure what article in the Geneva Convention you believe has been violated. But the idea of opening up the Iraqi economy was nothing new; in fact the French were very keen on the idea of removing the sanctions even before the invasion. And let's not believe that the Saddam would be against the exploration of his own country and people if he was getting his cut. However, such a policy would have only strengthened Saddam's hold on power.
By its very nature war is illegal; but the invasion did not violate international law.

The US issued an ultimatum and then invaded, and sadly that's all the precedent requires. A UN mandate is only a luxury as the bombing of Kosovo, the French occupation of the Ivory Coast are some other recent examples.

The idea that there were no WMD were in Iraq after 1991, is not completely true either. First, I dislike the definition of WMD, because in my opinion the AK-47 has been by far the greatest weapon of mass destruction. The US did find the mobile labs that contained Iraq's biological program, both the originals and then ones Saddam bought just before the invasion. And what Saddam did with his chemical weapons is not known, and may not been known for quite some time.

The sanctions were only effective in stopping Saddam's nuclear program. Unfortunately they succeed at a cost of perhaps 200,000 Iraqi lives; needless to say this was not an ideal solution. I would also like to point out that the new 'champions of the Iraqi people' the anti-war crowd never made any attempt to find a solution to end this suffering or shredded any tears while it was happening.

First, I have to say I watched this with my jaw hanging open. Wow. What an eye-opener. Second, how were you folks able to do that interview with Ann Coulter without drilling her in the head, specifically in light of the poisonous FUD she was spewing. Your team displayed classic elegant Canadian restraint!

Propaganda that would make Joseph Goebbels proud. In spite of your title, you document not even one "lie"!

In fact, when at the end of the show, Hersch says about the Adminstration "They believed it", he spoke truth - perhaps the only time in your show truth was spoken.

With this kind of quality out of CBC, it's no wonder Canadians have the anti-American opinions they do.

Great piece, except that you omitted Israel's pivotal role in the invasion of Iraq, a role that is now behind the push for a US assault on Iran. The plan for the Middle East has already been articulated. For the neo-cons - this combination of Jewish Zionists and Christian fundamentalists controlling the White House - Iraq was only just the beginning.

Bravo to The Fifth Estate

The North American casualties were not mentioned though first Mr. Cheretien with his proposal to put teeth into the disarming of Iraq bill in the U.N. The liberal caucus put together the amendments to give the weapons inspectors full military support to access the sites they wanted when they wanted access. Because Colin Powell supported somewhat he was (the next day) removed from his position. It shows how unwavering Mr. Bush and his inner circle were in there desire to attack Iraq.

In his speech for the amendments our Prime Minister also stated that there was no solid evidence that Iraq had or even posessed the ability to acquire weapons of mass distruction. It is unfortunate Mr. Cheretien went back to sit on his fence rather than defending this fine piece of legislation.

To Tim Lee and Anonymous,

Since the beginning of the war in Iraq, I had already suggested to the producers of the Fifth Estate that they should feature an extensive report on the US vs. Euro petro-currency as one of the real reasons why the Bush administration had to remove Saddam Hussein. But after personally reviewing that argument, I came to the conclusion that the biggest reason why Washington went to war for "regime change" was to prevent Russian and Chinese economic competing interests from having access to Iraqi oil as well. And to open up, by use of military force, a market that had been closed for twelve years due to sanctions so that US, British, and and other corporations from countries that took part of this so-called "coalition of the willing" could all operate in Iraq. It's essentially a new form of colonialism.

You only have to do an easy research on the edicts that Paul Bremer imposed on the Iraqi Governing Council shortly before this so-called "transfer of sovereignty" back in July of 2004. That paved the way as to how the "new" Iraqi Constitution was to be written in order to secure the wholesale privatization of Iraq's entire economy by foreign corporations operating under the umbrella of permanent US occupation. All of which illegal under the Geneva Conventions regarding the obligations of a foreign occupational force and its administrative procedures - not to mention that the invasion, under international law, was illegal in the first place.

If others who do not agree, and think that my comment is really far-fetched - do the research and find out why the United States has its biggest embassy in the entire world located in Iraq in a heavily guarded fortress almost the size of the Vatican, and why Washington is building permanent military bases over there.

But the current situation has become so bad in Iraq, that it won't be long until the United States and others who followed will have to admit a humiliating defeat in a country that had absolutely nothing to do 9/11 or al-Qaeda, and did not have any WMD since 199i. But instead, the invasion and the occupation have only opened the door to terrorism where there was none before, and unfortunately, it's ordinary Iraqis and US soldiers being misled, who are all paying the price.

It is unfortunate that the people who most need to see THE LIES THAT LED TO WAR are still watching the FOX network and CNN rather than the CBC.

Despite some injudicious actions of the Liberal Party, Canadians would do well to remember that the Liberals at least had the common sense and guts to 'just say no' to supporting the insane actions of the Bush administration and that, had Stephen Harper been in office at the time of the invasion, Canada would have been part of this unfounded and diabolical rape of Iraq.

Your excellent documentary should be used as evidence in a trial of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and all those who planned this maniacal scheme, for war crimes.

I'm glad that Mr Bush is willing to stand up to ruthless dictators. Mr Bush will be known as one of the greatest humanitarians of our generation for his efforts have freed more people then any other leader.

Iran, Venezualia, Cuba, North Korea... you're on notice!

The US and the democracy and free speech are in deep trouble and pushing the rest of the world into disaster. There are a number of reasons:

1.)The start of the end was in 1913 when the currency was taken over by the Federal Reserve - which is operated to this day by the incredably rich and power hungry. The rest of world is forced to trade with this currency and through interest rates and debt, they are able to control the rest of the world with their self interest as the prime motivator.

2.)The US military has a budget of the next 10 economies combined and is self perpetuating. It keeps the common US citizen in control through indebtedness to media induced needs and false glory of protecting the homeland, while conquering the world for the rich and powerful. Social and construction programs which could do so much for real progress are cancelled while funneling profits to the rich through the expansion of the military. Yet, so many common people are dependant on the military for their livelyhood that politicians would be defeated if they campaigned for reduction.

3.)The American media manage the group think programs for the competing charade of two political parties while the US president is conditioned to do as he is told and to be great. When he gets elected after great effort and expense, he thinks he has to use the overblown military to justify its existence and to do something great. (The Bilderberger group likely paid or orchestrated his election through media anyway.) Thus he really works for them.

4.)911 was a set up and, Iran is next. Iran is in a panic to somehow get the bomb to protect themselves against the out of control rogue country which threatens to 'improve them'.

Americans have been blessed with opportunity. They should be an example of good not of disaster.

I feel that more people around the world should have seen this well organized documentary to help minimize some doubts and ignorance. I could only wish that CBC news was not only Canada's, but the world's number one in news coverage.

An alright doc.

Why so much on usa and Bush, how about Canada's role?
A trend? More cbc shows (even fifth estate) about american issues and less about canadian? Hard to believe (its the Cbc, right?) But look at their ratings.

They need hot topics and more third-party programs (more than just the simpsons)

Of course, that's cbc overall, not just newsworld and the fifth estate.

The comments of people like Ms. Coulter makes one wonder, is the entire world outside America crazy? Where are the WMD? Indeed Saddam did horrible acts to his own people and he has paid for it. But what have thousands of Iraqi's done to deserve a fate so cruel? Is their sole sin the fact that they live in a country that is oil rich?

American soldiers are dying out there too, does human life mean so little? It's not about democracy or freedom, it's all about resources, oil right now and water in the coming years.

Makes me wonder, how long before oil rich Alberta becomes the centre of attention.

These are the darkest days in the history of American democracy.

The debate over 'WMD' and whether or not their existence was justification for war is a moot point.

The President lied, the Vice President lied and America went to war. Men, women and children have been slaughtered so the the United States can 'spread' democracy while back home they chastise anyone who questions if the price is too high. There is hope however, now that 70% of Americans are opposed to the president and his Iraq policy. This still won't stop him from trying to escalate the war in order to save face. Dark days indeed.

First off. This is an excellent piece.

CBC should've showed it before Saddam was killed, it's not like this is new information. Don't just get spoon fed what cnn says to you. Do your own research! I started mine sept 12 2001

Much love all... and seek the truth! CBC is one of the reasons I love canada!

G.W. Bush + Co. were just waiting for a "New pearl harbour" to occur to give them the opportunity to invade Iraq - and really any country that goes against USA's ideals - and you said, quote "Al Quaeda just happened to take care of that".

Don't you wonder if thats too much of a coincidence? Is it really above the President - who can demolish countries based on lies - to instigate the "pearl harbour" he was seeking?

All the so called "Evidence" linking Al Quaeda to 9/11 are too much of a coincidence. The so called "master minds" of 9/11 were so dumb they left Airplane flying guides in Arabic around for people to find and identify them once the crash was commited? The master minds left videos of their criminal intent training around for America to come and find... don't you find that to be too much of a coincidence?

Regardless, we need canadian media - such as the 5th estate - to shed light on whats really going on in our world.

Perhaps the 5th estate can do a follow up on this "Terror War" and find out whats happening to these so-called prisoners of war, we hear whispers of how they are being tortured - what is really happening to them? Which country is Bush planning on eliminating next (Iran?) and what can Canada - and the rest of the Peaceful World do to stop him.

The lightning success in toppling the Taliban in Afghanistan back in late 2001 convinced Bush and Blair that similar success could be achieved in Iraq (a smaller country which is not landlocked). And in the early weeks of the war in 2003, it appeared to be the case.

I still believe that Saddam Hussein was a scoundrel who deserved to be brought down and handed over to be judged by his fellow Iraqis. It was untenable that someone like him would be in control of a signficant portion of the world's oil supply. He had already attempted to enlarge his control by invading Kuwait in 1990. The UN endorsed that campaign to remove Saddam Hussein's forces and he had snubbed his nose at its efforts to constrain him for 13 years.

If a moderate, democratic state can actually develop in Iraq, the historical legacy of George W. Bush will improve perhaps 20 years from now.

I loved your show about the war, I think it was a real eye opener for a lot of people. It's a shame that Bush so openly critizes Saddam Hussein for gasing his people 15 yrs ago, at least they knew what they were dying for.

The only difference between these two men . . . Bush is killing his own people under a false pretense for a fictional utopia. I think the woman that accused us Canadian's of putting our heads in the sand, should inform Bush that a utopia is only possible in a fictional novel. Set aside from that, how many people acctually want to live in a 'utopia' created by a man who believes himself to be god, to decide who lives or dies.The next time an american puts Canadians down I think they need to look at there own people first.

Like all the families that have lost loved ones to war because Bush said to attack, I think a more fitting name for Bush and his administration would be 'Hitler and The Followers'.

Sincerely, a Canadian with my head in the sand, and PROUD of it !

Terrific show. Unfortunately most of my countrymen seem more concerned with Brittany Spears and American Idol than the total mess that their government has become. But not all of us.

There are a great many in the U.S. who are counting the days until 1/20/09 when shrub leaves office. I hope things will improve with the next election, but our elections are usually a choice between Mo, Larry and sometimes Curly.

Very good show.

We need more shows like this. Every Canadian should understand the type of Politician we are dealing with in the USA. When President Bush tries to convicne our priminister on gay mariage, Marijuana decriminalization or any other policy we should understand that President Bush might not be a totaly honest man.

Although much of it was already known to me, it was great seeing it all laid out for those who cannot, or will not see. Too bad most Americans who really need to see it - won't.

To Ann Coulter, who asked "do you have newspapers in Canada?" Why yes, as a matter of fact we do! Thats part of the reason most Canadians were against the war from the beginning, and unlike the US, we have a media that has proven time and time again that they can ask the tough questions.

Great stuff! A little late, but welcome anyway.
Thank god for CBC, and your voice in the wilderness!
I'm wondering when the facade will be over & the Bushies decide to completely seize power, same as Stalin and Hitler did.
They are of the same ilk.

Thank you CBC and Fifth Estate. I so wish your viewership extended deep into The States. They do need to wake up.

Your show was excellent. Perhaps a follow up regarding the current anti Iran campaign being launched by the Americans would be worthwhile. We seem to be on the threshold of another war in the region if the American spin on Iran continues. However, the real fear is this, who are we to believe in the case of Iran? The President of Iran has publicly stated that he supports the destruction of Israel and the United States,does he have nuclear capacity and designs to use it? Who knows and whose information should we trust?

What about Sudan or Rwanda? If the US is so concerned about genocide as the Bush administration sites as yet another reason to attack Iraq, where were they during Rwanda's genocide, or with sudan's today?

Bravo to the CBC and Mr. McKeown.

The CBC has broadcasted poignant pieces on the facts during the time of the lead up to the Iraq war. I had my eyes open. "Lies That Led to War" is a just clear summary delivered now with the kid gloves off hitting home the truth with the aftermath laid out in plain view for all to see.

Sure the O'Reillys and Coulters look scary - that's because they are ... and ugly too. I hope to God that those two are among the freak minority in the US - kind of like circus freaks. If not, the old adage about "absolute power corrupts absolutely" is demonstrated once again and the US will go the way of the Roman Empire and the Third Reich and be destroyed under the weight of its own hubris.

One of the interviewees said that "it would be better if the Bush administration said behind closed doors, "Great we pulled one over the American public", but in actual fact they truly believed in the war as war for democracy and that's what so scary". Perhaps the Bushies can be impeached based solely on incompetence. Anyway you cut it, they have to go and I hope the American public as a whole will see the light before they are finally doomed.

The anonymous feedback about the survival fight for maintaining the US greenback as the "oil standard" currency is very interesting - it would explain a lot. It seems those who wish to trade in anything else stands to be crushed.

Does the CBC have the gumption to lead a similar investigation on the Iran case and present it with equal "bias" towards the truth?

To all the people who fly the flag that the US is just protecting the world from dangerous dictators who murder their own people and have (or may have) WMDs, there are but two words to shut them up, "North Korea".
Kim Jong Il sends postcards of their WMD capability and Korea is much closer to the US (rocket range). Murder is his middle name. Ignoring that is hypocrisy to the tenth degree. (But of course there is no oil in Korea and anti-communism is passe.)

How did the corrupt and bankrupt government of the USA take on the role of Earth's big brother anyways?

Great Show...it should be shown again.

It was nice to see an honest telling of the story of the Iraq war build up, and a brief touch on the players involved. CBC has now caught up to what the independent media knew in 2002. Only 5 years behind! Good start towards catching up.

Will CBC learn from this and not go along with the exact same lies leading to the coming war with Iran, or will CBC go along with the 'any war for any reason' cowardice that has killed the mainstream media? Not that it matters. Anyone who still relies on mainstream media for news is not a part of any intelligent discussion on world events.

Ever heard of Manifest Destiny? Go to www.newamericancentury.org and take a look! The idea that one country (or it's leaders) is so arrogant to assume that all the world is begging for its guidance and leadership, its almost laughable. They are doing a good job so far aren't they? It is just sad that Canadians are dying because of it.

Bill O'Reilly and Anne Coulter are reminincent more and more of senator Joseph McCarthy and his witch hunt for communists. They have the same insistence on faulty and sometimes manufactured information and dogged determination to foist their views on the american public despite growing evidence that their information is incorrect, and purely for self-aggrandizement.

Coulter's flip answers are meant for entertainment, not serious consideration, and O'Reilly's diatribes and blind insistence that anyone who disagrees with him is unpatriotic mirrors McCarthy's, although his goal is ratings, not political power, at least we hope.

The war{technically it is not a war} was started for one reason only. george w would have been impeached because he got cheating during the election.

9/11 was the day the election commission was to deliver its report and the world would have known but ?????????? no one heard the report, they were too busy watching planes hit the wtc.

Well Done CBC!

Last night's '5th Estate'program was great stuff....I'd say about 4 years after the fact...but a worthwhile wake-up call to those citizens who are still asleep or in denial.
Since 2004 Alex Jones, a Texas-based documentary journalist, has been 'crying in the wilderness'. His website; www.prisonplanet.com , has been exposing the Whitehouse sponsored lies about 911, WMD, Saddam, Iraq and now Iran. He has documented how the Military Industrial Complex needing a post Cold War enemy created a crisis called 911 and a never-ending 'War on Terror' to maintain it's hold on the USA's Trillion Dollar defence budgets.

Now that the mainstream media has finally 'got it', perhaps something can be done to restore democracy to the USA and sanity to its Presidency.

While much of the article was old news to me, I still think it has value.

I also think that some things were not touched by the program, for one reason or another, such as the USA's plan for world control. I personally feel that all these little wars are more then isolated conflicts. These are staging events, a way for the US to spread their military power to a point where they will be able to stage attacks on any country/faction world wide that doesn't agree on the US policy.

I really wish as a country we could stand up and say this is enough! We are not the USA, we do not support thier agenda. Get out PEACEKEEPERS out their war!

Stand up to the school yard bully, dare them to invade us for not subscribing to thier agenda. Let them do it and the world will see what is really going on here.

It sickens me that we as Canadians, have so little control of our own country, and that so much of it is controlled by those south of the border.

Just to be clear... I am not anti-USA, it is the people behind the power planning for world control that I am against.

A quick remark to Sean Folliott: Donahue's show was the highest-rated show on MSNBC when it was axed. Is it still "ludicrous" to say his lone anti-war stance was the reason for its cancellation, at a time when the purple-faced pro-war screamers dominated the airwaves?

As to the documentary, it's useful but all familiar material to anyone who's been paying attention. The most interesting thing to me is to see how Coulter fares when faced when a basically competent and reasonably confident journalist. Even many people who despise her hateful and relentlessly dishonest screeds think she at least has a gift for cleverness or quick-wittedness in person. Turns out it's just an artifact of the craven and incompetent hosts in her own mainstream media environment. Put her in front of someone who points out falsehoods and isn't on the "Let's let Ann entertain us" bandwagon, and she's a stumbling, halting poor liar.

good piece....

This US adminstration has shown third world countries levels of courrption (including the Halliburton side-story) like never before....can't see the difference in corruption between the US Bush Admin. and a poor african country now.

And i'm surprised and can't believe Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly are still on TV. This is very lame US news broadcasting....

* a good straight forward review pulling together all the facts - nothing new
* what about a follow-up focussing on Iran and with the same framework
* Recent history of Iran
* Iranian attitudes to the West
* Iran in the neo-con philosophy
* What we know about Iran's nuclear aspirations
* Evolving nature of comments on Iran by the White House and how this has been picked up by the media
* Reactions inside Iran
* What's happening now: aircraft carriers in the Gulf, Cheyne's recent visit to the region

Don't miss this great opportunity

Although your program was well written, and the facts right out for all to see, the sad thing is you failed to address it all. There is something deeper here, and though some people say the media is the compliant faithful dog, the real story is the complete and total corruption of the US government. This is nothing new, it's been this way for decades. The people with all the power in Washington, have their own little reality. Bush and his administration did not lie their opposition to go to war. Their opposition already knew they were lying. Bill Clinton is actually proof of this.

I would like to see you do a piece on the neverending corruption in US politics. It's right there in plain view of the world and like I said has been for decades. Why? Because these people don't care who knows they control the globe. They think they are untouchable, and so far anyway, they are. Thanks for a good start to displaying this, but the real story goes much deeper than Bush. The truth (and I'll be called antiAmerican), is that Americans really do not care one bit about anyone in the world, including their own people. They care about money. Nothing else. Iraq? Who cares. Afghanistan? Who cares. Listen to Coulter or any other supposed rightwing. They are popular for a reason. They display proudly, what an overwhelming majoriy of US citizens are all about.

Wow, did you ever get it wrong.

While the CBC did a wonderful documentary on the steps to war into Iraq and how it was managed, you totally overlooked why the U.S. went to war with Iraq.

Claims of promoting democracy just shows that the news media (CBC included) still is being blindsided by the most savvy propaganda machine the world has ever known.

A lot of people think it is for the oil, but in fact it is to protect the U.S. dollar from plummeting to zero that it was done. Ever since the U.S. dollar went off the gold standard in the 1970's, at the same time it went onto the 'oil standard'. So now if you want to buy oil you have to buy U.S. dollars to do it. This was an agreement between OPEC and the U.S. government that allowed OPEC access to the U.S. markets as long as they would sell their product only in U.S. dollars, thus the U.S. dollar has now become the de-facto world currency.

This agreement has now allowed the U.S. government to run record deficits that would cause any other nation to be bankrupt (which it is) and allowed it to build the world's largest military in the world.

When Iraq decided that they were going to sell their oil for Euros the die was cast. The same now with Iran and their decision to sell their oil in Euros, is the die cast? What is happening is that the U.S. is losing control of the situation (Russia has now setup an oil bourse that will trade their oil in Euros also) and that is scary.

Dick Cheney, George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, and others may actually believe (or not) that they are promoting democracy around the world, but they may be just pawns in a bigger game of global finance that has been going on for a long time, and who is behind that I do not know.

Now that would be a documentary to watch.

After watching last nights program, I realize now why I despise Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter so much. To claim that Canada has it's head in the sand is just another example of how out of touch with reality she is.

Look at the polls of the US population, most do not support the war anymore. What WMD's were found? No nuclear weapons that I am aware of? Exactly how is Iraq a better place? Because they are bombing themselves to Hell and back?

Great program, too bad most Americans don't want to believe that the war was a way to "bully" other countries. Just like a big kid on the playground.....

Hi,

It was wonderful to watch an unbiased coverage of the Iraq situation. In a time where it has almost become useless to watch the mainstream media due to their tendency to hide or not show the complete picture, CBC?s coverage was very reassuring. Keep up the good work folks.

Democracy is supposed to empower the people but it is quite the opposite in situations like the war on Iraq and the recent atrocities committed in Lebanon where the opinion of the world and its people had absolutely no meaning or weight to it.

I would hate to see Iran terrorizing the world but the question now is, do they really have nuclear arsenal in the making or is it just another lie in the face of the whole world to rally support for yet another war based on cooked up intelligence.

Why have we gone absolutely blind and rendered powerless in the face of what you called 'Lies that led to war '.

I'm delighted that the Fifth Estate with its reputation for sound journalism, integrity and fairness has made such a profound condemnation of the Bush Administration regarding Iraq.

I said when the invasion started that something smelled wrong and that this would be a repeat of Vietnam. I was hoping I was wrong.

Michael Moore and others have said the same as was so clearly illustrated last evening on your program, but were always dismissed as left-wing nut-jobs with hidden agendas. Now there is a real news program that has confirmed what has long been known but unacknowledged.

Kudos! Excellent job. All I need to know is how many Americans will be fortunate enough to see your coverage.

George W Bush is the modern day Hitler. Although the ideologies were obviously different - it is the same thing. Just because democracy is viewed in a better light, what works for one country does not necessarily work in another. Remind me, where are these terrorists in Iraq hiding anyway?

Bravo for the title and content of this excellent program! Maybe it will help convince some of my fellow Canadians in 2007 who insist that we, who do not want our armed forces losing their lives in Afghanistan for another of Bush's wars, have always admired our American cousins but abhor the neocons who have hijacked their country. Fellow Canucks - watch this program and wake up before it is too late.

The program was a great roundup of all the lies the Bush administration pushed out using all avenues at its disposal.

I think that the program should have mentioned the millions of people worldwide who refused to buy into the lies and staged massive protests in many major cities around the world. Despite this unprecedented outpouring of public sentiment and distrust, there was little or no debate in Congress leading up to the war.

What sort of a message does this send to the youth who participated in the protests? Building on the question about the fragility of democracy in the US raised in the show, I believe that the divisive right wing strategies, while successful in the short term, will prove detrimental to democracy in the long run.

David Bowies song "I'm Afraid of Americans" never meant more than in times like we (the world) find ourselves in right now.

And truely, Mrs. Coulter, and Mr. O'rielly are two of the scariest... It is just devistating that they remain on the air preaching the "bad word" whilst rejecting any one elses. Their rhetoric will only strengthen the resolve of anti-american factions to bring the "mushroom clouds" to the west. where did the "Free Press" in america go? (to work at the fifth estate??)

scared canadian

I would like to see an episode based on what wasn't found at the site of the Pentagon on 9/11, i.e. The lack of aircraft wreckage. It scares me how easily people's ideals are changed due to propaganda.

I can always trust CBC to deliver a well researched and presented report, thank you Fifth Estate.

'Lies that Lead to War' was informative for me. It confirmed what I already knew and it was refreshing to see in our media, but also to confirm what I already decided myself...a testimony to the honesty in Canadian reporting.

My mind is swirling with thought. The reason we do the things we do can usually be boiled~down to a simple explanation.

It occurs to me that absolute power...corrupts absolutely. It is becoming clear to me that American leadership has gone to the dogs. With that said, I ponder who might BE in charge? I understand that the American dollar doesn't belong to the Americans, it belongs to the world bankers, you know the 1% that owns 99% of the worlds wealth?...the ones with not only have the money...but the means and apparently the desire to keep it.

What stumps me is why wars are necessary, unless they are what fuel the worlds bankers' loans. If a country is in war, money is needed and the world bankers are there in a jiff. Both sides of the conflict will need money and a lot of it. Long after the war is over, both countries will be paying back with interest, the monies borrowed to conduct a war, waxing the richest of the world with more money than imaginable to the common person.

I take the stance we are witnessing a more publicized version in Iraq then what has been going on world~wide for more than a few President's terms....wars seem to be continuous, even without clear reason...and now with difficulty in resolution, which delays its end and feeds the hungry rich.

It makes sense to me that USA was chosen as the super power since who ever owns the American money has a vested interest in the value of it and can manipulate American actions by flooding it with monies to develop top notch defense systems. With that, the rest of the world trembles at its power, much like the Roman Empire at it height.

To make money there are two ways: finance one after another war and then (2)the conquered land may embrace "democracy", which I consider another word to make even more money for the hungry money masters.

I lack to see the integrity we would hope the ultra rich would have. Is it possible the ones who are working this program are sociopaths? They say that every successful corporation has built on the executives of same fame.

They seem to have a plan, whether it fell into their laps because each of us are who we are or they simply have a money fetish, the plan has not only been executed, it seems to have been in place for more than 100 years.

And even if I know that...what can I do to stop it? It seems that those countries that do not conform will suffer terribly, probably into non existence.

People die unnecessarily in the droves so that globalization aka the new world order may take its place globally, no exceptions. it concerns me greatly because this is not the kind of world I thought I was born into and it is not the kind of world that can be sustained. Its like pyramid selling, almost all don't make decent make money...not fair. The money masters are not interested when we run out of the stuff we need to manufacture. It is indeed a deadly game of pyramid selling with no end in site.

This is where I turn off and leave it to the ones who have the power...only they can take responsibility for what they have perpetuated...I hope they are not all sociopaths.

Great program. Too bad you didn't have time to mention the important role of Hans Blix, who spent months searching Iraq for WMD and consistently said he couldn't find any.

I wonder what Colin Powell was thinking when he was lying to the UN. Did he know he was lying, or was he duped too? I wonder what he thinks now about the wisdom of invading Iraq.

Too bad there isn't some way to bring Buch, Cheney and Rumsfeld for account for all the deaths they've caused. Too bad they haven't even learned that they should have listened to "old Europe" and the UN before embarking on such a disasterous war.

Your latest report was a pretty shabby piece of journalism. The decision to interview a former low-level American general, whose incompetence allowed the abuses of Abu Graib to take place and was dismissed because of it; (although you failed to mention this important fact) shows that she clearly has an axe to grind with the Bush administration and is hardy a neutral 'expert' witness.

Furthermore the assertion that the Donahue show was cancelled because of its anti-war views is ludicrous. The counter argument that it was because of low ratings is one that can easily be checked. But that would require investigative journalism, something your show no longer does.

I found it appalling that a program meant to show how the Bush administration used spin to sell their case for war, is guilty of using the very same tactics. While not telling your opponents to 'shut up', giving almost no air time to counterpoints, then interrupting them to interject your own viewpoint, you're basically doing the same thing. And when I start find similarities between Fox News and the CBC, you know it's a dark day for your station.

I was glad, that the issue of America selling chemical weapons to Iraq was mentioned, despite it conflicting with the 'no WMD' dogma of the left. But overall, you documentary was 'cherry-picked' viewpoints to support your argument; While I expect such from Bush, I'm disgusted when it's done by my own national news outlet.

Great story on the Bush Iraq war.

I was in favour of the war when it began, but have slowly began to wonder if there ever was a long term plan for this mission.

Still, Churchill watched as Hitler marched the nazis across Europe, and jew to the gas chambers. I wonder if he rever egreted not doing something sooner. Its simple to look back and see the right choice would of been, but finding a soloution when the pressure is on can be near impossible.

I honestly feel that the war is going in the wrong direction, but I don't feel that going to war was the error. Keeping Bush and his pals in charge was the real error.

Maybe in a few years the world can look at the Sudan and see what happens when others don't lift a hand. Wonder if we will?

Thank you Bob McKewon for bringing some truth to the canadian people about this so called war on terror, especially the historical foortprint the U.S has trod upon central asia and the middle east's current situation.

It is unfortunate that most, even the cbc, had to wait so many years to step up. I have been ranting about the american cabal, PNAC, OSP, etc for years. The plan of action has been spelled out if only people would listen to the details. I suppose it is just easier not to.

Over the past five years, practically all of my friends have asked me not to call them anymore. I was absolutely enraged when america went into afghanistan and then again into iraq and now Canada allows our peacekeepers to be trained as murdering fodder and American proxy in afghanistan . .

For heavan's sake why are we so ignorant not to see it for what it is. Military and satellite bases have by now been set up in an inpenetrable swath straight across the european and asian continent. Iran, Syria and africa are likely not far behind. It is about supreme control and exclusive access to the space around our planet.

We have been trying to get the cbc to stand up to the US media for years now. But no one wanted to take the chance to break the silence of waiting on American intel. Much of america's historical hubris has been woven into our book about the great 'ahmed shah massoud' entitled On the trail of a lion, oil politics and terror.. the final paragraph reads: "Those who think we still have time to sit on the fence risk waking up one day to discover voices silenced and civil liberties merely a memory. " Written in 2003. How much longer must this go on? Can we as Canadians please take back our reputation and stand up to this insanity?

Finally, once again, thank you for educating the Canadian people. Somehow if it comes from you they are willing to accept it. Kudos.

Four years ago, most people got it right and saw through the lies but were ignored by their governments and mainstream media.

Today, media like The Fifth Estate are finding it expedient to stop ignoring the truth, but they're still not acknowledging which media and which people got it right from the beginning. This story is four years old and four years too late.

It's just another example of the lengths AMERICANS will go to accomplish their goals.

So democracy is the goal in the Middle East. This might come as a surprise to the Palestinians. Their right to democracy has been scorned throughout the world.

Excellent program. How tragic that so many have lost their lives for what seems like so little. However, the program left out comment from Iraqis who now live in the U.S. When Saddam Hussein was executed, there were celebrations in the streets of several towns in Michigan with large Iraqui communities. Clearly, more will be revealed in the months and years to come.

What did the world expect? The media had a great part to play in all of this but the American government led their people into this without taking care of looking at the people who were going to go into Iraq.

We have to look at how the right managed to take over the media by pushing fear into the face of Americans and the rest of the world. As much as he wants us to think that the attack on Irak was not payback from 1991, George W. Bush surrounded him-self with the old hands that helped his father... What should we think?

I have to say well done!

It's been a long time coming for a Canadian channel to step up and present a well researched and poignant piece of documentary about what led America and its "Coalition of the Willing" to invade Iraq with faulty intelligence and lack of post-war plans.

Fortunately, we Canadians know what is going on in the World enough to understand how this same mistake may once again lead to another invasion...this time in Iran. Would the citizens of America be foolish enough to allow this to happen again?

Time will tell...and history unfortunately doesn't favour the Americans in learning from their past mistakes.

Typical Fifth Estate hit piece. It is easy to pontificate about the war and pretend that it was "sanctions" that "got rid of the WMD." You guys are shameless propagandists.

Your program indicated that the seeds of war against Iraq was set in the Clinton era, with the notion they needed another Pearl Harbour to set it off. Then 9/11 happened. True. If you google 'In Plane Sight', 'Loose Change' or 'Re-open 9/11', you'll find the USA 'created their own Pearl Harbour',-no one else! All this hype about security is all for naught!