“Without the Camp Bucca, there would be no ISIS today. It made it all, it built our ideology. We could never have all got together like this in Baghdad, or anywhere else. It would have been impossibly dangerous. Here, we were not only safe, but we were only a few hundred metres away from the entire al-Qaida leadership.” A senior ISIS commander

“The Spymasters: CIA In the Crosshairs” is a 2015 documentary film which covers the experience of the Central Intelligence Agency as seen through the eyes of the twelve living CIA directors, all of whom were interviewed for the film. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

Directed and produced by Jules Naudet, Gedeon Naudet, and Chris Whipple, the documentary was aired on Showtime in the United States November 28, 2015. The project involved interviews which took more than a year and a half to conduct, beginning with former Director of Central Intelligence and 41st president George H. W. Bush and ending with George Tenet.” [Wikipedia]

“To its credit, the film doesn’t provide easy answers, instead revealing deep, continuing disagreements over such counterterrorism tactics as enhanced interrogation, drone warfare, black sites and the targeted killing of American combatants. It also sheds new light on the intelligence failures that led to the Iraq war and government inaction in the months before 9/11.” [LA Times]

Robert Gates asked the viewer to reflect on a simple issue (@ 1H49′):

“Have we not gone to war in Iraq, what would the world look like?”

Gates then admits that this war was a “analytical failure”. I think we can all agree on that…

Well, Tony Blair has – partially – answered that one.

Only one of Tony Blair’s mea culpas in his CNN interview stands out as truly significant: his partial acknowledgment that without the Iraq war there would be no Islamic State (Isis). Until now, Blair had refused to link the two, insisting instead in the lead-up to the war that sending western troops would deny jihadis an arena and prevent Saddam Hussein from using them as proxies in his standoff with the west. (…) A senior Isis commander has told the Guardian that without the Camp Bucca facility in southern Iraq, in which he and most of the senior leadership were at one point detained, there would be no Isis today. “It made it all, it built our ideology,” he told the Guardian last December, “We could never have all got together like this in Baghdad, or anywhere else,” he said. “It would have been impossibly dangerous. Here, we were not only safe, but we were only a few hundred metres away from the entire al-Qaida leadership.” A Sunni resident from the west of the city, said Blair’s acknowledgment was “so obvious it’s surprising he bothered to speak”. He added: “It really isn’t possible to come to any other conclusion. Without the invasion, we would not have Isis. It’s crystal clear.” RELATED POST: CIA Director Mike Pompeo tells a whopper RELATED POST: CIA Director Mike Pompeo — Who Is Who in World Intelligence and Security Agencies? RELATED POST: Former CIA Boss Michael Hayden’s theory about VAULT 7 – WikiLeaks doesn’t hold water. Unless… RELATED POST: CIA Directors — Test your ‘Spy’ knowledge with our quiz!

The Spymasters: CIA in the Crosshairs | Official Clip | SHOWTIME Documentary

Documentary revealing the inner workings of the world’s most powerful intelligence organization. Narrated by Emmy and Tony winner Mandy Patinkin, the film offers a remarkable inside look into the CIA, and for the first time in history, will feature interviews with all 12 living directors of the agency.

REFERENCES

“How the makers of ‘The Spymasters’ got former CIA directors to open up”

Documentary ONLINE

Tony Blair is right: without the Iraq war there would be no Islamic State

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Spymasters: CIA In the Crosshairs

One Year Ago — Spymasters: CIA In the Crosshairs