Rental Unit 

"Uncovered: The War on Iraq"

Ray McGovern is a lesser-known but prime example of this group. He spent almost 30 years in the CIA, mostly as an analyst, working in the bubble of Northern Virginia and sequestered, he says, from the partisanship of Washington. The organization has always prided itself on the independent and open evaluation of intelligence gathering. And on being right. Then, he says, the CIA was hijacked by the Bush administration. The film offers videotape and documents as its evidence.

It is disconcerting for the viewer to see Colin Powell scaring the United Nations with tales of "one hundred to five hundred tons of chemical weapons agent, enough to fill 16,000 weapons on the battlefield"— especially when it is revealed that his facts are based on doctored reports. Powell said his numbers were a "conservative estimate." On the contrary, McGovern says, they sounded then and now "very much like our neoconservative estimate," referring to administration ideologues like Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.

"Uncovered" is at times funny, startling and sad. It is a curious thing to watch in the days after the 2004 election. Yet it is another reminder that there are active and esteemed men and women out there working to get at the truth, whatever it may be. — Wayne Melton

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