This Week On FRONTLINE ----

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FRONTLINE's new season begins this Tuesday night, October 16th. It also will mark our 25th anniversary on PBS. Last month we were honored with a Special Emmy Award for Excellence in Television Documentary Filmmaking for "outstanding, well-crafted and intelligent documentaries that examine complex and controversial subjects in a thoughtful and dispassionate manner." Also winning an Emmy was veteran producer Michael Kirk, whose documentary, "The Lost Year in Iraq," won in the category of "Outstanding Historical Programming."

It is to Kirk, co-producer/reporter Jim Gilmore, and the other professionals on their team that we have turned for the premier report of FRONTLINE's special new season.

On Tuesday, in "Cheney's Law," Kirk tells one of the most significant stories of our times. In this report Kirk outlines how two men -- Vice President Dick Cheney and his legal adviser, David Addington -- used a little-known group inside the Justice Department to interpret the law so as to greatly enhance presidential power. Their assertion of virtually unlimited presidential authority to conduct the war on terror, both abroad and at home, raises profound constitutional questions. Especially controversial is the role of Congress to act as a check on executive power.

But Kirk discovered that it would be a revolt inside the Justice Department itself -- triggered by a conservative law professor, Jack Goldsmith, who had been appointed by the president -- that would finally lead to a "no" to Cheney's lawyer, David Addington.

For awhile, under Attorney General John Ashcroft, that "no" stood. But when Ashcroft left and President Bush appointed his old friend Alberto Gonzales as attorney general, some of the "no's" were then reconsidered.

Just recently The New York Times revealed that secret new Justice Department memos, approved by Gonzales, permit the CIA to engage in the harshest interrogation practices ever - practices that some have called torture.

We invite you to join us Tuesday night and learn more about the secret battles of the lawyers -- a clash that ultimately shapes how far the executive branch of our government can go in waging the war on terror.

And then be sure to visit our Web site to watch the program in full online. And explore more of what insiders and journalists have to say about the main themes and issues covered in this story, plus join in the online disscusion about it.

Louis Wiley, Jr.
Executive Editor

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/

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“FRONTLINE
http://www.pbs.org/frontline/

This Week: "Showdown With Iran" (60 minutes),
Tuesday, Oct. 23 at 9pm on PBS (check local listings)
Live Discussion: Chat with producer Greg Barker, Wed., Oct. 24, at 11 am ET

Will there be another war in the Middle East -- a war between the U.S. and Iran?

This Tuesday FRONTLINE traces the complex relationship between the two countries since 9/1l. From cooperation during the war in Afghanistan to confrontation today in Iraq, there appear to be hawks and doves in both nations striving to control policy. However, Iran's determination to continue with its nuclear program and its support of Shia militias who are attacking U.S. forces in Iraq are the factors that could cause President Bush to order military action.

Says former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, "I don't know what the president will do between now and the end of the administration. He has said repeatedly that it is unacceptable for Iran to have nuclear weapons, and if he means unacceptable, then I assume he would take military action if he had to."

Such analysis doesn't seem to frighten the Iranians. Their Supreme Leader has said, "The U.S. can't do a damn thing to us." And the deputy head of Iran's National Security Council, Mohammad Jafari, tells FRONTLINE in his first-ever television interview:

"You will not find a single instance in which a country has inflicted harm on us and we have left it without a response. So if the United States makes such a mistake, they should know that we will definitely respond. And we don't make idle threats."

Jafari is senior commander of the Quds Force, the elite foreign operations branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, and a man the U.S. almost caught with other Iranian operatives inside Iraq earlier this year. Iranian hardliners are rarely seen on American television. But FRONTLINE producer Greg Barker and co-producer Claudia Rizzi, were able to convince some of the most senior players in Iran's power structure to speak with them.

The Iranians display a profound distrust of the U.S., especially its actions in Iraq. While welcoming the demise of their arch-enemy, Saddam Hussein, they say the U.S. should now get out. Iran has great influence with the Shia government in Iraq that the U.S. helped bring to power. One expert in the program notes the irony: the U.S. action in Iraq has inadvertently helped pave the way for a revival of Iran's historic ambition to be the key power in the region.

To understand the context for the current U.S.-Iran stand-off, we invite you to join us Tuesday night. And if you miss the program, it's available for viewing on our Web site, along with the interviews with key Iranian officials, more analysis of the issues, and a report by Barker on the making of this film. And, we invite you to join in the discussion.

Louis Wiley, Jr.
Executive Editor



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+ Live Online Discussion on Washingtonpost.com ...

Producer Greg Barker will be online this Wednesday, Oct 24, at 11am ET, to discuss "Showdown With Iran"

For details, see:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/10/18/DI2007101801299.html

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FRONTLINE
http://www.pbs.org/frontline/

This Week: "The Undertaking" (60 minutes),
Tuesday, Oct. 30 at 9pm on PBS (check local listings)
Live Discussion: Chat with producers Karen O'Connor and Miri Navasky Wed., Oct. 31, at 11 am ET

Every so often we have the occasion to write a special note about a FRONTLINE program, and this is one of them.

Tuesday night's "The Undertaking" is a film about death and dying, grief and bereavement -- subjects we all are uncomfortable talking about, but not subjects we don't think about. And yet, this is not a depressing film. It is tender, poignant and life-affirming.

It features Thomas Lynch, a writer, poet and funeral director. For three generations he and his family have cared for the dead -- and the living -- in a small town in southcentral Michigan.

Producers Karen O'Connor and Miri Navasky obtained rare access into the world of Lynch & Sons. They interweave the details of their work caring for the dead -- the embalming, the dressing of the body -- with the intimate stories of the families who come to the funeral home to plan the rituals that will honor the life of a loved one. Throughout the program, O'Connor and Navasky include excerpts from Lynch's award-winning book, "The Undertaking: Life Studies From the Dismal Trade." In the end, their film becomes a deeply moving meditation on the journey that is taken between the living and the dead when someone dies, and how the rituals of a funeral help us, in the words of Lynch, "...to make some sense of life and living, dying and the dead."

A colleague of ours had an early look at it and wrote back the next day --

"I'm someone who has always been very fearful of death, and I can honestly say I haven't stopped thinking about the film. It has made me view my life and my little ones differently. My husband and I discussed afterward that we wanted to tell everyone we knew to watch it -- but it also seems like a difficult film to spread word-of-mouth..."

So we want to get the word out here: "The Undertaking" is an extraordinary film and we hope you will join us Tuesday night.

And don't forget that you can watch it anytime on our Web site, where you also can explore more about the Lynches and the stories of the individual families, and share your thoughts in our "Join the Discussion"area of the site.

Marrie Campbell
Editorial Director



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+ Live Online Discussion on Washingtonpost.com ...

Producers Karen O'Connor and Miri Navasky will be online this Wednesday, Oct 31, at 11am ET, to discuss "The Undertaking"

For details, see:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/10/24/DI2007102402178.html

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