After the terrorist attacks of 9/11 2001 vice president Dick Cheney prepared the american public, that the government has to act on “the dark side”. Cheney placed shortly after assumption of office of the bush administrattion his allied in goverment positions. They promoted pithy foreighn policy which includes, like in Iraque, pre-emtive strikes. A potential problem was the former chief of the CIA George Tenet. For him it was possible to outlive the Clinton administration for him it was possible to have a personal relationship to Bush without Cheney between them. After 9/11 the vice president tried gain back th initiative and to enlarge the authority of the president by creating preasure on the intelligence forcing them to align on the counterterrorism in Iraque. His main ally was the secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld. In the beginning of the counterterror campaig the operations against Aghanistan were lead by the CIA and Tenet. Wheras Tenet always pointed out, that there is no connection between Al-Kaida and the Irque, Cheney and Rumsfeld worked on their plan to descredit this these and to oust the CIA . For the officers of the intelligence agencies the message was clear: Dick Cheney wanted proofs for the threat emanating from Iraque. As main argument for creating legitimity for the war, the US-goverment argued with a memorandum compiled in October 2002 by the CIA, that “proofs” that the Iraque was in progress in producing weapons of mass destruction. Paul Pillar, the compiler of the memorandum later acknoledged, that the memorandum was written under political and temporal preasur and that the war was already decided. The documentation traces the events and illuminates the role of George Tenet int the preparation of the war in Iraque. Despite the wend, the events took, Tenet continued in his position. But after the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraque failed, the tensions between the CIA and the Cheney-bearing tigthened. In goverment circles the myth rose, that the CIA was running a sting operation to destabilize the president. In a campaign Cheney an his men diccociated from the informations of the time before the war, altough, they had demanded them. So put under political preasure Tenet retreeted. Later the chief of staff of Cheney Lewis Lebby, acknoledged , that he had - with the admission of Cheney- leached parts of the memorandum of 2002. This indiscretion was a weapon in the war between the vice president and the CIA.