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ABC's film "Path to 9/11"
Sep. 7th, 2006 03:23 pmI don't know how much of this has made it to the mainstream; I read Daily KOS and sometimes things get blown out of proportion there.
ABC is going to be airing a "docudrama" on Sunday and Monday evenings called "The Path to 9/11", about the rise of terrorism leading up to 9/11/2001. It is claimed to be based on the 9/11 commission reports, but is also being marketed as, basically, "based on a true story", with fictional aspects to it. According to reports, the movie contains several fabrications that paint the Clinton administration as unconcerned with terrorism, and therefore indirectly responsible for September 11th. One scene purportedly has members of the CIA on the ground in Afghanistan, with bin Laden in their sight, but they were prevented from grabbing him because of political concerns (and/or because Clinton was too distracted by the Monica Lewinsky business). Apparently, this never happened; while the administration did refuse to bomb purported locations of bin Laden because the information they had was single-sourced, there is no evidence (unless ABC has classified documents now?) that bin Laden was ever in sight of U.S. agents.
Now, I am being very careful not to be paranoid; after all, if the film is incorrect, "never attribute to malice what can be explained by ignorance". It is possible that the film is just as critical towards the Bush administration (although rumor says it isn't), and that they are not playing partisan politics. However, several facts are highly suggestive. First, it is said that the movie was pre-screened--but only to conservative or right-wing bloggers and journalists. Second, ABC has refused to send an advance copy to Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright, or Sandy Burger (all featured in the movie), even though such a copy was requested. It certainly sounds like they have something to hide. Third, such a politically charged movie, shown two months before a midterm election in which Congress may possibly change hands, certainly appears to be foul play even if it is not. (Sometimes the appearance is as bad as the actuality.)
The movie was written and produced by Cyrus Nowrasteh, who is a conservative, and a pal of Rush Limbaugh's (not that there's anything wrong with that, I'm sure Rush is a nice guy...(bleh)). The Republican co-chair (but not the Democratic co-chair) of the 9/11 commission was hired as a consultant.
President Clinton has written a letter to ABC calling for the movie to be corrected or pulled, but ABC is digging in their heels (with the rather lame excuse that Clinton hasn't seen the movie yet, precisely because they wouldn't send him a copy). There is a lot of discussion going on about it on the web, as you might imagine; lefties calling for boycotts, righties calling it "the movie the Left doesn't want you to see", etc. I'm not sure it's made it to the mainstream media however; a search on NPR's website, for instance, turns up nothing yet.
Anyway, heads up.
ABC is going to be airing a "docudrama" on Sunday and Monday evenings called "The Path to 9/11", about the rise of terrorism leading up to 9/11/2001. It is claimed to be based on the 9/11 commission reports, but is also being marketed as, basically, "based on a true story", with fictional aspects to it. According to reports, the movie contains several fabrications that paint the Clinton administration as unconcerned with terrorism, and therefore indirectly responsible for September 11th. One scene purportedly has members of the CIA on the ground in Afghanistan, with bin Laden in their sight, but they were prevented from grabbing him because of political concerns (and/or because Clinton was too distracted by the Monica Lewinsky business). Apparently, this never happened; while the administration did refuse to bomb purported locations of bin Laden because the information they had was single-sourced, there is no evidence (unless ABC has classified documents now?) that bin Laden was ever in sight of U.S. agents.
Now, I am being very careful not to be paranoid; after all, if the film is incorrect, "never attribute to malice what can be explained by ignorance". It is possible that the film is just as critical towards the Bush administration (although rumor says it isn't), and that they are not playing partisan politics. However, several facts are highly suggestive. First, it is said that the movie was pre-screened--but only to conservative or right-wing bloggers and journalists. Second, ABC has refused to send an advance copy to Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright, or Sandy Burger (all featured in the movie), even though such a copy was requested. It certainly sounds like they have something to hide. Third, such a politically charged movie, shown two months before a midterm election in which Congress may possibly change hands, certainly appears to be foul play even if it is not. (Sometimes the appearance is as bad as the actuality.)
The movie was written and produced by Cyrus Nowrasteh, who is a conservative, and a pal of Rush Limbaugh's (not that there's anything wrong with that, I'm sure Rush is a nice guy...(bleh)). The Republican co-chair (but not the Democratic co-chair) of the 9/11 commission was hired as a consultant.
President Clinton has written a letter to ABC calling for the movie to be corrected or pulled, but ABC is digging in their heels (with the rather lame excuse that Clinton hasn't seen the movie yet, precisely because they wouldn't send him a copy). There is a lot of discussion going on about it on the web, as you might imagine; lefties calling for boycotts, righties calling it "the movie the Left doesn't want you to see", etc. I'm not sure it's made it to the mainstream media however; a search on NPR's website, for instance, turns up nothing yet.
Anyway, heads up.
