The Path to 9/11, a docudrama set to air for millions on the fifth anniversary of the attacks that changed this country forever, contains a scene that suggests President Bill Clinton let Osama bin Laden escape. According to Richard Clarke, former counterterrorism czar for Bush I, Clinton and Bush II, and now counterterrorism adviser to ABC, the scenario, in which Clinton’s National Security Adviser Sandy Berger refuses to give the order to kill Bin Laden when he is cornered by CIA agents in Afghanistan, never occurred. It was completely made up by writer Cyrus Nowrasteh.
Both Richard Ben-Veniste — one of the 10 members of the independent Sept. 11 commission, and Sandy Berger have denounced the scene. Said Berger:” It’s a total fabrication. It did not happen.”
There are other troubling inaccuracies as well.
Is it any surprise then, that advance copies of Path to 9/11 have only been sent out to Republican bloggers and not Democratic ones? Said Americablog: “…the fact that ABC is only targeting Republicans with this anti-Clinton TV show is prima facie evidence that this is nothing more than one big fat campaign contribution from ABC/Disney to the Republican party. A contribution grotesquely wrapped in the ashes of nearly 3,000 Americans.”
An interview with the show’s writer reveals an obvious right-wing bias. Have Disney and ABC become tools of the right wing?
So on September 10th and 11th, millions of Americans are to be spoon-fed this bit of rewritten history. And we have still not captured Osama bin Laden.
In a related kicker to this news, it was reported yesterday that Pakistan, the Bush administration’s so-called “ally” in the war on terror, would not take Bin Laden into custody “as long as [he] is being like a peaceful citizen.” See video.
Yesterday, Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY-28), Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee, released a statement condemning the program’s “documentary” billing: “ABC has a responsibility to make clear that this film is not a documentary, and does not represent an official account of the facts surrounding the September 11th attacks,” Rep. Slaughter said. “Disclaimers noting that The Path to 9/11 is a docudrama should be shown throughout its airing. We have yet to establish the impartiality and accuracy of the people behind this film and the claims it advances, and the American people need to know that…But what is far more important is the timing of this movie,” Rep. Slaughter continued. “The anniversary of the attacks is an emotional time, and it is wrong for anyone to play on those emotions and use them to advance a political agenda.”
Tell ABC to tell the truth about 9/11.
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What If 9/11 Never Happened? [tr]
Mychal Judge: The Saint of 9/11 [tr]
