ABC's 'Path to 9/11': Bill Clinton's Inconvenient Truth
James Hirsen, NewsMax.com
Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2006
"The Path to 9/11," a six-hour miniseries scheduled to air September 10 and 11 on ABC, has certain former members of the Clinton administration in a panic.
The docudrama is thoroughly sourced and exposes information that former members of the Clinton administration had previously tried to suppress: that there was a failure on the part of the administration to respond to terrorism, inaction that ended up being partly to blame for the tragic events that took place on 9/11.
"Path" is based on the 9/11 Commission Final Report and the 2003 book "The Cell: Inside the 9/11 Plot, and Why the FBI and CIA Failed to Stop It." New Jersey Governor and Commission Co-chairman Thomas H. Kean served as a consultant for the miniseries.
Cyrus Nowrasteh, the writer and producer of the project, told Jamie Glazov of FrontPageMag.com that he was given "an incredible amount of research materials and [access to] high-level advisors from the FBI, CIA, Secret Service, Diplomatic Security, etc."
The miniseries stars Oscar nominee Harvey Keitel ("Pulp Fiction," "The Piano"), who plays the role of FBI agent John O'Neill. O'Neill is the FBI terrorism chief who attempted to convince the Clinton administration that it needed to deal with the danger that Osama bin Laden posed.
Ironically, after leaving the FBI, O'Neill took the job of security director for the World Trade Center. Along with thousands of others he died on that fateful September day.
The ABC Web site refers to the production as "an epic miniseries event," and the plan is to air the program with limited commercial interruptions.
Because the program specifically deals with the Clinton administration's failure to act when bin Laden was offered, a left-wing outcry has erupted on the Internet along with attempts to vilify the miniseries before it is even shown.
David Brock's Web site carries an article with a headline that reads "Right wing uses ABC docudrama to push debunked claim blaming Clinton administration for 9-11."
Pressure from the Left and from Clinton allies may account for an unusual posting by director David L. Cunningham titled "Clarification," which was placed on the "Path" Web site.
It stated that the series "is not a documentary," nor is it "a right wing agenda movie."
"The team of filmmakers, actors and executives that are responsible for this movie have very different political views. There was no emphasis given to one party over another. By the way, we are also being accused of being a left wing movie that bashes Bush," it also read.
The posting has since been removed from the ABC Web site.
Clinton colleagues Richard Ben-Veniste and John Podesta reportedly expressed their extreme displeasure about the way the docudrama portrays the Clinton administration. Their frustration likely stems from the extensive efforts that were taken to keep the information from being made public.
Jamie Gorelick, former deputy attorney general during the Clinton administration and creator of the notorious wall that was erected between the FBI and CIA, served as a 9/11 Commission panel member. Because of potential conflicts of interest, the propriety of Gorelick's membership on the panel was questionable.
Ben-Veniste's role as a longtime partisan Democrat attorney made him another highly questionable commission member.
Sandy Berger's bizarre and illegal behavior (the actions in which the former national security adviser from the Clinton administration stuffed classified documents into his pants and socks) actually occurred while the commission was in the midst of conducting its investigation.
In a 2002 speech to a Long Island business group, Bill Clinton detailed a 1996 offer from Sudan for bin Laden's extradition. The speech was recorded by NewsMax.com as well as by the Long Island association that hosted the event.
In 2004 the former president admitted on CNN that he once publicly confessed to turning down an offer to have bin Laden arrested prior to the 9/11 attacks. But in true Clintonesque fashion, he unabashedly asserted that his admission was "not accurate."
"What I said there was wrong, what I said was in error," Clinton told CNN's Christiane Amanpour.
"Path" highlights the pivotal moment when the CIA and Northern Alliance had bin Laden surrounded and sought the necessary approval from the Clinton administration to go in and arrest the al-Qaida leader. The administration's refusal to authorize bin Laden's capture was apparently for political reasons.
Ostensibly, the 9/11 Commission was formed to determine how such an attack could have happened to our nation.
A combination of obfuscation by some committee members and a mainstream media bent on blaming Bush has prevented the real trail, which leads from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing to the 9/11 tragedy, from seeing the light of day.
"Path" may provide some long-awaited illumination to an event that has been partially shrouded in mystery — until now.
Editor's Note: CLICK HERE to hear Bill Clinton admit that he turned down Sudan's offer to extradite Osama bin Laden.
Editor's note:
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