Posted on 09/06/2006 6:02:32 AM PDT by PDR
The docudrama that ABC will air next week commemorating the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks seems likely to revive some long-running disputes over whether the Clinton or Bush administration has more to answer for in neglecting indications of a pending al Qaeda attack on the United States.
“The Path to 9/11,” a five-hour, two-part depiction of events prior to the attacks, is to air Sept. 10 and 11. And early reviews among veterans of the Clinton White House are decidedly negative: They argue that the show downplays the Bush White House’s culpability while inventing some scenes out of whole cloth to dramatize the supposed negligence of Clinton officials.
That complaint came to the fore at a National Press Club screening of the show late last month, when Richard Ben-Veniste — one of the 10 members of the independent Sept. 11 commission, whose final report producer Marc Platt credits with supplying much of the mini-series’ detail and narrative structure — rose to denounce the veracity of a key scene involving Clinton national security adviser Samuel R. Berger.
Berger, portrayed as a pasty-faced time-server by Kevin Dunn (Col. Hicks in “Godzilla”) freezes in dithering apprehension when a manly and virtuous CIA agent played by Donnie Wahlberg radios in from the wilds of Afghanistan to say that he and his noble band of local tribesmen have Osama bin Laden within sight and begs for the green light to terminate him with extreme prejudice. In the film, the line goes dead before Berger offers any reply.
The moment is clearly intended to encapsulate the notion of American inattentiveness to the terror threat in the 1990s — a point driven home when the camera pans back to show Berger surrounded by a supporting cast of fellow Clinton administration nervous Nellies, including Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and Defense Secretary William S. Cohen.
So when the post-screening question-and-answer session began, Ben-Veniste stood to say that the Berger-bashing scene didn’t square with the research he and the other commissioners conducted. “There was no incident like that in the film that we came across. I am disturbed by that aspect of it,” Ben-Veniste, a loyal Democrat, told the panel, which included both the producer and the commission’s GOP chairman, former Gov. Thomas H. Kean of New Jersey.
Berger, reached by phone after the screening, seconded Ben-Veniste’s criticism. “It’s a total fabrication,” he said tersely. “It did not happen.”
That is not likely to prevent the film from being embraced far and wide among Bush supporters. Even before its airdate, the show is being hailed as a breakthrough in the conservative blogosphere. One blogger marveled in an interview with scriptwriter Cyrus Nowrasteh that “one unbelievable sequence shows how . . . Sandy Berger . . . actually hung up the phone on the CIA agent on the ground.”
Neither Berger nor Ben-Veniste was consulted on the film. Kean, however, is an official adviser; he says the incident was a fictionalized composite. It was “representative of a series of events compacted into one,” he replied to Ben-Veniste at the time. In a phone interview a few days later, he added, “It’s reasonably accurate.” And he offered a prediction that the show will “get just as many howls from Republicans.”
CLINTON did it !! and his Friends LIED for him !
If this is an example of how well he can frame his thoughts...
The more publicity before this event the more folks will watch it. I understand they took great attention to detail. Should be intresting.
Moreover, they have offered no proof that any planning was underway for any action to be taken against what they clim was the highest threat to the US. If the clinton administration was really prepared, what, exactly had they done to prepare for the terrorist's actions? One would expect the clinton partisans would want to point out that W's gang had scuttled such plans - if in fact they ever existed.
9/11 is not a result of fighting in wars that we shouldn't have been. It is a result of not fighting a war that we should have been.
"You won't find any evidence..."
Now you know demoncraps are innocent until proved guilty while we republicans are guilty till proved innocent. /Sarcasam
The training was done in the Clinton years. Bubba did nothing. Did Al Gore know as well (since he would've had the security clearance to know as as VP and possible president prior to the Supreme Court decision).
The Burglar admits to smuggling out and destroying documents. We don't have to take a thief and covert agent at his word as to what was in those documents.
Can anyone tell me what channel ABC is on in my area? I haven't tuned to it in about 10 years. Is it in color? Do they run on the same time zone as mine? Just need to prepare myself.
I agree that it is a long term program. The WTC was initally targeted under Republican administration(s) with the first physicall attack being in February of 1993.
However it is the response from the Clinton administration (who came into office with no foreign policy experience, something that the Dems then tried to use against Bush43 but that they ignored under Bush41) that led to increased terrorist attacks on US interests around the world culminating in the physical destruction of both World Trade Center towers and a considerable section of the Pentagon with another hijacked-plane-used-as-missile that did not reach its intended target.
1998: Indonesia Gives US Warning of 9/11 Attack?
Hendropriyono, the Indonesian chief of intelligence, will later claim that, “[we] had intelligence predicting the September 11 attacks three years before it happened but nobody believed us.” He says Indonesian intelligence agents identify bin Laden as the leader of the group plotting the attack and that the US disregards the warning, but otherwise offers no additional details. The Associated Press notes, “Indonesia’s intelligence services are not renowned for their accuracy.” [Associated Press, 7/9/2003]
1999: British Intelligence Warns al-Qaeda Plans to Use Aircraft, Possibly as Flying Bombs
MI6, the British intelligence agency, gives a secret report to liaison staff at the US embassy in London. The reports states that al-Qaeda has plans to use “commercial aircraft” in “unconventional ways,” “possibly as flying bombs.” [Sunday Times (London), 6/9/2002]
March 1999: Germany Provides CIA Hijacker’s Name and Telephone Number
German intelligence gives the CIA the first name of hijacker Marwan Alshehhi and his telephone number in the United Arab Emirates. The Germans learned the information from surveillance of suspected Islamic militants. They tell the CIA that Alshehhi has been in contact with suspected al-Qaeda members Mohammed Haydar Zammar and Mamoun Darkazanli. He is described as a United Arab Emirates student who has spent some time studying in Germany. [US Congress, 7/24/2003; Deutsche Presse-Agentur (Hamburg), 8/13/2003; New York Times, 2/24/2004] The Germans consider this information “particularly valuable” and ask the CIA to track Alshehhi, but the CIA never responds until after the 9/11 attacks. The CIA decides at the time that this “Marwan” is probably an associate of bin Laden but never track him down. It is not clear why the CIA fails to act, or if they learn his last name before 9/11. [New York Times, 2/24/2004] The Germans monitor other calls between Alshehhi and Zammar, but it isn’t clear if the CIA is also told of these or not (see September 21, 1999).
August 12, 2000: Italian Intelligence Wiretap of al-Qaeda Cell Reveals Massive Aircraft-based Strike
Italian intelligence successfully wiretap the al-Qaeda cell in Milan, Italy from late 1999 until the summer of 2001. [Boston Globe, 8/4/2002] In a wiretapped conversation from this day, suspected Yemeni Abdulsalam Ali Abdulrahman tells wanted Egyptian Mahmoud Es Sayed about a massive strike against the enemies of Islam involving aircraft and the sky, a blow that “will be written about in all the newspapers of the world. This will be one of those strikes that will never be forgotten. ... This is a terrifying thing. This is a thing that will spread from south to north, from east to west: The person who came up with this program is a madman from a madhouse, a madman but a genius.” In another conversation, Abdulrahman tells Es Sayed: “I’m studying airplanes. I hope, God willing, that I can bring you a window or a piece of an airplane the next time we see each other.” The comment is followed by laughter. Beginning in October 2000, FBI experts will help Italian police analyze the intercepts and warnings. Neither Italy nor the FBI will understand their meaning until after 9/11. [Boston Globe, 8/4/2002]
How could he know? He's independant. If this doesnt show how ridiculous having him on the panel was, I cant say what would.
Does anybody know what papers Sandy "Burglar" was convicted of stealing from the National Archives?
>>Berger, reached by phone after the screening, seconded Ben-Veniste’s criticism. “It’s a total fabrication,” he said tersely. “It did not happen.”<<
Does anyone know if this actually DID happen?
I was observing that clinton hacks claim they warned W. They claim they knew binladen was going to be trouble. But the clintonistas never offer any evidence that they were preparing for such trouble. There is no proof that clinton had any plans in the can for dealing with bin laden.
If they really believed binladen was trouble, you'd think there would have been some preparation already in place for the incoming administration.
Clearly the govt under Clinton and his administration were most culpable but the roots go back to the Carter administration.
People like Louis Freeh and even Richard Clarke have said some interesting and not very favorable things about the Clinton administration's handling of the terrorism issue. Freeh said that Clinton wasn't serious about islamic terrorism because he was chasing a right wing boogyman who didn't exist. Clarke wanted to investigate middle eastern connections to the OKC bombing but was shut down.
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