NYT Attacks Accuracy Of 9/11 Docu-Drama

NYT/Sweetness & Light ^ | September 6, 2006 | N/A

[Sam Hill]

In their never ending quest for the truth, the "Paper Of Treason," the New York Times casts aspersions on the accuracy of the upcoming ABC docu-drama "The Paths To 9/11":

9/11 Miniseries Is Criticized as Inaccurate and Biased

By JESSE McKINLEY
Published: September 6, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 5 — Days before its scheduled debut, the first major television miniseries about the Sept. 11 attacks was being criticized on Tuesday as biased and inaccurate by bloggers, terrorism experts and a member of the Sept. 11 commission, whose report makes up much of the film’s source material.

The six-hour miniseries, “The Path to 9/11,” is to be shown on ABC on Sunday and Monday. The network has been advertising the program as a “historic broadcast” that uses the commission’s report on the 2001 attacks as its “primary foundation.”

On Tuesday, several liberal blogs were questioning whether ABC’s version was overly critical of the Clinton administration while letting the Bush administration off easy.

In particular, some critics — including Richard A. Clarke, the former counterterrorism czar — questioned a scene that depicts several American military officers on the ground in Afghanistan. In it, the officers, working with leaders of the Northern Alliance, the Afghan rebel group, move in to capture Osama bin Laden, only to allow him to escape after the mission is canceled by Clinton officials in Washington.

In a posting on ThinkProgress.org, and in a phone interview, Mr. Clarke said no military personnel or C.I.A. agents were ever in position to capture Mr. bin Laden in Afghanistan, nor did the leader of the Northern Alliance get that near to his camp.

“It didn’t happen,” Mr. Clarke said. “There were no troops in Afghanistan about to snatch bin Laden. There were no C.I.A. personnel about to snatch bin Laden. It’s utterly invented.” ...

Former Gov. Thomas H. Kean of New Jersey, the chairman of the Sept. 11 commission and a consultant on the miniseries, defended the program, saying he thought the disputed scene was an honest representation of a number of failed efforts to capture Mr. bin Laden.

“I pointed out the fact that the scene involving Afghanistan and the attempt to get bin Laden is a composite,” Mr. Kean said, adding that the miniseries format required some conflation of events. But, he said, “The basic fact is that on a number of occasions, they thought they might have been able to get bin Laden, and on those occasions, the plug was pulled for various reasons.” ...

ABC said it planned to run a disclaimer with the broadcast, reminding viewers that the movie was not a documentary.

But Richard Ben-Veniste, a member of the Sept. 11 commission, said genre confusion would not be a problem for commission members, several of whom saw part of the miniseries last week.

“As we were watching, we were trying to think how they could have misinterpreted the 9/11 commission’s finding the way that they had,” Mr. Ben-Veniste said. “They gave the impression that Clinton had not given the green light to an operation that had been cleared by the C.I.A. to kill bin Laden,” when, in fact, the Sept. 11 commission concluded that Mr. Clinton had...

And yet the New York Time's sister news outlet, Al Jazeera, says such a plot was very close to being implemented:

CIA halted a plan to kidnap Bin Laden in 1998

7/27/2004 4:21:00 PM GMT

In 1998 the now-retired CIA head George Tenet called off a brave plan to abduct Al Qaida chief Osama bin Laden from an Afghan compound, fearing that it was too dangerous to implement according to a report into the September 11 terror attacks.

Agents set a plan to kidnap bin Laden from a farm in Kandahar, and then transport him to New York or another place where he could be put on trial.

But Tenet decided to halt the plan amid fears that very dangerous nad might harm many U.S. civilians.

The plan was devised based on satellite imagery and intelligence about a walled compound called Tarnak Farms.

“No capture plan before 9/11 ever again attained the same level of detail and preparation,” the report said.

“Working-level CIA officers were disappointed” when the plan was axed, it added.

The U.S. agreed with the Afghan tribal leaders to raid the compound made up of concrete and mud-brick, near Kandahar Airport.

After that and during the night, Afghan operatives would attack the building where they suspect Bin Laden slept.

A lot of training has been made in 1997 and 1998 to carry out the plan, the commission reported.

By 1998 the CIA was ready to introduce the plan to the White House and get the approval for the raid, and Mr Tenet briefed National Security Adviser Sandy Berger.

The plan was for bin Laden to be snatched by a group of Afghan operatives and handed to a group of tribal leaders in the desert outside Kandahar.

The they would turn bin Laden over to another group of leaders who would then hand him over to the CIA.

But unfortunately the plan was halted, and that for a number of reasons made by Tenet.

The crack U.S. military Delta Force was uncomfortable with the fact of having Bin Laden in the hands of tribal leaders for so long, and Mr Berger was worried about the chances of securing a conviction against Bin Laden were he brought to justice.

The justification that was made for halting this plan was that bin Laden’s loyalists might kidnap U.S. civilians in Afghanistan as a pay back.

Even the CIA field officer in charge of the operation said the planning - while giving them a 40% chance of success – would not prevent a scenario where “we step back and keep our fingers crossed”.

Referring to Mr Tenet, the commission said: “He alone had decided to ’turn off’ the operation.” By this time the opportunity to snatch bin Laden had started to shrink.

“The tribals’ reported readiness to act diminished,” the report said.

“And bin Laden’s security precautions and defenses became more elaborate and formidable.”

And even PBS's Frontline program, "Hunting Bin Laden," makes mention of the planned raid:

NARRATOR: The possibility o a terrorist attack was very real in Nairobi. In the fall of 1997, in addition to the discovery of the bin Laden cell, this man, Mustapha Ahmed, said he knew of a plot to detonate a truck bomb in the basement of the embassy building. In the midst of all this, Ambassador Bushnell asked the State Department to move her embassy, but she was turned down.

By the spring of 1998, the CIA had developed a secret plan to send commandos to snatch bin Laden from his mountain retreat in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, bin Laden was escalating his war on America...

[But] the director of the CIA, fearing too many U.S. casualties, called off the commando raid on bin Laden's camp.

So who are we to believe? It's not like the New York Times has never lied to us before. Or have they?

From an abstract of a July 26, 2004 article in the highly guarded New York Times' archives:

THREATS AND RESPONSES: INTELLIGENCE

Kidnapping of bin Laden Was Rehearsed in '98 but Scrapped, 9/11 Report Says

July 26, 2004, Monday

By THOMAS CRAMPTON (NYT); National Desk
Late Edition - Final, Section A, Page 12, Column 1, 1255 words

DISPLAYING ABSTRACT - Sept 11 commission report claims that Central Intelligence Agency director George J Tenet scrapped heavily rehearsed raid to kidnap Osama bin Laden from his compound in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in May 1998; tale of canceled raid tells of senior CIA and national security officials balancing operation's potential rewards against concerns about jeopardizing lives of operatives and repercussions that would follow if gambit failed; report states that senior CIA officials ultimately decided that plan was too dangerous; aspects of raid have been described in books by former counterterrorism chief Richad A Clarke and journalist Steve Coll; in addition to CIA concerns, then-national security adviser Samuel R Berger was said to be worried about what would be done with bin Laden if he was captured, since hard evidence against him was still skimpy and there was danger of seeing him acquitted if trial were held in United States courts...

And for the record, in a piece for FrontPage Magazine, former Clinton advisor Dick Morris lists this and other opportunities to get Bin Laden that Clinton and his people missed.

But in fairness to The Times, it should be noted that by attacking the ABC docu-drama they are simply doing the bidding of their masters in the DNC.

Behold this email from a lackey of former Clinton lackey, John Podesta. (Podesta now heads the Center For American Progress, which is one of the larger DNC/Soro money funneling 527s.)

From: Judd Legum, Center for American Progress Action Fund [mailto:progress@americanprogressaction.org]
Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2006 12:05 PM
To: xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: ABC: Tell the Truth About 9/11

Dear Robert,

On September 10 and September 11, ABC Television is planning to air a "docudrama" called "The Path to 9/11," billed by the writer as "an objective telling of the events of 9/11." In fact, based on our review, the program is full of inaccuracies and partisan misrepresentations. Put simply, the scenes depicted in the ABC movie are not consistent with the finding of the non-partisan 9/11 Commission Report.

It is wrong for ABC to play politics with 9/11.

The program, written by avowed conservative Chris Nowrasteh, goes out of its way to place blame on the Clinton administration for 9/11. This is inconsistent with the findings of the 9/11 Commission Report. The way Norwrasteh accomplished this was to fabricate what happened during the Clinton years and airbrush the critical intelligence failures that allowed the 9/11 plot to proceed occurred during the Bush administration.

Tell ABC: Fix the inaccuracies in the program or don't put it in on the air

The fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is an important time for reflection ­ help us make sure the right-wing doesn't distort 9/11 for partisan advantage.

Thanks for all that you do,

Judd Legum and the entire Center for American Progress Action Fund team

P.S. Keep track of this fight all week on ThinkProgress.org

The DNC says "jump" and the New York Times says, "how high?"

I guess the film cans wouldn't fit down Sandy Berger's capacious pants.

[Sam Hill]

So which is more accurate? ABC's "docu-drama" or the NYT's report about its inaccuracies?

[Sam Hill]

A NYT/DNC ping.

[SR 50]

ping

[Mount Athos]

oh this is a good find

[ajolympian2004]

Critics of this docu-drama = friends of hillary.

[DoughtyOne]

I would never have imagined that the New York Times would object to the truth coming out...

I'll bet they take ABC to task regarding their negative portrayals of Bush also.

< /massive sarcasm >

[Rome2000]

there was danger of seeing him acquitted if trial were held in United States courts.

Especially if the trial was held in LA, SF, or Washington DC.

[kinoxi]

All this propaganda is making me thirsty.
:)

[Berlin_Freeper]

Here is a timeline I put together from different sources that shows what Clinton was really interested in and how he criminally failed America with his derelict of duty.


+ On Jan. 6, 1996, Clinton had a sexual encounter with Lewinsky the White House intern. (Starr Report)

+ Week of Jan. 14 - 21, Clinton had several sessions of phone sex with Lewinsky. (Starr Report)

+ On Jan. 21, Clinton had another sexual encounter with Lewinsky. (Starr Report)

+ On Feb. 4, Clinton activities included a sexual encounter followed by a leisurely chat with Lewinsky, as the two "sat and talked [afterward] for about 45 minutes," (Starr Report)

+ On Feb. 6, U.S. Ambassador to the Sudan Tim Carney met with Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Osman Mohammed Taha at Taha's home in the capital city of Khartoum. "If you want bin Laden, we will give you bin Laden," Foreign Minister Taha told Ambassador Carney. (Losing bin Laden-Richard Miniter)

+ In late February or March, the president telephoned her (Lewinsky) at home and said he was disappointed that, because she had already left the White House for the evening, they could not get together. (Starr Report)

+ On March 10, Sudan's Minister of State for Defense Elfatih Erwa met with the CIA's Africa bureau chief. On instructions from its president, the government of Sudan agreed to arrest bin Laden and hand him over to U.S law enforcement at a time and place of the Clinton administration's choosing. "Where should we send him?" Erwa asked the CIA representative. (Losing bin Laden-Richard Miniter)

**THAT SAME DAY** (March 10)- Ms. Lewinsky took a visiting friend, Natalie Ungvari, to the White House. They bumped into the president, who said when Ms. Lewinsky introduced them, 'You must be her friend from California.' Ms. Ungvari was 'shocked' that the president knew where she was from. (Starr Report)

President Clinton has acknowledged being fully briefed on the Sudanese efforts to turn over the 9/11 mastermind, admitting that he made the final decision to turn the offer down."The Sudanese wanted America to start dealing with them again," Clinton confirmed during a February 2002 speech to a New York business group. (Losing bin Laden-Richard Miniter)

+ On March 31, Clinton had sex with Lewinsky. (Starr Report)

+ On May 18, bin Laden boarded a chartered plane in Khartoum with his wives, children, some 150 al-Qaida jihadists and a cache of arms - and flew off to Jalalabad, Afghanistan. (Losing bin Laden-Richard Miniter)

+ 1998- There had been numerous earlier reports of bin Laden's interest in using aircraft for terror attacks, including a 1998 plot to fly an explosives-laden plane from a foreign country into the World Trade Center. (Curt Anderson, Associated Press Writer)

+ Sunday, April 4, 2004- The ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Sunday that President Clinton's affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky compromised U.S. national security because it left him unable to deal with the threat posed by al-Qaida.

"What really happened here, I think, is President Clinton's greatest mistake was Monica Lewinsky,"Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., told Fox News Sunday. "And that forced him to take his eye off the ball. He lost the ability to lead the nation."

[Berlin_Freeper]

And here is something for Richard Clarke to chew on...


+ August 1996--In an interview with The Independent, a London daily, Bin Laden calls the June 1995 truck bomb in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia ``the beginning of war between Muslims and the United States.'' (New York Daily News, 8/11/96)

+ November 1996--Bin Laden issues an ultimatum to the U.S. and Western countries with troops stationed in Arab countries and declares a holy war against the ``enemy.'' Had we wanted to carry out small operations after our threat statement, we would have been able to... We thought that the two bombings in Riyadh and Dhahran would be enough (sic.) a signal to the wise U.S. decision-makers to avoid the real confrontation with the Islamic nation, but it seems they did not understand it.'' (The Washington Times, 11/28/96)

+ February 1997--Bin Laden threatens holy war against the U.S. in an interview on the British documentary program, Dispatches. ``This war will not only be between the people of the two sacred mosques and the Americans, but it will be between the Islamic world and the Americans and their allies because this war is a new crusade led by America against the Islamic nations.'' (Reuters, 2/20/97)

+ May 1997--During an interview with CNN, Bin Laden reaffirms his call for a holy war against Americans. ``We have focused our declaration of jihad on the U.S. soldiers inside Arabia.... The U.S. government has committed acts that are extremely unjust, hideous and criminal through its support of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.'' (Reuters, 5/11/97)

+ February 1998--Bin Laden uses a fatwa, religious decree, to call for the liberation of Muslim holy places in Saudi Arabia and Israel, as well as the death of Americans and their allies. The decree says, ``These crimes and sins committed by the Americans are a clear declaration of war on God, his messenger and Muslims.'' (The Washington Post, 2/25/98)

+ March 1998- Bin Laden faxes messages to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad and U.S. consulates in Peshawar, Lahore, and Karachi threatening to attack U.S. facilities and citizens.

+ May 1998--Bin Laden announces the formation of an ``International Islamic Front for Jihad against America and Israel,'' according to The News, an Islamabad, Pakistan daily. (The International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism web site, www.ict.org.il)

+ August 1998--The ``International Islamic Front for Jihad against America and Israel,'' a group sponsored by Bin Laden, issues a warning in the London-based newspaper al-Hayat that, ``strikes will continue from everywhere'' against the United States. (CNN Interactive, 8/20/98)

+ December 2000, "A National Security Strategy for a Global Age," is the final official assessment of national security policy and strategy by the Clinton team. The final policy paper on national security that President Clinton submitted to Congress — 45,000 words long — makes no mention of al Qaeda and refers to Osama bin Laden by name just four times.

The scarce references to bin Laden and his terror network undercut claims by former White House terrorism analyst Richard A. Clarke that the Clinton administration considered al Qaeda an "urgent" threat.(The Washington Times 4/06/04)

[Sam Hill]

That's a great list. But what kills me is it isn't even what The Times and their DNC masters are saying is inaccurate.

Here it is again:

In particular, some critics — including Richard A. Clarke, the former counterterrorism czar — questioned a scene that depicts several American military officers on the ground in Afghanistan. In it, the officers, working with leaders of the Northern Alliance, the Afghan rebel group, move in to capture Osama bin Laden, only to allow him to escape after the mission is canceled by Clinton officials in Washington.

In a posting on ThinkProgress.org, and in a phone interview, Mr. Clarke said no military personnel or C.I.A. agents were ever in position to capture Mr. bin Laden in Afghanistan, nor did the leader of the Northern Alliance get that near to his camp.

“It didn’t happen,” Mr. Clarke said. “There were no troops in Afghanistan about to snatch bin Laden. There were no C.I.A. personnel about to snatch bin Laden. It’s utterly invented.”

Sorry, Mr. Clarke and NYT. But that is what happened. (Even the NYT said so.)

Why lie about it?

[Zeon Cowboy]

"In fact, based on our review, the program is full of inaccuracies and partisan misrepresentations. Put simply, the scenes depicted in the ABC movie are not consistent with the finding of the non-partisan 9/11 Commission Report.

It is wrong for ABC to play politics with 9/11.

The program, written by avowed conservative Chris Nowrasteh, goes out of its way to place blame on the Clinton administration for 9/11. This is inconsistent with the findings of the 9/11 Commission Report. The way Norwrasteh accomplished this was to fabricate what happened during the Clinton years and airbrush the critical intelligence failures that allowed the 9/11 plot to proceed occurred during the Bush administration.

Tell ABC: Fix the inaccuracies in the program or don't put it in on the air."

I like how they neglected to give any examples of these so-called "inaccuracies". I suppose when you're as vague as possible, no one can question it!

Also, when you out these three statements right next to each other, something interesting happens.

"...the critical intelligence failures that allowed the 9/11 plot to proceed occurred during the Bush administration."

"It is wrong for ABC to play politics with 9/11" "...help us make sure the right-wing doesn't distort 9/11 for partisan advantage."

Wow. What a stunning double-standard. Keep in mind that there statements are all in the same email. Amazing.

[kinoxi]

So which is more accurate? ABC's "docu-drama" or the NYT's report about its inaccuracies?
Asking the question is important.

[caveat emptor]

In a posting on ThinkProgress.org, and in a phone interview, Mr. Clarke said no military personnel or C.I.A. agents were ever in position to capture Mr. bin Laden in Afghanistan, nor did the leader of the Northern Alliance get that near to his camp.

I believe Clark has this right. My recollection is that there was an opportunity to kill bin Laden by attacking a car he was riding in from the air. Oh, and Slick did not have sex with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky.

[Sam Hill]

"I believe Clark has this right. My recollection is that there was an opportunity to kill bin Laden by attacking a car he was riding in from the air."

That was a different incident.

You should read the article.

[Howlin]

Richard Clarke, STILL trying to be relevant.

[paudio]

We may want to show ABC our eagerness to watch the movie. Please send them e-mail so they know that people want to see it.

http://abc.go.com/site/contactus.html

[Mo1]

“It didn’t happen,” Mr. Clarke said. “There were no troops in Afghanistan about to snatch bin Laden. There were no C.I.A. Personnel about to snatch bin Laden. It’s utterly invented.”

“As we were watching, we were trying to think how they could have misinterpreted the 9/11 commission’s finding the way that they had,” Mr. Ben-Veniste said. “They gave the impression that Clinton had not given the green light to an operation that had been cleared by the C.I.A. To kill bin Laden,” when, in fact, the Sept. 11 commission concluded that Mr. Clinton had...

Ummmm ... Seems Clark and Ben need to get their stories straight before talking to the press

[Personal Responsibility]

the finding of the non-partisan 9/11 Commission Report

This may be a minor point, but wasn't it a BI-PARTISAN report, not a NON-PARTISAN report? There were partisan political players all over this thing. Calling it non-partisan is like calling Clinton a great president.

[Personal Responsibility]

"It is wrong for ABC to play politics with 9/11" "...help us make sure the right-wing doesn't distort 9/11 for partisan advantage."

Of course they are right. Much like, well everything else, they think 9/11 should only be distorted for left-wing partisan advantage.

This does prove one thing though. In order for 9/11 to be a political advantage to the left, it has to be distorted.