Discover the Secret Right-Wing Network Behind ABC's 9/11 Deception

Less than 72 hours before ABC's "The Path to 9/11" is scheduled to air, the network is suddenly under siege. On Tuesday, ABC was forced to concede that "The Path to 9/11" is "a dramatization, not a documentary." The film deceptively invents scenes to depict former President Bill Clinton's handling of the Al Qaeda threat.

Now, ABC claims to be is editing those false sequences to satisfy critics so the show can go on -- even if it still remains a gross distortion of history. And as it does so, ABC advances the illusion that the deceptive nature of "The Path to 9/11" is an honest mistake committed by a hardworking but admittedly fumbling team of well-intentioned Hollywood professionals who wanted nothing less than to entertain America. But this is another Big Lie.

In fact, "The Path to 9/11" is produced and promoted by a well-honed propaganda operation consisting of a network of little-known right-wingers working from within Hollywood to counter its supposedly liberal bias. This is the network within the ABC network. Its godfather is far right activist David Horowitz, who has worked for more than a decade to establish a right-wing presence in Hollywood and to discredit mainstream film and TV production. On this project, he is working with a secretive evangelical religious right group founded by The Path to 9/11's director David Cunningham that proclaims its goal to "transform Hollywood" in line with its messianic vision.

Before The Path to 9/11 entered the production stage, Disney/ABC contracted David Cunningham as the film's director. Cunningham is no ordinary Hollywood journeyman. He is in fact the son of Loren Cunningham, founder of the right-wing evangelical group Youth With A Mission (YWAM). The young Cunningham helped found an auxiliary of his father's group called The Film Institute (TFI), which, according to its mission statement, is "dedicated to a Godly transformation and revolution TO and THROUGH the Film and Televisionindustry." As part of TFI's long-term strategy, Cunningham helped place interns from Youth With A Mission's in film industry jobs "so that they can begin to impact and transform Hollywood from the inside out," according to a YWAM report.

Last June, Cunningham's TFI announced it was producing its first film, mysteriously titled "Untitled History Project." "TFI's first project is a doozy," a newsletter to YWAM members read. "Simply being referred to as: The Untitled History Project, it is already being called the television event of the decade and not one second has been put to film yet. Talk about great expectations!" (A web edition of the newsletter was mysteriously deleted yesterday but has been cached on Google at the link above).

The following month, on July 28, the New York Post reported that ABC was filming a mini-series "under a shroud of secrecy" about the 9/11 attacks. "At the moment, ABC officials are calling the miniseries 'Untitled Commission Report' and producers refer to it as the 'Untitled History Project,'" the Post noted.

Early on, Cunningham had recruited a young Iranian-American screenwriter named Cyrus Nowrasteh to write the script of his secretive "Untitled" film. Not only is Nowrasteh an outspoken conservative, he is also a fervent member of the emerging network of right-wing people burrowing into the film industry with ulterior sectarian political and religious agendas, like Cunningham.

Nowrasteh's conservatism was on display when he appeared as a featured speaker at the Liberty Film Festival (LFF), an annual event founded in 2004 to premier and promote conservative-themed films supposedly too "politically incorrect" to gain acceptance at mainstream film festivals. This June, while The Path to 9/11 was being filmed, LFF founders Govindini Murty and Jason Apuzzo -- both friends of Nowrasteh -- announced they were "partnering" with right-wing activist David Horowitz. Indeed, the 2006 LFF is listed as "A Program of the David Horowitz Freedom Center."

Since the inauguration of Bill Clinton in 1992, Horowitz has labored to create a network of politically active conservatives in Hollywood. His Hollywood nest centers around his Wednesday Morning Club, a weekly meet-and-greet session for Left Coast conservatives that has been graced with speeches by the likes of Newt Gingrich, Victor Davis Hanson and Christopher Hitchens. The group's headquarters are at the offices of Horowitz's Center for the Study of Popular Culture, a "think tank" bankrolled for years with millions by right-wing sugardaddies like eccentric far right billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife. (Scaife financed the Arkansas Project, a $2.3 million dirty tricks operation that included paying sources for negative stories about Bill Clinton that turned out to be false.)

With the LFF now under Horowitz's control, his political machine began drumming up support for Cunningham and Nowrasteh's "Untitled" project, which finally was revealed in late summer as "The Path to 9/11." Horowitz's PR blitz began with an August 16 interview with Nowrasteh on his FrontPageMag webzine. In the interview, Nowrasteh foreshadowed the film's assault on Clinton's record on fighting terror. "The 9/11 report details the Clinton's administration's response -- or lack of response -- to Al Qaeda and how this emboldened Bin Laden to keep attacking American interests," Nowrasteh told FrontPageMag's Jamie Glazov. "There simply was no response. Nothing."

A week later, ABC hosted LFF co-founder Murty and several other conservative operatives at an advance screening of The Path to 9/11. (While ABC provided 900 DVDs of the film to conservatives, Clinton administration officials and objective reviewers from mainstream outlets were denied them.) Murty returned with a glowing review for FrontPageMag that emphasized the film's partisan nature. "'The Path to 9/11' is one of the best, most intelligent, most pro-American miniseries I've ever seen on TV, and conservatives should support it and promote it as vigorously as possible," Murty wrote. As a result of the special access granted by ABC, Murty's article was the first published review of The Path to 9/11, preceding those by the New York Times and LA Times by more than a week.

Murty followed her review with a blast email to conservative websites such as Liberty Post and Free Republic on September 1 urging their readers to throw their weight behind ABC's mini-series. "Please do everything you can to spread the word about this excellent miniseries," Murty wrote, "so that 'The Path to 9/11' gets the highest ratings possible when it airs on September 10 & 11! If this show gets huge ratings, then ABC will be more likely to produce pro-American movies and TV shows in the future!"

Murty's efforts were supported by Appuzo, who handles LFF's heavily-trafficked blog, Libertas. Appuzo was instrumental in marketing The Path to 9/11 to conservatives, writing in a blog post on September 2, "Make no mistake about what this film does, among other things: it places the question of the Clinton Administration's culpability for the 9/11 attacks front and center... Bravo to Cyrus Nowrasteh and David Cunningham for creating this gritty, stylish and gripping piece of entertainment."

When a group of leading Senate Democrats sent a letter to ABC CEO Robert Iger urging him to cancel The Path to 9/11 because of its glaring factual errors and distortions, Apuzzo launched a retaliatory campaign to paint the Democrats as foes of free speech. "Here at LIBERTAS we urge the public to make noise over this, and to demand that Democrats back down," he wrote on September 7th. "What is at stake is nothing short of the 1st Amendment."

At FrontPageMag, Horowitz singled out Nowrasteh as the victim. "The attacks by former president Bill Clinton, former Clinton Administration officials and Democratic US senators on Cyrus Nowrasteh's ABC mini-series "The Path to 9/11" are easily the gravest and most brazen and damaging governmental attacks on the civil liberties of ordinary Americans since 9/11," Horowitz declared.

Now, as discussion grows over the false character of The Path to 9/11, the right-wing network that brought it to fruition is ratcheting up its PR efforts. Murty will appear tonight on CNN's Glenn Beck show and The Situation Room, according to Libertas in order to respond to "the major disinformation campaign now being run by Democrats to block the truth about what actually happened during the Clinton years."

While this network claims its success and postures as the true victims, the ABC network suffers a PR catastrophe. It's almost as though it was complacent about an attack on its reputation by a band of political terrorists.

Yes, this is the son of "Sid Vicious"! A chip off the old block!

Please see my posts #s 74 and 91.

Gee and all this time I though Sid was gay

I'm sure he is, but that doesn't stop him from having a wife and kids... Didn't he sue Drudge over Drudge's reporting that Sid Vicious had beaten his wife?

Mark

102 posted on 09/09/2006 11:57:55 PM PDT by MarkL (When Kaylee says "No power in the `verse can stop me," it's cute. When River says it, it's scary!)

What's YOUR agenda, Arianna? You went liberal the DAY your husband packed his cosmetics case and left.

Yeah, that's an interesting question. What's the deal with her? She used to be a "compassionate conservative" ten years ago.

The only inkling I ever had that she was crossing over to the Left was a Ben Stein article in which he mentioned being slightly puzzled that she seemed to be distracted or preoccupied and seemed also to be avoiding him.

The last time I checked...ABC was extreme liberal-like. And I think they bought into this movie being strictly neutral without issues....its funny how even being liberal doesn't help them...the DC crowd simply doesn't want this story told in an election year.

Reading this it is clear why they are upset. To be fair, if people with lefty connections made a film that slammed Bush we would be pointing out their credentials.

But, of course Bill Clinton contributed his part to 9/11 happening. If the story remains true to the 9/11 Commission Report we will see teh truth. Hopefully, it does follow the report without bias.

Let them spew and spout and sputter - X42(I) is the nastiest human being that ever lived at Zip Code 20500...

106 posted on 09/10/2006 12:02:02 AM PDT by 185JHP ( "The thing thou purposest shall come to pass: And over all thy ways the light shall shine.")

I'm sure somewhere here there will be a live thread about the 9/11 show. Please share with us your impressions. You have a headstart on most of us. I sometimes listen to the nightly news on Radio Australia shortwave - I like to get up in the morning and listen to the nightly news.

Interesting. I see the intro to Blumenthal's book was written by Cuban defector Philip Agee. Among the other contributors I also see SDS' Carl Oglesby, Peter Dale Scott (then pedling similar stuff to Ramparts IIRC), L. Fletcher Prouty (before he joined Lyndon LaRouche), etc. One of Blumenthal's contributions is called "Cointelpro: How the FBI Tried to Destroy the Black Panthers"--guess Blumenthal must've been linked to Hillary's friends when she was back at Yale defending the Black Panthers. Wonder what'd happen if ABC did a documentary on *that*. . .

Didn't he sue Drudge over Drudge's reporting that Sid Vicious had beaten his wife?

Yes, and they settled it out of court, with Blumenthal paying off Drudge (very unusual for a libel case to be concluded with the plaintiff paying the defendant).

To be honest with you, I don't think Sid is gay. But he certainly has a powerful friend in Tony Blair.

I remember a show with her on Buckley's Front Line or Firing Line (?) in which she argued beautifully against feminism with one of those old bulldyke feminists. I was practically standing and applauding. She changed 180 overnight, it seemed.

I don't know, but could that possibly be legal? I'm not sure I'd want to be photographed in MY polling place? What would the penalty be for violently objecting to someone photographing you as you come out of the voting booth?

113 posted on 09/10/2006 12:13:09 AM PDT by singfreedom ("Victory at all costs,.......for without victory there is no survival."--Churchill--that's "Winston")

Did you actually find a copy of that old Blumenthal book? They must be pretty darn rare.

As to the people you listed who contributed, what would you expect? Birds of a feather flock together!

If the Clintoons had put the same kind of energy they are putting into fighting a TV show, into fighting terrorism and protecting America, the Twin Towers might still be standing today...

The author is the son of none other than the infamous Sidney Blumenthal

This just proves there's a lot of truth to the old saying, "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree". Sure happened in this family, didn't it?

...Nowrasteh's conservatism was on display when he appeared as a featured speaker at the Liberty Film Festival (LFF), an annual event founded in 2004 to premier and promote conservative-themed films supposedly too "politically incorrect" to gain acceptance at mainstream film festivals.
This June, while The Path to 9/11 was being filmed, LFF founders Govindini Murty and Jason Apuzzo -- both friends of Nowrasteh -- announced they were "partnering" with right-wing activist David Horowitz.
See also, from Ann Coulter joins the Marines...:

Govindini Murty, from www.libertyfilmfestival.com, with Ann Coulter

As I previously posted, it will have to be very good to keep me up that late. Since it doesn't start until 8:30 pm and ends at nearly midnight. I will see what I can do.

I was looking at an online summary of the book on Namebase, which is a site one of the contributors to that book (Peter Dale Scott) is associated with. I collect books on JFK and I have about 50 but not that one--should probably add it to my collection, LOL. It looks like Signet published it in paperback, so there should be some copies floating around. I've seen it around here and there at libraries and used bookstores.

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