Lewinsky Clip Pulled From 'Path to 9/11'

Newsmax ^ | 9/11/06 | Newsmax

[OPS4]

Reprinted from NewsMax.com

Monday, Sept. 11, 2006 1:53 p.m. EDT Lewinsky Clip Pulled From 'Path to 9/11'

Editing changes made by ABC to the first part of its miniseries "The Path to 9/11" were cosmetic and didn't change the meaning of scenes that had angered several former Clinton administration officials, a spokesman for the former president said Monday.

As for Clinton, he didn't bother watching the movie that angered so many people who once worked for him.

"He made the choice that most Americans made," said Jay Carson, Clinton Foundation spokesman. "Of a fictionalized drama version of Sept. 11 or the Manning brothers playing football against one another, he chose the latter."

The movie was flattened in the ratings by the debut of NBC's Sunday night football, matching Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts against his younger brother Eli of the New York Giants. The football game had an estimated 20.7 million viewers, while "The Path to 9/11" had 13 million, according to Nielsen Media Research.

The ABC movie did, however, beat CBS' third airing of its "9/11" documentary, which was seen by an estimated 10.6 million people, Nielsen said.

ABC resisted calls to cancel the $40 million miniseries, airing commercial-free over two nights. Part two was scheduled for Monday, with an interruption for President Bush's address to the nation. Several scenes were cut or changed from the first part of a movie ABC has stressed is a dramatization and not a documentary.

"You can take out some of the more dramatic details," Carson said, "but it is still utterly and completely false."

One scene, in a copy of the movie given to television critics a few weeks ago, indicated President Clinton's preoccupation with his potential impeachment may have hurt the effort to go after Osama bin Laden.

In the original scene, an actor portraying White House terrorism czar Richard Clarke shares a limousine ride with FBI agent John O'Neill and tells him: "The Republicans are going all-out for impeachment. I just don't see in that climate the president's going to take chances" and give the order to kill bin Laden.

But in the film aired Sunday, Clarke says to O'Neill: "The president has assured me this . . . won't affect his decision-making."

O'Neill replies: "So it's OK if somebody kills bin Laden, as long as he didn't give the order. It's pathetic."

Another scene in the critics' cut showed O'Neill asking Clarke on the telephone: "What's Clinton going to do (about bin Laden)?"

Clarke replies, "I don't know. The Lewinsky thing is a noose around his neck."

This was cut entirely from the film that aired Sunday.

Another scene in the movie that depicted a team of CIA operatives poised outside of bin Laden's fortress in Afghanistan, ready to attack, was substantially shortened from the original. Pictures of the waiting Afghanistan operatives are interspersed with those of officials in Washington, who had to approve the mission.

The original version depicted national security adviser Samuel R. Berger hanging up on CIA chief George Tenet as Tenet sought permission to attack bin Laden. The movie aired Sunday did not include Berger hanging up.

The effect of the editing in that scene is to deflect specific blame. It ends with an actor portraying an Afghan ally saying to Donnie Wahlberg, who acted as the head of the CIA team in Afghanistan "Are there no men in Washington, or are they all cowards?"

In the critics' version, that statement is followed directly by archival footage of Clinton's video testimony about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Sunday, that footage was not included.

Left unchanged was a scene depicting the aftermath of an order by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to alert the Pakistanis ahead of time about an airstrike against bin Laden, which Tenet said let the al Qaeda leader slip away. Clinton officials claim this, as well as the other scene, didn't happen.

Twice, the network de-emphasized the role of the commission that investigated the terrorist attacks in its film.

The critics' version contained a note in the opening credits that the film is "based on the 9/11 commission report." That was omitted Sunday.

In a separate disclaimer that ran three times Sunday, ABC said the material is "drawn from a variety of sources including the 9/11 commission report and other published materials and from personal interviews." That differs from a note in the critics' version that said the dramatization "is based on the 9/11 commission report and other published sources and personal interviews."

The disclaimer emphasized that the movie was not a documentary.

"For dramatic and narrative purposes the movie contains fictionalized scenes, composite and representative characters and dialogue, as well as time compression," the note said.

Clinton spokesman Jay Carson said in a statement Sunday night that ABC and its parent, The Walt Disney Co., "chose fiction over fact and entertainment over education in airing their TV show."

Critics, such as historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., said it was "disingenuous and dangerous" not to include accurate historical accounts in the movie.

Thomas Kean, head of the commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks and a backer of the film, said on ABC's "This Week" Sunday that he hadn't seen the final cut of the movie but urged Americans to watch it.

"If people blame Bill Clinton after seeing this, then the miniseries has failed," said Kean, the former Republican New Jersey governor. "That's wrong and it shouldn't happen."

John Lehman, another Republican commission member, said on the ABC News show that he's told the film is equally harsh on the administrations of President Bush and his father.

"And if you don't like the hits to the Clinton administration, well, welcome to the club," Lehman said. "The Republicans have lived with Michael Moore and Oliver Stone and most of Hollywood as a fact of life."

© 2006 Associated Press.

[SerpentDove]

>>As for Clinton, he didn't bother watching the movie that angered so many people who once worked for him.<<

Of course. And he didn't know about the $$$ his mother was talking about, till he read it in her book.

SHAZAM!

[NormsRevenge]

Lewinsky Clip Pulled From 'Path to 9/11'

I wonder why?

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-NY, arrives for the Sept. 11, 2001 commemoration ceremony in New York on Monday, Sept. 11, 2006. This year marks the five year anniversary of the attacks. (AP PHOTO/Justin Lane, pool)

[lilylangtree]

Lewinsky, Bubba, the stained navy dress and his cigars will forever be infamous. They should have been part of the movie.

[Natural Law]

What they don't say and will never really know is how many recorded or Tivo'ed the show for later viewing.

[ELS]

Yikes! She has not aged gracefully.

[TexasCajun]

And then Slick added:

"And somebody call Paul Tagliabue and demand a great game for Sunday night!"

[Calvin Locke]

Kean's an idiot. Once the Gorelick "wall" became known, it was both irresponsible and unethical for them
to allow her to remain on the commission.

[Digger]

"If people blame Bill Clinton after seeing this, then the miniseries has failed," said Kean, the former Republican New Jersey governor. "That's wrong and it shouldn't happen.

Nice to have the GOP running investigations isn't it ?

Who set up the commission. You got it - the corrupt "Two-Party Cartel".

[oceanview]

I agree, but who had the power to dismiss her?

[HeartlandOfAmerica]

The Lewinsky thing is a noose around his neck." Depends on what the meaning of the word is, is.

[pookie18]

And then Slick added: "And somebody call Paul Tagliabue and demand a great game for Sunday night!"

I wonder how Roger Goodell would take that ;-)

[Bean Counter]

I didn't focus on the Clinton antics last night, as much as I did on just what a maniacal little bastard Ramzi Yousef really was. I didn't fully appreciate how truly evil he is until last night.

The Clinton clips served more as a good way to set all of this in historical perspective. I'd forgotton that these guys were asking for that reprobate Kuntsler to represent them by name.

This isn't about Clinton. It's about how these Islamo-fascist animals used our own freedoms against us to commit horrendous acts of violence, and why we need to remain vigilant.

[GOPJ]

So, prior censorship is fine with liberals if they're the ones doing the censorship? What jerks. ( Will the New York Times object? Crickets...)

[TexasCajun]

And then Slick added: "And somebody call Roger Goodel and demand a great game for Sunday night!"

-Thank you-

I'm hoping The Texans win at least twice as many games this year as last.

[Calvin Locke]

The rest of the commission could have asked Gorelick, privately, and publicly if necessary,
to step down over her apparent involvement in facilitating the 9/11 attacks.

But people aren't appointed to those "independent" commissions to do the right thing, or find the real facts.

Heard one of those people, Kean may be, yesterday or today, whining that all of their recommendations haven't
been implemented.

Pretty arrogant to assume that they have the last word, or that their recommendations are [still] useful,
or may be they are implemented and the NYT hasn't found out about them yet.

[BILL_C]

I'm just surprised the US wasn't attacked with more force while he was in office.


The US was attacked more while Clinton was in office, he just lied about it. The GREAT CONSPIRACY THEORY BS of the 90's? IT wasn't hard to figure out, it's just that you and millions others don't believe it, not yet that it.

Oklahoma City? WHY would a woman reporter write a book detailing that dozens of witnesses swore that McVeigh and Nichols associated with eight Iraqi's during the time leading up to April 1995 when the Federal Building in OKC was bombed. Why would experts say that the truck bomb did not have enough explosive force to destroy the building? Why?

Why in July, 1996 would HUNDREDS of witnesses say they saw a missile shoot down a passenger jet and kill hundreds of people? Why would they take out a full page ad in 2000 and ask WHY their government agencies lied about what the witnesses say they saw?

IS it because YOU don't believe that old arguement that our goverment just couldn't pull off that level of deception without someone talking?

Once you give it some thought, you'll see that there were more attacks than you believed. WHY WTC bombing #1 in 1993 and no more attacks until the late 1990's?

It all fits together so nicely when you finally agree that things like Sandy Berger stuffing TOP SECRET documents into his underwear, Jamie Gorelick on the 9/11 Commission, and newspaper ads like the attached link:

http://www.twa800.com/eyewitnesses.htm

There is only ONE reasonable conclusion; and that is your government is lying about what happened. IS it a vast conspiracy? The clear answer it is not, it only takes a few powerful insiders to pull off something like this: Richard Clark, Jamie Gorelick, Sandy Berger, Bill Clinton are the main characters here.

These people aren't worried about how history will judge them, they are worried how high they will hang if the American people start thinking clearly again.

[mc5cents]

The movie was flattened in the ratings by the debut of NBC's Sunday night football, matching Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts against his younger brother Eli of the New York Giants. The football game had an estimated 20.7 million viewers, while "The Path to 9/11" had 13 million, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Well for us NFL fans that is what VCRs and TIVO was invented for. So much for THAT analysis.

[Vigilanteman]

Yep. Another inaccuacy is the quote from Ahmad Shah Massoud, the correct version of which appears in my tagline. The antics of Albright in the film were absolutely beleive considering how she has acted on the record. The actress who protrayed her was a dead ringer minus some of the ugliness and wrinkles.

I actually got a better opinion of George Tenet after seeing the film as he eventualy grew some gonads, unlike the rest of the Clintonists with whom he was surrounded. I think the turning point was when a female CIA agent dressed the whole council down for losing Bin Laden the first time. Tenet actually looked ashamed. Albright, Berger, Cohen and the rest weren't even phased.

[mc5cents]

Of a fictionalized drama version of Sept. 11 capture of Ben Laden or the Manning brothers playing football against one another, getting a blow job from Monica he chose the latter."