Posted on 09/12/2006 11:28:05 PM PDT by John Carey
Dead-on post of the day!!!! Thanks for your sage words of truth!!!
LLS
LibLieSlayer and other FReepers:
We hope you find the essay below of interest....
Complaining About ¡°Path to 9/11¡å Increases Interest in the Film
By John E. Carey
¡°The lady doth protest too much, methinks.¡±
¨CFrom Hamlet (III, ii, 239)
The vocal reaction of key former Clinton Administration government officials will likely be forgotten long before the memories fade of the Disney/ABC made for TV ¡°docu-drama¡± ¡°Path to 9/11.¡±
In fact, there is some strong possibility that the furor kicked up by dignitaries such as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former National Security Advisor Samuel ¡°Sandy¡± Berger will only increase interest in the 9/11 controversy.
My own reaction is similar to that of many we¡¯ve spoken to. NOW I want to see that movie and find out why these guys are so up in arms. When video sales start, this film will likely be a hot commodity.
The controversy itself is simple. How could the United States be so completely surprised and taken unaware by the terror attacks of September 11, 2001?
Trouble warnings were plentiful. In fact, in the decade before 2001 attacks on the United States and U.S. assets abroad were becoming more common.
And warnings about Osama bin Laden were plentiful and understood by many within the U.S. government. An August, 2005 press release from Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, released two declassified ¡°Top Secret¡± State Department documents that warned Clinton administration officials of the activities and influence of Osama bin Laden following his alleged ¡°expulsion¡± from Sudan in May 1996.
One declassified and released document, dated July 18, 1996, asked the provocative question: ¡°Terrorism/Usama bin Ladin: Who¡¯s Chasing Whom.¡±
¡°Path to 9/11¡± depicts the ¡°Millennium Bomber¡± incident in 1999. When al-Qaida operative Ahmed Ressam arrived by ferry from Canada in December of 1999, he was quickly arrested with a trunk full of explosives. His plan: to blow up Los Angeles International Airport.
But the arrest was somewhat in spite of warnings from Washington DC instead of because of government alerts. The customs agent that made the arrest told NBC News it was her gut instincts ¡ª not meetings in Washington ¡ª that helped her make the correct assessment of the terrorist and arrest him.The customs agent, Diana Dean, said no one had told her anything about being on alert for terrorists.
¡°I don¡¯t recall any specific threats,¡± she added. ¡°I don¡¯t recall anybody saying watch for terrorists.¡±
Customs officials confirm that no alert had gone out to the field.
NBC News closed a segment recapping the ¡°Millennium Bomber¡± incident and customs agent Dean in April 2004 with the line: ¡°As for Dean, she received an award and today shrugs off revisionist history in Washington, noting that success has many fathers.¡±
It is that propensity for ¡°revisionist history¡± by the former Clinton Administration crowd that is ringing alarm bells in Washington DC and across the nation today.
Add to the ¡°Millennium Bomber¡± incident a string of successful attacks that were not prevented.
A few of the events that probably should have prompted a more aggressive U.S. counter-terrorist effort included: the first World Trade center bombing (February 1993) [also depicted in ¡°Path to 9/11¡±], the discovery of the Lincoln and Holland tunnel plots (Spring 1993), the car bombing of the U.S. military headquarters of the United States in Saudi Arabia (November 1995), the truck bombing of the U.S. military housing facility at Khobar Towers, Saudi Arabia (June 1996), the truck bombings at U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania (August 1998), and the bombing of USS Cole in Aden, Yemen (October 2000).
Add to these terror incidents, incidents that basically yielded little or no U.S. response, the inability of the U.S. intelligence apparatus to correlate these incidents to produce a coherent picture of the threat to America.
Finally we have the bizarre incident of Sandy Burger at the National Archives. ¡°Sources have told The Washington Post, and other news organizations, that Berger was witnessed stuffing papers into his clothing,¡± Post reporters John F. Harris and Susan Schmidt wrote in that paper on Thursday, July 22, 2004.
A seasoned Washington DC lawyer told me yesterday, ¡°If I was representing these guys from the Clinton Administration, I¡¯d remind them pretty strongly on their right to remain silent. All their protests about the Disney 9/11 movie make them look guilty as sin.¡±
He could have read my mind.
http://peace-and-freedom.blogspot.com/
ping
Thanks John.
LLS
..."What, in particular, was "sloppy?"...
I thought this film was powerful and disturbing..The central message I got from watching it is not comforting to me but is something I have known for many years..It is that the bureaucracies of American government and the anti-American nature of liberals is paralyzing us. The scene in the movie where the bomb experts experienced angst about removing a piece of medal with a crucial registration number on it from the site where a van blew up the trade center in 1993 because the FBI or CIA had a rule that no evidence could be removed was very revealing concerning the insanity which paralyzes us. Never mind that in minutes that evidence would be lost as a crane, I think, was coming through to disturb that location. That piece of evidence turned out to be extremely important. The professional investigators made the tough decision to remove it anyway and it was key in making a later arrest.
It is comforting that sometimes people will run the risk of using common sense.
Just curious if they ever included the TRUE scene of Clinton never visiting the WTC after the first bombing but instead going to NYC for, whatelse, a fundraiser. That says it all about Clintons regards to terror during his 8 years. It was always "me me me".
A film gets locked into their minds a lot harder than a newspaper account.
Damn liberal scum. I wish there was a sway to seperate them from us and let the wahabis have at them.
I'm sure Ruth Marcus's review of any of the Michael Moores "documentaries" were done with as much enthusiasm.
bttt
The movie was more accurate than the typical nightly news casts or newspaper. Certainly 100 times more accurate than anything Micheal Moore ever put out.
1.5 million vs. 13 million. Seems like a pretty successful outing. They gamined 10X the audience as the book. Yet the MSM poo-poos it as a failure because more people tuned into football.
The portrayal was wrong.
The actual telephone was green, not black.
Can't believe anything in the miniseries after a gaff that serious doncha know. :)
On a more serious note, I thought the series glossed over a few important facts. IE,
'The Wall'. I don't recall any mention of who and when 'the wall' was instituted.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.