• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Path to 9/11

IL Rancher

Well-known member
I watched ood part of it yestery nonl wablto ee a litle bit tonight... It was interesting and disappointing to see how we had numerous chances to take out Bin Laden before he became the problem he is.. Of course, I wonder how much if a difference it would have made in the end.. This whole radical islamic movement seams to by like a hydra, you chop of one head and two more replace it....

I hope it gets reshown somewhere... I would like to see the parts I missed..
 

Steve

Well-known member
Sure spent alot of time with the "disclaimer" up.....what was billed as a six hour, with out commercial interuptions, add in the President's address and it must have been hacked up alot....

I would like to have seen a more honest assessment of who actually stopped all the attempts to Kill ubl, not just whispering men behind tinted glass....

In one aspect it made me dislike Sandy Berger and Ms. Albreght a little more....

They also did not seem to kind to Condi, nor Bush.....and the final comment was very anti- administration..........
 

kolanuraven

Well-known member
I didn't watch it....wouldn't have anyway.

BUT....didn't you think it ' odd' that the prez would take up time on that program, supposedly a Rep. backed deal, for a speech??

I did...kinda seemed to cut into his cause to me.
 

IL Rancher

Well-known member
National speech on September 11th... Alwasys going to be during that time slot or darn close to it as it is when people are "home" from coast to coast....

I had to run at that time to go into town or something.. Or maybe a kid was screaming.. Can't remember so I am assuming the speach was on all the networks...
 

Liberty Belle

Well-known member
I only got to watch some of it on both nights, but I can see why Clinton got so worked up about it. Especially when you see the stuff ABC edited out that they were going to air until Bubba pitched his fit.

It's not hard to see, even with the cuts, that Bubba and his boys hung our national security out to dry. Bush hasn't done everything right either, but he's doing the best he can to protect us from these Muslim monsters.
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
I liked Mossoud, or however it is spelled. He truly was an allie, and
didn't get anything from the US for being faithful. He was wise, and
he said once, "Are there any MEN left in Washington, or are they all
cowards?"

That is a chilling statement. That is certainly what we had, and now
that we don't have a coward, he is paying the price for having one
too long.

(Last line edited, because I am ashamed of myself for what I wrote here.)
 

IL Rancher

Well-known member
of mossad... There were things the man did do that were mentioned, Opium dealer, that were not so great...

Bush wasn't all to concerned about terror in the days leading up to 9/11 but the problem I think was institutional problems in DC that were there before he was there and probably have existed for years... Washingon seem to be a cover your own butt type of area more than folks being willing to tsick their on the line and make a decision... The portrayal of Albright and Berger are classic examples of politiciians being put in important positions instead of folks with any fortitude or guts... I think if I was a pol and got left out f that movie I would be happy. Didn't see too many bing portrayed ina good light.
 

Liberty Belle

Well-known member
FH, you might find this as interesting as I did:

REMEMBERING 9/11

The Path to Hysteria

My sin was to write a screenplay accurately depicting Bill Clinton's record on terrorism.
BY CYRUS NOWRASTEH
September 18, 2006


I am neither an activist, politician or partisan, nor an ideologue of any stripe. What I am is a writer who takes his job very seriously, as do most of my colleagues: Also, one who recently took on the most distressing and important story it will ever fall to me to tell. I considered it a privilege when asked to write the script for "The Path to 9/11." I felt duty-bound from the outset to focus on a single goal--to represent our recent pre-9/11 history as the evidence revealed it to be. The American people deserve to know that history: They have paid for it in blood. Like all Americans, I wish it were not so. I wish there were no terrorists. I wish there had been no 9/11. I wish we could squabble among ourselves in assured security. But wishes avail nothing.

My Iranian parents fled tyranny and oppression. I know and appreciate deeply the sanctuary America has offered. Only in this country could a person such as I have had the life, liberty and opportunity that I have had. No one needs to remind me of this--I know it every single day. I know, too, as does everyone involved in the production, that we kept uppermost in our minds the need for due diligence in the delivery of this history. Fact-checkers and lawyers scrutinized every detail, every line, every scene. There were hundreds of pages of annotations. We were informed by multiple advisers and interviews with people involved in the events--and books, including in a most important way the 9/11 Commission Report.

It would have been good to be able to report due diligence on the part of those who judged the film, the ones who held forth on it before watching a moment of it. Instead, in the rush to judgment, and the effort to portray the series as the work of a right-wing zealot, much was made of my "friendship" with Rush Limbaugh (a connection limited to two social encounters), but nothing of any acquaintance with well-known names on the other side of the political spectrum. No reference to Abby Mann, for instance, with whom I worked on "10,000 Black Men Named George" (whose hero is an African-American communist) or Oliver Stone, producer of "The Day Reagan Was Shot," a film I wrote and directed. Clearly, those enraged that a film would criticize the Clinton administration's antiterrorism policies--though critical of its successor as well--were willing to embrace only one scenario: The writer was a conservative hatchetman.

In July a reporter asked if I had ever been ethnically profiled. I happily replied, "No." I can no longer say that. The L.A. Times, for one, characterized me by race, religion, ethnicity, country-of-origin and political leanings--wrongly on four of five counts. To them I was an Iranian-American politically conservative Muslim. It is perhaps irrelevant in our brave new world of journalism that I was born in Boulder, Colo. I am not a Muslim or practitioner of any religion, nor am I a political conservative. What am I? I am, most devoutly, an American. I asked the reporter if this kind of labeling was a new policy for the paper. He had no response.

The hysteria engendered by the series found more than one target. In addition to the death threats and hate mail directed at me, and my grotesque portrayal as a maddened right-winger, there developed an impassioned search for incriminating evidence on everyone else connected to the film. And in director David Cunningham, the searchers found paydirt! His father had founded a Christian youth outreach mission. The whiff of the younger Mr. Cunningham's possible connection to this enterprise was enough to set the hounds of suspicion baying. A religious mission! A New York Times reporter wrote, without irony or explanation, that an issue that raised questions about the director was his involvement in his father's outreach work. In the era of McCarthyism, the merest hint of a connection to communism sufficed to inspire dark accusations, the certainty that the accused was part of a malign conspiracy. Today, apparently, you can get something of that effect by charging a connection with a Christian mission.

"The Path to 9/11" was intended to remind us of the common enemy we face. Like the 9/11 Report itself, it is meant to enable us to better defend ourselves from a future attack. Past is prologue, and 9/11 is merely another step in an escalating Islamic fundamentalist reign of terror. By dramatizing the step-by-step increase in attacks on America--all of which, in fact, occurred--we are better able to see the pattern and anticipate the future. That was the point of the series, its only intention. Call it the canary in the coal mine. Call it John O'Neill in the FBI.

Despite intense political pressure to pull the film right up until airtime, Disney/ABC stood tall and refused to give in. For this--for not buckling to threats from Democratic senators threatening to revoke ABC station licenses--Disney CEO Rober Iger and ABC executives deserve every commendation. Hence the 28 million viewers over two nights, and the ratings victory Monday night (little reported by the media), are gratifying indeed.

"The Path to 9/11" was set in the time before the event, and in a world in which no party had the political will to act. The principals did not know then what we know now. It is also indisputable that Bill Clinton entered office a month before the first attack on the World Trade Center. Eight years then went by, replete with terrorist assaults on Americans and American interests overseas. George W. Bush was in office eight months before 9/11. Those who actually watched the entire miniseries know that he was given no special treatment.

It's good to have come to something approaching the end of this saga, whose lessons are worth remembering. It gave us, for one thing, a heartening glimpse (these things don't come along every day) of corporate backbone in the face of phenomenal pressure--and an infinitely more chilling one testifying to the power and reach of politically driven hysteria. A ripe subject for a miniseries, if ever there was one.

Mr. Nowrasteh wrote the screenplay for "The Path to 9/11."
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110008958
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
Whew!! He is a very good writer and of course, a very deep thinker. Thanks, LB. I appreciate your posting this.

He sure is right about the media skipping over the viewership of the
movie. I thought I was the only one that watched the whole thing. :wink:
 
Top