The Path to 9/11 is a two-part miniseries that aired in the United States on ABC television on September 10–11, 2006 and in other countries. The film dramatizes the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York City and the events leading up to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The film was written by screenwriter Cyrus Nowrasteh,Who was blocking 'The Path to 9/11'? - Jeffrey Ressner - POLITICO.com and directed by David L. Cunningham, and stars Harvey Keitel and Donnie Wahlberg.
The film was nominated for multiple Emmy Awards. It won the 2007 Emmy for Outstanding Single Camera Picture Editing. It also won the 2007 Eddie Award for Best Edited Miniseries.
The film was controversial and received substantial criticism from terrorism experts and individuals portrayed within the series for including fictitious events, misrepresentations, and historical inaccuracies. It aired once on September 11, 2006.
Plot The miniseries presented a dramatization of the sequence of events leading to the September 11 attacks in 2001 by Al-Qaeda on the United States, starting from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and up to the minutes after its collapse in 2001. The movie takes the point of view of two main protagonists: John P. O'Neill, and a composite Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent, "Kirk".
O'Neill was the real-life Special Agent in charge of Al Qaeda investigations at the Federal Bureau of Investigation; he died in the collapse of the Twin Towers on September 11 shortly after retiring from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and taking the position of Director of Security for the World Trade Center. The composite CIA agent "Kirk" is shown dealing with various American allies, especially Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Massoud, in Afghanistan. In addition, "Patricia", a CIA headquarters analyst, represents the views of the rank and file at CIA headquarters.
The miniseries features dramatizations of various incidents summarized in the 9/11 Commission Report and represented in high-level discussions held in the Clinton and Bush administrations. The final hour of the movie dramatizes the events of 9/11, including a recreation of the second plane hitting the World Trade Center, Tom Burnett's calls to his wife, and John Miller's reporting near the scene of the attacks. The film concludes with information about the 9/11 Commission's recommendations, as well as the performance evaluation the Commission gave the government when it reconvened in 2005.
Production history According to ABC, the movie is based on the "9/11 Commission Report and other sources",ABC.com including interviews and news accounts.Credits to Path to 9/11 The first indication that ABC was running a miniseries appeared in a brief article in the New York Post. In it, the producers identified shooting locations and revealed that Harvey Keitel would play John O'Neill. At the time, ABC had a working name of Untitled Commission Report and the producers used the working title Untitled History Project, with the project beginning filming in July 2005 and scheduled to end post production by January 2006. Preview screenings were made in May for foreign broadcasters.
According to Advertising Age, the miniseries was a personal project of ABC entertainment president Steve McPherson, who began to look for a producer shortly after reading the 9/11 Commission Report.
The White House asked the major networks for airtime to present a Presidential Address to the nation. The interruption delayed the broadcast of the second half of Path to 9/11 by approximately 20 minutes in the Eastern and Central Time Zones. Otherwise, the movie aired without any interruption.
Filming was conducted in Morocco, New York City, Toronto, Hamilton, Ontario and Washington, D. C. The production was one of the few allowed to film at the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Virginia.The Boston Globe, Sept. 6, 2006: Makers of ABC miniseries question why 9/11 happened By Suzanne C. Ryan, Globe Staff
Controversy and criticisms
ABC received a range of criticism from terrorism experts and people portrayed in the film that The Path to 9/11 contained false scenes, distorted events and misrepresented actions of people. ABC received letters from Richard Clarke, Chief Executive Officer Bruce R. Lindsey of the William J. Clinton Foundation, and Douglas J. Band, Counselor to President Clinton, Samuel R. Berger, Madeleine Albright, John Beug, Democratic Representatives John Conyers Jr., John Dingell, Jane Harman, Louise Slaughter, and others. Before the miniseries aired, some screeners of The Path to 9/11 asserted that certain scenes misrepresented the real-life events upon which they were said to be based, and that some scenes were complete fabrications.
9/11 Commission members Members of the 9/11 Commission criticized the accuracy of the film. In response to one particular scene, commission chair Thomas Kean told an interviewer he "was all right with the made-up scene" where the Clinton administration is accused of blocking a chance to kill bin Laden, saying "I don't think the facts are clear." Just weeks before the broadcast he "asked for changes that would address complaints raised by the former Clinton aides and that ABC is considering his request."
Commission member Richard Ben-Veniste said that the miniseries misrepresented facts presented in the 9/11 Commission report.
Advance viewing copies selectively distributed
The extensive pre-broadcast controversy over the film was based on content that was present in viewing copies sent to conservative political groups, talk show hosts and bloggers, including radio personalities such as Rush Limbaugh, and conservative movie critic Michael Medved.LIBERTAS » Blog Archive » LIBERTAS Exclusive! An Advance Review of ABC’s Outstanding The Path to 9/11 The office of former president Clinton repeatedly requested a preview copy, but was denied one,ABC News: Comments About ABC Entertainment's 9/11 Film as was former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.ABC News: Comments About ABC Entertainment's 9/11 Film An unfinished version was shown to select members of the National Press ClubL.A. Times: ABC Stands By Its 9/11 Story — Almost. By Scott Collins and Tina Daunt in Washington, DC, and to attendees of the Midwest Security and Police Conference in Chicago.
According to Jay Carson, a spokesman for Bill Clinton, Clinton's office requested a copy of the movie so that they could view it before it aired, but the request was denied. Carson has also stated that Madeleine Albright and Sandy Berger had also requested copies and had also not received them.
This prompted Albright and Berger to write letters to ABC asking why they had not received copies and why ABC chose to run a movie whose accuracy was highly in question.
In addition to requesting an answer, Albright also stated the following reason for wanting a copy:
Criticisms of historical inaccuracy by FBI consultants
Two FBI agents refused advisory roles on the film, with one criticizing the film for creating a work of fiction and claiming it was inaccurate. Thomas E. Nicoletti had been hired by the filmmakers as a consultant, but quit because "There were so many inaccuracies...I'm well aware of what's dramatic license and what's historical inaccuracy," Nicoletti said. "And this had a lot of historical inaccuracy.'"
Dan Coleman, who retired from the FBI in 2004, said he also was concerned when he read the script in the summer of 2005 after being approached by producers about being a technical advisor. He described, "They sent me the script, and I read it and told them they had to be kidding," Coleman said. "I wanted my friends at the FBI to still speak to me." Coleman went on to say he did not want to be "haunted" by deceased colleagues who were falsely portrayed.
Alleged assassination opportunities not used by Clinton Critics claim many inaccuracies in the film, including the depiction of the Clinton administration. For example, in one scene, former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger is portrayed as unwilling to approve a plan to take out a surrounded Osama bin Laden. He leaves it to former CIA Director George Tenet to decide if he will take responsibility. In the original version of the film,The deleted scane at Investor's Business Daily Berger hangs up the phone on Tenet, and Tenet calls off the operation:
Cyrus Nowrasteh, script writer for the film, has said that the abrupt hang-up portrayed was not in the script and was instead improvised. It was later removed from the version shown in the United States. When asked if he thought of the script as a "historical document," Nowrasteh has responded:
Anti-terrorism expert Richard Clarke said the film was "180 degrees from what happened" and made the following criticisms of the film: Contrary to the movie, no US military or CIA personnel were in Afghanistan to have spotted bin Laden. When asked about this apparent discrepancy, Nowrasteh stated, "I've interviewed CIA agents who have told me otherwise. But that is the one concession we made. [In the original,] we had a CIA agent on the ground near bin Laden's compound—inside the wall even—and we took that out for the final presentation." Contrary to the movie, the head of the Northern Alliance, Ahmad Shah Massoud, was nowhere near the alleged bin Laden camp and therefore could not have seen Osama bin Laden. Contrary to the movie, Tenet actually said that he could not recommend a strike on the camp because the information was single sourced, and there would be no way to independently confirm bin Laden's presence in the target area by the time an already launched cruise missile would have reached it.
A member of the 9/11 Commission, Richard Ben-Veniste also stated that the scene depicting Berger hanging up the phone on Tenet is fictional.CQ.com
Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA Bin Laden Unit during the Clinton administration, a critic of President George W. Bush's Iraq policy, says it was not Berger who canceled assaults on bin Laden, but rather Clarke on Clinton's behalf. Scheuer states, "Mr. Clarke, of course, was at the center of Mr. Clinton's advisers, who resolutely refused to order the CIA to kill bin Laden. In spring 1998, I briefed Mr. Clarke and senior CIA, Department of Defense, and FBI officers on a plan to kidnap bin Laden. Mr. Clarke's reaction was that "it was just a thinly disguised attempt to assassinate bin Laden." I replied that if he wanted bin Laden dead, we could do the job quickly. Mr. Clarke's response was that the president did not want bin Laden assassinated, and that we had no authority to do so".
Berger scene Besides criticism of an inaccurate script, other fictional and inaccurate scenes were created by the cast. In the film, CIA agents who have infiltrated bin Laden's Afghan compound try to put an assassin named Kirk (Donnie Wahlberg) in contact with National Security Advisor Sandy Berger (Kevin Dunn); Berger, who was later convicted of illegally removing and destroying documents regarding the subject from the National Archives, is portrayed as "dithering" before hanging up on the agents. The scene was strongly contradicted by both Berger and the 9/11 Commission, including commission member Richard Ben-Veniste."9/11 movie despite criticism of fictionalized scenes," GMANews.TV - November 9, 2006"Documenting of 9/11 history sparks debate," ABC Online - September 11, 2006
Former Secretary of State Albright questions her portrayal Another scene in question supposedly portrays Madeleine Albright refusing to shoot missiles at Osama bin Laden without authority from Pakistan and eventually getting "permission" from them against the military's wishes. Albright insists that this is completely inaccurate.Albright letter to Robert Iger , September 5, 2006The same letter by Albright, hosted on the internet by CNN As Secretary of State, Albright had no involvement in military decisions.