The ABC docudrama "Path to 9/11" aired on Sept. 6, 2006. It was widely hailed by reviewers as a moving and accurate re-telling of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 and what led up to them.
"Path to 9/11" only aired once. A DVD was produced but can long longer be purchased on Amazon.com.
Why?
The three-hour docudrama, written and produced by Cyrus Nowrasteh and directed by David Cunningham, "broke with other accounts of the causes of the 9/11 attacks — including by the 9/11 Commission — by casting substantial blame for the attacks on the incompetent foreign policy of the Clinton Administration," Center for Security Policy president and CEO Fred Fleitz noted in a Sept. 13 analysis.
The Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC, was heavily pressured by former Clinton officials and their allies "to censor and suppress the film because it went against their false narrative absolving Clinton’s policies for contributing to the 9/11 attacks and instead putting the blame on the Bush Administration," wrote Fleitz, a member of the WorldTribune.com Board of Advisors.
"To protect the legacy of Bill Clinton’s presidency from these historical facts, as well as to protect a future presidential campaign by Hillary Clinton, many former Clinton officials and their allies attacked 'The Path to 9/11,' saying it was fabricated," Fleitz wrote. "These included former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Congresswoman Jane Harman, National Security Council official Richard Clarke, and several others. Bill Clinton personally asked ABC to pull or revise the film."
The ABC docudrama, which starred Harvey Keitel as former FBI agent John O'Neil, who died in the 9/11 attacks, was far from a political hit piece. 9/11 Commission Chairman Thomas Kean served both as a consultant and a co-executive producer of “The Path to 9/11.” John Lehman, a Republican member of the 9/11 Commission, said the film portrayed events fairly.
What’s stunning about the suppression of "Path to 9/11" today "is how similar it is to the denials and outright lies about the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan by Biden officials, and the mainstream media’s willingness to change the subject away from a major foreign policy failure by a Democratic president," Fleitz wrote.
Strong evidence exists that "eight years of foreign policy incompetence by the Clinton Administration set the stage for the 9/11 attacks, including bureaucratic bungling, failure to take action against Al Qaida, and President Clinton being distracted by the Monica Lewinsky scandal and impeachment," Fleitz wrote.
Journalist Lawrence Wright wrote in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book "The Looming Tower" that the Sudanese government offered to turn Osama bin Laden over to the United States in 1996. Clinton turned down the offer and instead suggested bin Laden be sent to Saudi Arabia. According to Wright, after the Saudis refused to have anything to do with bin Laden, Sudan — with the agreement of the United States — allowed him to go to Afghanistan.
Bin Laden pursued terrorist attacks against the United States and U.S. troops "because he perceived American weakness under President Clinton," Fleitz noted.
Bin Laden indicated this in a May 1998 interview with NBC reporter John Miller in which he said he believed the 1993 Black Hawk Down incident in Somalia conveyed American weakness and led young Muslims to cease seeing the United States as a superpower.
Clinton officials, Fleitz noted, "succeeded in convincing the mainstream media to discredit and bury a film that contained accurate information about their major foreign policy failures. They told bold-faced lies about their record and the media went along."
The Biden Administration "is trying to do the same with its disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. Joe Biden called this an extraordinary success. His senior advisors continue to lie every day in order to misrepresent the results of his Afghanistan policy and change the subject," Fleitz concluded, adding that Big Media is likely to play along this time as well.
As a footnote, the 2008 documentary "Blocking The Path to 9/11", which features Andrew Breitbart and details the suppression of the ABC docudrama, is still available for purchase on Amazon.
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