Monday, September 11, 2006

`The Path to 9/11' shows as scheduled - with a couple of changes.

Robert Iger and Disney deserve a great deal of credit for having the courage to air `The Path to 9/11' amid threats to their broadcasting license from no less than the DNC and the Senate leadership of the Democratic party..as well as legal threats from none other than Mr. Bill.

The second part of the film airs tonight on ABC, and those of you who wish to see it on the internet can see the whole thing on ABC's website here.

Several scenes were reportedly cut or changed from the movie that aired Sunday and it finished 20 minutes shy of its original three-hour time slot. Here's a partial list:

One scene, in the original copies handed out to reviewers and critics indicates that ex-President Clinton's preoccupation with his impeachment may have hurt the effort to go after Osama bin Laden.

In the original scene, an actor portraying White House terrorism expert 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 out entirely from the film.

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. (this was one of the clips you saw here at JoshuaPundit).

The original version showed NSA chief Sandy Burgler Berger hanging up on CIA chief George Tenet as Tenet begged for permission to take out bin Laden. The Sunday showing didn't include Berger hanging up.

That scene ends ends with actor Donnie Wahlberg, portraying the head of the CIA team in Afghanistan, saying: "Are there no men in Washington, or are they all cowards?"

In the prevous critic's version, Wahlberg's lines are directly folowed by footage of Clinton's video testimony about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Sunday, that footage was cut out.

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."

I can already see the ads for the DVD - `The path to 9/11 - the uncut version Bill Clinton an dthe Democcrats didn't want you to see!'

In reality, after all the fuss and bother, the film is remakably balanced and really has one message - that the Islamic jihadists are the real villians of 9/11 and that theywould have no compunction about pulling something like that again.

If certain politicians, especially some of the ones who have been instrumental in trying to handcuff our security services and our ability to keep terrorists under surveillance take the film as an indictment and a reminder of how lacking in patriotism and common sense they are..well and good.

1 comment:

Pastorius said...

I remember telling my Republican friends that this whole "Impeach Clinton" thing was bad for America.

Looks like I was right.

I hate what the Dems have done to Bush. And, I hate what the Republicans did to Clinton almost as much.