The Path to 9/11

I'll be honest. I didn't know this movie was made until all the talking heads started complaining about it, or defending it, whichever the case may be. So I decided to watch it. Not bad. Not bad at all.

In case you've been actively trying to avoid the hype as I had, "Path to 9/11" uses various sources, including the official 9/11 Commission Report, to portray the events leading up to the 9/11 attacks. The movie delves into the bureaucratic pissing contest that took place among many government agencies.

As a thriller, it was good. Harvey Keitel played special agent Jonh O'Neill, who followed the growth of terrorism for over eight years. Newcomer Prasanna Puwanarajah played our inside man, Ishtiak, a smart but nervous Islamic snitch who gave the CIA dirt on Ramzi Yousef (played with much anger by Nabil Elouhabi) and Osama bin Laden. And Donnie Wahlberg was totally believable as "Kirk," a CIA secret agent.

Also good was the make-up jobs, particularly Penny Jerald Johnson (as Condaleezza Rice) and Shirley Douglas (as Madeline Albright), who looked just like the characters they played.

My biggest problem was the length of the movie. at five hours without commercials, it's pretty damn long. It dragged on in several spots.

Another note: Did anyone notice that a vast majority of the votes are either 1 or 10? A bit of partisanship, maybe? Those of you who voted 1, did you see the movie, or did you hear that the Clinton staff was angry about it and refuse to watch it?

From an outsiders perspective, both this film and F9/ll scare me senseless.

You are the largest superpower in the world (hopefully not for long) with the most power and influence across the globe. Yet the two films highlight serious flaws in decision making ability of your governments.

If a film like F9/11 was released in Britain which reflected so poorly on our government and essentially made such harsh and frightening accusations, our public would at least expect an enquiry, or questions to be answered.

in the US, asking questions of your government who swear blindly that are protecting you is deemed unpatriotic. Its as if your government can draw the shutters and say 'we're not listening to you, you traitors' It just wouldn't stand over here. Our government is picked apart on the smallest things. Tony Blair's popularity has fallen so much over the Iraq debacle that people haver expected him to resign, or have at least asked him to. I may be wrong, but it doesn't look like there is any chance of GWB being asked to resign or leave office after starting an unjust, and lets face it, a never-ending war. Do you not hold him accountable? Why do you allow your government to ignore you? If allegations that Tony Blair had called off our military from killing a known terrorist when they had him more or less trapped, there would be absolute outrage. there would be riots in the street.

"i really didn't spend that much time thinking about him" GWB talking about OBL when they lost him.

ABC's "Path to 9/11" really isn't all that bad as a movie. It's actually quite entertaining, and at times nostalgically takes you back to the early-mid 1990s. But the movie is clearly biased and implies that the Clinton Adminstration bumbled their way through the handling of terrorism, which ultimately led to the attacks of 9/11. Former President Bill Clinton and his aides are portrayed here as either buffoonish and/or soft.

Surely Republicans will think this is a great movie, as it portrays Clinton in a bad light. So of course conservatives will hail this movie as a masterpiece of factual truth-telling. The movie hints that former President Bill Clinton was so marred in his public scandals that he neglected going after Osama bin Laden and other Islamic extremists. The movie makes no secret of it's views that the administration blundered attempts at nabbing Osama bin Laden. Bill Clinton, the supposed root of all evil in America is of course the man we should be pointing our fingers at.

For years Republicans would blame Clinton for everything. And they are obviously still doing it.

1.If the economy is doing bad, it can't possibly be because of sitting President George W. Bush, no it's because Clinton's evil policies in the 90s are finally catching up to us. And conversely, the good economic times under Bill Clinton had nothing to do with him, no they were because of all the fantastic economic theories that former Presidents Reagan and Bush Sr. implemented in the 80s and early 90s that took their sweet time to catch up to President Clinton.

2.The moment September 11th happened, there were cries that Clinton was responsible. Clinton is to blame for everything.

3.Clinton flew the planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

4.Clinton fought with the passengers of United flight 93.

5.Clinton is best friends with Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden

6.Clinton blew up the space shuttle.

If the terrorists attacks happened under Clintons watch, Republicans would make you think that Clinton would assuredly have acted like some burnt out old hippie chanting "make love, not war" while marching in a gay and lesbian parade. Lord knows what the conservative reaction would have been if Clinton actually was president when the attacks had happened. It would have been even MORE Clinton's fault. Would Republicans have rallied around President Clinton? That's a tough sight to picture. So here is a movie to vilify the radical neo-conservative thought process. People will obviously compare this movie to Michael Moore's "Farenheit 911", but Moore is a man with a reputation for being a grade A nut-burger. Moore is known for distorting the truth and people walk into his films knowing that he is entertainment. ABC is supposed to a be a reputable network.

So how can a supposedly TRUSTED and REPUTABLE network like ABC promote a movie like this? It's even being pushed as an educational tool, which is outrageous. Here we are 5 years AFTER September 11th and the Bush Adminstration still hasn't found Osama bin Laden! Of course it's all Clinton's fault. Look if conservatives didn't want that Showtime movie about Ronald Reagan aired, then why do they want this film pushed onto the public and especially our schools? Yeah, you conservatives can keep hitting the "not useful" feature for my article so as to bury it in the back pages, but you know what I say is true and you know you are not being fair to the former President.

How can one comment on something that hasn't been released, or even been completely edited yet. When one admits that he hasn't seen the film in question, it's a bit ridiculous to comment on it.

And then, one wonders, where were these same objections when Michael Moore released his prevaricating monstrosity? Or, when a movie is released as a "How to" assassinate our President. Or... or... or...

Let's assume that something of this nature cannot be completely factual since many of the principals would be inclined to either a) not tell the truth or b) stretch the truth in order to make themselves appear in the best light.

This is where the term docudrama comes in; in fact, why it was invented.

Honestly...if you remove all the political banter that surrounded this production & actually viewed the broadcast for what it was, which was a 'dramatization' of events that led up to the 9/11 attacks, then anyone could see that this wasn't a 'bad', 'evil' or 'smear' movie. On the contrary, it provides a very intriguing commentary on how the terrorists pulled this off, how we tie our own hands through bureaucratic inaction & red tape, and can be distracted, while bickering along party lines (which continues to this day). What's dishonest is to deny that the 'path' to these events occurred during both the Clinton and Bush administrations (from 1993 - 2001, which is the time frame for this documentary). Things were overlooked & mistakes were made by all parties...the signs were there, but we dropped our guard. And what is unfounded is why we're still not allowed to further scrutinize this production through a DVD release? Step up Disney/ABC...be bold & brave...this is not the era of informative oppression...this is an important piece of work that we should be allowed free & open opportunity to see/buy/discuss, IMHO.