The Path to 9/11: More Deleted Scenes
"The Path to 9/11," an ABC miniseries about the events leading up to Al Qaedas strikes on the United States, was controversial even before its release last week. Written by a Cyrus Nowrasteh, a friend of Rush Limbaugh, the two-parter received much criticism for singling out former president Bill Clinton and his administration as largely responsible, through failures of intelligence and strategic miscalculations, for the attacks of September 11, 2001.
ABC did tone down the miniseries somewhat, cutting and altering certain dramatizations, the content of which was revealed after the network allowed some conservative commentators to preview the film. A few of the deleted scenes, however, were never made public. Here for the first time are three dramatizations that were in the original version of the miniseries, but which were removed after complaints from media watchdog groups and members of the 9/11 Commission. Though the scenes' ideological bent is subtle, astute readers may notice slight tweaks and exaggerations that may constitute bias on the part of the filmmakers. We leave it to you, the audience, to decide.
SCENE ONE
NARRATOR (V/O) |
In 1997, Clinton had a perfect chance to nab Osama bin Laden, or to at least gather some much-needed intelligence so as to thwart future attacks. |
BILL CLINTON and OSAMA BIN LADEN are sitting across from each other at a table in a DC-area Starbucks during the summer of '97. Clinton is drinking an iced latte; bin Laden, an iced frappuccino.
CLINTON |
See, Osama? America's not that bad. I'm glad we were able to do this today, though it's unfortunate I had to sneak out of the White House like that. Some members of my staff still don't know how to have fun, no matter how many times I tell them that terrorism is not something that bothers me and that I find it very difficult to take its threats seriously. |
BIN LADEN |
I think you have the right attitude, Bill. |
CLINTON |
Of course I do — I'm Bill Clinton. I'm impervious to everything. And I'm so certain that you don't mean us any harm — that, like me, you're simply misunderstood by your enemies, that once you get back to Afghanistan I'm willing to let you pretty much have free run of the place, okay? |
BIN LADEN |
Thanks Bill, I appreciate it. |
CLINTON |
Not a problem. But will you do one thing for me? |
BIN LADEN |
What's that? |
CLINTON |
Promise that you won't launch any attacks against us. I'd really look foolish if you did. |
Bin Laden puts a hand on the table and crosses his fingers.
BIN LADEN |
I promise. |
Vaguely threatening, Muslim-sounding music plays.
"Clinton jumps up, agitated, and puts on a robe made out of marijuana leaves.
ReplyLol. I was dying.
You gotta love how quickly the Bush administration and Fox News affiliates moved to hype "PATHWAY TO 9/11" so theey could blame the entire thing on Clinton. Never mind the fact Clinton took over AFTER BUSH SR. Nevermind the fact we have pictures of Hussein and Rumsfeld hand in hand. Nevermind the fact bin Ladin worked for our CIA many years earlier.
Reply Hide All See All 3 Repliesthis is what I say:
f**k FOX NEWS and f**k THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION.
OUR f*****g ECONOMY COLLAPSED AFTER 8 years of Bush. Is it any coincidence Obama would need a stimulus plan just months into his presidency?
RIGHT WINGERS CAN f*****g BLOW ME.
my my my, Bush derangement syndrome is certainly powerful.
I wanted to put some yoda-esque phrase about hate consuming you, but I'll just end with this:
Are you really better off than you were three years ago?
That was a rhetorical question, I'll give you time to look up rhetorical.
Yes pretty much better.
Except for the baggers getting voted in... that was a bust from day one.
Hi Durka. I'm not sure why you're posing that as a rhetorical question since it would seem to have a very clear answer from anyone asked. In my case, the answer is yes.
pretty sure its american foreign policy over the last 3/4 decades that caused 9/11
ReplyYea...... that or religious zealots.
I think it was the egg.
There's no such thing as Muslim sounding Music...
ReplyBut see, that makes it even funnier. Hilarious, in fact.
Muslim sounding music? You mean Arab.
ReplyGod, you liberals are so pathetic. Bill didn't do jack shit to find Bin Laden. He was the reason 9/11 happened.Not that I esdpacet a pathetic Limabugh-hating poster boy like your self to think for yourself and not believe a bunch of partyline propaganda.
Reply Hide All See All 7 RepliesI don't esdpacet myself to think for myself either...
Actually Clinton did try to get bin laden, but the right wingers at the time said bill clinton was doing too much and because of that lack of support he was unable to get bin laden. In fact for nine months after Clinton left office there were no meetings held that talked about capturing bin laden. Did you also know, that after the American Embassies were bombed and the USS Cole incident that Clinton had battle plans drawn to go into afghanistan, overthrow the taliban and launch a full scale attack/search on bin laden? But to get this done he needed Basing rights in uzbekistan, which we got after 9/11, and both the CIA and FBI refused to certify that Bin laden was responisible. No Clinton didn't get Bin Laden, but at least he tried, which is more than what Bush's adminstration did after we actually had a reason. Before you start accusing that Clinton didn't "do jack s**t" maybe you should read the facts instead of relying on hear-say?
Oh I get it!! The joke is that this is far closer to how useful the Republicans were when they were in office!! Good joke!!
@Bellecri.... Yea and George W. Bush wanted to totally end the war in'04 but liberals, led by Clinton who had a handlebar mustache, were all no way man.. So then he called his dad, who was in the middle of a work out, and his dad said to hold on he'd be right there and so then George HW Bush did 45 more squat thrusts (thats ontop of 1,035 that he already did, cause the man REALLY likes squat thrusts) then literally ran to DC. When he got there he and W. decided they were gonna end the war themselves, with EXTREME prejudice- to the MAX. So they swam to the war and fought ALL the terrorists and ended the war, but the liberals, led by Clinton with a handlebar mustache, were all, no,no, the war cant end yet and they hired more terrorists. So the Super Bush Bash Bros. said f**k it, whatev's and flew to outerspace cause there was an army of Man-Bear Pigs coming that needed dealt with- with EXTREME prejudice- to the MAX!! So THAT, my friend, is why we are where we are- Clinton and the Libs shoulda let the Bush's squat thrust the terrorists to Hell. ..... Wow FICTION is FUN, I thought as much after reading your post, but you can't really know 'till you try!!
And another conservatard trying to put the blame on everyone but himself.
Exactly AntiAssClown. How anyone could hate on somebody as open minded to all ideas as Rush Limbaugh is beyond my comprehension.
Yep, other than blowing up Bin Laden's training camp, putting an entire comprehensive anti-terrorism plan on Bush's desk (which Bush then ignored) or telling him that OBL was his number-one threat (which Bush ALSO seemed to ignore), Clinton was doing "jack shit" to find Bin Laden.
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God I hate rush limbaugh or anyone who can call him a friend. Soon as i read that i knew it was gonna be Bullshit. Never mind that ol' Bill said as he was parting, "hey watch out for Bin laden, maybe send some guys to durka-durka-stan to get his ass" and "the new guy" just said fuck everything Clinton was working on including anti-terrorism, let's just focus on using this opportunity to loot all we can. GodDamn how did he get reelected.
ReplyVote fraud. lot's and lot's of vote fraud.