Putting aside the lies, half-truths, and bad camerawork of ABC's "Path to 9/11", the first half fails even by its own internal logic. Which is surprising for a movie from the producer of "Legally Blonde 2."
The writer, sock-puppet Cyrus what's-his-face, would like to insist that the Clinton Administration blew crucial opportunities to take out Bin Laden. We know this because in scene after scene, a blond CIA operative named "Patricia" runs into conference rooms sobbing, "We should have got him when we had the chance!" Now, one of the more delicious ironies of the movie is that her name is subtitled with conspicuous quotation marks around it, as in "PATRICIA IS JUST HER CODE-NAME!" Because lord knows the neo-cons would hate to risk outing a female, blond, undercover CIA operative. No, apparently, they believe only badly-drawn, "composite" CIA characters need protection.
But the writer has "Madeline Albright" actually refute his own argument. She points out that the indictment issued was for Bin Laden only, that they do not have authority to go after the Taliban, and that Clinton would not, at that time, authorize a full scale military attack in Afghanistan in response to two overseas embassy bombings. Nonetheless, Defense Secretary Cohen recommends firing Tomahawk missiles, which Clinton authorizes, that destroy suspected weapons plants and other Bin Laden assets in Sudan. And while the writer has heroic-type guys on the ground saying things like, "Are there any men left in Washington? Or are they all cowards?" Clinton is being burned in effigy by Arabs in the streets for his actions. The movie presents facts in one scene, then ignores them in the next. At least Fox News carries its b.s. across the finish line. And speaking of Fox News, they must be pissed. In the world of this movie, ABC is, quite literally, America's Only News Source.
One of the heroic types on the ground is an operative whose name is impossible to hear over the shrieking, burka-clad extras, but he's basically the poor man's Ed Burns. We know he is heroic because he speaks with a blue collar New England accent. Similarly, the two other hero-types presented are allowed accents of the people. "Patricia" (JUST HER CODE NAME!) has a mid-western accent right out of a Velveeta ad, and the squinting Harvey Keitel, despite his double breasted suits, gets to speak like, well, Harvey Keitel.
But the poor man's Ed Burns, heroically kicking in a mud hut door while wearing an immaculate Club Monaco t-shirt, does not exactly reflect the best of us. As he apprehends a suspected terrorist at gunpoint, he yells to the suspicious Africans surrounding him, "Don't worry- I'm your friend! You Michael Jordan, Me Larry Bird!" I had to rewind the Tivo, I thought I was hallucinating.
But the real gist of the first 2 hours of this pablum is that Sandy Berger is to blame for not pulling the trigger on Bin Laden, and is therefore in large part responsible for 9/11. Who knew Sandy Berger was such a powerful man? The actor playing George Tenent (who deserves an Emmy just for managing to portray him as if he has any credibility, knowing what we know) stares down a sweating Sandy Berger and admonishes him, "You, sir, are the NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER!" Yes. So, by that logic, we should be stoning Condi Rice if she doesn't come rolling in tomorrow with Osama's head in her purse.
Oh, just one problem. President Bush, the man who has failed for 5 years to capture Osama after declaring him responsible for 9/11, has now declared him "irrelevant." That is an inconvenient truth for "Path to 9/11" since it's principle thrust seems to be how important it is to actually get Bin Laden. At least under Clinton, if the movie is to be believed, the CIA knew where the hell he was. But the stunted logic doesn't end there. We are led to believe that the real reason we didn't get Bin Laden when we could have is because Pakistan betrayed us, and tipped him off just before an ambush. Yes, that would be the same Pakistan Bush has relied on to capture Bin Laden for us.
Then there is the equally not-thought-out matter of Monica Lewinsky. The movie alternately asserts that Clinton was too preoccupied with his sex scandal to deal with Bin Laden, then suggests he went after Bin Laden as a distraction from his Lewinsky woes. Ironically, the writer never suggests that Ken Starr and the cabal he worked for may have actually been responsible for distracting the administration by turning the Paula Jones case into the Nuremberg Trials.
All that said, I don't think for a second ABC should have been prevented from showing this, with the proper disclaimers. That kind of censorship is a slippery slope. But I also don't think for a second that the gratuitous, last-minute "editing" changed any of the insinuations about the Clinton Administration. To be perfectly honest, I really think the makers of this 9/11 mockumentary could have used Rove on the set: Stay on message. Be consistent. Who cares if you're not telling the truth? Just pick a story and stick with it.
On a positive note, no horses were harmed in the making of this movie.