WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 (UPI) -- ABC Television is to make changes to its controversial mini-series "The Path to 9-11" before it airs next week, following a barrage of criticism from former Clinton administration officials.
"No one has seen the final version of the film, because the editing process is not yet complete, so criticisms of ... specifics are premature and irresponsible," ABC said in a statement Thursday.
The statement is the first indication that the version which was shown at a press launch in Washington, D.C., a few days ago -- and distributed to hundreds of reporters, media organizations, and TV reviewers -- is not the one that will air.
There was no indication in the statement of what changes might be made or how significant they will be, and ABC did not provide anyone to answer questions.
The move follows complaints to Robert Iger, the chairman of Disney Corp., ABC's parent company, from former President Bill Clinton and two senior officials from his administration, criticizing the film's portrayal of their efforts to capture or kill al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
"The content of this drama is factually and incontrovertibly inaccurate and ABC has a duty to fully correct all errors or pull the drama entirely," wrote Clinton lawyer Bruce Lindsey. "It is unconscionable to mislead the American public about one of the most horrendous tragedies our country has ever known."
The liberal blog ThinkProgress.org says that 25,000 people have used their site to send letters of complaint to ABC about the film, a five hour-long examination of the origins of the Sept. 11 plot, which is scheduled to air over two nights next week on the fifth anniversary of the attacks.
"I find it quite amazing that a former president would try to intimidate a TV network into sanitizing a dramatization of the events leading up to Sept. 11," Roger Aronoff, a media analyst with the conservative watchdog group Accuracy in Media, told United Press International. He accused ABC of "buckling under the Clinton pressure," and warned "we will be watching closely."
"The Path to 9-11" is billed as a dramatization based in part on the report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, which investigated the events of Sept. 11 and circumstances leading up to it.
A disclaimer ABC plans to show at the beginning of each episode, which will air commercial free, states the film "is not a documentary," adding that: "For dramatic and narrative purposes," it "contains fictionalized scenes, composite and representative characters and dialogue, as well as time compression."
Nonetheless, in promotional materials accompanying the film, ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson said: "When you take on the responsibility of telling the story behind such an important event, it is absolutely critical that you get it right," and many Democrats are angry about portions of the film.
In one scene, CIA operatives working with Ahmed Shah Masud, the charismatic Afghan mujahedin leader who fought al-Qaida and their Taliban sponsors, are assembled on a hillside above bin Laden's residence at Tarnak Farms. "It's perfect for us," says "Kirk," a composite character representing several of the CIA operatives and analysts involved in the hunt for the terrorist leader.
But the team is forced to abort the mission when National Security Adviser Samuel "Sandy" Berger hangs up on them in the middle of a conference call, after telling them he cannot give the go ahead for the action.
"I don't have that authority," he says.
"Are there any men in Washington," Masud asks Kirk afterwards in the film, "or are they all cowards?"
"No such episode ever occurred -- nor did anything like it," wrote the real Berger to Iger.
In an interview yesterday with a Los Angeles radio station, Cyrus Nowrasteh, the film's screenwriter, acknowledged that the scene did not depict actual events.
"Sandy Berger did not slam down the phone," Nowrasteh said, according to the New York Times. "That is not in the (Sept. 11 commission) report. That was not scripted. But you know when you're making a movie, a lot of things happen on set that are unscripted. Accidents occur; spontaneous reactions of actors performing a role take place. It's the job of the filmmaker to say, you know, maybe we can use that."
The other scene depicts then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright insisting that the Pakistani government be forewarned about a cruise missile strike against bin Laden -- and then issuing the warning over the objections of the military.
"Neither of these assertions is true," writes Albright in her letter to Iger, calling the scene "false and defamatory."
The missiles narrowly missed bin Laden -- according to some reports, because he was warned of the forthcoming strike and left the Afghan training camp at which it was aimed.
The Sept. 11 commission report records that because the missiles had had to cross Pakistani air space, the vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff met with Pakistani military officials "to assure (them) the missiles were not coming from India. Officials in Washington speculated that one or another Pakistani official might have sent a warning to the Taliban or bin Laden."
