I watched the final two hours of the ABC mini-series last night.

This part picks up just after the break-up of the Millenial terror plot that was to have taken place on December 31,1999. The first major event is the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in October 2000. The Clinton Administration is winding down in its last few months in office and the President is focused on Middle East peace talks rather than retaliation - even though the opportunity is there.

Again, Richard Clarke continues to be portrayed as a frustrated advocate for going after Bin Laden and his network but no one wants to listen to him. We, the audience, share in his frustrations. Clarke continues to serve in the Bush Administration, which is by no means given a pass by this film. Clarke's focus is redirected away from counter-terrorism in a "restructuring" of the NSA. It took almost eight months in office before National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice is prepared to present a plan for dealing with Bin Laden. Of course, by then it was too little, too late.

Clinton apologists have no reason to complain that their guy was treated shabbily to the benefit of his successor. They will anyway.

This stage of the story emphasizes the "wall" that barred information sharing between the FBI and CIA, as illustrated by a CIA operative's meeting with Agent John O'Neill. The CIA has pictures of suspects of the Cole bombing that may be in the U.S. However, he won't share the identities of these men nor will he let O'Neill's staff keep the pictures.

Political correctness ruled the day. And if there is one perfect example of idiocy that the 9/11 commission uncovered in its findings, it is this ridiculous impediment to communication that most contributed to our inability to prevent the attacks. This policy, immortalized by the infamous "Gorelick Memo", has since been discarded. Thank God for that.

The film ends with a re-enactment of the events of that morning as many of the players, upon hearing the news, know immediately that it must have been the work of Bin Laden.

Actually, the fact that Democrats raised such a fuss over "The Path To 9/11" probably resulted in the mini-series registering such high ratings. As I stated in my previous post on part one, the importance of this presentation was its focus on the mindset this country had on September 10th and how we can never allow ourselves to return to that mindset.

This is THE issue of our time: the protection of America from further attacks and the destruction of those forces who would launch and support those attacks, wherever they may be. This is a war and it's being fought all over the world, on many different fronts. Even the enemy acknowledges this. I encourage Democrats to pull their heads out of their sphincters and get with the program. There's no use in whining about a film that they think makes them look bad. They're doing a good enough job of that all on their own.

Posted by: Gary at 12:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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