by Cyrus Nowrasteh<\/p>\n
_____________________________________________________\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When I took on the assignment to write THE PATH TO 9\/11 for ABC I knew\u00a0it was the most important, and the most sensitive, project that I or any writer\u00a0could tackle. For that reason, and because of a deeply-felt personal responsibility\u00a0toward the story and those who died — indeed toward all Americans — I knew the\u00a0research had to be impeccable. The 9\/11 Commission Report, of course, was\u00a0central, but other books were purchased, and many more referenced along with\u00a0personal interviews, articles, and an array of consultants. An entire staff of\u00a0lawyers viewed and reviewed every scene, every bit of dialogue and action, both\u00a0in the writing process and after it was shot. I would venture to say that no movie\u00a0or miniseries has ever been so carefully vetted, and hence, as accurate in its\u00a0presentation of a story that covers 8 1\/2 years, numerous continents, and two-\u00a0hundred-and-sixty characters.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The one thing I did not do in preparing this project was get the\u00a0approval of politicians. Any politicians. I did not do that then and I would not do\u00a0that now. Why? Because if there is one batch of sources with a clear agenda, with\u00a0clear partisanship, it would be them. The public deserves better than that. The\u00a0victims of terrorism before 9\/11 and since deserve better than that.\u00a0But, somehow, politicians injected themselves into this — in a big way. The\u00a0Clinton spin-machine was out in full force against THE PATH TO 9\/11, long\u00a0before it aired, and the media and others bought the spin. Just like book-burners\u00a0have always done. The spinners mounted a witch-hunt against me that knew no\u00a0bounds. Far left bloggers posted my home phone number and address on the\u00a0Internet with the following message: \u201cThe gloves are off. Accidents occur.\u201d As one\u00a0would expect, the death threats and hate mail followed. The police visited my\u00a0house twice and the FBI called to follow up on the reports. An anchor of a major\u00a0cable network show contacted a high school friend looking for dirt. With a few\u00a0exceptions, most of the TV and print media launched a libelous campaign to\u00a0discredit me, led by the Los Angeles Times who, in an attempt to provoke,\u00a0ethnically profiled me as an \u201cIranian-American politically conservative\u00a0Muslim.\u201d Wrong on all but one count. I am<\/em> an American.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The critical question that the media didn\u2019t ask, that so many seem to have\u00a0missed, is why were they so upset? Why mount such an unprecedented\u00a0campaign against a movie before it airs? Why push so hard to get it pulled off the\u00a0air? Why?\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Maybe the truth had something to do with it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The fact-checking on THE PATH TO 9\/11 was of the highest standards. I\u00a0would gladly put its veracity up against any docudrama ever made. In fact, over\u00a0Labor Day weekend Disney\/ABC brought in outside counsel to double-check the\u00a0factual basis for the script (all 350 pages of annotations and their sources), and\u00a0they concluded that it was rock-solid. I, and others, maintain that the minor cuts\u00a0made in the show for broadcast were to mollify the unprecedented political\u00a0machine out to kill the show. These minor cuts amounted to a little over three\u00a0minutes of screen time in a 5-hour presentation — and they didn\u2019t alter the\u00a0intent or meaning of the scenes affected.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But the larger issue here — for writers, film-makers, and artists\u00a0 — is the\u00a0attacks on the First Amendment perpetrated by the spinners. Senator Harry\u00a0Reid and five other Senators sent a letter to Disney\/ABC threatening revocation\u00a0of their station licenses if they didn\u2019t pull or recut the movie. Congresswoman\u00a0Louise Slaughter spoke on the House floor, suggesting that they need to \u201cconsider\u00a0the backgrounds of the people behind this.\u201d These outrageous statements,\u00a0 made\u00a0before the miniseries aired, were made by people who freely admitted that they\u00a0had not seen it — but had only heard what was in the movie. In other words,\u00a0rumor was their basis. Censorship was their goal.\u00a0<\/p>\n The tactics of these Washington lawmakers — and their supporters — are no\u00a0less than modern McCarthyism, something historians are keen to study, as long\u00a0as it\u2019s fifty years ago. MoveOn.org sent out e–mails demanding the movie be\u00a0\u201cyanked,\u201d and accusing me of being a \u201cright-wing activist who fabricated key\u00a0scenes to blame Democrats and defend Republicans.\u201d Anyone who has seen the\u00a0movie knows this last claim is ridiculous. We are just as hard on the Bush\u00a0administration failures as we are on those of the Clinton administration. In\u00a0effect, the movie is an equal-opportunity offender — but if you followed the spin\u00a0and didn\u2019t see it you might be persuaded like a recent POV columnist who called\u00a0me a propagandist<\/em> and fictionalizer<\/em>. I remember a time when writers stood up for\u00a0one another\u2019s creative rights. In fact, no one stood up for this movie — not the\u00a0ACLU, the WGA, PEN, the DGA — no organizations devoted to artists\u2019 rights spoke\u00a0up. After all, we\u2019d been characterized as \u201cright-wing fanatics\u201d — who in\u00a0Hollywood would defend them?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As for characterizing me as a right-winger, I\u2019m the guy who wrote and\u00a0directed THE DAY REAGAN WAS SHOT which portrayed the Reagan\u00a0administration in chaos, for which the movie was viciously attacked by\u00a0conservatives. I also wrote 10,000 BLACK MEN NAMED GEORGE whose hero, A.\u00a0Philip Randolph, was a notorious African-American Communist who leads a\u00a0Union struggle in the movie. I won the PEN award for both of these films, and\u00a0PEN is not known for being partial to conservatives. Just for the record, I am not\u00a0now and never have been, nor will ever be, a member of any political party. The\u00a0chief reason: to protect my writing from any idealogical censorship either\u00a0internally or externally imposed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Hysteria has no oxygen for facts or truth. One of the more illustrative\u00a0examples of this was CNN\u2019s Wolf Blitzer and a panel condemning the movie when\u00a0none of them had seen it — hence we had former Defense Secretary William\u00a02\u00a0Cohen and former Secretary of State Madelaine Albright responding to questions\u00a0about a scene that did not exist.<\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n In fact, after<\/em> watching the miniseries the following people came out\u00a0publicly in support of it:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n — Michael Scheuer<\/strong>, former chief of the Osama bin Laden unit at the CIA\u2019s\u00a0counterterrorist Center, who is clearly no fan of either the Bush or Clinton\u00a0administrations, nor the 9\/11 Commission, e-mailed ABC News to insist that\u00a0\u201cthe core of the movie is irrefutably true.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n — Gary Schroen<\/strong>, former CIA field agent who was the first American into\u00a0Afghanistan after 9\/11, said publicly, \u201cthe movie is remarkably accurate.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n — Lt. Col. Robert Patterson<\/strong>, chief White House military aide to\u00a0President Clinton, said \u201cin terms of conveying how the Clinton administration\u00a0handled its opportunities to get bin Laden, it\u2019s 100 percent factually correct,\u201d he\u00a0said. \u201cI was there with Clinton and [National Security Advisor Sandy] Berger\u00a0and watched the missed opportunities occur,\u201d Patterson declared.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n — Steven Emerson<\/strong>, one of the foremost terrorism experts in the world, a\u00a0man who has testified and briefed Congress dozens of times on terrorism, said on\u00a0Fox News that \u201cThe Path to 9\/11 is 100 % accurate.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The individuals above, speaking to the veracity of THE PATH TO 9\/11, are\u00a0not politicians \u201cspinning\u201d — they were there, and some still are, fighting the war\u00a0on terror. They know what happened. The facts of the matter and the truth they\u00a0reveal are not just so much political currency, no matter how loud the politicos\u00a0or media pundits scream otherwise. THE PATH TO 9\/11 is just the messenger.\u00a0<\/p>\n No more, no less.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sadly, the hysteria distracted from that message, the one and only\u00a0\u201cagenda.\u201d From the first day to the last, it was a simple one: to enact in an\u00a0historically accurate fashion that 9\/11 was merely one more step in an\u00a0escalating pattern of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism against the U.S. To\u00a0remind the public of recent history. To place 9\/11 in context. To illustrate the\u00a0trajectory of attacks. To connect the proverbial dots of the past in the hope that\u00a0we can connect them better in the future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Not a day goes by even now where I don\u2019t run across some reference to it\u00a0written in ignorance by someone who swallows whole what the election-crazed\u00a0politicians dish out. Also, not a day goes by where I am not thanked personally\u00a0by a neighbor, an acquaintance, a colleague, or a stranger. Regardless what the\u00a0media, the politicos, the perpetually outraged bloggers, or even many in the film\u00a0community think, this project was a privilege from start to finish. And I stand\u00a0by every word of it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Cyrus Nowrasteh
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\nWhen I took on the assignment to write THE PATH TO 9\/11 for ABC I knew\u00a0it was the most important, and the most sensitive, project that I or …