Former Clinton administration officials protest ABC 'The Path to 9/11' miniseries; demand it not be aired

NEW YORK -- A miniseries about the events leading to the Sept. 11 attacks is "terribly wrong" and ABC should correct it or not air it, former Clinton administration officials demanded in letters to the head of ABC's parent company.\nFormer Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, Clinton Foundation head Bruce Lindsey and Clinton adviser Douglas Band all wrote in the past week to Robert Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Co., to express concern over "The Path to 9/11."\nThe two-part miniseries, scheduled to be broadcast Sunday and Monday, is drawn from interviews and documents including the report of the Sept. 11 commission. ABC has described it as a "dramatization" as opposed to a documentary.\nCalls to ABC seeking comment Thursday were not returned.\nThe letter writers said that the miniseries contained factual errors and that their requests to see it had gone unanswered.\n"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," Lindsey and Band wrote in their letter. "It is unconscionable to mislead the American public about one of the most horrendous tragedies our country has ever known."\nThe letter writers pointed out examples of scenes they had been told were in the miniseries but which they said never happened. Albright objected to a scene that she was told showed her insisting on warning the Pakistani government before an airstrike on Afghanistan and that she was the one who made the warning.\n"The scene as explained to me is false and defamatory," she said.\nBerger objected to a scene that he was told showed him refusing to authorize an attack on Osama bin Laden despite the request from CIA officials. "The fabrication of this scene (of such apparent magnitude) cannot be justified under any reasonable definition of dramatic license," he wrote.\nLindsey and Band objected to advertisements for the miniseries, which they said suggested Clinton wasn't paying enough attention to the threat of terrorism.\n"While ABC is promoting 'The Path to 9/11' as a dramatization of historical fact, in truth it is a fictitious rewriting of history that will be misinterpreted by millions of Americans," they said. "Given your stated obligation to 'get it right,' we urge you to do so by not airing this drama until the egregious factual errors are corrected, an endeavor we could easily assist you with given the opportunity to view the film."\nThe five-hour miniseries is set to run without commercial interruption. Director David Cunningham said it was a massive undertaking, with close to 250 speaking parts, more than 300 sets and a budget of $40 million. Cunningham has said he shot 550 hours of film. Among the actors in it are Harvey Keitel, Patricia Heaton and Donnie Wahlberg.