The Path to 9/11 Part 1 (2006)

In 2006 on the 5th anniversary of the infamous terrorist attacks, ABC Television broadcast a dramatization of the events that lead up to them. Since then pressure from the Clinton’s has kept the miniseries from being aired or released on DVD. Top notch acting, direction, and writing make this a must see for every adult American – too bad they can’t.

ABC’s $40,000,000 risk was controversial at the time, with the Clinton’s doing their best to try to keep it off the air. Originally meant to run with limited commercial interruptions, no advertiser would buy time and so it ran without commercials. This meant no money was made from it which was an effective way to punish ABC for making it. But was the money spent worth it?

The first thing on screen hangs there for a very long time. It is clear that fears of lawsuits had ABC nervous. In fact, halfway through Part 1 it is seen again.

The opening credits feature very moody minimalistic music by John Cameron and sets a somber tone. A washed out and nearly B&W tour of New York City’s daily life and landmark set the feeling of normality about to be disrupted.

Various Arab men are seen checking in at airline counters on the morning of September 11, 2001. Computer red flags on names are ignored by the check in clerks – the first failure in security shown. Shaky cam and fast cuts typify the style of the miniseries, so get used to it.

At the World Trade Center (WTC), we are introduced to John O’Neill, Director of Security for the WTC. Harvey Keitel portrays the likeable if hard as nails man in charge of protecting the Twin Towers. In many ways this is his story and he is the link between many of the protagonists.

Back at the airports, the airliners are boarded by the nervous hijackers. One of them calls another on cell phone and it is clear he is the leader. While all of this is being shown, the low, dull howl of wind can be heard in the background. It is an unnerving sound and deliberately out of place.

So begins the nearly three hour Part 1, which covers the events from 1993 to New Years Eve in 1999. Part 2 covers events from 2000 to the day of the attack.

In order to understand how America got to 9/11, the production takes us back to the events of the first attack on the WTC in 1993. It is like something out of 24 watching the yellow Ryder van going into the second tower’s underground parking garage and the ensuing events. Except it all really happened.

The mastermind and main villain of  most of Part 1 makes his appearance here in the form of Ramzi Yousef (Nabil Elouahabi), a dedicated jihadi and explosives enthusiast. Having lit the fuse on his own handmade bomb, Yousef jumps into a waiting car with his two accomplices, Mahmoud “The Red” Abouhalim (Youssef Kerkour) and Mohammed Salameh (Enis Esmer).  Their frantic and then exuberant escape from the garage contrast sharply with the carnage they unleash. Six are killed and scores more wounded by the explosion.

Watching the live reports, Nancy Floyd (Katy Selverstone) of the FBI receives a phone call from a very upset informant. Emad Salem (Shaun Taub) is a former colonel in the Egyptian Army and had warned the Feds something was going to happen. It is the beginning of blown opportunities to protect U.S. citizens from terrorists.

Salem isn’t the only one upset. Yousef thought his bomb would topple the towers like oversized dominos. Adding insult to injury, other organizations are trying to take credit for his work. At the airport on his way out of the country, his pride gets the better of him and he calls in a claim for his organization.

A reporter, John Williams (Barclay Hope), arrives to document the forensic work going on at the bombing site. The miniseries is partially based on his book, The Cell, written with Michael Stone. He’s also a friend of John O’Neill’s as we soon find out. We’ll be seeing a lot of him as he managed to be on the scene for many of the major events depicted.

At the site, NYPD bomb squad officers decide to disobey orders to save evidence from being destroyed. That turns out to be the very famous chunk of metal with the Ryder van’s VIN number on it. Do they get chewed out? Yes. But their bucking the system and taking initiative leads directly to the bombers. The theme of having to bypass superiors to get anything done runs through the story.

But it gets better. Proving greed begets stupidity on an epic scale, Salameh files a claim on the rental van deposit claiming it was stolen. This leads to one of the more memorable scenes of the first part. His desire for money is his undoing and he utters one of the most surreal and hypocritical lines I have ever heard.

Not exactly the brightest operatives, these terrorists. I’ve often found myself agreeing with the idea that most evil is of the mundane variety and also think stupidity plays a major part. As things unfold, this is reinforced by the concept that incompetency by those who are tasked to protect us enables evil to succeed despite their stupidity. It was sheer luck that caused Salameh to be caught.

Floyd’s boss, Neil Herman (William Sadler) puts it succinctly: “This was like the Keystone cops versus the gang who couldn’t shoot straight.”

While they get the two accomplices, the authorities still can’t get their hands on the ringleader, Ramzi Yousef. They don’t know he is in the Philippines partying in Manila with his uncle, Khalid Sheikh Muhammad (Michael Benyaer), at a nightclub. But he has big ideas in mind, very big ideas involving airliners.

Yousef becomes the most wanted man by the FBI and a task force is put together to go after him. Remember O’Neill? This was his job before working at the WTC. It turns out Ramzi has been a very busy guy, with a failed attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan and a successful bombing of a Shia mosque in Iran. We then get to see his latest creation kill one and injure seventeen others on an airplane bound to Japan from the Philippines.

But his help aren’t very bright and that leads to his hideout in Manila being compromised and his plans on a laptop falling into the hands of local authorities. This prevents a suicide bombing attack on the Pope and President Clinton. Once again, dumb luck is the only thing that prevented a planned attack.

Watching this is an exercise in infuriation, at least for me. What I thought would be a fast thing to review has turned into something far more difficult. I have to take breaks due to the anger building up while reviewing The Path to 9/11. You will not have a positive feeling about government after watching this, I can promise.

A man appears in at the U.S. embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan to turn in Yousef. While he agrees with all of the terrorist’s goals, he cannot abide killing innocents which is something Ramzi enjoys. This is a huge break that leads to his being captured in 1995.

Elouahabi’s performance as Yousef deserves a special mention. His rendition of Ramzi is charismatic, charming, and with the occasional the craziness seeping out. It is very layered and he dominates every scene he is in.

With prison sentences handed out to the bombers, things shift to the money behind the terror and the trail leads to a wealthy Saudi named Usama Bin Ladin (the spelling used by ABC). Yes, he was the one financing Yousef via his uncle, Khalid. John Miller also re-enters the picture, being the reporter who got the famous interview with Bin Ladin in 1998.

Miller shares what he observed at the Al Qaeda compound with FBI Agent O’Neill and we get a short rundown of what Usama had been responsible for. Things like the Khobar Towers attack and the famous “Blackhawk Down” incident in Somalia. Bin Ladin believes he brought the Soviet Union down and plans to do the same to the United States of America.

Bickering in the CIA and a desire to avoid accountability by Clinton administration officials lead to difficulties in forming a relationship with the commander of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, Ahmed Shah Massoud (Mido Hamada). A charismatic man with a Western education, he is Bin Ladin’s mortal enemy.

The fear of legalities haunts the Clinton staff so they don’t want Bin Ladin killed and a chance to snatch him is aborted last minute. It sours things considerably despite the work of CIA field agent “Kirk” (Donnie Wahlberg). Kirk is an amalgam of agents who were involved there.

 

And so another opportunity is wasted. The problems with the higher ups frustrates FBI and CIA agents both and at one point O’Neil is asked how you can win a war when it is considered a law and order issue. His blunt response says it all: “You can’t.”

Then comes the U.S. Embassy bombing in Nairobi, Kenya. It is depicted in all its gory horror with most of the gore coming from actual news footage. Even though distracted by the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Bill Clinton can’t ignore this.

An outstanding scene of the take down of the surviving attacker on the embassy is tension filled and is executed like something out of a James Bond film. With him in custody, the administration feels it can go ahead and use cruise missiles to take out targets in the Sudan and Afghanistan. That of course led to a pharmaceutical factory being wiped out with no evidence that chemical weapons were being made there. Sound familiar?

It is amateur hour and it is enraging to watch the decisions come made out of political expedience. Madeline Albright (Shirley Douglas) comes off particularly badly, though CIA Director George Tenet (Dan Lauria) and National Security Advisor Richard Clarke (Stephen Root) prove to be waffling posers. They are all in way over their heads and more concerned about covering their rears politically than protecting the country.

Retaliation for the failed missile attacks is swift in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda and the Taliban attack the Northern Alliance in brutal scene of limbs being blown off and wounded executed. Massoud tells the CIA that the Pakistani’s tipped off Bin Ladin.

Acrimony amongst the government heads involved comes to a head and they show themselves as being incapable of doing what is needed. While they dither, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed presents a plan to Zawahiri called “the Planes Operation.”

Retaliation comes to the States as well but is foiled by an alert customs agent, Diana Dean (Kathy Bates). It is December 14, 1999 and she correctly senses something is wrong with a man coming over the border from Canada. In the trunk of his car are the ingredients for a fertilizer based bomb and a plot to attack the United States for the Millennium celebrations is uncovered.

O’Neill and Herman can’t get Mayor Rudy Giuliani to cancel the New Years Eve celebration in Times Square and wonder if their luck will hold out. When it does, O’Neill celebrates in a restaurant with friends and that fades out to September 11, 2001 with the hijackers making their move in a surreal and dreamlike sequence.

 

In many ways the whole show feels like a nightmare. From the sound and lighting choices to the quick edits, it has that feeling of something you can’t control or stop. That makes it effective at portraying something that has already happened and I wonder if that was the film makers’ intent.

It strikes me that if this were presented as fiction, it would have been laughed at for being unbelievable. Especially how things kept happening due to coincidence or random luck.

It is rare to see successful censorship or banning of films in current day America and The Path to 9/11 is a choice example of how political power holds massive sway over the media today – if that power is from the Left, that is. With Hilary Clinton’s presidential ambitions, this damning indictment of the Clinton administration’s follies had to be suppressed. While the rookie Bush administration takes a few shots in Part 2, it is clear where the bulk of the blame lies.

This film should be mandatory viewing for all high school kids, but that will never happen.