Who Is Michael Scheuer?

Before you decide whether or not the attempt to prevent the showing of “The Path to 9/11″ is no big deal, read Scheuer’s Washington Times op-ed from July and NewsBusters’ discussion with Scheuer earlier this week.

Note that Scheuer is currently a bitter critic of the War in Iraq who I am told appears frequently on cable news shows.

I’ll only quote the last para from Scheuer’s WashTimes piece:

So, I look forward to ABC’s mini-series, as well as to seeing the quality of the network’s fact-checkers. If they do their job well, some of the September 11 Commission’s whitewash may start to be peeled away. If they fail, however, the reality that Bill, Dick and Sandy helped to push Americans out of the windows of the World Trade Center on that September morning will be buried in miles of fantasy-filled celluloid.

Read both items.

While I’m thinking of it, why aren’t other broadcasters defending ABC’s free-speech and free-press rights?
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UPDATE: The plot thickens (HT Sticky Notes) –

Clinton aide says 9/11 film ‘correct’
Producer consulted with military attache´ who saw aborted attacks on bin Laden

A former military aide to President Clinton who claims he witnessed several missed opportunities to capture or kill Osama bin Laden says the producer of the ABC mini-series “The Path to 9/11″ came to him in frustration after network executives under a heavy barrage of criticism from former administration officials began pressing for changes to the script.

In an interview with WND, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Robert “Buzz” Patterson said producer and writer Cyrus Nowrasteh called him the morning of Sept. 1, explaining he had used Patterson’s book “Dereliction of Duty” as a source for the drama.

Later that day, Nowrasteh brought a preview copy of “The Path to 9/11″ to Patterson for him to view at home. Patterson, who says he has talked with the director seven or eight times since then, also received a phone call from an ABC senior vice president, Quinn Taylor.

Patterson told WND he recognizes the television production conflates several events, but, in terms of conveying how the Clinton administration handled its opportunities to get bin Laden, it’s “100 percent factually correct,” he said.

UPDATE, Sept. 10: Jack Tapper’s Politcal Punch blog at ABC reports that Scheuer has weighed in with him:

On the other hand, this morning we received an email from Michael Scheuer, former chief of the Osama bin Laden Unit at the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center (and the previously “Anonymous” author of “Imperial Hubris”) who is clearly no fan of either the Bush nor the Clinton Administrations — nor the 9/11 Commission. He writes the following:

“This whole business over ABC’s movie is amazing. Now Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. and a pack of political whores who pass themselves off as ‘historians’ have come out four-square for pre-publication censorship.

“As I have told you, the core of the movie is irrefutably true: the Clinton administration had 10 chances to capture of kill bin Laden. Had the 9/11 Commission not whitewashed events, personal culpability would have been assigned and we as a nation could have moved on to fight al-Qaeda. The Commission turned out to be hack-dominated, however, and ignored the documents that were presented to them, as well as the testimony it received under oath. Instead of telling the American people that the intelligence regarding bin Laden, al-Qaeda and their intentions was abundant, precise, and not acted on, the Commissioners blamed ‘the structure of the intelligence community’ for the failure and then proceeded to wreck the community with a horrendous reform package.

“The solution is really quite simple, I think. Declassify the documents and testimony of the men and women who risked their lives to collect the intelligence that Clinton and his lieutenants failed to act on. Present this information to the American people — and perhaps put some of those officers on TV to answer questions — and then let the chips fall where they may. If the critics of the ABC movie are so confident they are right, they would surely welcome this process.”

I believe that the historical record will ultimately show exactly what Scheuer alleged — that the Clinton alums who were on the 9/11 Commission abused their positions to airbrush history.