An American television mini-series about the September 11 terrorist attacks has come under fire from Bill Clinton and his former officials, who have condemned the programme as inaccurate, misleading and defamatory.
Officials who served under the former President's administration, including Madeleine Albright, the former Secretary of State, wrote letters to the ABC network, saying the show, The Path to 9/11, was "factually and incontrovertibly inaccurate".
Although the group acknowledged they had not seen the mini-series, which is due to be aired on Sunday and Monday, they said that unnamed sources had given them details about its content, which they said was so misleading that the project should be corrected or shelved altogether.
The row has ignited in the midst of campaigning for the November mid-term Congressional elections, in which national security issues are a keenly fought battleground between Republicans and Democrats.
Ms Albright, Sandy Berger, a former National Security Adviser, Bruce Lindsey, the head of the Clinton Foundation and Douglas Band, Clinton advisor, wrote in the last week to Robert Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company, the parent firm of ABC, to express their concerns.
"By ABC’s own standard, ABC has gotten it terribly wrong," Mr Lindsey and Mr Band said in their letter.
"It is unconscionable to mislead the American public about one of the most horrendous tragedies our country has ever known."
The programme, which is set to be broadcast without commercial breaks, had a budget of $40 million and a cast of more than 250 speaking parts, according to David Cunningham, the director. He described the project as a massive undertaking, saying it required more than 300 sets and 550 hours of film to be shot.
Ms Albright objected to a scene that she was told showed her insisting on warning the Pakistani government before an airstrike on Afghanistan, and that showed her as the person who made the warning.
"The scene as explained to me is false and defamatory," she said.
Mr Berger questioned a scene that he was told showed him refusing to authorise an attack on Osama bin Laden despite a request from CIA officials.
"The fabrication of this scene (of such apparent magnitude) cannot be justified under any reasonable definition of dramatic licence," he wrote.
The writers also complained that their requests to see the footage for themselves had gone unanswered.
They were joined yesterday by a group of Senate Democrats, featuring Harry Reid of Nevada, Senate Minority leader, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Charles Schumer of New York and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, who sent a joint letter to Mr Iger asking for the programme to be cancelled.
The senators’ letter questioned the political motivations and leanings of the programme.
"Frankly, that ABC and Disney would consider airing a program that could be construed as right-wing political propaganda on such a grave and important event involving the security of our nation is a discredit both to the Disney brand and to the legacy of honesty built at ABC by honourable individuals from David Brinkley to Peter Jennings," the letter said.
The two-part programme, which features Harvey Keitel, Patricia Heaton and Donna Wahlberg, is drawn from interviews and documents including the report of the September 11 commission.
ABC issued a statement saying that the editing process had not been completed and the complaints were "premature and irresponsible" as a final version had not yet been seen.
But today, it was reported that the letters had prompted network chiefs to make minor last-minute changes to the content.
The Washington Post quoted an unnamed network executive as saying that the "adjustments and refinements" were "intended to make clearer that it was general indecisiveness" by federal officials that left the country vulnerable to terrorist attacks and "not any one individual".
ABC added that for dramatic and narrative purposes "the movie contains fictionalised scenes, composite and representative characters and dialogue and time compression."
"We hope viewers will watch the entire broadcast of the finished film before forming an opinion about it," it said.
Mr Clinton said yesterday said he had not seen the film. "But I think they ought to tell the truth, particularly if they are going to claim it is based on the 9/11 commission report," he said.
"They shouldn’t have scenes that are directly contradicted by the findings of the 9/11 report."
Thomas Kean, a former Republican New Jersey governor and chairman of the 9/11 commission, defended the show.
"It’s something the American people should see," he said today in an interview on ABC’s Good Morning America.
"Because you understand how these people wanted to do us harm, developed this plot, and how the machinations of the American government under two administrations not only failed to stop them, but even failed to slow them down."
Tim Reid, Times Correspondent in Washington, said that the row bore testimony to how politically-charged an issue the attacks continued to be, as the fifth anniversary of 9/11 approached.
"Politically, this comes at a particularly sensitive time because of the mid-term elections coming up. Clinton's side are very sensitive on this issue and the Democrats are particularly so at the moment because it comes at a time when the Bush Administration is trying to tell America that it can keep people safe from terrorism and fight al-Qaeda better than the Democrats. It is the only remaining issue where President Bush enjoys an advantage over the Democrats.
"The film reinforces what conservatives have been saying; that they were in power for only eight months before the attacks happened but the Democrats had been in control for eight years. Mr Bush and the Republicans are trying to focus the voters on their response to 9/11 rather than the war in Iraq and this film doesn't do anything to hurt that."
