BILL CLINTON responded furiously yesterday to an American television mini-series about the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, which portrays him as so distracted by the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal that he failed to focus on the emerging threat of Osama bin Laden.

Senior Clinton Administration officials, including Madeleine Albright, the former Secretary of State, and Sandy Berger, the former National Security Adviser, also demanded yesterday that ABC either substantially edit or cancel its two-part The Path to 9/11, claiming that the drama was defamatory. The programme is also being shown by the BBC.

The five-hour drama, which will be shown tomorrow and Monday, portrays events that the former Clinton officials say never happened. These include a scene in which Mr Berger refused to authorise an attack on bin Laden in 1998 when CIA operatives had the al-Qaeda leader in their sights.

The reaction from Mr Clinton and his former aides was extraordinarily visceral. It reflected the enormous emotional and political hold the attacks continue to exert on the American political landscape, and the argument about whether the Clinton or Bush Administration was more to blame for failing to stop them.

In the past week President Bush has tried to refocus American voters on his response to the September 11 crisis, and the threat from bin Laden, and away from the war in Iraq.

With seven weeks until November’s midterm elections, polls show that Mr Bush enjoys an advantage over Democrats on the issue of terrorism. The September 11 attacks and his response to them will form the cornerstone of Republican campaigns. Mr Bush will spend tomorrow and Monday in New York commemorating the fifth anniversary of 9/11.

“It is despicable that ABC/Disney would insist on airing a fictional version of what is a serious and emotional event for our country,” a spokesman for the Clinton Foundation said. ABC’s parent company is the Walt Disney Corporation.

Mr Clinton, speaking after a fundraising event in Arkansas, referred to ABC’s claim that much of the series is based on the September 11 commission report, the bipartisan investigation of the attacks. “They ought to tell the truth,” Mr Clinton said. “They shouldn’t have scenes that are directly contradicted by the findings of the 9/11 report.”

Ms Albright, Mr Berger, Bruce Lindsey, head of the Clinton Foundation, and the Clinton adviser Douglas Band wrote to Robert Iger, Disney’s chief executive, claiming that the drama was “factually and incontrovertibly inaccurate”.

They added: “It is unconscionable to mislead the American public about one of the most horrendous tragedies our country has ever known.” They called the drama “right-wing political propaganda”.

The outrage had echoes of a 2003 controversy when Republicans successfully persuaded CBS to pull an unflattering and inaccurate biopic of the late Ronald Reagan.

Democrats pointed out that the main consultant to the ABC series was Thomas Keane, a former Republican New Jersey governor and chairman of the 9/11 commission.

ABC defended the series but was understood last night to be changing the scene involving Mr Berger. It called criticism “premature and irresponsible”, but conceded that the drama contained “fictionalised scenes, composite and representative characters and dialogue”.

TERROR DATES

1996
June 25 A lorry bomb explodes at US military barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 19 Americans; Osama bin Laden identified as terrorist financier
1998
June Osama bin Laden placed on FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List
Aug 7 US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania are bombed; Osama bin Laden named as the mastermind of the attacks
Aug 20 US forces launch day of missile strikes on camps in Afghanistan and destroy a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan
Dec 24 In an ABC News interview, bin Laden denies responsibility for the embassy attacks
2000
Oct 12 Attack on the USS Cole by bin Laden sympathisers kills 17

CLINTON

1997
Dec 19 Monica Lewinsky subpoenaed to appear at a deposition hearing
1998
Jan 17 The Drudge Report breaks story about a White House intern’s sexual affair with President Clinton
Jan 26 Clinton declares “I did not have sexual relations with that woman”
Aug 6 Lewinsky testifies before the Starr grand jury
Aug 17 Clinton admits in a televised speech, “I did have a relationship with Ms Lewinsky that was not appropriate”
Dec 11 House Judiciary Committee approve articles of impeachment
Dec 19 Clinton impeached by the House on two counts of perjury and obstruction of justice
1999
Jan 7 Impeachment trial begins in the Senate Feb. 12 Senate acquits Clinton

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