Have You Noticed?

I think this is both interesting and revealing. Back when Fahrenheit 911 was the talk of the blogosphere, all the criticism I read was about its accuracy. There were quite a lot of bloggers that were tearing it apart for its twisting of fact. A lot of bloggers wanted to set the record straight, but to my knowledge not one of those people I was reading at that time before I started blogging myself was calling for it to be silenced. They only wanted the record straight.

Now we have a new "docudrama" about 9/11 coming out. And the left side of the blogosphere and mainstream Democratic politicians are calling for it to be radically changed or silenced. Some are gloating that they think they have silenced some voices.

Have you noticed the difference here?

One group decries the accuracy, the other decries the existence. Who is in favor of silencing the opposition again? Who is in favor of curtailing the free speech of others?

Have you noticed?

UPDATE: Ed Driscoll links with the news that ABC appears to have folded and will edit the scene that has been giving the Clintonistas fits. Welcome to the memory hole. (Many thanks to all the folks who have linked this post).

Blair Dealing With Mutiny

Tony Blair is facing down what appears to be a coordinated political attack against him organized and driven from certain members of his own party. The British PM met today in what appears to have been a pretty harsh private meeting with Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Blair demanded that Brown disavow the 100 or so Labor MPs who are in open revolt. Blair may move his departure date up as a result of the meeting.

On a day of near-meltdown in the Blair administration, which saw seven members of the Government resign, the Prime Minister refused to be bundled out of office by what his allies described as the "aggression" of the Brown camp.

Following a meeting at No 10 between the two men, which was described by sources as "hostile" and "appalling", Mr Blair's allies demanded that the Chancellor make clear in public that he had nothing to do with efforts in recent days by MPs and ministers to oust the Prime Minister.

Loyalists indicated that Mr Blair was challenging Mr Brown to try to "seize the crown", or back off and agree a smooth transition.

The Prime Minister will offer some concessions to the Chancellor today by publicly agreeing to bring forward his resignation date from late to early spring next year. His offer will be part of a deal in which the Chancellor condemns those lobbying for the Prime Minister's immediate removal.

A close ally of Mr Blair said last night that he was convinced the Brownites were coordinating moves to oust him. "The Prime Minister's view is that he is not the aggressor in this. It is therefore not up to him to clear it up," the ally said.

Another Blairite said: "The loyalties of these MPs who want the Prime Minister out are clear."

Supporters of the Chancellor insisted that the men's talks at No 10, which broke up at about 3.30pm, had been constructive.

A beaming Mr Brown was seen leaving in his ministerial car.

The British parliamentary system has always seemed a bit odd to me, having been brought up in the American democratic republic system - as modified by the two party system, of course. The US system is much less dependant on the power of individual ministers of course. I'm sorry to see Blair under this kind of internal revolt, though.

UPDATE: Interesting contrast in the Guardian's take on the same series of events, I think. Of course, the Guardian has long been rather hard on Blair, so it is really no surprise.

UPDATE: The BBC reports Blair has announced that he will leave office "within the year". It sounds as if maybe Gordon Brown lost the shouting match.

Kos, Barrett and Jones: Official Spokesmen For Iran

Official spokesman for Iran uses literally word for word repetition of things written daily by the folks at Daily Kos and by 9/11 denialists such as Kevin Barrett and Stephen Jones. Word for word.

God, that must make all of you so very, very proud.

“The events of September 11 were ordered by U.S. [officials] and Mossad so that they could carry out their strategy of pre-emption and warmongering and unipolarisation in order to dominate the Middle East”, Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi told military commanders on Tuesday. His comments were reported by the state-run news agency ISNA.

General Safavi said that Iran was the leading force of the “Islamic world”. “The geographic heart of the Islamic world is in Mecca and Medina. But, the political heart of the Islamic world is in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] is the flag-bearer of the front of Islamic awakening and the fronts of the awakening of third world nations”, he said.

He said that Washington had been defeated in its strategy of “attacking Iraq, Afghanistan, and Lebanon” and creating a new order in the Middle East.

“The U.S.’s neo-conservative strategy was to dominate the vast energy resources of the Persian Gulf in order to be able to control Europe, China, and India and drive the world to a unipolar state. Therefore, it planned to change undesirable regimes such as those of Iraq, Sudan, Syria, and Afghanistan”.

The IRGC general said that the Lebanese militia Hezbollah had defeated Israel during their recent war. “After many years, the political and military image and hollow might of the Zionist regime was broken and the real power of Hezbollah fighters was proven. Thus, Hezbollah defeated Israel”.

He described Washington and Tel Aviv as two “inter-continental threats” against Tehran. “The U.S. must be livid at Iran because of its disgraceful defeats in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Lebanon. Regarding [Iran’s] nuclear dossier, it might try to create circumstances so that slowly but surely economic and political pressure is applied against Iran by the [United Nations] Security Council”.

He accused Washington of plotting a “cultural” attack on Tehran by setting up new radio and television stations broadcasting into Iran, supporting dissident groups, and stepping up intelligence operations. “Therefore, the armed forces must be completely prepared in order to combat any forms of foreign and domestic threats”, he said.

He charged that Britain and the U.S. were stirring ethnic and religious divisions in Iran, in particular in the provinces close to the country’s frontiers.

The IRGC’s primary task is to export the Islamic revolution to Jerusalem via Baghdad.

Happy, boys and girls? Who's work are you doing exactly? You've certainly become very useful, haven't you? Especially to the new Persian empire that the general as much as announced today.

You must be so very proud.

UPDATE: Kobayashi Maru.

Of Course You Know This Means War

The invaders must be repelled at once. No quarter. Rally 'round the flag, boys. They shall not have this territory.

The Dungeness crab must be repulsed.

There's a new face appearing on Atlantic Ocean "most wanted" posters: the Dungeness crab. Marine scientists are worried that this west coast crab could be invading east coast waters after it was unexpectedly found off the coast of Massachusetts by a fisherman on July 19.

Lou Williams, the fisherman, took the out-of-place catch to aquaculture specialists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who sent out mug shots to other scientists around the country. They positively identified the crab as an adult male Dungeness.

Biologists worry about the appearance of exotic species, or bioinvaders, because they can stake their ground in a new ecosystem and push out native species.

The MIT scientists are particularly worried in this case because they don't know how the crab ended up so far away from home, and whether any more of its clan are lurking in the coastal waters.

The crab could have been purchased at a live seafood market and later released in the coastal waters. Judy Pederson, an MIT marine invasive species specialist, would have been more worried if a female Dungeness had been found, because she would have arrived by some other means, since only males are caught and sold in markets.

On a serious note. It is a really bad idea to release creatures into the wrong waters. Even if you are really kind-hearted and can't eat the crab, you're not doing the world any favors by releasing it in the wrong place.

UPDATE: Sorry, fixed broken "mugshot" link. Around the Crabitat, we know what a proper crab looks like, of course.

Trouble At Arizona High School

Six armed people are reported to be holed up inside an Arizona high school located on Navajo tribal land in Ganado, Arizona. One man with a gun and five females with knives is all the AP story has for detail. There is no word whether hostages are involved. Am trying to find more information.

It was unclear whether the six were holding students hostage at Ganado High School or whether the six armed people were students.

A male was armed with a gun, while five females had knives, said Jim Benally, police chief for Window Rock, a nearby community.

Authorities said the incident began around mid-afternoon and that police sealed off the area around the school.

Ganado, a community of 1,500 people on Navajo Nation land, is 315 miles northeast of Phoenix.

UPDATE: Link should still be good to the updated story. The situation is still very confused, but it may involve hostages. Some students have still not returned home from school, long past when they should have. Authorities are not saying much at the moment. This school is inside the Navajo tribal lands and it appears the Navajo tribal police are involved. Any crime on reservation land is also automatically under FBI jurisdiction, as I understand it. There is no word that the FBI is on the scene yet, however.

UPDATE: Phoenix television station KNXV is now reporting there was no hostage taking and no armed people. There was a report of a weapon seen at the school and a lockdown was initiated by school officials. The FBI says there is no truth to the initial reports.

(FBI Spokeswoman Deborah) McCarley attributed earlier reports of a standoff to a misunderstanding that stemmed from poor cell phone coverage from the geographically remote area.

That sounds a bit on the weird side.

Grade Inflation

Now the Daily Mail is inflating the 9/11 conspiracy theorists into "leading scientists". Gee, I need to get them to do a write-up on Blue Crab Boulevard. Then I'd be a leading blogger!

The 9/11 terrorist attack on America which left almost 3,000 people dead was an "inside job", according to a group of leading academics.

Around 75 top professors and leading scientists believe the attacks were puppeteered by war mongers in the White House to justify the invasion and the occupation of oil-rich Arab countries.

The claims have caused outrage and anger in the US which marks the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Monday.

But leading scientists say the facts of their investigations cannot be ignored and say they have evidence that points to one of the biggest conspiracies ever perpetrated.

Professor Steven Jones, who lectures in physics at the Brigham Young University in Utah, says the official version of events is the biggest and most evil cover up in history.

He has joined the 9/11 Scholars for Truth whose membership includes up to 75 leading scientists and experts from universities across the US.

Prof Jones said: "We don't believe that 19 hijackers and a few others in a cave in Afghanistan pulled this off acting alone.

"We challenge this official conspiracy theory and, by God, we're going to get to the bottom of this."

Well, by God, we have done our level best to help you sort it out, prof! We told you all about the "super thermite". Geeze, we handed it to you on a silver platter. It really is a shame these whack jobs are getting the ink they are. There are almost no real "hard" scientists or real experts among them. Those that they do have, like the good professor are playing well outside their limited expertise.

There is a reason for that, folks. I've done just enough fire-protection work in my career to know these people have zero clue what they are talking about. For the sane, there are links to 9/11 conspiracy theory debunking information here.

Bush Acknowledges Holding Terror Suspects In Secret

The press report calls it acknowledging "secret prisons", I'm waiting to read the exact words Bush used in the speech. This is the first time the administration has acknowledged anything of the sort, so I imagine that this will become the hot topic of the day.

He said the "small number" of detainees that fall into this category include people responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 in Yemen and the 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

"The most important source of information on where the terrorists are hiding and what they are planning is the terrorists themselves," Bush said in a White House speech with families of those killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, sitting in the audience. "It has been necessary to move these individuals to an environment where they can be held in secret, questioned by experts and, when appropriate, prosecuted for terrorist acts."

The announcement from Bush is the first time the administration has acknowledged the existence of CIA prisons, which have been a source of friction between Washington and some allies in Europe. The administration has come under criticism for its treatment of terrorism detainees. European Union lawmakers said the CIA was conducting clandestine flights in Europe to take terror suspects to countries where they could face torture.

As he did in his speech yesterday, another in a series pegged to the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Bush said that the country was still under threat from terrorists.

"They're still trying to strike America and still trying to kill our people," Bush said. The U.S. must be able to "detain, question and, when appropriate, prosecute terrorists captured here in America and on the battlefields around the world."

Bush said such detainees provide essential intelligence to prevent terrorist attacks and to stop key terror suspects from again taking up arms against the United States. "We have a right under laws of war and an obligation to the American people to detain these people and prevent them from returning to battle," Bush said.

"They are in our custody so that they can't kill our people."

It will still be interesting to see whether there is anything to the "secret flight" information that the EU is looking at. Up until now there has not been any confirmation of those flights.

UPDATE: Allah calls it a shrewd move. I am trying to get the text becuse it appears that the reports are all focusing on the admission of the detainees, but not prointing the way getting information seriously disrupted a number of advanced plots.

UPDATE: Full transcript of Bush's remarks. He focused on the information that was obtained and on the plots broken up. The press concentrated on the "admission".

The Goats Made Me Do It

Or rather the lack of goats. A Swiss man was caught speeding by police in Eastern Ontario Province, Canada. When the officer pulled him over, he explained that he was driving 161 km/hr in a 100 km/hr zone because there weren't any goats to slow him down.

The driver was caught traveling 161 km/hr (100 mph) in a 100 km/hr zone in eastern Ontario Sunday.

"A motorist from Switzerland, used to driving around hills and mountains, takes advantage of the ability to go faster without risking hitting a goat," read the traffic officer's notes of the incident.

Local police said it was the first time they had ever heard of such an excuse.

"I've never been to Switzerland but obviously they must have a problem with that there," said police spokesman Joel Doiron, adding that in his 20 years of service he had never found a goat on the highways of eastern Ontario.

The excuse did him no good, however, he was fined $360 Canadian. There is no word as yet on whether the provincial government is making plans to install goats. I would not be at all surprised to hear they were considering it.

AMLO Losing Support

Up until now, leftist loser Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador  has enjoyed a pretty easy time of it in the world press. They have downplayed his more hysterical rants and kept his lost cause in the public eye with largely sympathetic coverage. Other nations, including the US, have remained largely silent about the contested Mexican presidential election. That is now beginning to change and AMLO is looking more and more like a marginal figure who is going to destroy his own political future with his continued antics. Calderon is looking more presidential with each passing day and is reaching out to the opposition. Former AMLO supporters are defecting rapidly..

MEXICO CITY - Newly declared President-elect Felipe Calderon began building his government Wednesday and his supporters called on backers of leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to end weeks of national protests over the disputed July 2 election.

….

But weeks of angry rhetoric and tensions were likely to continue, as Lopez Obrador vowed to never recognize Calderon as Mexico's leader and said he would instead create his own parallel government. Trying to counter more than a month of protest camps in favor of Lopez Obrador, Calderon's supporters planned to form a human chain Wednesday to urge the nation to support a peaceful transition.

Civic groups and unions published full-page ads in Mexico's principal newspapers Wednesday calling for peace and unity.

In an interview late Tuesday with Mexico's Televisa television network, Calderon said he would begin forming a government "immediately" but would take his time choosing a Cabinet, announcing his choices "very likely in the hours close to the swearing-in" on Dec. 1.

He said he would be looking for "honest people … capable people, people who are loyal to the (administration's) plan, and to Mexico."

Always confident of his eventual victory, Calderon has been quietly drawing up transition plans since the days that followed the election. Lopez Obrador's supporters and allied parties have said they will try to block the handover, just as they kept Fox from giving his last state-of-the-nation address Friday.

….

"I do not recognize someone who tries to act as the chief federal executive without having a legitimate and democratic representation," he told thousands of supporters in Mexico's main Zocalo plaza who chanted: "Felipe, the people don't want you!"

World leaders, including the prime ministers of Japan and Belgium and several Central American presidents, congratulated Calderon on his victory.

The White House said Mexico's democratic institutions, especially the Federal Electoral Tribunal, have proved themselves "strong and capable of reflecting the will of the people of Mexico."

"We congratulate Felipe Calderon on his victory and look forward to working with him and his team," the White House said.

The tone of the articles is changing. AMLO will be getting less and less flattering coverage as the days go by. His outrageous and downright nasty statements will begin to be reported instead of glossed over.

An Essay On Forced Conversions

The Anchoress has an essay posted on forced conversions and provides some very interesting things to think about.

The demand to “convert or die” is not a thinking demand, it is not born of reason. It is culled forth from a dark heart given over to something larger than a human sense or sensibility. It is an unnatural requirement; it is Supernatural. As such, it can only be properly answered through Supernatural means, through a heart that is not dark but which is equally given over to something larger than our rational and reductive imaginings. Can you reduce the response to a forced conversion into whether one “meant it” or not? Yes, you can, but in doing so you have taken your eyes off of something hugely in play but easy to miss - that the greatest feats of heroism written in the annals of human history have come about through a combination of faith and reason, but with reason bringing up the rear.

Firefighters on 9/11 asked a blessing from Fr. Mychal Judge before they headed into the burning towers of the World Trade Center. Reason cautioned that running into such a hellish conflagration was foolhardy - faith whispered something else, and it won.

A very thought-provoking post, well worth the read. I've mentioned before that my ancestors had the intelligence and good sense to get thrown out of France. They were given a choice of converting, leaving or getting killed. They chose to leave.

An Interesting Look At A Mini-Fad

I hadn't commented on this item when it turned up a couple of weeks ago. It resurfaced just a few days ago and actually provides a bit of insight into fads, I think. The town of Brattleboro, Vermont has decided to let mother nature deal with a rash of nude teenagers that has been ongoing throughout the summer. One thing is certain, running around in the nude in the snow will be nowhere near as much fun as doing it in the summer.

The town's Select Board decided Tuesday to take no action on an anti-nudity ordinance that was introduced in response to a clothing-optional movement launched by local teenagers this summer.

"Winter is coming. If spring comes and we still have a problem, we'll take another look at it," said Select Board Chairman Steve Steidle.

Vermont has no state law against public nudity, though at least eight communities have banned it locally.

Brattleboro, however, has long had a live-and-let-live culture. Its 12,000 residents have seen clothing-optional swimming holes, streakers, and even an event known as "Breast Fest," with women parading topless.

But the public nature of the latest movement — naked teens smack in the heart of downtown — raised eyebrows.

The stripping apparently started in early summer when a young woman sat naked on a park bench, said Police Chief John Martin. Then another woman took her shirt off downtown, a music festival inspired nude hula hoopers in a downtown parking lot, and in August a half dozen young people bared their bodies in a parking lot encircled by the backs of bookstores, coffee shops and restaurants.

One of the nudists, 19-year-old Adhi Palar, told the town board the issue was freedom.

"Our acting in nudity is an act of celebration of this history and traditional values as a place where you're allowed to be nude," he said. "I find that important, and I find that proud."

I think this is sort of a local mini-fad having more to do with teenage rebellion than anything else. The town actually did more to derail this fad by ignoring it than if they had passed a law. After the teens realize nobody really is paying any attention to them, they'll move on to something else.

Shuttle Launch Postponed Due To Fuel Cell Problem

An erratic reading on a fuel cell has forced NASA to push back a launch attempt by at least a day while they investigate the problem.

The fueling of the external tank had yet to start when one of three cells that provide electricity to Atlantis gave an erratic reading. The space agency planned to further examine the problem, and if possible try to launch at 12:03 p.m. EDT Thursday.

"The launch rules say you need to have three good, operating fuel cells," said NASA spokesman Bruce Buckingham. "We're going to see if it's something that's a real problem or whether it's something we can rectify."

The problem was discovered shortly before an overnight meeting to decide whether to start pumping the shuttle's fuel tank with supercold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. When the shuttle's fuel cells were powered up, a low voltage reading came from one of the units, and the other two spiked up to compensate.

Fuel cell problems have forced launch delays before and even ended missions early.

The second flight of space shuttle Columbia in 1981 was delayed because of a low pressure reading on an oxygen tank that fueled a cell. Columbia's five-day mission was then cut short by almost three days when the fuel cell failed.

In 1995, space shuttle Endeavour's launch was delayed eight days so workers could remove and replace a bad fuel cell that was registering higher than allowable temperatures.

A 1997 flight of space shuttle Columbia returned to Earth four days after launch when a cell failed in orbit. The fuel cell had shown some erratic readings before the launch but the shuttle was cleared to fly. It was only the third time a shuttle mission had ended early, but the mission was rescheduled and Columbia launched again a few months later.

If the Atlantis does not get into space this week, NASA may have to push the launch back to sometime in October. The launch window is pretty tight.

One Step Closer

Iran has suddenly announced that talks with the EU over the Iranian nuclear program have been "postponed". The talks were regarded as the last ditch effort to head off sanctions. The announcement was, of course, a surprise to the EU negotiators, but they struggled to put the best face on it.

VIENNA, Austria - A senior Iranian envoy abruptly announced Wednesday that last-ditch talks on his country's disputed nuclear program were postponed, moving Tehran a step closer to U.N. sanctions after it defied a deadline to freeze uranium enrichment.

The talks had been tentatively set for Wednesday in Vienna as a final attempt to see if there was common ground to start negotiations between Iran and the six nations that have been trying to persuade Iran to limit its nuclear program.

But while the European Union's Javier Solana had been ready to fly to the Austrian capital at short notice, the talks had been left hanging by uncertainty over whether Iranian nuclear envoy Ali Larijani would come.

"We will not have the meeting today in Vienna," Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, the chief Iranian envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, told The Associated Press. "Both sides are arranging (a meeting) for a couple of days later."

There was no immediate comment from Solana's office in Brussels. But although Soltanieh said the decision to postpone any meeting had been mutual, it appeared that Iranian reluctance to attend had scuttled the chance of Wednesday talks.

We are running out of time to stop this from escalating.

There He Goes Again

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, is certainly consistent in one respect. He is again calling for the West, and the US in particular, to either submit or die. In this, he is echoing the latest propaganda tape al Qaeda released recently, of course.

Iran is embroiled in a nuclear stand-off with the West, which accuses Tehran of seeking to build atomic bombs, a charge Tehran dismisses. Ahmadinejad says Western powers use such accusations as a ploy to hold back Iran's development.

Washington has said the call for a debate is a diversion.

"We requested a face-to-face debate (with Bush) to assess the problems of the world … We will let humanity choose between us," he told a meeting on the 12th Muslim Shi'ite imam, who disappeared in the 10th century AD but who Shi'ites believe will return to implement Islamic justice.

"We oppose the fact that America and Britain intend to impose themselves on every other nation," he said.

"Those who do not respond to the invitation (to follow God's will), as we said, will have no good fate," said Ahmadinejad, the second non-cleric to be president of the Islamic Republic.

"I do not threaten anybody, but the whole universe threatens you. The current of life in the universe opposes you, as it opposes tyranny," he added.

RESPONDING TO BUSH

A presidential official told Reuters that Ahmadinejad's remarks were partly to rebut Bush's speech on Tuesday in which he said Shi'ite "extremists" were subjecting Iran to "a regime of tyranny," backed terrorists, sought atomic bombs and threatened the United States.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Bush was trying to cover up his failures. "We don't know why Mr Bush insists so much on using this odd language in international relations," he said in a statement.

In letters Ahmadinejad wrote this year to Bush and to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he blamed many of the world's problems on leaders who failed to follow divine teachings.

"The time has passed for the use of force … All of the discrimination, wars and problems have a root in such an arrogant spirit, the idea of 'Mahdaviat' opposes that school of thought," Ahmadinejad said.

Mahdaviat refers to the concept of belief in the Mahdi.

This, of course, fails to address the issue that that most Muslims are being killed by other Muslims these days.

ABC In The Middle

It has been kind of instructive watching the kerfluffle over the ABC miniseries The Path to 9/11 develop over the past few days. It seems that several darlings of the left are quite exercised over the whole thing because it does not present the approved story line as they have tried to define it. In other words it does not present 9/11 as entirely and solely George Bush's fault.

In other words it does not repeat the approved lies. Geeze, ABC may lose its honorary membership in the fellow travelers club over this.

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 5 — Days before its scheduled debut, the first major television miniseries about the Sept. 11 attacks was being criticized on Tuesday as biased and inaccurate by bloggers, terrorism experts and a member of the Sept. 11 commission, whose report makes up much of the film’s source material.

The six-hour miniseries, “The Path to 9/11,” is to be shown on ABC on Sunday and Monday. The network has been advertising the program as a “historic broadcast” that uses the commission’s report on the 2001 attacks as its “primary foundation.”

On Tuesday, several liberal blogs were questioning whether ABC’s version was overly critical of the Clinton administration while letting the Bush administration off easy.

In particular, some critics — including Richard A. Clarke, the former counterterrorism czar — questioned a scene that depicts several American military officers on the ground in Afghanistan. In it, the officers, working with leaders of the Northern Alliance, the Afghan rebel group, move in to capture Osama bin Laden, only to allow him to escape after the mission is canceled by Clinton officials in Washington.

In a posting on ThinkProgress.org, and in a phone interview, Mr. Clarke said no military personnel or C.I.A. agents were ever in position to capture Mr. bin Laden in Afghanistan, nor did the leader of the Northern Alliance get that near to his camp.

“It didn’t happen,” Mr. Clarke said. “There were no troops in Afghanistan about to snatch bin Laden. There were no C.I.A. personnel about to snatch bin Laden. It’s utterly invented.”

Mr. Clarke, an on-air consultant to ABC News, said he was particularly shocked by a scene in which it seemed Clinton officials simply hung up the phone on an agent awaiting orders in the field. “It’s 180 degrees from what happened,” he said. “So, yeah, I think you would have to describe that as deeply flawed.”

I have always disliked Clarke's partisan spin on the whole situation. He obviously has an ax to grind on this. The fact is the operation that al Qaeda pulled off on that sunny September morning five years ago had been in planning during Mr. Clarke's watch. He knows it and he has been actively trying to duck any responsibility for that for years. The man who chaired the 9/11 commission has a different take than Clarke:

Former Gov. Thomas H. Kean of New Jersey, the chairman of the Sept. 11 commission and a consultant on the miniseries, defended the program, saying he thought the disputed scene was an honest representation of a number of failed efforts to capture Mr. bin Laden.

“I pointed out the fact that the scene involving Afghanistan and the attempt to get bin Laden is a composite,” Mr. Kean said, adding that the miniseries format required some conflation of events. But, he said, “The basic fact is that on a number of occasions, they thought they might have been able to get bin Laden, and on those occasions, the plug was pulled for various reasons.”

Mr. Kean conceded that some points might have been more drama than documentary. “Some of the people shown there probably weren’t there,” he said.

I am not sure if I will watch it or not. I am, in general, not a fan of "docudramas". But it has been very amusing to see this whole thing develop they way it has. Several people are sure protesting an awful lot, aren't they?

UPDATE: Dean Barnett takes issue with it.