A rocky path

Docudrama tells a story that Clinton-era officials still want to avoid | John Dawson

If you're looking for someone to blame for the 9/11 terrorist attacks, ABC's miniseries The Path to 9/11 provides goats in spades. The docudrama (not quite movie, not quite documentary) examines the history of Islamic terrorism from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing to the 2001 attacks. Along the way, filmmaker David Cunningham gives viewers plenty of reason to point fingers at a Clinton administration that appeared feckless and misguided dealing with a growing terrorist threat and a Bush administration portrayed as uninterested in al-Qaeda prior to 9/11.

Five years after the attacks, the history of 9/11 remains an acutely sensitive subject. No one wants to shoulder blame for security lapses, and Clinton administration officials have been especially critical of how they say the miniseries muddies the water between truth and fiction.