Right Wing Nut House

The 2 hour conclusion to the National Geographic Channel’s gripping documentary “Inside 9/11 will be shown tonight at 8:00 PM central time. If you missed the first 2 hour installment, you can see it starting at 6:00 PM central.

The first part of this extraordinary documentary left me saddened beyond words. The show makes absolutely clear that culpability for 9/11 lies with both Democrats and Republicans. And trying to parse which party is more to blame is an exercise in sophistry. You are beyond redemption if you watch this program and come to any other conclusion except that our policy makers for the last 15 years were all smug, arrogant, self-deluding fools. For a variety of reasons - political correctness and overconfidence stand out - everyone missed clear and unmistakable signs of the attack.

I found it interesting that the documentary included a brief 30 second snippet on Able Danger, alluding to the operation being run at Special Forces Command in Tampa as having a chart that unearthed 2 of the hijackers names and correctly tying them to al Qaeda in July of 2000. One wonders if this information was a late edition to the program or whether they had independent verification of Able Danger months ago.

This really is a don’t miss moment in television history. The program is eminently watchable with unbelievable graphics, photos, and footage with a storytelling style that emphasizes repeating the relationships between the hijackers, the radical mosques that they were recruited at, the major al Qaeda players, and other aspects of the attacks several times so that the viewer can easily follow the convoluted and confusing movements of the principals.

Commentary from experts is also fascinating although the reporter for al Jazeera is way too smug. At one point he asks “How do you impress a German? By being perfect,” in talking about Mohamed Atta’s student career in Germany.

I daresay the reporter didn’t impress too many Germans with that remark.

Don’t miss this show. And as soon as it’s available on DVD, I’m buying it.

UPDATE

I’m not the only one who noticed the reference to what could have been Able Danger in last night’s show. Rich Lowrey received this email at the Corner:

The National Geographic channel is running a two part miniseries on events leading up to and including 9/11. The first part was on this evening and did a wonderful job of tracing the rise of OBL and what is know about those involved in 9/11. It was a truly fascinating 2 hour show and was very informative.

You may want to contact the producers of the show and ask what info they have on this chart. They must have something because they included it in the program. Having followed the Able Danger story over the past few weeks I was taken aback by the casual and brief mention of the “chart” given to the special ops group.

Mr. Lowrey is looking for anyone else who might have noticed that bit or who might have additional information that would shed some light on this.

I think there’s a pretty good chance that they added the info in the last week or so once Able Danger came to light. However, there’s a chance that one of the commentators - several of which have written books about the intel leading up to 9/11 - may have gotten wind of the operation and put the information in their book, not knowing it was Able Danger.

The Able Danger story just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser…