Presidents Blamed in Docudrama

A mini-series chronicling the build-up to the 9/11 attacks has come under fire for blaming the Clinton administration for failing to capture Osama bin Laden and showing President Bush as determined to pursue al-Qaida prior to the attack.

The Path to 9/11, made by the ABC network and due to air in the US and on BBC2 on Sunday, the day before the fifth anniversary of the attacks, stars Harvey Keitel as an FBI agent.

In one sequence set in 1998, 15 US agents and an Afghan Northern Alliance leader are poised to snatch Bin Laden from a village but the plan is aborted after US officials fear the political cost.

Critics, including an ex-White House official and a 9/11 commission member, say some events depicted never took place. Director David Cunningham said it was a docudrama, not a documentary.