Clinton Aides Slam 9/11 Drama

A group of Bill Clinton's former aides have labelled a US television mini-series about the September 11 attacks "terribly wrong", calling for it to be corrected or pulled from the schedule.

The group of politicians, including former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, has written to TV network ABC saying that The Path to 9/11 is "factually and incontrovertibly inaccurate".

As the country prepares for Monday's fifth anniversary of the attacks, ABC has scheduled a five-hour mini-series, starring Harvey Keitel, Patricia Heaton and Donnie Wahlberg, to air on Sunday and Monday.

Among those signing the letter of complaint are Mr Clinton's national security adviser Sandy Berger, Clinton Foundation head Bruce Lindsey, the former president's adviser Douglas Band, as well as several other Democrats.

Although they have not seen the programme, they say that they have been given details from sources close to the production and object to the way events before Mr Clinton left office in January 2001 are depicted.

"The content of this drama is factually and incontrovertibly inaccurate and ABC has a duty to fully correct all errors or pull the drama entirely," the letter read.

"It is unconscionable to mislead the American public about one of the most horrendous tragedies our country has ever known."

One of the incidents they said was wrong was a scene that allegedly shows Ms Albright insisting on warning the Pakistani government before an air strike on Afghanistan.

"The scene as explained to me is false and defamatory," she wrote.

Mr Berger objected to a scene that he has been told shows him refusing to authorise an attack on Osama Bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader.

"The fabrication of this scene cannot be justified under any reasonable definition of dramatic licence," he wrote.

But ABC said it wanted people to see the programme before commenting on it.

"For dramatic and narrative purposes, the movie contains fictionalised scenes, composite and representative characters and dialogue, and time compression," the network said in a statement.

"We hope viewers will watch the entire broadcast of the finished film before forming an opinion about it."