Nat Geo Doc Whitewash
Something else later
By Peter Lance. In the fall of 2005 I was approached by Jonathan Towers, producer of Inside 9/11, a four-hour documentary on the road to 9/11 in which I was one of 60 journalists and government officials interviewed. I told Towers that I was working on a new investigative book exposing FBI negligence in its nine year failure to stop Ali A. Mohamed, al Qaeda's chief spy who infiltrated the Bureau, the CIA and the Green Berets at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Towers immediately optioned my research and flew me to Washington where I presented TRIPLE CROSS, my new book to John Ford, programming president of the Nat Geo Channel. He bought the project in the room, declaring, "I don't know how we can't do a documentary."
Over Christmas I wrote a 12 page ten-act treatment outlining the two key parts of the Ali Mohammed story: First, how he'd come to the U.S. in 1985, seduced a California woman into marriage, enlisted in the U.S. Army and got himself assigned to the JFK Special Warfare School at Bragg. From there, as he stole top secret documents for his chief sponsor, al Qaeda's No. 2 Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Mohamed commuted to New York City on weekends where he trained key members of the first WTC bombing cell and the notorious "Day of Terror" cell responsible for a plot to blow up the U.N. and the bridges and tunnels into Manhattan. Read more...
This story I am about to tell centers on one Ali Mohamed, not to be confused with Muhammad Ali. In addition to Mohamed, this story involves two intriguing people, investigate reporter Peter Lance, with whom I occasionally conspire, and Patrick Fitzgerald, the Plamegate prosecutor, whom I do not know although we attended the same New York City high school – he presumably at a less-inspired time.
In the fall of 2005, producer Jonathan Tower optioned the research Peter Lance had been doing on his new investigative book, "Triple Cross." The book deals with the FBI's failure to stop Ali A. Mohamed, the infamous al-Qaida spy who had infiltrated the Bureau, the CIA and the Green Berets at Fort Bragg, N.C.
For the proposed documentary, Lance wrote a 10-act treatment in which he outlined the two critical parts of the Ali Mohammed story. The first part tells of Mohamed's coming to America in 1985, his seduction of a California woman for the sake of marriage, his enlistment in the U.S. Army and his assignment to the JFK Special Warfare School at Fort Bragg. In his Army role, Mohamed was able to steal top-secret documents and send them to al-Qaida honcho Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri. Read More
Author spars over bin Laden documentary
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Former ABC News reporter Peter Lance says a U.S. National Geographic Channel documentary on al-Qaida based on his book is a distortion.
The winner of five Emmy awards said the cable channel's "Triple Cross: Bin Laden's Spy in America," scheduled to air Aug. 28, "skews the documentary so much in favor of the feds that it actually distorts the factual story."
Lance's book, "Triple Cross," which will be released in September, accuses law enforcement officials of negligence in tracking down Ali Mohamed, an alleged al-Qaida agent in the United States for years before Sept. 11, Daily Variety reported.
The book says Mohamed was hired by the CIA and worked for the FBI, all the while providing information to terrorists.
National Geographic's Executive Vice President of Programming John Ford said the organization's producers never intended to base the documentary solely on the book.
"It's also based on our own independent research," Ford said. "I think he wants this show to reflect his own personal conclusions."
The disagreement began in June when Lance said he did not receive promised transcripts of interviews with law-enforcement officers he criticizes in his book.
Ford said Lance was "using this controversy to promote his book."
But Lance said, "They hijacked my work."
TELEVISION
Author: Terror spy show a TV whitewash
An investigative journalist said his book about a Sept. 11 coverup was watered down for the TV version.
BY GLENN GARVIN
What was expected to be a controversial documentary that charges that Osama bin Laden's top spy infiltrated three U.S. security agencies has gotten even hotter, with investigative reporter Peter Lance calling the TV piece based on his book a whitewash that's ``like doing Schindler's List from Hitler's perspective.''
The documentary, Triple Cross, is scheduled to air on the National Geographic Channel Aug. 28, with Lance's book of the same name due out a few weeks later. But their accounts of how bin Laden's master spy Ali A. Mohamed outwitted the CIA, the FBI and the U.S. Army may be overshadowed by the war of words between Lance and the network.
Lance, who in early treatments of the Triple Cross script was the narrator, was so infuriated by the program's eventual direction that he refused to appear. National Geographic's producers at one point held back transcripts of interviews they were supposed to share with Lance, and still won't let him see the final documentary unless he signs what they call a ``non-disparagement agreement.''
As the dispute has grown, some sources interviewed for the Triple Cross documentary have asked National Geographic to be removed from the program. Read More.
Spy docu sparks spat
Cabler, author sparring over 'Triple Cross'
The National Geographic Channel is going ahead with plans to broadcast "Triple Cross: Bin Laden's Spy in America" on Aug. 28 despite the objections of author Peter Lance, whose book was the basis of the docu.
Lance claims that it does not reflect the accusations in his book, which ReganBooks will release in September, that law-enforcement officials were negligent in tracing Ali Mohamed, an Al Qaeda agent in the U.S. for years before the Sept. 11 attacks.
"If they go to air with a documentary that dilutes the essence of my five-year investigation, they rushed to judgment to make an air date," said Lance, a former ABC News correspondent and the winner of five Emmys. "They hijacked my work." Read More.
TV REVIEW | 'TRIPLE CROSS'; 'THE FINAL REPORT'
Slipping Through the Cracks: Bin Laden’s Mole
Published: August 28, 2006
About halfway through “Triple Cross: Bin Laden’s Spy in America,” tonight’s enlightening documentary about the Egyptian-born superspy Ali A. Mohamed on the National Geographic Channel, something bizarre happens. A retired Army officer, Robert Anderson, discusses working with Mr. Mohamed at Fort Bragg, N.C., in the late 1980’s. Those were the days when the handsome, audacious spy was cooling his heels in the United States Army.
“I said to him,” Lieutenant Colonel Anderson recalls. “ ‘You know, Anwar Sadat was not only a hero to Egypt, but he was also a hero to the United States, and the entire free world.’
“So his response to me was, ‘He was a traitor, and he had to die.’ ”
That’s when the penny should have dropped, but it didn’t. The bizarre part comes in voice-over. “Colonel Anderson,” says the matter-of-fact narrator, “allows Mohamed to remain in his unit, in spite of his misgivings.” Read More.
En Colombia, el documental se emitirá este domingo a las 7:00 p.m.
El espía de Bin Laden
Alfonso Rico Torres
La historia de Alí Mohamed, un egipcio que mientras trabajaba para EE.UU., enviaba información confidencial a Al Qaeda.
jueves, 14 de septiembre de 2006
Este 10 de septiembre, momentos antes de que se conmemoren cinco años de los atentados a las Torres Gemelas, el canal National Geographic dará a conocer una investigación inédita sobre un egipcio que burló los servicios de inteligencia de Estados Unidos y se constituyó en el cerebro de varios hechos terroristas, entre ellos los del World Trade Center.
A través de un documental de dos horas de duración, basado en el libro Triple cross, del escritor estadounidense Peter Lance, el canal mostrará cómo Alí A. Mohamed aprovechó las falencias investigativas de la Oficina Federal de Investigación (FBI), de la Agencia Central de Inteligencia (CIA) y los Boinas Verdes, entre otros organismos, para mantener a Al Qaeda al tanto de cualquier movimiento norteamericano.
Desde Santa Bárbara, California (EE.UU.), el autor del libro habló de los pormenores de la publicación. De igual forma, Guadalupe Lucero, directora de Relaciones Públicas para Latinoamérica de National Geographic, le facilitó a este periódico documentos con fragmentos de la historia. Lea más.
