�THE PATH TO 9/11�

Airing Sunday, September 10 (8:00-11:00 p.m. ET) and Monday, September 11 (8:00-10:02 p.m. [approx.], ET)

Note: This dramatization is based on The 9/11 Commission Report and other published sources and personal interviews. Composite and representative characters and incidents, and time compression have been used for dramatic purposes. Due to subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. These programs carry a TV-14,V parental guideline.

NIGHT ONE:

September 11, 2001. Teams of terrorist hijackers board four American airliners and take control of the cockpits. Passengers and flight controllers quickly learn something is terribly wrong�

February 1993. On a similarly ordinary day, New York is stunned by a deadly bombing at the World Trade Center. The discovery of a traceable van part at the site leads to the arrest of one of the conspirators, and he is linked to a mosque led by the Blind Sheikh, a radical cleric. A valuable FBI informant helps bring down the cleric and his cell. A manhunt for elusive WTC bomber Ramzi Yousef ensues, and he narrowly escapes capture in Pakistan, where he is linked to the attempted assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Yousef travels to the Philippines, where he tests an innovative small bomb that kills a flight passenger and comes close to bringing down the plane as well. He�s almost captured again when a fire at his bomb-making lab exposes to Manila police his plot involving the simultaneous bombings of a dozen airliners.

Yousef is finally brought down when an informant in Pakistan tips off a team of agents working in coordination with FBI counterterrorism expert John O�Neill. Yousef�s trail leads them to a rebel named Usama bin Laden.

In 1998 journalist John Miller�s interview with bin Laden is broadcast, and O�Neill and others in Washington are alarmed by the al Qaeda leader�s fatwa against the U.S. CIA field agent �Kirk� contacts bin Laden�s primary opposition, General Massoud of Afghanistan�s Northern Alliance, and they concoct a plan to capture bin Laden and bring him to the U.S. to face justice. The plan is never approved for action, but the simultaneous bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa push the Administration to respond with an ineffective missile strike that some think merely elevates bin Laden�s stature in the Muslim world. Arrests of al Qaeda operatives at the Canadian-U.S. border and in New York on the eve of the millennium provide further evidence that Muslim extremists are bringing their holy war to America.

NIGHT TWO:

The October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole sends O�Neill and his team to Yemen, where he runs afoul of the U.S. Ambassador, who tries to have O�Neill recalled to the States. The investigation in Yemen stalls, but the White House, confident bin Laden is behind the attack, continues to debate how to stop him.

In 2001 counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke�s warnings about bin Laden are downplayed, as is an FBI agent�s warning to his superiors that some suspicious individuals are learning to fly jet aircraft. O�Neill butts heads with the CIA over their lack of shared information, and while intelligence agencies squabble, al Qaeda terrorists, under the radar, continue with their hijacking plot.

O�Neill, his career stalled by an incident wherein he lost his laptop, and tired of the bureaucracy, retires from the FBI in August and takes over security at the WTC. Shortly thereafter, the Northern Alliance�s Massoud, who had pressed the U.S. for assistance against the Taliban and warned that bin Laden might strike, is assassinated by al Qaeda agents. Two days later comes September 11, and O�Neill dies bravely, along with thousands of others, in an attack by the enemy he had devoted his career to thwarting.

In the aftermath, the 9/11 Commission is formed to study the events leading up to that fateful day and to form recommendations to confront the threat of terrorism.

�THE PATH TO 9/11�

MARC PLATT, executive producer

Marc Platt has worked in the entertainment industry for 23 years, during which time he has contributed to many facets of the business. He has served as president of production for three movie studios (Universal, TriStar and Orion), produced award-winning television and live theatre, practiced as an entertainment attorney and handled business affairs at a major talent agency. He now heads Marc Platt Productions, an entertainment company for the production of feature films, television and live theatre.

Platt won the Golden Globe Award for Best Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television for producing an adaptation of Richard Russo�s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, �Empire Falls.� This Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning HBO film stars Ed Harris, Helen Hunt, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Platt also executive-produced �Once Upon a Mattress,� starring Carol Burnett and Tracey Ullman, for ABC.

Currently Platt is represented on Broadway and throughout North America by the blockbuster musical �Wicked,� and he has produced the forthcoming London production. He also produced the Broadway debut of Richard Greenberg�s play, �Three Days of Rain,� starring Julia Roberts and directed by Joe Mantello, and Matthew Bourne�s London hit ballet, �Edward Scissorhands,� which commences its U.S. tour this year.

Among the films Platt has produced are the smash hits �Legally Blonde� and �Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde,� starring Reese Witherspoon. As a studio head he developed and guided the production of such films as �Silence of the Lambs,� �Sleepless in Seattle,� �Philadelphia,� �As Good As It Gets,� �My Best Friend's Wedding� and �Jerry Maguire.�

DAVID L. CUNNINGHAM, director/producer

David L. Cunningham is an international filmmaker who has directed and produced a number of motion picture, documentary and television projects, literally around the globe. He has traveled to 140 countries on every continent, earning him a membership in the prestigious Traveler's Century Club, whose members must have traveled to more than 100 nations.

The sense of exploration gained from traversing the world coupled with his background as an acclaimed documentarian, proved invaluable on Cunninghams� most recent film, the psychological thriller �After�,� an independent feature filmed deep below the cities of Bratislava, Prague and Moscow.

Additionally, Cunningham directed �To End All Wars,� set during WWII and starring Kiefer Sutherland and Robert Carlyle, the true story of allied prisoners who start a secret university in a Japanese POW camp. A critical and global success, it was picked up by Goldcrest and 20th Century Fox. �To End All Wars� caught the attention of Hollywood and launched Cunningham�s career beyond the independent feature world.

His first feature, �Beyond Paradise,� dealt with the modern-day culture clash in Hawaii from a teen's perspective. It became a runaway hit in the island state, rivaling mainstream Hollywood blockbuster �The Matrix� at the box office.

CYRUS NOWRASTEH, writer/producer

Cyrus Nowrasteh (pronounced no-rasta) began his career in 1986 writing on the successful CBS television series, �The Equalizer.� He went on to work on other series (�Falcon Crest,� �D.E.A.�) and wrote the pilot for the hit USA show �La Femme Nikita� (1996). He also worked on independent films such as the American/Brazilian production, �The Interview� (1997, writer/co-producer), which played at Sundance and on the Showtime network, and �Norma Jean, Jack and Me� (1999), a festival favorite which aired on HDNet.

In recent years Nowrasteh has focused on docudrama and history. In 2001 he wrote and directed the highly-acclaimed Showtime presentation, �The Day Reagan Was Shot,� starring Richard Dreyfuss as Alexander Haig and executive-produced by Oliver Stone. The following year he wrote �10,000 Black Men Named George� for Showtime, the true story of activist A. Philip Randolph who led the famous Pullman strike of the 1930s.

For both of the above films Nowrasteh received the Pen USA West Literary Award for best teleplay -- the only writer in the history of the Pen Awards to win two years in a row in the same category. �The Day Reagan Was Shot� also received the Eddie Award and the Golden Satellite Award for Best Motion Picture for Television, as well as a SAG nomination for Best Actor (Richard Dreyfuss).

Most recently Nowrasteh wrote the �Manifest Destiny� episode of the Steven Spielberg and TNT miniseries presentation, �Into the West.�

HANS PROPPE, producer

With a successful television career that spans two decades, miniseries master Hans Proppe has long been drawn to real-life adaptations. His 2001 miniseries for ABC, �Anne Frank,� won both the Emmy for outstanding miniseries and a Peabody Award. His other projects for the network have included the acclaimed 2005 miniseries, �Little House on the Prairie,� �Nancy Drew� and �Death on Everest,� among others. He has worked on dozens of movies and miniseries for NBC, CBS, HBO, FOX and Lifetime, including �Sole Survivor,� The Perfect Getaway,� �Thrill� and the 1992 miniseries �Jewels.�

His first producing credit, on ABC�s �When She Says No� in 1984, earned him an award from Women in Film for the movie�s accurate portrayal of the sexual politics of rape.

Proppe graduated from the University of Southern California with a Master�s Degree in Architecture. He has served as Associate Professor in the Design School at the California Institute of the Arts and as Visiting Professor in the School of Architecture and Fine Arts at USC.

A German native, Proppe was raised largely in the U.S., where he currently lives with his wife, their dog Beau, numerous horses and adopted burro Dusty.

CAST:

HARVEY KEITEL, as John O�Neill

Sporting a Brooklyn accent and bulldog features, Harvey Keitel first gained recognition with a series of gritty roles in the early films of Martin Scorsese, and he was for a long time cast as one lowlife thug after another. His career experienced a renaissance in the 1990s, when roles in such films as Thelma & Louise, Bad Lieutenant and The Piano demonstrated his versatility and his willingness to let it all hang out (literally) in the service of an authentic characterization.

A product of Brooklyn, where he was born on May 13, 1939, Keitel grew up as something of a delinquent. At the age of 16, his truancy was put to an end when he was sent to Lebanon with the Marine Corps. Upon his return, he sold shoes and nurtured an interest in acting. He studied the craft with Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler and began appearing in off-off-Broadway productions. When he was 26, fate struck in the form of a casting ad placed by Scorsese, at that time a fledgling student director at New York University; Keitel's response to the ad began a collaboration that would last for years and produce some of the more memorable moments in film history. Keitel and Scorsese made their onscreen feature debuts with Who's That Knocking at My Door? (1968), in which the former played the latter's alter ego. Five years later, they collaborated on Mean Streets; that and their subsequent collaborations of the '70s, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) and Taxi Driver (1976), were some of the decade's most memorable films. Unfortunately, despite these achievements, Keitel's career suffered a great blow when he lost the lead in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now to Martin Sheen. He spent much of the '80s appearing in obscure and/or forgettable films, save for Scorsese's controversial The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and by the time he was cast in Thelma & Louise in 1991, he was in a career slump.

1991 and 1992 marked a turning point in Keitel's career: his role in Thelma and Louise as a sympathetic detective -- much like his role in that same year's Mortal Thoughts -- helped him break through the stereotypes surrounding him, and his Oscar nomination for his portrayal of gangster Mickey Cohen in Bugsy (1991) put him back in the forefront. Keitel's work in 1992's Bad Lieutenant, Reservoir Dogs and Sister Act further established him as an actor of previously unappreciated versatility, and in 1993 he proved this versatility when he starred in Jane Campion's exotic art drama The Piano, in which he famously appeared in the nude as Holly Hunter's lover.

Keitel continued to demonstrate his ability to play both hard-boiled gangsters and rough-edged nice guys throughout the rest of the decade, turning in one solid performance after another in such films as Pulp Fiction (1994), Clockers (1995) and Copland (1997). One of his most memorable characterizations, cigar shop owner Auggie Wren, came from his collaboration with Paul Auster on Smoke and Blue in the Face (both 1995); he also worked with Auster on his 1998 romantic drama Lulu on the Bridge. In 1999, Keitel could be seen in variety of films, notably Tony Bui's Three Seasons, in which he played an American soldier searching for his lost daughter in Vietnam, and Jane Campion's Holy Smoke, in which he played a man sent to deprogram Kate Winslet of the teachings she received while part of a religious cult. In more recent years Keitel has starred in Tim Blake Nelson�s The Grey Zone, Brett Ratner�s Red Dragon (2002), National Treasure (2004) with Nicolas Cage, Be Cool, starring Jon Travolta and Uma Thurman, and Shadows in the Sun with French director Brad Mirman.

STEPHEN ROOT, as Richard Clarke

Stephen Root entertains television and film audiences not only in front of the cameras, but behind them as well. Root�s first big breakthrough came as the eccentric station owner Jimmy James on the series News Radio. He went onto land the role of the put-upon Milton Waddams in the Twentieth Century Fox film, Office Space, with Jennifer Aniston, released in 1999.

His other notable feature film credits include Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy, the Coen Brothers feature O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Jersey Girl, Surviving Christmas, Raising Genius, Bicentennial Man and Crocodile Dundee.

In addition Root has worked extensively as a voice actor. He plays Hank Hill�s next-door neighbor Bill and Hank�s boss Mr. Strickland on the Emmy winning hit animated television series. King of the Hill, Dick on the Fox animated series American Dad, Bubbles the fish in the Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar hit Finding Nemo, and the hilariously menacing Rhino in Twentieth Century Fox�s Ice Age and Ice Age: The Meltdown.

His extensive guest-starring credits on television series include The West Wing, Frasier, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Just Shoot Me, DAG, Seinfeld, Chicago Hope, Christy, Cybill, Sweet Justice, Roseanne, Night Court, Murphy Brown, Northern Exposure and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

DONNIE WAHLBERG, as �Kirk,� a CIA operative

From his roots as a member of the extremely successful boy band New Kids on the Block with younger brother Mark Wahlberg, Donnie Wahlberg was born to entertain. His big screen debut came as a �tough guy� thug in the Mickey Rourke urban outing Bullet. That same year he appeared in director Ron Howard's thriller Ransom as part of a gang of kidnappers who nab Mel Gibson's son.

One of Wahlberg�s most powerful performances is also one of his briefest. Seen in the opening sequence, he is nearly unrecognizable portraying a deranged former patient of psychiatrist Bruce Willis whose sudden explosion into unfathomable violence sets up the clever twists and turns that turned M. Night Shyamalan's classic psychological thriller The Sixth Sense into a critically-acclaimed box office hit.

Wahlberg then went on to play a major role as a WWII paratrooper in the critically-hailed ten-part epic Band of Brothers, which won six Emmy awards. This television role directly led to his casting as a gritty L.A. detective in the dramatic series Boomtown, an acclaimed series on NBC. He is also cast in the upcoming TV series Runaway.

Since then Wahlberg has appeared in a number of other films such as Triggermen, Saw II and Annapolis.

BARCLAY HOPE, as John Miller

Barclay Hope is a veteran television actor whose numerous credits include film, television and stage. He has appeared in the television series Hidden Room, The Hitchhiker, Top Cops and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. He guest-starred in the series Goosebumps, Forever Knight, Knightwatch and Doc, and had a recurring role on Street Legal. His series credits also include The New Twilight Zone, as well as Taking the Falls, E.N.G and Ready or Not.

He played Peter Axon in all four seasons of the Canadian television series, Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal from 1996-2000, narrated by Dan Aykroyd. His television movie credits include Strange Justice (1999), starring Lou Gossett Jr., Dead Silence (1997), with James Garner, Disney's Garbage to Gridiron, with Tony Danza, Danielle Steel's Remembrance, The Facts of Life Reunion movie, Mary Higgins Clark's You Belong to Me (2001) and Atom Egoyan's Gross Misconduct, among many others.

He also performed the lead role in TV movie The Long Road Home (1989), and was an executive producer of and appeared in the short film The Wagner (1998). One of his most recent production ventures was the production of Birthday Cake, a short film he produced and which screened at many different film festivals, debuting at the Palm Springs Film Festival in 2000.

PATRICA HEATON, as Ambassador Bodine

Heaton is best known for her Emmy-award winning role as Debra on the long running CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. During her nine years as the female lead opposite comedian Ray Romano, she was nominated for an 1999 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series and won the l998-99 Viewers for Quality Television Best Actress in a Quality Comedy Award.

Heaton�s other television career began in 1992 when she portrayed the producer/daughter in he television series Room for Two. Her additional television credits include a starring role in the series Someone Like Me, a regular role in CBS's Women of the House, and a recurring role on thirtysomething. Heaton also starred in the highly rated CBS television movie Miracle in the Woods with Della Reese.

Her feature film credits include Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Beethoven, The New Age and Space Jam.

SHAUN TOUB, as Emad Salem

Shaun Toub catapulted to fame after playing the role of Farhad in the Oscar-winning feature, Crash. He has appeared in over 100 television episodes including: Seinfeld, The Sopranos, E.R., Just Shoot me, Nash Bridges, Jag, The Bold and the Beautiful, Lois & Clark, Married with Children and several movies made for television and original HBO films. Additionally he is noted for his memorable performances in feature films such as Bad Boys, Broken Arrow and Executive Decision.

AMY MADIGAN, as Patricia Carver

An award-winning actress, Amy Madigan has appeared in numerous feature films, TV movies and television series over the past twenty years. In 2000 Madigan scored an acting coup in her husband Ed Harris' award-winning Pollock, in which she played art patroness Peggy Guggenheim. She was also seen in Shot in the Heart and The Laramie Project, both for HBO, and Showtime's Just a Dream, an original telefilm directed by Danny Glover.

Pollock marked the fourth time that Madigan has collaborated with Ed Harris. In addition to co-starring in TNT's highly acclaimed adaptation of Zane Gray's novel Riders of the Purple Sage, she starred opposite him in Robert Benton's Academy Award-winning Places in the Heart and in Louis Malle's Alamo Bay.

In 1986 Madigan received an Oscar nomination for her performance opposite Gene Hackman in Twice in a Lifetime. The actress received an IFP West Spirit Award Nomination for Best Supporting Actress in Erin Dignam's Loved, which co-starred Robin Wright Penn, William Hurt and Sean Penn. Madigan's performance in the telefilm, Roe vs. Wade, co-starring Holly Hunter, won her a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy� Nomination for Best Actress. She received two Cable Ace Awards for Best Actress, on for Robert Altman's production of The Laundromat, and again for Lifetime's And Then There Was One. Other Film Credits include Female Perversions, The Dark Half, Uncle Buck, Field of Dreams, Prince of Pennsylvania, Nowhere to Hide, Streets of Fire and Love Letter.

Additional television credits include In The Name of the People, Having Our Say, the ensemble comedy With Friends Like These, produced by Penny Marshall, HBO's A Bright Shining Lie, Lucky Day, The Revolt of Mother and The Day After.

NABIL ELOUAHABI, as Ramzi Yousef

Born in London to Moroccan parents, Nabil Elouhabi is a 31-year-old film, theater and television actor. Elouhabi studied theater and drama at the Royal Halloway University, which he left early in order to act as much as possible. Some of Elouhabi's notable film appearances include his roles in Ali G IndaHouse, The Sum of All Fears and In This World (a 2004 Bafta winner). He most recently appeared in the film The Boat People. Some of Elouhabi�s distinguished theater performances include Crossing Jerusalem, Sparkleshark and Bad Company. In addition, he has made many television appearances and was a regular on the BBC series Eastenders.

MIDO HAMADA, as Massoud

German-Egyptian actor Mido Hamada has worked in television, film and theater. He gained his training at The Oxford School of Drama and now lives in London. Hamada has recently finished shooting the film The Situation in which he plays Zaid, an Iraqi photographer. He has also made appearances in British television series such as 2056, Feel the Force and Hannibal. Some of Hamada�s notable theater performances include his roles as Fortinbras in Hamlet at the Theatre Royal Plymouth, and Marco in A View from the Bridge.

WILLIAM SADLER, as Neil Herman

While he is perhaps best recognized for his roles in such films as The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile and Die Hard 2, William Sadler has left indelible impressions in a host of other films, including Bill Condon�s Kinsey with Liam Neeson, Rush, Trespass, Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, Disturbing Behavior, Hard to Kill, Witness Protection, The Hot Spot, Rocket Man and The Battle of Shaker Heights. Sadler will soon appear as the loving but flawed father of Keri Russell in the upcoming film August Rush.

Sadler will also appear on the upcoming one-hour ABC drama Traveller. Previously he starred in the critically acclaimed Fox series Wonder Falls, WB�s Roswell, C.S.I., Third Watch and Law & Order Criminal Intent. Sadler has also guest starred in numerous TV comedies, including Murphy Brown, Roseanne, Newhart, Dear John and the HBO series Assaulted Nuts with Emma Thompson.

PRASSANA PUWANARAJAH, as Ishtiak

This project marks Prassana Puwanarajah�s acting debut. Puwanarajah is a medical school graduate who plans to pursue both acting and medicine.

DAN LAURIA, as George Tenet

Dan Lauria has appeared as a guest star in over seventy television episodic programs. He has a score of film credits which include Stakeout and Another Stakeout, both with Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez, the commercial blockbuster Independence Day and, most recently, Big Momma Two with Martin Lawrence. However Lauria is most recognized as the Dad on the highly acclaimed, Emmy-winning ABC television show, The Wonder Years.

Lauria is a very similar face to the off-off, off and regional theatre scene, having performed, written or directed over fifty professional productions. Just recently he starred in the Long Wharf theatre production of Willy Holtzman�s controversial play, Hearts. Before that he was in the Coconut Grove production of Arthur Miller�s, The Price, with the great Jack Klugman. He performed with Charles Durning in the Westwood Country Playhouse production of Jason Milligan�s Men in Suits and toured with his former television co-star, Fred Savage, in the play Wendell and Ben, marking Savage�s professional stage debut.

Lauria most recently performed The Guys by Ann Nelson, both in New York City and on the road. The Guys is a tribute to the brave firemen who lost their lives at the World Trade Center on 9/11, and it�s a play that Lauria is honored to be a part of. This was followed by Mark St. Germaine�s new play, Ears on a Beatle, Ken Ludwig�s Leading Ladies, Lee Blessing�s The Winning Streak and Daniel Sullivan�s Christmas classic comedy Inspecting Carol.

MICHAEL MURPHY, as William Cohen

For over 35 years, Michael Murphy has performed in film, television and in the theatre. He has had major roles in many award-winning pictures, and has worked with some of the most respected filmmakers of his generation. They include Robert Altman, Woody Allen, Paul Mazursky, Peter Weir, Tim Burton, Oliver Stone, Elia Kazan, Peter Bogdanovich, Martin Ritt, Robert Aldrich, Orson Welles and Paul Thomas Anderson.

Murphy has worked in over one hundred television productions, including Tanner �88, the Emmy Award-winning Robert-Altman and Gary Trudeau cult series, Silver City, directed by John Sayles, Heights, directed by James Ivory, Magnolia (SAG nomination for Best Ensemble), Kansas City, Batman Returns, Salvador, The Year of Living Dangerously, Manhattan, The Front, An Unmarried Woman, Nashville, What�s Up Doc?, Brewster McCloud and M*A*S*H*.

Most recently Murphy had a recurring role on the series Tilt for ESPN, and appeared in the summer blockbuster XMEN3.

SHIRLEY DOUGLAS, as Madeline Albright

Shirley Douglas is an experienced theatre, film and television actress. She was last seen on stage with her son, Kiefer Sutherland, at the Royal Alexandra Theatre and the National Arts Centre in The Glass Menagerie, and on Canadian television in the series Wind at My Back, shown on CBC. Douglas was the recipient of the 2000 Gemini Award for Best Featured Actress in a Drama for the film Shadow Lake, and was recently seen in the Vagina Monologues in Toronto.

PENNY JOHNSON JERALD, as Condoleezza Rice

Born in Baltimore on March 14, 1961, Jerald always dreamt of being an actor. When her high school teacher discouraged her from going into acting, she strengthened her resolve. She got into Julliard School for the Arts and later graduated from there. Her big break came as the titular character in the made-for-TV movie, The Files on Jill Hatch.

She soon began making guest star appearances on shows such as T.J. Hooker and Paper Chase, and landed a role on the daytime soap General Hospital. Supporting roles on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and The Larry Sanders Show followed and kept her into the national eye. She later landed a guest starring appearance on ER.

However Jerald�s most recent role as master manipulator Sherry Palmer on 24 is the one that has brought her the most recognition. Her stint as the diabolical wife of President David Palmer allowed her to exhibit great range, showing ruthlessness one moment and kindness in the next.