While I enjoyed this program, I was underwhelmed. The show focused all of the blame on Louis Freeh and Deputy Director Pickard. While both men deserve criticism, they are hardly alone. Kenneth Starr and the Congress, for example, were instrumental in misdirecting FBI resources into political investigations of Clinton. Much of that anti-Clinton activity was orchestrated by friends of the Bush family, people like Ted and Barbara Olson.

The Congress also hamstrung Clinton in taking retaliatory strikes against bin Laden and wasting Administration resources on defending against the impeachment circus. So, Freeh is more of a symptom of what is wrong with the FBI rather than the cause. The Bureau has been politicized. The failure of The Man Who Knew to point to other examples of the politicization and deprofessionalization of the Bureau, including the Hanssen case, the firing of whistleblower Fred Whitehurst and the covering of rear ends over errors in handling Ruby Ridge and Waco depleted the show of much of the meaning of the intelligence failure surrounding 9/11.

I am also not satisfied with Mr. Kirk's explanation about John O'Neill and the Phoenix memo, and more broadly not satisfied with his interpretation of the intelligence failure. He says that the NY Times is simply wrong in reporting that O'Neill saw the memo. Well, excuse me, but evidence is required. If Kirk is correct, he should prevail on-- Van Natta and Johnston, I think it was-- to correct their story. Who saw the Phoenix memo and why didn't they act?    And what about the Minneapolis memo?

More broadly, the Kirk narrative essentially asks us to believe that the US Government missed the largest terrorist episode since the Indian Wars simply because one man was politically unpopular. I'm not buying. There is ample reason to believe that the new Bush Administration actively shut down efforts to go after bin Laden. Certainly work by The Guardian's Palast suggests that the Bush Administration gave special pleading for other members of the bin Laden family. Clinton Administration officials have also recounted briefings supplied to the Bush Administration which were contemptuously ignored.

So, at the end of the day, The Man Who Knew is better journalism than one generally sees. For this, I give Mr. Kirk credit. On the other hand, I also am left with the sense that he is hiding something-- or rather, a number of somethings-- that he fears might be politically risky to discuss.