US government clarifies: FOX's "24" is fiction

On FOX's hit TV show 24, government agents work day and night at the high-tech Counter Terrorism Unit, or, CTU, to prevent deadly attacks against American targets. But art doesn't always imitate life. So says Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security director. Speaking at a panel hosted by the Heritage Foundation on the hit TV show, Chertoff remarked that he doesn't have a way-coo, state-of-the-art government unit like the one depicted on the show. Bad guys aren't captured on an hourly basis either. And not every co-worker hooks up with each other either.

Chertoff did say that there is one parallel between Homeland Security and CTU. On 24, characters constantly face challenges where "there is no clear magic bullet to solve the problem, and you have to weigh the cost benefits of a series of unpalatable alternatives," he said. "That is what we do every day." As we would like to point out, so does Jack Bauer.

In addition to Chertoff, Rush Limbaugh also spoke at the panel. The audience included Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, Ginny, in the front row. Keifer Sutherland was not in attendance. Rush joked that Democratic Representative John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, an outspoken critic of the Bush administration's Iraq policy, could play the "head of the new KGB." (Read the full article)