Declassified: CIA Helped Produce Hollywood Blockbuster That Grossed Over $100 Million
Carey Wedler
ActivistPost.com
SEPTEMBER 11, 2015
The widely-celebrated and iconic 2012 film, Zero Dark Thirty, which detailed “the most classified mission in history” — one the U.S. government reported resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden — was developed and manipulated by the CIA, according to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Vice News. The report also shows the CIA provided classified information to the filmmakers. Over one hundred pages of documents reveal a symbiotic relationship between the high-powered film producers and intelligence officials and raise particular questions about the depiction of torture in the film — which was heavily criticized for insinuating “enhanced interrogation techniques” were essential in tracking down Osama bin Laden.
The documents reveal that throughout the filmmaking process, filmmaker Mark Boal was in close contact with Leon Panetta, who was the head of the CIA when the film went into development and production. The documents include two reports, “Alleged Disclosure of Classified Information by Former D/CIA [Director of CIA]” from March, 2014 and a September 2013 report from the Inspector General’s office called “Potential Ethics Violations Involving Film Producers.”
The relationship between Boal and fellow filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow, who made The Hurt Locker in 2009, began a year before the raid on bin Laden in Pakistan, when the pair sought to make a film titled Tora Bora about the CIA’s failure to capture him. However, bin Laden died, nullifying the film’s premise. Only days after Obama announced bin Laden’s death in May of 2011, Boal was in contact with Panetta in the hopes of making a film about the killing. According to Vice News, “Less than three weeks after bin Laden’s death, Boal and Michael Feldman, a public relations representative for Tora Bora, met with CIA officials to discuss the new project.”
Further, “…the CIA gave Boal access to CIA personnel and facilities less than a month after bin Laden was killed in order to ‘further his research’ for the ZDT screenplay.” Boal was even invited to a CIA award ceremony around the same time, though the Inspector General’s report seemed unclear as to who had invited him — the CIA’s Office of Public Affairs or Panetta himself. Panetta denied any knowledge of his presence and said he would have been unable to recognize Boal, even though he sat at the same table as Boal and Bigelow at the 2010 White House Correspondents dinner and instructed them to contact him when they were ready to make Tora Bora.
The Rest…HERE
