The Military-Industrial-Intelligence- Entertainment Complex: Hollywoods Year of Living Clandestinely By Ed Rampell
Intelligence agencies were ready for their close-up in 2012. Featuring action, intrigue, exotic locales, gadgetry and sex, spy thrillers have been a popular film genre since silent pic- tures like Fritz Langs 1928 Spies and early talkies, including Alfred Hitchcocks 1930s The 39 Steps and Secret Agent. However, never before in Hollywood history have produc- tions about covert operations been lauded with such promi- nent, prestigious prizes. 2012s embarrassment of Emmy, Golden Globe and Oscar riches include: Showtimes War on Terror series Homelandabout a brainwashed Marine who returns from Iraq as part of an Islamist conspiracy to assassinate U.S. leaderswas nomi- nated for nine Primetime Emmys, winning six, including for Outstanding Drama Series, writing plus acting awards for Claire Danes and Damian Lewis. Their performances also scored Golden Globes, while Homeland won the Best Television Series - Drama Globe. As 2012 was the 50th anniversary of the first James Bond feature1962s Dr. No007 movies were hailed during the 85th annual Academy Awards ceremony. A montage featuring Sean Connery, Roger Moore, etc., from 23 Bond flicks aired during the Feb. 24, 2013 telecast. Shirley Bassey reprised her Goldfinger song. The new 007 blockbuster, Skyfall, was nominated for five Oscars, scoring two: For sound editing and Adeles theme song (which shed previously won a Globe for and performed during the broadcast). Skyfall won more Oscars than any previous Bond flick, earning as many as Steven Spielbergs Lincoln. The Gatekeepers, which interviews Shin Bets ex-chiefs, was nominated for the Best Documentary Oscar. Dror Morehs film was widely touted by liberals and won four critics and peace awards because Israels internal intelligence service heads all endorse ending Israels West Bank and Gaza occupations. The Gatekeepers also hypes espionage tradecraft, from high-tech surveillance to targeted assassination, with daunting displays of Israeli intels lethal prowess. Zero Dark Thirty, which dramatized the CIA/Navy SEAL hunt for Osama bin Laden, received five Oscar and four Globe noms. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association nom- inated Zero in directing, writing and Best Motion Picture categories, awarding Jessica Chastain a Best Performance Globe. However, Chastain and fellow nominee screenwrit- er Mark Boal failed to strike Oscar gold. The production also failed to win for Best Picture, picking up only a Sound Editing Oscar (tying with Skyfall). Several in Hollywood, denouncing Zero as pro-torture, likening director Kathryn Bigelow to Hitlers favorite filmmaker, Leni Riefenstahl. In 1929 German star Emil Jannings became the first Best Actor Oscar winner; in 1941 Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels pulled a P.R. coup, naming Janningswhod left Tinseltown, returning to the Third ReichArtist of the State. But its unlikely the cunning Goebbels could have surpassed the stage managed crowning achievement of Hollywoods year of living clandestinely. The coup de grace of heaping laurels upon the brows of 2012 spy-fi occurred at the end of the Academy Awards, with a breathtakingly brazen propagandistic act totally unparalleled in Oscars annals: Ergo, Argo, an ersatz adventure pic celebrating CIA rescuers of Americans hiding in Iran, nominated for five Globes and seven Academy Awards. On Jan. 13, 2013 the HFPA awarded Ben Affleck its Best Director honor and Argo the Globe for Best Motion Picture - Drama. This foreshadowed La-La-Lands strangest salute to screen spies. During the Feb. 24 Oscar telecast Argo won an editing award and Chris Terrio for Best Writing. Then, amidst the Hollywood hullabaloo, the most bizarre bal- lyhooing in Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences history took place, turning the shows venue into the Dolby Theatre of the absurd. As Jack Nicholson went onstage to present the Best Motion Picture Oscar the live telecast cut from Hollywood to Washington. Via satellite transmission Michelle Obama appeared to reveal the winner from the White Houses Diplomatic Reception Room, surrounded by uniformed military personnel. Never has a member of the First Family ever announced an Oscar winner in any category, let alone Best Picture. Even stranger, one of the nine nominees extolled a mission the First Ladys husband ordered and Barack appeared in. The Best Picture victor turned out to be another unabashedly pro-CIA movie. Mrs. Obama opened the envelope and declared Argocontaining footage of her husbands Democratic predecessor, Jimmy Carterhad snared movie- doms highest honor. Executed like a top secret mission, Michelles participation is not totally unprecedented. In 1941 FDR made a radio speech broadcast during the Oscars. In 1981s telecast delayed due to the attempt on his lifeex-actor Pres. Reagan addressed the audience via a prerecorded message shot at the Executive Mansion. In 2002 during a pre-taped montage with notables expressing What Do the Movies Mean to You? Laura Bush discussed Giant. In January 2013 ex-Pres. Clinton introduced Lincoln live at the Globes ceremony. But Michelle is the only First Family member to open the en- velope and declare an Oscar winner. Her appearance prompt- ed outspoken actor Ed Asner to quip: I guess you could say we have our own Leni Riefenstahl. The Academy declined interview requests. A week before the Oscar ceremony activists were demonstrating against Argo--a motion picture ode to Hollywoods collaboration with the CIA vis-a-vis covert operations. Director co/star Ben Affleck took the stage with co-producers George Clooney and Grant Heslov (who could not be reached for comment). Earlier during the ceremony Afflecks wife, Jennifer Garner, was an Oscar presenter; during her husbands acceptance speech the telecast cut to her in the audience. Garner not only starred as CIA double agent Sydney Bristow in the TV series Alias but actually made a 2004 CIA recruitment ad. (The same actor whod played Sydneys CIA agent father in Alias Victor Garberportrayed the Canadian ambassador who hid Argos American escapees from Iranians.) Argo is a motion picture ode to Hollywood collaboration with the CIA vis-à-vis covert operations. With a film touting and endorsing CIA and movie industry collusion and trick- ery, given the seal of approval by Michelle and Nicholson, Hollywood flew over the cuckoos nest as three branches of power specializing in make-believeTV/cinema, the CIA and Executive Branchmerged to pull the wool over Americans eyes. The Cinematic Spies Who Lured Us Just as the news media was enlisted to spread intelli- gence-generated lies before the Iraq War, in 2012 intelligence agencies hid in plain sight, using television and movies to spread disinformation. According to IMDB.com 2012s spy productions received 365 nominations and awards. Audiences willingly suspend disbelief in dreamlike states in the dark, watching the screen under the illusion that, as actor and CounterPuncher David Clennon says, Hey, its just a movie! Instead, unsuspecting viewers are often bombarded by agit- prop parading as entertainment thats rarely acknowledged as being influenced by secretive sources. Academic Tricia Jenkins writes in The CIA in Hollywood, How the Agency Shapes Film and Television that in 1996 Agency veteran Chase Brandon (Tommy Lee Jones first cousin) was appointed the CIAs Entertainment Liaison Officer in order to respond to the Cold Wars end, which left many questioning the need for the CIA, while the case of Aldrich Amesthe Agencys Soviet counterintelligence head caught committing treasonhurt the Companys reputation. Needing damage control and an image upgrade, the Agency turned to Hollywood. Decorated ex-CIA officer Bob Baer, who Clooney won an Oscar for portraying in Syriana, adds it started with a guy named Chris Straub, who was working for Sen. Bob Kerrey, a Democrat. Bob Kerrey was worried that the CIA was getting such bad press, undeservedly, that it was time for the CIA to sit down and consciously help Hollywood to get the message out there that espionage is not bad... It was about that time that Chase Brandon was put in his job... (According to a 2001 CounterPunch article Kerrey murdered... a dozen women and children... on a CIA mission in Vietnam.) In exchange for script approval the ELO provides CIA as- sistance and access to its personnel and Langley, Va. head- quarters, use of its copyrighted seal, etc., to productions de- picting it favorably. Asner says this quid-pro-quo stinks, but Jenkins notes, Its the money shot in the spy genre when they walk across that seal in the lobby floor. The Agencys P.R. of- fensive bore fruit by 2001s Fall TV season, when three series premiered with CIA themes. Clennon played CIA officer Joshua Nankin in The Agency and insists the Company played a major role in molding the CBS show, which ex-Marine Bazzel Baz, whod been in CIA special ops, was the CIA technical advisor for. It became the first television program granted permission to film at CIA headquarters, according to Jenkins 2012 book, which quotes telewriter/executive producer Michael Frost Beckner saying: Chase [Brandon] and [Director of Central Intelligence George] Tenet agreed to assist us... In fact, Clennon says, There was going to be a premiere screening of the pilot episode at CIA headquarters before it went on the air... Leslie Moonves [president] of CBS [and] the assistant director of the CIA was going to be there, its possible Tenet was going to be there, it was going to be a big red carpet premiere, because this was something they were comfortable with. The creator of the series, Beckner, was a big admirer of... and very cozy with... the CIA and he had been briefed, informed, backgrounded by the CIA. However, the Sept. 18, 2001 opening night at Langley was preempted by the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks. Clennon adds, the pilot is spooky in that it anticipates a 9/11-type event, only taking place in London by Al-Qaeda, which plots to attack what one character calls an international symbol of consumerism. Tony Mendezthe CIA operative Affleck plays in Argohad a technical consultant credit for the pilot. (A different episode aired when The Agency debuted Sept. 20.) The other CIA series premiering around 9/11 were ABCs Alias and Foxs 24. Clennonwho won an Emmy for Dream On and was Emmy-nominated for thirtysome- thing, appeared in Bound for Glory, Coming Home, Missing, Syriana and J. Edgarsays Hollywood story- telling techniques serve hidden agendas. Actors are profoundly responsible for what they do, con- tends Clennon. Kiefer Sutherland is profoundly responsible for the acceptance of torture by the general public because of what he did in 24. He made torture acceptable. Cheney, Bush and Rumsfeld, who all decided on the torture policy, enhanced interrogation, they could never have sold torture to the American people... [as] necessary and effective. It would never have happened without Kiefer Sutherland, 24s handsome leading man playing Counter Terrorist Unit agent/ missed an opportunity. The National Religious Campaign Against Tortures Paz Artaza-Regan declared: Theres no grounding in ethics and morality in Zero Dark Thirty, or even of the effectiveness of torture... We want the Senate Intelligence Committees 6,000 page report made public. The torturer Jack Bauer, a model and a hero for Guantanamo in- terrogators, states Clennon, citing Philippe Sands Torture Team. For Clennon this mixture of sadism and sex appeal also holds for Zero Dark Thirty: Our heroine, who inflicts torture, is a dedicated CIA officer played by a very beautiful young woman [Chastain]. This draws us in so we root for a coldblooded murderer. Using attractive leads helps draw audiences to the conclu- sion that while torture may be reprehensible its effective, ren- dered acceptable by supposed results yielded via enhanced interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding. Many disagree. At a Feb. 17 anti-torture program in Hollywoods United Methodist Church attorney Cindy Pánuco, who rep- resents Gitmo detainee Obaidulla, said: Not one character in the movie decried what we did, the violating of laws. The film U.S. public demands accountability. But Zero went into wide release while the Senate report remains classified. The film opens with a title stating its based on firsthand accountsbut doesnt state from who. Clearly, Zero Dark Thirty had CIA assistance, asserts Jenkins. They were invested in assisting that film because it does depict the CIA to be so efficient or so successful... Both the writer and the director... met with lots of people at the CIA... Bigelow, Boal and their assistants contacted the CIAs office of public affairs to discuss setting up meetings with CIA personnel. They were asked for an advance copy of the script... Because the script depicted the CIA very positive- ly... it met the CIAs standards... of a project theyd support. Then they had meetings arranged with the CIAs then-Acting Director of Central Intelligence... Mike Morrell, the Director of the counter-terrorism center and others in the Agency, like Raid on Bin Laden Compound, still from Zero Dark Thirty. Sony Pictures. Michael Vickers, a former CIA operative and Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, that was partly responsible for lo- cating bin Laden... and Jeremy Bash, who was Leon Panettas chief of staff and a translator involved in the raid. They also got a tour of the vault, the room where the operation was monitored... and... of the CIAs basic facility at Langley. Baer, a consultant for 2007s Rendition, 2010s Red and the upcoming Jack Ryan, believes they were also given access to SEAL Team 6... I still dont know who, if anybody, pressed on the filmmakers the idea that torture worked. There are certain people in the Directorate of Operations that made that case. But Ive seen no evidence waterboarding led to the capture of Osama bin Laden. Other 2012 espionage award winners also collaborated with the Company. Jenkins says, Claire Danes visited the Declassified Affleck admits he met with the CIA Director and other agents and permitted to shoot inside of Langley. Argo explicitly lionizes Hollywoods collaboration with a CIA covert mission. John Goodman plays makeup man four- time Emmy Award nominee John Chambers, who designed Mr. Spocks ears, won an Oscar for 1968s Planet of the Apesplus created prosthetics and disguises for the Agency. Argos hagiography never mentions that the CIA it cele- brates as rescuers also overthrew Irans democratically elected government, re-installed the Shah and colluded with Savaks torture of political prisoners, which led to 1979s Iranian Revolution and hostage crisis. Operation Ajaxthe 1953 coupwas masterminded by Kermit Roosevelt (Teddys grandson), chief of the C.I.A.s Near East and Africa division. Argo is also rehashs the 1981 made-for-TV movie Escape As part of a communications counter-offensive, clandestine organizations turn to mass entertainment to polish their tarnished images, using perceived triumphs to generate positive perceptions of the agencies. CIA and met with a couple of female operatives to find out what their job was like... The writers had secured through the CIAs public affairs office... [Howard Gordon] the writer for Homeland was executive producer, also worked on 24. He had some assistance for a season of 24. New Zealands parliament passed a critical motion, Iran is considering suing and Canada expressed displeasure because of their depictions in Argo, which Andrew OHehir called a propaganda fable and wholesale fictionalization in Salon. Baer, who was in Iran in 1978, says, I know there was no big confrontation at the airport, nor did the dra- matic bazaar visit occur. Jenkins adds: Theres lots of his- torical inaccuracies in it... There was a CIA-assisted text... When I interviewed Tony Mendez ... in like 2008 he did say he was making arrangements for the writer of that script to visit with the CIA. ... Im pretty sure Ben Affleck was able to get meetings with those in the CIA... He was in [2002s] The Sum of All Fears, a heavily assisted text by the CIA. They were involved in everything from set design to script review to meeting with the actors, director, writers... [Tom Clancys] Jack Ryan series has always been more positive in terms of its depiction of the CIA than other film franchises, but... Sum of All Fears of all Jack Ryan films is the most positive in its depiction. Jenkins writes: Affleck and [Sums] director, Phil Alden Robinson, also met with DCI George Tenet and other high-ranking officials; the filmmakers were allowed aerial and exterior shots of CIA HQ. In the documentary Argo: 12 >From Iran: The Canadian Caper, written by Hollywood arch- reactionary Lionel >Chetwynd. Operation Image Control Public perception of the worlds best financed intel organi- zations plummeted after failing to prevent 9/11. CIA Director George Tenet called allegations regarding Iraqi WMDs a slum dunk and sat mutely behind Secretary of State Colin Powell at the U.N. while he lied about Saddams WMDs in February 2003, for which Tenet won the Presidential Medal of Freedom. CIA practices such as torture, destruction of vid- eotapes of enhanced interrogations, extraordinary renditions, targeted killings and the Raymond Allen Davis incident which outraged Pakistan further besmirched the CIAs stand- ing. More recently, the Benghazi embassy attack and Boston marathon bombing triggered intelligence failures charges against the cloak-and-dagger community. The CIA has become very much an antechamber of the Pentagon, Baer maintains. In the sense that its drones, and its only drones, and supporting the military in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thats not the CIA I know... Its very much a military organization, it caters to the Pentagon. Drone warfare is so secretive its difficult to tally casual- ties; in February Sen. Lindsay Graham estimated 4,700 fa- talities. According to the Bureau for Investigative Journalism up to 1,727 people have been injured and up to 4,379 people killed by U.S. drone strikes from 2002-2013 in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, including up to 209 children. These CIA-linked policies spark outrage. In January an investigation into drone warfare led by U.N. Special Rapporteur Ben Emmerson began. In March, after meeting government officials and victims of unmanned aerial vehicles in Islamabad Emmerson stated the U.S. drone campaign... violat[es] Pakistans sovereignty. Since 9/11 the CIA committed some of its biggest blun- ders and dirtiest dirty tricksbut the show must go on. Call it Operation Image Control: On the one hand, The Obama administration has been cruelly and unusually punishing in its use of the 1917 Espionage Act to stomp on governmental leakers, truth-tellers, and whistleblowers... charg[ing] more people (six) under the Espionage Act for the alleged mis- handling of classified information than all past presidencies combined... [including] former CIA officer John Kiriakou, charged for allegedly disclosing classified information to journalists about the horrors of waterboarding, according to Peter Van Burens 2012 Mother Jones article. However, at the same time Bradley Manning and WikiLeaks Julian Assange face the iron heel, 007 kills the messenger in Skyfall, its Bond villain a computer hacktivist revealing MI-6s top secrets online, played by Javier Bardem wearing an Assange- like blondish wig. As part of this communications counteroffensive clandes- tine organizations again turn to mass entertainment to polish tarnished images, using perceived triumphs to generate positive perceptions. As Jenkins says, The CIA gets a lot of credit for liquidating bin Laden and sought to maximize this P.R. opportunity. Baer asserts: When weve got two incon- clusive warsthe War on Terror costing $6 trillion, and what do we get for it except one dead Saudi? I think its important that some of the news be good and it was important to the White House. This president cannot be seen as anti-CIA or anti-military... Obama was basically saying in a very political decision: Look, I did more drones, I killed bin Laden... Argo flashbacked 33 years to exalt the Agency. This is a victory the CIA was able to pull off, Jenkins notes. It was an intelligence and White House community success. In some ways, just visually, [Michelles] presence with the military personnel behind her does create visual links of a celebration of government agencies and their success. Mrs. Obama an- nounced Argos Oscar while Brennans confirmation as CIA Director nominee was pending. So why is this Tinseltown trendwhich includes FXs Cold War-set series The Americans and HBOs documen- tary Manhunt, about the CIAs bin Laden pursuit, which premiered May 1happening now? Jenkins points out: One reason might be that after Chase Brandon left as CIA Entertainment Liaison Officer from 1995 to 2006 and Paul Barry departed in 2008 those duties were shared among the Public Affairs Offices four person media relations team, and they only appointed another ELO about a year ago, coincid- ing with espionage productions renaissance. Theres a real attempt to sanitize CIA killings and glorify the CIA and give it a new face, declares Code Pinks Medea Benjamin. Thats what happened with Zero Dark Thirty, thats what happened with Michelle Obama... When she ap- peared my jaw dropped; I couldnt believe it... It was really a disgusting propaganda film, as well as Argo, glorifying the role of the CIA... The fact that this was happening while the CIA is in one of its darkest periods ever in the history of this countrythere have been several times in our history when the CIA has gone rogue, and this is one of them. CounterPunch contacted the CIAs PAO and its current Entertainment Liaison Officer, Ian. The cartoonish secretive- ness of the female receptionist and Ian (no last name provid- ed) suggested the screen spies Boris and Natasha from Rocky and Bullwinkle; Ian and the PAO declined interview requests. On His Presidents Secret Service Conservatives grouse about government support of the arts. Ironically, the CIAs preferential treatment of projects actually subsidizes rightwing productions by providing as- sistance and access solely to works favorably depicting it. In her book Jenkins quotes constitutional law scholar Erwin Chemerinsky: the Supreme Court has said that above all, the First Amendment means that the government cannot partici- pate in viewpoint discrimination. But the CIA, a taxpayer- funded government agency, blatantly practices perspective bias. Jenkins also argues that self-aggrandizing puffery in CIA- supported productions violates publicity and propaganda laws. Viewers need truth in advertising, labeling all works supported by covert agencies. Just as Argo neglects the CIAs role in overthrowing Irans legitimate government in 1953, Zero never cites the collaboration between the CIA and bin Laden during the mujahedeens holy war against the U.S.S.R. Nor does HBOs Manhunt, flattery fobbed off as nonfiction filmmak- ing, hailing CIA analysts as conquering heroes for pursuing Osama, although CIA support of this terrorist during the an- ti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan isnt mentioned. If theyre such Einsteins, why did the CIA collaborate with such a dangerous extremist? Why couldnt these Brainiacs deduce the possible blowback from being a superpower busybody playing footsy with fanatics? No shit, Sherlocks! Not all filmmakers collude with spy-dom. Robert De Niro directed and co-starred with Matt Damon in 2006s The Good Shepherd, a bold critique of CIA history, and spoofs spooks in the Meet the Fockers franchise. In 2003s The Recruit Al Pacino plays a CIA instructor who tells trainees: We reveal our failures but not our successes. As Moores montage reveals, CIA Realpolitik successes are far more terrifying than its failures. As Louie Armstrongs What a Wonderful World ironically plays footage of various overthrows, covert actionsmany by the CIAis shown, including coups in Iran, Guatemala, Chile, the Indochina wars, Central Americas wars and Iran-Contra. As a jet flies into the Twin Towers the title proclaims: Sept. 11, 2001: Osama bin Laden uses his expert CIA training to murder 3,000 people. Nobel Peace Laureate Obama may weep for Sandy Hooks butchered children, but his drones killed 10 times more children than Adam Lanza did. Were he alive Lanza might quote Charlie Chaplin playing the serial wife murderer in 1947s Monsieur Verdoux who compares himself to politicians: As a mass killer, I am an amateur by comparison. The Military-Industrial-Intelligence-Entertainment Complex uses armed aggression to attain foreign policy objectives, then heralds perpetrators of these covert actions in disguised amusements for mass audiences in an endless cycle of murder and mayhem, perpetuating a cult of violence from Waziristan to Newtown, on- and offscreen. Ed Rampell is an L .A .-based film historian, critic and author who wrote Progressive Hollywood, A Peoples Film History of the United States. 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