Military Leaks to Hollywood
Tman sends us a link to an article in the LA Times about Peter King investigating the possibility that the Obama Administration leaked classified details of the bin Laden raid to director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal in preparation for their latest film endeavor.
King’s interest was aroused in August when New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote that “the movie-makers are getting top-level access to the most classified mission in history from an administration that has tried to throw more people in jail for leaking classified information than the Bush administration.”
Boal, Dowd wrote, “got welcomed to the upper echelons of the White House and the Pentagon and showed up recently — to the surprise of some military officers — at a CIA ceremony celebrating the hero Seals.”
Oh, I’m sure everything is fine. Hollywood is really good at protecting information that could harm our national security or get some of our operators killed. Hollywood has always had our national interests at the center of it’s concerns.
Given Bigelow’s inability to stick to the facts, we can probably expect footage of Obama stepping out of the crashed helicopter and delivering the coup d’etat without any Secret Service presence and the screen decorated with “Obama 2012” logo. I can’t wait to stay away from it.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Dumbass Bullshit
The charge isn’t outside of the realm of possibilities, but I personally wouldn’t bank on statements by Dowd or Hollywood press agents as overly factual.
Anyone here who thought there was no depth the Obumbles administration wouldn’t plumb to get reelected, raise your hand.
Color me shocked, shocked! That this administration would do or say whatever it felt was needed to ensure it remained in power.
Not.
I just lost my breakfast.
Filmmakers in recent history have been granted access to classified places and info, allowed to film in sensitive areas, so on and so on. Hunt For Red October, they filmed on actual boats, for Air Force One lead cast a key crew people where given a tour around AFO including classified areas, and across both democrat and republican administrations Producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Director Michael Bay have been granted some of the most access to use the Military and see certain things in history.
I have not seen “The Hurt Locker”, but regardless of administration, the DoD has to approve of the script so it show the U.S. Military in positive light. If any of the above is true, it is far from it being the first time.
@5 – Re: The Hurt Locker……I’m of the opinion that whomever at DoD sanctioned support and advise on this abomination was about as close to the EOD world as I am to astrophysics. The movie won awards from the effete self-congratulatory crowd, but it certainly didn’t paint the US military in a positive light.
They will make the POTUS a god and our guys will be given a boost, but if they had the chance, they would throw our guys under the bus had it failed.
they filmed on actual boats
Exterior shots only, Casey. During production they were allowed to shoot unclassified sections for prop design (forward, and not all of those spaces) of the Chicago and the Portsmouth. A couple of the guys (Glenn and some others) did an overnight underway on the Slave Labor Camp (Or “Shitty Little City”, take your pick.) IOW, nothing much different than a dependent’s cruise.
It ain’t like they were busting open the 4FZ’s and going, “Hey, so THIS is what a TLAM-N looks like, mkay?”
Hurt Locker was so full of shit that it made my head spin. I got through the first 20 mins before I knew it was a wash. I will admit the initial scene where Guy Pierce realizes hes in the middle of a daisy chain was pretty good, but really no one would put that many 155 rounds THAT close together.
@5: Bay and Bruckheimer are given access. that is not the same as seeing classified info. Their movies generally take the positive side of Military Operations, so the DoD tends to want to let the see the sexy hardware. Hunt for Red October was filmed on a Perry class, and there were a few scenes in hallways on an actual 688, that’s the closes they got to actual boats. Anyone whose been in a 688 will tell you that the Dallas “control room” looks nothing like a real 688 control room. The same could be said for Crimson Tide. AF One, I’m sure they got the tour of an actual VC-25 but not any of the nifty countermeasures. I especially liked the part where an Apollo capsule comes out of the Main Fuel tank.
For myself I would not put it past this admin to release too much sensitive information about this subject. This is evidenced by the CJCS and SecDef practically begging people to stop talking to the media/leaking info on the raid. I get that you have to release some info, but for Christ’s sake! You practically expected some yahoo to release helmet cam footage. It was really too much
Bay talks about being in classified areas during the production of Transformers I funk shrug the audio commentary. Which most people don’t listen to. It’s my understanding that “The Hurt Locker” did not get DoD help at all. Also Bay always shows the Military in a positive light.
Bruckhiemer being showed classified areas is not the same as seeing classified material. After all the “war rooms” are classified, as are (if memory serves) the CIC’s for all surface ships. being in areas is not the same as seeing classified intel or actual reports.
@5 – The DoD only has to approve it if the military will be used in filming. If not approved, the military cannot assist with the production. This was the case with Bruckheimer’s Crimson Tide (which, by the way, as a former MT2(SS) kept me in hysterics throughout the entire film). The Navy’s objection required filming on a French submarine and the use of a French aircraft carrier.
To follow up on Doc’s comment’s, in the submarine world there is rig for surface, rig for dive, and rig for visitors (port). When rigged for surface and dive, all of control is classified secret, and the QM area can be TS. When rigged for visitors, all the classified stuff is put away, and civilians without a security clearance can be escorted through. So, the civilians are technically in a classified area, but there is nothing classified to see. I work in a secure area now. When the cleaning lady (without a clearance) comes in to vacuum, the classified stuff gets put away, so her access to a classified area is meaningless.
few scenes in hallways on an actual 688
Sonar shack–nope.
Control Room–nope.
Bottom of the hatch–nope.
Like I said, they shot some stuff during production and built sets based on it, but no way in hell did where Alec Baldwin’s character end up resemble anything near the bottom of the sail hatch, or forward or after escape trunks. They wouldn’t have been able to use the weapons shipping hatch.
And yeah, there’s places on the boat I rarely went, even with nearly 8 years of sea time. Radio being high on the list.
Bobo–poor Houston–that boat was/is friggin cursed. That thing has to have more tonnage than the Georgia.
What amazes me about this is that we continue to be amazed when this administration does something like this.
I thought that my boat was bad (torpedo tubes were AFU after the yards and had to be fixed in Norfolk before being able to certify, hit a trawler in the Irish sea, and during my last patrol had to surface transit from Charlestown to Kings Bay because we couldn’t dive). I would have been hard pressed to voluntarily show up on the Houston. I had a buddy on the Nasty Nat who was there for the underwater mountain strike, and I have seen the results of some “paint swaps” at the piers in Groton, but nothing compares to the Houston (the Greeneville coming in a close 2nd).
Bobo–San Fran was worse. WAY worse.
It must be a fast boat thing.
http://marcvaldez.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/sf_e-710341.jpg
http://www.ssbn611.org/images/USS%20San%20Francisco/sf3.jpg
http://75.126.40.92/files/sf2.jpg
Bobo–poor Houston–that boat was/is friggin cursed. That thing has to have more tonnage than the Georgia.
Sparky,
The GW racked up more tonnage, not bad for a boomer…