SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Official Leaks: "These Senior People Do Whatever They Want"
When asked whether he would have supported working with the producers of Zero Dark Thirty, Department of Defense's Director of Entertainment Media said he would not have recommended working with screenwriter Mark Boal and director Katherine Bigelow, because he was not happy with the way their movie Hurt Locker had presented the military. But he was not given a choice. "These senior people do whatever they want," the Director told DOD's Inspector General, according to a draft of the IG's report on t
Apr 20, 2015
When asked whether he would have supported working with the producers of Zero Dark Thirty, Department of Defense's Director of Entertainment Media said he would not have recommended working with screenwriter Mark Boal and director Katherine Bigelow, because he was not happy with the way their movie Hurt Locker had presented the military. But he was not given a choice. "These senior people do whatever they want," the Director told DOD's Inspector General, according to a draft of the IG's report on the leaks of classified information to Boal and Bigelow.
The Project on Government Oversight released the draft this week.
The Director's comments are all the more telling given how much more centrally this draft of the report -- as compared to another POGO obtained and released -- point to the role of then CIA Director Leon Panetta and his Chief of Staff, Jeremy Bash, in leading the government to cooperate on the movie.
For example, this draft reveals how officials pointed to Panetta and Bash's support to try to get Special Operations to cooperate with the ZD30 team.
[Deputy Director of the CIA] Morrell responded that Director/CIA Leon Panetta was fully cooperating with the movie project and that several CIA staff used White House-approved talking points to talk to Mr. Boal about the intelligence that led to UBL's location.
[Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Doug] Wilson confirmed that Mr. Boal met with Mr. Bash and "complained that SOCOM wasn't being as forthcoming as they wanted," so Mr. Boal asked Mr. Bash if Mr. Bash could help with SOCOM. ASD(PA) Wilson wrote that he called the USSOCOM PAO and mentioned "[Secretary] Panetta and [Special Assistant to the Secretary] Bash, you know, are fully supportive of this, I just wanted you to know that."
As POGO noted in its own report on this newly acquired draft of the report, information on CIA's role was removed the same day Acting Inspector General Lynne Halbrooks met with Panetta, who had since become Secretary of Defense.
The timeline obtained by POGO raises the question of what influence Panetta may have had on Halbrooks' decision to remove his misconduct from her report.
It shows that CIA material was removed from the report on December 18, 2012. According to a report by Senate Judiciary staff posted on the web, that's the day Halbrooks met with Panetta at the Pentagon. "A reasonable person would conclude something happened at her meeting [with Panetta]. Otherwise it's a hell of a coincidence," a source who worked for Halbrooks on the investigation told POGO.
The CIA Director decided to partner with big Hollywood to write a selective version of the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and the rest of CIA and DOD had to fall in line, going so far as exposing some of the SEAL team members' identities.
And, of course, nothing ever happened to Panetta (or Michael Vickers, who also shared sensitive information) as a result.
Leaks become far less serious, it seems, when they're pushed by top officials.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
© 2023 ExposeFacts.org
Marcy Wheeler
Marcy Wheeler is a journalist who writes the blog Emptywheel. She publishes at various outlets including the Guardian, Salon and the Progressive. Wheeler won the 2009 the Hillman Award for blog journalism.
When asked whether he would have supported working with the producers of Zero Dark Thirty, Department of Defense's Director of Entertainment Media said he would not have recommended working with screenwriter Mark Boal and director Katherine Bigelow, because he was not happy with the way their movie Hurt Locker had presented the military. But he was not given a choice. "These senior people do whatever they want," the Director told DOD's Inspector General, according to a draft of the IG's report on the leaks of classified information to Boal and Bigelow.
The Project on Government Oversight released the draft this week.
The Director's comments are all the more telling given how much more centrally this draft of the report -- as compared to another POGO obtained and released -- point to the role of then CIA Director Leon Panetta and his Chief of Staff, Jeremy Bash, in leading the government to cooperate on the movie.
For example, this draft reveals how officials pointed to Panetta and Bash's support to try to get Special Operations to cooperate with the ZD30 team.
[Deputy Director of the CIA] Morrell responded that Director/CIA Leon Panetta was fully cooperating with the movie project and that several CIA staff used White House-approved talking points to talk to Mr. Boal about the intelligence that led to UBL's location.
[Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Doug] Wilson confirmed that Mr. Boal met with Mr. Bash and "complained that SOCOM wasn't being as forthcoming as they wanted," so Mr. Boal asked Mr. Bash if Mr. Bash could help with SOCOM. ASD(PA) Wilson wrote that he called the USSOCOM PAO and mentioned "[Secretary] Panetta and [Special Assistant to the Secretary] Bash, you know, are fully supportive of this, I just wanted you to know that."
As POGO noted in its own report on this newly acquired draft of the report, information on CIA's role was removed the same day Acting Inspector General Lynne Halbrooks met with Panetta, who had since become Secretary of Defense.
The timeline obtained by POGO raises the question of what influence Panetta may have had on Halbrooks' decision to remove his misconduct from her report.
It shows that CIA material was removed from the report on December 18, 2012. According to a report by Senate Judiciary staff posted on the web, that's the day Halbrooks met with Panetta at the Pentagon. "A reasonable person would conclude something happened at her meeting [with Panetta]. Otherwise it's a hell of a coincidence," a source who worked for Halbrooks on the investigation told POGO.
The CIA Director decided to partner with big Hollywood to write a selective version of the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and the rest of CIA and DOD had to fall in line, going so far as exposing some of the SEAL team members' identities.
And, of course, nothing ever happened to Panetta (or Michael Vickers, who also shared sensitive information) as a result.
Leaks become far less serious, it seems, when they're pushed by top officials.
Marcy Wheeler
Marcy Wheeler is a journalist who writes the blog Emptywheel. She publishes at various outlets including the Guardian, Salon and the Progressive. Wheeler won the 2009 the Hillman Award for blog journalism.
When asked whether he would have supported working with the producers of Zero Dark Thirty, Department of Defense's Director of Entertainment Media said he would not have recommended working with screenwriter Mark Boal and director Katherine Bigelow, because he was not happy with the way their movie Hurt Locker had presented the military. But he was not given a choice. "These senior people do whatever they want," the Director told DOD's Inspector General, according to a draft of the IG's report on the leaks of classified information to Boal and Bigelow.
The Project on Government Oversight released the draft this week.
The Director's comments are all the more telling given how much more centrally this draft of the report -- as compared to another POGO obtained and released -- point to the role of then CIA Director Leon Panetta and his Chief of Staff, Jeremy Bash, in leading the government to cooperate on the movie.
For example, this draft reveals how officials pointed to Panetta and Bash's support to try to get Special Operations to cooperate with the ZD30 team.
[Deputy Director of the CIA] Morrell responded that Director/CIA Leon Panetta was fully cooperating with the movie project and that several CIA staff used White House-approved talking points to talk to Mr. Boal about the intelligence that led to UBL's location.
[Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Doug] Wilson confirmed that Mr. Boal met with Mr. Bash and "complained that SOCOM wasn't being as forthcoming as they wanted," so Mr. Boal asked Mr. Bash if Mr. Bash could help with SOCOM. ASD(PA) Wilson wrote that he called the USSOCOM PAO and mentioned "[Secretary] Panetta and [Special Assistant to the Secretary] Bash, you know, are fully supportive of this, I just wanted you to know that."
As POGO noted in its own report on this newly acquired draft of the report, information on CIA's role was removed the same day Acting Inspector General Lynne Halbrooks met with Panetta, who had since become Secretary of Defense.
The timeline obtained by POGO raises the question of what influence Panetta may have had on Halbrooks' decision to remove his misconduct from her report.
It shows that CIA material was removed from the report on December 18, 2012. According to a report by Senate Judiciary staff posted on the web, that's the day Halbrooks met with Panetta at the Pentagon. "A reasonable person would conclude something happened at her meeting [with Panetta]. Otherwise it's a hell of a coincidence," a source who worked for Halbrooks on the investigation told POGO.
The CIA Director decided to partner with big Hollywood to write a selective version of the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and the rest of CIA and DOD had to fall in line, going so far as exposing some of the SEAL team members' identities.
And, of course, nothing ever happened to Panetta (or Michael Vickers, who also shared sensitive information) as a result.
Leaks become far less serious, it seems, when they're pushed by top officials.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.