CIA: 鈥榋ero Dark Thirty鈥� not a realistic portrayal of hunt for Osama bin Laden
The CIA says scenes of torture in the new film 'Zero Dark Thirty' are not an accurate portrayal of the hunt for Osama bin Laden. This follows similar criticism from three senior US senators who say the film is 'grossly inaccurate and misleading'.
The CIA says scenes of torture in the new film 'Zero Dark Thirty' are not an accurate portrayal of the hunt for Osama bin Laden. This follows similar criticism from three senior US senators who say the film is 'grossly inaccurate and misleading'.
In an unusual letter to CIA employees, the agency鈥檚 acting director Michael Morrell says the controversial Hollywood film 鈥淶ero Dark Thirty鈥� takes 鈥渟ignificant artistic license鈥� with the years-long hunt that led to Navy SEALs killing terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and is 鈥渘ot a realistic portrayal of the facts.鈥�
It鈥檚 not the first official complaint about the movie.
Earlier in the week, three senior US senators 鈥� Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein, fellow Democrat Carl Levin, and Republican John McCain 鈥� sent a letter to Michael Lynton, chairman and chief executive officer of Sony Pictures Entertainment, in which they expressed their 鈥渄eep disappointment鈥� with the film for its 鈥済rossly inaccurate and misleading 鈥� suggestion that torture resulted in information that led to the location of Osama bin Laden.鈥�
鈥淩egardless of what message the filmmakers intended to convey, the movie clearly implies that the CIA鈥檚 coercive interrogation techniques were effective in eliciting important information related to a courier for Osama bin Laden,鈥� the senators wrote. 鈥淲e have reviewed CIA records and know that this is incorrect.鈥�
鈥淭he fundamental problem,鈥� they continue, 鈥渋s that people who see Zero Dark Thirty will believe that the events it portrays are facts鈥�. Recent public opinion polls suggest that a narrow majority of Americans believe that torture can be justified as an effective form of intelligence gathering. This is false. We know that cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of prisoners is an unreliable and highly ineffective means of gathering intelligence.鈥�
No one know this better than Senator McCain, a former Navy pilot who spent years as a POW in North Vietnam, where he was subjected to brutal torture used to elicit false confessions.
'Zero Dark Thirty': top 3 controversies surrounding the Osama bin Laden film
In his letter to CIA employees, acting director Mr. Morrell (who took over from disgraced director David Petraeus), does not say that waterboarding and other forms of what the agency calls 鈥渆nhanced interrogation鈥� did not occur during the hunt for Mr. bin Laden.
He acknowledges that such methods, which critics say amount to torture, were part of the agency鈥檚 鈥渇ormer detention and interrogation program.鈥� (In 鈥淶ero Dark Thirty,鈥� these are graphically shown as waterboarding, being hung from a ceiling, beatings, sleep deprivation, and being locked in a coffin-like box.)
But Morrell takes issue with the film鈥檚 portrayal of prisoner abuse and the role it played in the bin Laden mission.
鈥淭he film creates the strong impression that the enhanced interrogation techniques that were part of our former detention and interrogation program were the key to finding Bin Laden.聽That impression is false,鈥� Morrell writes. 鈥淎s we have said before, the truth is that multiple streams of intelligence led CIA analysts to conclude that Bin Laden was hiding in Abbottabad.聽Some came from detainees subjected to enhanced techniques, but there were many other sources as well.聽And, importantly, whether enhanced interrogation techniques were the only timely and effective way to obtain information from those detainees, as the film suggests, is a matter of debate that cannot and never will be definitively resolved.鈥�
Earlier this month, the Senate Intelligence Committee voted 9 to 6 to approve a classified report highly critical of the CIA鈥檚 detention and interrogation program.
鈥淚 strongly believe that the creation of long-term, clandestine 鈥榖lack sites鈥� and the use of so-called 鈥榚nhanced-interrogation techniques鈥� were terrible mistakes,鈥� committee chairman Feinstein said regarding the report. 鈥淭he majority of the Committee agrees.鈥�
Based on their view that this element of 鈥淶ero Dark Thirty鈥� is 鈥済rossly inaccurate and misleading,鈥� Senators Feinstein, Levin, and McCain say Sony Pictures Entertainment has 鈥渁n obligation to state that the role of torture in the hunt for Osama bin Laden is not based on the facts, but rather part of the film's fictional narrative."
'Zero Dark Thirty': top 3 controversies surrounding the Osama bin Laden film