Al-Zawahiri was never caught and is now the leader of al-Qaeda. ... One of the answers in reply to this, from Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia ... is that this is just a movie. National Security Advisor (Stephen Dillane) - John Brennan. We've got the go-it-alone gunslinger, Maya, whose past is murky and future is vague. The film dramatizes the nearly decade-long international manhunt for Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after the September 11 attacks. The success of the May 1st 2011 operation was a team effort—and a very large team at that. Second, the 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 Ladin. What you should also remember is that the Bin Ladin operation was a landmark achievement by our country, by our military, by our Intelligence Community, and by our Agency. A controversial pick, Brennan has been criticized for defending some “enhanced interrogation” tactics under the Bush administration, including some tactics that appear in the film. If “Zero Dark Thirty” is a roller-coaster ride, it’s one with blinkers, one that keeps its viewer facing forward and allows no glance away from the action. says he was not waterboarded. Latest advice on travel and quarantine as Mykonos is given the green light, Half-term travel in Tier 2 London: Everything you need to know about escaping lockdown, Can I travel between tiers? She gathers up a posse, heads out, and kills the bad guy. CIA interacted with the filmmakers through our Office of Public Affairs but, as is true with any entertainment project with which we interact, we do not control the final product. ©2020 Verizon Media. Unloved by most of his colleagues, some deem Roger responsible for the December 2009 Khost incident depicted in the film, which left seven CIA employees dead at the hands of an improperly vetted suicide bomber. He has been personally congratulated by President Obama. (His marriage to a Muslim woman was the catalyst for this conversion.) | Cookie Settings. Some US officials blamed Pakistan’s spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, for the leak. She's Clint Eastwood's “Man With No Name,” re-imagined as a twenty-something woman. What about the dog? One of their recruits was political thriller writer Brad Meltzer. They just wanted to depict the effort to locate bin Laden, and portray some of the professionals who did it. However, Zero Dark Thirty's list of omissions is not limited to minor historical details—some would say its single-sided portrayal of the debate on torture borders on absurdity. Zero Dark Thirty is a 2012 American thriller film directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal. The signal strength on the “magic box” goes up and down and the agents finally realise he must be driving around in circles while talking on the phone. After the blast, we hear a recording of a news report about the attack, the CIA’s heaviest loss since 1983, which refers to one of the dead as a mother of three. 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. Red Teams or Red Cells are units charged with testing prevailing views in various departments of the US government. Historical fiction has some connection with real events. The wig, everything.’ ”. (Photos credited to Matthews’ family have since been used in articles, but Slate could not be sure by press time whether any were publicly available.) Were so many of the manhunt’s heroes really women? And yes there were men involved in the hunt for Osama bin Laden. The film, which premiered this week, addresses the successful hunt for Usama Bin Ladin that was the focus of incredibly dedicated men and women across our Agency, Intelligence Community, and military partners for many years. The irreverence of the character and almost flippant attitude toward analysis was anathema to who Jennifer was. Because she's not actually Clint Eastwood, she cries a little. In 2010 he was named in a lawsuit brought by a Pakistani journalist whose relatives were killed by U.S. drone strikes. The big breakthrough in the hunt for bin Laden was the CIA’s identification of Sheikh Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, the al-Qaeda leader’s courier, who lived with him in the compound in Abbottabad. Called Cairo he was decked out in a bullet proof vest with night vision cameras and was tasked with detecting explosives, searching for false walls or hidden doors and chasing any suspects who tried to flee. by This 10-year hunt involved hundreds of people with several people at the core.) Amidst all the debate, let’s not forget how impressive it is that a handful of commandos could conduct a raid of this magnitude and return without any casualties or real complications. What I want you to know is that Zero Dark Thirty is a dramatization, not a realistic portrayal of the facts. Many were just joining the agency, like Maya at the movie’s beginning. The filmmakers say, instead, they had more modest goals. ZD30 opens at a CIA ‘black site’ in an ‘undisclosed’ location, where Dan (Jason Clarke) is subjecting detainee Ammar (Reda Kateb) to the agency’s so-called ‘enhanced’ interrogation techniques. The CIA’s use of this high-tech scanning device was first revealed in a 2008 newspaper report about the 2002 capture of the al-Qaeda logistics manager, Abu Zubaydah. The interrogation techniques were described as “unauthorised, improvised, inhumane and undocumented”. (But the movie) consists of scenes of an exhausted, bloodied al-Qaeda detainee ... who is strung to the ceiling with ropes, beaten, forced to wear a dog collar while crawling around attached to a leash ... forced to endure crude waterboardings, and locked into a coffin-like wooden crate. Does it give an accurate picture of how the CIA anti-terrorism efforts really work? In the darkest hour of the night, elite Navy SEALs raid Osama Bin Laden's compound in Zero Dark Thirty, 2013, As it happened: Blow-by-blow account of Donald Trump and Joe Biden's second presidential debate, Can I visit Greece? The success of the May 1st 2011 operation was a team effort—and a very large team at that. ", Morell also took issue with the film's depiction of CIA personnel and their actions, including those who died, and stressed that they "cannot allow a Hollywood film to cloud our memory of them. With the exception of Bissonnette and Nicholas Cheque, who was killed in December 2012 during a rescue mission in Afghanistan, the squad’s members remain anonymous. The reality of the profession is long hours of menial work that don't often fit into standard narratives. Its portrayal of torture by the CIA and the existence-or-not of its central character, Maya (played by Jessica Chastain), have been widely discussed. Its director Kathryn Bigelow has said it is “accurate in the way a movie can be accurate: it's 10 years compressed into two and a half hours and there are many, many tactics utilised." The lawsuit blew his cover, leading to protests in Islamabad. In reality, there was more going on. Hollywood Catches Zero Dark Fever. The film, which tells the story of the hunt for and eventual assassination of the al-Qaeda leader in Abbottabad, Pakistan, claims its action is ‘based on firsthand accounts of actual events’. As part of their efforts to confirm bin Laden was in the compound, the CIA is shown in the film setting up a fake polio vaccination scheme in Abbottabad. All rights reserved. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and John McCain, R-Ariz., to Sony Pictures that called the movie 'grossly inaccurate and misleading' in suggesting that harsh interrogations produced information that led to bin Laden. In June 2010, six months after the Camp Chapman attack, the real mother was named as Jennifer Lynne Matthews. Zero Dark Thirty, after earning five Oscar nominations including Best Picture, finally went wide this past weekend and immediately shot to No. While balancing the need for access against an intelligence agency's incentive to control the message, the movie botched the job. “Pieces fall from the sky and add to the pile the analyst already has,” she said. The Hollywood Reporter, LLC is a subsidiary of Prometheus Global Media, LLC. Zero Dark Thirty is not a documentary but a work of historical fiction. The inhumanity of man always leaves a mark on those forced to witness it. ... 'What's next, a Senate inquiry on the Bourne trilogy or 24?' Despite debates over its depiction of torture, Zero Dark Thirty became the most-watched movie in America this week, and looks to be heading for another strong weekend. In addition to its own editorials, USA TODAY publishes diverse opinions from outside writers, including ourBoard of Contributors. Terms of Use | Zero Dark Thirty ... is dramatized history. However, whether it was misreported, or whether McCain misinterpreted the movie, this is a strange suggestion: There’s nothing in the movie to link Ammar with Mohammed, and in fact Mohammed is discussed as a separate character (referred to as “KSM”) in the movie. I talked to her by phone when the movie came out. It is your right and your responsibility. "The 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 Ladin. Jessica (Jennifer Ehle) – Jennifer Lynne Matthews. It would not be practical for me to walk through all the fiction in the film, but let me highlight a few aspects that particularly underscore the extent to which the film departs from reality. Through it all, I want you to remember that Zero Dark Thirty is not a documentary. The latest rules for local holidays. “It’s not connecting dots, it’s more like a jigsaw puzzle,” said Cindy Storer, an ex-CIA analyst, one of the group that goes back before 9/11. First, the hunt for Usama Bin Ladin was a decade-long effort that depended on the selfless commitment of hundreds of officers. By joining Slate Plus you support our work and get exclusive content. CIA interacted with the filmmakers through our Office of Public Affairs but, as is true with any entertainment project with which we interact, we do not control the final product," Morelle wrote in the letter before going on to highlight a few aspects that "particularly underscore the extent to which the film departs from reality.". Visit your state election office website to find out whether they offer early voting. Bissonnette also describes Jen’s reaction when they brought back bin Laden’s body: Peter Bergen, a journalist who has written about counterterrorism and the Middle East for years, has said that the “guy who was on the account from 2003 to May 1, 2011, when Bin Laden was killed, and the guy who was always saying … that Bin Laden is living in the mysterious compound in Abbottabad—that guy is a guy, he’s not a female.” But this conflicts with statements from Bigelow, who has confirmed that the character of Maya was inspired by a woman. Die Mission begann um 0:30 Uhr; der Filmtitel greift den im US-Militär üblichen Ausdruck Zero Dark Thirty auf, der diesen Zeitpunkt markiert. Zero Dark Thirty occupied an odd space. I would not normally comment on a Hollywood film, but I think it important to put Zero Dark Thirty, which deals with one of the most significant achievements in our history, into some context. Update, Jan. 16: While Cheque was named as a member of Seal Team 6, the government has never confirmed whether he was involved in the Bin Laden raid. Tina Daunt Even though waterboarding is now prohibited, that hasn't diminished its value for some in government. Previously Instead of treating the movie as a depiction of reality, I hope we treat it as a point of departure. FACEBOOK The torture scenes depicted in the movie were horrific and very difficult to watch. Essentially the “magic box” is able to alert the user when a particular mobile phone is being operated and, by measuring signal strength, tell the user the approximate location of the phone.