It Must Be Campaign Season

The transparency group Judicial Watch brought FOIA lawsuits against the administration seeking information regarding the Osama bin Laden raid, but the administration insisted in federal court that the operation is secret and thus not subject to disclosure (even as they were leaking details about the raid to the press).

At the same time, Judicial Watch has also sued the White House seeking documents showing the administration’s collaboration with Hollywood filmmakers — The Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal – who have been planning a big-budget, studio film from Sony recounting the raid that killed bin Laden, oh-so-coincidentally scheduled for release in October, 2012, just before the election (that’s clearly a coincidence because Democrats, unlike those Bush/Cheney monsters, do not exploit national security for political gain). And, oh, just by the way: as The New York Times reported in January, “Michael Lynton, the Sony Pictures chief executive, has been a major backer of President Obama and last April attended and paid the donation fee for a high-priced political fund-raising dinner for the president on the Sony studio lot in Culver City, Calif., which was rented by the Democratic National Committee.”

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Politico‘s Josh Gerstein added: “Just weeks after Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency officials warned publicly of the dangers posed by leaks about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, top officials at both agencies and at the White House granted Hollywood filmmakers unusual access to those involved in planning the raid and some of the methods they used to do it.”

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In a meeting with Bigelow and Boal, Defense Undersecretary Vickers promised that, from Vickers, “you are going to get a little bit of operational stuff,” but the bulk of operational details would have to come from “Secretary Gates, Adm. Mullen, Hoss Cartwright.” At that meeting, they even plotted how to get the filmmakers classified information without appearing to do so. The internal administration documents — which pointedly note that the film has a “release date set for 4th Qtr 2012 (Sep-Dec)” — reveal enthusiastic cooperation with the filmmakers by top-level DoD officials, including Undersecretary of Defense Michael Vickers, all done at the direction of the White House. The very first DoD email indicates the request to work with the filmmakers came from the White House.

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At one point during that meeting, Vickers had spilled so many glorifying details about the raid that he actually apologized for “talking too much” — something Pentagon officials are never guilty of when it comes time to be held accountable in a court or at Congress — and the filmmakers assured him: “No, no. You’ve been so great. You’ve been incredible. . . . So extraordinary. So extraordinary.”

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[T]he name of the SEAL planner who was to meet with the filmmakers has been blacked out in these documents, and the administration still refuses to reveal that name — but it’s perfectly OK to give that information to Hollywood filmmakers so they can produce the best possible cinematic hagiography of the President.


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The DoD officials meeting with the filmmakers were given the White House talking points from the night of the raid, which [include] hailing the President’s actions as “gutsy” and stressing the heavy involvement of the White House in the raid.

  Glenn Greenwald

And we all want to know: who's gonna play glorious President #Compromise and did he pick the actor?

Stop the presses! The film's release date has been moved to December, so as not to interfere with the election!  Ah, the nobility!

As numerous people in comments and elsewhere have noted, the film’s new December release date still makes it likely that glorifying trailers and other film buzz will be heavily circulating prior to the November election.

Trailers. Great campaign videos. Polished, Hollywood quality campaign videos. Actually, much, much better than the movie itself because, 1) who can sustain awe and excitement after a movie has ended?, and 2) trailers are shown in every home with a TV, over and over and over. Indeed, the new release date is genius: the benefit of the trailer playing over and over in people's homes, plus being able to say the release date was changed in order NOT to be an influence. Nice work, Obama campaign. Nice work.