The Department of Defense and the CIA went to extraordinary lengths to give two filmmakers access to information to help the production of a film about the killing of Osama bin Laden, but both agencies denied that any classified information was released.
But House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, a New York Republican, expressed concern Wednesday about the filmmakers’ access after reading emails obtained by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group.
King said emails on the meeting between Pentagon and CIA officials with Academy Award-winning filmmakers Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal tell a “damning story of extremely close, unprecedented, and potentially dangerous collaboration with top officials at the CIA, DOD, and the White House and a top Democratic lobbying firm.”
Lt. Col. Jim Gregory, a Defense Department spokesman, told The Washington Examiner, “Without a shadow of a doubt, the Department of Defense did not release classified information to the filmmakers.”
Gregory said the Defense Department officials involved in the project only met with the filmmakers during the July meetings and have not spoken with them since.
“The filmmakers are now filming overseas and have not come back to the Defense Department for any additional help,” he said.
A CIA official told The Examiner the “CIA has been open about our engagement with writers, documentary filmmakers, movie and TV producers, and others in the entertainment industry,” adding that the goal is the accurate portrayal of the men and women of the CIA and their mission.
“On some occasions, when appropriate, we arrange visits to the agency for unclassified meetings with some of our officers.”
As for King’s concern that the filmmakers were granted access to classified information in “the vault,” a room where officers planned some of the raid, the CIA said no classified information was exposed.
“Virtually every office and conference room in our headquarters is called a ‘vault’ in agency lingo,” the spokesman said. “The ‘vault’ in question, that had been used for planning the raid, and was empty at the time of the filmmakers’ visit.”
Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Michael Vickers met with Bigelow and Boal and helped with arranging meetings, according to the emails.
In one of the emails, Vickers said the filmmakers wanted to meet with one of the operations planners from SEAL Team 6, and Vickers named someone he felt could help. Pentagon spokesman George Little said the suggested meeting never took place.
Sara A. Carter is The Washington Examiner’s national security correspondent. She can be reached at [email protected].
