DoD investigates leaks for bin Laden film - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

DoD investigates leaks for bin Laden film

The Defense Department is investigating whether classified information was improperly provided to a filmmaker working on a movie about death of Osama bin Laden, and the Central Intelligence Agency is changing its procedures for working on similar projects in the future.

The action comes in response to complaints made in August by Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, that movie director Kathryn Bigelow, screenwriter Mark Boal and Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. may have had access to highly classified material to help produce a film on the May 2011 raid by a Navy SEAL team of a compound in Pakistan where the al-Qaida leader was hiding.

King expressed concern in a letter to DoD and CIA that granting access to classified information would endanger future missions, and that the expected October 2012 release of the film about the raid raises questions about whether the timing is politically motivated to help Obama get re-elected.

Bigelow and Boal, who worked together on the 2008 film “The Hurt Locker,” about an Army bomb disposal unit in Iraq, were working on a film about the hunt for the terrorist leader before the May raid that led to bin Laden’s death. The two have been working with DoD and CIA to get more information to finish the film, but it is not clear if they received classified information.

In November, the CIA told King they were revising policies for dealing with moviemakers, creating a single point of contact for all interaction with the entertainment industry. “The protection of national security equities — including the preservation of our ability to conduct effective counterterrorism operations — is the decisive factor in determining how the CIA engages with filmmakers and the media as a whole,” CIA officials said in a Nov. 8 letter to King.

The Pentagon launched an initial investigation after King’s complaint in August, and now is promising a more thorough review that “will address actions taken by Department of Defense personnel related to the release of information to the filmmakers,” according to a Dec. 23 letter to King.

No indication was given about how long the investigation may take.

In a statement, King said the “leaks that followed the successful bin Laden mission led to the arrests of Pakistanis and put in danger the mission’s heroes and their families. Privately, individuals in the intelligence and special operations communities expressed support for my request for a probe.”