Necessary and Competent: The CIA in The Agency and In the

Richard Aldrich points out, much of what we know about Langley has been deliberately placed in the public domain by the Agency itself, since it realizes the importance of controlling its public image.2 By revealing what has, to date, remained a largely hidden history of the CIA in Hollywood, this project encourages readers to become more critical consumers of contemporary media and to further the academic conversation surrounding the modern government- entertainment complex. But this book is not without its limitations. The CIA is far from an open organization, and many who work for the Agency remained tight- lipped about even the most basic information. Likewise, because the CIA has often preferred to communicate with theatrical agents through phone conversations rather than through e- mail or letters, and because many of its documents are exempt from Freedom of Information Act requests, the CIA rarely leaves a paper trail. Additionally, when Chase Brandon retired from his position as the CIA’s entertainment liaison in 2006, he reportedly took with him every telephone number and piece of paper related to his job, and thus, as his successor Paul Barry explains, “nothing remains from the past (1995–late 2006),” leaving researchers with even less documentation to request and review.3 As a result, the history of the CIA in Hollywood is, at present, more of a verbal history than a written one, which is complicated by the fact that those in Hollywood are often too busy, or simply unwilling, to speak with academic researchers about their collaborations with the government. Also, because the CIA’s relationship with Hollywood involves “deep politics”—so called because they involve “activities which cannot currently be fully understood due to the covert influence of shadowy power players”4—this book cannot possibly claim to unveil all of the CIA’s involvement in motion pictures over the past fifteen to twenty years; indeed, some of these collaborations may never be brought to light, while the exact nature of others will remain hidden. Instead, this book can only unveil a significant part of the CIA’s hidden history in film and television, evaluate the impact of that history, and establish a strong foundation on which future investigations of the CIA in Hollywood may be based.

The Role and Structure of the CIA

Before delving into any analysis of the CIA’s current involvement in Hollywood, it is important to briefly outline the structure and purpose

of the Agency, and the extent to which it worked with the motion picture industry prior to the 1990s. The National Security Act of 1947 officially established the Central Intelligence Agency. The act, signed by President Truman, created a centralized intelligence organization aimed at correlating, evaluating, and disseminating information affecting national security. The information collected by the CIA assists military, executive, and legislative leaders in their decision- making processes. Unlike the FBI, which primarily collects information on American subjects, the CIA is sanctioned only to work abroad (although it can collect information on foreign subjects on U.S. soil). The CIA also has no “police, subpoena, law enforcement, or internal security functions.”5 While the CIA’s stated mission is to provide the president and congressional leaders with intelligence essential to national security, the Agency also engages in covert operations. Historically, these operations have included paramilitary activities and propaganda campaigns aimed at destabilizing and influencing opposing regimes, even during peacetime. The CIA uses secret funds to conduct these black operations under the premise of “plausible deniability,” and while these activities are often controversial, it is important to remember that the CIA’s covert capability is exercised at the direction of the president. No covert action is supposed to be undertaken without explicit presidential instruction or, as of the 1960s, a “finding,” which is a legal authorization about which congressional overseers are made aware. In order to accomplish its covert missions and its intelligence collection, the CIA has been divided into four sectors for most of its history. The National Clandestine Service (formerly called the Directorate of Operations) works to recruit and manage agents who provide the Agency with information, and it also attempts to influence or overthrow foreign governments, political parties, or leaders “through secret funding, training, paramilitary operations and propaganda.”6 The Directorate of Intelligence houses the Agency’s analysts, who bring together information from human assets, satellites, television and radio broadcasts, newsletters, scientific publications, and more in order to make predictions about events and to inform policy makers. The third sector, the Directorate of Science and Technology, monitors satellite imagery, military communications, missile transmissions, and intercepted communications both within countries and inside foreign embassies. The directorate is also responsible for the creation of disguises and document forgeries, including foreign passports and birth certificates, for use by its assets and officers in the

field. The final sector of the CIA is the Directorate of Support (formerly called the Directorate of Administration). Historically, this has been the CIA’s largest department. In 1992, it housed roughly nine thousand employees, as opposed to the Directorate of Operations’ five thousand, the Directorate of Intelligence’s three thousand, and the Directorate of Science and Technology’s five thousand employees.7 These administrators, along with the Office of Human Resources, manage the Agency’s payroll, office supply center, and money- laundering efforts. They also provide medical services for officers stationed overseas, manage the Agency’s travel and transportation needs, assign security clearances, and work with the Agency’s industrial partners in the corporate sector.8 The directorate is also responsible for creating the Agency’s global communications system and its information technology and security infrastructure. Each of these directorates used to be managed by the director of central intelligence (DCI). The DCI served as the head of the CIA, coordinated other intelligence agencies in the government, and acted as the primary adviser to the president on foreign intelligence matters. In December 2004, however, President George W. Bush signed the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, which restructured the intelligence community after the 9- 11 Commission criticized its organization. This act abolished the position of the DCI as the coordinator of other intelligence agencies and gave those responsibilities to the newly created Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The act also changed the name of the DCI to the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (D/CIA), and this individual’s only job is to now oversee the Agency and provide advice to policy makers. One of the many tasks of the D/CIA is to hire and work with a director of public affairs (DPA) in order to communicate with the public (see table I.1). This director oversees the CIA’s Public Affairs Office (PAO), which is responsible for handling Langley’s internal communications and media requests from news organizations, academics, and entertainment professionals.9 For the purposes of this book, it is important to emphasize that the majority of all Hollywood collaborators work in or through the PAO, and that from 1996 to 2008, the DPA oversaw the agency’s entertainment industry liaison officers—Chase Brandon and Paul Barry—who were fully dedicated to assisting and influencing filmmakers and novelists. Upon Barry’s departure in 2008, however, the PAO restructured its office, and now the responsibility of assisting moviemakers, writers, and television producers is divided among its four- person media relations team,