The CIA in Hollywood
The CIA in Hollywood

Author: Tricia Jenkins

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2016-03-08

Total Pages: 231

ISBN-13: 0292772467

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"Jenkins's book raises serious ethical and legal questions about the relationship between the CIA and Hollywood and the extent to which we consume propaganda from one through the other. . . . Should the CIA be authorized to target American public opinion? If our artists don't confront [the question] more directly, and soon, the Agency will only continue to infiltrate our vulnerable film and television screens—and our minds." —Tom Hayden, Los Angeles Review of Books "The book makes a strong case that the CIA should not be in Hollywood at all, but that if it is, it cannot pick and choose which movies it wishes to support. Well written and researched, this study examines a subject that has not received enough scholarly or critical attention. Highly recommended." —Choice "A fascinating, highly readable, and original new work. . . . Incorporating effective, illustrative case studies, The CIA in Hollywood is definitely recommended to students of film, media relations, the CIA, and U.S. interagency relations." —H-Net Reviews

Argo
Argo

Author: Antonio Mendez

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2013-02-06

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0147509734

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The true account of a daring rescue that inspired the film ARGO, winner of the 2012 Academy Award for Best Picture On November 4, 1979, Iranian militants stormed the American embassy in Tehran and captured dozens of American hostages, sparking a 444-day ordeal and a quake in global politics still reverberating today. But there is a little-known drama connected to the crisis: six Americans escaped. And a top-level CIA officer named Antonio Mendez devised an ingenious yet incredibly risky plan to rescue them before they were detected. Disguising himself as a Hollywood producer, and supported by a cast of expert forgers, deep cover CIA operatives, foreign agents, and Hollywood special effects artists, Mendez traveled to Tehran under the guise of scouting locations for a fake science fiction film called Argo. While pretending to find the perfect film backdrops, Mendez and a colleague succeeded in contacting the escapees, and smuggling them out of Iran. Antonio Mendez finally details the extraordinarily complex and dangerous operation he led more than three decades ago. A riveting story of secret identities and international intrigue, Argo is the gripping account of the history-making collusion between Hollywood and high-stakes espionage.

Hollywood and the CIA
Hollywood and the CIA

Author: Oliver Boyd Barrett

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2011-03

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1136806768

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book investigates representations of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Hollywood films, and the synergies between Hollywood product, U.S. military/defense interests and U.S. foreign policy. As probably the best known of the many different intelligence agencies of the US, the CIA is an exceptionally well known national and international icon or even "brand," one that exercises a powerful influence on the imagination of people throughout the world as well as on the creative minds of filmmakers. The book examines films sampled from five decades - the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s - and explores four main issues: the relative prominence of the CIA; the extent to which these films appeared to be overtly political; the degree to which they were favorable or unfavorable to the CIA; and their relative attitude to the "business" of intelligence. A final chapter considers the question: do these Hollywood texts appear to function ideologically to "normalize" the CIA? If so, might this suggest the further hypothesis that many CIA movies assist audiences with reconciling two sometimes fundamental opposites: often gruesome covert CIA activity for questionable goals and at enormous expense, on the one hand, and the values and procedures of democratic society, on the other. This interdisciplinary book will be of much interest to students of the CIA/Intelligence Studies, media and film studies, US politics and IR/Security Studies in general.

Spooked
Spooked

Author: Nicholas Schou

Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

Published: 2016-06-28

Total Pages: 151

ISBN-13: 1510703411

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The American people depend on a free press to keep a close and impartial watch on the national security operations that are carried out in our name. But in many cases, this trust is sadly misplaced, as leading journalists are seduced and manipulated by the secretive agencies they cover. While the press remains silent about its corrupting relationship with the intelligence community—a relationship that dates back to the Cold War—Spooking the News will blow the lid off this unseemly arrangement. Schou will name names and shine a spotlight on flagrant examples of collusion, when respected reporters have crossed the line and sold out to powerful agencies. The book will also document how the CIA has embedded itself in “liberal” Hollywood to ensure that its fictional spies get the hero treatment on screen. Among the revelations in Spooking the News: • The CIA created a special public affairs unit to influence the production of Hollywood films and TV shows, allowing celebrities involved in pro-CIA projects—including Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck—unique access inside the agency's headquarters. • The CIA vets articles on controversial topics like the drone assassination program and grants friendly reporters background briefings on classified material, while simultaneously prosecuting ex-officers who spill the beans on damaging information.

In Secrecy's Shadow
In Secrecy's Shadow

Author: Simon Willmetts

Publisher: Traditions in American Cinema

Published: 2017-08

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 9781474425940

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Drawing on extensive archival research, In Secrecy's Shadow explores the revolution in the relationship between Hollywood and the secret state, from unwavering trust and cooperation to extreme scepticism and paranoia.

Operation Hollywood
Operation Hollywood

Author: David L. Robb

Publisher: Prometheus Books

Published: 2011-04-29

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 1615924515

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Directors of war and action movies receive access to billions of dollars worth of military equipment and personnel, but it comes with a hidden cost. As a veteran Hollywood journalist shows, the final product is often not just what the director intends but also what the powers-that-be in the military want to project about America's armed forces.

Chaos
Chaos

Author: Tom O'Neill

Publisher: Little, Brown

Published: 2019-06-25

Total Pages: 500

ISBN-13: 0316477575

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A journalist's twenty-year fascination with the Manson murders leads to "gobsmacking" (The Ringer) new revelations about the FBI's involvement in this "kaleidoscopic" (The New York Times) reassessment of an infamous case in American history. Over two grim nights in Los Angeles, the young followers of Charles Manson murdered seven people, including the actress Sharon Tate, then eight months pregnant. With no mercy and seemingly no motive, the Manson Family followed their leader's every order -- their crimes lit a flame of paranoia across the nation, spelling the end of the sixties. Manson became one of history's most infamous criminals, his name forever attached to an era when charlatans mixed with prodigies, free love was as possible as brainwashing, and utopia -- or dystopia -- was just an acid trip away. Twenty years ago, when journalist Tom O'Neill was reporting a magazine piece about the murders, he worried there was nothing new to say. Then he unearthed shocking evidence of a cover-up behind the "official" story, including police carelessness, legal misconduct, and potential surveillance by intelligence agents. When a tense interview with Vincent Bugliosi -- prosecutor of the Manson Family and author of Helter Skelter -- turned a friendly source into a nemesis, O'Neill knew he was onto something. But every discovery brought more questions: Who were Manson's real friends in Hollywood, and how far would they go to hide their ties? Why didn't law enforcement, including Manson's own parole officer, act on their many chances to stop him? And how did Manson -- an illiterate ex-con -- turn a group of peaceful hippies into remorseless killers? O'Neill's quest for the truth led him from reclusive celebrities to seasoned spies, from San Francisco's summer of love to the shadowy sites of the CIA's mind-control experiments, on a trail rife with shady cover-ups and suspicious coincidences. The product of two decades of reporting, hundreds of new interviews, and dozens of never-before-seen documents from the LAPD, the FBI, and the CIA, Chaos mounts an argument that could be, according to Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Steven Kay, strong enough to overturn the verdicts on the Manson murders. This is a book that overturns our understanding of a pivotal time in American history.

National Security Cinema
National Security Cinema

Author: Matthew Alford

Publisher:

Published: 2017-06-27

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 9781548084981

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This is a book about secrecy, militarism, manipulation, and censorship at the heart of the world's leading democracy-and about those who try to fight them. Using thousands of pages of documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act National Security Cinema exclusively reveals that the national security state-led by the CIA and Pentagon-has worked on more than eight-hundred Hollywood films and over a thousand network television shows. The latest scholarship has underestimated the size of this operation, in part because the government has gone to considerable lengths to prevent data emerging, especially in the 21st Century, as the practice of government-Hollywood cooperation has escalated and become more aggressive. National Security Cinema reveals for the first time specific script changes made by the government for political reasons on dozens of blockbusting films and franchises like Transformers, Avatar, Meet the Parents, and The Terminator. These forces have suppressed important narratives about: CIA drug trafficking; illegal arms sales; military creation of bio-weapons; the interaction of private armies and oil companies; government treatment of minorities; torture; coups; assassinations, and the failure to prevent 9/11.

The CIA in Hollywood
The CIA in Hollywood

Author: Tricia Jenkins

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2016-03-08

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 0292772483

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An in-depth study of the CIA’s collaboration with Hollywood since the mid-1990s, and the important and troubling questions it creates. What’s your impression of the CIA? A bumbling agency that can’t protect its own spies? A rogue organization prone to covert operations and assassinations? Or a dedicated public service that advances the interests of the United States? Astute TV and movie viewers may have noticed that the CIA’s image in popular media has spanned this entire range, with a decided shift to more positive portrayals in recent years. But what very few people know is that the Central Intelligence Agency has been actively engaged in shaping the content of film and television, especially since it established an entertainment industry liaison program in the mid-1990s. The CIA in Hollywood offers the first full-scale investigation of the relationship between the Agency and the film and television industries. Tricia Jenkins draws on numerous interviews with the CIA’s public affairs staff, operations officers, and historians, as well as with Hollywood technical consultants, producers, and screenwriters who have worked with the Agency, to uncover the nature of the CIA’s role in Hollywood. In particular, she delves into the Agency’s and its officers’ involvement in the production of The Agency, In the Company of Spies, Alias, The Recruit, The Sum of All Fears, Enemy of the State, Syriana, The Good Shepherd, and more. Her research reveals the significant influence that the CIA now wields in Hollywood and raises important and troubling questions about the ethics and legality of a government agency using popular media to manipulate its public image. “Fascinating, highly readable . . . Overall, Jenkins’s work is fresh and original, and demonstrates sound scholarship. The author has a passion for the topic that translates to vibrant writing. It is also a concise as well as entertaining look at an aspect of the CIA—its media relations with Hollywood—of which little is known. Enthusiastically written and incorporating effective, illustrative case studies, The CIA in Hollywood is definitely recommended to students of film, media relations, the CIA, and U.S. interagency relations.” —H-War

In Deep: The FBI, the CIA, and the Truth about America's "Deep State"
In Deep: The FBI, the CIA, and the Truth about America's

Author: David Rohde

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2020-04-21

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 1324003553

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Revised and updated "One of today’s most respected journalists, David Rohde takes on one of the country’s most toxic conspiracy theories," presenting a "scrupulously reported and even-handed" account of how power and intelligence are exploited in Washington that “goes deep indeed inside America’s security state, telling a story that will surprise readers of all political persuasions” (Jane Mayer, author of Dark Money). Donald Trump blamed his 2020 defeat on Democrats and the “deep state”—a supposed secret cabal of Washington insiders that relentlessly encroaches on the individual rights of Americans—for stealing the election and undermining his presidency. Most Americans who supported him agreed. Americans on the left increasingly fear the “military-industrial complex,” a faction of generals and defense contractors who they believe routinely push the country into endless wars. But does the American “deep state” really exist? This question is fundamental to preserving the legitimacy of American democracy, as frustration with and distrust for the government continue to grow. In Deep seeks to dispel these pernicious myths through an examination of the FBI, CIA, and Justice Department scandals of the past fifty years from the Church Committee’s exposure of Cold War abuses to the claims and counterclaims of the Trump era and the relentless spread of conspiracy theories online and on air. It exposes the misconduct of Attorney General William Barr; how distrust of the “deep state” undermined the US government response to the COVID-19 pandemic; and the growing discord sowed by the explosion of false information online. It investigates Trump’s quest to discredit government experts, the legislative and judicial branches, and the results of the 2020 election and assume authoritarian power for himself. “The idea of the deep state, Rohde writes, is inextricably linked to a particular view of presidential power” (Dina Temple-Raston, Washington Post). Based on dozens of interviews with career CIA operatives and FBI agents, “In Deep is a wholly satisfying read and a necessary one for anyone wanting to understand the forces at play in our government today” (Andrea Bernstein, Peabody Award–winning cohost of the Trump, Inc. podcast and author of American Oligarchs).