Ex-CIA director calls ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ a ‘good movie’

WASHINGTON – The man who oversaw the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, ex-CIA director Leon Panetta, vouched Friday for “Zero Dark Thirty,” calling it a “good movie” even though the tale of the biggest manhunt in history had to be simplified for the big screen.

“It’s a movie,” Panetta said, laughing. “And it’s a good movie. But I lived the real story,” he told AFP in an interview.

Panetta, who is due to step down as US defense secretary this month, said the film should not be seen as a historical account of the secret operation that he was intimately involved with as the head of the CIA from 2009 to 2011.

“It’s a little tough for me to take everything I saw and all of the work that was done and that was involved in that operation… and all of the people that worked at it and think you could put that all into a two-hour movie. You really can’t.”

But Panetta indicated that the Oscar-nominated film did convey some sense of the years of legwork it took the CIA to track down the Al-Qaeda mastermind to a hideout in Pakistan.

“I think people ought to make their own judgments. There are parts of it that give you a good sense of how the intelligence operations do work. But I also think people in the end have to understand that it isn’t a documentary, it’s a movie.”

The film, starring Jessica Chastain as a relentless CIA officer, suggests that torture and abuse of some suspects helped generate information that led to the May 2011 raid that ultimately took out bin Laden.

The portrayal has sparked criticism from some senators, rights advocates and even the acting head of the CIA, Michael Morell.

But Panetta said harsh interrogation methods, including water boarding or simulated drowning, did play a role in locating bin Laden, though not a decisive one.

“The whole effort in going after bin Laden involved 10 years of work, in piecing together various pieces of intelligence that were gathered. And there’s no question that some of the intelligence gathered was a result of some of these methods,” he said.

“But I think it’s difficult to say that they were the critical element. I think they were part of the vast puzzle that you had to put together in order to ultimately locate where bin Laden was.”

Asked if the Al-Qaeda leader would have been discovered even without the interrogation methods widely condemned as torture, Panetta said: “I think we would have found him, even without that piece of the puzzle.”

The CIA and the Pentagon cooperated heavily with the filmmakers, who were given access to officials and even offered a meeting with a Navy SEAL commando familiar with the raid.

Panetta declined to offer a critique of how he was portrayed on screen by Hollywood star James Gandolfini.

“Somebody came up to me and said I saw you in that movie but you lost a lot of weight,” he joked.

And Panetta, who often speaks of his Italian immigrant parents, said he was grateful the actor chosen to play him shared his Italian-American heritage.

“You know, I’m glad that it was an Italian.”

source: interaksyon.com

FBI agents search home of Petraeus lover as US commander in Afghanistan is linked to scandal

WASHINGTON -- FBI agents on Monday searched the home of the woman at the center of the sex scandal that led to the resignation of CIA director David Petraeus after new revelations surface about the affair.

Petraeus resigned on Friday over the affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell, just three days after Obama was reelected president following a heated campaign in which the CIA faced questions about its handling of a deadly attack on a US consulate in Libya.

The latest information is that US commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, is under investigation for "inappropriate" emails to a woman linked to the sex scandal involving Petraeus, a defense official said Tuesday.

The revelation represented yet another stunning turn in a widening scandal that has jolted Washington only days after the reelection of President Barack Obama, with lawmakers vowing to get to the bottom of case.

The Pentagon official told reporters the FBI had uncovered a trove of 30,000 pages of correspondence between Allen and Jill Kelley, a key figure in the scandal that brought down the storied former general and CIA chief.

The senior US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters traveling with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta there was a "distinct possibility" the Allen emails were connected to the Petraeus investigation.

Panetta, himself a former CIA chief, said Petraeus had been right to resign as a matter of "personal integrity," while Washington struggled to digest a steady stream of leaked allegations.

Kelley, of Tampa, Florida, had alerted the FBI to receiving threatening emails earlier this year that were eventually traced to Broadwell. The FBI then found emails between Broadwell and Petraeus that revealed their affair.

Panetta said in a statement that his department was informed by the FBI on Sunday about the case and that he had referred it to the Pentagon's inspector general for investigation.

He said Allen would remain in Kabul as the commander of NATO-led security forces but that he had asked the Senate Armed Services Committee to delay action on Allen's pending nomination to be NATO's supreme allied commander.

Panetta praised the general's work in Afghanistan, saying his leadership has been "instrumental" in securing progress in the war against Taliban insurgents.

However, Panetta said he requested that the Senate committee move promptly on the nomination for Allen's successor in Afghanistan, General Joseph Dunford.

It remained unclear what allegations Allen faced, and officials declined to comment as to whether the Marine general was accused of using his work email to communicate with Kelley or had disclosed any classified information.

"It's far too early to speculate on what the IG (inspector general) might find," the same defense official said.

"There is enough concern that we believe it was a prudent measure to take appropriate steps to direct an investigation and notify Congress," he said.

"We need to see where the facts lead in this matter, before jumping to any conclusions whatsoever."

He added that Allen insisted on his innocence.

"General Allen disputes that he has engaged in any wrongdoing in this matter," he said.

Kelley, a "social liaison" to an air force base in Tampa, had a longstanding family friendship with Petraeus but no official status in the military.

Both Petraeus and Allen served in Tampa, home to US Central Command, which Petraeus led before taking over as commander in Afghanistan in 2010.

Petraeus had been due to testify to Congress this week on the September 11 assault in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including US ambassador Chris Stevens and two former Navy SEALs working for the CIA.

Panetta, Petraeus' predecessor and the most senior administration figure to yet speak out on the resignation, attempted to draw a line under the scandal.

"My heart obviously goes out to him and his family. But I think he took the right step," he told reporters aboard a flight to Australia.

"I think it's important when you're director of the CIA, with all of the challenges that face you in that position, that personal integrity comes first and foremost."

Retired US Army colonel Steve Boylan -- a close Petraeus associate -- told AFP he "regrets the poor judgment and the lack of discipline more than we can probably put into words ... His words to me were 'I screwed up.'"

Boylan, who served as Petraeus' spokesman when the pair was in Iraq, said the 60-year-old Petraeus had warned his wife of 38 years, Holly, about his affair before the news broke and was trying to make amends.

Boylan said the affair between Petraeus and Broadwell began about two months after he assumed his post at the CIA in September 2011, and thus after he retired from the US Army. It ended about four months ago.

It all unraveled when Jill Kelley, 37, complained to an FBI agent acquaintance that she had received threatening anonymous emails.

According to widely reported leaks from US officials, FBI agents traced the mails back to Broadwell and, on scrutinizing her online records, found a series of sexually explicit exchanges with Petraeus confirming their affair.

The pair was interviewed separately by investigators in late October and early November but, despite reports Broadwell was found to be in possession of some classified material, no criminal charges were brought.

Nearly a dozen FBI agents on Monday searched Broadwell's North Carolina home, removing bags, boxes and pictures, local media reported. She has not been seen at her home since Petraeus resigned over the affair.

Broadwell may have revealed classified information last month by claiming at a public forum that the CIA was detaining Libyan militia members and that the practice may have triggered the September 11 attack on the US consulate.

The spy agency has strongly denied holding prisoners at the CIA annex in Benghazi.

Petraeus took command of the CIA 14 months ago, retiring from the military after a glittering career that saw him lead the 101st Airborne, the US war in Iraq, its CentCom regional command and international forces in Afghanistan.

Two months after hanging up his uniform, according to Boylan, he started an affair with Broadwell, a former army officer 20 years his junior who traveled with him in Afghanistan and has written a glowing biography of him.

Adding political intrigue to the scandal -- according to a report in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal -- the original FBI agent who was contacted by Kelley brought the matter to the attention of Republican lawmakers.

They in turn contacted the FBI, and Petraeus resigned late last week.

Meanwhile, the FBI investigation itself has come under scrutiny.

According to the Wall Street Journal, supervisors pulled the whistleblower FBI agent off the case after he became "obsessed" with the matter and was caught sending Kelley shirtless photos of himself.

US lawmakers already plan hearings into the Benghazi debacle and claims the four US victims were denied sufficient protection because of confusion between CIA and State Department leaders over security responsibility.

Now they also want to know why the FBI and Justice Department did not inform them or the White House about Petraeus's affair until last week, after the spy chief's sudden departure and public admission of guilt.

The scandal has also left Obama with a hole to fill on his national security team at a time when he is also expected to be replacing his secretaries of state, defense and treasury.

One name being floated as a possible Petraeus replacement is John Brennan, the White House counter-terrorism adviser and a CIA veteran. Others say Michael Morell, the agency's acting director, may take on the role.

source: interaksyon.com