With 100 pages of CIA documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit Jason Leopold and Ky Henderson of Vice News, September 10, 2015, revealed the relationship between the CIA and the producers of Zero Dark Thirty, the 2012 film about the discovery and killing of Osama Bin Laden’s in Pakistan the previous year. The CIA documents showed that the filmmakers gave gifts to CIA officers, at first mostly unreported, and obtained access to secret details about the bin Laden pursuit. Leopold and Henderson reported that the CIA was lax in observing rules to prevent the release of classified information to the film industry.
Although the filmmakers promoted the film as a story based on “firsthand accounts of actual events,” both the CIA and Senator Dianne Feinstein, then chair of the intelligence committee questioned the accuracy of the account. Acting CIA director Michael Morell wrote that contrary to the movie’s contention, torture did not provide any information that led to bin Laden’s discovery. (The Hollywood Reporter, September 10, 2015, by Mia Galuppo and Pamela McClintock)