Showing posts with label Osama bin Laden's death. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Osama bin Laden's death. Show all posts

Thursday, August 11, 2011

White House rejects claim about bin Laden raid film

Moviemakers producing a film about the US special forces raid that killed Osama bin Laden are getting help from the Pentagon, but the Obama administration dismissed concerns on Wednesday that classified information has been divulged.

The film, focusing on one of President Barack Obama's key successes in office, is due to be released in October 2012, less than a month before the election in which the Democrat is seeking a second term.

Republican Peter King, chairman of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, called on Tuesday for an investigation into contacts between the administration and the filmmakers. King questioned whether special operations methods had been compromised.

"The claims are ridiculous," White House spokesman Jay Carney told a White House briefing.

"We do not discuss classified information. And I would hope that as we face the continued threat from terrorism, the House Committee on Homeland Security would have more important topics to discuss than a movie," Carney added.

US Marine Corps Colonel Dave Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman, said the Defense Department is cooperating with filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal as they work on a motion picture about the raid that killed bin Laden.

The two, who collaborated on the Oscar-winning Iraq war movie "The Hurt Locker," had been developing the bin Laden film even before the al Qaeda leader was killed in May in a raid on a compound in Abbottabad.

In a statement, the pair said their movie covered a period of three different US administrations that searched for bin Laden, including those of Presidents Clinton and Bush.

"This was an American triumph, both heroic and non-partisan, and there is no basis to suggest that our film will represent this enormous victory otherwise," Bigelow and Boal said in their joint statement.

The Pentagon has a two-person entertainment media office that assists makers of films, television shows, computer games and other entertainment media targeting mass audiences.

"Mostly when we're contacted by filmmakers they're looking for access to our equipment, our personnel and our installations. Technical advice is kind of a byproduct of that relationship," said Phil Strub, who heads the office.

Reacting to a New York Times column saying the film was timed to give Obama a "home-stretch boost" in his re-election bid, King called for an investigation into the assertion that Bigelow had been given "top-level access to the most classified mission in history."

On the Bigelow film, Lapan said the Defense Department is "providing assistance with script research, which is something we commonly do for established filmmakers." Lapan said the Pentagon attempts to help filmmakers and authors but "we do not discuss classified information."

Carney said information provided to the filmmakers "has been focused on the president's role."

"There is no difference in the information that we've given to anybody who's working on this topic from what we gave to those of you in this room who worked on it in the days and weeks after the raid itself," Carney told reporters. (Reuters)

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

The Rock knew of Osama Bin Laden death first?

Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson appeared to suggest that he knew about Osama Bin Laden's death before it became public knowledge.

The actor tweeted that he knew something "that will shock the world" about an hour before President Obama's big announcement that Bin Laden had been killed during an assault on his drone-proof compound in Pakistan.

According to multiple reports, the first tweet to specifically mention Bin Laden's death was sent out by Keith Urbahn, the chief of staff at former US Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld's office.

The message read: "So I'm told by a reputable person they have killed Osama Bin Laden. Hot damn." The post was followed up two minutes later by a tweet that read: "Don't know if it's true, but let's pray it is."

However, at exactly the same time as Urbahn's first tweet was sent out, Johnson also wrote: "Just got word that will shock the world - Land of the free...home of the brave DAMN PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!

The WWE wrestler has not yet commented on whether his message was referring to Bin Laden.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Bollywood’s Reaction To Osama Bin Laden’s Death

Osama bin Laden, the most wanted terrorist in the world is no more, US President Barack Obama confirmed on Monday. And this news has prompted celebrities from the showbiz world to voice their opinion about the killer of humanity. This is what celebrities have to say:

Anupam Kher: “Kudos to America’s intelligence and security forces for #operationBinLaden. It is important to pursue goals and then achieve them.:)”

Rahul Bose tweeted, “Am hoping a sense of balance is maintained in the US at the Osama news. Closure is good, revenge isn`t.”

Gul Panag wrote on twitter, “Osama is dead want to bet his shoes will soon be filled? So this gives Obama the impetus to finally stage the impending pull out? A la Victory & all! (not that Osama being dead will change much).So finally after a decade, #9/11 has been avenged.The process having killed & maimed countless civilians. All 2 get 1 man.”

Director Kunal Kohli tweeted, “Osama Bin Laden is Dead ! The U.S does a covert operation in Pakistan,with their support & gets Osama,why can’t we get the Mumbai serial blast & 26/11 masterminds ?”

Shekhar Kapur: “Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq. Wounds opened up in name of Osama. Will they heal now that Osama Bin Laden is officially dead? Osama became the mythical dark force that the US rallied against. It no longer matters that he is/was dead or alive.”

Osama bin Laden's death is blockbuster news for Hollywood

LOS ANGELES: Osama bin Laden's death is blockbuster news for Hollywood, whose attempts to dramatize the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have largely bombed.

Instead of churning out little-seen films about death and destruction wrought upon civilians and military personnel, the studios can now tap into resurgent American pride with movies about the hunt for the world's most wanted man.

If only John Wayne were still alive or Arnold Schwarzenegger were younger to star in a gung-ho film about the daring strike by dashing Navy SEAL operatives on a compound in suburban Pakistan. Picture "Black Hawk Down" with a happier ending, or "Die Hard" in Islamabad.

Coincidentally, the Oscar-winning director of "The Hurt Locker" -- an Iraq war film that earned just $17 million at the box office -- has a chance to reach a wider audience with an aptly named follow-up, "Kill Bin Laden."

According to entertainment news Web site Deadline.com, Kathryn Bigelow and her "Hurt Locker" screenwriter Mark Boal have been working for some time on their project about an earlier, unsuccessful mission to nab bin Laden.

Details about the film's plot were sketchy, Deadline reported, but the filmmakers will likely need to rework the script to take into account real-life developments. A spokeswoman for Bigelow said she was not talking.

Television will likely rush out a few quick movies if history is any guide. Within six months of the successful Israeli hostage rescue mission in Uganda in 1976, two television movies had been broadcast. The rescue of U.S. soldier Jessica Lynch by Special Operations forces in Iraq also got a similarly quick turnaround time in 2003.

The Navy SEALs -- short for SEa, Air and Land - were notably depicted in a 1990 action thriller of the same name starring Charlie Sheen.

The film's director, Lewis Teague, said that a new movie should be similar to "United 93," a semi-factual real-time depiction of events aboard one of the ill-fated 9/11 flights, or to "Touching the Void," which blended documentary footage and recreations to show a mountaineering mishap.

Ideally, the filmmakers should get full cooperation from the Navy SEALs, especially since Teague said they videotape all their operations.

And don't forget a few good jokes, said Teague, a Middle East expert who spent about a year working closely with Navy SEALs in San Diego on his project.

"I would definitely do it with humor," he said. "It takes a very peculiar character to be a Navy SEAL -- courage, stamina, dark humor, a witch's brew of a warrior's mentality."

Can't wait for the film? How about the book? In another strange-but-true coincidence, former Navy SEAL sniper Howard Wasdin is bringing forward the publication of his memoir by two weeks to next week.

"Seal Team Six" is about Wasdin's Navy SEAL training and his service in Somalia during the 1990s. Even though the book has nothing to do with bin Laden, Hollywood studios barraged Wasdin's agent on Monday.

"This story is really on everyone in Hollywood's mind right now so it is probably going to be a race about who can do this type of story," Scott Miller said. (Reuters)