In this opening episode of the new series Pearse and Tom look into the CIA’s adaptations of George Orwell’s two most famous novels – Animal Farm and 1984. We focus primarily on Animal Farm, a revolutionary animated film in several senses of the word, produced by Louis De Rochemont – a man who had worked with several other government agencies prior to making Animal Farm with the CIA. The animation was does by British firm Halas and Bachelor, and we also discuss their background. This episode also examines the paper trail, looking in Orwell’s FBI file and the MI5 records on actor Michael Redgrave, who starred in 1984 despite being a suspected Communist. We conclude that the CIA had something of an obsession with Orwell at this time, and were subverting his works quite radically in these films.
Joining me for this discussion is Guillermo Jimenez along with regular guest Pearse Redmond. We talked about three recent examples of the crossover of popular culture and politics – the film The Interview, the attack on Charlie Hedbo magazine in Paris, and American Sniper. We talked about how the popular dialogue around these events has diluted and degraded the notion of freedom of speech, and outline a more careful and refined version of the same idea.
Launching in April of this year The CIA and Hollywood is a new series by Pearse Redmond and Tom Secker. The first season will have seven episodes where we will mostly focus on modern films, with guest appearances on five of the shows.
The full list:
Episode 1: The CIA and George Orwell
Pearse and I introduce the series and look at how George Orwell’s two major works – 1984 and Animal Farm – were both adapted into 1950s films by the CIA for propaganda purposes. Using files from MI5, the CIA and the FBI we outline in detail the people involved in the productions and how they fit into a wider picture of what was going on in Hollywood at the time.
In the first guest episode we welcome Guillermo to talk about Robert De Niro’s lengthy connections to the CIA. From Wag the Dog, where he plays a character based on CIA Entertainment Liaison Chase Brandon to the Meet the Parents film franchise which was assisted by Brandon, to his epic rewriting of CIA history in The Good Shepherd, De Niro has for nearly 20 years had some kind of relationship with the Agency.
Episode 3: The CIA and The Recruit – Guest: Aaron Franz
From one screen legend to another, Aaron joins us to discuss The Recruit starring Al Pacino. This film was co-written by Chase Brandon and the character Pacino plays is clearly based on Chase Brandon. This tale of a young man inducted into the secret world of the CIA is a perfect set up for inducting the audience into that same world, though what we find there is simply more layers of manipulation and doublethink.
The film that predicted the entire Edward Snowden story is next on the list, when Adam joins in the discussion. The Gene Hackman character, based on a role he played in the 1970s thriller The Conversation, foreshadows everything about Snowden, including his name and where he grew up, and the film’s depiction of mass surveillance has much the same effect on audiences as Snowden’s ‘revelations’ some 15 years later.
Episode 5: The CIA and The Social Network – Guest: Thomas Sheridan
The only film featured in this series that was not explicitly sponsored by the CIA, but which bears all the hallmarks of CIA involvement. Thomas Sheridan joins us to examine this fictionalised account of the founding of facebook, possibly the world’s greatest ever surveillance tool. We examine Aaron Sorkin’s career and the key information he left out of his screenplay about the early investors in facebook.
Episode 6: The CIA and Charlie Wilson’s War– Guest: Sibel Edmonds
One of Chase Brandon’s final films mythologised one of the most important events in understanding modern history – the Soviet-Afghan War and the CIA’s support of the Mujahideen. Sibel lends us her expert knowledge as we dismantle this piece of CIA unhistory – which is also scripted by Sorkin – and construct a true version in its place.
Episode 7: The CIA and Argo
To round of this season Pearse and I take a look at the Oscar-winning Argo, produced by the unholy trio of Clooney, Heslov and Affleck, all of whom have long-standing ties to the CIA. We examine the film not only as a deliberate mis-telling of real historical events but also as a celebration of the CIA’s very useful relationship with the Hollywood dream factory. We reflect back on what we have learned through doing this first season, and briefly explain what to expect from season two.
“The TOR Project promises its users a modicum of privacy protection from would-be information gatherers, both small time crooks and nation-state cyber-security agencies. But do these promises hold up to scrutiny? And who is behind the TOR Project itself? And why did a TOR developer recently doxx a critic on Twitter? Joining us today to dissect this onion stew is Pearse Redmond of Porkins Policy Review.”
“Once more my good friend Pearse Redmond of Porkins Policy Radio joined me to discuss the latest series of Homeland, the CIA’s pet TV project. We looked at how the show has been rebooted in this season, with a much more aggressive and ambitious purpose both in mythologizing past events and predicting future ones. From 9/11 to the ISIS beheadings to drone strikes to The Lone Gladio, this is typically wide ranging conversation on one of the most important shows currently on TV.”
A prominent German journalist, Udo Ulfkotte, has admitted to acting as tool of CIA in its never ending quest to control public opinion. The former editor of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (one of Germany’s leading daily newspapers) referred to himself as one of many journalists who worked for the agency under “non-official cover.” He knowingly printed stories he knew to be false that came directly from CIA talking points. He revealed this information to Russia Today because he felt that war with Russia is becoming ever more likely, and that he no longer wanted to take part in fomenting this anti-Russian, pro-war hatred. For more on the story please check out this recent Washington’s Blog article.
I recently joined Guillermo Jimenez on De-Manufacturing Consent to discuss ISIS, Mathew VanDyke, Steven Sotloff, and a whole lot more. To listen to the full podcast become a member of Boiling Frogs Post here.
FYI, I myself am a member and can honestly say it is the best $50.00 a year you are likely to spend on real alternative media.
From Boiling Frogs Post:
On this edition of De-Manufacturing Consent: Guillermo is joined by Pearse Redmond, host of Porkins Policy Radio. Pearse breaks down the enigmatic character of Matthew Van Dyke, the former “journalist” turned freedom fighter in Libya, who Pearse refers to as the “CIA’s favorite mercenary.” We discuss his relationship with both James Foley and Steven Sotloff — journalists allegedly kidnapped, murdered, and beheaded by the Islamic State and used in propaganda videos — and the implications of their association with a deceitful, phony journalist, self-professed propagandist, and potential CIA asset.
We also discuss the ongoing fear mongering regarding ISIS, their supposed infiltration of Cuidad Juarez, Mexico, and their plot to sneak across the US border and use Mexican drug cartels to “take out a power grid” in the United States. We detail how such an outlandishly ridiculous story took shape and spread throughout the media, perfectly timed to coincide with the anniversary of 9/11, and how certain sectors of the “alternative media” are feeding into this latest round of fear-based propaganda.
This week I am joined once again by Tom Secker and Jon Ryman for a roundtable discussion about white female terrorists. We take a look at how white female terrorists have been portrayed in Hollywood movies and TV shows, and examine how these cartoonish representations mimic real life white female terrorists. We, of course, take a look at one of our favorite white female terrorists, Samantha Lewthwaite, as well as the less known, but equally important, “Jihad Jane.” We discuss the celebrity status of the white female terrorist in Western society, and how this meme really represents the coming together of several different aspects of the war on terror. We also speak more broadly about the ever-evolving synthetic War on Terror and how all these pieces fit together.
I joined our good friend Tom Secker once again on ClandesTime for a very entertaining and in-depth conversation on the documentary Reel Bad Arabs and the Hollywood blockbuster True Lies.
Pearse Redmond of Porkins Policy Radio joined us again to talk about the the portrayal of Arabs in Hollywood. We talk about the documentary Reel Bad Arabs, which details much of the stereotyping of Arabs in popular movies, and also the film True Lies as an example of these trends. We look at some of the limits in the analysis offered by Reel Bad Arabs, the military involvement in making True Lies, and the careers of the actors who played the two main Arab characters in the film – Art Malik, who seems to specialise in playing terrorists, and Grant Heslov who won an Oscar for producing Argo.
We are finally back! On today’s episode we take a look at the recent release of American POW Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for 5 Taliban prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. Instead of focusing on the various theories as to why he left, and what he was actually doing, we dive into the psy-op that has been carefully constructed for us. We discuss the predictive programing elements, how the alt media has been fooled yet again, as well as what this means in terms of the evolving war on our reality. The Bowe Bergdahl saga represents a new stage of the blurring of reality and fiction and therefore deserves our attention.
This episode was a little rough to record due to the long gap in the podcasting schedule so my apologies if it seems a bit all over the place. Rest assured we will be returning to a normal schedule and much tighter episodes in the near future.
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