'Zero Dark Thirty': Docs made public

Photo: Jonathan Olley.

It turns out the CIA and Pentagon officials were just big fans of The Hurt Locker.

New documents pertaining to government and military cooperation on the Osama bin Laden takedown film Zero Dark Thirty (out Dec. 19) were posted Tuesday evening by the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, but they fail to confirm the organization’s theory that director Kathryn Bigelow and producer-screenwriter Mark Boal were given special access for the sake of political gains.

In fact, media relations officials discussed the need to be fair to others who were seeking similar information about the May 2, 2011 raid — and they told each other one reason to speak to Boal and Bigelow was for the sake of learning more about the project themselves.

Nowhere in the documents does any representative of the CIA or Department of Defense ever express interest in the project for propaganda purposes. Rather, they talk about the respect they have for Bigelow and Boal’s Oscar-winning Iraq War drama The Hurt Locker, as well as their work for charities aiding military families.

In their requests for access, Boal and Bigelow also revealed the secret working title of the film — For God and Country.

All of the documents are available here, along with Judicial Watch’s continued insistence that “the Obama administration granted Boal and Bigelow unusual access to agency information in preparation for their film.”

In a June 7, 2011, exchange with Defense Department spokesman George E. Little, CIA spokesperson Marie Harf indicated that the agency had received requests from Imagine Entertainment and director Ron Howard for help on a possible bin Laden project, but indicated the Boal/Bigelow film was more worthy of the access due to their pedigree and the likelihood it would actually happen:

I know we don’t “pick favorites’ but it makes sense to get behind the winning horse … I am sure Imagine is talking about working with Howard, but Mark and Kathryn’s movie is going to be the first and the biggest. It’s got the most money behind it, and two Oscar winners on board. It’s just not a close call. We can certainly talk to Howard, but I don’t think they should all get this kind of CTC [Counterterrorism Center] treatment, that’s all.

Little responds by advocating for broader access in general, if only for the sake of making contacts with Howard’s talent agency CAA:

No one’s talking about the full-on CTC treatment. Just SOME CIA treatment at this stage. I don’t think anyone disagrees that we should place most of our betting money on the Boal project at this point. We have to do our due diligence with others, and it doesn’t hurt to establish stronger relationships with CAA and others even if their projects don’t move forward.

On June 15, 2011, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Douglas Wilson sent this email to Benjamin Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications, saying how well-regarded The Hurt Locker was and identifying one of the military charities Bigelow has helped, CIA director Leon Panetta was, apparently, eager to assist the film:

Both Boal and Bigelow are well-known to both Geoff [Morrell, Department of Defense spokesman] and me. Both Geoff and I highly respect both of them. (FYI, Bigelow is actively assisting in Hollywood on “Joining Forces” and other military family issues.) SD Gates shares that admiration for their previous film efforts. Boal has been working with us and with CIA (via George Little [Department of Defense spokesman]) for initial context briefings — at DoD this [has] been provided by Mike Vickers and at CIA by relevant officials with the full knowledge and full approval/support of Director Panetta.

Wilson also indicates a desire to learn more about the limits on information that could be shared with the filmmakers, as well as others looking to dramatize the raid.

Our overall engagement with Boal and Bigelow to date has been pretty general. But as this progresses, mike Vickers and I (and I’m sure Goerge as well) would welcome guidance regarding parameters, in particular those for Boal and Bigelow.

Deputy White House Press Secretary Jamie Smith responded in an email that indicated the military and intelligence communities were assisting the film well before the White House got involved.

I’m not sure I understood that this was as far along so would definitely be great to link up and chat soonest and get a sense of what DoD and CIA have communicated thus far. Would also love to know any other folks you have heard from since last we spoke, or plan to meet with — books, docus, additional movies, etc.

This would seemingly undermine the claim by Judicial Watch and Congressman Steve King (R-NY) that President Obama was helping the filmmakers to remind voters of his role in authorizing the raid on bin Laden’s compound. (In his first interview about the film, Boal told EW that Obama was not even depicted in the movie, which focuses instead on the behind-the-scenes teams who hunted down the terrorist.)

On June 15 2011, the DoD’s Little wrote to DoD’s Wilson:

The Boal/Bigelow movie is the most mature and high-profile of the projects I’ve heard about. We’ve also been contacted by a former NYT reporter, Howard Blum, who’s trying to put something together but doesn’t seem to have a studio lined up yet. I’m not sure if he’ll get traction or not.

That same day, Mark Boal wrote to DoD’s Wilson and Philip Strub, entertainment media liaison for the Department of Defense, to coordinate a meeting, indicating  he had already done a lot of research and would like to consult with the department:

I’ve been talking to various folks in the intel and military community in order to research the film, and wanted to reach out to you as well to give you a sense of our plans for the film going forward.

Rhodes wrote to Wilson, Little, and Smith that one reason to meet with the filmmakers would be to learn more about what Boal was working on.

We are trying to have visibility into the UBL [Usama bin Laden] projects, and this is likely the most high profile one. Would like to have whoever the group is that’s going around in here at the WH [White House] to get a sense of what they’re doing/ what cooperation they are seeking. Jamie will be POC.

On July 14, 2011, Boal’s assistant, Jonathan Leven, emailed the CIA’s Harf to ask if open-source floor plans they’d acquired for what was said to be bin Laden’s compound were indeed accurate. Harf replied:

That floor plan matches up with what we have.

Boal wrote to Harf, asking for more details, such as wall height:

We will be building a full scale replica of the house. Including the inhabitants of the animal pen!

Harf joked:

That animal pen is kinda gross, but I totally applaud your effort.

Judicial Watch included the schematics in their document dump.

There were a handful of revelations in the collection of emails. One of them was that Boal apparently met with a translator who accompanied the SEAL Team Six on the raid. (And once again, there was some Hurt Locker fandom going on.)

Per CIA spokesperson Harf:

The mtgs on Friday went really, really well. Mr. Morell [Michael Morell, deputy director of the CIA] gave them 40 minutes, talked some of the substance again, told them we’re here to help with whatever they need, and gushed to Kathryn about how much he loved The Hurt Locker.

…

Tomorrow, they’ll be meeting with [redacted] Little that Boal and Bigelow would be “meeting individually with both [name redacted] and the translator who was on the raid.

The most shocking disclosure of secret information revealed in the documents was an email in which New York Times national security writer Mark Mazzetti leaked the contents of columnist Maureen Dowd’s column about the bin Laden film to the CIA’s Harf, what can only be described as a shocking betrayal to a fellow journalist:

In an Aug. 5, 2011, email, he wrote:

This didn’t come from me … and please delete after you read. See, nothing to worry about.

Mazzetti also wrote to Harf that the column would say:

Boal got high level access at Pentagon.

Harf responded:

He also got good access at the WH [White House] btw …

When Boal was asked in his EW interview about Zero Dark Thirty if he had an interview with President Obama, he laughed — somewhat irritated — and said “Next.”

After the disclosure of these documents, it’s likely to be a question he is asked again.

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Read More:
Kathryn Bigelow’s Osama bin Laden pic sparks pentagon inquiry
Defense Secretary Panetta: Filmmakers provided no unauthorized info for bin Laden movie
Jessica Chastain to co-star in Osama bin Laden takedown film

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Thirty companies paid no U.S. income tax 2008-2010: report (Reuters)

(Reuters) – Thirty large and profitable U.S. corporations paid no income taxes in 2008 through 2010, said a study on Thursday that arrives as Congress faces rising demands for tax reform but seems unable or unwilling to act.

Pepco Holdings Inc (POM.N), a Washington, D.C.-area power company, had the lowest effective tax rate, at negative 57.6 percent, among the 280 Fortune 500 companies studied.

The statutory U.S. corporate income tax rate is 35 percent, one of the highest in the world; but over the 2008-2010 period, very few of the companies studied paid it, said the report.

The average effective tax rate for the companies over the period was 18.5 percent, said Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, both think tanks.

Their report also listed General Electric Co (GE.N), Paccar Inc (PCAR.O), PG&E Corp (PCG.N), Computer Sciences Corp (CSC.N), Boeing Co (BA.N) and NiSource Inc (NI.N) as among the 30 that paid no taxes.

Corporations will say rightly that the loopholes that let them slash their taxes were perfectly legal, the report said.

"But that does not mean that low-tax corporations bear no responsibility ... The laws were not enacted in a vacuum; they were adopted in response to relentless corporate lobbying, threats and campaign support," the report said.

Some of the 30 companies disputed the report's findings.

A Pepco spokesman said it "pays all its required taxes."

Boeing paid its taxes "between 2008-2010 ... Our effective income tax rate was 26.5 percent, 22.9 percent, 33.6 percent in 2010, 2009, 2008," said a spokesman for the aerospace group.

PRESSING FOR MORE

As Congress and the Obama administration struggle with a sluggish economy and high deficits, corporations are pressing Capitol Hill for more tax breaks and a lower corporate rate.

Taxes are on the agenda of the congressional "super committee" tasked with finding at least $1.2 trillion in additional budget savings by November 23, but it is so far deadlocked across a familiar divide -- Republicans refusing any tax increases, Democrats defending social programs.

On Tuesday, a panel of budget experts warned super committee members they would fail the country if they did not meet their goal. Financial markets have been waiting for many months for signs that Washington can get its financial house in order, but few have been forthcoming.

The report referred back to the 1986 tax reform pushed through by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, who approved the largest corporate tax increase in U.S. history, largely by ending tax breaks, while cutting individual tax rates.

"Reagan solved the problem by sweeping away corporate tax loopholes," said the report, which was coauthored by Citizens for Tax Justice chief Robert McIntyre. His research 25 years ago played a key role in convincing Reagan reform was needed.

The industrial machinery business enjoyed the lowest effective tax rate during the study period, while the highest rate was paid by healthcare companies, the report said.

"Big Business is getting away with taxation murder," said Frank Knapp, vice chairman of the American Sustainable Business Council, a progressive business coalition.

"They pay little or no taxes on massive U.S. profits and then have the gall to lobby for ... a tax holiday to 'repatriate' profits they have stashed offshore."

MANY TAX BREAKS

What are some of the tax breaks that corporations enjoy? One big one is accelerated depreciation that lets them write off equipment faster than it actually wears out. Deductions on executive stock options help. So do tax breaks for research and development and for making products in the United States instead of overseas. Offshore tax shelters play a role, too.

Power group Duke Energy Corp (DUK.N) was one of the 30 companies listed as paying no income taxes in 2008-2010.

Chief Executive James Rogers told Reuters that Duke cut its taxes thanks to accelerated depreciation, which he said helped the company build new plants and hire construction workers.

Rogers is a frequent spokesman for a coalition of large multinationals seeking a tax break that would let them bring foreign profits into the United States at a reduced tax rate.

Others among the 30 companies included power producer American Electric Power Co Inc (AEP.N) (AEP), chemicals company DuPont (DD.N) and toymaker Mattel Inc (MAT.O).

Like Duke, AEP said it benefited from accelerated depreciation. A Mattel spokesperson said the report's claims were inconsistent with the company's public financial filings.

"DuPont complies with all tax laws and regulations in every jurisdiction in which it operates," said a DuPont spokeswoman.

The average effective corporate tax rate, as calculated by McIntyre's group, was about 14 percent before the Reagan reforms; afterward it shot up to 26.5 percent in 1988.

As companies found their way around the reforms, the effective rate fell back to about 17 percent by 2002-2003.

Unlike in Reagan's time, taming corporate tax breaks alone will not solve the deficit problem. Such breaks cost the government about $102 billion in lost revenues in 2011, a year when the federal deficit was an estimated $1.3 trillion.

Corporate loopholes are dwarfed by tax breaks that benefit individuals, such as the mortgage interest tax deduction -- a middle class sacred cow, on its own worth $104 billion.

Still, said the report: "If we are going to get our nation's fiscal house in order, increasing corporate income taxes should play an important role."

(Additional reporting by Matt Daily, Ernest Scheyder, Dhanya Skariachan in New York; Kyle Peterson in Chicago, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

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Thirty companies paid no U.S. income tax 2008-2010: report (Reuters)

(Reuters) – Thirty large and profitable U.S. corporations paid no income taxes in 2008 through 2010, said a study on Thursday that arrives as Congress faces rising demands for tax reform but seems unable or unwilling to act.

Pepco Holdings Inc (POM.N), a Washington, D.C.-area power company, had the lowest effective tax rate, at negative 57.6 percent, among the 280 Fortune 500 companies studied.

The statutory U.S. corporate income tax rate is 35 percent, one of the highest in the world; but over the 2008-2010 period, very few of the companies studied paid it, said the report.

The average effective tax rate for the companies over the period was 18.5 percent, said Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, both think tanks.

Their report also listed General Electric Co (GE.N), Paccar Inc (PCAR.O), PG&E Corp (PCG.N), Computer Sciences Corp (CSC.N), Boeing Co (BA.N) and NiSource Inc (NI.N) as among the 30 that paid no taxes.

Corporations will say rightly that the loopholes that let them slash their taxes were perfectly legal, the report said.

"But that does not mean that low-tax corporations bear no responsibility ... The laws were not enacted in a vacuum; they were adopted in response to relentless corporate lobbying, threats and campaign support," the report said.

Some of the 30 companies disputed the report's findings.

A Pepco spokesman said it "pays all its required taxes."

Boeing paid its taxes "between 2008-2010 ... Our effective income tax rate was 26.5 percent, 22.9 percent, 33.6 percent in 2010, 2009, 2008," said a spokesman for the aerospace group.

PRESSING FOR MORE

As Congress and the Obama administration struggle with a sluggish economy and high deficits, corporations are pressing Capitol Hill for more tax breaks and a lower corporate rate.

Taxes are on the agenda of the congressional "super committee" tasked with finding at least $1.2 trillion in additional budget savings by November 23, but it is so far deadlocked across a familiar divide -- Republicans refusing any tax increases, Democrats defending social programs.

On Tuesday, a panel of budget experts warned super committee members they would fail the country if they did not meet their goal. Financial markets have been waiting for many months for signs that Washington can get its financial house in order, but few have been forthcoming.

The report referred back to the 1986 tax reform pushed through by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, who approved the largest corporate tax increase in U.S. history, largely by ending tax breaks, while cutting individual tax rates.

"Reagan solved the problem by sweeping away corporate tax loopholes," said the report, which was coauthored by Citizens for Tax Justice chief Robert McIntyre. His research 25 years ago played a key role in convincing Reagan reform was needed.

The industrial machinery business enjoyed the lowest effective tax rate during the study period, while the highest rate was paid by healthcare companies, the report said.

"Big Business is getting away with taxation murder," said Frank Knapp, vice chairman of the American Sustainable Business Council, a progressive business coalition.

"They pay little or no taxes on massive U.S. profits and then have the gall to lobby for ... a tax holiday to 'repatriate' profits they have stashed offshore."

MANY TAX BREAKS

What are some of the tax breaks that corporations enjoy? One big one is accelerated depreciation that lets them write off equipment faster than it actually wears out. Deductions on executive stock options help. So do tax breaks for research and development and for making products in the United States instead of overseas. Offshore tax shelters play a role, too.

Power group Duke Energy Corp (DUK.N) was one of the 30 companies listed as paying no income taxes in 2008-2010.

Chief Executive James Rogers told Reuters that Duke cut its taxes thanks to accelerated depreciation, which he said helped the company build new plants and hire construction workers.

Rogers is a frequent spokesman for a coalition of large multinationals seeking a tax break that would let them bring foreign profits into the United States at a reduced tax rate.

Others among the 30 companies included power producer American Electric Power Co Inc (AEP.N) (AEP), chemicals company DuPont (DD.N) and toymaker Mattel Inc (MAT.O).

Like Duke, AEP said it benefited from accelerated depreciation. A Mattel spokesperson said the report's claims were inconsistent with the company's public financial filings.

"DuPont complies with all tax laws and regulations in every jurisdiction in which it operates," said a DuPont spokeswoman.

The average effective corporate tax rate, as calculated by McIntyre's group, was about 14 percent before the Reagan reforms; afterward it shot up to 26.5 percent in 1988.

As companies found their way around the reforms, the effective rate fell back to about 17 percent by 2002-2003.

Unlike in Reagan's time, taming corporate tax breaks alone will not solve the deficit problem. Such breaks cost the government about $102 billion in lost revenues in 2011, a year when the federal deficit was an estimated $1.3 trillion.

Corporate loopholes are dwarfed by tax breaks that benefit individuals, such as the mortgage interest tax deduction -- a middle class sacred cow, on its own worth $104 billion.

Still, said the report: "If we are going to get our nation's fiscal house in order, increasing corporate income taxes should play an important role."

(Additional reporting by Matt Daily, Ernest Scheyder, Dhanya Skariachan in New York; Kyle Peterson in Chicago, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

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