Special Ops Chief Denies Helping Bin Laden Filmmakers

The filming of Act of Valor. Photo: Relativity Media

TAMPA, Florida ' Adm. William McRaven, America's top commando officer, loves movies about his special operators. 'My introduction to Special Operations Forces was the movie The Green Berets,' he tells Danger Room, referring to the classic 1968 John Wayne flick set in Vietnam. But that doesn't mean McRaven is eager to spill the secrets of Special Operations Command to today's filmmakers. And in the case of one controversial upcoming movie about the May 2011 Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden, McRaven says he and his command provided no assistance whatsoever.

'We don't have a partnership' with the filmmakers, McRaven says. 'I have no interaction and no one on my staff has any interaction with ' what's her name? Bigelow?'

McRaven is referring to director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal, who are making the movie Zero Dark Thirty about the bin Laden takedown. They're the same creative team that was behind the 2008 Iraq War flick The Hurt Locker, which benefited from high levels of military support but still ended up disappointing many viewers for its sensationalistic portrayal of Army bomb squads.

According to documents obtained by Judicial Watch, the White House, Defense Department and CIA all offered rare, if not unprecedented, access to Boal and Bigelow. The access included a guided tour of a secret CIA planning facility called The Vault and linking Boal up with what a Defense Department official described as 'a planner, SEAL Team 6 operator and commander.' The only restriction was that Boal not disclose the SEAL's name.

Defense Department Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Douglas Wilson stressed that Bigelow's and Boal's access would be unique. 'We need to be careful here so we don't open the media floodgates on this,' Wilson wrote in an e-mail obtained by Judicial Watch.

The government-Hollywood collusion has at least one lawmaker up in arms ' especially considering that Zero Dark Thirty was originally timed to hit theaters right before the November elections, potentially giving Pres. Barack Obama, who ordered the bin Laden raid, a big PR boost. The movie has since been bumped back to December, but Rep. Peter King (R-NY), Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, still considers the administration's collaboration with the filmmakers 'dangerous' and 'troubling.'

McRaven insists his command will not get involved in anything even remotely partisan. 'We are completely apolitical,' he says.

Col. Tim Nye, Special Operations Command's top media handler, tells Danger Room he did receive an informal inquiry regarding possible cooperation between the filmmakers and the command. Nye says no one ever followed up on the informal inquiry ' and besides, he says, Special Operations Command would not have agreed to help out on the movie unless specifically directed to do so by higher authority. That didn't happen, and the command sat out entirely from any government collaboration with Bigelow et al., Nye says.

Nye explains that it would have been bad form for McRaven to be involved in the film, as McRaven oversaw the forces involved in the bin Laden raid. 'He'd be approving a movie about himself,' Nye says.

The White House and CIA apparently had no such qualms. And according to McRaven and Nye, whatever access Bigelow and Boal had to special operators occurred outside of Special Operations Command ' and without the command's knowledge.

Which is not to say Special Operations Command would never help out with a Hollywood production. Navy SEALs under McRaven's command actually starred in the recent Act of Valor movie. Beyond that, Nye says the command is advising filmmakers on no fewer than 11 current productions that don't represent the conflict of interest that Zero Dark Thirty does. Nye even lists movies he says are good examples of joint military-Hollywood productions. At the top of the list: 2001's Blackhawk Down ' and all three Transformers flicks.