Al Pacino Couldn’t Protect CIA Headquarters

There’s a funny passage from the DOD Inspector General on Leon Panetta’s blabbing about the Osama bin Laden raid that was leaked to POGO.

It describes CIA’s apparent helplessness from protecting CIA Headquarters from being breached by outsiders, even while many of our nation’s most elite warriors were present.

In a description of how a Hollywood Executive (possibly Kathryn Bigelow) managed to attend a celebration of the successful Osama bin Laden raid, the report explains,

On June 24, 2011, the CIA held an awards ceremony in a tent located on the grounds of the CIA headquarters. Two to four days prior to this awards ceremony, a CIA [Public Affairs Officer] contacted a DoD PAO to notify the DoD PAO that one of the Hollywood executives may attend the event. According to the DoD PAO, the CIA PAO attempted to prevent this from happening. The DoD PAO did not inform his Chain of Command or the special operators who were going to attend this ceremony about the possibility that a Hollywood executive might also attend. The DoD PAO said he did not forward this information because he hoped the CIA PaO would be able to ensure the Hollywood executive would be refused access. The DoD PAO’s current Deputy Commanding General told us he knew of those DoD PAO actions and did not fault the DoD PAO for not getting the information to the command group.

According to the DoD PAO, the day of the event, the CIA PAO contacted the DoD PAO to state that efforts failed and the “Chief of Staff” directed that the Hollywood executive be given access to the event.

It seems that Leon Panetta’s Chief of Staff, Jeremy Bash, and CIA’s Public Affairs Officer disputed who let the crafty Hollywood executive breach the nation’s premier spy agency. But breach Langley he or she did.

Mind you, all this went down a month before Pentagon Press Secretary George Little revealed that Panetta wanted Al Pacino to play him in Zero Dark 30.

Mr. Little: “I hope they get Pacino to play [Secretary Panetta]. That’s what he wants, no joke!”

Nevertheless, the lesson from this sordid tale appears to be that if terrorists want to breach CIA Headquarters, all they have to do is dangle the name of a famous actor who might play the part of the CIA Director, and they’ll walk into the middle of a highly classified party, even as Osama bin Laden’s killers prowl the site.

This must be what Obama means when he claims to run the most Transparent Administration Ever™.

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5 replies
  1. prostratedragon says:

    Huh, pity that solid character actor Perry Lopez (Lou Escobar from Chinatown) is no longer around.

  2. Garrett says:

    Inspector General reports with bureaucratic blame-pushing about who let the secret Hollywood Executive come to the CIA party.

    We are a truly wild and messed-up country.

    And it probably wasn’t even a very good party.

  3. Bitter Angry Drunk says:

    Maybe the Hollywood executive in question is Seth MacFarlane. American Dad’s depictions of the inner-workings of the CIA seem pretty plausible to me…

  4. peasantparty says:

    I’m positive that some of the older retired CIA members are laughing their asses off, in between the head shaking.

    I’ve got my own thoughts on that Bin Laden picture release, but to keep down the howls of crazy I’ll keep it to myself. ;-)

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