Posted on 08/18/2012 9:30:10 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Former military and CIA officers employ images of Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Kathryn Bigelow in new effort to derail Obama reelection.
A group of former military and C.I.A. officers kicked off a campaign to malign President Barack Obama over alleged security leaks by appearing on seven TV shows on Thursday. The backbone of their effort, though, is a 22-minute video that has been viewed about 400,000 times since it posted Wednesday on YouTube.
While the administration and liberal organizations quickly denounced the group, known as OPSEC, as a clone of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that helped derail the 2004 presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry, the OPSEC team differs in at least one way: it is using Hollywood figures in the campaign against the Democratic president.
A component of OPSECs effort is the accusation from some Republican lawmakers that director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal were afforded access to classified details about the killing of Osama bin Laden, which is the subject of Zero Dark Thirty, a feature film Sony will release in December.
In the video, titled Dishonorable Disclosures, OPSEC member Fred Rustamann, a 24-year veteran of the C.I.A., complains of Obama taking credit for killing bin Laden, then he says:
Days after the raid, Hollywood was invited into the White House so that they could receive a briefing on exactly how the raid took place, what kind of sources we had, what kind of methods we use.
As he speaks, Barbra Streisand is shown presenting to Bigelow the Oscar she won for directing The Hurt Locker. More suggestively, Obama is seen speaking to a room full of Hollywood notables just as Rustamann delivers his line about a presidential briefing.
The image, though, is an official White House photo taken in March 2010, of Obama speaking in the Family Theater of the White House before a screening of the HBO miniseries The Pacific. Sitting in the front row are Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, two of the miniseries' executive producers.
The entire video is embedded below. The portion about Hollywood begins at the 11:50 mark.
While using stock footage and B-roll video is a hallmark of documentary filmmaking, Spielberg and Hanks likely won't appreciate that their likenesses are being used as a battering ram against Obama, given their support for the president. Spielberg, for example, has donated $35,800 to the Obama Victory Fund 2012 while Hanks stars in a 17-minute video promoting the re-election of Obama.
OPSEC, military shorthand for operational security, is also shorthand for the full name of the group, which is Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund. The nonprofit group bills itself as nonpartisan, though some members have been involved with conservative Tea Party groups and OPSEC member Scott Taylor, a former Navy SEAL, ran unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate for Congress in 2010.
Dishonorable Disclosures begins with several well-known journalists and opinion-makers reporting on security leaks. Chris Matthews asks on MSNBC, for example, Drip, drip, drip. Whats with all this leaking during the first year of the Obama administration?
Beyond the video, the groups website lays out several specific complaints of classified information they say came from the White House that, if known by terrorists, would get American military personnel injured or killed.
A sort of slideshow on the site lists 10 alleged damages as the result of leaks. Damage #4 reads: Obama administration gave Hollywood special access to DOD and C.I.A. details of the operation.
The slide also contains a couple of lines from a Maureen Dowd column in the New York Times, one reading, The moviemakers are getting top-level access to the most classified mission in history, and the other reading, It was clear that the White House had outsourced the job of manning up the presidents image to Hollywood when Boal got welcomed to the upper echelons of the White House and the Pentagon and showed up recently to the surprise of some military officers at a C.I.A. ceremony celebrating the hero SEALs.
(VIDEO AT LINK)
Donated to OPSEC. A group of true heroes. I hope when Obongos is sent back to Nairobi after the election, they spend whatever is left of their donations on a good vacation. Also, Eric Boehlert (guy who called Seals gutless) is still getting hammered via twitter. ‘Gotta love it!
Thank you so much. I watched the entire video and then fwd. the link to people in my e-mail address book. So far, over 1,700,000 viewings of this on YouTube.
How is it possible to malign someone who is ignorant, incompetent, inept, and simultaneously condescending and arrogant?
These guys are Pissed. One of them was almost shaking with anger.
Post this video to FB. The more that see this the better.
Obama and Biden...two of the greatest threats to American Security.
Excellent video. Thanks for sharing the link. We need to add about 300 million views to the viewing tracker count!
I saw that first comment and decided to keep track. Keep it going!
Brilliant...
And ‘bout time!
Will be right behind you in the donation line...
It worked with the Swifties effort, too.
Later
Bump!
Even ESPN is doing their part in getting the scum reelected. You see him every day on ESPN. Either talking basketball or he is in a campaign add. You do not see any others doing campaign adds on ESPN. Just liberal Obama.
Now 2,010,905 views. Yes!
Dishonorable Disclosures (22:00 Youtube video)
Special Operations (OPSEC) (website to get involved)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.