Seaford Congressman Blasts Obama Administration Collaboration with Film Director

Rep. Peter King, R-Seaford, has once again blasted the Obama administration for giving a Hollywood production making a film about the death of Osama bin-Laden high-level access to military and CIA assets.

King called it a "dangerous collaboration" after the conservative group Judicial Watch obtained hundreds of documents and emails related to the CIA and Defense Department's contact with the production from a Freedom of Information Act request.

“Filmmakers Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal may have set out to tell a blockbuster, election-year story about one of the most highly classified operations in American history," King said in a statement. "But through these emails they’ve ended up telling a damning story of extremely close, unprecedented, and potentially dangerous collaboration with top officials at the CIA, DoD, and the White House and a top Democratic lobbying firm.” 

Among the issues posted on the Judicial Watch website were:

• That Bigelow, the Academy Award winning director of "The Hurt Locker,"  and screenwriter Boal met directly with White House Officials
• The filmmakers were given the identity of a “planner, SEAL Team 6 Operator and Commander.”  whose name was blacked out on the document
• Indications they were granted access to "The Vault,"  a secret CIA facility where some of the tactical planning for the raid took place.
• An email indicating that visits by the filmmakers to the CIA and Defense Department were set up by The Glover Park Group, which has been described as a Democratic Leaning Advocacy Firm.

White House Press Secretary George Little told reporters Wednesday that "it's my understanding that while a planner was suggested as a possible point of contact for information on the bin Laden raid, the meeting between that planner and the producers of the film never occurred," according to the Huffington Post.

Little added, "There were others in the entertainment industry who were -- who were interested in the bin Laden operation, and U.S. officials met with them too," he continued. "This was not some kind of exclusive opportunity for one set of producers. This is something that we do on a regular basis all the time."

King has been been critical of the production in the past, pushing for a Pentagon investigation of the production's contact with government officials.

The movie was originally scheduled to come out before the November Presidential election, but has been rescheduled for a December release.