TV'S 'UNDER SIEGE': WHITE HOUSE ATTACK?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807430001-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 13, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: February 12, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Si Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807430001-2
(to ARTICLE APM -
ON PAGE I ~ I?j~
MEDIA ANALYSIS / Don Kowet
GG
rider Siege;' a three-
hour NBC movie that
aired last Sunday. was
the latest sign of a
disturbing trend on television.
Pressured by critics to reduce their
political proselytizing in news and
documentary programs, advocacy
journalists have gone underground.
tunneling into our living rooms
through "entertainment:'
ABC's "The Day After" and
PBS's British import "Threads"
slyly advocated compromise at any
cost in the face of nuclear holo-
caust. Now comes America "Under
Siege:' making any official who
wants to retaliate against terrorism
seem like a madman.
Shiite commandos unleash a
reign of terror in the United States.
dynamiting hundreds of soldiers on
a parade ground, blowing up three
commercial airliners and sending a
couple of rockets right through the
dome of the Capitol.
In response, a righteous FBI di-
rector resists political pressure.
primarily from the secretary of
state, to wrongly declare the cul-
prits Iranians, giving the military
the excuse it has been looking for
to bomb the britches off Ayatollah
Khomeini.
The FBI ultimately captures the
terrorist chieftain. The CIA, with
presidential approval, assassinates
him , and incidentally an innocent
FBI official) in order to save
America from the trauma of a long
trial.
The fact that the movie was
based on a series of two-year-old
Washington Post articles, and that
the authors of that series helped
write its script, is not coincidental.
The film, a mix of fact and fantasy,
is a sugar-coated version of The
Washington Post's view of the
world, with the American president
and his cabinet mostly unprinci-
pled knuckleheads and the terror-
ists Islamic Rambos, grinning as
they gladly die for lofty ideals.
Make no mistake. More than a
discussion of "what's going to hap-
pen if terrorism comes to America"
(the program's executive producer
Don Ohlmeyer), the film was a thin-
ly disguised political attack on the
policies and personalities of the
current administration.
Actor E.G. Marshall, as the sec-
retary of state determined to retali-
ate against Iran even after he
WASHINGTON TIMES
12 February 1986
TV's `Under Siege'
White House attack
learned the Iranians were blame.
less, was playing George Shultz.
"I'd like to blame Shultz for most
of the bad dialogue." Christian Wil-
liams told reporters in a Los An-
geles press conference held to hype
the show last month.
Mr Williams was one of three
Washington Post writers - Bob
\\nodward and Richard Harwood
\~ cre the others - who researched
the Post series on terrorism and
participated in writing this
,crecnpla%
If >ou get George Shultz's
;pceches over the last two years
about what to do against terrorists,
added Bob Woodward, you will
find that in the public speeches."
Who is the secretary of defense
(played by Paul Winfield) supposed
to be depicting?
We all know there's no militar
solution to terrorism;' he says,
sounding suspiciously like Caspar
\Vemberger.
The model for the good-guy FBI
director. played by Peter Strauss.
was "to a certain extent the cur
rent FBI director l William Web-
sterl." Mr. Woodward added, -
oddly playing the role of Daniel
Ellsberg.-
Abu Ladeen is the terrorist
leader, his last name is "Nidal'
backwards. In real life. Abu Vidal
allegedly was the brain behind the
Vienna and Rome airport massa-
cres.
So it doesn't take a genius to fig-
ure out that the man who sits out-
side the president's door, barring
entry to the heroic FBI director
and politicking in favor of the CIA
assassination plot, is Donald Regan,
or that the occupant of the Oval Of-
fice, prepared to compromise the
L' S Constitution for a political pur-
pose. is Ronald Reagan.
Mr. Woodward went a long way
toward dispelling any doubts about
which president he was depicting
when he reminded reporters that
he recently had written a story for
the Post "disclosing that Ronald
Reagan had signed off on a pres-
idential finding dispatching the
CIA to train people in Lebanon ...
to conduct pre-emptive strikes on
terrorists. .. "
What kind of man is the pres-
ident in the film?
"You did not have the right to ex-
ecute those men [the terrorist
leader and the FBI agent protect-
ing him]:' the film's FBI director
tells the president after he discov-
ers the plot. "What you did makes
us no different than them."
"We're both part of this admin-
istration;' the president replies.
"You did your job, now let me do
mine."
The terrorists are willing to die
for their principles, while all the
president's men are playing poli-
tics.
The FBI director marches
straight into the office of the editor
of a Washington Newspaper. "You
want a story?" he says, tossing a
file on the editor's (Ben Bradlee s? )
desk. "There it is."
(" .. We have portrayed in the
movie a perhaps self-serving por
trait of the beleaguered newspaper
editor who is trying to get the
story," Mr. Woodward admitted
Why were the president and
some of his colleagues so anxious
to avoid putting the terrorist chief
on public trial?
Putting people on trial, Christian
Williams told reporters, might
mean suffering "through what
would really be a divisive debate
Because," Mr. Williams added. :f
you get right down to it, we are not
without sin."
The implication is one that per-
meated the film: Ultimately, the re
sponsibility for terrorism lies in
our own laps - virtually every ter-
rorist in the film is avenging a
loved one murdered by some re-
gime we once called an ally.
-.4llthey needlsthewill anda
few dollars, and they can really
muck things up," said Mr. Ohl-
meyer.
Unfortunately, Mr. Ohlmeyer was
talking about terrorists, not televi-
sion.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807430001-2