Did White House Leak Osama Secrets to Hollywood?

A Republican congressman is demanding an investigation following reports that the White House leaked top secret information about the Osama bin Laden kill operation to Hollywood filmmakers. Details were handed over to Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow to make a positive film to boost the president's image before the next election, wrote New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. "The moviemakers are getting top-level access to the most classified mission in history" because the White House "is counting on the big-screen version of the killing of bin Laden to counter Obama’s growing reputation as ineffectual," she wrote. The White House has called the report "ridiculous."

New York Republican Rep. Peter King, who heads the Homeland Security Committee, challenged the "advisability of of providing Hollywood executives with access to covert military operators and clandestine CIA officers." King also wondered in his letter to the inspectors general of the CIA and the Defense Department which precautions would be taken so that no operational secrets are revealed in any film. White House spokesman Jay Carney said that the press office has made an effort to ensure that articles and Hollywood productions about the president are accurate, but added: "We do not discuss classified information." (More President Obama stories.)