“That’s a pretty sobering thought,” said Jules Naudet. Michael Hayden, are more critical of drone strikes, which he claims “feed the jihadi recruitment video” and the perception that “Americans are heartless killers.”ĭespite the dissent among the directors, there is consensus on two subjects: the United States cannot “kill its way out” of the war on terror, and the fight will continue for generations to come. “I think it’s poor for our reputation in the world.” In contrast, Tenet refuses to call the methods torture and says they helped uncover vital evidence - contradicting a report by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. “I just think it’s beneath our dignity,” he says.
Take 91-year-old Stansfield Turner, director of Central Intelligence under President Jimmy Carter, who condemns enhanced interrogation - which he characterizes as torture - in the starkest terms.
The unusual setup raised some eyebrows, with at least one person likening it to something out of Guantanamo, but also yielded surprisingly frank admissions. The filmmakers also draped the room in black, à la “Charlie Rose.” The secret is research.”īorrowing a technique pioneered by Errol Morris, Whipple conducted the interviews via a monitor placed over the camera, a method that allows the subject to look directly into the lens and creates a sense of intimacy. Whipple, who was the primary interlocutor, read numerous memoirs and CIA histories and also tapped into the network of White House sources he’d established through “The Presidents’ Gatekeepers.” Preparation was key when it came to earning the respect of the film’s combative subjects, says Gédéon Naudet. Most of the chiefs sat for two interviews, totaling as many as six or seven hours. I think he came to try to right his place in history.” You can see how difficult it is for him still. “Tenet is a brilliant, fascinating, complicated guy and charismatic character, but he’s also a tortured soul. “Imagine that on your watch as CIA director you have 9/11, an enhanced interrogation program that a lot of people call torture, and you have weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,” said Whipple, a veteran news producer who began his career at “60 Minutes,” explaining Tenet’s reluctance. The most stubborn holdout was George Tenet, director of Central Intelligence from 1997 to 2004, who hadn’t given an interview in eight years. Of course, there are few institutions in American life with more closed doors than the CIA, which makes it impressive that Whipple and the Naudets were able to get all 12 living directors to participate in “The Spymasters.” But the filmmakers found that many were, if anything, eager for a chance to explain - and in some cases, unburden - themselves. “For documentary filmmakers, when you see a closed door, that is the biggest invitation,” explained Jules Naudet. The creative team most recently collaborated on “The Presidents’ Gatekeepers,” a Discovery Channel documentary about White House chiefs of staff, and clearly has a taste for interrogating the powerful and the secretive. With a style and subject matter reminiscent of Errol Morris’ “Fog of War” or Dror Moreh’s “The Gatekeepers,” the project is “really about how far should we or should we not go to protect America,” said Jules Naudet. It also sheds new light on the intelligence failures that led to the Iraq war and government inaction in the months before 9/11. To its credit, the film doesn’t provide easy answers, instead revealing deep, continuing disagreements over such counterterrorism tactics as enhanced interrogation, drone warfare, black sites and the targeted killing of American combatants.
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