I typically do not like to do top ten lists. I enjoy reading them though because I often learn about new books, movies, or music. However, to create one, this means that I have to rank things in order (who can pick why someone really is the best?). So instead I will just bring to your attention some of my favorite soundtracks.
After 2011 and 2012, this last year was a bleak one for soundtracks. While there may have been quite a few great movies out, the music to match was uneventful. However, the year was not without a few stellar additions to my collection
Again, I won't rank them in order as that would create preferential system.
Stellar Music Scores that you must go buy NOW
Oblivion - M83/Anthony Gonzalez (and You and The Night) - This really gets the award for sexiest music score of the year. When paired with the movie's incredible visuals and complex love story, the music really carried Oblivion along. Listen to StarWaves on a date night with your lover and I think you will understand the idea of passion encapsulated by music. M83 follows up late in the year with You and The Night. I haven't seen the movie but was instantly in love with the soundtrack and purchased Un noveau soleil (A New Sun) which has seen frequent play on my playlists. Not quite as sexy as Oblivion, it resonates with a more dark, sad tone.
Thor The Dark World - Brian Tyler - I don't normally buy Marvel movie soundtracks as whole albums. Sometimes I will pick up a single or a track played during a battle sequence. I find that Marvel has done little of interest with music and much of it seems to be controlled by the repetitive Marvel battle theme (which sounds a bit too patriotic for melodic listening). But in assigning Brian Tyler to this soundtrack, they left their future in good hands. He was nearly able to escape the control of Marvel in Iron Man 3 and fully able to with The Dark World. Every track is operatic and tone setting. The movie producers use the music perfectly inside the movie and nothing seems chopped up or underused. Looking for inspiration for writing your next novel? This is the soundtrack for you! It's amazing.
Man of Steel - Hans Zimmer - this man never fails to amaze me with his range. Yes, just when you think, oh he's just doing another Superhero movie, he hits you with Man of Steel which is vastly different than his compositions for Batman and then different again from his Pirates saga. Mr. Zimmer brings the tone of Superman's triumph of will into his music. If you want some powerful motivational pieces, this soundtrack will tug at your heartstrings and even bring you to tears. I use it while running to remind myself that I can succeed. My only complaint about this soundtrack was that it was extremely underused in the movie. I realize that we don't want the soundtrack to overshadow the movie itself but the story is so much in the music when I finally did see the movie (long after it was released on DVD and after I had listened to the soundtrack since it's release) I couldn't believe that it was chopped up and underwhelmed by the producers (shameful).
The Hunger Games music saga. I waited the whole year for this and this is what I received (and it wasn't Christmas).
Catching Fire Various artists - I was leery of this soundtrack. I avoid the concept of "various artists" with a passion. I find that it is often a Hollywood gimmick to get their latest and most favorite pop stars on an album and get the teenagers to buy. While this certainly might be the case with Catching Fire, the music is very good. It hasn't yet reached my heavy rotation stage yet but I have a feeling that certain songs will especially the remake of the Tears for Fears song by Lorde that is one of my all time favorite songs and her remake is phenomenal.
Catching Fire music score - James Newton Howard - Major disappointment here. While I like the music score to this movie, I understand there were issues with the new music director and Mr. Howard (perhaps those are just rumors). As in most second movies, they have taken the first movie's original themes and recycled them for later use. There are a few stand alone tracks like Katniss but I had expected more. This was a big disappointment. My hope is that they bring on some new music talent (like they did with Alexandre Desplat in the Harry Potter movie franchise) and add some exceptional music scores to finish out the series.
The surprise in all of the Hunger Games, Catching Fire music saga was the release of the beautiful and moving music used in the trailers. It is very rare to be able to get your hands on the music used in the trailers even though there's some fantastic songs. Just before the movie was release, press releases revealed that the group T.T.L composed the music in the trailer, called Beyond the Fire. It is now in my frequent rotation both the short trailer version and the extended version. I wish that more movies would capitalize on this trend. I've heard some awesome pieces of original music in trailers.
The H.G. music project - this independently produced soundtrack isn't perfect but who cares! It's actually an incredibly produced piece of work by the duo of Edward Underhill and Matt Dukaty. If you haven't heard of it or them, please go check them out. Their alternative soundtracks to Hunger Games and, late in 2012, Catching Fire are very beautiful tributes to the books. I count them in my 2013 listing because their soundtrack to Catching Fire was new to me in 2013. I am eagerly awaiting their Mockingjay soundtrack which their website says is due in 2013.
Outstanding New-to-Me artist
Dickon Hinchcliffe for Shadow Dancer (actually done in 2012) and Out of the Furnace
Here are two soundtracks that are evocative of the quieter emotional parts of life. Maybe you aren't always looking for action or wanting to feel like you are in an opera. Perhaps you just need to reflect or snuggle quietly with a loved one. I have a feeling you need Mr. Hinchcliffe to design the music to your life (or at least I might).
Pieces of Greatness
I can't buy whole soundtracks all the time (I would spend a fortune). Sometimes I buy the best tracks and go back and get the rest later (if that's possible - a soundtrack is often meant to go together from track to track). These are a few pieces that have found it into my heavy rotation.
Captain Phillips - Henry Jackman - I bought three tracks of this soundtrack, Second Attack, Safe Now, and Maersk Alabama. They are full of movement and action but original sounding. I have them in my heavy rotation and feel that they are often so separate from the movie that I don't think of them as part of it.
World War Z - Marco Beltrami - The Lane Family is such a beautiful piece of music. You get the sense of this delightful and loving family in their daily lives before chaos rules. I also purchased Wales and The Salvation Gates. There is very little 'actiony' about these themes. They are also not very 'horror' movie. I often consider buying the rest of the tracks but when I go back, I feel as though I culled the best from this soundtrack.
Soundtracks from Television and Games
Disappointing this year was the lack of music from the television arena. Previous years had brought out incredible soundtracks from Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead. Looking back over my yearly purchases, I realized that I only bought a few tracks from the Game Thrones soundtrack and not even from season 3. I also bought the Longmire soundtrack - the theme and a few more songs used in episodes. I had thought that television might be on the cusp of a few amazing changes for soundtrack junkies like myself but they seem to have stalled.
I didn't buy any game music this year at all which seems odd since there were quite a few game music releases. But none of them really captured my interest. Being a big fan of some of the Halo music remixes, I have been hopeful that they would follow that trend and bring out some music remixes to Assassins Creed. I checked out the music to Assassin's Creed Black Flag but just felt that it was too piratey even though it had been done by Brian Tyler (who says Piratey anyway). Perhaps a remix by club artists might add a fresh outlook on it.
Friday, December 27, 2013
Political Participation in the World of Panem
If you read my last article on the political universe of Panem, you would have read about the spectrum of beliefs held by people both in the real world and in Panem. How they obtain those beliefs is called political socialization. With their beliefs, then citizens act (or don't) inside the political system. This is called participation and can come about in several ways.
Who is Katniss?
Katniss, during the three books, moves from being part of the masses. In the first book, she's just trying to survive. In the second, she's part of the attentives, taking in every abuse in the districts as she travels through on her tour. She begins to question the presence of the Peacemakers and the riots that happen just when they arrive. In the last book, through her propos and then her involvement on the ground during the rebellion, she becomes an elite but the cost is great to her. At the end, she actually does not retreat, determined to use her knowledge to prevent another costly war in her society through the scrapbooks, which might retire her to an entirely new level, Historian.
The Masses – Most people in the Hunger Games universe participate at the level of the masses. They come out into the political landscape when they have to. Perhaps if there is an election of some sort, they might vote. But for the most part, the masses are uneducated and uninterested. This does not mean that they are stupid or don’t pay attention to some things. A person who belongs to this group most likely has a steady job, is educated in their field of employment, reads, and produces like any good citizen should. They just do it because that’s what their life is, not because they have any greater interest in political matters. Citizens of the Hunger Games universe are productive as much as they can be. They go to school as children and then to work in a job to provide for their families. The goods that they produce go to the Capitol. For the most part, if they are safe, these citizens won’t participate. They may not always be happy with the government’s decisions but they don’t see that they have the power or understanding about government to really make a change. And to be frank, they don’t care. However, don’t underestimate this group. When an issue or person hits upon something that they see as a crucial wrong, they will become active.
Let’s take for example, Katniss’ mother. She endured the death of her spouse, deep depression, poverty, and suffering. She has a great amount of knowledge and power as a healer. But she doesn’t want to talk about the politics of the Capitol because it’s dangerous. She is too caught up in the everyday struggles of living to think about the wrongs being done outside of her own family. She is by far “uneducated” but when the Founders used that term they may have meant more like “unthinking”. She is consumed by her own life and does not have time to pursue the complicated world of politics and dissect each and every decision by the President.
As a different type of member of the masses, Gale is just the sort of person who is dangerous. He has enough information and opinions about what he considers right and wrong to understand the political establishment. But he may not be fully educated enough to question the motives of the politicians who surround him. He goes along with President Coin when she recruits him for her army. He goes along with Plutarch when he needs Gale to pressure Katniss into doing propos. These politicians are seemingly upstanding and go along with his own sense of what is wrong in his political unvierse. But they use his motivations to right the system against him, creating an unquestioning and violent soldier for the new government of Panem.
The Attentives – There are attentives in the Hunger Games universe. These are people who are just as their name suggests, attentive to the going-ons of government. They are educated and interested in what government is doing. They follow the actions of government and often question the outcomes of them. Through their questioning, attentives can bring issues into the forefront that may have gone unnoticed by the masses. They can expose the wrongdoings of government as well as the successes. Cinna is very aware of the ability to impact the government. He may not be directly in a government related job but he’s interested in it and was for awhile before Katniss came along. Because of the thought that he puts into his clothing, I would guess that he’s been studying the government for awhile, getting frustrated with the decision making of those in power. He’s very intelligent and pays attention. He’s in an influential job and has the education to know what’s happening. But Cinna probably didn’t expect to influence the government so much at first. He was just using his talents and knowledge to save Katniss. In tyrannical governments, these numbers dwindle. Because of their vast knowledge and observant nature, attentives see things and question. Different from the masses, not only do they question or apply their knowledge, they have position enough to be listened to by either the masses or those decision makers and heeded. Right now it’s estimated that about 10% (I’ve heard as high as 20%) of Americans fall into this category.
The Elites – These are the decision makers – those in power to make changes in the government. The Game Makers are these types of people. They can influence the arena. Haymitch is one of these people even though he’s been in denial about it for a long time. In a tyrannical government such as President Snow’s, there is a need to get rid of any elites who do not agree with the current government. So for Haymitch, while he may be in the position to influence and change events, since he hasn’t always seen eye to eye with President Snow or the Game Creators, his status has been downgraded. Take for example, Senaca Crane who was the Head Gamemaker. His decisions cost President Snow some security inside of the districts when they didn’t believe that Katniss’ ‘trick with the berries’ was just about love. Head Gamemaker Plutarch is a very good example of an elite. He uses his elite status to design a Hunger Games where he can actually start a revolution. So his status works at first for President Snow who wants a Quarter Quell that will triumph over every previous Hunger Games. Then, his status transfers to District 13 where he becomes a decision maker in the propaganda war against the Capitol. Plutarch is a natural elite. He uses his connections and knowledge to propel himself to power with both governments. He is always part of the decision making team and rarely allows himself to be without knowledge. But remember, no one is electing him President. He doesn’t see himself in that role within the government. Not every elite is actually in a political position. Some of them are behind those who are. They are the driving forces who get the politician where they want to go.
Who is Katniss?
Katniss, during the three books, moves from being part of the masses. In the first book, she's just trying to survive. In the second, she's part of the attentives, taking in every abuse in the districts as she travels through on her tour. She begins to question the presence of the Peacemakers and the riots that happen just when they arrive. In the last book, through her propos and then her involvement on the ground during the rebellion, she becomes an elite but the cost is great to her. At the end, she actually does not retreat, determined to use her knowledge to prevent another costly war in her society through the scrapbooks, which might retire her to an entirely new level, Historian.
Monday, May 27, 2013
Star Trek - The Deadly Years - Ageism or Not?
The Deadly Years – Mission Log: A Roddenberry Star Trek
Podcast
Episode 041
Ken Ray and John Champion regularly
sit down to explore and analyze Star Trek.
Their goal is to go through the entire Star Trek franchise. This is an endeavor which I whole-heartedly
approve and have often thought of doing myself (like I have to time or energy!).
Here’s just a little background for
you about my Trek experience before I get to the meat of this blog entry. Star Trek TOS
was a mainstay in my parents’ household much to the chagrin of my mother. My father was one of the first Trekkies in an
age when nerdism and sci-fi carried strong social stigmas so I consider him one
of the ‘closeted’ Trekkies. Recently I
started to probe his mind about this because as I went on later in life, I
became a huge fan of Star Trek Next Generation and realized my dream this year to
meet Sir Patrick Stewart. My father and
I both became fans of the Star Trek franchise at the same times in our lives
and both lived closeted nerd lives. I
have more recently broken out of the closet but my father doesn’t associate
with the genre. However when he talks
about it, he just raves on and on about Roddenberry’s genius with social and
political themes. He still passionately
loves the idealism of the series and the commentaries made by the writers on
events of the time.
So when Ken Ray and John Champion
took on the episode of TOS called The Deadly Years, I was shocked to find
that they could not see the message in it.
Over and over, they refer to Star Trek as being a product of the times
but it was also a commentary on the times and they seemed to have missed the
commentary in this episode. I’m not a
nit-picker for details usually but it seemed clear to me that this episode had
a distinct message relating to what not only what happening that year but had
been happening for the preceding 20 years of United States history prior to the
original air date of the episode in late 1967.
The Mission Log creators applied a scathing letter of condemnation saying
that the writer’s themselves were ageist when really they may have been making
more of a statement against ageism.
But let’s back up to 1967, ageism
was starting to come on the horizon as a defined idea instead of just another
facet of American life lurking in every voting decision. The concept of ageism was actually labeled by
Robert Neal Butler in 1968 but there must have been social commentary on it
prior to his work. Ageism is a tricky
concept. It can involve prejudice for or
against a person of any age level. The
Star Trek writers however were not taking on all of ageism. They were just addressing one facet of it
that was probably the most discussed at the time, that American voters had been
electing people to positions of leadership for years. So the message for this Star Trek episode
needs to be simple and a product of the times.
Age is not a determiner of good
leadership.
Let’s flashback to 1950’s America. Soldiers have come home for the war (of which
Roddenberry is one), wiser and ready to settle into middle age with a family
and a suburban home and little disruptions in between, hence the desperate need
countrywide to establish even a sliver of normality (alas but what is normal
really?). There is a sense of
adultcentrism where these people feel that they have earned their rights to the
leadership of the America
through their sacrifices in the Great Depression and a world war. Their childhood and youth was stolen by
chaotic times but that doesn’t mean they were longing to get back what they
missed. They were simply entitled to
smooth sailing and a prosperous society from here on out. They weren’t necessarily wrong but were they
qualified?
As this group aged, elected, and became elected to office,
Americans stumbled about an unprecedented era of prosperity that even reached
to the growing middle class. They needed
leadership to hold on to this newfound wealth.
But what had carried these adults through these hard times were the aged
hands of leaders such as Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. These were the people whose leadership they
longed to emulate. Churchill was a prime example of a leader whose guiding
influence carried Britain through the war, shaking off the Nazi incursion and
seeking to find a path of democracy and human rights in the modern
century. He was 66 in the prime years of
his office. With an example like
Churchill, the assumption from this generation was that age really fueled his
wisdom. He’d been active in politics but
it wasn’t until his later years that he became a party leader and more
importantly the Prime Minister of Britain in a time of crisis. The Silent Generation would sit back and wait
for age to come to them, making them wise and capable of steering America
through the newfound waters of being a world power. And they would elect by age instead of by
qualification because the formula to quality in their estimation was age. The average age in Congress during the 1950’s
– 55 and that trend has not changed.
While not a new trend in American
politics, the average age of presidents in the 50’s was 60 years old which was
older than the decade preceding it and the next decade. At age 60, Harry Truman becomes the unlikely
and unpopular president in 1945 after the unexpected death of Roosevelt
during a crucial time in the negotiations to end the war. While not elected in, he is re-elected at age
64. Truman resolves the war in Asia
dramatically and destructively by dropping two atomic bombs – a move that is
still debated by budding academics today. He put the world on a track for the modern age
of destruction by revealing the new weaponry to Joseph Stalin. Russia
may have been America’s
ally prior to the end of World War II but by the time negotiation are over and
two atomic weapons have been unleashed, they are now enemies. Some attribute this to long standing disputes
over democracy and a deep distrust between both countries. But this can also go back to the even more
personal animosity between Stalin and Truman.
In 1952, Eisenhower is elected to
the office of President, the oldest person to have been elected into the office
in almost a hundred years. His war
experience made him extremely popular with voters and his firm anti-communist
stance would expand the power of the office of the presidency. He was the perfect age at 62 to bring America
fully into her newfound world power.
Instead he continues to immerse the country deeper into a nuclear
stand-off with Russia,
through his policy of deterrence. It is
in his presidency that the path is laid for the Vietnam War which will be
roaring in full chaos at the time of the airing of The Deadly Years. The Domino theory is the groundwork for
actions that the CIA takes in preventing
incursion of communism in Southeast Asia and South
America at the direction of Eisenhower. He even lays out the original plan for
deposing Fidel Castro of Cuba. All of these actions embroil the United
States in controversial and costly programs around the world. From Korean to Guatemala,
history sees U.S.
action that results in humiliation and loss over and over. By the end of the sixties, the United
States had been through a decade of taking a
beating out in the world, something for which they felt extremely
unprepared. From the view of the Silent
Generation, as they transition into the 60’s, their leaders are stubborn,
resistant, weapons hungry, and bent on a path that might lead to America’s
destruction.
At the turn of the century, Americans
are questioning what it takes to make a true leader and one conclusion that
they are coming to is that old age doesn’t equate to wisdom.
During the sixties, America
begins to see the reverence for those of a ‘proper age’ to erode. Roddenberry certainly recognizes this
preponderance that American society has for labeling leadership to be qualified
or unqualified based on age, gender, or race in the longer running arcs of his
character’s lives. The average age of
presidents drops with the election of John F. Kennedy, elected at age 43. The average age of those presidents elected
in the 60’s drops by 5 years to about 55.
Though the trend to elect older people who are at the end of the most
productive years of humans (statistically proven). But the statistics in American politics
counter scientific results with the most voters are between 50 and 65 with 62
being the peak of voting power but not the peak of rational brain power. These voters elect younger presidents,
seeking the elusive leadership that they feel they need as America’s
power grows. But the death of both
Kennedy brothers, Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders, the emergence of
the Vietnam War quagmire, and the unrest with the status quo among the races,
it is becoming obvious that youth and energy may not be the answer to the
country’s problems.
Just the fact that the primary
message in this episode about what good leadership entails is evidenced by the
plot that Roddenberry and the writers (David Harmon) create. Instead of running around the colony looking
for a cure or facing some alien presence that is causing the aging process, the
crew members return back to the ship, lose all the last members of the colony
to the disease, and are now battling the impact of the aging process among
their own. Had it been an alien, the
idea that this is a problem created by Americans and their choices for
leadership would have felt removed. The
writers are consciously making a stand about age as a poor marker of
leadership. The military trial and
subsequent removal of Captain Kirk for age related maladies such as memory problems,
giving poor orders, and in general becoming belligerent shows that Kirk as an
elderly leader is lacking extremely.
While Commodore Stocker is right to take Kirk out via military protocol
because of the horrifying decline of leadership, he is not the right leader
either. This is a stab not at the age
problem in politics but the other issue of voting in a leader based on military
experience or rank. And it is a nod to
the problems of the time with the Vietnam War.
Kirk calls him a ‘paper pusher’ which gives the viewer a distinct bad
taste in their mouth and echoes much of the sentiments that American soldiers
had about the leadership of the military and the mismanagement of the war by
leaders who have no experience with a ‘land war in Asia’. Stocker proves his incompetence when he
endangers the crew further to complete his ends, echoing the tendency of America’s
presidents to plow forward with their plans (domino theory) despite evidence
that it may not be working. A terrible
nighttime news reality that Roddenberry and 1960’s America
were experiencing through the terrible military leadership during the Vietnam
War.
Youth is a catalyst for change.
Roddenbery has
always been a proponent for youth. He
features young people many of his episodes.
However, he does make it clear that they may not be meant for leadership
either. He is very clear that through
their youth, they make mistakes as well, ones distinctly stemming from their
age and emotional immaturity. But he
points out quite a bit that adults overlook the young. They fail to listen to them and those who are
young have to resort to desperate measures to get heard or the Enterprise
has to nearly be destroyed before those in power recognize the ideas of the
younger members of the crew. In The Deadly Years, there is no “young
voice” that counterbalances the senility of Captain Kirk. There is not a young crew member who steps up
with the solution in the form of some monologue about leadership. But ultimately youth does save the Enterprise.
When the Ensign Chekov of the landing
party to Gamma Hydra IV first comes across an elderly dead man, he panics and
runs away. His fear of aging and
adrenaline save him from the virus. When
this is finally discovered, after trial and error (many scans) and some
crewmember deaths, Spock (through logic and his Vulcan DNA
which has slightly impeded his aging process) goes about making a serum to cure
the crew. Chekov is a somewhat unwilling
participant in the process, griping about the continuous tests that he has to
undergo. However, Chekov will save the Enterprise
with his youthful…..adreneline. Yes, it’s
really the logical leadership of the aging Spock (who really only looks 50 as
opposed to Kirk’s 70) who ultimately creates the treatment that saves crew but
it’s the catalyst of youth or more importantly adrenaline that causes the salvation
of the crew from the horrible debilitating effects of age.
During the late 1960’s and in
particular in the year of this episode (and the year before), America
sees unprecedented youth involvement in politics but not as political
equals. Instead, they are the youth
insurgency through the protest movements on college campuses, vocalizing
dissatisfaction with the status quo (primarily based on age or military
leadership – both picked on in this episode).
Chekov seems whiny as he’s picked
at and prodded by the Doctor. Who
wouldn’t be? That “protest” seems
childish in the ears of the aged crew.
They would dismiss him except that they need him. He should be grateful to help fix the problem
but he’s not. He should just shut up and
hand over his blood to stave off the fate of the crew, but he doesn’t. And that
is ultimately how the Vietnam
protesters appear to the American public on the news. So while youth is good and saves the day – it
is fickle and uninformed. It has flaws
as well.
But does Roddenberry ultimately
answer the question of the ideal age for leadership? Over and over again, Star Trek makes a point
to address the issue of Kirk’s age. He
is a direct comparison to John F. Kennedy.
This has been shown in other episodes as well. Had the United
States seen Kennedy as an older person, they
may have not thought favorably of him.
But also, Kennedy makes decisions in his presidency that are not based
on experience or age. He was seen as a
youthful president but not so young that he was foolish. And certainly, he seems to have been
Roddenberry’s ideal. Kirk shares many of
the idealist viewpoints of Kennedy but through the television universe is able
to accomplish what Kennedy did not in his lifetime. So is the perfect age for a president 34 as
Kirk is when he’s in command of the Enterprise
or 43 as Kennedy is when he’s in command of a country? Unfortunately, here’s where the viewer gets
no clear answer or proof in the episode and Roddenberry seems to have forgotten
that Kennedy put the U.S.
into Vietnam
(or at least overlooked that). But
overall, The Deadly Years gives a
complete censure that age is not a good way for America
to decide who their leaders should be.
Thanks so much to the Mission Log Podcast crew for providing me with thinking material. While I might have disagreed with John Champion and Ken Ray's analysis of this episode, I have a high regard for most of their thoughts about the social and political implications of Star Trek. I appreciate their ability to take on the task of bringing it to the podcast masses. Mission Log has quickly risen to the ranks of "most listened" in my podcast library. With much respect, I bring them my own analysis of The Deadly Years and hope they find it remotely interesting! I'm sure that this won't be the last time we disagree but that's ok. I probably will just email them next time instead of writing a whole blog entry! (or not)
Resources;
http://www.missionlogpodcast.com/archive
- Every Trekkie (or not) should go check out this podcast. Good listening!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deadly_Years
- The plot of the show, if you don’t remember!
Sunday, March 17, 2013
The Political Spectrum of Panem
Political socialization is the process in which we develop
out beliefs about the political system.
It happens over time and starts from birth. During this process several main factors such
as race can influence our beliefs. Those
factors can also conflict with each other to create cross pressure where we
feel the struggle in ourselves between different factors. In this three part series, I will examine the political environment of Panem during the three books, The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay written by Suzanne Collins. All of my source material with the exception of geographic locations come from the books themselves and my own education (I have a degree in Political Science). My geography references to Panem's locations come from various maps online.
Part I - The Political Spectrum
Before we begin to discuss how Katniss Everdeen is
socialized, let’s familiarize ourselves with the political spectrum. The basic political beliefs comprise five
different levels; Radicals, Liberals, Moderates, Conservatives, and Reactionaries.
Moderates
If we were to draw a
line, we could go from left to right but for the sake of comparison, I’m going
to start at the middle. Moderates are at
the middle and they are exactly that.
These people are very in the middle about their beliefs. They are not generally members of a political
party. They are moved by issues that
pertain to their lives and while they vote and may be somewhat politically
active, these concerns don’t impact their everyday lives overly much. Most of the population is in the middle. Their beliefs are not extreme. They are concerned by issues that impact
their lives such as if they are jobless or without health care and those issues
cause them to be involved. Moderates are
not the same as independents. Sometimes
it’s easy to confuse them because moderates seem to keep themselves distant
from the actual going-ons in government.
Moderates will have a preference for a political party when they are
voting while a true independent votes for the person, a non-mainstream
political party, and perhaps an issue rather than based on any mainstream party affiliation. Independents are about 33%
of the middle (in American society this number has grown). In Katniss’ post United
States world of Panem, most people are
moderates. Even Katniss starts out the novels
as a moderate. She acts in her daily life with little regard for the political situation beyond her own issue, starvation.
In the fall, a few brave souls sneak into the woods to harvest apples. But always in sight of the Meadow. Always close enough to run back to the safety of District 12 if trouble arises. "District Twelve. Where you can starve to death in safety," I mutter. Then I glance quickly over my shoulder. Even here, even in the middle of nowhere, you worry someone might overhear you. Page 5, The Hunger Games
Taking out the whole idea
of voting and just thinking about the issues, most people are concerned with
survival and economic well-being. If
they are extreme in their views, depending on which way they go, they could
challenge President Snow’s comfortable reign and put their lives in
danger. So they are moderates out of
necessity. And in the case of Panem, these are extremely apathetic moderates. It's not that they don't care, it's that they can't act for fear of upsetting their personal lives.
Conservatives
Let’s take a tour to the right (not because I like them
more). On the right of our spectrum,
there are conservatives and reactionaries.
Conservatives are between moderate and reactionary. They see government as needing to be limited
for fear of overreach. Conservatives are
concerned about the same social issues as anyone like whether or not they have
health care. But their views on how this
is going to be accomplished is what makes them who they are. They see that government is not the answer to
solving problems entirely. And for them,
certain problems such as health care might be better solved by other
establishments in society. Conservatives
tend to look at all of the participants in society as having a stake in
it. Their participants are government,
business, churches, and social groups.
Conservatives tend to think that all politics are local and better
solved by those closest to the issue. So
health care is provided by the business arena to workers to keep them healthy
and available for work. This means that
any issues related to this might be best solved by the business sector. Government is just one participant on the
field and perhaps better suited to issues of foreign policy and defense because
that’s closest to the needs of all people.
In the Hunger Games universe, there's no conservative presence because the government is in charge of production and any sorts
of benefits, which would go against the grain of any conservative participating
in government. Since this government
seems to be distinctly in the control of a dictator, President Snow, the fears
of real-life conservatives have foundation that a federal government which is not
limited can turn into a tyranny. The
emphasis on a strongly restricted federal government and an active local
government that would normally be part of the conservative government are no
longer present in Panem due to extreme economic difficulties and war. Local governments voluntarily ceded control
to the Federal government (now located in the Rocky Mountains). But if there were conservative voices, they have long been stamped out. Katniss' father does represent one of those disappeared conservative voices. There's very little evidence of it, but most comes directly from Katniss and her memories of her father. After all, a child does not fall far from the tree of their parent's belief systems.
"When I was younger, I scared my mother to death, the things I would blurt out about District 12, about the people who rule our country, Panem, from the far off city called the Capitol." Page 5, The Hunger Games
The reference is subtle but she is parroting her father's words at a young age and he has expressed displeasure at the assumption of federal control over the government - the ultimate conservative reaction to the problems of society.
Reactionaries
Farthest to the right are reactionaries. Reactionaries see that government and society
have strayed too far from their roots.
They believe there is overreach on the part of government and society to
solve problems wrongfully. These
problems often are merely growing pains of society as it moves or changes value
systems. But reactionaries attribute
problems such as poverty, environmental damage, or the family unit declining as
punishment for the changing morality or government negligence. Reactionaries are (as their name suggests)
reacting to pressure either from inside or outside society and want to protect
what they believe are traditional values.
This shows up in Catching Fire when President Snow is responding to the
pressure from Katniss’ performance at the Hunger Games by having a Quarter
Quell. This is reactionary on his part,
and he’s attempting to stir up sentimental feelings at to Panem’s history
during the 75th Hunger Games.
As he reacts more to protecting the existing system, he becomes more
violent towards the population especially Katniss and the game victors, targeting
those closest to them as a way of keeping them in line. His mission is presented to the people as a
way of isolating or destroying any questioning parties who seek to rip apart
any security Panem has. Since most of
Panem is moderate, they will not seek to act outside the system to test the
President and he is comfortable in his position. In Catching Fire, it seems that most of the
populace is still isolated, concerned with their own welfare and survival so
they welcome the games as a way of keeping their mind of their own problems. Since there is not a vibrant press to
question President Snow’s actions, one missing stylist will hardly faze the
population.
Liberals
On the left side of the spectrum are liberals and radicals
(at the far end). Liberals believe that
using the government to solve social and economic problems is the best because
government has advantages over business and other areas of society. Government has at it’s hand resources and
theoretically should be unbiased in delivering those goods. When there is overreach on the part of
government, liberals argue that most often this overreach has happened at local
levels and would be less likely to happen in a larger system such as a federal
government because there are checks and balance built in on that government and
not on local governments as much. The Federal government through it's checks and balances is more likely to act without bias and distribute the most goods to the most places. As
with the conservatives, it is difficult to imagine liberals in the Hunger Games
universe, the closest to a liberal of any kind that I can find in the books might be Plutarch Heavensbee. He works within the government to attempt to solve problems but it easy to imagine his mounting disillusionment with President Snow's tyranny. In fact, as with all dictatorial governments, any political beliefs in the spectrum are stamped out to
prevent any dissent and Plutarch Heavensbee would have found the same fate as Cinna and Seneca Crane had he been revealed for his true beliefs and actions ultimately against the government. Again, just like
the conservatives, the same fears have come true with overreach happening on
all levels of government and the federal government (the Capitol) has no checks
on it. The local governments are running their citizens to the ground in efforts to produce at high levels for the Capitol. As long as they meet their quotas, the Federal government leaves the local governments to institute any manner of abuses such as in District 11 where the Peacekeepers and local government are particularly brutal. The worst fears of any liberal are seen in how the local populace are kept down with curfews and brutal measures such as food rationing.
Radicals
Radicals are the far end of the left side of our
spectrum. They see that the government
that is in place has been unable to deal with the problems of poverty and the
system is not serving the needs of all people.
When the government before Panem was in place (we assume this was the United
States), there was record of horrific catastrophes.
“He tells the history of Panem, the country that rose up out
of the ashes of a place once called North America. He lists the disasters, the droughts, the
storms, the fires, the encroaching seas that swallowed up much of the land, the
brutal war for what little sustenance remained.
The result was Panem, a shining Capitol ringed by thirteen districts,
which brought peace and prosperity to it’s citizens.” Page 17 Hunger Games
It is then theoretical that the radicals were the ones who
rose up out of this chaos when the government was no longer able to function
and stave off the attacks from the global disasters. Radicals want to get a new government – start
fresh with a foundation that isn’t built in history or dysfunction of the
previous government. They resent the
liberals who like them see the same sorts of problems, inability of the
government to deal with poverty, health care, energy resources, or in general
provide for the people. Their resentment
stems from the liberals’ idealism that the government can be changed. Radicals believe that the government can’t be
just modified because the liberal’s changes are just an improperly applied
patch on a deeper problem. Like the
extremes of the reactionaries, they will resort to violence to achieve their
ends. When the new government of Panem
was instituted, the people caved in to their need for safety and allowed the
new form of government throw out previously accepted freedoms. So the Districts rose up against the
government in protest, it was the radicals in the new Capitol who put down the
revolution to protect the new government system and then instituted the Hunger
Games. If you were to take our spectrum
and instead of a line, turned it into a circle, reactionaries and radicals
would meet. Their ends are often the
same and achieved through violence or at least revolution. At the end of the revolution, the Radicals quickly moved to the Reactionary position on the spectrum just to protect their power.
When the government becomes Reactionary through President
Snow, the Radicals are the first to go, through purges such as the
massive bombing campaign on District 13.
After all as both political camps know, it just takes a handful of
revolutionaries to cause chaos.
President Snow refers to this and his words haunt Katniss in
Mockingjay.
“Katniss Everdeen, the girl
who was on fire, you have provided a spark that, left unattended, may grown to
an inferno that destroys Panem.”
But
here’s the catch, while we know that President Snow is a tyrant, we get little
to no reading on President Coin. We
should be she’s presented as a very neutral and efficient character, certainly
not an obvious threat. She is one of the former Reactionaries who seems to have escaped the purges and come out of it in a better position in power within her rag-tag district. While Katniss
dislikes her intensely, the rest of the citizens of District 13 hold her in
high regard. She has been the mastermind
of the attacks on the Capitol, threatening their government but she has also instituted a series of measures that have kept the citizens of District 13 alive in their underground city. So President Snow is reacting justifiably to
threats. But does President Coin offer a
valid government or has she gone the way of the extreme radical and is pushing
just another brand of tyranny? The “new”
form of government that she has erected in District 13 after their standoff
with the Capitol bears a striking resemblance to Communism. District 13 has
problems with production and so they seek to breed workers (an unexpected gift of new blood being introduced through the District 12 rescue-es). They also have very strict schedules,
automatic citizenship, and assigned housing among other commune-like
features. It is useful to note that not
all radicals overthrow a tyranny to communism.
But there is a cleansing aspect to both reactionary and radical personas
on the political spectrum. They will
attempt to move either farther towards what they know or completely away from
any roots of previous governments.
No matter who you are, you are going to fall somewhere on
the spectrum. How you then participate
in this is determined by the value you place on these beliefs and a process
called political socialization. In my next Hunger Games article, I will focus on the different levels in which people participate in their government as related to the participation of those in Panem. Please note that these are my own interpretations of Suzanne Collins' work.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Zero Dark Thirty Primer
Kathryn Bigelow's work of fiction, Zero Dark Thirty is masterful in putting the viewer right into the gritty action of history. It has the deceptive feel of a documentary and most of the history cited is relatively recent. However, I found myself looking back on the past ten years of news events with the vaguest knowledge of the details (and this is my subject area!). A mentor recently told me that details only last in your memory for three weeks so its no wonder that I was floundering a bit. I went searching to find an accessible timeline of the basic events in the movie but strangely found the Internet lacking. There were plenty of reviews of the movie and a few skimming summaries. If I was going to recommend this to viewers who are not only younger than I am but not versed in the history of their childhoods, I was going to have to prep them (side note - this film has an R rating for a good reason. Do not show into students who are under 17).
Pre-history of the movie but often referenced either literally or through action
1. The Battle of Tora Bora - American forces in Afghanistan began a series of attacks on the mountainous region of Tora Bora on December 12, 2001. The initial operation Jawbreaker started on December 3rd with a coalition of secret services and air support attacking the mountains. A second more aggressive attack now known as the Battle of Tora Bora (a more defined area of the mountains) lasted 5 days with a series of sweeps by American ground forces through the tunnel complexes used by Al Qaeda forces in the mountains and a sustained bombing campaign. There had been information that led the CIA to believe that Osama Bin Laden was directing world wide operations from there. When the dust settled from the battle, neither Osama Bin Laden could be located not his leadership team. Two thoughts emerged from this. He either escaped because of lax Pakistani border security or the American forces were not sufficiently resupplied with fresh teams of soldiers. Either way, Osama fled into Pakistan on about December 16th. This huge failure looms over the movie even though the action is not shown. The subtext is, "Let's not have another political SNAFU like Tora Bora." However in spite of this train of thought, analysts attempting to track down Osama have a hard time imagining him living in the middle of the busy cities of Pakistan. They still assumed that he would pick an isolated and difficult to access region.
2. Foreign Intelligence service act (FISA) 1978- the passage of this Act starts the ball rolling on expanded surveillance techniques used by CIA operators attempting to gain information about the al Qaeda network and any future attacks. This was ground breaking legislation that scaffolded the ability for the government to monitor communications overseas and domestically without a warrant. Strangely it came out of the Watergate/Nixon debacle and was signed into law by President Carter.
3. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) - the 9/11 Commission developed a detailed report on the money and logistics the 9/11 attacks. They pinpointed Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as the puppeteer in planning the attacks. A critical member of al-Qaeda by 1998, he had earned his stripes as an independent jihadist earlier. He claims to have been crucial to the concept of attacking the American economy through the attacks on the World Trade Center. He also claims to have been responsible for the idea of using planes after the first World Trade Center bombing did not live up to his hopes.
The history events in the movie/story
1. CIA black sites - These are detention facilities where members of Al-Qaeda where held before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay or to their various home countries who would assume custody of their detention. The secret prisons were in a variety of complicit European countries and other allies such as Morocco. Not only was Guantanamo a site for torture methods, it is widely reported that the same methods to extract information were used in black sites. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was caught in Pakistan in 2003 but not transferred to Guantanamo until 2006.
2. Camp Chapman bombing - this event was the freshest in my mind which made the lead up in the movie excruciating. Forwarding Operating Base Chapman is one of the most secretive locations (as far as actions) in Afghanistan is a CIA asset in the war on terror. On December 30th, 2009, Doctor Al-Balawi, aged 32 detonated a bomb inside the Camp Chapman compound. He had been working with Jordanian intelligence prior to the arranged meeting. They had pressured him into turning against his Taliban and al-Qaeda contacts. He was reportedly at the compound because he claimed to have information on Al-Zawahiri ( and had been referred to the CIA by his Jordanian handlers. Both the Taliban and al-Quada praised his actions in later statements but it seems to still be unclear about who he was working for. Five CIA agents, two Blackwater security employees, one Jordanian agent, and a security base officer died. The attack was a flagrant penetration of the comfort zone of the CIA. In addition, all agents were leading al-Qaeda intelligence gatherers. Investigations into why the security protocols for searches were relaxed and how the credibility of Doctor Al-Balawi were conducted.
3. The London Transport bombings - Several days in July provide the canvas for a series of attacks on London transportation infrastructure including the bus bombing on July 7th that is cited in the movie. Bombings in underground trains and buses killed 52 people in London. As Britain has been a notable ally in the war against al-Qaeda, they have been the target of repeated attacks.
4. Release of the 911 emergency calls - some limited release was done during the release of the 9/11 Commission's publication of their findings with the mostly complete set release in 2011. The transcripts provide a chilling backdrop for the beginning of the movie, including calls from the flights and those from the towers.
5. FISA Amendments 2008 - The CIA was at it's most questioned and critical time. Tools such as water boarding were getting discredited and taken away as intelligence gathering. However, recognizing the need to provide other more painless and perhaps more grey area tools, Congress passed some provisions to FISA (see prior history 3) to assist in the information gathering mission. This allowed for unwarranted surveillance of both citizens abroad and opened the door for expansion of technology that helped for tracking cell phone calls.
6. Shooting of Saudi Arabian Citizens - nearly impossible to track down, there seem to be several shootings and truck bombs in 2003-2004 that target both American contractors and Saudi officials along with other government foiled attacks on oil resources. My best guess is that this is the attack by gunmen on the American consulate in Jeddah where armed al-Qaeda fighters forced their way in to the consulate and killed several Saudi National Guard members and non-American consulate employees. If anyone has another guess on this, I'd love to hear it. It seems out of place in the timeline established by Zero Dark Thirty because it is used as a pressure point created by the inability to get Osama and the lack of tools once the ability to torture is taken away from CIA officers.
7. Drone attack protests in Islamabad - Jonathan Banks - A difficult event to find as well and some of the details including the agent's name are in doubt. What is clear is that Pakistani citizens were angry at the deaths of civilians in American drone strikes. They had filed a $500 lawsuit seeking damages against the CIA station chief, named Jonathan Banks for the deaths of between 1200 and 2000 civilians (numbers are in strong dispute). The protests evolved into an organized Islamist event to put pressure on the American government to stop drone attacks. It resulted in the withdrawal of Jonathan Banks whose name had been outed by a Pakistani journalist as a way to direct a lawsuit at the U.S. government because he could be called to trial without the protections of diplomatic immunity (he had supposedly entered the country with a civilian work visa instead of his government credentials).
8. Operation Neptune Spear - Attack on Osama Bin Laden's compound - the seminal event of the movie but one that I don't want to go into too much detail about because it is very fresh in Americans minds and has been examined recently in other writings.
9. Foiled New York City car bomb - Faisal Shazad, a U.S. citizen from Pakistan built a bomb with the intent to inflict many casualties and damage in Times Square, New York City. Two street vendors saw a smoking Nissan Pathfinder and alerted a New York City Patrol Officer. What the authorities found was a bomb that failed to detonate fully but had caught fire. Shazad was not linked to the al-Qaeda structure however had been inspired and in contact with al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki. He had trained at a terrorist training camp in Pakistan. Shazad was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole. The event revealed to the public that the U.S. was still vulnerable to attacks on the homeland even though the prevailing belief had been that al-Qaeda's leadership structure had been nearly dismantled.
10. Guantanamo Bay Detainees- Not an event but crucial to the story. Guantanamo Bay had been a U.S. toehold on Cuba in the Cold War. Established as a Naval refueling center as a result of the Spanish-American War, it was portioned off by President Bush to allow for transfers from various black sites and conflict zones of the War on Terror. It was here that 779 prisoners were held from about 2002 to 2009 when President Obama ordered the facility to be dismantled and the transfer of prisoners to the U.S. mainland. While not all of the prisoners have been moved due to various budgetary restrictions and other barriers, the program is no longer a key part of the War on Terror. At the beginning of the program, it was determined by various legal advisors to the Bush presidency that due to the nature of the war on terror that the people being captured by American forces were not assigned to any legitimate government (especially not one who had signed the United Nations charter and the Geneva Convention) and so they did not fall into the protections of prisoners of war and could not be labeled as such. They became known as enemy combatants. It then evolved that the detained prisoners could be subject to extreme forms of questioning. These methods included water boarding, sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation with such tools as playing loud music for hours on end and enclosure in boxes, all of which were shown in the movie. Other techniques not shown in the movie include sexual assaults, forced feeding (as a result of prisoner hunger strikes), and drug injections. There were many attempts by prisoners to commit suicide. The Hamdan v. Rumsfeld ruling in 2006 granted prisoners very minimal protections of habeus corpus (trial procedure rights). The result of this ruling is to apply protections against torture to prisoners and to grant them trial rights that are very similar to the ones afforded to prisoners of war through the Geneva Convention. This allowed prisoners to get lawyers to defend them and potentially move to trials however the latter has been slow in coming. The ability to get lawyers is referred to in the movie. It also opened the door for prisoners to have a slight improvement in their living conditions.
Bagram Detention Facility, Afghanistan - originally built by the Soviets during their occupation of Afghanistan, Bagram is now used by the U.S. forces as a detention/prison facility. It was the site of widespread torture of detainees during the early parts of the war and horrible living conditions where prisoners were held in cages of barbed wire (seen in the movie). U.S. has been accused of still capturing and holding Afghani citizens as late as March 2012 by President Karzi. Afghanistan shares some of the responsibility for the prison but complete power over it has yet to be transferred. Prisoners have also claimed that they are still being subjected to strip searches and solitary confinement. The U.S. has denied some of these claims.
This is not a commentary on the historical accuracy of the movie. It is instead a way to more fully understand the background of the story. I admire Zero Dark Thirty as way to make a story out of history, a situation of "what-if", something that I feature quite a bit in my own writing. What if the U.S. had obtained credible information from torturous methods? Would we as a nation have been able to live with ourselves?
References
http://www.davisenterprise.com/arts/movies/zero-dark-thirty-the-ultimate-manhunt/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tora_Bora
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/17/cia-chief-pakistan-drone-cover
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Osama_bin_Laden
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_site
http://projects.nytimes.com/guantanamo/detainees/10024-khalid-shaikh-mohammed
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12964158
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Act
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Act_of_1978_Amendments_Act_of_2008
http://articles.cnn.com/2008-07-09/politics/fisa.explainer_1_fisa-eavesdropping-intelligence-community?_s=PM:POLITIC
http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/report/911Report_Ch5.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/uk/2005/london_explosions/default.stm
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/09/08/nyregion/911-tapes.html
http://dspace.cigilibrary.org/jspui/bitstream/123456789/5314/1/Al%20Qaedas%20Third%20Front%20Saudi%20Arabia.pdf?1
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/al-qaida-arabia.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Chapman_attack
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/17/cia-chief-pakistan-drone-cover
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/12/10/105104/pakistanis-protest-civilian-deaths.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/nyregion/02timessquare.html?pagewanted=all
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-05-03-new-york-bombing_N.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Times_Square_car_bombing_attempt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_Naval_Base
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/05-184.ZO.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamdan_v._Rumsfel
http://www.heritage.org/research/projects/enemy-detention/military-commissions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagram_torture_and_prisoner_abuse
Pre-history of the movie but often referenced either literally or through action
1. The Battle of Tora Bora - American forces in Afghanistan began a series of attacks on the mountainous region of Tora Bora on December 12, 2001. The initial operation Jawbreaker started on December 3rd with a coalition of secret services and air support attacking the mountains. A second more aggressive attack now known as the Battle of Tora Bora (a more defined area of the mountains) lasted 5 days with a series of sweeps by American ground forces through the tunnel complexes used by Al Qaeda forces in the mountains and a sustained bombing campaign. There had been information that led the CIA to believe that Osama Bin Laden was directing world wide operations from there. When the dust settled from the battle, neither Osama Bin Laden could be located not his leadership team. Two thoughts emerged from this. He either escaped because of lax Pakistani border security or the American forces were not sufficiently resupplied with fresh teams of soldiers. Either way, Osama fled into Pakistan on about December 16th. This huge failure looms over the movie even though the action is not shown. The subtext is, "Let's not have another political SNAFU like Tora Bora." However in spite of this train of thought, analysts attempting to track down Osama have a hard time imagining him living in the middle of the busy cities of Pakistan. They still assumed that he would pick an isolated and difficult to access region.
2. Foreign Intelligence service act (FISA) 1978- the passage of this Act starts the ball rolling on expanded surveillance techniques used by CIA operators attempting to gain information about the al Qaeda network and any future attacks. This was ground breaking legislation that scaffolded the ability for the government to monitor communications overseas and domestically without a warrant. Strangely it came out of the Watergate/Nixon debacle and was signed into law by President Carter.
3. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) - the 9/11 Commission developed a detailed report on the money and logistics the 9/11 attacks. They pinpointed Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as the puppeteer in planning the attacks. A critical member of al-Qaeda by 1998, he had earned his stripes as an independent jihadist earlier. He claims to have been crucial to the concept of attacking the American economy through the attacks on the World Trade Center. He also claims to have been responsible for the idea of using planes after the first World Trade Center bombing did not live up to his hopes.
The history events in the movie/story
1. CIA black sites - These are detention facilities where members of Al-Qaeda where held before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay or to their various home countries who would assume custody of their detention. The secret prisons were in a variety of complicit European countries and other allies such as Morocco. Not only was Guantanamo a site for torture methods, it is widely reported that the same methods to extract information were used in black sites. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was caught in Pakistan in 2003 but not transferred to Guantanamo until 2006.
2. Camp Chapman bombing - this event was the freshest in my mind which made the lead up in the movie excruciating. Forwarding Operating Base Chapman is one of the most secretive locations (as far as actions) in Afghanistan is a CIA asset in the war on terror. On December 30th, 2009, Doctor Al-Balawi, aged 32 detonated a bomb inside the Camp Chapman compound. He had been working with Jordanian intelligence prior to the arranged meeting. They had pressured him into turning against his Taliban and al-Qaeda contacts. He was reportedly at the compound because he claimed to have information on Al-Zawahiri ( and had been referred to the CIA by his Jordanian handlers. Both the Taliban and al-Quada praised his actions in later statements but it seems to still be unclear about who he was working for. Five CIA agents, two Blackwater security employees, one Jordanian agent, and a security base officer died. The attack was a flagrant penetration of the comfort zone of the CIA. In addition, all agents were leading al-Qaeda intelligence gatherers. Investigations into why the security protocols for searches were relaxed and how the credibility of Doctor Al-Balawi were conducted.
3. The London Transport bombings - Several days in July provide the canvas for a series of attacks on London transportation infrastructure including the bus bombing on July 7th that is cited in the movie. Bombings in underground trains and buses killed 52 people in London. As Britain has been a notable ally in the war against al-Qaeda, they have been the target of repeated attacks.
4. Release of the 911 emergency calls - some limited release was done during the release of the 9/11 Commission's publication of their findings with the mostly complete set release in 2011. The transcripts provide a chilling backdrop for the beginning of the movie, including calls from the flights and those from the towers.
5. FISA Amendments 2008 - The CIA was at it's most questioned and critical time. Tools such as water boarding were getting discredited and taken away as intelligence gathering. However, recognizing the need to provide other more painless and perhaps more grey area tools, Congress passed some provisions to FISA (see prior history 3) to assist in the information gathering mission. This allowed for unwarranted surveillance of both citizens abroad and opened the door for expansion of technology that helped for tracking cell phone calls.
6. Shooting of Saudi Arabian Citizens - nearly impossible to track down, there seem to be several shootings and truck bombs in 2003-2004 that target both American contractors and Saudi officials along with other government foiled attacks on oil resources. My best guess is that this is the attack by gunmen on the American consulate in Jeddah where armed al-Qaeda fighters forced their way in to the consulate and killed several Saudi National Guard members and non-American consulate employees. If anyone has another guess on this, I'd love to hear it. It seems out of place in the timeline established by Zero Dark Thirty because it is used as a pressure point created by the inability to get Osama and the lack of tools once the ability to torture is taken away from CIA officers.
7. Drone attack protests in Islamabad - Jonathan Banks - A difficult event to find as well and some of the details including the agent's name are in doubt. What is clear is that Pakistani citizens were angry at the deaths of civilians in American drone strikes. They had filed a $500 lawsuit seeking damages against the CIA station chief, named Jonathan Banks for the deaths of between 1200 and 2000 civilians (numbers are in strong dispute). The protests evolved into an organized Islamist event to put pressure on the American government to stop drone attacks. It resulted in the withdrawal of Jonathan Banks whose name had been outed by a Pakistani journalist as a way to direct a lawsuit at the U.S. government because he could be called to trial without the protections of diplomatic immunity (he had supposedly entered the country with a civilian work visa instead of his government credentials).
8. Operation Neptune Spear - Attack on Osama Bin Laden's compound - the seminal event of the movie but one that I don't want to go into too much detail about because it is very fresh in Americans minds and has been examined recently in other writings.
9. Foiled New York City car bomb - Faisal Shazad, a U.S. citizen from Pakistan built a bomb with the intent to inflict many casualties and damage in Times Square, New York City. Two street vendors saw a smoking Nissan Pathfinder and alerted a New York City Patrol Officer. What the authorities found was a bomb that failed to detonate fully but had caught fire. Shazad was not linked to the al-Qaeda structure however had been inspired and in contact with al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki. He had trained at a terrorist training camp in Pakistan. Shazad was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole. The event revealed to the public that the U.S. was still vulnerable to attacks on the homeland even though the prevailing belief had been that al-Qaeda's leadership structure had been nearly dismantled.
10. Guantanamo Bay Detainees- Not an event but crucial to the story. Guantanamo Bay had been a U.S. toehold on Cuba in the Cold War. Established as a Naval refueling center as a result of the Spanish-American War, it was portioned off by President Bush to allow for transfers from various black sites and conflict zones of the War on Terror. It was here that 779 prisoners were held from about 2002 to 2009 when President Obama ordered the facility to be dismantled and the transfer of prisoners to the U.S. mainland. While not all of the prisoners have been moved due to various budgetary restrictions and other barriers, the program is no longer a key part of the War on Terror. At the beginning of the program, it was determined by various legal advisors to the Bush presidency that due to the nature of the war on terror that the people being captured by American forces were not assigned to any legitimate government (especially not one who had signed the United Nations charter and the Geneva Convention) and so they did not fall into the protections of prisoners of war and could not be labeled as such. They became known as enemy combatants. It then evolved that the detained prisoners could be subject to extreme forms of questioning. These methods included water boarding, sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation with such tools as playing loud music for hours on end and enclosure in boxes, all of which were shown in the movie. Other techniques not shown in the movie include sexual assaults, forced feeding (as a result of prisoner hunger strikes), and drug injections. There were many attempts by prisoners to commit suicide. The Hamdan v. Rumsfeld ruling in 2006 granted prisoners very minimal protections of habeus corpus (trial procedure rights). The result of this ruling is to apply protections against torture to prisoners and to grant them trial rights that are very similar to the ones afforded to prisoners of war through the Geneva Convention. This allowed prisoners to get lawyers to defend them and potentially move to trials however the latter has been slow in coming. The ability to get lawyers is referred to in the movie. It also opened the door for prisoners to have a slight improvement in their living conditions.
Bagram Detention Facility, Afghanistan - originally built by the Soviets during their occupation of Afghanistan, Bagram is now used by the U.S. forces as a detention/prison facility. It was the site of widespread torture of detainees during the early parts of the war and horrible living conditions where prisoners were held in cages of barbed wire (seen in the movie). U.S. has been accused of still capturing and holding Afghani citizens as late as March 2012 by President Karzi. Afghanistan shares some of the responsibility for the prison but complete power over it has yet to be transferred. Prisoners have also claimed that they are still being subjected to strip searches and solitary confinement. The U.S. has denied some of these claims.
This is not a commentary on the historical accuracy of the movie. It is instead a way to more fully understand the background of the story. I admire Zero Dark Thirty as way to make a story out of history, a situation of "what-if", something that I feature quite a bit in my own writing. What if the U.S. had obtained credible information from torturous methods? Would we as a nation have been able to live with ourselves?
References
http://www.davisenterprise.com/arts/movies/zero-dark-thirty-the-ultimate-manhunt/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tora_Bora
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/17/cia-chief-pakistan-drone-cover
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Osama_bin_Laden
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_site
http://projects.nytimes.com/guantanamo/detainees/10024-khalid-shaikh-mohammed
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12964158
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Act
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Act_of_1978_Amendments_Act_of_2008
http://articles.cnn.com/2008-07-09/politics/fisa.explainer_1_fisa-eavesdropping-intelligence-community?_s=PM:POLITIC
http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/report/911Report_Ch5.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/uk/2005/london_explosions/default.stm
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/09/08/nyregion/911-tapes.html
http://dspace.cigilibrary.org/jspui/bitstream/123456789/5314/1/Al%20Qaedas%20Third%20Front%20Saudi%20Arabia.pdf?1
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/al-qaida-arabia.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Chapman_attack
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/17/cia-chief-pakistan-drone-cover
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/12/10/105104/pakistanis-protest-civilian-deaths.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/nyregion/02timessquare.html?pagewanted=all
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-05-03-new-york-bombing_N.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Times_Square_car_bombing_attempt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_Naval_Base
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/05-184.ZO.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamdan_v._Rumsfel
http://www.heritage.org/research/projects/enemy-detention/military-commissions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagram_torture_and_prisoner_abuse
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