Documents

In 2015 Admiral Robert Papp, the State Department’s Arctic envoy, spoke multiple times about trying to broker a deal with Disney to use characters from Frozen to promote climate change issues to children.  Recently released State Dept. documents show that negotiations broke down because of conflicts with Disney’s corporate messaging, and that Disney were unhappy […](Read more...)

The latest files to be released by the National Archives include one on Kinsgley Amis - the former novelist and critic who was knighted in 1990. Amis was a member of the Communist party while at Oxford university in June 1941, though he renounced Marxism in 1956-7. MI5's monitoring of Amis, which included intercepting letters, collecting news cuttings, keeping an eye on his mistress and talking to people who knew him, covered this same period but continued for another decade after Amis has publicly rejected communism.

One of the first films to be made with the help of former CIA officers was 1985's The Man With One Red Shoe. This badly-written, weakly-executed action-comedy depict the Agency running surveillance on a musician played by Tom Hanks, who they believe is a CIA agent who is going to testify in a congressional hearing about Agency drug smuggling. In reality, he is a mild-mannered violinist who one faction within the CIA has tricked another faction into believing is an agent of the utmost importance.

Newly released documents shed light on the FBI's entertainment liaison office - officially titled the Investigative Publicity and Public Affairs Unit (IPPAU), including how they work on dozens of popular films and TV shows, and reject requests for support for PR reasons, just like the Pentagon. (Read more...)

Arthur Ransome was a very well-known author of children's books, best known for his series beginning with Swallows and Amazons. He was also a spy for British intelligence and a close enough friend to the Bolshevik leadership that he married Leon Trotsky's secretary.

The long-running ABC show The F.B.I. was perhaps the greatest success of the FBI's entertainment liaison office during Hoover's time as head of the Bureau. The deal struck between the FBI and the producers granted Hoover approval and veto power over scripts, casting and even sponsors. In return Hoover allowed unprecedented access to case files, personnel and FBI properties and even appeared in the show on occasion himself.(Read more...)

In last weekend's ClandesTime I discussed how the CIA no longer allow film-makers to shoot footage of the CIA headquarters, leading the producers of Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation to re-use old footage of Langley, but it appears they may have relaxed this rule and are now allowing filming, or at least providing newer footage to entertainment producers.(Read more...)

This week on the New World Next Week: Utah compensates a wrongfully arrested nurse...with taxpayer money; Trump stops the release of the JFK files; and Canada pays hush money to silence MKULTRA victim.

This week on the New World Next Week: Utah compensates a wrongfully arrested nurse...with taxpayer money; Trump stops the release of the JFK files; and Canada pays hush money to silence MKULTRA victim.

Like most major 20th century writers the FBI has a brief file on Aldous Huxley - the 'author and social critic' behind Brave New World, Island and The Doors of Perception. Huxley was never the subject of a Bureau investigation but they kept tabs on some of his public appearances and statements.