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New Whistleblower Documentary SILENCED World Premiere
I am very proud of my role as Associate Producer for the film SILENCED. Executive Produced by Susan Sarandon, directed by Oscar-nominated James Spione, the film premiered April 19 at the Tribeca International Film Festival here in New York.
The film is about the war being fought between those who reveal the dark truths about the United States’ national security policies, and a federal government ever more committed to shrouding its activities in secrecy.
According to the Justice Department, those who leak sensitive information to the public are a threat to the nation’s safety. We have seen under the Obama Administration more Espionage Act prosecutions than all previous presidents combined. Many of those pursued by the government risked their lives, their freedom and their honor to commit an act of conscience and tell the American people what their government is doing in their names.
SILENCED focuses on three patriotic Americans, all of whom I have written about here before, and all of whom I hold as friends (I was interviewed and was originally scheduled to appear myself in the film for my own whistleblowing, but ended up on the cutting room floor.)
Exec. Producer Susan Sarandon
— Jesselyn Radack blew the whistle on the Department of Justice’s attempts to cover up the unConstitutional treatment of the so-called American Taliban, John Walker Lindh. As a young lawyer, Radack fought for Lindh’s right to be represented as he was interrogated, then, after discovering the cover-up, told us all what happened. Radack went on to devote her career to defending whistleblowers (Disclosure: Radack was part of the team that defended me after the Department of State retaliated against me for my own whistleblowing), including the other two subjects of this film. She currently is part of Edward Snowden’s legal team.
— Thomas Drake blew the whistle on the NSA’s domestic spying programs years before Edward Snowden, and fought a bitter battle for his freedom. Almost immediately following 9/11, Tom began finding threads within the NSA leading to the unConstitutional spying on Americans that only now is being fully exposed. Tom was also one of the first U.S. government employees to go to Congress with evidence that the intelligence community might indeed have prevented 9/11 had they shared specific information already on file among various agencies.
— John Kiriakou was the first person associated with the CIA to publicly declare waterboarding is torture. He struggled to maintain his freedom, but ultimately was pressed into a plea bargain to avoid bankrupting his family. John is now serving a 30 month sentence in Federal prison for his whistleblowing. John’s wife was present at the premiere, and read aloud to the audience a letter John had sent her from prison.
Director James Spione
I’ll leave the review of SILENCED to others, but it’s pretty damn good. I am far from objective on this subject, for being associated directly with the project, for being a whistleblower myself, and because I remain a patriotic American deeply concerned about what our nation has become. As we continue our slide into a post-Constitutional America, it will be future whistleblowers who may be the only ones who will show us what a government once of the people now is doing.
SILENCED will move from Tribeca through a tour of various film festivals. Wider distribution is in the works. Until then, here’s the trailer for the film (again, though I’m in the trailer, I’m not in the final version of the film.)
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
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meloveconsullongtime said...
1You…hung out with…JANET WEISS of Rocky Horror?
ENVY! Now I’ve got REAL ENVY! Now I’m thinking of Bill and Ted kow-towing and shouting, “WE’RE NOT WORTHY!”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FucbvoFFy0
04/21/14 12:52 PM | Comment Link
wemeantwell said...
2Rocky Horror was totally in my head the entire time. A lot of people came up to her to comment, and because she had been making movies for so long, you could just about guess which movie they’d single out based on their age. She was pretty gracious about the whole thing.
04/21/14 1:22 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
3As an investor in this film, why wasn’t I consulted before they cut you out? I heard DS demanded it or they would revoke all the major players’ passports.
04/21/14 1:51 PM | Comment Link
wemeantwell said...
4The editor said something in passing about me having a face better suited for radio. I may appear on the Disney Blue Ray/DVD under the stage name “Princess Deedy.”
04/21/14 1:53 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
5The irony: PVB was SILENCED.
04/21/14 2:11 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
6Speaking of “Silenced” and fighting the good fight, “The Good Wife” last night had a hilarious attack on the defenders of the NSA Domestic spy program. If you still have any friends who defend the NSA domestic spy program like in the FBI, give them a call and talk about all their secrets. See how they like it. As my cousin Paul always said, “The NSA’s ATT – Reach out and Fuck someone.”
04/21/14 2:20 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
7Rich..I just nominated you for today’s award for “Cruelty Above and Beyond”.
btw Peter. At least you weren’t personally left on the cutting floor..like some people we know.
04/21/14 2:22 PM | Comment Link
meloveconsullongtime said...
8Peter,
For you and me and any other Old Folks among us, in THIS scene from Rocky Horror, I imagine:
Dr Frankenfurter = GW Bush
Eddie = Bill Clinton
And as you know, there’s no “good guy” or “bad guy” in Rocky Horror; it’s just existential:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dC3VTBG0tRc
04/21/14 3:44 PM | Comment Link
meloveconsullongtime said...
9PS, by the way, further re Rocky Horror:
One of my reasons (one of my lesser ones, not a very serious one, but a slightly serious one after all) for objecting to “gay marriage” and the normalisation of homosexuality and other sexual perversions…
…is that YOUTH NEEDS to go through some rituals of exploring perversions, SO THAT Youth can learn the difference!
And no that’s NOT a way for youth to learn “intolerance” – because how can anyone learn how to tolerate what is NORMAL? If perversions or other kinds of differences are considered “normal”, then no one learns about tolerance!
You can’t learn to be tolerant unless you have some idea of what is abnormal!
And THAT was the BEAUTY – and the REAL LESSON – of Rocky Horror! It used to be a ritual for youths to indulge in a bit of abnormality and perversion, in a fun way BUT a way that made it clear that “some behaviours are perverted, but that’s alright as long as no one gets hurt.”
But now that youths are taught that NO behaviours are perverted, how can they learn to tolerate differences?
Seriously! THIS song is a great lesson about tolerance! But THIS song makes NO SENSE when “gay marriage” is normalised!
(BTW, Saint Oscar Wilde, please pray for me! ;-):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc80tFJpTuo
04/21/14 4:03 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
10melov…you are A-Ok…in a perverse way of course.:)
Just kidding But that’s all right. You see..if I’ve learned to tolerate the existence of the Bush family, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Obama, Holder, Clapper, Alexander, the DHS/DOS/NSA/CIA/DOD/DOJ/FISA/ATF/DEA criminal cartel and all the rest of the perverted psycho’s who run this country and whom I can’t do anything about, then I can tolerate a whacked out victim of DS supported spouse stealing cocksuckers who still believes in the Roman Catholic Church, of which has supported and covered up child raping perverted Priests from Ireland to Los Angeles and ran a 500 year torture program of those who only questioned why the Pope could fuck any female he wanted with impunity while burning at the stake any and all who would question his authority. So, you see..it all makes sense. Tolerate the intolerable and you become just as insane. That my friend is why I AM just as insane. I’ve learned from the best. Only problem is..I would slit the throat of every last one of them if I could. Making me, the same psychopathic murderer as them. So..what’s the answer?
bartender..care to answer that? No? I thought so. In that case..pour me a double of 90 proof tolerance.
04/21/14 8:31 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
11ps..The Rocky Horror show.
I dunno. I must be weird. Perhaps it has to do with my standards for what music ORIGINALLY meant to me. You see melov, I saw Rocky Horror. One time, after meeting my new wife, who’s family were a member of the devoted fan base who showed up every Saturday night for two years, at a local artsy fartsy movie house that hosted the local Rocky Horror fan club, whereby..once I saw it, I couldn’t connect. I was already too far gone down the path of ethereal musicianship…Vietnam, paternal responsibility, US government employment, self employment, …hell, I had already “dropped out”
a full 15 years before. And then followed my meme.
Bottom line…after witnessing Hendrix, Cream, and a multitude of life altering musical dynamics of biblical proportions, to me, the Horror Show was the farthest tent in the Carnival of Ringling Brothers Greatest Show on Earth.
04/21/14 9:03 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
12ps..I can’t resist.
pitch wrote:”Bottom line…after witnessing Hendrix, Cream, and a multitude of life altering musical dynamics of biblical proportions, to me, the Horror Show was the farthest tent in the Carnival of Ringling Brothers Greatest Show on Earth.” unquote
I failed to add…”And then came George W. Bush”.
04/21/14 9:07 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
13ps..I forgot to add..”and then came Peter’s blog”.
🙂
04/21/14 9:14 PM | Comment Link
Kyzl Orda said...
14Dear Peter, it’s a noble effort and being in NY, could be a great opportunity to create a new film project on Whistleblowing.
When is the film coming to our nation’s capitol? I looked up the E Street Cinemas around here and visited a site for the film but didnt find this information
04/21/14 9:48 PM | Comment Link
wemeantwell said...
15Distribution is still in the planning, but I know they are talking to the E Street Cinema. I’ll have announcements here when things settle. Apparently large parts of the doc film world function with the efficiency of the State Department, though the people are way, way cooler and better looking.
04/21/14 10:00 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
16Hey Peter..are there any film distributors and theaters in Iraq or Afghanistan that which will hold two to three year weekly fan induced Rocky Horror shows?
04/21/14 11:16 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
17ps..Rocky Horror…the epitome of the most absurd clueless people on the planet who, given the red pill of CIA truth, couldn’t find their asshole with a mirror and both hands.
04/21/14 11:20 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
18“According to the Justice Department, those who leak sensitive information to the public are a threat to the nation’s safety.”
And especially if that sensitive information makes the DOJ look incompetent:
http://www.wired.com/2012/03/fbi-bend-suspend-law
04/22/14 6:45 PM | Comment Link