The US military and CIA are probing claims that classified information about the killing of Osama bin Laden was given to Oscar winning filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow, a Republican lawmaker said on Thursday.
Peter King, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said he requested an investigation after reports that President Barack Obama’s administration gave high-level access to Bigelow and Sony Pictures about the raid that killed the al Qaeda leader in Pakistan last year.
“I am pleased that the Inspectors General at DoD (the US Defense Department) and the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) agree with me that potential leaks to filmmakers are something worth investigating and taking action to address,” King said in a statement.
“The leaks that followed the successful bin Laden mission led to the arrests of Pakistanis and put in danger the mission’s heroes and their families,” he added.
King included with his statement correspondence from the office of the Pentagon Inspector from last month, as well as a November dated letter from the office of the deputy director of the CIA, confirming a probe had been started.
The New York lawmaker made his original request for an investigation into the alleged leaks in August.
King’s statement added that the new Bigelow film was to have been released in October 2012, one month before a US presidential election that will determine if Democrat Obama will win a second term in the White House.
Bigelow won a best director Academy Award for The Hurt Locker, a 2008 movie about a US army bomb disposal team set during the Iraq War. The movie also won five other Oscars.
