Spy Culture: Recent Episodes
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A document recently made available by the CIA shows that an unnamed Ops Center was monitoring news media coverage of...
The post CIA Ops Center Monitored Media Coverage of Sean Penn El Chapo Story first appeared on Spy Culture.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the 7/7 London Bombings, a terrorist mass murder that I investigated for many...
The post ClandesTime 282 – The 7/7 London Bombings Revisited first appeared on Spy Culture.
The Lockerbie bombing, which brought down Pan Am 103 and killed 270 people, is one of the most disturbing events...
The post ClandesTime 281 – Conspiracy Theories: The Lockerbie Bombing first appeared on Spy Culture.
The latest FOIA releases from the CBP, DEA and LAPD’s Hollywood Offices, including contracts and databases of supported film and...
The post Fun with FOIA: The Latest Documents from the LAPD, DEA and CBP first appeared on Spy Culture.
Zero Day is the latest in CIA-supported Netflix spy dramas, only this time it’s cyberterrorism rather than Arab hijackers or...
The post Subscribercast #98 – Zero Day first appeared on Spy Culture.
I recently joined Malcolm Critcher of This Is Propaganda on his DoubleThink podcast, to discuss the conflicts and collaborations between...
The post Hollywood vs The Pentagon – Tom Secker on DoubleThink first appeared on Spy Culture.
I offer some thoughts on the 90s thriller The Fugitive, honing in on the Tommy Lee Jones character and his...
The post Subscribercast #97 – The Fugitive first appeared on Spy Culture.
The Pentagon’s Hollywood offices claim that they don’t pitch, they don’t try to push certain content into the culture industries....
The post ClandesTime 280 – How the US Military Pitches Hollywood first appeared on Spy Culture.
We check in with the recently-released season two of Netflix’s The Recruit, a show supported by the CIA, DOD and...
The post Subscribercast #96 – The Recruit Season Two first appeared on Spy Culture.
The 1986 Cannon Films version of Invaders from Mars is one of the weirder Golan and Globus films, and in...
The post NASA Rejected Invaders from Mars Remake Due to Military Script Changes first appeared on Spy Culture.
How are government employees portrayed in popular movies? In this episode we review Civil Servants on the Silver Screen, an...
The post ClandesTime 279 – Civil Servants on the Silver Screen first appeared on Spy Culture.
I joined Don Jeffries on his I Protest podcast for a broad conversation on government influence in Hollywood, the decline...
The post The Government and Hollywood – Tom Secker on I Protest with Don Jeffries first appeared on Spy Culture.
If you search for ‘Tom Hanks CIA’ then my website is one of the top results, so I thought I...
The post How I Persuaded ChatGPT that Tom Hanks is Working for the CIA first appeared on Spy Culture.
In 1982 an anti-anarchist pro-SAS movie supported by the real SAS and based on the Iranian embassy siege was released,...
The post ClandesTime 278 – The Final Option (or Who Dares Wins) first appeared on Spy Culture.
For this end-of-year subscriber podcast I take a look at the 1990s cult classic Point Break. A simple tale of...
The post Subscribercast #95 – Point Break first appeared on Spy Culture.
Over the last decade, data has become the new resource or commodity underpinning the failing global economy. In this episode...
The post ClandesTime 277 – How Big Data is Ruining Football (and possibly the planet) first appeared on Spy Culture.
From the ‘no wonder this was a one season wonder’ file came The Rookie: Feds, a spin off from the...
The post ‘Showcase Cooperation Between the FBI and Local Law Enforcement Agencies’ first appeared on Spy Culture.
The murders of Biggie and Tupac remain unsolved. In this episode we examine the film City of Lies, which ties...
The post ClandesTime 276 – City of Lies first appeared on Spy Culture.
Netflix’s The Diplomat is cutting edge State Department propaganda, as well as being a Homeland replacement set in and around...
The post Subscribercast #94 – The Diplomat Season Two first appeared on Spy Culture.
The Union is the latest big spy film to hit streaming and has proven a success despite being a 10...
The post ClandesTime 275 – The Union first appeared on Spy Culture.
In 2008 the film-maker Linda Moulton Howe told Robbie Graham that the 1951 sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood...
The post The Day the Earth Stood Still: Rejected by the US Air Force, but aided by the CIA? first appeared on Spy Culture.
In the last 20 years the US military has supported a variety of UFO and/or alien invasion films, from War...
The post Close Encounters of the Third Kind was ‘Counter to Air Force and DOD policy’ first appeared on Spy Culture.
The topic of Israel and Hollywood tends to attract racists and conspiracy theorists but for this month’s subscribercast I put...
The post Subscribercast #93 – Israel and Hollywood first appeared on Spy Culture.
I hate reality TV but it’s cheap, nasty and has taken over the TV entertainment industry. In this episode we...
The post ClandesTime 274 – The US Military and Reality TV first appeared on Spy Culture.
Rumours are circulating that Marvel have made changes to their forthcoming Captain America: Brave New World movie to remove any...
The post Israel in Hollywood and Marvel’s Sabra Controversy first appeared on Spy Culture.
Most of you will have read or heard some of the coverage of the relationship between the military and video...
The post Subscribercast #92 – The US Military and Video Games first appeared on Spy Culture.
The government involvement in Hollywood marches on so in today’s episode we examine two films that were released this year,...
The post ClandesTime 273 – The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare vs My Spy: The Eternal City first appeared on Spy Culture.
1981’s Das Boot is one of the world’s most famous anti-war films as well as one of its longest –...
The post ‘Pure Propaganda’ – Larry Suid File on Das Boot first appeared on Spy Culture.
In the many years I’ve been doing this I’ve got a lot of suggestions and recommendations from listeners. In this...
The post Subscribercast #91 – Listener Recommendations first appeared on Spy Culture.
When you specialise in an area of research you tend to be asked the same questions, or the same kinds...
The post ClandesTime 272 – FAQs first appeared on Spy Culture.
I honestly wish I didn’t have to write and talk about the plagiarism of my work so frequently but in...
The post MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios Plagiarised Spy Culture, So Here’s Where You Can Download it for Free first appeared on Spy Culture.
Why did the US military support a film about a drunken, abusive husband and father who is a textbook narcissist?...
The post ClandesTime 271 – The Great Santini first appeared on Spy Culture.
Gangster finds God, with the help of a non-linear storyline. In this month’s subscriber-only episode I have a long, rambling...
The post Subscribercast #90 – Pulp Fiction first appeared on Spy Culture.
| | | How the US military deals with controversial topics in film and TV, especially where the stories depict crimes by military...The post Bosses in Pentagon Hollywood Office Confirm Something I’ve Been Saying for a While first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | The original TV series of Mission: Impossible was inspired by the life and work of CIA contract agent Robert Maheu,...The post ClandesTime 270 – The CIA and Mission: Impossible first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | As word spreads about the power, influence and cost (both human and financial) of the entertainment liaison offices we’ve got...The post That’s Militainment – Spy Culture and Theaters of War on Responsible Statecraft first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | Gary Webb is one of the journalists who inspired me, and his Dark Alliance series on the CIA complicity in...The post Subscribercast #89 – Gary Webb, the CIA and Cocaine first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | While it is perhaps my least favourite Quentin Tarantino film I was nonetheless curious to see that Kill Bill was...The post ‘Autographs Will be Allowed’ – The Pentagon and Kill Bill first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | Very few major films have been made about the wars in Yugoslavia, but two are certainly worth examining. In this...The post ClandesTime 269 – The Balkan Line vs Behind Enemy Lines first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | What connects Kris Kristofferson, Willem Dafoe, Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman? They have all starred in Iran-Contra themed movies. In...The post ClandesTime 268 – The Cinema of Iran-Contra: Part II first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | Lone Survivor. Black Hawk Down. Kandahar. Stick them in a blender and you get this episode’s movie – Land of...The post ClandesTime 267 – Land of Bad first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | What connects the Glazer family, owners of Manchester United football club, and the CIA? Three companies: the Zapata Corporation, founded...The post Subscribercast #88 – The Glazers, Manchester United and the CIA first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | Renowned TV personality Jay Leno is one of the US military’s closest friends, frequently featuring military personnel and equipment on...The post ‘Marines and alcohol have embarrassed us before’ – The US Military and Jay Leno first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | When the CIA started formally working with Hollywood in the 1990s, a direct-to-video action comedy about government drug smuggling starring...The post Why did the CIA support Iran-Contra movie Tough and Deadly? first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | The spy movie is dying, despite efforts to reform it in recent years. In this episode we examine Argylle, the...The post ClandesTime 266 – Argylle first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | Continuing our vaguely Gary Devore-related explorations, in this month’s subscribercast we look at two unconventional bank heist films where the...The post Subscribercast #87 – The Bank Job vs Inside Man first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | Big, western films about the wars in the former Yugoslavia are rare, and to my knowledge the only one that...The post ‘All This Should Go’ – US Military File on Behind Enemy Lines first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | True Lies is one of the easier-to-spot blockbusters that enjoyed US military support, and fulfilled a long-term fantasy for the...The post ‘A Unique Opportunity to Showcase the Harrier’ – Military File on True Lies first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | Kevin Gosztola joins us to talk about his new Medium publication The Wide Shot, a film review and industry analysis...The post ClandesTime 265 – The Wide Shot, David Robb and Phil Strub first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | What does a military movie with no heroes look like? It looks like Buffalo Soldiers, a tale of bored, criminally...The post Subscribercast #86 – Buffalo Soldiers, etc. first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | They gone and done it – India, perhaps the world’s biggest importer of weapons has produced its own version of...The post Fighter: Indian Air Force Goes Full Top Gun first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | It isn’t often that you get a long-term inside view of a government propaganda office, but that’s what I’ve got...The post ClandesTime 264 – The US Marine Corps in Hollywood: 1974 to 1982 first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | Gary Devore and Norman Wexler’s Raw Deal is a typically ridiculous macho action comedy set in the world of covert...The post ‘I’m Certain the DOD will Consult with the Justice Department’ – Military File on Gary Devore’s Raw Deal first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | There I was, innocently flicking through hundreds of pages of documents from the Marine Corps entertainment liaison office when all...The post Rocky III, the Vietnam War and the Military Pitching Hollywood first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | Apocalypse Now and Francis Ford Coppola were rejected by the Pentagon when they asked for production support. A decade later...The post ClandesTime 263 – Gardens of Stone first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | 15 years after podcasts first became a popular medium, the CIA has cottoned onto the value of pre-recorded audio content....The post ClandesTime 262 – The CIA and Podcasts Decoded first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | Two years on from my investigation into over 3000 pages of Bureau of Prisons files on Jeffrey Epstein we return...The post Subscribercast #85 – The Epstein-Maxwell Cover-Up first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | Opening battle sequence. Religious symbolism. Chronically terrible screenwriting. All this and more as Henri invites me onto Fortress on a...The post Saving Private Ryan – Tom on Fortress on a Hill first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | Today I received a very odd response from the DEA to a three year old FOIA request – a denial,...The post DEA Deny FOIA Request for Documents They’ve Already Released first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | Dying of the Light. Dark. The Card Counter. Aside from all being written and directed by Paul Schrader, what do...The post ClandesTime 261 – A Paul Schrader Trilogy first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | In this month’s subscriber-only podcast we tackle the final season of The Shield, and do so head on. In this...The post Subscribercast #84 – The Shield Season Seven first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | In 1986, during the filming of Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam War tragedy Gardens of Stone, his eldest child Gian-Carlo died...The post Death of Francis Ford Coppola’s Son ‘Very Favorable for the Army’ first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | Netflix’s The Diplomat marks the first time that the British Foreign Office and the US State Department have made a...The post ClandesTime 260 – The Diplomat first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | For this Christmastime subscribercast we welcome back Henri to discuss the 1980s sci-fi comedy classic Back to the Future. We...The post Subscribercast #83 – Back to the Future first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | In late 2020 I put in a FOIA request with the Pentagon for records on their support to Operation Christmas...The post Tag Us: The US Military Updates Its Contracts with Hollywood first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | Between 2018 and 2022, three major OSS spies have been canonised in film and TV – Julia Child, Moe Berg...The post ClandesTime 259 – The OSS in Popular Culture first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | Continuing our review series, on this month’s subscribercast we look at the sixth and penultimate season of The Shield. We...The post Subscribercast #82 – The Shield Season 6 first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | The CIA’s Museum is a monument to lies, murder and secret power. Not officially, of course, they use much prettier...The post ClandesTime 258 – The CIA Museum first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | Phil Strub has died, and since I’ve somehow found myself breaking this story I thought I’d let you know how...The post The Life and Death of Phil Strub first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | How do you hold the police accountable if Internal Affairs are corrupt? That’s the core question in The Shield season...The post Subscribercast #81 – The Shield Season Five first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | Ted Kaczynski a.k.a. the Unabomber died earlier this year. As a tribute, in this episode we look at the latest...The post ClandesTime 257 – Was the Unabomber Wrong? first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | In this special report we examine the documentary accusing celebrity Russell Brand of sex crimes. We look at the troubling...The post ClandesTime Special – The Russell Brand Allegations first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | One thing the Pentagon love to do is ‘showcase’ absurdly costly technologies to the public. This military product placement helps...The post ClandesTime 256 – Military-Industrial Product Placement first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | Pissing off the US government is not the aim of what I do here, but it is what you might...The post The US Air Force Pitches Hollywood, But Their Pitches Are ████████ first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | Should the government be allowed to seize people’s property because they think it was bought with the profits from crime? ...The post Subscribercast #80 – The Shield Season Four first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | --- | | | | Life is like this sometimes: you wait ages for a movie to take corporate personhood and turn it into the...The post ClandesTime 255 – Cultural Capitalism: Air vs Tetris vs Blackberry first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | --- | | | | Reality Winner was an NSA contractor who leaked a single document to The Intercept, and received a five year prison...The post ClandesTime 254 – Reality first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | --- | | | | The Department of Justice’s office of public affairs is the nation’s hub for information on true crime. In this episode... The post Subscribercast 79 – How the Department of Justice Manipulates the News Media first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | --- | | | | Amazon have finally pulled the plug on Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, going out with a smudged inkblot of a final... The post ClandesTime 253 – Jack Ryan Season Four (and Specials Ops: Lioness) first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | --- | | | | The Mafia. Hollywood starlets. Foreign leaders. Fake sex tapes. Illegal surveillance. Watergate. The CIA. And Howard Hughes. Robert Maheu’s life... The post ClandesTime 252 – Robert Maheu: The CIA’s Fixer in Hollywood first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | --- | | | | You know how it goes: you wait years for a movie that reframes the war in Afghanistan as a Saving... The post ClandesTime 251 – Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant vs Kandahar first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | --- | | | | Did Joe Colombo approve the script for The Godfather? Was Dorothy Hunt murdered by the CIA as part of the... The post Subscribercast #78 – White House Plumbers vs The Offer first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | --- | | | | 1996’s Independence Day is corny, schlocky, nationalistic and pro-nuclear weapons. So how did it end up being rejected by the... The post ClandesTime 250 – Independence Day vs The Pentagon first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | --- | | | | Well, Ted Cruz has done it, and the Pentagon has been forced to rewrite its doctrine on working with Hollywood... The post Pentagon Goes Full HUAC With New Anti-China Rules for Hollywood first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | --- | | | | Desert Storm. A female Army Captain. Friendly fire killings. Mutiny. White Phosphorous. Lies and cover-ups. The story of the writing,... The post ClandesTime 249 – Courage Under Fire first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | --- | | | | In this subscribercast we examine how the season-long arc in The Shield is a metaphor for the legacy of Iran-Contra,... The post Subscribercast #77 – The Shield Season 3 first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | --- | | | | I have no idea whether the Wagner Rebellion in Russia is going to have any lasting impact, but I do... The post Renegade Ruskies: The Wagner Rebellion Predicted in Films and TV first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | --- | | | | The CIA helps to make movies, but what does it think of them? In this episode we delve into how... The post ClandesTime 248 – The CIA on The CIA in Hollywood first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | --- | | | | Another one-of-a-kind finding from looking into Courage Under Fire – a film rejected by the US military but still influenced... The post Does Fear Help Form the Bonds Between Combat Veterans? Not According to the Pentagon… first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | --- | | | | File this one under ‘I was not expecting to read that from that person’. While going through the Pentagon’s file... The post Phil Strub: ‘People should view the government with extreme suspicion and cynicism’ first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | --- | | | | What does the Deputy Director of the CIA think about spy movies? And what about the founders of the first...The post Subscribercast #76 – More of the CIA on the CIA in Hollywood first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | --- | | | | Actor and producer Jack Webb is best known for his copaganda franchise Dragnet – which spanned radio, film and TV...The post The D.I. – Copaganda Meets Military Propaganda first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | --- | | | | The public inquiry into the 2017 Manchester bombing recently published its full and final report. In this episode, we take...The post ClandesTime 246 – The Manchester Bombing Inquiry first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | --- | | | | The US military’s targeting of children goes back decades. In this episode we look at a classic of the children’s...The post ClandesTime 245 – Lassie vs the Pentagon first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | --- | | | | The Shield season two ups the stakes on season one in every way – political, societal, personal. In this month’s...The post Subscribercast #75 – The Shield Season Two first appeared on Spy Culture.
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| | | --- | | | | If a military supported romance drama with Twitter-level gender politics sounds like a terrible movie then you aren’t wrong. In...The post ClandesTime 244 – Purple Hearts first appeared on Spy Culture.
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The Pentagon budget request for fiscal year 2024 comes in at a staggering $824 billion, the highest any country has...
The post $824 Billion Pentagon Budget: Why So Many Classified Programs with Movie Names? first appeared on Spy Culture.
Amazon’s foray into medieval fantasy epics – The Rings of Power, a Tolkien adaptation – is perhaps the most expensive...
The post The Rings of Power Proves to be State Capitalism Off the Deep End first appeared on Spy Culture.
When it comes to rolling over in response to demands from the world’s most powerful military, many film makers are...
The post ‘Mr Coppola Will Never Agree to Rewrite the Script’ – The Pentagon and Apocalypse Now first appeared on Spy Culture.
Short answer: yes, with an if. Long answer: no, with a but. In this subscribercast we look at two movies...
The post Subscribercast #74 – Does Representation Matter? first appeared on Spy Culture.
Films about torture are often exploitative and sadistic, and even more so when they are state sponsored. In this episode...
The post ClandesTime 243 – The Cinema of the Torture Program first appeared on Spy Culture.
Good Guys Wear Black is one of very few movies to explicitly discuss the Phoenix Program – a Vietnam-era behind...
The post Phoenix Program Movies: Good Guys Wear Black first appeared on Spy Culture.
In 2003 one of the longest-running shows on American TV debuted: NCIS. As previously detailed on this site, the more...
The post Cocaine, Bad Apples and the CIA – US Marine Corps file on NCIS Season One first appeared on Spy Culture.
In the first of several subscriber-only podcasts we look at season one of the unique and award-winning cop drama The...
The post Subscribercast #73 – The Shield Season One first appeared on Spy Culture.
The CIA-sponsored streaming wars hit a new high recently, when Netflix premiered The Recruit and within days Amazon released the...
The post ClandesTime 242 – Jack Ryan vs The Recruit first appeared on Spy Culture.
Via Muckrock’s latest newsletter comes an interesting release – emails on the CIA’s twitter account, deciding what their first tweet...
The post How to do Redacted Tweets: Documents on the CIA’s Twitter Account first appeared on Spy Culture.
In this quick podcast I review the biographical moral drama Worth (2020) a.k.a. What is Life Worth?. It tells the...
The post Subscribercast #72 – What is Life Worth? first appeared on Spy Culture.
In early 1977 a retired NATO general put together a team of elite military officers to write a report on...
The post ClandesTime 241 – World War III first appeared on Spy Culture.
The invasion and occupation of Afghanistan was America’s longest war. In this episode we take an overview of the war...
The post ClandesTime 240 – The Cinema of the War in Afghanistan first appeared on Spy Culture.
Chris from Gorilla Radio invited me back to discuss the recent article Kit and I did on over 2,000 pages...
The post Black Ops and the War in Bosnia – Tom on Gorilla Radio first appeared on Spy Culture.
In early 1997 the Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen Charles Krulak issued an order authorising the use of video...
The post US Marine Corps Order on Using Video Games for Military Training first appeared on Spy Culture.
The CIA recently launched a new outreach effort – its own podcast. In this subscribercast I review and analyse The...
The post Subscribercast #71 – The Langley Files first appeared on Spy Culture.
The new season of Amazon’s Jack Ryan just came out, and much like previous seasons it benefited from large scale...
The post Jack Ryan Season 3 got Government Support from Everyone first appeared on Spy Culture.
Anyone who has followed the CIA’s relationship with the entertainment business will be familiar with the 2003 thriller The Recruit. ...
The post Is Netflix’s The Recruit Sponsored by the CIA? first appeared on Spy Culture.
Football is the world’s biggest sport, and perhaps the most state-sponsored sport. In this episode we take a critical look...
The post ClandesTime Special – State Sponsored Football and the Qatar World Cup first appeared on Spy Culture.
Today, Netflix released Troll – a mythological action adventure movie where a 150-foot troll menaces Norway. It is almost beat...
The post Norway Enter the Military-Supported Monster Movie Genre with Troll first appeared on Spy Culture.
Imagine a world where secret government agencies used deep fakes to create evidence of events that never happened, and used...
The post Subscribercast #70 – Deep Fakes and The Capture first appeared on Spy Culture.
In this guest article my friend and collaborator Matt Alford offers his thoughts on moviedom, deceit and the campaign to...
The post Effects, Lies and Videotape first appeared on Spy Culture.
Somehow, in the midst of all the identity politics and culture war noise, the fact that Captain Marvel was the...
The post ClandesTime 239 – Captain Marvel and Space Force first appeared on Spy Culture.
The military-Marvel relationship has waxed and waned over the years, but 2019’s Captain Marvel was a high point – a...
The post The US Military’s Captain Marvel Documents first appeared on Spy Culture.
Alan MacLeod’s latest cultural investigation sees him hone in on Activision’s Call of Duty franchise, and how first person shooter...
The post Call of Duty – Spy Culture in MintPress News first appeared on Spy Culture.
The Rampart Scandal has been called the worst police corruption story in the history of Los Angeles, and altered a...
The post ClandesTime 238 – The Cultural Impact of the Rampart Scandal first appeared on Spy Culture.
Well well, it seems the BBC are a nest of crypto-leftist peaceniks after all – Theaters of War recently got...
The post Theaters of War on Alexei Sayle’s Imaginary Sandwich Bar first appeared on Spy Culture.
The 2012 attacks on a US diplomatic outpost and a nearby CIA base in Benghazi caused enormous controversy and political...
The post ClandesTime 237 – 13 Hours and the Benghazi Scandal first appeared on Spy Culture.
The Office of War Information’s Bureau of Motion Pictures was the US government’s first formal office for liaising with Hollywood...
The post ‘The Enemy is Militarism’ – Office of War Information Manual for Film Makers first appeared on Spy Culture.
Henri and I delved into the 2005 sci-fi alien invasion film/Tom Cruise vehicle War of the Worlds. We discuss the...
The post War of the Worlds – Tom on Fortress on a Hill first appeared on Spy Culture.
Mujahideen. False Flags. US interference in the peace process. Ethnic cleansing. The United Nations’ peacekeepers. All this and more as...
The post Subscribercast #69 – Black Ops and Geopolitics in the War in Bosnia first appeared on Spy Culture.
Steven Spielberg’s 2005 alien invasion adventure War of the Worlds helped kick off the recent string of military-supported extraterrestrial war...
The post How the US Military Rewrote War of the Worlds first appeared on Spy Culture.
The Leopold and Loeb case was one of ‘crimes of the century’, and inspired many books, plays and movies. On...
The post Subscribercast #68 – Compulsion vs Rope first appeared on Spy Culture.
The story of how an FBI assistant director for public affairs wrote to Ruthless Records to complaint about Straight Outta...
The post That Time the FBI Wrote a Letter of Complaint to N.W.A. first appeared on Spy Culture.
Amazon Prime are making the most expensive TV show of all time. Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power...
The post ClandesTime 236 – Culture Ministries and The Rings of Power first appeared on Spy Culture.
Obviously, I’m a movie addict but many of my favourites are low-budget features or belong to tiny sub-genres. In this...
The post ClandesTime 235 – These are a Few of My Favourite Films first appeared on Spy Culture.
As youtube has become a centre for emerging pop culture brands, it has also become the target of the US...
The post ClandesTime 234 – Dude Perfect and the US Navy first appeared on Spy Culture.
Pam and Tommy tells the story of the stolen Pamela Anderson-Tommy Lee sextape. Minx tells the story of a 1970s...
The post Subscribercast 67 – Pam and Tommy vs Minx first appeared on Spy Culture.
There I was, innocently digging through some 1970s entertainment liaison office reports from the US Marine Corps when all of...
The post The US Marine Corps and The Cat From Outer Space first appeared on Spy Culture.
Jerry Bruckheimer has a long history of working with the Pentagon, going all the way back to Top Gun, but...
The post ‘This is not the time’ to normalise black operations – Phil Strub email on Bad Boys II first appeared on Spy Culture.
The 1998 asteroid disaster film Armageddon is often mocked, but rarely taken seriously despite its cultural relevance and impact. While...
The post ClandesTime 233 – Armageddon first appeared on Spy Culture.
Due to the publisher of my book Superheroes, Movies and the State being a clown car of feckless cretins who...
The post Superheroes, Movies and the State Now Available for Free Download first appeared on Spy Culture.
I know, you weren’t expecting this, but Military Times have reviewed our documentary Theaters of War. Davis Winkie, who did...
The post Theaters of War in Military Times – But is it Propaganda? first appeared on Spy Culture.
Henri invited Matt and I on his podcast to discuss Theaters of War (though Matt drops in about halfway through...
The post Theaters of War – Matt and Tom on Fortress on a Hill first appeared on Spy Culture.
Matt and I were recently invited on the Dangerous History podcast to discuss our documentary Theaters of War. We talk...
The post Theaters of War on the Dangerous History Podcast first appeared on Spy Culture.
Jonathan Cook wrote up a very complimentary review of Theaters of War for Middle East Eye recently, that summarises the...
The post How the Pentagon dictates Hollywood storylines – Theaters of War in Middle East Eye first appeared on Spy Culture.
75 years ago this week, President Harry Truman signed into law the National Security Act, which brought into being the...
The post The National Security Act Turns 75 – and so do the US Military’s Entertainment Liaison Offices first appeared on Spy Culture.
In September 2018 the US Air Force ran a tour of Special Operations Command for a dozen Hollywood bigshots. The...
The post AFSOC and the Swag Bag Controversy first appeared on Spy Culture.
In 2018, the US Air Force ran its annual Hollywood ‘industry leader tour’, this time to Air Force Special Operations...
The post ClandesTime 232 – Hollywood Goes to Special Operations Command first appeared on Spy Culture.
In 2015, legendary TV producer Dick Wolf approached the FBI about developing scripted and unscripted products based around the Bureau. ...
The post “I Would Like to See a Show that Makes Every Boy and Girl Want to be an FBI agent” – James Comey first appeared on Spy Culture.
When it comes to British intelligence, there are three rules: (1) Trust no one, (2) Trust nothing that they say...
The post Subscribercast #66 – The Undeclared War vs Slow Horses first appeared on Spy Culture.
A listener kindly alerted me to how Spy Culture was flagged up on a recent episode of the Struggle Session...
The post Spy Culture on the Struggle Session Podcast first appeared on Spy Culture.
When it comes to fondly remembered cult 80s action movies, Commando has near-legendary status. In this episode we take a...
The post ClandesTime 231 – Commando first appeared on Spy Culture.
While digging into the production of The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent I contacted the Croatian Ministry of Culture for...
The post No Porn, No Sitcoms and No Soap Operas: The Croatian Ministry of Culture’s Rules first appeared on Spy Culture.
Imagine a world where Nicholas Cage plays himself and is recruited by the CIA to spy on a drug kingpin,...
The post Subscribercast #65 – The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent first appeared on Spy Culture.
Among the numerous agencies who vetted and reviewed the script for the 1994 film adaptation of Tom Clancy’s Clear and...
The post The President Cannot be Racist – FBI File on Clear and Present Danger first appeared on Spy Culture.
One of the recurring propaganda techniques identified by Roger Stahl in Theaters of War is that you can remediate military...
The post In Hollywood, You’re More Likely to be Rescued by the CIA and the Pentagon than by an Ambulance first appeared on Spy Culture.
Over a hundred governments across the world have a culture ministry – though they often go by other names. These...
The post ClandesTime 230 – The Ministries of Culture first appeared on Spy Culture.
Three years ago, when the third and final season of Designated Survivor came out on Netflix, I said the show...
The post CIA Confirm Months-Long Relationship with Producers of Designated Survivor first appeared on Spy Culture.
Alan MacLeod put together a feature for MintPress on the Top Gun: Maverick documents, and how film is military recruitment...
The post Top Gun: Maverick Documents Prove Film is Propaganda – Spy Culture in MintPress News first appeared on Spy Culture.
Scott Horton invited me on his show to discuss the relationship between the Pentagon and Top Gun: Maverick. We outline...
The post The Pentagon and Top Gun: Maverick – Tom on the Scott Horton Show first appeared on Spy Culture.
Well, it’s here. The least-needed film in cinematic history, and therefore likely the box office smash of 2022. In this...
The post ClandesTime Special – Top Gun: Maverick first appeared on Spy Culture.
Theaters of War director Roger Stahl recently wrote an op-ed that came out in the Los Angeles Times today, looking...
The post Theaters of War in the LA Times first appeared on Spy Culture.
In the summer of 2020 a former CIA officer published a book with the overt aim of countering the tide...
The post Subscribercast #64 – The CIA and Fake News first appeared on Spy Culture.
I recently spoke with Steve Rose for his feature in the Guardian about Top Gun: Maverick, and the Pentagon’s entertainment...
The post Top Gun For Hire – Spy Culture (and Theaters of War) in the Guardian first appeared on Spy Culture.
In my latest piece for Shadowproof I outline the production history of Top Gun: Maverick, using documents from the Pentagon,...
The post How the Pentagon Shaped Top Gun: Maverick into a PR Vehicle first appeared on Spy Culture.
The Manchester Arena bombing in May 2017 killed 23 people and injured over 1,000. On the fifth anniversary of the...
The post Was Manchester Arena Bomber Salman Abedi Working for MI5? first appeared on Spy Culture.
Black operations make the world go round, and have become the subject of major movies and TV, from Jack Ryan...
The post ClandesTime 229 – Black Operations and the Entertainment Liaison Offices first appeared on Spy Culture.
Top Gun: Maverick’s official premiere at Cannes this week has provoked renewed interest in the Hollywood – military relationship. I...
The post Top Gun: Maverick – Tom Secker on Newsy first appeared on Spy Culture.
Can you make an environmentalist movie with the help of the Pentagon? In this episode we answer this and other...
The post ClandesTime 228 – Don’t Look Up first appeared on Spy Culture.
The 1995 nuclear submarine mutiny thriller Crimson Tide was rejected by the US Navy, for fairly obvious reasons (the whole...
The post ‘We Don’t Request Script Changes’ – US Navy File on Crimson Tide first appeared on Spy Culture.
It has been a long time coming, but the documentary Theaters of War is now available via on demand streaming. ...
The post Theaters of War Now Available On Demand first appeared on Spy Culture.
In the first of a series of releases, the FBI sent me some of their historical files on working with...
The post You Can’t Get Away With It – The First Film to Star J Edgar Hoover first appeared on Spy Culture.
Moonfall is the latest Roland Emmerich disaster movie, and while it isn’t as bad as Don’t Look Up, it isn’t...
The post Subscribercast #63 – Moonfall first appeared on Spy Culture.
Something I recently stumbled on while researching the 2011 terrorism sci-fi thriller Source Code is a batch of contracts between...
The post In Hollywood the Metro Trains Have to Run on Time – Even if You’re Blowing Them Up first appeared on Spy Culture.
Roger Ailes founded and ran Fox News for the first 20 years of its existence, making it the highest rated...
The post ClandesTime 227 – The Loudest Voice first appeared on Spy Culture.
The invasion of Iraq has been called the greatest intelligence failure of all time. This is – of course –...
The post ClandesTime 226 – In the Loop vs Shock and Awe first appeared on Spy Culture.
All the waves made by Don’t Look Up have missed one key landmark – the Pentagon supported the movie. Unlike...
The post How the US Military Rewrote Don’t Look Up first appeared on Spy Culture.
BookAuthority – a website purporting to be an authority, or possibly the authority, on books has placed Superheroes, Movies and...
The post Superheroes, Movies and the State one of the Top Books of 2022 (apparently) first appeared on Spy Culture.
In one of our more raucous and totally unscripted appearances, Matt and I were recently on Historic.ly, a podcast devoted...
The post Battlefield Hollywood – Matt and Tom on the Historic.ly Podcast first appeared on Spy Culture.
First the CIA tried to block the public from being exposed to its dirty deeds—but now the strategy has shifted...
The post Black Ops in Hollywood: From Censorship to Normalization first appeared on Spy Culture.
Today I joined William Ramsey of William Ramsey Investigates to discuss some of the weird and wonderful things in the...
The post Enemy of the State – Tom on William Ramsey Investigates first appeared on Spy Culture.
Perhaps unavoidably, in this month’s subscriber-only podcast we discuss the war in Ukraine – what led up to this point,...
The post Subscribercast #62 – Cultural Warfare Over Ukraine, and the Polandistan Option first appeared on Spy Culture.
A story doing the rounds on entertainment industry websites in the last couple of days revealed that Black Panther director...
The post Ryan Coogler Arrest Report for Bank Robbery That Never Happened first appeared on Spy Culture.
Perhaps the most infamous story in the history of James Bond is the plagiarism lawsuit brought against Ian Fleming for...
The post ClandesTime 225 – The Battle for Bond first appeared on Spy Culture.
Epstein didn’t kill himself. Or at least, there’s nothing in 3674 pages of his Bureau of Prisons files from his...
The post Subscribercast #61 – The Epstein Prison Files first appeared on Spy Culture.
In this video I do a deep dive into Ben Affleck, his Oscar-winning film Argo, how the CIA supported and...
The post How Ben Affleck (and Bryan Cranston) got into the CIA first appeared on Spy Culture.
While Amazon’s new Reacher series may not have enjoyed the support of any of the usual suspects in the state-sponsored...
The post Reacher Revealed: The Disturbing Background and Subtext to Amazon’s Latest Hit first appeared on Spy Culture.
While looking through the latest post by the National Security Archive – on the Pentagon’s efforts to exempt their operations...
The post Yes, Minister, the Pentagon and the Kyoto Greenhouse Gas Negotiations first appeared on Spy Culture.
From the same ‘what the fuck are the CIA up to now?’ school of thought as the episode of Top...
The post Subscribercast #60 – Pawn Stars Goes to Langley first appeared on Spy Culture.
Something I found while flicking through Production Weekly (a Hollywood newsletter that charts in-production TV and films) is that the...
The post What Connects the next Mission: Impossible to the First Movie to Shoot at CIA Headquarters? first appeared on Spy Culture.
Roger alerted me to a recent article in Jacobin Mag about how Spider-Man’s working class origins have been thoroughly subverted...
The post Spider-Man: No Way Home – Spy Culture in Jacobin Mag first appeared on Spy Culture.
Since it’s Christmas, I thought we’d do something Biblical and look at an extremely stupid TV show that I happen...
The post Subscribercast #59 – Media Breakdown: Sodom and Gomorrah first appeared on Spy Culture.
The third season of the popular LAPD-supported cop show The Rookie is markedly different to its first two seasons. Or...
The post ClandesTime 224 – The Rewriting of The Rookie first appeared on Spy Culture.
‘Propaganda has been in existence since the time human society came into being; it has always been most closely associated...
The post Subscribercast #58 – Reflections on War Propaganda first appeared on Spy Culture.
From our ‘cancelled after one season’ file come The Code, a CBS legal procedural set in the JAG corps of...
The post ClandesTime 223 – The Code first appeared on Spy Culture.
Until a few weeks ago, very few people had heard of Jonathan and Diana Toebbe but now they’re finding themselves...
The post Suspect in US Spy Case Keeps Quoting from CIA-Supported Movie The Courier first appeared on Spy Culture.
In the latest in our ongoing series of film reviews, research and analysis discussions Henri from Fortress on a Hill...
The post The Rock – Tom on Fortress on a Hill first appeared on Spy Culture.
Iron Man launched the world’s biggest film franchise, as well as one of the most effective vehicles for military propaganda....
The post ClandesTime 222 – Iron Man first appeared on Spy Culture.
Identity has become perhaps the key political term of our age, but how and why did identity politics rise to...
The post Subscribercast #57 – The Origins and Pitfalls of Identity Politics first appeared on Spy Culture.
My new book Superheroes, Movies and the State: How the US Government Shapes Cinematic Universes is now available. Co-authored with...
The post Superheroes, Movies and the State Now Available first appeared on Spy Culture.
James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad is a soulless, consciousless dumpster fire that uses shock value to cover for a plethora...
The post Why The Pentagon Helped Make Coup Fetish Schlock The Suicide Squad first appeared on Spy Culture.
According to legend, Joe Stalin hated John Wayne and tried on several occasions to have the leading man killed. This...
The post John Wayne’s FBI File Says Nothing About Stalin Assassination Plot first appeared on Spy Culture.
The Philadelphia Experiment is one of the most enduring paranormal conspiracy theories in American history. In this episode we examine this theory, its sociological and cultural impact, why the Pentagon refused to help make a movie based on the story, and why it has persisted for so long.
The post ClandesTime 221 – The Philadelphia Experiment first appeared on Spy Culture.
The 1996 Olympic Park bombing is one of the most shameful episodes in the FBI’s history, as they spent months...
The post ‘I don’t have super high hopes for FBI positivity in this one’ – FBI emails on Richard Jewell movie first appeared on Spy Culture.
From the ‘cancelled after one season’ file comes Rubicon, an intricate conspiracy thriller series set in the world of private...
The post ClandesTime 220 – Rubicon first appeared on Spy Culture.
The state make a claim to a monopoly on the righteous use of violence, but throughout history people have challenged...
The post Subscribercast #56 – Revolutionary Violence first appeared on Spy Culture.
Benedict Cumberbatch is like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re going to get. In this episode...
The post ClandesTime 219 – The Courier vs The Mauritanian first appeared on Spy Culture.
Completing our look at the HBO series The Newsroom, we examine season 3, focusing in on the whistleblower storyline and...
The post The Newsroom Season 3 Review first appeared on Spy Culture.
The CIA’s involvement in Argo is obvious from simply watching the movie – they shot several sequences at Langley, after...
The post The CIA’s Argo File first appeared on Spy Culture.
One frequent question I get asked is how the state sponsorship of popular culture (especially movies and TV) works in...
The post Israel’s Culture Ministry and The Operative first appeared on Spy Culture.
On the surface, Demolition Man is a glossy, cheesy 90s action comedy set in an absurd future, but what lies...
The post Subscribercast #55 – Demolition Man first appeared on Spy Culture.
We all know that Hollywood is a bit cash-strapped due to lockdown-related COVID-influenced box office problems, but even I was...
The post Is Black Widow the Most State-Sponsored Movie of All Time? first appeared on Spy Culture.
On this month’s subscriber-only podcast I break down two recent CIA supported productions codifying their new story of the manhunt...
The post Subscribercast #54 – Media Breakdown: The CIA and the Hunt for Bin Laden first appeared on Spy Culture.
Good friend Henri from Fortress on a Hill joined me to discuss the 1990s Iran-Contra political mockumentary Bob Roberts, which...
The post ClandesTime 218 – Bob Roberts first appeared on Spy Culture.
Are humans rational? Should they be? Is logic just a language game? Is ‘rational self-interest’ a bunch of bullshit? On...
The post Subscribercast #53 – Rationality and Irrationality first appeared on Spy Culture.
Due to the positive feedback I received on my recent subscribercast on the New Zealand government – Amazon – Lord...
The post New Zealand Government Documents on Lord of the Rings and Avatar Deals first appeared on Spy Culture.
The guys from Fortress on a Hill had me back on to discuss the case of Clint Lorance – an...
The post The Clint Lorance Murder Case – Tom on Fortress on a Hill first appeared on Spy Culture.
In November 1983 ABC aired The Day After – a one-off TV movie depicting a nuclear war between NATO and...
The post ClandesTime 217 – The Day After first appeared on Spy Culture.
In this video I outline the role government agencies have played in many of Tom Hanks’ biggest and important films,...
The post Secrets of Tom Hanks Revealed first appeared on Spy Culture.
Amazon are making the world’s most expensive TV show – an adaptation of Lord of the Rings, with the New...
The post Subscribercast #52 – The Amazon – New Zealand – Lord of the Rings Deal first appeared on Spy Culture.
Britain’s Security Service, commonly known as MI5, joined the social media app Instagram a few days ago with the apparent...
The post MI5 have joined Instagram, But Remain One of the Most Secretive Organisations in the World first appeared on Spy Culture.
I continue my review of HBO’s The Newsroom by looking at season two – wherein a series of whistleblowers accuse...
The post The Newsroom Season 2 Review (Preview) first appeared on Spy Culture.
The power to destroy a thing is the absolute control over it. In this episode we examine dozens of films...
The post ClandesTime 216 – The Movies That Were Never Made first appeared on Spy Culture.
12 Angry Men is a Hollywood classic about a jury trying to decide whether a young man is guilty of...
The post Subscribercast #51 – 12 Angry Men first appeared on Spy Culture.
Matt and Luke of the Sci-Fi Sanctuary invited me back to talk about the late 90s NSA and CIA-supported thriller...
The post Enemy of the State – Tom on the Sci-Fi Sanctuary first appeared on Spy Culture.
In a year of very few theatrical releases it’s been a bad time for state-sponsored culture, so in this episode...
The post ClandesTime 215 – Greenland vs Operation Christmas Drop vs My Spy first appeared on Spy Culture.
In what has to be one of the most bizarre Hollywood-government collaborations, the DEA once made a PSA video aimed...
The post Stay Out of Trouble – Robocop and the DEA first appeared on Spy Culture.
In the latest of our regular film reviews, Henri and Keagan from Fortress on a Hill and I tackled 1998’s...
The post The Siege – Tom Secker on Fortress on a Hill first appeared on Spy Culture.
I continue the more philosophical theme in recent subscribercasts by outlining the ancient Greek model of moral philosophy known as...
The post Subscribercast #50 – Virtue Ethics vs Virtue Signalling first appeared on Spy Culture.
I recently joined Henri of Fortress on a Hill to complete our discussion on Oliver Stone’s Vietnam war trilogy, this...
The post Heaven and Earth – Tom on Fortress on a Hill first appeared on Spy Culture.
In this subscriber-only podcast we take a sideways look at one of the most popular philosophical conflicts. I explore some...
The post Subscribercast #49 – Individualism vs Collectivism first appeared on Spy Culture.
Tom Hanks is perhaps the last of the classic Hollywood leading men, and has starred in some of the most...
The post ClandesTime 214 – The Secret World of Tom Hanks first appeared on Spy Culture.
My misadventures with celebrity journalism continued recently as Asia Times published something of a hit piece deriding me for daring...
The post The Angelina Jolie Spy Theory – Spy Culture in OK Magazine and Asia Times first appeared on Spy Culture.
Jon and Matt invited me on their podcast In the Context of Empire recently to discuss National Security Cinema and...
The post This Film has Been Modified to Meet Imperial Demands – Tom on In the Context of Empire first appeared on Spy Culture.
That most reputable of tabloids, The Sun recently published an article about Angelina Jolie’s relationship with the CIA, based almost...
The post Angelina and the CIA – Spy Culture in The Sun first appeared on Spy Culture.
I decided to do a subscriber-only review of the HBO TV series The Newsroom, with an episode looking at each...
The post The Newsroom Season 1 Review (Preview) first appeared on Spy Culture.
Luke and Matt of Matt and Luke’s Sci-Fi Sanctuary invited my on their podcast recently to talk about the Paul...
The post Starship Troopers – Tom Secker on the Sci-Fi Sanctuary Podcast first appeared on Spy Culture.
Online streaming service Hulu have announced that they are adapting the popular podcast series ‘Winds of Change’ into a TV...
The post Limited Hangout Podcast ‘Winds of Change’ Being Adapted for TV first appeared on Spy Culture.
On this Christmas edition of the subscribercast we examine the daddy of all Christmas movies – Die Hard. I outline...
The post Subscribercast #48 – Die Hard first appeared on Spy Culture.
ANNOUNCEMENT: Courtesy of Investig’Action National Security Cinema is now available for readers of the language of love, snails, overrated cheese...
The post National Security Cinema Now Available in French first appeared on Spy Culture.
By Matt Alford In 2017, we released National Security Cinema with no advertising, no publisher, no jacket designer, no distributor,...
The post Where Entertainment Lies (Preface to the French Edition of National Security Cinema) first appeared on Spy Culture.
With the third season of The Rookie only weeks away the Hollywood Reporter have reported that the show has been...
The post Rethinking The Rookie – Copaganda’s Response to BLM and George Floyd first appeared on Spy Culture.
The Department of Homeland Security is one of the biggest agencies of the US government, and has a highly active...
The post ClandesTime 213 – Homeland Security in Hollywood (and the Boston Bombing) first appeared on Spy Culture.
The 1968 Chicago riots at the Democrat National Convention, and the subsequent trial of 8 leaders of different radical left...
The post Subscribercast #47 – The Trial of the Chicago 7 first appeared on Spy Culture.
One of the benefits of working with academics such as the lovely Tricia Jenkins is that you get your work...
The post The Future of Space in Superhero Movies – Spy Culture in The Journal of American Culture first appeared on Spy Culture.
2017’s Wonder Woman was hailed and criticised in equal measure, mostly because it featured a female superhero protagonist. But what...
The post ClandesTime 212 – Wonder Woman first appeared on Spy Culture.
Following Angelina Jolie’s recent interview with the head of MI6 Sir Alex Younger, journalist Alan Macleod assembled a critical profile...
The post Angelina Jolie, MI6 and the CIA – Spy Culture in Mint Press News first appeared on Spy Culture.
Former DOD entertainment liaison Phil Strub once called Oliver Stone ‘the King of self-appointed blacklisted film makers’, but what does...
The post The Pentagon’s Oliver Stone File(s) first appeared on Spy Culture.
In this subscribercast I review and analyse a recent conference hosted by the US Naval Institute and the US Naval...
The post Subscribercast #46 – Media Breakdown: Through the Camera Lens first appeared on Spy Culture.
Combat Obscura is a documentary shot on the ground in Afghanistan at the height of the war. In this episode...
The post ClandesTime 211 – Combat Obscura first appeared on Spy Culture.
In this subscribercast I take a more philosophical turn and explore what I think is the greatest philosophical mistake we’ve...
The post Subscribercast #45 – Our Greatest Philosophical Mistake first appeared on Spy Culture.
I recently joined Scott Horton to talk about the Department of Homeland Security’s Hollywood office. We discussed the process which...
The post The DHS in Hollywood – Tom on the Scott Horton Show first appeared on Spy Culture.
‘Cultural Marxism’ is a term that these days is almost exclusively used by hard right wing critics of the popular...
The post ClandesTime 210 – Conspiracy Theories: Cultural Marxism in Hollywood first appeared on Spy Culture.
The Hollywood Arms Race took another step towards mutually assured cultural oblivion this week, as the #BoycottMulan movement grew and...
The post #BoycottMulan and the Great Hollywood-China Hypocrisy first appeared on Spy Culture.
In my latest article for Shadowproof I delve into the Department of Homeland Security’s Hollywood office, which works on everything...
The post Homeland Security in Hollywood: How the Dept Controls Its Image On Screen first appeared on Spy Culture.
On this month’s subscriber-only podcast I examine four very different movies, three with a ‘social action’ or political element and...
The post Subscribercast #44 – Battle of the Genres first appeared on Spy Culture.
In this episode I welcome back friend and journalist James Oddy so we could discuss the 8th and final season...
The post ClandesTime 209 – Good Riddance to Homeland first appeared on Spy Culture.
Platoon is one the great American anti-war films, beloved by many veterans for its realistic combat sequences and its full-blooded...
The post ClandesTime 208 – Platoon first appeared on Spy Culture.
On this month’s subscribercast I break down and analyse an interview by the Hollywood Reporter with Warren Leight, the showrunner...
The post Subscribercast #43 – Media Breakdown: Hollywood and Copaganda first appeared on Spy Culture.
There are dozens of films about the ‘Troubles’ but very few of them engage with the covert operations run by...
The post ClandesTime 207 – Hidden Agenda vs ‘71 first appeared on Spy Culture.
How much responsibility does the TV crime genre have for police racism, brutality and corruption? On this month’s subscriber-only podcast...
The post Subscribercast #42 – Systemic Racism and Cop Shows first appeared on Spy Culture.
This three-part radio documentary produced by CBC (and featuring Matt, Tanner Mirrlees and myself, among others) explores the role Hollywood...
The post Myths on Screen – The Full Series first appeared on Spy Culture.
Everyone knows truth is the first casualty of war – but in a modern world where America’s wars know no...
The post Theaters of Command Trailer first appeared on Spy Culture.
The Little Drummer Girl is an espionage drama based on Operation Wrath of God – the Mossad operation to track...
The post ClandesTime 206 – The Little Drummer Girl first appeared on Spy Culture.
In these times of strife, confusion, hostility and boredom it is important to keep ourselves amused. In this month’s subscriber-only...
The post Subscribercast #41 – Keeping Amused first appeared on Spy Culture.
Hi everyone and thanks for tuning in – this is just a quick intro because a listener said I should...
The post The Rookie: Made by the LAPD (audio version) first appeared on Spy Culture.
The third episode of CBC’s Myths on Screen – How Hollywood helped the U.S. military sell the War on Terror...
The post Myths on Screen Episode 3 first appeared on Spy Culture.
In this video essay I reveal the inner workings of the LAPD’s Hollywood office (the Entertainment Trademark Unit), in particular...
The post ABC’s The Rookie: Made by the LAPD first appeared on Spy Culture.
Spy Games is a recent reality TV game show where 10 dipshits compete for the approval of three ex-spooks who...
The post ClandesTime 205 – Spy Games first appeared on Spy Culture.
Part 2 of the excellent Myths on Screen: Hollywood at War series aired this week and is available to download...
The post Myths on Screen Episode 2 first appeared on Spy Culture.
The first episode of the three-part radio documentary Myths on Screen: Hollywood’s Role in War and Propaganda has just come...
The post Myths on Screen: Hollywood’s Role in War and Propaganda – Tom Secker on CBC first appeared on Spy Culture.
Ted Cruz has always been a rich dumbass but his latest legislative venture breaks his own record of cretinous behaviour. ...
The post The Hollywood Arms Race: Why Ted Cruz’s Anti Film Censorship Legislation Totally Misses the Point first appeared on Spy Culture.
Over more than a century the US government’s entertainment liaison offices have supported over 1000 movies, along with thousands of...
The post ClandesTime 204 – Why the Entertainment Liaison Offices Matter first appeared on Spy Culture.
From the WTF? files comes something I missed when it actually happened but was made aware of by the latest...
The post Military Bronies’ ‘Opinions are Personal in Nature/Do Not Reflect Those of the USAF-DOD’ first appeared on Spy Culture.
It is often hard for journalists to know whether they’re making an impact and whether their work has any purpose...
The post The US Air Force and the Great Entertainment Liaison Office Cover-Up first appeared on Spy Culture.
‘Movies don’t create psychos, movies make psychos more creative.’ That is a quote from the 1996 horror-comedy Scream, but it...
The post ClandesTime 203 – Psychopaths and the Copycat Effect first appeared on Spy Culture.
After many of my patreon subscribers said I should make the full podcast available to everyone I decided to unlock...
The post Lockdown: The Dark Side of Social Distancing (FULL EPISODE) first appeared on Spy Culture.
In this subscriber-only podcast I explore the haphazard and irrational implementation of the COVID-19 social distancing lockdowns currently in place...
The post Subscribercast #40 – Lockdown: The Dark Side of Social Distancing first appeared on Spy Culture.
MegaForce has to be one of the dumbest movies the Pentagon has ever supported but hidden until now is the...
The post The Pentagon Changed the Entire Premise of MegaForce to Shape Our View of the Future first appeared on Spy Culture.
With each passing day of the COVID-19 fiasco it has become abundantly clear that no one has a clue what’s...
The post COVID-19, World War Z and Chinese Government Censorship of Movies first appeared on Spy Culture.
The 1997 sci-fi epic Contact is a fine movie, an unusually profound and intelligent story about contact with alien life....
The post How the Pentagon Rewrote Contact first appeared on Spy Culture.
The recent Netflix series Messiah depicts what would happen if a Jesus-like figure suddenly appeared and started influencing geopolitics. In...
The post ClandesTime 202 – Messiah first appeared on Spy Culture.
Henry ‘Hank’ Crumpton is a former CIA operations man who has made numerous appearances on Charlie Rose, 60 Minutes and...
The post Secret CIA Reports on Torture and the CIA in Afghanistan by Producer of State of Affairs first appeared on Spy Culture.
So what the hell is going on? Are we all going to die in the great corona-zombie apocalypse of 2020...
The post Subscribercast #39 – Rorschach Politics: Coronavirus first appeared on Spy Culture.
I tried something a bit different to my usual approach – a lighthearted, daft-minded video critique of the new Sky...
The post Is David Schwimmer’s ‘Intelligence’ Propaganda for GCHQ? first appeared on Spy Culture.
In this episode I welcome Kevin Gosztola, a journalist, editor of Shadowproof and co-host of Unauthorized Disclosure. We talk about...
The post ClandesTime Special – Kevin Gosztola on the Assange Extradition Case first appeared on Spy Culture.
Former Friends star David Schwimmer has been giving a lot of interviews recently to promote his new Sky TV series...
The post David Schwimmer Admits His New Show Intelligence is Propaganda for GCHQ first appeared on Spy Culture.
The forthcoming Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will feature Wyatt Russell as the character John Walker/U.S. Agent,...
The post The Falcon and the Winter Soldier – The Latest MCU Production Brought to You by the US Army first appeared on Spy Culture.
One of the most harmless films to be rejected by the US military is 1996’s Sgt. Bilko, based on the...
The post ‘Virtually Every Character in the Film is Either Corrupt, Corrupted or Witless’ – The US Army and Sgt. Bilko first appeared on Spy Culture.
In 1962 the US and the Soviet Union came to the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis...
The post ClandesTime 201 – Thirteen Days and the Cuban Missile Crisis first appeared on Spy Culture.
The raunchy military girls comedy Private Benjamin wasn’t a good movie but it is widely and quite fondly remembered by...
The post Private Armies and Sex in the Ranks: Why the Pentagon Rejected Private Benjamin first appeared on Spy Culture.
13 Hours and Jack Ryan star John Krasinski gave another interview recently where he claimed that appearing in cryptoconservative propaganda...
The post John Krasinski Plays the Innocent Act When it Comes to Making Political Propaganda (Again) first appeared on Spy Culture.
In 1988, several years prior to the highly successful JAG TV show, DOD representatives met with writers and producers to...
The post JAG: The Movie That Was Never Made first appeared on Spy Culture.
Oddfinger: Eagle Kill is – hands down – one of the weirdest quasi-biopics I have ever seen, combining surrealism, satire...
The post Review: Eagle Kill first appeared on Spy Culture.
To mark the 200th episode of this podcast I decided to combine several ideas into an open buffet of information...
The post ClandesTime 200 – Extravaganza first appeared on Spy Culture.
The Pentagon did not provide production support to the movie Independence Day because it portrayed the military as ineffective against...
The post Inside The US Army’s Massive $2 Million Propaganda Campaign For ‘Independence Day’ Sequel first appeared on Spy Culture.
When you think of radical or counter-establishment films the 1998 thriller The Negotiator probably doesn’t come to mind, especially if...
The post Subscribercast #38 – The Negotiator and Israel’s Nuclear Smuggling Ring first appeared on Spy Culture.
Alan Macleod recently got in touch for an article on the US Air Force’s new drone murder video game –...
The post US Air Force Drone Game – Spy Culture in MintPress News first appeared on Spy Culture.
A recent social media post shows that when it comes to Top Gun: Maverick the US Navy are protective of...
The post ‘Leave the Top Gun Quotes to Us’ – US Navy Not Happy the Air Force is Muscling in on Top Gun: Maverick first appeared on Spy Culture.
What’s the connection between the wars in Yugoslavia in the 1990s and the resurgent Neo-Nazi movements popping up in Western...
The post ClandesTime 199 – Neo Nazism and the Yugoslav Wars first appeared on Spy Culture.
In 2011 the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office granted unprecedented access to consulates in Spain for the TV documentary/reality series...
The post UK Foreign Office Spent Tens of Thousands of Pounds on ‘Handlers’ for Documentary Film Crew first appeared on Spy Culture.
One of the nice things about searching through documents and databases of government-supported films is that I get to read...
The post Is The Crash the Worst Government-Supported Movie of All Time? first appeared on Spy Culture.
Upon its release Captain Marvel was hailed as a feminist movie, as ‘the film girls need’, as ‘solving Marvel’s woman...
The post The Captain Marvel Effect: USAF Academy Sees Rise in Female Applicants first appeared on Spy Culture.
Rambo: First Blood and Commando are almost twin movies, both centring on a highly skilled military veteran on some sort...
The post Why did the Pentagon Reject Rambo, But Were Willing to Work on Commando? first appeared on Spy Culture.
I joined Henri, Keagan and Danny for a broad discussion of Amazon’s Jack Ryan and the CIA’s true history in...
The post Jack Ryan vs Venezuela – Tom Secker on Fortress on a Hill first appeared on Spy Culture.
A recent article on Insider accused my work of being ‘the worst example’ of pro-Russian propaganda based on the leaked...
The post Spy Culture Accused of Being Pro-Russian Propaganda (Spoiler: It Isn’t) first appeared on Spy Culture.
The never-ending doublespeak over whether MI5 and MI6 officers emulate James Bond took a new twist recently, with an Army...
The post General Says Real Spy World ‘Not Like James Bond’ as UK Court Rules It’s Exactly Like James Bond first appeared on Spy Culture.
It isn’t often that the CIA’s entertainment liaison office makes the news but former CIA officer turned Democrat Representative Elissa...
The post Ex-CIA Rep. Elissa Slotkin Praises CIA’s Entertainment Liaison Office first appeared on Spy Culture.
Perhaps the most insidious rewriting of recent history by Hollywood is Zero Dark Thirty‘s narrative that torture helped find Bin...
The post Subscriber Podcast #37 – The CIA, Torture and Hollywood first appeared on Spy Culture.
Robbie Martin of Media Roots invited me back on the show for a lengthy, often funny discussion partly inspired by...
The post CIA Mascot Jack Ryan & Venezuelan Regime Change Prestige – Tom Secker on Media Roots first appeared on Spy Culture.
The Vietnam war drama Platoon was recently inducted into the US Library of Congress’ National Film Registry, in recognition for...
The post Rape, Murder, Drugs and Racism: Why the Pentagon Rejected Platoon first appeared on Spy Culture.
The DOD’s doctrine on working with Hollywood says that assistance can only be provided to productions that offer audiences a...
The post New Top Gun: Maverick Trailer Abandons Any Pretence at Military Realism first appeared on Spy Culture.
Sexual assault in the U.S. military is on the rise. Internal documents reveal the Pentagon’s entertainment liaison offices have spent...
The post How Hollywood And The Pentagon Collude To Cover Up Military Sex Crimes first appeared on Spy Culture.
The Day Shall Come is the latest film from Chris Morris, the maker of Four Lions, and tells the story...
The post ClandesTime 198 – The Day Shall Come first appeared on Spy Culture.
For anyone hoping that the end of phase 3 of the MCU would bring some respite from the relentless schedule...
The post Black Widow the Latest Marvel-Military Collaboration first appeared on Spy Culture.
As I work through the DOD’s file on Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor I keep finding curious and often bizarre requests...
The post ‘We Can’t Rewrite History in a PC Way’ – Pentagon file on Pearl Harbor first appeared on Spy Culture.
Under Siege is by far the second best Steven Seagal movie, but untold until now is the story of how...
The post Pentagon File on Under Siege (1992) Reveals How to Punk the Entertainment Liaison Offices first appeared on Spy Culture.
The military support on Pearl Harbor was extensive, including mothballed battleships being towed around, access to bases in Hawaii and...
The post Disney Swag and the ‘Quid Pro Quo’ on Pearl Harbor first appeared on Spy Culture.
I’ve been spending some more time going through the Pentagon Film Office file on Pearl Harbor and among the numerous...
Pearl Harbor (2001) is the perfect example of how to spend a lot of money making a terrible film. Beset...
Just like many federal agencies the Los Angeles Police Department have a dedicated entertainment liaison office for dealing with Hollywood....
Just a quickie to highlight some of the coverage resulting from my investigation and analysis of Amazon’s Jack Ryan and...
Yesterday, NPR’s podcast Marketplace released a new episode titled How Chinese censorship changed “Top Gun” (and the rest of Hollywood)....
1992’s Patriot Games was supported by both the Pentagon and the CIA, filming at Langley and the US Naval Academy...
A video essay presenting my breakdown of Amazon’s Jack Ryan, including how the CIA, DOD and other US government...
It has been another curious week of half-truths, spin and outright falsehood as culture commentators get to grips with recent...
How the Global Culture War has Expanded into the Gaming Industry A recent report in Newsweek’s NewsGeek section has drawn attention...
For decades undercover British intelligence officers have infiltrated almost every notable political movement in the UK. In this episode I...
Good Morning, Vietnam is perhaps the most popular Vietnam war film ever made. Loosely based on the real life experiences...
In March 2016 I put in a FOIA request with the US Coast Guard. Several appeals, a lot of ignored...
The Final Countdown is a classic of good bad cinema, featuring an aircraft carrier that goes through a wormhole and...
In March 1991 the producers of Hot Shots! An Important Movie contacted the US Marine Corps looking to film one...
A 1940s MI5 file shows that British intelligence suspected that the Odeon chain of cinemas was a front organisation providing...
With just a week to go before season 2 of Amazon’s Jack Ryan is released and the eponymous star John...
There aren’t very many films about the first Gulf War, which is ironic because if ever there was a war...
Over the last few weeks a storm has been brewing about the Chinese government’s censorship of American movies, as well...