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CIA's use of George Clooney+...Coen brothers?

PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 7:00 am
by Hugh Manatee Wins
I've noticed that George Clooney's movies all have CIA subtexts, a common use of Hollywood leading men with guaranteed box office like Robert Redford, Tom Hanks, Nicholas Cage.

After all, Clooney is sort of today's American James Bond figure, rugged, handsome, and well-spoken. But there was one movie he starred in I couldn't figure out, the Coen brothers' 2000 movie, 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?'

on edit: original post below after this new material.
Found it. The primary decoy message among many in this 2000 movie is meant to eclipse a scandal CATCH PHRASE in a 1998 lawsuit against the CIA.

Clooney's lead character name is "Ulysses Everett McGill" and all reviewers focus on the Ulysses (as intended with that screaming misdirection) but ignore the McGill.

Here are only the secondary messages:
Besides the ordeal of Ulysses being used to show women as a source of risk, tribulation, and death, a common military recruiting theme to keep young men free of young women long enough to sign up and men focused on their work, there is also the theme of southern politics and show business, a good mirror for CIA operations in labor movements which is the subject of a book with a similiar title, 'Brother, Where Were You?'

Negative framing of whistleblowers is common in psy-ops movies. Is there one here?

Yes. This is the primary message.
The use of Clooney's character name "McGill" juxtaposed with "prisoner" in the year 2000 goes straight to 1997-1999 lawsuit by a former female prisoner against the men who carried out the CIA's MKULTRA mind control experiments in Canada, also known as the "McGill experiments" because Dr. Ewen Cameron at McGill University was a leader of this CIA criminal project.

cited 12/18/99 Toronto Star legal affairs article
http://everydayrisk.org/prison.html
December 18, 1999

Prisoners used for `frightening' tests, new papers show

By Tracey Tyler
Toronto Star Legal Affairs Reporter

Ottawa approved using inmates to test everything from steroid enemas to links between height and crime while Canada's prison system operated as a research lab, federal documents show.

The documents are contained in long-buried government files uncovered in the wake of a $5 million lawsuit filed by Dorothy Proctor, one of 23 inmates involved in LSD experiments at Kingston's Prison for Women from 1960-63.

Questions have already been raised in Parliament about the use of inmates in a variety of scientific experiments, revealed after Proctor filed her lawsuit last year.

.....
In the McGill experiments, which were conducted by Dr. Ewen Cameron and also funded in part by the Canadian government, up to 130 people were given electroshock, high doses of LSD and subjected to taped messages.
.....
In a statement of claim seeking damages for assault and battery, which contains allegations not yet proven in court, Proctor says she was used in LSD experiments and given electroshock therapy against her will as prison officials searched for a cheap and effective means of behaviour control.

``I was just a biological unit,'' she said in an interview.

Only 17 when she arrived at the prison, she quickly earned a reputation for causing trouble, escaping twice by scaling a nine-metre concrete and barbed-wire wall.

In her statement of claim, Proctor alleges Scott and Eveson administered LSD experiments in the prison. ``So, I went on a trip without my luggage,'' she said in an interview. ``I thought I had lost my mind.''


Uh-oh. A strong CATCH PHRASE.
That's dangerously conducive to social transmission as studies of psy-ops rumor and advertising have confirmed for decades.

So...McGill experiment prisoner with escape history "went on a trip without my luggage."

Pictogram =

Image

=====================================

My original post with more valid psy-ops messages before I found the 1998 lawsuit against the CIA>>>


I've noticed that George Clooney's movies all have CIA subtexts, a common use of Hollywood leading men with guaranteed box office like Robert Redford, Tom Hanks, Nicholas Cage.

After all, Clooney is sort of today's American James Bond figure, rugged, handsome, and well-spoken. But there was one movie he starred in I couldn't figure out, the Coen brothers' 2000 movie, 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?'

Then I read ex-CIA whistleblower Philip Agee's book 'On the Run' with information on his mid-1970s days in London advising investigative researchers there.

On page 229 Agee describes Rodney Larson's book on the CIA's trade union operations called...
...'Where Were You, Brother?'

Now, Larson may well have gotten his book's title by modifying a title of a 1942 movie-within-a-movie which was then revived by the Coen brothers as 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?'

I think someone at Langley researched a decoy cover for Larson's damning book title and lucked out by finding that the 1942 film included a filmmaker's decision to forego social relevence in favor of entertainment due to seeing people enjoy what is now CIA-Disney, and all to eclipse a whistleblowing book on CIA manipulation of labor unions.

Now that's a CIA tri-fecta. If they weren't behind this, they should've been.
No, I haven't seen 'O Brother' but I'm going to right soon and not for the much-hyped 'heartland-friendly' Americana soundtrack of gospel and bluegrass.

http://www.yourmovies.com.au/movies/?action=movie_info&title_id=4734
What makes ['O Brother, Where Art Thou?'] even more outstanding is a lushly articulate screenplay that gives exquisite expression to those you would expect to be least eloquent. Clooney especially seizes the opportunity and takes to the language with all the gusto of a southern preacher.

By the way, the title of this movie is taken from the title of the film a director wants to make in Preston Sturgess' classic Sullivan's Travels, which even appears in this film playing in an old movie house the men hide out in.


http://www.jiminycritic.com/review.asp?ReviewID=67
In fact, O Brother Where Art Thou? is a fictional movie title from Preston Sturgess’ masterpiece about a hoboing director discovering the impoverished, backwoods South. While the Coens mention Homer in the opening credits, the film actually combines Sturgess’ honest mania with the events of Odysseus’s journey. A scene where McGill and Delmer watch a movie in the dark of a theater only to be surprised when their old chain gang comes in for a break is a takeoff of a near identical scene in Sullivan’s Travels and a reference to the warning Odysseus receives in the Underworld.

The classical allusions in O Brother aren’t just for scholarly amusement. The Odyssey works as a companion to the movie, reveling trenchant information for the movie through their relationship. While the audience isn’t lost if it cannot keep up with the barrage of references, the movie is more enjoyable if you possess knowledge of the The Odyssey and epic poetry.


http://nafsk.se/pipermail/dcml/1995-June/004292.html
My favorite 'analysis' of Disney is in the
old movie 'Sullivan's Travels' (1942) directed by Preston Sturgess in
which [b]a film director goes on the road in depression era America in
order to make socially relevent films
. He comes across a chain gang
who make an impression on him; a chain gang who roar with laughter
when taking part in the only pleasure of their brutal lives - watching
Mickey Mouse cartoons. The director forgets his ideas of social
relevence and goes back to entertaining.
[/b]

I don't think I'd want to analyse Disney comics - they're entertaiment
for me; a way to unwind from analysing other stuff all day.

The book, by the way, is out of print at the moment, at least in the UK.

Quote from Sullivan's Travels, written by Preston Sturgess:

John Sullivan: "There's a lot to be said for making people laugh. Did
you know that that's all some people have?"


Does this mean that the Coen brothers are doing CIA propaganda work?
Well...lately...it seems so. That's what their next film is about and starring Brad Pitt.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/eonline/20071126/en_movies_eo/1da2a191_e5df4adb_896d_3bb89d2e0a5d
Mon Nov 26, 2007
.....
In the meantime, Pitt's got plenty of movies in the pipeline.

After finishing up work on the new Coen brothers CIA comedy Burn After Reading, the Hollywood hunk is attached to headline Chad Schmidt, a send-up of his own megacelebrity status about an aspiring actor trying to make it only to find he's a dead ringer for—yes—Brad Pitt.

"Coen brothers CIA comedy..." Hunh. How about that. Spelled right out for us.
And Brad Pitt is making mirror stories about himself.

And there are plenty of semantically disorienting self-referential mirrors in this Clooney movie, too.

I see a pattern. We used to just get decoy movies. Now we're getting decoys of decoy movies. The cognitive ante is being upped on us.

PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 7:15 am
by 8bitagent
Have you seen Operation Hollywood? Its a documentary exposing how many tv and movie scripts have had the heavy hand of the millitary industrial complex
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 7073763777

Clooney is usually in films that on the surface "expose" aspects of the new world order...

Syriana
Good Luck and Good Night
Michael Clayton
Darfur Now

But who knows, ya may be onto something

Btw, their CIA comedy will have competition against next summer's DONT MESS WITH THE ZOHAN, a comedy starring Adam Sandler as a high level Mossad operative

PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 11:49 am
by IanEye
And there are plenty of semantically disorienting self-referential mirrors in this Clooney movie, too.



I guess you can sit in the theater and eat your "Now and Later"s as you decide whether to burn "Before or After"......


Image

Image

PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 11:54 am
by Et in Arcadia ego
"Sweet Summer rain....

Like God's own mercy."


The Devil - O Brother where art thou?

Great flick.

8)

Clooney has never struck me as a CIA asset; he's overtly critical of the existing Order in Washington.

Clooney's directorial debut

PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 12:32 pm
by Col. Quisp
...don't forget, was "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," ostensibly the autobiography of CIA agent Chuck Barris ("Gong Show" host and creator of such other memorable games as "The Dating Game"). What a mindf*ck

PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 12:51 pm
by theeKultleeder
^^^ Based on a book, wasn't it?

PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:29 pm
by Stephen Morgan
et in Arcadia ego wrote:Clooney has never struck me as a CIA asset; he's overtly critical of the existing Order in Washington.


Private Eye mentioned that he advertises Nestle. When asked about this making him a hypocrite he turned his mike off and walked out.

nessie:

At last it has been admitted that the government pays network television to include propaganda promoting the War On (Some) Drugs in the scripts of popular shows. Only fools were surprised. On all of these networks we have since heard some very tepid "slippery slope" type criticism presented as op-ed. We have heard no shame. We have heard no promise to stop. Most importantly, we have not heard any discussion of what other propaganda has been secretly, and not so secretly, embedded in our viewing. To believe TV, the world is overrun with thieves, rapists and psychotic cop-killers and the only reason they haven't broken into your house, raped you, murdered you and stolen your TV yet is because somewhere some young, good looking cop was willing to "bend" the rules a little. Yeah, right.

PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:50 pm
by sunny
Love this movie. Don't think it's anything more than a very fun retelling of The Odyssey. It's a hoot.

Loved the music, which is ironic considering I hated it all those years growing up within a couple of miles of an annual Bluegrass festival.

PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:57 pm
by theeKultleeder
^^^ That one song really gets me in the way that a good blues song can, it gets me depressed and happy at the same time.

"A Man of Constant Sorrow."

PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 2:14 pm
by professorpan
I see a pattern. We used to just get decoy movies. Now we're getting decoys of decoy movies. The cognitive ante is being upped on us.


Oh, brother.
:roll:

PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 2:21 pm
by chiggerbit
OMG, Col. Quisp, is that really you?

1998 McGill experiment lawsuit by prisoner, catch phrase

PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 6:29 pm
by Hugh Manatee Wins
Found it. The primary decoy message among many in this movie is meant to eclipse a scandal CATCH PHRASE.

Clooney's lead character name is "Ulysses Everett McGill" and all reviewers focus on the Ulysses (as intended with that screaming misdirection) but ignore the McGill.

Here are only the secondary messages:
Besides the ordeal of Ulysses being used to show women as a source of risk, tribulation, and death, a common military recruiting theme to keep young men free of young women long enough to sign up and men focused on their work, there is also the theme of southern politics and show business, a good mirror for CIA operations in labor movements.

Negative framing of whistleblowers is common in psy-ops movies. Is there one here?

Yes. This is the primary message.
The use of Clooney's character name "McGill" juxtaposed with "prisoner" in the year 2000 goes straight to 1997-1999 lawsuit by a former female prisoner against the men who carried out the CIA's MKULTRA mind control experiments in Canada, also known as the "McGill experiments" because Dr. Ewen Cameron at McGill University was a leader of this CIA criminal project.

cited 12/18/99 Toronto Star legal affairs article
http://everydayrisk.org/prison.html
December 18, 1999

Prisoners used for `frightening' tests, new papers show

By Tracey Tyler
Toronto Star Legal Affairs Reporter

Ottawa approved using inmates to test everything from steroid enemas to links between height and crime while Canada's prison system operated as a research lab, federal documents show.

The documents are contained in long-buried government files uncovered in the wake of a $5 million lawsuit filed by Dorothy Proctor, one of 23 inmates involved in LSD experiments at Kingston's Prison for Women from 1960-63.

Questions have already been raised in Parliament about the use of inmates in a variety of scientific experiments, revealed after Proctor filed her lawsuit last year.

.....
In the McGill experiments, which were conducted by Dr. Ewen Cameron and also funded in part by the Canadian government, up to 130 people were given electroshock, high doses of LSD and subjected to taped messages.
.....
In a statement of claim seeking damages for assault and battery, which contains allegations not yet proven in court, Proctor says she was used in LSD experiments and given electroshock therapy against her will as prison officials searched for a cheap and effective means of behaviour control.

``I was just a biological unit,'' she said in an interview.

Only 17 when she arrived at the prison, she quickly earned a reputation for causing trouble, escaping twice by scaling a nine-metre concrete and barbed-wire wall.

In her statement of claim, Proctor alleges Scott and Eveson administered LSD experiments in the prison. ``So, I went on a trip without my luggage,'' she said in an interview. ``I thought I had lost my mind.''


Uh-oh. A strong CATCH PHRASE.
That's dangerously conducive to social transmission as studies of psy-ops rumor and advertising have confirmed for decades.

So...McGill experiment prisoner with escape history "went on a trip without my luggage."

Pictogram =

Image

PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 6:35 pm
by FourthBase
Still not getting why your examples are always so terrible, jokes.

Examples

PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 6:48 pm
by Hugh Manatee Wins
FourthBase wrote:Still not getting why your examples are always so terrible, jokes.


Still not getting why you don't think keyword hijacking, decoy narratives, negative framing of whistleblowers, pictograms, etc. aren't the very humidity of psy-ops.

Mnemonic inoculation or inoculation theory is involved.
Neuroscience, linguistics, narrative structure, etc.

If people first associate the keyword "McGill" with a satisfying upbeat story with ubermale Clooney instead of Nazi abuse, that's good counter-propaganda.
Besides the movie, there's reinforcing sing-along products with other happiness-producing artists also reinforcing the benign association.

Pentagon definition of counter-propaganda:
"Any action taken to minimize the effect of hostile information."

Remember the audience, FB. It's not you or me. It is the still large audience of people who Don't Know Yet what military-intelligence will do to them in the name of national security.

PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 7:14 pm
by brekin
I thought this was all old news..

Image


Sorry couldn't resist, :wink: