The Good Shepherd
June 26, 2007
Last night I watched Robert deNiro’s The Good Shepherd, a film about the birth of OSS (CIA’s forerunner) and I found the direction as well as the performances quite brilliant. There is little attempt to glamorize CIA, even if the Agency retains its Hollywood mystique; emphasis is placed on the cynical motives and the lack of accountability that sustain the enterprise. As Chalmers Johnson notes in his recent book, one of the reason CIA works behind so many layers of secrecy is the sheer mundane and banal nature of its work. Making it public would be embarassing, and kill the mystique.
The film clearly wouldn’t fit into the steretypical Hollywood spy-movie genre. Mercifully short on Hollywood cliches, the film is a delight to watch and at nearly three hours it allows the story ample time to develop without substituting style for substance.
The lead character, played by Matt Damon, is loosely based on James Jesus Angleton one of whose known specialties was false flag operations. What is less known, and predictably overlooked in fictionalized accounts like these, is that Angleton was an ardent Zionist; Israel even acknowledged his services to the Zionist entity in monuments named after him(more on him later). Without indulging in conspiratorial mystificaton the film shows how elite power networks develop and function through a disobliging look at the peurile ceremonies of fraternaties such as Skull and Bones to the eventual domination of all state institutions by a mutually supportive cast of former frat boys.
The film makes many references to real life events, such as waterboarding of prisoners, use of LSD, the Bay of Pigs invasion, besides some strident statements about the sheer unaccountable power of the agency. The film also uses the clever device of a Soviet spy under the influence of LSD to make a statement about the exaggeration of foreign threats in order to oil the wheels of the military-industrial complex.
I found the film superlative. I am generally a fan of Francis Ford Coppola, but his collaborations with deNiro always bring forth exceptional artistic synergy. In this film, he takes the back seat and merely appears in the role of Executive Producer. But deNiro really shines in the role of a Director. This film is definitely worth a watch.
The Good Shepherd captures the supra-state allegiance of the CIA as emblematized by Angleton himself.
The old spook notoriously held that it was inconceivable that a secret intelligence arm of government had to comply with government orders issued by politicians who merely acted as public representatives.Thus senators on the Foreign Relations Committee,for example should expect no straight answers from operatives least of all the chief himself.
In 1977 Angleton’s successor,Richard Helms,was convicted of failing to testify fully and accurately before the Congress.A plea bargain allowed the reprobate to retain both his civil rights and his pension!
Angleton’s bungles are of course legendary.He was entirely taken in by Kim Philby allowing Maclean to escape to the Soviet Union and the rest of his career was marked by his proclivity to see spies in the woodwork where others saw only woodlice.
He even speculated that Kissinger was under KGB influence!Likewise Gerald Ford.Canadian PM,Lester Pearson and his successor,Pierre Trudeau,were mooted by Angleton to have been similarly compromised.Willie Brandt,Harold Wilson and Olaf Palme all fell under Angleton’s glassy paranoid eye.
Angleton’s penchant for assassinations,false-flag ops.and cover-ups came out of his time as an intelligence officer in Mussolini’s Fascist Italy.Like Castro later,Il Duce had alienated some key players i.e.the warlords and mafiosi with whom Angleton operated.
The false-flag op.he famously bungled was the initial framing of Oswald for the JFK assassination.When by linking Oswald to a non-existent Soviet plot it became clear the US might be provoking a needless atomic showdown(within a year of the previous one over Cuba)the FBI opted for the lone assassin story with which the Warren Commission happily acquiesced.
Angleton’s long association with Mossad/Shin Bet began in 1951 and lasted for the rest of his career.He is suspected of heading CIA collusive efforts in creating the Jewish bomb.He jealously guarded the CIA/Israeli connection and Mossad’s notorious drug-running was ignored if it jeopardized assets and presented obstacles to Mossad’s ability to monitor political,military and economic developments in the region.
And by the way Angelina Jolie was great as the hard-pressed CIA man’s wife.
I doubt the Good Shepherd went to heaven though!