CHARLIE WILSON’S WHOPPERS

Arthur Kent

Arthur Kent covered the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. He was the Canadian television journalist who, as he writes, “tramped across Afghanistan, filming the exploits of the mujahideen guerrillas.” Now, in a moment of art imitating life, some of his footage and voice-overs ended up in Charlie Wilson’s War, the Hollywood film version of how the Soviets got the boot, largely because of US funding of covert operations, supplying arms and rockets to the insurgents. Except nobody asked permission to use his footage, and the story told in the film is only loosely connected to actual events.

Dans les années 1980, Arthur Kent a couvert l’occupation soviétique de l’Afghanistan en tant que journaliste de la télévision canadienne chargé de « parcourir le pays pour filmer les exploits des moudjahidin », écrit-il. Entre réalité et fiction, certaines des images qu’il avait tournées, accompagnées de ses commentaires hors champ, se retrouvent aujourd’hui dans le film La guerre selon Charlie Wilson, version hollywoodienne de l’expulsion des Soviétiques du pays, intervenue en grande partie avec l’aide des États-Unis, qui ont financé les opérations clandestines des insurgés tout en leur fournissant armes et roquettes. Le hic : personne n’a demandé l’autorisation d’utiliser ces images, et le film n’a qu’un faible rapport avec les événements tels qu’ils se sont déroulés.

o it’s off to the movies, and why not? Friends have e- I’d most dearly like to have right now: shooting the breeze mailed to say “you must see Charlie Wilson’s War — with George, a fellow trooper from the circus of US network S you’re in it!” news, and debating the merits of Hollywood’s treatment of Strange, I don’t recall contributing even a cameo to a his book. $75 million Hollywood movie. On the way to the multiplex, I’m certain George would stress, as he did when we met, I have to wonder: did I hold my own with Tom Hanks and that Charlie Wilson’s War was not intended to be an all- Philip Seymour Hoffman? Was I in the moment with Julia encompassing account of the Afghan catastrophe. Against Roberts? How did I perform under Mike Nichols’ direction, that, however, Nichols’ and Hanks’ big-screen treatment and did I lift Aaron Sorkin’s dialogue off the script? sounds the clarion of historical fact. In the profuse publici- But no, it turns out to be that other persona — the real ty and in the film itself, the producers tell audiences that one. That prerecorded, archived, 1980s me; that camera- this is a real story about a real Congressman, Charlie packing reporter. The guy who tramped across Afghanistan, Wilson, who wheedled, massaged and flannelled a signifi- filming the exploits of the mujahideen guerrillas, and regu- cant covert military aid program out of that Sleepy Hollow larly provided bombardment fodder for the Soviet Union’s on the Potomac known as Washington, DC. occupation forces. In selling itself this way, the motion picture has at No Oscar hopes, no red carpets — just that old Red Army. least a passing obligation to accuracy, however limited the Yet there’s my voice-over, about half a minute of it, along scope of its story. And there’s an exciting opportunity with four of my shots, helping to tell the story not long here: to reveal to Americans, with an entertaining drama, before the closing credits come up — gulp! — without me. how it is that more of their tax dollars were invested in But let’s put aside, for the moment, little things like Afghanistan than in any other CIA covert operation to credit and copyright. The motion picture is based on the that time, and yet it resulted, on September 11th, 2001, in book, Charlie Wilson’s War, written by an accomplished the most outrageous act of blowback the US has experi- CBS reporter named George Crile. I was fortunate enough enced — so far. to meet George and appear in a panel discussion with him in New York when the book was published. His death at the adly, it’s an opportunity the makers of Charlie Wilson’s War age of 61 was a huge loss, not only to his wonderful fami- S failed miserably to grasp. Instead they spent $75 million ly, but to our craft, too. And it robs me of the opportunity and 97 minutes to unveil a weird and most unwelcome

18 OPTIONS POLITIQUES FÉVRIER 2008 Charlie Wilson’s whoppers innovation in the movies — a textual military’s Inter-Services Intelligence This was a 10-minute piece I wrote anti-climax. The final frame lights up branch (the ISI). The Pakistanis feared and narrated specifically for BBC2’s with Charlie Wilson’s words: “we fucked Massoud: a charismatic Afghan Newsnight program in 1986. There is up the endgame.” nationalist, he stood the best chance only one place the producers of Which is, of course, where the of uniting his country — which risked Charlie Wilson’s War could have real Afghan story begins. But the real- presenting Pakistan with a new unearthed a videotape copy of this ity and the lessons of blowback are regional competitor. broadcast: in the BBC archives. clearly too complicated a tale for So rather than channelling US aid to In 1986, I trekked across the Hindu Hanks and Nichols, so Charlie Wilson’s Massoud, an ethnic Tajik, the ISI handed Kush to Massoud’s haunts in northern War contents itself with a romp over American arms and money to fun- Afghanistan. With camera rolling, I through the corridors and bedrooms damentalist militants from asked him about US military aid. This of American power. Occasionally, Afghanistan’s majority Pashtun tribes, was the commander’s response, as tran- scribed from the Newsnight Morocco’s Atlas Mountains are a strong substitute for the story: “I’ve heard nothing, valleys of Afghanistan, and the expanse of the refugee camps seen nothing of the Stinger is impressive. But where are the Afghan faces? Wrapping a rockets. My personal view few turbans on Moroccan Berbers just doesn’t cut it, and the and that of the mujahideen, and of all the Keystone-Cops-style mujahideen Stinger crews are — people of Afghanistan is unintentionally — a laughing stock of botched detail and this. The West always talks, performance. but they don’t take any practical steps to reduce the Afghanistan gets a look-in. Special notably ghouls like Gulbuddin problems and pains of my people. We effects create menacing renditions of Hekmatyar and Jalaluddin Haqqani. hear on the radio about the help that is Soviet helicopter gunships, but the Both these men now top America’s list of on the way, but all we end up with is Afghan civilian victims in the film’s most wanted Afghan terrorists. Yet under some medical supplies, or very small short, sharp attack scenes don’t come Charlie Wilson’s CIA scheme, they financial help. It’s negligible. We off as anything more than luckless received — in every sense — the Lion’s haven’t seen anything else.” day-players. Are they running from a share of Stingers, other arms and cash. The man wasn’t kidding. Twice gunship, or from the director shout- You wouldn’t know that from during my stay, we were bombed by ing at them to get on with it and die watching Nichols’ movie. Neither low-flying Soviet SU-25 ground attack so he can cut back to DC? Hekmatyar nor Haqqani are men- planes. Massoud’s men defended Morocco’s Atlas Mountains are a tioned. But when Philip Seymour themselves with one heavy machine- strong substitute for the valleys of Hoffman and his CIA sidekicks are gun, captured from the Russians. The Afghanistan, and the expanse of the depicted in the bowels of their guerrillas emerged unscathed from refugee camps is impressive. But where Langley, Virginia headquarters, they their soufs or shelters, but 11 civilians are the Afghan faces? Wrapping a few conclude that if anyone received were killed in the second raid. turbans on Moroccan Berbers just Stingers, it should be Ahmed Shah While it’s true that Massoud even- doesn’t cut it, and the Keystone- Massoud. (Amid raucous laughter, the tually received a few token Stingers, Cops-style mujahideen Stinger crews spooks transpose an infamous Afghan more than half the estimated 1,000 are — unintentionally — a laughing sexual slight about Pashtun missiles channelled through the ISI to stock of botched detail and perform- Kandaharis to Massoud’s predomi- the mujahideen ended up with ance. On a $75 million budget, could- nantly Tajik Panshiris. This is not only Hekmatyar, Haqqani and other n’t the production have sent a second unforgivably dumb, it will reinforce extremist commanders. These brig- unit to Afghanistan for authentic faces the view among Tajik Afghans that ands accounted, too, for most of 300- and dress and texture? Washington continues in its prejudice odd Stingers that went missing after The movie is emphatically false against non-Pashtuns — a conviction the Soviet withdrawal, forcing the CIA in its reference to the CIA’s dealings borne out by the Bush administra- to institute a costly buy-back program with Afghanistan’s most accom- tion’s stacking of the Karzai regime that rewards the thieves with plished resistance commander, with corrupt Pashtun stooges.) $100,000 or more for each missile. It’s Ahmed Shah Massoud, the “Lion of Ironically, there’s no stronger unknown how many Stingers are still the Panjshir.” History tells us that proof of the film’s misrepresentation out there, whether their expired Massoud was constantly undercut by of Massoud than the television news battery packs can be replaced, or how the CIA’s middleman in its covert story the producers raided for this cor- their sensors and warheads would anti-Soviet aid program, the Pakistan respondent’s voice track and footage. now perform.

POLICY OPTIONS 19 FEBRUARY 2008 Arthur Kent

Courtesy, Arthur Kent Canadian journalist Arthur Kent, who has covered Afghanistan since the Soviet occupation in the 1980s, here in Panjshir Valley in November 2001, just before the Taliban were forced out of Kabul. He was filming a documentary for the History Channel in the US. In a case of art imitating life, one of his freelance pieces from the Soviet era ended up in Charlie Wilson’s War.

The movie ignores these facts, while substance and it won’t be the last. But turers and daredevils. Many were young triumphantly reeling off a list of statis- the callous ease with which these mil- Afghans striving to document their tics. A ticker tape states how many heli- lionaire moviemakers pillage the country’s resistance to foreign oppres- copters were shot down in 1987, how archives for their fable is a tendency, in sion. Nearly all were underpaid and they many jets and tanks destroyed in 1988. Tinseltown, that factual filmmakers frequently risked their lives. Yet their Excuse me, Tom and Mike, but I was should take measures to redress. I know contribution to the historical record lan- there. Reliable numbers were the first a lot of moviegoers who sat through the guishes without proper acknowledge- victims of the Afghan war. The Russians, credits of Charlie Wilson’s War just to ment, as the makers of Charlie Wilson’s the guerrillas, the Pakistanis and the see who recorded the battlefield War so disgracefully demonstrate. Americans — all of them brazenly fid- footage. So who gets screen credit? Especially sad is the treatment of dled the stats. The CIA had no observers Networks and news agencies and image our most accomplished colleague, on the ground in Afghanistan. Sure the archives — an almost indecipherable British cameraman Andy Skrzypkowiak. Soviet military bled, but the ISI goosed cluster of logos and bugs and acronyms. A former British commando, Andy was the mujahideen’s strike ratio to keep But these gripping sequences aren’t the crafty shooter who captured those American aid flowing. the work of companies, they were close-quarter shots of the mujahideen Charlie Wilson’s War isn’t the first filmed by men and women. Some were ambushing Russian road convoys. His Hollywood picture to choose myth over professional freelancers, others adven- work for ITN and BBC documenting

20 OPTIONS POLITIQUES FÉVRIER 2008 Charlie Wilson’s whoppers

Massoud’s fighters is profoundly We can’t help thinking about that purportedly secured against the admired by his peers. This rugged, driv- closing line about screwing up the Soviets. That’s 120 times more with en man gave his life to his art: gunmen endgame. And those numbers the char- a poorer result: the Taliban and al- loyal to Massoud’s rival, Hekmatyar, acters throw around, the $5 million Qaeda aren’t thinking about going captured and killed Andy. His images covert aid budget that balloons to an away after six years, they’re coming live on, but here, sadly, they serve even billion by the movie’s end. The on strong. mainly the hyper-commercial zeal of point that urgently needs to be made, on But let’s not fade to black, not just the networks and studios, and the suits screen or in government, is this: yet. This story’s still unfolding. The are evidently too busy counting the Washington’s blowback-prone spending West can still succeed in Afghanistan, cash to give credit where credit is due. of 20 years ago hasn’t taught us a thing. if we stop lying to ourselves and get I can hear those execs and their Today we’re witnessing nothing less down to the honest business of defeat- minions now, chiming in with that than an orgy of mismanagement of ing terrorists. old Hollywood wheeze: “Well this American tax dollars in Afghanistan — And oh yes, look out for next sum- isn’t a documentary.” But what, something we all need to understand as mer’s blockbuster, “The Son of Charlie exactly, is Charlie Wilson’s War? Take the next 9/11-style outrage draws nearer. Wilson’s War: Quest for the Rightful a look at NBC/Universal’s publicity, Billions click over like inches on Credits.” Coming to a law firm near then the moviemakers’ interviews, the Bush odometer. The you… and the resulting fusion might best Congressional Budget Office reports be described as true-life-screwball- that the current wars in Afghanistan Arthur Kent has reported regularly from comic-saga. Is that what America and Iraq have cost more than $600 Afghanistan since 1980. Currently he is needs? Or is this just a candy- billion — Afghanistan about one- the Progressive Conservative candidate in coloured light show, a parable to fifth of that total, or more than 120 his home constituency of Calgary-Currie, pretty up the fog of war? times the amount Charlie Wilson Alberta.

OFFRE D’EMPLOI Directeur(trice) des communications Basé à Montréal et comptant parmi les think tanks les plus respectés du Canada,l’IRPP recherche un directeur des communications pour coordonner ses relations avec les médias, élargir son réseau et superviser ses activités de diffusion. Le candidat idéal aura l’esprit d’initiative et une pensée prospective, il pourra travailler de façon autonome tout en s’intégrant pleinement au sein d’une équipe hautement engagée, et il maîtrisera les compé- tences organisationnelles nécessaires à la gestion de multiples projets dans les délais prescrits. Ce poste nécessite de solides aptitudes à communiquer oralement en français et en anglais, des compétences analytiques et rédactionnelles exceptionnelles, des antécédents dans le secteur des politiques publiques et une bonne connaissance des institutions gouvernementales et des médias. Plusieurs années d’expérience en commu- nications ou en affaires publiques dans les secteurs public ou privé, dans le secteur communautaire ou dans le milieu universitaire seraient aussi souhaitables. Une connaissance des nouveaux médias, comme la baladodiffusion et les blogues, une excellente connaissance de l’Internet et la capacité de voyager en appui aux activités de l’IRPP sont également des conditions importantes. Prière de soumettre une lettre de candidature, un curriculum vitae et le salaire escompté via courriel au [email protected], par télécopieur au (514) 985-2559 ou par courrier postal à IRPP,1470, rue Peel, bureau 200, Mon- tréal (Québec) H3A 1T1. Cette offre d’emploi prend fin le 18 février 2008. Pour de plus amples renseignements sur ce poste, prière de visiter notre site Web au www.irpp.org. Seront uniquement contactés les candidats retenus pour une entrevue.

POLICY OPTIONS 21 FEBRUARY 2008