"I'm on My Own Side Now" Said Jason Bourne Or Internal Power Plays in CIA As Seen in the Jason Bourne Films
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"I'm on my own side now" said Jason Bourne or Internal Power Plays in CIA as seen in the Jason Bourne Films Jason Bourne to Special Operations Officer Alexander Conklin: "I'm on my own side now". The Bourne Film Series The Bourne films were published in 2002, 2004, and 2007. They have been commercially and critically successful. The first film is loosely based on Robert Ludlum's novel of the same name. The second and third films are not connected to the novels. My special interest is the films' descriptions of the inner workings of the fictitious Central Intelligence Agency Special Activities Division "Treadstone", later called "Blackbriar". This description was apparently inspired by the memoirs of the father of director and producer Doug Liman. The father, Arthur L. Liman, worked in the National Security Agency (NSA) under President Ronald Reagan and served as chief counsel for the Senate during the Iran- Contra Affair "Of particular inspiration were Liman's father's memoirs regarding his involvement in the investigation of the Iran-Contra affair. Many aspects of the Alexander Conklin character were based on his father's recollections of Oliver North. Liman admitted that he jettisoned much of the content of the novel beyond the central premise, in order to modernize the material and to conform it to his own beliefs regarding United States foreign policy."1 In other words, Arthur L. Liman served in the same role as Pamela Landy does in the films. A summary of the plot: A. The Bourne Identity (2002): A man who has lost his memory attempts to discover his true identity. He discovers that his name is Jason Bourne, and that he seems very apt to avoid getting killed by those attacking him. Apparently, his task has been officially unsanctioned assassinations managed by CIA's Special Operation Treadstone. Now he is the target for the same kind of assassination attempts because he lost his memory and failed to carry out a task. In the end of the film Jason Bourne declares: "I'm on my own side now". The film was directed by Doug Liman and produced by Doug Liman, 1 Sources: interviews on the Bourne Trilogy Bonus Disc, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bourne_Identity_(2002_film, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran- Contra_affair. bourne.doc 1 Patrick Crowley, Richard Gladstein, Frank Marshall and Robert Ludlum. The main character, Jason Bourne was played by Matt Damon. B. The Bourne Supremacy (2004): Jason Bourne is once more hunted by the conspiracy surrounding the CIA and its Special Operation Treadstone. CIA's internal detective Pamela Landy uncovers two corrupt employees who used Treadstone to let $20 million disappear. This and the following film were directed by Paul Greengrass and produced by Doug Liman and Frank Marshall. C. The Bourne Ultimatum (2007): Jason Bourne escapes from Moscow, Russia, and travels to Paris, London, Madrid, Tangier, and New York City to uncover his real identity, while the CIA continues to send assassins after him. His plan is "Someone started all of this and I'm gonna find them", and he carries it through. The footnote references to the films use A-B-C as shown here: • A 0:26:00 The Bourne Identity 0 hours 26 minutes 00 seconds • C 0:42:18 The Bourne Ultimatum 0 hours 42 minutes 18 seconds, etc. The films are published by Universal Picture as a DVD box set. I recommend you to buy the set, for example at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Bourne-Trilogy-Identity-Supremacy- Ultimatum/dp/B001F12J0C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1236180793&sr=1-1 . A Killing Squad with Legislative, Judiciary and Executive Power In the third film CIA Deputy Director Noah Vosen explains the equally ranked Pamela Landy what makes the Special Operations special. Pam: What's going on? ... What's Operation Blackbriar? ... Do you wanna tell me, or should I call Kramer and ask him? ... Vosen: It is now the umbrella programme for all our black ops. Full envelope intrusion, rendition, experimental interrogation is all run out of this office. We are the sharp end of the stick now, Pam. Pam: Lethal action? Vosen: If we have to, sure. That's what makes us special. No more red tape. No more getting the bad guys caught in our sights, then watching them escape while we wait for someone in Washington to issue the order. ... Oh, come on. ... You've seen the raw intel, Pam. You know how real the danger is. We need these programmes now.2 In the first film the Special Operations section is called Operation Treadstone. In the second and third film, it is called Operation Blackbriar.3 Here are three characteristics of the operations: • All power is concentrated in the Treadstone and Blackbriar Operations. There is no tripartition between legislative, judiciary and executive power • This is capital punishment: There is no way of regretting so that you call the victims into existence again. • There will always be someone who disagrees in these operations – at least the subjects Example 1: In the first film Special Operations Director Alexander Conklin orders Danny Zorn to activate all other assassins to get rid of Conklin's own subordinate Jason Bourne. Legislation, judgement and execution are all combined in one sentence: "I want Bourne in a body bag by sundown.""4 2 C 0:42:18, Pamela Landy at Noah Vosen's office 3 Operation Treadstone is directed from the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Operation Blackbriar is directed from the centre of New York. 4 A 0:26:00. Conklin and other members of the team in a large office in Langley bourne.doc 2 Conklin: "I want Bourne in a body bag by sundown." Example 2: In the middle of an operation Deputy Director Noah Vosen is selecting a Special Operations employee as the next target for an assassin. Pamela Landy protests against this sudden death sentence. Noah Vosen declares that he will continue until he is the winner: Pam: Noah, she's one of us. You start down this path, where does it end? Vosen: It ends when we've won.5 Vosen: "It ends when we've won". Research Questions According to these Special Operation officers, the intelligence service has turned over all means of power to the Special Operations. The Special Operations is allowed to define its way of work by itself. That is the basis for my research questions: 5 C 0:51:00. The discussion is described in details below in the section "Internal Power Plays in the Special Operations Section" bourne.doc 3 1. Has the management of the intelligence service taken any precaution against the Special Operations' possible abuse of its accumulated power? 2. Has the management taken precaution against internal power plays? 3. Is the Special Operations allowed to define not only its way of work, but also the desirable outcome? Assassinations, Power Plays and the Special Interest Rules and Regulations of Assassination Assassination is an organized form of murder, the killing of an individual, named person. The killing is done by an assassin who is motivated by his relation to an organization, not by his relation to the subject. If the police or other parties want to find the murderer by looking at the motive, they cannot find any connection between the subject and the assassin unless they know of the conspiracy. That makes the assassin hard to find. There are a number of characteristics: 1. Murder is illegal. This is a general rule all over the world, for example in the sixth commandment: "You shall not murder". Police and military forces may be allowed to use violence, but are not allowed to kill named individuals without legal, public proceedings. 2. The assassination is done by an organization, not by an individual. There are three roles in this conspiracy: An assassin, an officer in command, and their middlemen. 3. All conspirators know that the murder is illegal. They choose to break the universal rule to obtain a special interest. 4. All conspirators know that to protect themselves and their organization they must keep the murder secret. If the connection is revealed, both the assassin and the other members of the organization may be prosecuted for murder. The organization's rules and practices will enforce the secrecy. 5. To obtain a neutral, professional handling of the murder, the victim is called a target or subject and the assassin is called an asset.6 All conspirators taking part in an assassination are guilty of both murder and of keeping their murder conspiracy secret. They are using two sources of organizational power described below: • All participants are aware that they escape the restriction that they must not kill (1. Rules and regulations), and • All participants know that they must keep their deeds secret, or they will risk prosecution (2. Control of knowledge and information) Gareth Morgan: Images of Organization In 1986 Gareth Morgan published Images of Organization where he is using various metaphors to scrutinize our perceptions of organization.7 One of them he calls "The Political System Metaphor": To view an organization as based on the members' fight for their special interests. Power plays: An organization's politics is most clearly manifest during the conflicts and power plays that sometimes takes place openly, and the rest of the time in the many smaller intrigues in any organizational activity. Morgan's definition: 6 Examples: C 0:11:20 and C 0:48:40: "Give the asset subject location. and the route between the subject's hotel and the bank" 7 Gareth Morgan 1997: Images of Organization, 2nd ed., Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks.