Harrison Ford: Patriot games

Washington, Aug. 5 (Reuters): When the plot thickens, the CIA calls in the professionals — Hollywood screenwriters.

Addressing what the September 11 commission said was one of the main failures of government — imagination — a senior CIA official said yesterday the spy agency was willing to “push beyond the traditional boundaries of intelligence”.

“We had our terrorism and counter-narcotics analysts meet Hollywood directors, screenwriters and producers. People who are known for developing the summer blockbusters or the hit TV show that often have a terrorism theme,” said Jami Miscik, CIA’s deputy director for intelligence.

“It was an attempt to see beyond the intelligence report, and into a world of plot development,” she told a House Intelligence Committee hearing on the September 11 commission’s recommendations about analysis and the need for imagination and creativity.

The CIA also ran a round-table discussion with 10 science-fiction authors so intelligence analysts could see how the writers spun possible scenarios.

“An invaluable opportunity for analysts to push the envelope on where a nascent development might lead,” Miscik called it. “To truly nurture creativity, you have to cherish your contrarians and give them opportunities to run free,” she said.

In reel-life, two of the best instances of Hollywood meeting CIA are Clear and Present Danger and Patriot Games. In the films, Harrison Ford’s character, John Patrick Ryan, pursues the Colombian drug cartel and IRA terrorists.