Glossing over: CIA director say film not historically accurate

Says movie erroneously bases discovery of Bin Laden's whereabouts on the efforts of a few individuals Huma Imtiaz.

WASHINGTON: The acting head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Michael Morell, on Friday slagged off the controversial film Zero Dark Thirty as a “historically inaccurate” portrayal of the hunt for Osama bin Laden and his May 2011 killing.

Morell said in a statement that the film was a “departure from reality,” as it showed that the discovery of Bin Laden's whereabouts was based on the efforts of a few individuals.

He said that Zero Dark Thirty, which reportedly has a scene of a detainee being waterboarded, "creates the impression that the enhanced interrogation techniques, that were part of our former detention and interrogation programme, were the key to finding Bin Laden, which is false."

He said that multiple streams of intelligence led the CIA to determine Bin Laden's whereabouts, adding that some of the information did come from detainees, who were subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques, but there were other sources involved too.

"Whether enhanced interrogation techniques were the only timely and effective way to obtain information from those detainees, as the film suggests, is a matter of debate that cannot and never will be definitively resolved," the statement said.

The movie has come under renewed criticism from US senators. Earlier this week, Senate Intelligence Committee head Senator Dianne Feinstein, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, and Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member John McCain sent a letter to Sony Pictures Entertainment saying that the movie was grossly inaccurate and misleading.

Zero Dark Thirty has been a controversial project since the beginning, after it was discovered that the filmmakers had extensive access to CIA personnel. Republican Party member and House Committee on Homeland Security chair Rep. Peter King has called for an investigation into the access provided to the filmmakers and the role of the administration in the process.