The Osama bin Laden picture – GOP to the rescue

Who gets the movie rights? Congress to decide


Washington – A Republican lawmaker roped in all the hot button issues to keep the Defense Department from helping Sony produce a movie about the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Scheduled to be released in October 2012, just a couple of weeks in advance of the general elections, the picture would rely on the inside expertise of the military and CIA to reveal little known facts and lend veracity to the dramatic tale of how the U.S. Navy's Seal Team Six tracked down the notorious terrorist leader of Al Qaeda and killed him.

In her introduction of H.R. 2819, the “Stop Subsidizing Hollywood Act,” Rep. Lynn Jenkins of Kansas said “In an era of 9 perent unemployment, trillion-dollar deficits, credit downgrades, and record debt-ceiling extensions it is unconscionable that taxpayer dollars are being used to aid the Hollywood film industry in fact-checking and script research.”

If enacted, the law would prohibit sharing any information about the bin Laden affair with any outside entity – at least until Congress and the CIA have a a chance to investigate the matter and arrive at some hard and fast conclusions.

Any assistance given Sony would be repaid, under the terms of the law.

House Homeland Security Committee Chair Pete King (R-NY) is pushing for a guarantee that the military and CIA would have a chance to review the film prior to its release in an effort to prevent classified information from reaching the public.