Douglas Valentine's Scathing Review of Jeremy Scahills 'Dirty Wars'

[Jan Klimkowski]

Kara - thank you for posting this powerful article by Douglas Valentine.

He is an outstanding journalist and the chronicler of the Phoenix Program. He is also a member of DPF.

The first two sections of Doug Valentine's review represent an essential and largely ignored history of "Dirty Wars". It is a disgrace that this history is still suppressed or omitted.

The last section is a critique of Jeremy Scahlil's documentary, which I have not seen.

Judging by the review, and writing as an experienced docuentary filmmaker, I suspect that several "narrative tricks" were played in the film.

For instance:

B-takes of Scahill walking among the common folk in Brooklyn, plotting his next move. Haunted by the horror of Gardez, he files FOIA requests and discovers that William McRaven is head of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). He's stunned. He's been a national security reporter for over a decade, and he's never heard of JSOC before. It's covert. The story has been hidden in the shadows, he says.
This was the turning point of the film for me. For a National Security correspondent, this is an admission akin to a botanist saying he'd never heard of flowers. It's an admission that fairly sums up the sorry state of reporting in America today. Has JS ever read a book?

It is possible that this is intended as a "retelling" of Scahill's political journey. It is also possible that this scene is structured in this way for "narrative effect", to "tell a story".

If either of these possibilities are true, then - unless the documentary commentary or introduction frames the film appropriately - there is a risk, indeed almost a certainty, of reducing Scahill to the role of actor.

The third possibility, Valentine's conclusion that this scene is "akin to a botanist saying he'd never heard of flowers" is, if true, devastating for Scahill.

I haven't seen the film, so the above is based on the review.

Once again, we fear for JS. Luckily he lives to talk to Rachel Maddow and Morning Joe. The greatness thrust upon him forces him onto TV shows everywhere. There he is with Amy Goodman!
More close-ups. We count the pores on his nose, the hairs in his eyebrows. We feel the fear. He gets a strange call. Someone tells him JSOC tortures people without telling the CIA or regular army, which are too busy torturing people to care.

Again, if JS is the protagonist of the film, then there is an inevitable temptation to make him "heroic". There is an archetypal grammar here. Equally, other archetypes can be called into play, and many powerful documentaries have been made without a central "hero" figure.

I am happy that a documentary about the contemporary incarnation of the Phoenix Program has been made. From Doug Valentine's review, it appears that Scahill should have avoided the "Hollywood narrative" tricks, and stuck to the facts.

Alan J Pakula's All the President's Men turned Bob Woodward into a heroic investigative journalist and we now know that was a lie.

I hope Jeremy Scahill has more integrity than Woodward, because the crimes he is exposing need to be exposed.