I never worked for the CIA, but as an employee of the DoD I worked with them and had some family members who worked for them as well. The CIA since at least the early 80s had a program that was more or less a scholarship/ROTC type program. High school students applied to the program and those that were accepted worked at Langley during breaks and summers. The CIA paid them a nice sum for marticulation, food, living expenses and then, upon graduation, they were obligated to work for 1.5 times they were in the program. The woman who Maya was based on (although I am not sure that she was not based on more than one person) seemed like any number of intelligence officers that I have known in my work- very intelligent (although there are some dim bulbs as well) to the point of not dovetailing well with other people and singularly focused on one thing and one thing only. I think the portrayal was accurate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually- my understanding is it was realistic. Loved it.

The SEAL raid was not realistic.

Why do you say that?

Many of the "tactical" maneuvers were inaccurate. For example, there was way too much chatter, and they don't break silence during an assault, basically warning the bad guys that they're about to blow off a door. Annoying.

Interesting. I don't know anything about SEAL raids and I was profoundly struck by how quiet it was. So maybe to you there was a lot of chatter, but to me, the whole thing took place in near silence. I expected it to be much nosier, more chaotic, with yelling, ordering, screaming, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually- my understanding is it was realistic. Loved it.

The depiction of the use of torture to obtain critical information was not accurate.

NP here and actually, I think that the scene of using torture is supposed to be accurate, unfortunately.

The scene may be an accurate depiction of techniques used, but the context was inaccurate. Senators Feinstein, Levin, and McCain wrote a very harsh letter to Sony Pictures about this:

http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/542919/12-12-19-sony-letter.pdf

"We believe the film is grossly inaccurate and misleading in its suggestion that torture resulted in information that led to the location of Usama bin Laden."

These three Senators are on the Intelligence Committee and have been thoroughly briefed on the topic. In addition, then CIA Director Leon Panetta confirmed to McCain that "no detainee in CIA custody revealed the facilitator/courier's full true name or specific whereabouts. This information was discovered through other intelligence means."

It's troubling that the movie would portray torture when torture wasn't used. When the U.S. is struggling with image problems abroad, why fan the flames with false images? Inappropriate and troubling decision on the part of the moviemakers.

I love how people think it's not accurate because gov't officials said so... the truth is it's probably incredibly accurate and they would rather that type of thing not be in the public light .

Anonymous wrote:In the film she says that she was recruited by the CIA right out of highschool. Does that really happen?

I wondered the same thing. In the movie scene where she says this, something about what or how she says it and the guy's response suggested that there was more to the story. It made me wonder if there was some family connection or I-don't-know-what that would have made her the exception to be recruited out of high school.

Anonymous wrote:There are red-haired Arabs. But if she were hired for language skills, why depict her always using a translator?

Who knows? A lot of parts of the movie weren't accurate. Maybe the entire high school thing wasn't accurate.

There are red-haired Arabs. But if she were hired for language skills, why depict her always using a translator?

I thought about the "recruited out of high school" point and came to the conclusion that she is a native speaker of Arabic, Pashtun, or another Middle Eastern language. I don't know about Pashtun, but Arabic has lots of dialects and can be very localized. Someone who was fluent in the proper language would be a lot easier to teach how to be a CIA analyst than it would be to teach a CIA analyst the necessary language skills. It would be a lot better for an analyst to be able to read and understand communications intercepts and so on first hand rather than through a translator in order to better pick up nuances. On the other hand, Maya is a common name in the Middle East and it would be sort of a give-away if she is really an Arab. I assumed that she must be a blond-haired, blue-eyed Anglo named Sue or something and "Maya" was meant to mislead. But, maybe that's what they want me to think?

She didn't seem like a real person. No personality, no interests, no life. A classic composite.

LOL - no, they don't recruit high schoolers!!! At best, she probably worked as a summer only intern after highschool and before graduating from college. They are allowed to do clerical type stuff.

Everything out there strongly indicates she's an egomaniacal fucktard. But very driven and focused, none the less.

personally, i find this conduct of hers distasteful. she sounds like an egomaniac.

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-12-10/world/35745741_1_bin-laden-mission-osama-bin-cia-compound

Anonymous wrote:In the film she says that she was recruited by the CIA right out of highschool. Does that really happen?

I heard her say she had worked for the CIA out of high school. I say that because my DH said the same thing ("They don't recruit high schoolers!") and I told him what I had heard, which I took to mean she initially went to work there maybe as an admin or something and worked her way up.

Anonymous wrote:In the film she says that she was recruited by the CIA right out of highschool. Does that really happen?

I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.

In the film she says that she was recruited by the CIA right out of highschool. Does that really happen?

Anonymous wrote:She is real.

Does she read DCUM?

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
What I found funny was when they got to the third floor, they basically didn't see anyone and then someone hiding whispers in the dark "Osama?"

According to Mark Bissonnette, the author of "No Easy Day" and one of the three SEALs first on the top floor, they did call the names of people they suspected were there. I don't remember if they called Bin Laden's name, but I do remember that he said the called Bin Laden's son's name. This was a tactic they learned from someone else (maybe the Israeli's? I'd have to check the book again) and found to be useful. In that type of situation, there is a lot of confusion. When someone hears his name, he might think for a second that friendlies are calling him because he wouldn't expect his enemies to know his name (true in Ahmad's case maybe, but obviously not Osama's).

I appreciate your explanation, but the reason I found it funny was that I thought one of the members of the household was whispering Osama's name, not one of the Seals. It sounded like a pajama party.