SPOILERS
The reenacted archive footage of the gassing on the battlefield is spooky. What the hell is happening?
We the see Peter Sarsgaard go out the window, literally, to a happy song. Very Kubrickian, Errol.
Amid the Nixon administration, the Rockefeller Commission came out with a bunch of things that are considered natural today, even though they are abuses of power.
Glossed over was the fact that the executive branch conducted non-consensual human experimentation and COINTELPRO, versus the fact that Nixon was a crook.
NO BIGGIE.
Then Errol brings in the BEST of the BEST, the one and only Sy Hersh, brushing over his resume, which brings a smile to my face, and gets me to give Errol Morris massive points for this. Turns out he also was HERE!
For over 50 fucking years, Sy Hersh has been a true journalist. He hasn't sold out like most have nowadays, and it's beautiful. You can ALWAYS rely on him to tell the truth. One of the more rare people in the older forms of media.
Was Frank Olsen's death an accident? Didn't seem to be so. Smelled like murder.
When you see all these seemingly normally dressed like fishermen guys with a guy in a suit and a bunch of suitcases going into a cabin, it's creepy. It's like this scenario is TOO normal.
Vin Ruet is keeping tabs on everyone in Frank Olsen's family to keep them off the right track, except for Eric. And Vin could sense it.
We find out that the CIA guys have spiked each other's drinks except for two them. He defines it as "You are the men that know the secrets, we are the men that keep the secrets."
Everyone except Frank and one other person are laughing.
Gerald Ford is supposedly apologizing to them, the Olsens.
But it turns out: the two longstanding Deep State mofos Cheney and Rumsfeld are involved in this, and they admit in memos: we can't have the Olsen family asking questions. They might find some things we don't want found.
So I wonder 'What the hell did they do?'
Vin Ruet stole some of Frank Olsen's belongings and left a carbon copy of the invite to the congregation where Frank's drink was spiked.
Eric is going to William Colby's office to talk to him, and that's when Eric brings up the Phoenix Program headed by Colby.
Supposedly, Colby was there when Frank died.
The continuous decades cover up makes you think it must be really fucking sinister, whatever the fuck has happened.
Turns out Frank wont be allowed to see a psych doc. WTF? WHY? Psycho Executive Branch....
"He may be a danger to others." Sounds like smearing....
Famous last words: It's all going to be ok.
"Can they really operate this way? Not tell the truth, forge docs, etc?" YES!
What's the main concern? "Security."
The way Frank is supposedly being treated for depression is bullshit.
"So what really happened up there?"
"You're never gonna know what happened in that room."
God the cinematography is so rich! This is what Errol Morris is known for! It's like the way Quentin Tarantino films his work, it's the WAY they conduct their work that's unique to them, that's stylistic. The costumes, styling, and makeup in the reenactments...so rich! Regardless of whether or not it's 100% accurate, it was a reinvention for a show that worked in terms of costumes, styling, and makeup. Even if these characters didn't actually wear or look exactly like how they did in the reenactments, you can believe they WOULD HAVE looked this way and/or worn these garments.
Sydney Gottlieb. He's the one who was in charge of MK Ultra, and was infamous for the poisoned cigar of Fidel Castro, and deposing the last democratically elected Congolese leader: Lumumba.
Frank Olsen. They were patriotic, sense of worth. Wanting to do things for their country. But they did things that came back to haunt them, things they would never do otherwise.
Frank had top secret clearance. Appeared to be wrecked with guilt over what's happening, or something he knows. "He jumped out a window?"
No.. even Eric knows he fell or dove. He'd have to be completely horizontal to get out of that hotel room if he committed suicide.
First there were confessions abut biological warfare. Then, it was a retraction. How many times have we seen this even today?
Lashbrook was designated guard. But what else?...... According to the family attorney.
What the BATFUCK...... Frank gets admitted to Chestnut Lodge Sanitarium in NY supposedly.
See...this is some mobster and big banks type shit.
They don't have the best of intentions, the CIA. It's past time people stopped believing them at face value. And Errol Morris shows them in a proper light. The immoral henchmen of the executive branch.
In typical executive branch fashion, they offer many different cover stories to keep the truth hidden.
There was once a manual that was found out in 1997. This belonged to the CIA. What was in this memo? What was it called? "The Assassination Manual." From the Guatemalan coup in 1954. WHAT?
Preferred method of murder by CIA: Out a window or off a building, literally "drop" them. WTF????
Criminally going after the CIA former heads? WOW! Go Saracco!!!
Will Colby was disappeared. WOAH! His son took it as suicide. Notes from Will to his son said,"You may find my body at the bottom of a river." This lead his son to think Will was suicidal. WOW. He was ex-head at the time. But he would talk til he couldn't talk anymore probably, not just about Frank Olsen.
Lashbrook w/ Dr. Abramson is soooo creepy. Lashbrook dictates Dr. Abramson's testimony.
Does Lashbrook feel guilt here? Don't think so. For a moment, you're lead to believe that. But no.
The jumping through time makes me think of Hollywoodland and a couple of other mystery/crime films.
I believe it's David Frost interviewing former CIA director Richard Helms. Helms spitting the lie as truth as the career liars do....
LSD = distraction according to Eric. Distraction from biological warfare program, when propaganda said that the USSR was doing the same exact thing .
All of this just confirms what Noam Chomsky has claimed for years, but no one ever believed him.
John Mulholland was a magician. Apparently he taught the CIA a form of deception, and wrote a book on it too. "How to spike drinks" among other things. Now we know some things Mulholland was up to....
Vin Ruet was in CHURCH when he died. How ironic, the evil, freakish man. Vin Ruet said Eric got a lot right...except for context.
Frank was convinced about biological weapons being used in Korea. Which he was right about.
"How do you mean using?" -> The big question. Using drugs for what?
If Frank blew the whistle, how could Frank be discredited? There was no way to discredit him.
Where's the signature in biological warfare attacks? No one knows you did it!
Frank was also a witness to torture sessions for Project Artichoke. FUCK!
"I'll be glad to tell you anything you want to know," Lashbrook tells Frank Olsen's wife. EXCEPT THE TRUTH!
Sy Hersh talked to his source, his source told him he's naive, that Olsen was killed. But Hersh can't out his source. One of the few times Sy Hersh wont talk, AND I LOVE IT.
Turns out there's a CIA Office of Security. Office of Security aka CIA Hitmen Office.
Frank Olsen refused to go along with the group-think. He was learning all these things about the CIA and what he was doing, and what was happening, and it scared him to death.
Even Sy Hersh says the CIA offed Frank Olsen!
The truth is stranger than fiction sometimes. My confidante doesn't know why I like this "stuff." Mostly because of the above statement, but also because we're always made to believe the CIA is super wholesome, but nope.
For some time, you think ,"What the BATFUCK is going on?" Which adds to the appeal of the story.
My confidante thinks I'm crazy because I tend to gravitate to these stories. My confidante thinks these stories are boring. But I considered my confidante's question, really considered it. Then I finally realized why.
The truth is heavily censored here as a matter of policy. Systematically, it's very hard to come by. For decades, we are lead to believe this antiquated notion of "The American Dream." We are heavily mislead, lied to, and brainwashed to be perpetrators of the very system that screws us. Those in power deliberately censor and lie over and over to make themselves look good, when the truth is, they're the biggest fucking scumbags ever. They're the war criminals, they're the oppressors. So what's the truth of their lives, of what they do at work? What's the real story those in power want hidden, and they'll do whatever it takes to make sure it stays that way?
And last, but not least, the final reason why I like these kinds of stories: Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction.
All in all, this mini-series was fantastic. The cinematography, the dialogue, the fact it's real, it works. And it's not even cliche by fictional standards, where there's a happy ending. There isn't. Sy Hersh admits the deep state scored one on this one. This would be $13.50 USD out of $13.50 USD.
