CIA Checking if Life Imitates Art

When the plot thickens, the CIA calls in the professionals -- Hollywood screenwriters.

Addressing what the Sept. 11 commission said was one of the main failures of government -- imagination -- a senior CIA official said Wednesday the spy agency was willing to "push beyond the traditional boundaries of intelligence."

"We had our terrorism and counternarcotics analysts meet with Hollywood directors, screenwriters and producers. People who are known for developing the summer blockbusters or the hit TV show that often have a terrorism theme," said Jami Miscik, CIA's deputy director for intelligence.

"It was an attempt to see beyond the intelligence report, and into a world of plot development," she told a House Intelligence Committee hearing on the Sept. 11 commission's recommendations about analysis and the need for imagination and creativity.

The CIA also ran a round-table discussion with 10 science-fiction authors so intelligence analysts could see how the writers spun possible scenarios.

More: story.news.yahoo.com.../nm/20040805/od_nm/security_cia_dc

Why do I not at all find this surprising? Although it does create an interesting loop to the theory that people sometimes imitate the crimes that they see on film and television.

already been a ATSNN topic.. When I first saw that they mentioned the X-Files spinoff The Lonegunmen where I learned the pilot episode was aired 6 months before 9/11 and it was a conspiracy where the gov crashed a passenger air liner into the WTC

Amazing

My bad, but it happens. I thought the article was current due to the date and the fact that I couldn't find it here. Mod please delete.