Q: Why does the dog wag his tail?
A: Because the dog is smarter than the tail.
— from 1997 American film, Wag the Dog
Wag the Dog, a suspiciously timely political satire that's getting attention this movie season, has a clever story line and a nasty disposition.
Wag the Dog's purpose is to lay bare the last layer of pretension anyone might have had about political power and the wild-workings of our shadow government. And if you're not blown away to find out about the shadow government in Washington, DC, it's clear the film doesn't expose much more than the obvious. Even so, it's already the most anticipated film among movie buffs around our house. There's something about a movie that lets middle Americans confirm the worst in other people.
What gives Wag the Dog its niche as an agit-prop masterpiece are the stars, working deadline quickly and wonderfully, in front of the camera (Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Anne Heche, Woody Harrelson, Jim Belushi, et. al.), and the production team behind it Including director Barry Levinson and screenwriter David Mamet . Shot on a minuscule $17.5 million budget in less than five weeks , the film is swift, lean, clean, and cuts straight to the chase.
The plot goes like this: Just two weeks before election day, the President is caught fondling an underage "Firefly Girl" in the White House. His top aide (Anne Heche) responds by recruiting a secretive master spin doctor ( Robert De Niro), whose operative slogan is "I can't talk about that," and who quickly sets out to "change the story........by changing the lead." Faster than the Missoulian can say why did we invade Iraq and Panama, De Niro's has us (Americans) declaring war on Albania as a way to deflect attention.
In the film De Niro points to Montana and the border with Canada on a globe and chooses that area as a key part of the scheme. It is from some nebulous point in Canada that a "back-pack atom bomb" is to be smuggled into the US by terrorists.
To pull off such a full-scale diversion, to produce this "war", like the ploy that it is, De Niro goes a step further, and contacts a stereotypically Hollywood producer (Dustin Hoffman). The highlights of the film come together with Hoffman's character, who brings a born producer's flair and an actor's pure schlock to the proceedings; planning out the "Albanian war" as a series of staged theatrical acts, and meeting every roadblock with a bulbous battle cry, "This is nothing!"
Dustin Hoffman hasn't been this funny or ballsy since Little Big Man, and it makes Hoffman fans wish he'd do more comedy in lieu of his recent, self-indulgent dramas. Dennis Leary, Andrea Martin, and singer Willy Nelson ease in and out ably as the President's promotional team, crafting catch phrases, theme songs, and spin-off merchandising as they go. The promoters' enthusiasm is contagious; after all, if wars can be made into movies for our fun and entertainment, who's to say that a movie spiel can't be turned into a war? Or a now-playing-on-CNN Presidential sex scandal turned into a seemingly precognitive movie.
In one clip, none too subtle, but strange enough to be great, a by-the-job actress (Kirsten Dunst) is hired to play an Albanian war orphan who runs through a hail of destruction while clutching her cat. That's the image, anyway; in fact, she's clutching a bag of Nachos, the action is all on a Hollywood stage set, and all the elements are dubbed in through post-production graphics manipulation. Everything jells for an instant: the plausible lunacy of the Albanian war, the well-defined lines of all the characters, and the perfect orchestration. It doesn't completely persuade, though.
Wag the Dog hinges its entire premise around the notion of a shadow government deceiving the American public, a concept that is supposed to be unique or original? When the film makes the leap from plausibly outrageous to pure satire, it falls, and much of the value of the film goes with it. There's no explanation for the appearance of Woody Harrelson, a psychotic rapist who's tagged to play the part of a soldier, "Shoe", lost behind enemy lines, and how no one recognizes him despite seeing his face plastered on every television set in the country. Or the way De Niro manages to keep the lid on all information when dozens of people are aware there's a masquerade going on.
Smugly, the movie assumes it won't matter, but the lack of a commenting character or Greek chorus keeps it from steaming up an audience's temperature to genuine outrage. If we're supposed to shrug and say, that's the way it is with movies that's fine, but that's the way it is in American politics, too. The lesson is: any story, or film line, that's too pat and perfect to be true, usually isn't.
The timing of the release of Wag the Dog and the new John Travolta film, Primary Colors were not accidental. The films were contrived to expose the operations of what has become a secretive, shadow government.
A shadow government requires secrecy. Control of newspapers, the bar association, judges, bankers, and policemen mandate control of the flow of information. A shadow government is at war with journalists and newspapers who want to print the truth.
As the shadow government grows in power it moves towards the open suppression of a free press. It is smarter tactically to say to people that they have a "free press" and then crush the opposition by secret means, than to openly deny a "free press" by passing laws to make control of the press an absolute. At the present stage, deception and deceit are the shadow government's most powerful tool.
Within days now copies of the current issues of two largest Native American newspapers will be reaching Montana. Both devote space to a drug smuggling scandal along the Canadian border. The Wisconsin based newspaper has a full page ad by an Assiniboine-Sioux group addressed to FBI director Louis Freeh. The South Dakota Native American publication features the first installment of a five-part series on the drug scandal by veteran journalist Paul Richardson.
As my article goes to print several Montana newspapers are preparing pieces as well. At least one national magazine will have a feature in-depth article this spring. A recent article of the New Mexico based Free American carried a very good article. Montana syndicated columnist Yuri Debenko also wrote a good article discussing Rodney Stich and CIA officer Chip Tatum. This new coverage is surprising, as some of the other journalists who covered the story ran into problems.
Earlier this month Paul Richardson lost an expensive camera in a police stop and search of his vehicle after Richardson finished interviewing some witnesses near Fort Peck Reservation. Richardson was followed out of Montana by a law enforcement vehicle - then discovered four of his tires slashed the next morning when he prepared to leave for work in Rapid City, South Dakota.
Paul Richardson is not a coward or a fool. The intimidators will come to bitterly regret what they did to that man - and other journalists. Paul Richardson confirmed from his sources in the Canadian RCMP that Florida FBI agent Terry Nelson was wanted for felony drug trafficking related charges in Saskatchewan.
Newspaperman Krassimir Ivandjiiski "does not exist" if you believe our popular Republican governor, Marc Racicot. According to a couple of old newspaper clippings candidate Marc Racicot was making those statements just before the June, 1996 primary. Ivandjiiski had published an article in Sofia, Bulgaria which implicated Marc Racicot and several other Montanans in drug corruption.
Another journalist who ran into problems was Ron Paulson of Phoenix, Arizona. Paulson had reprinted the article from Ivandjiiski's Bulgaria Confidential. Paulson received a demand for retraction from governor Racicot. Then after Marc Racicot admitted to Paulson's allegations - Paulson claims he also received a series of bizarre telephone threats from Racicot. At one point in the conversations Racicot offered $10,000 to buy all the issues of the reprinted articles and a list of names of the people in Montana who had received copies. He claimed "it never happened."
Former Publisher of the Chinook Opinion, Mike Perry also ran into a few problems himself. Mike Perry must have been drinking from the same water fountain as Circle attorney Arnie Hove. Perry started having problems with his business at precisely the same time he began to tie the Cowan murders to a drug operation along the border.
Mike Perry began to receive threats on his life and had to wear a pistol on his hip in his press room. Perry was an excellent investigative journalist who would oftentimes play a tape recorded interview of the last person to see the Cowans before they were murdered. (the tape is very impressive) The witness was warned by the Cowans that the then Blaine County Attorney was going to have them killed that evening. They were right. Mike Perry and his wife left Montana for Cedar Rapids, Iowa December 15th after being coerced to sell his business.
Greg Little of the Lewistown Argus tells how he had his tires flattened too during his tenure at editor of the Wolf Point Herald. Greg Little had published a few articles focusing on corruption and key exhibits that evaporated out of the police evidence locker during drug murder trials. Flattened tires frequently change the focus of an investigation.
Just like not-so-silent whispers to the current editor of the Wolf Point Herald, Rob Behr, that "wiretaps of Arnie Hove's phones had been obtained." Or that Hove was about to be indicted for "rape", or "dealing crystal methedrine' as a result of a federal investigation. Behr was followed one night after he left Arnie Hove's office in Circle, too.
Still, by far, the strangest account of people who make the news though is that of Lawrence W. Meyers a former reporter for Media Bypass magazine. Lawrence Meyers did an interview of longtime CIA operative Charles Hayes for the August, 1996 issue of his publication.
Charles Hayes made some statements about a coming indictment of Montana's governor Marc Racicot for duplicity in drug trafficking. Hayes also spoke about the drug problem in Kentucky and an internecine war between drug rival gangs in Columbia.
The Hayes interview is one of the wonders of modern journalism. Especially when you consider Lawrence W. Meyers was an undercover operative for the FBI at the time Meyers made the interview. Lawrence used his time alone with Hayes to frame Hayes on a false murder-for-hire conspiracy accusation. Luckily for Hayes, persons from another US agency intervened and provided medical records and other documentation (including tape recordings) which demonstrated intra alia that Meyers had been treated for a very, very disruptive personality order. That fact, of course, was not disclosed by the DOJ prosecution to Hayes' defense team prior to trial.
In yet another example of harassment ,a relative of Assiboine-Sioux freelance journalist, Melissa Buckles, also was cautioned three days ago that "his house was going to be riddled with bullets" if talk about the drug scandal didn't stop. Ms. Buckles' home is also getting strange phone calls originating from an electronic distorting device of some sort. The calls to Melissa Buckles mimic a flood of calls traced to a drop phone (in or near Montreal, Quebec) made to Allen Comstock, a computer graphics designer in Helena for much of last year. The Canadian calls used French phases, but occasionally the calls referred to specific items in Comstock's business premises, which only a person who had been in the building would know about.
Another well-known journalist was offered $750,000 to "forget about the story and just go away". More details on this will be released at the proper time. Mention of the journalists in Billings and Livingston who are also working on major pieces about the drug scandal won't be made here because of concerns for their safety. The Billings writer, for instance, has some very good material on a Poplar murder not yet addressed by our publication.
During the 1992 Presidential campaign the so-called "bimbo eruptions" smearing Clinton came and went. Betsy Wright and Jack Palladino did a masterful job of deflecting or spinning the attention from Gennifer Flowers and other women who came forward to tell about the Caligula-like goings on at the Little Rock Governor's Mansion during the tenure of Bill Clinton..
The Clinton spin doctors employed the brilliant and devious tactic of coordination many of the women who had sex with Bill Clinton with pornography magazines for nude photographs. Many of the women were paid extraordinary amounts- and were ,of course, discredited. In doing so, women such as Sally Perdue, who had her jaw broken by Bill Clinton during a drunken tryst, were forgotten.
Also, forgotten was the use of cocaine at parties at the governor's mansion. Forgettable also was the murder of Jerry Parks( director of security for the Clinton 1992 campaign) after Parks indicated he would make public items which would embarrass Bill Clinton. Still more forgettable were accounts of large scale drug operations revolving around a small airport in Mena, Arkansas.. And most forgettable of all things was the laundering of $85 million through a stock brokerage account (owned by a small time Arkansas trucker) by Clinton associate Dan Lassater.
The newest Clinton sex scandal with Monica Lewinsky did not emerge all of a sudden. It was carefully planned and is but a first sophisticated broadside which will take out Bill Clinton as President of the United States. The Firefly Girl of Wag the Dog anticipated and prepared us for Monica Lewinsky and others
Since he was elected president Bill Clinton has worked under the steady drone of lots of accusations. Many of the accusations were true; witnesses were intimidated, compromised and possibly murdered. Several investigative journalists also died under unexplained circumstances.
But now it has come to harvest time for Bill Clinton. The question inside the puzzle of it all is: why is Bill Clinton really being removed as President of the United States? Why is the time exactly now?
Likewise, the parallel with the tribulations felt by journalists in Montana can be seen easily enough. Somebody who is very powerful did not want the Canadian drug scandal brought out in the open. There were important reasons why the witnesses were ignored, investigations were stymied, and stories were spiked. Watch as financial markets begin to trade on the Clinton scandal news.
The Montana drug scandal will be used as a diversion. Like the "bimbo eruptions" were for Clinton, things that never happened in Montana are being considered anew and should gain feeding-frenzy national media attention. Count on it. Wag the Dog.
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