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Last night, minutes before the world premier of the new film SEAL Team Six: The Raid on Osama bin Laden in Washington, D.C., director John Stockwell made a brief announcement to attendees: The facts in his film were not "confirmed or denied" by White House officials. When the movie's ending credits rolled 90-minutes later, that fact was abundantly clear.
The action-adventure flick, which chronicles the U.S. intelligence and military effort to capture bin Laden, strays from established reporting and official disclosures surrounding the May 1 raid in a number of ways. Mind you, this is not why the film is controversial: For that, look no further than its release date, two days before the election, and financier, Obama donor Harvey Weinstein. While film critics have called the movie a November "Obama booster," the filmmakers have denied meddling into politics. Either way, the account of the film should not be taken as gospel when it comes to key facts pertaining to the raid. Here are the discrepancies we noticed:
Who opposed the bin Laden raid? The film attempts to dramatize President Obama's decision to order the hit on bin Laden by emphasizing the opposition to the raid within his cabinet. While it's true that Vice President Biden opposed the raid, the movie states that Defense Secretary Robert Gates also opposed the raid. In fact, he did not.