Senate Launches Zero Dark Thirty Investigation

The Senate Intelligence Committee is launching an investigation into the CIA's ties to Zero Dark Thirty, both to see if intelligence officials gave filmmakers access to classified material, and to see if they're responsible for the film's controversial depiction of torture as essential to Osama bin Laden's assassination. The committee will look into records of director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal's communications with agents, including Michael Morell, who is widely considered the favorite to succeed David Petraeus as the agency's director, Reuters reports.

Originally, it was conservatives beating the drum against Zero Dark, accusing the Obama administration of feeding Bigelow and Boal info for political purposes. But now that it's out, liberals are the ones railing against the film over its depiction of torture. Last month, Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein joined members Carl Levin and John McCain in condemning the film's "grossly inaccurate and misleading suggestion that torture resulted in information that led to the location" of bin Laden. (More Zero Dark Thirty stories.)