Ben Affleck, Covert Operative? Conspiracy Paints Director As ‘War Criminal’
In addition to thinking that Argo is shameless pro-US propaganda, Iranian media also apparently believes that the film’s director and star, Ben Affleck, is himself a covert CIA operative.
Argo dominated during awards season, taking home numerous accolades including Best Picture for director Ben Affleck. The acclaimed political thriller is not without its critics, but most of them hail from the country depicted in the film.
Iran has said that they plan to sue Hollywood over the film, but a state-run news agency took criticism into the meta-fictional recently with a report claiming that Argo is a war propaganda film and that Affleck might be an undercover CIA agent.
Iran’s PressTV ran a story on Wednesday that was written by 9/11 conspiracy theorist and author Kevin Barrett, which claimed that Argo is a “covert operation disguised as a movie.” In the story, he cites researcher and political analyst Barbara Honegger, who recently claimed that Affleck could qualify as a war criminal.
“If the makers of Argo are deposed under oath, they may be forced to reveal that their film — like the fictitious film-within-the-film — is a covert operation disguised as a movie. One of America’s leading experts on covert operations believes that Argo is the propaganda project of an intelligence agency or agencies, and that its purpose is to convince the American people to go along with Israel’s plan to drag America into a war on Iran.”
It’s a pretty interesting twist, even if it is complete bunk. After all, Argo is about the aftermath of the storming of the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979, from which six employees were able to escape and take refuge within the residence of the Canadian Ambassador. The CIA then developed a covert operation to get them out, disguising CIA operative Tony Mendez as a film producer, and the six refugees as his crew.
Affleck plays Mendez in Argo, so if the claim is true, then Ben Affleck, as a covert CIA operative, directed a movie shaming Iran disguised as a movie about the 1979 hostage crisis, which itself is about a CIA operative who pretends to make a movie in Iran in order to save embassy employees. Confusing? No. Totally meta.
If it sounds ridiculous, that’s because it absolutely is, but Barrett and Honegger are sticking to their guns.
“In my opinion, Affleck is a propaganda arm of the Central Intelligence Agency, and worse, probably,” Honegger said on Tuesday’s The Kevin Barrett Show. She also believes that 2001’s Pearl Harbor, also starring Affleck, was 9/11 proaganda. “I believe that Ben Affleck should eventually be put in prison as a collaborator in mass murder. Yes I do,” she said.
“Will Ben Affleck, and other covert operators working to launch a criminal war of aggression against Iran, ever be brought to justice?” Barrett wrote for PressTV. “Iran’s lawsuit against the makers of Argo is a good place to start.”
It’s ridiculous, but I have to ask anyway. Do you think that Argo director Ben Affleck is an undercover CIA operative punishable for war crimes?
