REEL NEWS:US congressman Peter King – long a campaigner on Irish issues – has suggested that President Obama has jeopardised national security by giving "top level access on the most classified mission in history" to the makers of a film on the life and death of Osama Bin Laden.

The Republican (in several senses of the word) politician is, of course, referring to the operation that eventually tracked and killed the Al Qaeda leader.

Director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal, both Oscar winners for The Hurt Locker, have vigorously denied the claim. They wrote: "Our upcoming film project about the decade-long pursuit of Bin Laden has been in the works for many years and integrates the collective efforts of three administrations, including those of presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama, as well as the co-operative strategies and implementation by the department of defence and the Central Intelligence Agency."

Conservative commentators have noted that Kill Bin Laden, as the project is provisionally titled, is set to open right
before the 2012 presidential election. Bigelow has some justification for raising an eyebrow. The Hurt Lockertook flak from liberals for its uncritical approach to the US military's conduct in Iraq.