Tom Secker

Tom Secker is a British-based writer who covers the security services, Hollywood and the history of terrorism. He runs the SpyCulture blog which can be supported via Patreon.com. His work has been covered by The Mirror, The Express, Salon, TechDirt and elsewhere.

Contracts Reveal How the DEA Exercises Control Over Television, Film Productions

Nearly 200 pages of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) contracts show how the agency exercises control over TV and film productions.

Tom Secker
By Tom Secker
Feature Image | DEA

Nearly 200 pages of Drug Enforcement Administration contracts with producers were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. They show for the first time how the agency interacts with television and film productions. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is quite active in the entertainment industry. It exercises stringent control over

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US Army Documents Reveal Massive Support for ‘Long Road Home’ Miniseries, Possible Fraud at Military’s Entertainment Liaison Office

The US Army provided such extensive support for National Geographic’s drama, The Long Road Home, that the series likely could not have been made without Pentagon approval.

Tom Secker
By Tom Secker
The Long Road Home

The National Geographic drama series, “The Long Road Home,” tells a version of the story of the battle for Sadr City in 2004, a key moment in Iraq War, and newly-released emails and other documents from the United States Army detail the extensive military support for the TV series and how the Pentagon repeatedly bent its own rules on providing

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How War Propaganda in the Film Industry Really Works

There is no doubt the Department of Defense (a.k.a. the Pentagon) has encouraged the militarization of popular culture and is pro-actively seeking further influence in Hollywood.

Tom Secker
By Tom Secker
Saving Private Ryan | War Propaganda

As the co-authors of National Security Cinema, we have become known — rather inaccurately — for encouraging two major ideas: 1. That the government is really important in making movies more militaristic. 2. That Hollywood doesn’t produce dissenting films. While the first of these is somewhat true it is a simplification, the second is a

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