title: The Interview

text: In Greece, in April 2017, the film's opening scene, depicting a young girl reciting a poem with hate speech, was mistakenly broadcast in the news bulletin of Alpha TV and the news program "Live News" on Epsilon TV, as a real-life provocative event against the United States. In response to the backlash on various online newspapers, Antonis Sroiter and Nikos Evangelatos, the hosts of the said programs, apologized in posts they made on their social accounts.


title: John Entwistle

text: John Alec Entwistle (9 October 194427 June 2002) was an English musician who was the bassist for the rock band The Who. Entwistle's music career spanned over four decades. Nicknamed "The Ox" and "Thunderfingers", he was the band's only member with formal musical training and also provided backing and occasional lead vocals. Entwistle was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Who in 1990.


title: John Entwistle

text: Renowned for his musical abilities, Entwistle's instrumental approach used pentatonic lead lines and a then-unusual treble-rich sound ("full treble, full volume"). He was voted as the greatest bassist ever in a 2011 "Rolling Stone" readers' poll and, in 2020, the same magazine ranked him number three in its own list of the 50 greatest bassists of all time.


title: John Entwistle

text: John Alec Entwistle was born on 9 October 1944 in Chiswick, which is now part of London. He was an only child. His father, Herbert, who died in 2003, played the trumpet and his mother, Maud (née Lee) (29 November 1922 – 4 March 2011), played the piano. His parents' marriage failed soon after he was born, and he was mostly raised by his mother at his grandparents' house in South Acton. Divorce was uncommon in the 1940s, and this contributed to Entwistle becoming reserved and socialising little.


title: John Entwistle

text: His musical career began aged 7, when he started taking piano lessons. He did not enjoy the experience and after joining Acton County Grammar School aged 11, switched to the trumpet, moving to the French horn when he joined the Middlesex Schools Symphony Orchestra. He met Pete Townshend in the second year of school, and the two formed a trad jazz band, the Confederates. The group only played one gig together, before they decided that rock and roll was a more attractive prospect. Entwistle, in particular, was having difficulty hearing his trumpet with rock bands, and decided to switch to playing guitar, but due to his large fingers, and also his fondness for the low guitar tones of Duane Eddy, he decided to take up the bass guitar instead. He made his own instrument at home, and soon attracted the attention of Roger Daltrey, who had been in the year above Entwistle at Acton County, but had been expelled and was working as an electrician's mate. Daltrey was aware of Entwistle from school, and asked him to join as a bass guitarist for his band, the Detours.


title: John Entwistle

text: After joining the Detours, Entwistle played a major role in encouraging Pete Townshend's budding talent on the guitar, and insisting that Townshend be admitted into the band as well. Eventually, Daltrey fired all the members of his band with the exception of Entwistle, Townshend and the drummer Doug Sandom, a semi-pro player who was several years older than the others. Daltrey relinquished the role of guitarist to Townshend in 1963, instead becoming frontman and lead singer. The band considered several changes of name, finally settling on the name the Who while Entwistle was still working as a tax clerk (temporarily performing as the High Numbers for four months in 1964). When the band decided that the blond Daltrey needed to stand out more from the others, Entwistle dyed his naturally light brown hair black, and it remained so until the early 1980s. Around 1963, Entwistle played in a London band called the Initials for a short while; the band broke up when a planned resident engagement in Spain fell through.


title: John Entwistle

text: Entwistle picked up two nicknames during his career as a musician. He was nicknamed "The Ox" because of his strong constitution and seeming ability to "eat, drink or do more than the rest of them". He was also later nicknamed "Thunderfingers". Bill Wyman, bass guitarist for the Rolling Stones, described him as "the quietest man in private but the loudest man on stage". Entwistle was one of the first to make use of Marshall stacks in an attempt to hear himself over the noise of his band members, who famously leapt and moved about on the stage, with Townshend and Keith Moon smashing their instruments on numerous occasions (Moon even used explosives in his drum kit during one television performance on the "Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour"). Townshend later remarked that Entwistle started using Marshall amplification to hear himself over Moon's rapid-fire drumming style, and Townshend himself also had to use them just to be heard over Entwistle. They both continued expanding and experimenting with their rigs, until they were both using twin stacks with new experimental prototype 200 watt amps, at a time when most bands used 50–100 watt amplifiers with single cabinets. All of this quickly gained the Who a reputation for being "the loudest band on the planet"; they reached 126 decibels at a 1976 concert in London, listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the loudest rock concert in history. The band had a strong influence at the time on their contemporaries' choice of equipment, with Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience both following suit. Although they pioneered and directly contributed to the development of the "classic" Marshall sound (at this point their equipment was being built or tweaked to their personal specifications), they only used Marshall equipment for a few years. Entwistle eventually switched to using a Sound City rig, with Townshend later following suit. Townshend points out that Jimi Hendrix, their new label mate, was influenced beyond just the band's volume. Both Entwistle and Townshend had begun experimenting with feedback from the amplifiers in the mid-1960s, and Hendrix did not begin destroying his instruments until after he had witnessed the Who's "auto-destructive art".


title: John Entwistle

text: Entwistle's wry and sometimes dark sense of humour clashed at times with Townshend's more introspective, intellectual work. Although he wrote songs on every Who album except for "Quadrophenia", Entwistle was frustrated at Daltrey not allowing him to sing them himself. As he said, "I got a couple [of songs] on per album but my problem was that I wanted to sing the songs and not let Roger sing them." This was a large part of the reason that he became the first member of the band to release a solo album, "Smash Your Head Against the Wall" (1971) which featured contributions from Keith Moon, Jerry Shirley, Vivian Stanshall, Neil Innes and the Who's roadie, Dave "Cyrano" Langston.


title: John Entwistle

text: He was the only member of the band to have had formal musical training. In addition to the bass guitar, he contributed backing vocals and performed on the French horn (heard on "Pictures of Lily" and throughout "Tommy"), trumpet, piano, bugle, and Jew's harp, and on some occasions he sang the lead vocals on his compositions. He layered several horns to create the brass section as heard on songs such as "", among others, while recording the Who's studio albums, and for concerts, arranged a horn section to perform with the band.


title: John Entwistle

text: While Entwistle was known for being the quietest member of the Who, he in fact often exerted major influences on the rest of the band. For instance, Entwistle was the first member of the band to wear a Union Jack waistcoat. This piece of clothing later became one of Townshend's signature garments.


title: John Entwistle

text: In 1974, he compiled "Odds & Sods", a collection of unreleased Who material. Entwistle designed the cover art for the band's 1975 album, "The Who by Numbers", and in a 1996 interview remarked that it had cost £30 to create, while the "Quadrophenia" cover, designed by Pete Townshend, had cost £16,000.


title: John Entwistle

text: Entwistle also experimented throughout his career with "Bi-amping", where the high and low ends of the bass are sent through separate signal paths, allowing for more control over the output. At one point his rig became so loaded down with speaker cabinets and processing gear that it was dubbed "Little Manhattan", in reference to the towering, skyscraper-like stacks, racks and blinking lights.


title: John Entwistle

text: While Townshend emerged as the Who's songwriter-in-chief, Entwistle began making distinctive contributions to the band's catalogue, beginning with "Whiskey Man" and "Boris the Spider" on the "A Quick One" album in 1966, continuing with "Doctor, Doctor" and "Someone's Coming" (1967); "Silas Stingy", "Heinz Baked Beans" and "Medac" from "The Who Sell Out" (1967); "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" (1968); and "Heaven and Hell", with which the Who opened their live shows between 1968 and 1970. Entwistle wrote "Cousin Kevin" and "Fiddle About" for the Who's 1969 album "Tommy" because Townshend had specifically requested Entwistle to write 'nasty songs' that he felt uncomfortable with. "My Wife", Entwistle's driving, comedic song about marital strife from 1971's "Who's Next", also became a popular stage number. He wrote "Success Story" for "The Who by Numbers" (1975), for which he also drew the illustration on the album cover; "Had Enough", "905", and "Trick of the Light" for "Who Are You" (1978); "The Quiet One" and "You" for "Face Dances" (1981); and "It's Your Turn", "Dangerous" and "One at a Time" for "It's Hard" (1982), his final album with the Who.


title: John Entwistle

text: In 1971, Entwistle became the first member to release a solo album, "Smash Your Head Against the Wall", which earned him a cult following in the US for fans of his brand of black humour. Other solo studio albums included: "Whistle Rymes" (1972), "Rigor Mortis Sets In" (1973), "Mad Dog" (1975), "Too Late the Hero" (1981), and "The Rock" (1996). The band was preoccupied with recording "The Who by Numbers" during the spring of 1975 and did not do any touring for most of the year, so Entwistle spent the summer performing solo concerts. He also fronted the John Entwistle Band on US club tours during the 1990s, and appeared with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band in 1995. A talented artist, Entwistle held regular exhibitions of his paintings, with many of them featuring the Who. In 1984, he became the first artist besides Arlen Roth to record an instructional video for Roth's company Hot Licks Video.


title: John Entwistle

text: In 1990, Entwistle toured with the Best, a short-lived supergroup which included Keith Emerson, Joe Walsh, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, and Simon Phillips. Towards the end of his career, he formed the John Entwistle Project with longtime friend, drummer Steve Luongo, and guitarist Mark Hitt, both formerly of Rat Race Choir. This evolved into the John Entwistle Band, with Godfrey Townsend replacing Mark Hitt on guitar and joining harmony vocals. In 1996, the band went on the "Left for Dead" tour with Alan St. Jon joining on keyboards. After Entwistle toured with the Who for "Quadrophenia" in 1996–97, the John Entwistle Band set off on the "Left for Dead – the Sequel" tour in late 1998, now with Gordon Cotten on keyboards. After this second venture, the band released an album of highlights from the tour, titled "Left for Live" and a studio album "Music from Van-Pires" in 2000. The album featured lost demos of Who drummer Keith Moon together with newly recorded parts by the band. In 1995, Entwistle also toured and recorded with Ringo Starr in one of the incarnations of Starr's All-Starr Band. This one also featured Billy Preston, Randy Bachman, and Mark Farner. In this ensemble, he played and sang "Boris the Spider" as his Who showpiece, along with "My Wife". Toward the end of his career he used a Status Graphite Buzzard Bass, which he had designed. From 1999 to early 2002, he played as part of the Who. Entwistle also played at Woodstock '99, along with Mickey Hart, being the only performers there to have taken the stage at the original Woodstock. As a side project, he played the bass guitar in a country rock album project of original songs called the Pioneers, with Mickey Wynne on lead guitar, Ron Magness on rhythm guitar and keyboards, Roy Michaels, Andre Beeka on vocals, and John Delgado playing drums. The album was released on Voiceprint. Shortly before his death, Entwistle had agreed to play some US dates with the band including Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, following his final upcoming tour with the Who.


title: John Entwistle

text: In 2001, he played in Alan Parsons' Beatles tribute show "A Walk Down Abbey Road". The show also featured Ann Wilson of Heart, Todd Rundgren, David Pack of Ambrosia, Godfrey Townsend, Steve Luongo, and John Beck. That year he also played with the Who at the Concert for New York City. He also joined forces again with the John Entwistle Band for an 8-gig tour. This time Chris Clark played keyboards. From January–February 2002, Entwistle played his last concerts with the Who in a handful of dates in England, the last being on 8 February at London's Royal Albert Hall. In late 2002, an expanded 2-CD "Left for Live Deluxe" was released, highlighting the John Entwistle Band's performances.


title: John Entwistle

text: Between 1996 and 2002, Entwistle attended dozens of art openings in his honour. He chatted with each collector, personalising their art with a quote and a sketch of "Boris". In early 2002, Entwistle finished what was his last drawing. "Eyes Wide Shut" represented a new style for Entwistle. Featuring Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townshend, Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton, Entwistle's style had evolved from simple line drawings and caricatures to a more lifelike representation of his subjects. He was more confident and relaxed with his art and ready to share that with his collectors.


title: John Entwistle

text: Now ... ! I'm still the Bass Guitarist. If you're reading this Bio at a show – don't forget to wave – I'm the one on the left. If you're reading this at an Art Show – Help support a starving Artist BUY SOMETHING!


title: John Entwistle

text: In 1967, Entwistle married his childhood sweetheart, Alison Wise. He bought a large semi-detached home in Stanmore, London, filling it with all sorts of extraordinary artifacts, ranging from suits of armour to a tarantula spider. His eccentricity and taste for the bizarre was to remain with him throughout his life, and when he finally moved out of the city in 1978, to Stow-on-the-Wold in Gloucestershire, his 17-bedroom mansion, Quarwood, resembled a museum. It also housed one of the largest guitar collections belonging to any rock musician.


title: John Entwistle

text: Entwistle and Wise had a son, Christopher. The marriage ended in divorce. Entwistle later married Maxene Harlow. At the time of his death, his long-term partner was


title: John Entwistle

text: Entwistle died in Room 658 at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Paradise, Nevada, on 27 June 2002, one day before the scheduled first show of the Who's 2002 United States tour. He was 57 years old. Entwistle had gone to bed that night with Alycen Rowse, a local stripper and groupie, who awoke the next morning to find Entwistle cold and unresponsive. The Clark County medical examiner determined that his death was due to a heart attack induced by an undetermined amount of cocaine. Entwistle already had severe heart disease and usually smoked 20 cigarettes a day.


title: John Entwistle

text: Entwistle had undergone a medical examination for insurance purposes before the Who's 2002 tour started. The exam revealed high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Entwistle's authorised biographer Paul Rees has suggested that a more detailed physical examination would have revealed that three of his arteries were blocked and necessitated surgery.


title: John Entwistle

text: His funeral was held at St Edward's Church in Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire, England, on 10 July 2002. His body was cremated and his ashes were buried privately on the grounds of his mansion, Quarwood. A memorial service was held on 24 October at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London. Entwistle's huge collection of guitars and basses was auctioned at Sotheby's in London by his son, Christopher, to meet anticipated taxes on his father's estate.


title: John Entwistle

text: On Pete Townshend's website, Townshend and Roger Daltrey published a tribute, saying, "The Ox has left the building — we've lost another great friend. Thanks for your support and love. Pete and Roger."


title: John Entwistle

text: Entwistle's mansion, Quarwood, and some of his personal effects were later sold off to meet the demands of the Inland Revenue; he had worked for the agency from 1962 to 1963 as a tax officer before being demoted to filing clerk, prior to joining the Who.


title: John Entwistle

text: One aspect of Entwistle's life emerged after his death that came as a surprise even to those closest to him, including the members of the Who. "It wasn't until the day of his funeral that I discovered that he'd spent most of his life as a Freemason", said Pete Townshend.


title: John Entwistle

text: Welsh-born bass guitarist Pino Palladino, who had previously played on several of Townshend's solo albums, took over for Entwistle onstage when the Who resumed their postponed US tour on 1 July 2002. Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey spoke at length about their reaction to Entwistle's death. Some of their comments can be found on "The Who Live in Boston" DVD.


title: John Entwistle

text: On the opening night of their "Vapor Trails" tour, which began in Hartford, Connecticut on 28 June 2002 (the night after Entwistle's death), Geddy Lee of Rush dedicated the band's performance of the song "Between Sun and Moon" to Entwistle.


title: John Entwistle

text: Oasis played a version of "My Generation" during their set at T in the Park on Saturday 13 July 2002 as a tribute to Entwistle.


title: John Entwistle

text: In a Red Hot Chili Peppers gig at Slane Castle in 2003, Flea got on stage wearing a version of the skeleton suit Entwistle wore during The Who 1970 tour, as a tribute.


title: John Entwistle

text: Entwistle's playing technique incorporated fingerstyle, plectrum, tapping, and the use of harmonics. He changed his style between songs and even during songs to alter the sound he produced. His fingering technique involved plucking strings very forcefully to produce a trebly, twangy sound. He changed his thumb position from pick-up to the E string and occasionally even positioned his thumb near the pick-up. His plectrum technique involved holding the plectrum between his thumb and forefinger, with the rest of his fingers outstretched for balance.


title: John Entwistle

text: The Who's studio recordings seldom did justice to Entwistle's playing, in part because he was better heard in concert, where he and Pete Townshend frequently exchanged roles, with Entwistle providing rapid melodic lines and Townshend anchoring the song with rhythmic chord work. At the same time, Townshend noted that Entwistle provided the true rhythmic timekeeping in the band, while Keith Moon, with his flourishes around the kit, was more like a keyboard player. In 1989, Entwistle pointed out that, by modern standards, "the Who haven't got a proper bass player."


title: John Entwistle

text: Entwistle also developed what he called a "typewriter" approach to playing the bass. It involved positioning his right hand over the strings so all four fingers could be used to tap percussively on the strings, causing them to strike the fretboard with a distinctive twangy sound. This gave him the ability to play three or four strings at once, or to use several fingers on a single string. It allowed him to create passages that were both percussive and melodic. This method should not be confused with tapping or slapping, and in fact predates these techniques. Modern players such as Ryan Martinie of heavy metal band Mudvayne have used similar techniques. Entwistle can be seen using this technique in Mike Gordon's 2002 film, "Rising Low". Notable in his left-hand technique was his use of slides, positioning his left hand for octaves, and his use of the pentatonic when playing with the Who.


title: John Entwistle

text: Entwistle was notorious for the extremely high volume at which he played bass, going so far as to rig pick-ups to each string on his instruments. This led to him developing hearing loss, similar to Townshend. Although not as public about his problems as Townshend, he reputedly had to rely on lip reading to understand speech in his later years. Randy Bachman of Bachman–Turner Overdrive claimed that towards the end of his life, Entwistle mostly played by feeling the rush of air from his giant amp stacks. Entwistle blamed his hearing loss on using headphones.


title: John Entwistle

text: Entwistle identified his influences as a combination of his school training on French horn, trumpet, and piano (giving his fingers strength and dexterity). Musicians who influenced him included rock and roll guitarists Duane Eddy and Gene Vincent, and American soul and R&B bass guitarists such as James Jamerson. In turn, Entwistle has been a considerable influence on the playing styles and sounds used by generations of bass guitarists that have followed him, including Tom Hamilton, Geezer Butler, Steve Harris, Matt Freeman, Krist Novoselic, Cliff Burton, Ian Hill, Geddy Lee, Billy Sheehan, Victor Wooten, Tom Petersson, Sam Rivers, John Myung, and Chris Squire.


title: John Entwistle

text: Entwistle continues to top 'best ever bass player' polls in musicians magazines. In 2000, "Guitar" magazine named him "Bassist of the Millennium" in a readers' poll. J. D. Considine ranked Entwistle No. 9 on his list of "Top 50 Bass Players". He was named the second best rock bassist on "Creem Magazine"'s 1974 Reader Poll Results. In 2011, a "Rolling Stone Magazine" reader poll selected him as the No. 1 rock bass guitarist of all time.


title: John Entwistle

text: Entwistle collaborated with bass guitar manufacturers such as Alembic, Warwick, and Status Graphite His noted bass solo on the "My Generation" single was a Fender Jazz Bass with stock flatwound strings.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: Demolition Man is a 1993 American science fiction action film directed by Marco Brambilla in his directorial debut. It stars Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock, and Nigel Hawthorne. Stallone is John Spartan, a risk-taking police officer who has a reputation for causing destruction while carrying out his work. After a failed attempt to rescue hostages from evil crime lord Simon Phoenix (Snipes), they are both sentenced to be cryogenically frozen in 1996. Phoenix is thawed for a parole hearing in 2032, but escapes. Society has changed and all crime has seemingly been eliminated. Unable to deal with a criminal as dangerous as Phoenix, the authorities awaken Spartan to help capture him again. The story makes allusions to many other works including Aldous Huxley's 1932 dystopian novel "Brave New World", and H. G. Wells's "The Sleeper Awakes".


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: The film was released in the United States on October 8, 1993, to mixed reviews from critics. It earned $159 million worldwide, and was considered a successful film for Stallone.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: In 1996, psychopathic career criminal Simon Phoenix kidnaps a busload of hostages and takes refuge in an abandoned building. LAPD Sergeant John Spartan, nicknamed "The Demolition Man" for the large amounts of collateral damage he often causes in apprehending suspects, mounts an unauthorized assault to capture Phoenix. When a thermal scan of the area reveals no trace of the hostages, he raids the building and confronts Phoenix, who sets off explosives to destroy it. The hostages' corpses are later found in the rubble, and Phoenix claims that Spartan knew about them and attacked anyway. Both men are sentenced to lengthy terms in the city's new "California Cryo-Penitentiary", a prison in which convicts are cryogenically frozen and exposed to subliminal rehabilitation techniques.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: In 2032, the city of San Angeles – a megalopolis formed from the merger of Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa Barbara – is a seemingly peaceful utopia designed and run by Dr. Raymond Cocteau. Phoenix is thawed for a parole hearing and escapes from the cryo-prison by saying a secret password, without knowing how he had learned it. He subsequently murders his guards and the warden, making his way into the city where he easily overpowers and kills several police officers who have never had to deal with violent crime. Lieutenant Lenina Huxley, an idealistic officer who is fascinated with 20th-century culture, learns about Spartan's career from veteran officer Zachary Lamb, who suggests the best chance to stop Phoenix is to enlist an officer with the experience and mindset needed to anticipate his actions. Huxley persuades her superiors to parole Spartan and reinstate him to active duty. Spartan finds life in San Angeles to be sterile and oppressive, since all types of behavior deemed immoral or unhealthy, such as sports, alcohol, swearing, eating meat and having sex have been declared illegal. Conversely, many members of the police department and the public view Spartan as savage and uncivilized, while Huxley idolizes him.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: Anticipating that Phoenix will attempt to secure firearms, Spartan leads Huxley to a museum and finds Phoenix looting an exhibit of weapons. To Spartan's surprise, Phoenix is even deadlier than before, exhibiting expert-level proficiency in an extensive range of skills including martial arts and computer hacking. Phoenix escapes and holds Cocteau at gunpoint, but is unable to kill him, as Cocteau had implanted a command in his rehabilitation program to prevent him from doing so. Cocteau instead orders Phoenix to kill Edgar Friendly, the leader of a resistance group called the Scraps who refuse to conform to Cocteau's moral ideals and who live in the underground ruins of old Los Angeles.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: Spartan and Huxley witness this exchange on security cameras and review the cryo-prison records. They discover that Phoenix's rehabilitation program was tailored by Cocteau to make him even more dangerous than he was in 1996, including martial arts, computer hacking, knowledge of torture techniques, and murderous impulses; by contrast, Spartan's program taught him to knit and sew. As the pair deduce that Friendly is being targeted for murder, Phoenix persuades Cocteau to release additional cryo-prisoners for his gang and leads them underground to pursue Friendly. Having previously encountered the Scraps during a food raid at a restaurant, Spartan and Huxley venture underground and save Friendly from an assassination attempt by Phoenix. Phoenix taunts Spartan with the revelation that he had framed Spartan for the deaths of the 1996 hostages, who were already dead before the building exploded. Phoenix escapes to the cryo-prison, and Spartan pursues him with weapons provided by the Scraps.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: Unable to harm Cocteau, Phoenix has a gang member kill him instead and begins thawing out the cryo-prison's most dangerous convicts. Spartan incapacitates Huxley for her safety and fights Phoenix, breaking a vial of a cryogenic chemical that rapidly freezes Phoenix's body solid. Spartan kicks his head off, shattering it, and escapes as the uncontrolled quick-freezing effect triggers an explosion that destroys the cryo-prison. The police fear that the loss of Cocteau and the cryo-prison will end society as they know it, but Spartan suggests that they and the Scraps cooperate to combine the best aspects of order and personal freedom. He kisses Huxley and they leave together.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: The original script was written by Peter Lenkov, who retained a story by credit. Lenkov came to Hollywood straight out of college with no connections, and wrote seven different scripts, desperately hoping to break into Hollywood. Selling the spec script of "Demolition Man" to Warner Bros. was his first big break. Lenkov had been inspired by "Lethal Weapon" and wanted to do something about cops, and had also read about celebrities wanting to be cryogenically frozen. His initial pitch was rejected by an executive who did not understand his "frozen cop" idea. The finished script, where a super cop has to battle the world's deadliest criminal, in a future where there is almost no crime, generated more interest.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: Writer Daniel Waters (known for "Heathers") said his version of the screenplay was essentially a rewrite; he changed the script so extensively that when the script went to arbitration he received first screenplay writing credit. In the early drafts the script was a regular action movie, with no attempt at comedy. Waters pitched it as an action movie version of Woody Allen's "Sleeper". Waters had an idea about a small part of Universal City, a shopping and entertainment area called CityWalk, and wondered what it might be like if one day all of Los Angeles might be like that, and the idea grew from there. Waters says his intention was to have fun, that he was not trying to be political or deeply examine political correctness. He cited the conclusion of the film, where society will need to find a new balance and compromise, as representing his own position in the political middle ground. Burger King was originally written as the winner of the restaurant wars, but they and also McDonald's were not interested in being part of the film, but Taco Bell were happy to be involved. The "three seashells" concept originated when Waters was trying to come up with ideas for a futuristic restroom and called writer Larry Karaszewski for suggestions, and he happened to be using the restroom when he answered the call. He looked around his bathroom and said he had a bag of seashells on the toilet as decorations, so Waters decide to use that. Waters wrote some of the script on index cards while waiting in line for Johnny Carson tickets. He said it was some of the fastest work he'd ever written, and that he had only worked on it for two and a half weeks.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: The film began with John Spartan being taken out of cryogenic freeze in the future of 2032, until Fred Dekker did uncredited rewrites on the script, adding the Los Angeles 1996 prologue, to showcase Spartan and Phoenix in their natural environment, and make the differences of the future more striking. Dekker explained "If you don't show Kansas, Oz isn't all that special." Jonathan Lemkin also did uncredited rewrites on the film. Steven de Souza read the script but was unavailable to commit to rewrites. De Souza recommended setting the film in the more distant future to make the culture clash more plausible. Producers rejected his suggestion because they wanted to keep the subplot of Spartan finding his daughter, but ultimately that subplot was cut from the film. The script had been in development for six years before filming finally began.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: Director Marco Brambilla had a background in shooting big-budget TV commercials, and this was his first feature film. Brambilla was working to make "Richie Rich", starring Macaulay Culkin, but they could not get the budget they needed. Instead David Fincher recommended Brambilla to Joel Silver as director for "Demolition Man". Steven Seagal had originally been attached as leading actor, and Jean-Claude Van Damme had been offered the part of the villain. Brambilla met Stallone a few days after getting attached to the project and started re-writing the script with Daniel Waters. The film went into production approximately eight months after that. Producer Joel Silver was able to get highly experienced crew for the film, including editor Stuart Baird and cinematographer Alex Thomson. Brambilla brought costumer Bob Ringwood to the project because of his work on "Dune" (1984), and wanted Alex Thomson because of his work on "Alien 3" (1992).


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: Stallone passed on the project at first, but came back around to it. He liked the idea of two equal opponents in Spartan and Phoenix, and decided to take a chance on doing something he had not done before. Stallone wanted Jackie Chan for the role of Simon Phoenix. Chan turned it down, not wanting to play a villain. Wesley Snipes turned down the role several times, so Joel Silver and Marco Brambilla went to the set of the film "Rising Sun" to try and convince him in person. Brambilla explained what he thought the film could be and his passion for the script they were writing, and the next day they received a call and Snipes agreed to do the film. Brambilla said of Snipes, "He works without rehearsing too much, and he improvises a lot. The two of them, that combination of energies and the way they interact, really did the movie a lot of favors. They completely respected each other and were really professional, and they did get along. There was no ego or any competition between the actors." Lori Petty was originally cast as Huxley, but was fired after two days of filming due to what producer Joel Silver called "creative differences". Petty attributed it to personality differences, as she and Stallone did not get along, and said "Sly and I were like oil and water." Silver was looking for a replacement and Lorenzo di Bonaventura recommended Bullock; impressed by her audition tape, Silver hired her. Denis Leary said he was hired for his comedy rants, which he wrote himself and had to undergo a long approval process by the studio before it was included in the script.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: General Motors provided the production team with 18 concept vehicles, including the Ultralite. More than 20 fiberglass replicas of the Ultralite were produced to portray civilian and SAPD patrol vehicles in the film. After filming had completed, the remaining Ultralites were returned to Michigan as part of GM's concept vehicle fleet.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: The film featured the actual demolition of one of the buildings of the no longer operative Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing Company in Louisville, Kentucky.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: The City of L.A. allowed the filmmakers to use and demolish an old Department of Water & Power building in downtown Los Angeles. This enabled them to have more control over the explosion, instead of having to cut straight to the building being gone and rubble as they had been forced to do with other projects. "We actually created a crater in the middle of the building. And have the explosion and rubble more designed, so to speak. It's fun to do that, because those big pyrotechnics always look great", Silver noted.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: The film suffered repeated delays, and the original 72-day production schedule ran to 112 days. Stallone was out for a week due to injury. Heavy rains in Los Angeles delayed filming. A soundstage was also damaged in a fire. The production went through five assistant directors, and many crew had to leave to work on other projects. Insiders at Warner Bros. were critical of Silver for hiring a director without previous feature film experience. Silver rejected this view, saying, "Marco's done a brilliant job. We're over-schedule because this is a very hard movie to make, not because Marco is inexperienced."


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: "Demolition Man" was the first production to film at the Los Angeles Convention Center after it was rebuilt in the 1990s, it was used as the Cocteau Center.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: The S.A.P.D. police station in the background was the GTE Corporate Headquarters in Westlake Village, California (which later became the Baxter Healthcare building, and was used in the first episode of "The Orville").


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: The Pacific Design Center, in West Hollywood was used for the exterior shot of Lenina Huxley's apartment building.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: The cryo-prison used the exterior of the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles. Filming also took place at Wilshire Courtyard, 5700 and 5750 Wilshire Boulevard.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: A power station in Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, was used as the underground dwellings of Edgar Friendly and the Scraps.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: The helicopter bungee jump at the start of the film was coordinated by Charles Picerni, and performed by stuntman Ken Bates. For safety, and due to the danger of recoil back into the helicopter blades, a decelerator was used instead of a real bungee, and Bates jumped 300 feet from a Chinook helicopter. According to Picerni it was a first: "We've done that off of buildings before, but never out of a helicopter."


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: The film mentions Arnold Schwarzenegger having served as President of the United States, after a Constitutional amendment was passed allowing him to run for the office due to his popularity. Coincidentally, a day short of ten years after the film's release, the 2003 California gubernatorial recall election was scheduled. The election saw Schwarzenegger actually begin a political career as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011. Shortly after he was elected, an "Arnold Amendment" did get proposed.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: One of the film's focal points is Taco Bell being the sole surviving restaurant chain after "the franchise wars." The European version of the film substitutes Taco Bell with Pizza Hut, because Taco Bell is not as well known outside the United States and Canada; both restaurant chains are owned by Yum! Brands. Lines were re-dubbed and logos changed during post-production. According to "The Wall Street Journal", this kind of localization of product placement was a first.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: A subplot involving Spartan's daughter was cut for pacing reasons. This led to some confusion at test screenings, where audiences thought Sandra Bullock was the daughter, and reacted negatively to the scene where they were about to have sex. Originally Spartan's daughter was one of the Scraps living underground with Edgar Friendly's resistance. A scene where Stallone fights Jesse Ventura was cut from the film.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: The film had a production budget of $45 million, but sources told the "Los Angeles Times" that the cost increased to $77 million after the shooting schedule was extended from 72 to 112 days for the first unit of principal photography, plus an additional 75 days for work done by a second unit. The combined cost of production and marketing was estimated at nearly $97 million.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: The title theme is a heavier remix of the song originally recorded by Grace Jones and written by Sting during his time as frontman for The Police. The song was first released in March 1981, as an advance single from Jones's fifth album, "Nightclubbing". Sting released an EP featuring this song and other live tracks, entitled "Demolition Man".


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: Elliot Goldenthal composed the score for the film. It was his second big Hollywood project after the "Alien³" score.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: The two commercial jingles, which are not part of the soundtrack, include the jingle from the 1967 commercial "Armour Hot Dogs" sung by Sandra Bullock and Benjamin Bratt in the police car, and the jingle from the 1960s commercial "Jolly Green Giant" sung by Dan Cortese in the Taco Bell restaurant.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: The theme song "Love Boat" of the series of the same name, which is also not part of the soundtrack, was played by Sandra Bullock as a romantic background music in her apartment before the "virtual sex" between her and Sylvester Stallone.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: Warner Bros. released it on VHS in March 1994, on DVD in October 1997 and 2014, and on Blu-ray in August 2011.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: The film debuted at No. 1 at the box office. "Demolition Man" grossed $58,055,768 by the end of its box office run in North America and $159,055,768 worldwide.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: Film critic Roger Ebert was asked why this film was considered a success, but "Last Action Hero" was considered a disappointment, despite similar budgets and box office grosses. Ebert concluded it was due to expectations, and that the film was seen as a comeback for Stallone whose career had been flagging, whereas Schwarzenegger failed to live up to his previous record breaking successes.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: In 2017, Sylvester Stallone's loan-out company filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros. over the disbursement of profits from the film. The lawsuit was settled in 2019.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 62% based on 42 reviews, with an average rating of 5.60/10. The site's consensus reads: "A better-than-average sci-fi shoot-em-up with a satirical undercurrent, "Demolition Man" is bolstered by strong performances by Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, and Sandra Bullock." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score a 34 out of 100, based on 9 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: Critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert from "At The Movies" reviewed the film: Siskel found the film amusing but did not care for the action sequences and gave it "thumbs down", whereas Ebert enjoyed both the satirical edge this film had over other films of this genre and thought the action sequences were good for this type of film, and gave it a "thumbs up".


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote that the film fails to give action fans what they desire, instead substituting out-of-place satirical commentary. Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" called it "a significant artifact of our time or, at least, of this week". Richard Schickel of "Time" wrote, "Some sharp social satire is almost undermined by excessive explosions and careless casting." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone criticized the film calling it "sleek and empty as well as brutal and pointless." Emanuel Levy of "Variety" called it "A noisy, soulless, self-conscious pastiche that mixes elements of sci-fi, action-adventure and romance, then pours on a layer of comedy replete with Hollywood in-jokes." Levy says it "works better as a comic-book adventure than did "Last Action Hero", but reserves his praise for the technical merits of the film, complimenting "the high-tech, metallic look created by production designer David L. Snyder and his accomplished team" as well as the cinematography of Alex Thomson. He concludes "what's badly missing is a guiding intelligence to lift this disjointed pic from its derivative status."


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" gave it a "B−". Despite his low expectations of a Joel Silver production and "the everything-goes-boom school of high-tech action overkill", he found it "an intermittently amusing sci-fi satire" before it switches to full-tilt destruction mode. Gleiberman says "if it's the promise of overwrought violence that lures people into theaters, I suspect it will be the quieter scenes—the ones with a pretense of wit—that keep them satisfied."


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: Hal Hinson of "The Washington Post" wrote: "Basically, Demolition Man is a futuristic cop picture with slightly more imagination and wit than the typical example of the slash-and-burn genre."


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: "TV Guide" praised the film and wrote: "The pleasant surprise about Demolition Man is that both the script, and Stallone, are funny; the film blends big-budget action and tongue-in-cheek humor in the way that 'Last Action Hero' tried, and failed, to do."


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: Phillipa Bloom of "Empire" magazine gave it 4 out of 5, and compared it to a one-night stand "not necessarily something you'll remember next day but fast, furious and damn good fun while it lasts." Bloom was critical of the thin plot but called Stallone and Snipes "a dynamite screen combination".


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: The film was nominated for three Saturn Awards, Best Costumes (Bob Ringwood), Best Special Effects (Michael J. McAlister, Kimberly Nelson LoCascio) and Best Science Fiction Film.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: Demolition Man action figures and vehicles were released in 1993. Produced by Mattel the toys were based on their "New Adventures of He-Man" style of figures. In addition to seven action figure, the set included a car, a red convertible called the "Fast Blast 442", an airplane "Bolajet" , and a "Missile Shooter" toy gun. Lenina Huxley was not included in the toy line.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: Acclaim Entertainment and Virgin Interactive released "Demolition Man" on various home video game systems. The 16-bit versions were shooting games distributed by Acclaim. The 3DO version is a multi-genre game that incorporates Full Motion Video scenes, with both Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes reprising their roles as their characters in scenes that were filmed exclusively for the game.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: In April 1994, Williams released a widebody pinball machine, "Demolition Man" based on the film. It was designed by Dennis Nordman. The game features sound clips from the film, as well as original speech by Stallone and Snipes.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: A novelization, written by Robert Tine (using the pseudonym Richard Osborne), was published in November 1993.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: Inspired by the film, Dennis Rodman had his hair dyed and styled the same way the character of Simon Phoenix played by Snipes, for his San Antonio Spurs debut, which was the start of Rodman dyeing his hair in different colors. Snipes hated this hairdo and shaved it off as soon as filming had wrapped.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: The development of erotic games for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset has been compared to the "virtual sex" scene from the film.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: To celebrate the film's 25th anniversary, Taco Bell recreated the 2032 San Angeles version of their restaurant at the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: The film has been described as a cultural touchpoint, and the restrictive future society has been used as an example of government overreach, and called a "Libertarian manifesto". "Demolition Man" has been referred to as "the only plausible dystopian vision for our time".


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: The film found renewed relevance during the COVID-19 pandemic; the film was seen as predictive when there were calls to end the practice of shaking hands, and shortages of toilet paper.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: In the video game "Cyberpunk 2077", three shells are found in the bathroom of the player's apartment.


title: Demolition Man (film)

text: In 2006, Stallone was asked about a sequel and he said, "I'd like to make a sequel to "Demolition Man", but I believe that ship has sailed and maybe there are more challenges waiting on the horizon."


title: Murder of Adam Walsh

text: Adam John Walsh (November 14, 1974 – July 27, 1981) was an American child who was abducted from a Sears department store at the Hollywood Mall in Hollywood, Florida on July 27, 1981. His severed head was found two weeks later in a drainage canal alongside Highway 60/ Yeehaw Junction in rural Indian River County, Florida. His death garnered national interest and was made into the 1983 television film "Adam", seen by 38 million people in its original airing.


title: Murder of Adam Walsh

text: Adam’s father, John Walsh, became an advocate for victims of violent crimes and was the host of the television program "America's Most Wanted" and, later, "In Pursuit with John Walsh". Convicted serial killer Ottis Toole confessed to Adam's murder, but was never convicted of the crime because evidence was reportedly lost and Toole later recanted his confession. Toole died in prison of liver failure on September 15, 1996. No new evidence has come to light since then, and police announced on December 16, 2008, that the Walsh case was closed and that they were satisfied that Toole was the killer.


title: Murder of Adam Walsh

text: On the afternoon of July 27, 1981, Adam accompanied his mother Revé on a shopping trip to the Hollywood Mall (today Hollywood Hills Plaza) in Hollywood, Florida (). They went to Sears, entering through the north entrance. Revé intended to inquire about a lamp that was on sale and left Adam at a kiosk with Atari 2600 video games on display, where several other boys were taking turns playing them. Revé completed her business in the lamp department around 12:15 p.m. She said that she returned to find that Adam and the other boys had disappeared. A store manager informed her that a scuffle had broken out over whose turn it was at the kiosk, and a security guard demanded that the boys leave the store. The security guard asked the older boys if their parents were present, and they said that they were not. Adam's parents later conjectured that their son had been too shy to speak to the security guard, who presumed that he was in the company of the other boys and made him leave by the same door by which the boys had entered (the Sears west entrance). His parents believe that after the other boys dispersed, he was left alone outside the store at an exit unfamiliar to him. Meanwhile, unable to find Adam in the toy department, Revé had him paged over the public-address system and continued to look for him throughout the store. By coincidence, she ran into her mother-in-law Jean, who helped her search for him. After more than 90 minutes of searching and paging failed to locate Adam, Revé called the Hollywood Police at 1:55 p.m.


title: Murder of Adam Walsh

text: On August 10, a severed head was found in a drainage canal alongside the Florida Turnpike near Vero Beach, almost from Hollywood, by detective Ralph E. Latimer Jr. and an unidentified deputy of the Indian River County sheriff's office. Indian River County and St. Lucie County divers searched the canal. On the morning of August 11, John and Revé appeared on national television saying that they still hoped that Adam was alive. A reward was posted for Adam's safe return. Soon after, the recovered remains were identified as Adam's.


title: Murder of Adam Walsh

text: The coroner ruled that the cause of Adam's death was asphyxiation. The state of the remains suggested that Adam had died several days before the discovery of his head. The rest of his body was never recovered. The head, itself, would be kept in the morgue until the case's closure in 2008.


title: Murder of Adam Walsh

text: John and Revé knew that the Hollywood police department had botched the treatment of Adam's disappearance, first with the missing-person investigation, and then with the murder investigation.


title: Murder of Adam Walsh

text: After some investigation, police eventually concluded that Adam was abducted by a drifter named Ottis Toole near the front exterior of Sears after being instructed to leave by a security guard. Toole said that he had lured Adam into his white 1971 Cadillac (which had a damaged right bumper) with promises of toys and candy, then proceeded to drive north on Interstate 95 toward his home in Jacksonville. According to Toole, Adam, at first docile and compliant, began to panic as they drove on. Toole punched him in the face, but as this just made the situation worse, he then "walloped him unconscious." While Adam was unconscious, Toole drove north on the Florida Turnpike to a deserted service road just north of the Radebaugh Road overpass in northwest St. Lucie County (). When Toole realized that Adam was still breathing, he strangled him to death with a seat belt, dragged him out of the car and decapitated him with a machete. Toole also claimed to have incinerated the body in an old refrigerator when he returned to Jacksonville. He claimed that he wanted to make Adam his adopted son, but that was not deemed feasible. The source of the blood found in Toole's car could not be identified. The police ultimately lost the bloodstained carpet from the car, the machete said to have been used to decapitate Adam and, eventually, the car itself. Toole, a confidant of convicted serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, repeatedly confessed and then retracted accounts of his involvement.


title: Murder of Adam Walsh

text: Toole was never charged in Adam's case, although he provided seemingly accurate descriptions as to how he committed the crime. Netflix's Confession Tapes show footage of him apparently being fed information from interrogators and he later confessed to several cases he had no involvement in. Several witnesses also placed him in the Hollywood area in the days leading up to Adam's disappearance. In September 1996, he died in prison of cirrhosis at the age of 49 while serving a life sentence for other crimes. Later, his niece told John Walsh that he made a deathbed confession to Adam's murder. His confession was viewed as unreliable, as he and Lucas confessed to or implicated themselves in more than 200 homicides. Most of Lucas' confessions were later revealed to have been false, having been coerced by the Texas Rangers.


title: Murder of Adam Walsh

text: In 1997, Hollywood police chief Rick Stone conducted an exhaustive review of Adam's case after the release of John's book. At the time, Stone was a 22-year veteran of the Dallas, Texas and Wichita, Kansas police departments and had been appointed Hollywood's chief of police in the previous year. Although the crime happened 16 years before the time of his review, he provided an analysis of the evidence, including a review of taped interrogations of Toole by Hollywood detective Mark Smith. Stone says that his review found evidence "beyond a reasonable doubt" that Toole murdered Adam. Stone noted that both Toole and Lucas were notorious for confessing to crimes that they had committed and then recanting.


title: Murder of Adam Walsh

text: In 2007, according to allegations that earned widespread publicity, Jeffrey Dahmer, who was arrested in Wisconsin in 1991 after killing more than a dozen men and boys, was also named as a suspect in Adam's murder. Dahmer's father called the "America's Most Wanted" hotline soon after his son's arrest to claim that he believed that his son was a pedophile. Dahmer was living in Miami Beach at the time of Walsh's murder, and two eyewitnesses placed him at the mall on the day that Adam was abducted. One claimed to have seen a strange man walking into the toy department. The other said that he saw a young, blond man with a protruding chin throw a struggling child into a blue van and speed off. Both witnesses recognized the man they had seen as Dahmer when pictures of him were released in the newspapers after his arrest. Reports revealed that the delivery shop where Dahmer worked had a blue van at the time. He preyed on young men and boys (the youngest being eight years older than Adam), and his "modus operandi" included severing his victims' heads. When he was interviewed about Adam Walsh in 1992, Dahmer repeatedly denied his involvement in the crime, even stating, "I've told you everything—how I killed them, how I cooked them, who I ate. Why wouldn't I tell you if I did it to someone else?" After this rumor surfaced, John Walsh stated that he had "seen no evidence" linking Adam's abduction and murder to those that were committed by Dahmer.


title: Murder of Adam Walsh

text: On December 16, 2008, Hollywood police chief Chad Wagner, with his friend John present, made the announcement that the case was now closed. An external review of the case had been conducted and police announced that they were satisfied that Toole was the murderer.


title: Murder of Adam Walsh

text: The television film "Adam" premiered on October 10, 1983. The film was based on Walsh's kidnapping and murder, and it attracted 38 million viewers on its first airing. Each of its three broadcasts in 1983, 1984 and 1985 were followed by pictures and descriptions of missing children. A hotline was also created to take calls that may have materialized into leads for investigators. The pictures and hotline were credited with finding 13 of the 55 children shown. American rapper Bizzy Bone, who was abducted by his stepfather as a child, was reunited with his mother after a babysitter recognized a photo of him during the broadcast.


title: Murder of Adam Walsh

text: In 1984, the U.S. Congress passed the Missing Children's Assistance Act, owing in part to the advocacy of the Walshes and other parents of missing children. It allowed the formation of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC).


title: Murder of Adam Walsh

text: The Code Adam program for helping lost children in department stores is named in Adam's memory. The U.S. Congress passed the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act on July 25, 2006, and President George W. Bush signed it into law on July 27. The signing ceremony took place on the South Lawn of the White House, attended by John and Revé. The bill institutes a national database of convicted child molesters, and increases penalties for sexual and violent offenses against children. It also creates a RICO cause of action for child predators and those who conspire with them.


title: Murder of Adam Walsh

text: The Adam Walsh Reauthorization Act of 2016, which provides budgetary allotments to continue programs passed in the 2006 Act, was incorporated into H.R. 5578, the Survivors’ Bill of Rights Act of 2016, and was enacted and signed by President Obama on October 7, 2016.


title: Murder of Adam Walsh

text: The publicity that surrounded Adam's case and the widely watched television movie "Adam" also created what was described as a mid-1980s panic over stranger abductions, one that may have been out of proportion to the actual numbers and that has persisted for decades. Richard Moran, a criminologist at Mount Holyoke College says: "[The case] created a nation of petrified kids and paranoid parents. Kids used to be able to go out and organize a stickball game, and now all playdates and the social lives of children are arranged and controlled by the parents...the fear still lingers today." Early estimates by the NCMEC would state that as many as 20,000 children a year were abducted by strangers, and public service spots relayed the perceived danger. A 1985 Pulitzer Prize exposé discussed a "numbers gap" between the claimed number and other statistics, such as that the FBI investigated a total of 67 abductions by total strangers in 1984. By 1988, even as the NCMEC lowered annual estimates of stranger abductions by 80%, "early estimates had a life of their own." A 1990 study of child abductions found that 99% of them were family-related. In the 15 years between 2000 and 2015, the number of missing children ultimately killed decreased, partially attributed to the emergence of technologies such as mobile phones that allow calls for help.


title: Schizotypal personality disorder

text: Schizotypal personality disorder (STPD or SPD), also known as schizotypal disorder, is a mental and behavioral disorder. DSM classification describes the disorder specifically as a personality disorder characterized by thought disorder, paranoia, a characteristic form of social anxiety, derealization, transient psychosis, and unconventional beliefs. People with this disorder feel pronounced discomfort in forming and maintaining social connections with other people, primarily due to the belief that other people harbor negative thoughts and views about them. Peculiar speech mannerisms and socially unexpected modes of dress are also characteristic. Schizotypal people may react oddly in conversations, not respond, or talk to themselves. They frequently interpret situations as being strange or having unusual meaning for them; paranormal and superstitious beliefs are common. Schizotypal people usually disagree with the suggestion their thoughts and behaviors are a 'disorder', and seek medical attention for depression or anxiety instead. Schizotypal personality disorder occurs in approximately 3% of the general population and is more commonly diagnosed in males.


title: Schizotypal personality disorder

text: The term "schizotype" was first coined by Sandor Rado in 1956 as a portmanteau of ""schizo"phrenic pheno"type"". STPD is classified as a cluster A personality disorder, also known as the "odd or eccentric" cluster.


title: Schizotypal personality disorder

text: STPD as a proper diagnosis was first introduced in 1980, with the release of the DSM-III. The diagnosis was created to fill the gap between Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and moderate schizophrenia-like symptoms. Because of this, many early studies were either seeking to distinguish it from other diagnoses, specifically BPD, or identify its utility in recognizing non-clinical people who were genetically predisposed to schizophrenia.


title: Schizotypal personality disorder

text: Schizotypal personality disorder is widely understood to be a "schizophrenia spectrum" disorder. Rates of schizotypal personality disorder are much higher in relatives of individuals with schizophrenia than in the relatives of people with other mental illnesses or in people without mental illness. Technically speaking, schizotypal personality disorder may also be considered an "extended phenotype" that helps geneticists track the familial or genetic transmission of the genes that are implicated in schizophrenia pathogenesis. But there is also a genetic connection of STPD to mood disorders and depression in particular. Prediction of schizophrenia based on schizotypal traits has a higher accuracy for individuals with high genetic risk for STPD.


title: Schizotypal personality disorder

text: Unique environmental factors, which differ from shared sibling experiences, have been found to play a role in the development of STPD and its dimensions. There is now evidence to suggest that parenting styles, early separation, trauma/maltreatment history (especially early childhood neglect) can lead to the development of schizotypal traits. Neglect or abuse, trauma, or family dysfunction during childhood may increase the risk of developing schizotypal personality disorder. There is also evidence indicating influenza in the prenatal environment could have an effect on development of STPD. Over time, children learn to interpret social cues and respond appropriately but for unknown reasons this process does not work well for people with this disorder.


title: Schizotypal personality disorder

text: Schizotypal personality disorders are characterized by a common attentional impairment in various degrees that could serve as a marker of biological susceptibility to STPD. The reason is that an individual who has difficulties taking in information may find it difficult in complicated social situations where interpersonal cues and attentive communications are essential for quality interaction. This might eventually cause the individual to withdraw from most social interactions, thus leading to asociality.


title: Schizotypal personality disorder

text: There are various methods of screening for schizotypal personality. The Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) measures nine traits of STPD using a self-report assessment. The nine traits referenced are Ideas of Reference, Excessive Social Anxiety, Odd Beliefs or Magical Thinking, Unusual Perceptual Experiences, Odd or Eccentric Behavior, No Close Friends, Odd Speech, Constricted Affect, and Suspiciousness. A study found that of the participants who scored in the top 10th percentile of all the SPQ scores, 55% were clinically diagnosed with STPD. A method that measures the risk for developing psychosis through self-reports is the Wisconsin Schizotypy Scale (WSS). The WSS divides schizotypal personality traits into 4 scales for Perceptual Aberration, Magical Ideation, Revised Social Anhedonia, and Physical Anhedonia. A comparison of the SPQ and the WSS suggests that these measures should be cautiously used for screening purposes of STPD.


title: Schizotypal personality disorder

text: In the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-5, schizotypal personality disorder is defined as a "pervasive pattern of social and interpersonal deficits marked by acute discomfort with, and reduced capacity for, close relationships as well as by cognitive or perceptual distortions and eccentricities of behavior, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts."


title: Schizotypal personality disorder

text: These symptoms must not occur only during the course of a disorder with similar symptoms (such as schizophrenia or autism spectrum disorder).


title: Schizotypal personality disorder

text: The symptoms of "lacking close friends" and "suspiciousness or paranoia" have been used for diagnosing STPD by the DSM-V. These criteria overlap with symptoms for Paranoid personality disorder (PPD) and Schizoid personality disorder (SzPD), making these symptoms not as useful when distinguishing STPD from other personality disorders.


title: Schizotypal personality disorder

text: The World Health Organization's ICD-10 uses the name "schizotypal disorder" (). It is classified as a clinical disorder associated with schizophrenia, rather than a personality disorder as in DSM-5.


title: Schizotypal personality disorder

text: This diagnostic rubric is not recommended for general use because it is not clearly demarcated either from simple schizophrenia or from schizoid or paranoid personality disorders, or possibly autism spectrum disorders as currently diagnosed. If the term is used, three or four of the typical features listed above should have been present, continuously or episodically, for at least two years. The individual must never have met criteria for schizophrenia itself. A history of schizophrenia in a first-degree relative gives additional weight to the diagnosis but is not a prerequisite.


title: Schizotypal personality disorder

text: STPD is rarely seen as the primary reason for treatment in a clinical setting, but it often occurs as a comorbid finding with other mental disorders. When patients with STPD are prescribed pharmaceuticals, they are usually prescribed neuroleptics, also known as antipsychotics, of the sort used to treat schizophrenia; however, the use of neuroleptic drugs in the schizotypal population is in great doubt. While people with schizotypal personality disorder and other attenuated psychotic-spectrum disorders may have a good outcome with neuroleptics in the short term, long-term follow-up suggests significant impairment in daily functioning compared to schizotypal and even schizophrenic people without neuroleptic drug exposure. Positive, negative, and depressive symptoms were shown to be improved by the used of olanzapine, a neuroleptic. Those with comorbid OCD and STPD were most positively affected by the use of olanzapine, and showed worse outcomes with the use of clomipramine, an antidepressant.


title: Schizotypal personality disorder

text: Antidepressants are also sometimes prescribed, whether for STPD proper or for comorbid anxiety and depression. However, there is some ambiguity in the efficacy of antidepressants, as many studies have only tested people with STPD and comorbid obsessive-compulsive disorder or borderline personality disorder. They have shown little efficacy for treating dysthymia and anhedonia related to STPD.


title: Schizotypal personality disorder

text: Both of these medications are the most frequently prescribed medication for STPD, though the use and efficacy of them should be evaluated differently for every case.


title: Schizotypal personality disorder

text: The use of stimulants have also shown some efficacy, especially for those with worsened cognitive and attentional issues. Patients that suffer from concurrent psychosis should be monitored more closely if stimulants are used as part of their treatment.


title: Schizotypal personality disorder

text: According to Theodore Millon, schizotypal personality disorder is one of the easiest personality disorders to identify but one of the most difficult to treat with psychotherapy. Persons with STPD usually consider themselves to be simply eccentric or nonconformist; the degree to which they consider their social nonconformity a problem differs from the degree to which it is considered a problem in psychiatry. It is difficult to gain rapport with people with STPD due to the fact that increasing familiarity and intimacy usually increase their level of anxiety and discomfort.


title: Schizotypal personality disorder

text: Group therapy is recommended for persons with STPD only if the group is well structured and supportive. Otherwise, it could lead to loose and tangential ideation. Support is especially important for schizotypal patients with predominant paranoid symptoms, because they will have a lot of difficulties even in highly structured groups.


title: Schizotypal personality disorder

text: Schizotypal personality disorder frequently co-occurs with major depressive disorder, dysthymia and social phobia. Furthermore, sometimes schizotypal personality disorder can co-occur with obsessive–compulsive disorder, and its presence appears to affect treatment outcome adversely. Some people with a clinical diagnosis of OCD have been found to also possess many schizotypal personality traits resulting in what can be called ‘schizotypal OCD’. Without proper treatment, STPD tendencies, such as magical thinking and paranoid ideation, could worsen the symptoms of OCD in an individual.


title: Schizotypal personality disorder

text: In terms of comorbidity with other personality disorders, schizotypal personality disorder has high comorbidity with schizoid and paranoid personality disorder, the other two 'Cluster A' conditions. Studies have found that cognitive impairment was worse in those with PPD or STPD, but the co-occurrence of the two had little impact. It also has significant comorbidity with borderline personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder.


title: Schizotypal personality disorder

text: Some schizotypal people go on to develop schizophrenia, but most of them do not. There are dozens of studies showing that individuals with schizotypal personality disorder score similar to individuals with schizophrenia on a very wide range of neuropsychological tests. Cognitive deficits in patients with schizotypal personality disorder are very similar to, but quantitatively milder than, those for patients with schizophrenia. A 2004 study, however, reported neurological evidence that did "not entirely support the model that SPD is simply an attenuated form of schizophrenia".


title: Schizotypal personality disorder

text: Reported prevalence of STPD in community studies ranges from 1.37% in a Norwegian sample, to 4.6% in an American sample.A large American study found a lifetime prevalence of 3.9%, with somewhat higher rates among men (4.2%) than women (3.7%). It may be uncommon in clinical populations, with reported rates of up to 1.9%.


title: Schizotypal personality disorder

text: There is little known about the real world effect that STPD has on individuals. There does seem to be a relationship between STPD and not living on one's own or having a Bachelor's degree. People with STPD also seemed to be paid lower hours wages when compared to a healthy control group. The disorder also seems to be related to lack of employment, though this is specifically related to worsened cognitive impairment.


title: Schizotypal personality disorder

text: Chance of STPD were seen highest in Black women, low socioeconomic people, and people separated from their partners, with the lowest rates in Asian men.


title: Schizotypal personality disorder

text: Together with other cluster A personality disorders, it is also very common among homeless people who show up at drop-in centers, according to a 2008 New York study. The study did not address homeless people who do not show up at drop-in centers.


title: Schizotypal personality disorder

text: Adolescent cannabis users have an increased likelihood of self-reporting and possessing schizotypal personality disorder or traits consistent with STPD. Another epidemiological study on suicidal behavior in STPD found that, even when accounted for sociodemographic factors, people with STPD were 1.51 times more likely to attempt suicide. The same study found that people with childhood adversities, specifically abuse by a parent or caretaker, have a strongly significant association with lifetime STPD.


title: Special Activities Center

text: The Special Activities Center (SAC) is a division of the United States Central Intelligence Agency responsible for covert and paramilitary operations. The unit was named Special Activities Division (SAD) prior to 2015. Within SAC there are two separate groups: SAC/SOG (Special Operations Group) for tactical paramilitary operations and SAC/PAG (Political Action Group) for covert political action.


title: Special Activities Center

text: The Special Operations Group is responsible for operations that include clandestine or covert operations with which the US government does not want to be overtly associated. As such, unit members, called Paramilitary Operations Officers and Specialized Skills Officers, do not typically wear uniforms.


title: Special Activities Center

text: If they are compromised during a mission, the US government may deny all knowledge. SOG is considered the most secretive special operations force within the United States, with fewer than 100 operators. The group generally recruits personnel from special mission units within the U.S. Special Operations community.


title: Special Activities Center

text: SOG Paramilitary Operations Officers account for a majority of Distinguished Intelligence Cross and Intelligence Star recipients during conflicts or incidents that elicited CIA involvement. These are the highest two awards for valor within the CIA in recognition of distinguished valor and excellence in the line of duty. SOG operatives also account for the majority of the stars displayed on the Memorial Wall at CIA headquarters, indicating that the officer died while on active duty. The Latin motto of SAC is "Tertia Optio", which means "Third Option," as covert action represents an additional option within the realm of national security when diplomacy and military action are not feasible.


title: Special Activities Center

text: The Political Action Group is responsible for covert activities related to political influence, psychological operations, economic warfare, and cyberwarfare.


title: Special Activities Center

text: Tactical units within SAC can also carry out covert political action while deployed in hostile and austere environments. A large covert operation typically has components that involve many or all of these categories as well as paramilitary operations.


title: Special Activities Center

text: Political and "influence" covert operations are used to support US foreign policy. As overt support for one element of an insurgency can be counterproductive due to the unfavorable impression of the United States in some countries, in such cases covert assistance allows the US to assist without damaging the reputation of its beneficiaries.


title: Special Activities Center

text: SAC provides the United States National Security Council with alternative options when overt military and/or diplomatic actions are not viable or politically feasible. SAC can be directly tasked by the president or the National Security Council at the president's direction, unlike other U.S. special mission forces. SAC/SOG has far fewer members than most of the other special missions units, such as the U.S. Army's 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (Delta Force) or Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU).


title: Special Activities Center

text: As the action arm of the CIA's Directorate of Operations, SAC/SOG conducts direct action missions such as raids, ambushes, sabotage, targeted killings and unconventional warfare (e.g., training and leading guerrilla and military units of other countries in combat). SAC/SOG also conducts special reconnaissance that can be either military or intelligence driven and is carried out by Paramilitary Officers (also called Paramilitary Operatives or Paramilitary Operations Officers) when in "non-permissive environments". Paramilitary Operations Officers are also fully trained case officers (i.e., "spy handlers") and as such conduct clandestine human intelligence (HUMINT) operations throughout the world.


title: Special Activities Center

text: The political action group within SAC conducts the deniable psychological operations, also known as black propaganda, as well as "covert influence" to effect political change in other countries as part of United States foreign policy. Covert intervention in foreign elections is the most significant form of SAC's political action. This involves financial support for favored candidates, media guidance, technical support for public relations, get-out-the-vote or political organizing efforts, legal expertise, advertising campaigns, assistance with poll-watching, and other means of direct action. Policy decisions are influenced by agents, such as subverted officials of the country, to make decisions in their official capacity that are in the furtherance of U.S. policy aims. In addition, mechanisms for forming and developing opinions involve the covert use of propaganda.


title: Special Activities Center

text: Propaganda includes leaflets, newspapers, magazines, books, radio, and television, all of which are geared to convey the U.S. message appropriate to the region. These techniques have expanded to cover the internet as well. They may employ officers to work as journalists, recruit agents of influence, operate media platforms, plant certain stories or information in places it is hoped will come to public attention, or seek to deny and/or discredit information that is public knowledge. In all such propaganda efforts, "black" operations denote those in which the audience is to be kept ignorant of the source; "white" efforts are those in which the originator openly acknowledges themselves, and "gray" operations are those in which the source is partly but not fully acknowledged.


title: Special Activities Center

text: Some examples of political action programs were the prevention of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) from winning elections between 1948 and the late 1960s; overthrowing the governments of Iran in 1953 and Guatemala in 1954; arming rebels in Indonesia in 1957; and providing funds and support to the trade union federation Solidarity following the imposition of martial law in Poland after 1981.


title: Special Activities Center

text: SAC's existence became better known as a result of the "War on Terror". Beginning in autumn of 2001, SAC/SOG paramilitary teams arrived in Afghanistan to hunt down al-Qaeda leaders, facilitate the entry of U.S. Army Special Forces and lead the United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan against the ruling Taliban. SAC/SOG units also defeated Ansar al-Islam in Iraqi Kurdistan prior to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and trained, equipped, organized and led the Kurdish peshmerga forces to defeat the Iraqi Army in northern Iraq. Despite (or because of) SAC/SOG being the most covert unit in U.S. Special Operations, numerous books have been published on the exploits of CIA paramilitary officers, including Conboy and Morrison's "Feet to the Fire: CIA Covert Operations in Indonesia, 1957–1958", and Warner's "Shooting at the Moon: The Story of America's Clandestine War in Laos". Most experts consider SAC/SOG the premier force for unconventional warfare (UW), whether that warfare consists of either creating or combating an insurgency in a foreign country.


title: Special Activities Center

text: There remains some conflict between the CIA's Directorate of Operations and the more clandestine parts of the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), such as the Joint Special Operations Command. This is usually confined to the civilian/political heads of the respective Department/Agency. The combination of SAC and USSOCOM units has resulted in some of the more prominent actions of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the locating and killing of Osama bin Laden. SAC/SOG has several missions, one being the recruiting, training, and leading of indigenous forces in combat operations. SAC/SOG and its successors have been used when it was considered desirable to have plausible deniability about US support (this is called a covert operation or "covert action"). Unlike other special missions units, SAC/SOG operatives combine special operations and clandestine intelligence capabilities in one individual. These individuals can operate in any environment (sea, air or ground) with limited to no support.


title: Special Activities Center

text: The CIA is authorized to collect intelligence, conduct counterintelligence, and conduct covert action by the National Security Act of 1947. President Ronald Reagan issued Executive Order 12333 titled "United States Intelligence Activities" in 1984. This order defined covert action as "special activities," both political and military, that the U.S. government would deny, and granted the exclusive authority to conduct such operations to the CIA. The CIA was also designated as the sole authority under the 1991 Intelligence Authorization Act and mirrored in Title 50 of the United States Code Section 413(e). The CIA must have a presidential finding in order to conduct these activities under the Hughes-Ryan amendment to the 1991 Intelligence Authorization Act. These findings are monitored by the oversight committees in both the U.S. Senate, called the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) and the U.S. House of Representatives, called the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI).


title: Special Activities Center

text: The Pentagon commissioned a study to determine whether the CIA or the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) should conduct covert action paramilitary operations. Their study determined that the CIA should maintain this capability and be the "sole government agency conducting covert action." The DoD found that it does not have the legal authority to conduct covert action or the operational agility to carry out these types of missions.


title: Special Activities Center

text: In an article for ABC News, former Deputy Secretary of Defense and retired CIA paramilitary officer Mick Mulroy explained that the term "covert action" is derived from "Presidential Findings" authorizing the CIA to conduct specific "special activities" to support U.S. national security objectives. He advocated for covert actions to be fully incorporated in the U.S. National Security Strategy and the 2018 National Defense Strategy in the form of a "Covert Action Annex" and for covert actions to be fully funded to operate in support of overall objectives in the form of a "Covert Action Fund".


title: Special Activities Center

text: Special Activities Center has several hundred officers, mostly former members from Tier 1 units like SEAL Team Six and Delta Force, as well as other U.S. Special Operations Forces personnel. The CIA has also recruited individuals from within the agency. The CIA's formal designations for these individuals are "paramilitary operations officers" and "specialized skills officers". Paramilitary operations officers often attend the Clandestine Service Trainee (CST) program, which trains them as clandestine intelligence operatives and an internal paramilitary training course.


title: Special Activities Center

text: The primary strengths of SAC paramilitary officers are operational agility, adaptability, and deniability. They often operate in small teams, typically made up of two to ten operatives (with some operations being carried out by a single officer), all usually with extensive military tactical experience and a set of specialized skills that does not exist in any other unit. As fully trained intelligence case officers, paramilitary operations officers possess all the clandestine skills to collect human intelligence – and most importantly – to recruit assets from among the indigenous troops receiving their training. These officers often operate in remote locations behind enemy lines to carry out direct action (including raids and sabotage), counter-intelligence, guerrilla/unconventional warfare, counter-terrorism, and hostage rescue missions, in addition to being able to conduct espionage via HUMINT assets.


title: Special Activities Center

text: There are four principal elements within SAC's Special Operations Group, formerly called branches, now organized as departments: the Air Department, the Maritime Department, the Ground Department, and the Armor and Special Programs Department. The Armor and Special Programs Department is charged with the development, testing, and covert procurement of new personnel and vehicular armor and maintenance of stockpiles of ordnance and weapons systems used by SOG, almost all of which must be obtained from clandestine sources abroad, in order to provide SOG operatives and their foreign trainees with plausible deniability in accordance with U.S. Congressional directives.


title: Special Activities Center

text: Together, the SAC/SOG comprises a complete combined arms covert paramilitary force. Paramilitary operations officers are the core of each branch and routinely move between the branches to gain expertise in all aspects of SOG. As such, paramilitary operations officers are trained to operate in a multitude of environments. Because these officers are taken from the most highly trained units in the U.S. military and then provided with extensive additional training to become CIA clandestine intelligence officers, many U.S. security experts assess them as the most elite of the U.S. special missions units.


title: Special Activities Center

text: Paramilitary operations officers require a bachelor's degree to be considered for employment. Many have advanced degrees such as master's degrees or law degrees. SAC officers are trained at Camp Peary, Virginia (also known as "The Farm") and at privately owned training centers around the United States. They also train their personnel at "The Point" (Harvey Point), a facility outside of Hertford, North Carolina. In addition to the eighteen months of training in the Clandestine Service Trainee (CST) program required to become a clandestine intelligence officer, paramilitary operations officers are trained to a high level of proficiency in:


title: Special Activities Center

text: While the World War II Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was technically a military agency under the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in practice, it was fairly autonomous and enjoyed direct access to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Major General William Joseph Donovan was the head of the OSS. Donovan was a soldier and Medal of Honor recipient from World War I. He was also a lawyer and former classmate of FDR at Columbia Law School. Like its successor, the CIA, OSS included both human intelligence functions and special operations paramilitary functions. Its Secret Intelligence division was responsible for espionage, while its Jedburgh teams, a joint U.S.-UK-French unit, were forerunners of groups that create guerrilla units, such as the U.S. Army Special Forces and the CIA. OSS's Operational Groups were larger U.S. units that carried out direct action behind enemy lines. Even during World War II, the idea of intelligence and special operations units not under strict military control was controversial. OSS operated primarily in the European Theater of Operations (ETO) and to some extent in the China-Burma-India Theater, while General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was extremely reluctant to have any OSS personnel within his area of operations.


title: Special Activities Center

text: From 1943 to 1945, the OSS also played a major role in training Kuomintang troops in China and Burma, and recruited other indigenous irregular forces for sabotage as well as guides for Allied forces in Burma fighting the Japanese army. OSS also helped arm, train and supply resistance movements, including Mao Zedong's People's Liberation Army in China and the Viet Minh in French Indochina, in areas occupied by the Axis powers. Other functions of the OSS included the use of propaganda, espionage, subversion, and post-war planning.


title: Special Activities Center

text: One of the OSS's greatest accomplishments during World War II was its penetration of Nazi Germany by OSS operatives. The OSS was responsible for training German and Austrian commandos for missions inside Nazi Germany. Some of these agents included exiled communists, socialist party members, labor activists, anti-Nazi POWs, and German and Jewish refugees. At the height of its influence during World War II, the OSS employed almost 24,000 people.


title: Special Activities Center

text: OSS Paramilitary Officers parachuted into many countries that were behind enemy lines, including France, Norway, Greece, and the Netherlands. In Crete, OSS paramilitary officers linked up with, equipped and fought alongside Greek resistance forces against the Axis occupation.


title: Special Activities Center

text: OSS was disbanded shortly after World War II, with its intelligence analysis functions moving temporarily into the U.S. Department of State. Espionage and counterintelligence went into military units, while paramilitary and other covert action functions went into the Office of Policy Coordination set up in 1948. Between the CIA's original creation by the National Security Act of 1947 and various mergers and reorganizations through 1952, the wartime OSS functions generally ended up in the CIA. The mission of training and leading guerrillas in due course went to the United States Army Special Forces, but those missions required to remain covert were performed by the (Deputy) Directorate of Plans and its successor the Directorate of Operations of the CIA. In 1962, the CIA's paramilitary operations centralized in the Special Operations Division (SOD), the predecessor of SAC. The direct descendant of the OSS' Special Operations is the CIA's Special Activities Division.


title: Special Activities Center

text: After the Chinese invasion of Tibet in October 1950, the CIA inserted paramilitary (PM) teams into Tibet to train and lead Tibetan resistance fighters against the People's Liberation Army of China. These teams selected and then trained Tibetan soldiers in the Rocky Mountains of the United States; training occurred at Camp Hale. The PM teams then advised and led these commandos against the Chinese, both from Nepal and India and in some cases worked with Research and Analysis Wing. In addition, CIA Paramilitary Officers were responsible for the Dalai Lama's clandestine escape to India along with Indian intelligence, narrowly escaping capture by the People's Liberation Army.


title: Special Activities Center

text: According to a book by retired CIA officer John Kenneth Knaus, entitled "Orphans Of The Cold War: America And The Tibetan Struggle For Survival", Gyalo Thondup, the older brother of the 14th (and current) Dalai Lama, sent the CIA five Tibetan recruits. These recruits were trained in paramilitary tactics on the island of Saipan in the Northern Marianas. Shortly thereafter, the five men were covertly returned to Tibet "to assess and organize the resistance" and selected another 300 Tibetans for training. U.S. assistance to the Tibetan resistance ceased after the 1972 Nixon visit to China, after which the United States and China normalized relations.


title: Special Activities Center

text: The CIA sponsored a variety of activities during the Korean War. These activities included maritime operations behind North Korean lines. Yong Do Island, connected by a rugged isthmus to Pusan, served as the base for those operations. Well-trained Korean guerrillas carried out these operations. The four principal U.S. advisers responsible for the training and operational planning of those special missions were Dutch Kramer, Tom Curtis, George Atcheson, and Joe Pagnella. All of these Paramilitary Operations Officers operated through a CIA front organization called the Joint Advisory Commission, Korea (JACK), headquartered at Tongnae, a village near Pusan, on the peninsula's southeast coast. These paramilitary teams were responsible for numerous maritime raids and ambushes behind North Korean lines, as well as prisoner of war rescue operations.


title: Special Activities Center

text: These were the first maritime unconventional warfare units that trained indigenous forces as surrogates. They also provided a model, along with the other CIA-sponsored ground-based, paramilitary Korean operations, for the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG) activities conducted by the U.S. military and the CIA/SOD (now Special Activities Center) in Vietnam. In addition, CIA paramilitary ground-based teams worked directly for U.S. military commanders, specifically with the 8th Army, on the "White Tiger" initiative. This initiative included inserting South Korean commandos and CIA Paramilitary Operations Officers prior to the two major amphibious assaults on North Korea, including the landing at Inchon.


title: Special Activities Center

text: The Bay of Pigs Invasion (known as "La Batalla de Girón," or "Playa Girón" in Cuba) was an unsuccessful attempt by a U.S.-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba and overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The plan was launched in April 1961, less than three months after John F. Kennedy assumed the presidency of the United States. The Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces, trained and equipped by Eastern Bloc nations, defeated the exile-combatants in three days.


title: Special Activities Center

text: The sea-borne invasion force landed on April 17, and fighting lasted until April 19, 1961. CIA Paramilitary Operations Officers Grayston Lynch and William "Rip" Robertson led the first assault on the beaches, and supervised the amphibious landings. Four American aircrew instructors from Alabama Air National Guard were killed while flying attack sorties. Various sources estimate Cuban Army casualties (killed or injured) to be in the thousands (between 2,000 and 5,000). This invasion followed the successful overthrow by the CIA of the Mosaddeq government in Iran in 1953 and Arbenz government in Guatemala in 1954, but was a failure both militarily and politically. Deteriorating Cuban-American relations were made worse by the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.


title: Special Activities Center

text: The National Liberation Army of Bolivia (ELN-Ejército de Liberación Nacional de Bolivia) was a communist guerrilla force that operated from the remote Ñancahuazú region against the pro-U.S. Bolivian government. They were joined by Che Guevara in the mid-1960s. The ELN was well equipped and scored a number of early successes against the Bolivian army in the difficult terrain of the mountainous Camiri region. In the late 1960s, the CIA deployed teams of Paramilitary Operations Officers to Bolivia to train the Bolivian army in order to counter the ELN. These teams linked up with U.S. Army Special Forces and Bolivian Special Forces to track down and capture Guevara, who was a special prize because of his leading role in the Cuban Revolution. On October 9, 1967, Guevara was executed by Bolivian soldiers on the orders of CIA Paramilitary Operations Officer Félix Rodríguez shortly after being captured, according to CIA documents.


title: Special Activities Center

text: The original OSS mission in Vietnam under Major Archimedes Patti was to work with Ho Chi Minh in order to prepare his forces to assist the United States and their Allies in fighting the Japanese. After the end of World War II, the U.S. agreed at Potsdam to turn Vietnam back to their previous French rulers, and in 1950 the U.S. began providing military aid to the French.


title: Special Activities Center

text: CIA Paramilitary Operations Officers trained and led Hmong tribesmen in Laos and Vietnam, and the actions of these officers were not known for several years. Air America was the air component of the CIA's paramilitary mission in Southeast Asia and was responsible for all combat, logistics and search and rescue operations in Laos and certain sections of Vietnam. The ethnic minority forces numbered in the tens of thousands. They conducted direct actions missions, led by Paramilitary Operations Officers, against the communist Pathet Lao forces and their North Vietnamese allies.


title: Special Activities Center

text: Elements of the Special Activities Division were seen in the CIA's Phoenix Program. One component of the Phoenix Program was involved in the capture and killing of suspected Viet Cong (VC) members. Between 1968 and 1972, the Phoenix Program captured 81,740 VC members, of whom 26,369 were killed. The program was also successful in destroying their infrastructure. By 1970, communist plans repeatedly emphasized attacking the government's "pacification" program and specifically targeted Phoenix agents. The VC also imposed quotas. In 1970, for example, communist officials near Da Nang in northern South Vietnam instructed their agents to "kill 400 persons" deemed to be government "tyrant[s]" and to "annihilate" anyone involved with the "pacification" program. Several North Vietnamese officials have made statements about the effectiveness of Phoenix.


title: Special Activities Center

text: MAC-V SOG (Studies and Observations Group, which was originally named the Special Operations Group, but was changed for cover purposes) was created and active during the Vietnam War. While the CIA was just one part of MAC-V SOG, it did have operational control of some of the programs. Many of the military members of MAC-V SOG joined the CIA after their military service. The legacy of MAC-V SOG continues within SAC's Special Operations Group.