title: Calgary Flames

text: In the 2014–15 season, the Flames, led by Mark Giordano, Sean Monahan, Johnny Gaudreau, and Jiri Hudler, won one of their final home games against the Los Angeles Kings to clinch their first playoff berth since 2009, eliminating the defending champion Kings from playoff contention in the progress. They eliminated the Vancouver Canucks in six games in the first round of the playoffs for their first playoff series win since 2004, but were eliminated by the Anaheim Ducks in five games in the second round. Head coach Bob Hartley was named the winner of the Jack Adams Trophy for coach of the year, while Hudler capped off his career-best 76-point season (good for eighth in the NHL) with the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for most gentlemanly player.


title: Calgary Flames

text: In the 2015–16 season, the Flames faced heightened expectations after their surprising 2014–15 year. These expectations were bolstered after the unexpected acquisition of Dougie Hamilton from the Boston Bruins for a first-round pick and two second-round picks at the 2015 NHL Entry Draft. However, along with the other six Canadian teams, the Flames failed to qualify for the playoffs. As a result, in May 2016, head coach Bob Hartley was relieved of his duties. He was replaced by former Vancouver Canucks assistant coach Glen Gulutzan. Aided by their poor finish, the Flames were able to select Matthew Tkachuk with the sixth selection at the 2016 NHL Entry Draft.


title: Calgary Flames

text: The Flames acquired veterans Troy Brouwer, Kris Versteeg, Alex Chiasson, Brian Elliott and Chad Johnson in the 2016 off-season, but overshadowing these additions were the ongoing negotiations with pending restricted free agents Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau. Monahan agreed to a seven-year contract worth $44.625 million on August 19, 2016; Gaudreau held out through the pre-season before signing a six-year, $40.5 million contract on October 10. Bolstered by the emergence of the "3M Line", composed of Tkachuk, Mikael Backlund and Michael Frolik, the Flames rebounded to make the playoffs in the 2016–17 season as the conference's first wild card seed, but they were swept by the Anaheim Ducks in the first round.


title: Calgary Flames

text: However, during the 2017–18 season, the Flames once again failed to qualify for the playoffs, and Glen Gulutzan was relieved of his coaching duties in mid-April. Bill Peters was hired as head coach on April 23. The 2017–18 season was highlighted by the Flames debut of Jaromir Jagr in October, but the Czech former star only lasted 22 games in Calgary, scoring 7 points.


title: Calgary Flames

text: The Flames made several changes to their roster before the 2018–19 season including a blockbuster trade with the Carolina Hurricanes at the 2018 NHL Entry Draft, agreeing to send Dougie Hamilton, Micheal Ferland, and Adam Fox to the Hurricanes in exchange for Noah Hanifin and Elias Lindholm. Flames general manager Brad Treliving was also active in free agency, signing scoring winger James Neal from Vegas on a five-year contract, utility centre Derek Ryan from Carolina on a three-year contract, high-scoring AHL winger Austin Czarnik from the Boston Bruins on a two-year contract, and depth forward Alan Quine from the New York Islanders on a one-year contract. During the 2018–19 season, the Flames retired Jarome Iginla's No. 12 jersey on March 2, 2019. At the end of the regular season, they won the division title for the first time since 2006, clinching the top seed in the conference for the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs on March 31, 2019. They ultimately finished with 50 wins and 107 points, in both cases the second-most in franchise history behind the 1988–89 Stanley Cup championship team. They went on to lose in the first round to the Colorado Avalanche in five games. At the end of season, club captain Mark Giordano was awarded the James Norris Memorial Trophy after becoming the fifth defenceman in NHL history to record 60 points at the age of 35 or over.


title: Calgary Flames

text: For the 2019–20 season, the Flames had some roster turnover with free agent goaltender Mike Smith signing with the Edmonton Oilers, while the Oilers' goaltender Cam Talbot signed a one-year-deal with the Flames. On July 19, 2019, they traded James Neal to the Oilers in exchange for winger Milan Lucic and a third-round pick in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft. The Flames re-signed Matthew Tkachuk to a new three-year deal, making him the highest paid player on the Flames' roster, as well as re-signing goaltender David Rittich, and wingers Sam Bennett, and Andrew Mangiapane.


title: Calgary Flames

text: Following accusations against head coach Bill Peters of racism and physical violence by former Flames' prospect Akim Aliu, Peters was forced to take a leave of absence on November 26, pending the outcome of an internal investigation. Assistant coach Geoff Ward was named the acting head coach during the investigation. Peters resigned on November 29 and Ward was named the interim head coach. After Peters' resignation, interim head coach Ward broke a franchise record by starting his coaching tenure with 7 straight wins. The Flames only played 70 games in the regular season, which ended after March 11, 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Based on their regular-season points percentage, they qualified for the playoffs as the eighth seed in the Western Conference and defeated the Winnipeg Jets in four games in the qualifying round. The Flames faced the Dallas Stars in the first round of the playoffs, but lost the series in six games.


title: Calgary Flames

text: On March 4, 2021, Ward was fired and former head coach and general manager Darryl Sutter was re-hired as head coach of the Flames.


title: Calgary Flames

text: Giordano's tenure as captain ended when he was selected by the Seattle Kraken in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft. The team did not name a captain for the 2021–22 season, but recorded 50 wins and 111 points to secure first place in the Pacific Division and return to the playoffs after failing to qualify in 2020–21. They faced the Dallas Stars in the First Round of the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs, and won the series in seven games with Johnny Gaudreau sealing the series in overtime. This marked the first time the team had advanced to the Second Round of the playoffs since 2015, and since 2004 before that. Their 2021–22 season ended after losing the Second Round best-of-seven series to the Edmonton Oilers in five games, marking the end of the first playoffs "Battle of Alberta" since 1991.


title: Calgary Flames

text: The summer of 2022 was marked by the departures and arrivals of many star players. Both Gaudreau and Tkachuk became free agents in July 2022. The Flames attempted to retain Gaudreau, reportedly offering him an eight-year, $84 million contract extension; instead, the 28-year-old forward signed a seven-year deal to join the Columbus Blue Jackets in unrestricted free agency. Gaudreau explained that the move was for personal reasons, particularly after his father who lives in the eastern United States suffered a heart attack in 2018. Shortly thereafter, Tkachuk — who was a restricted free agent — said he did not want to sign a long term deal in Calgary. After filing for club elected salary arbitration, the Flames traded Tkachuk and a conditional 2025 fourth-round draft pick to the Florida Panthers in exchange for forward Jonathan Huberdeau, defenceman MacKenzie Weegar, prospect Cole Schwindt, and a conditional 2025 first-round selection on July 23, 2022. As part of the trade negotiations Tkachuk signed an eight-year, $76 million contract with the Flames before being traded to the Panthers. Then on August 18, 2022, the Flames traded Monahan and a conditional first-round pick in 2025 to the Montreal Canadiens for future considerations, in a move designed to free up salary cap space. The move made room for the Flames to secure one more high-profile free agent in the summer 2022, Colorado Avalanche star forward Nazem Kadri, who signed a 7-year $49 million contract on the same day. Kadri was coming off a career season, scoring 87 points in 71 games for the Avalanche including 28 goals. The Flames also retained forward Andrew Mangiapane, signing a 3-year, $17 million contract after a career season in Calgary scoring 35 goals and 20 assists.


title: Calgary Flames

text: Huberdeau and Gaudreau both recorded 115 points during the 2021–22 NHL season, tied for second place in NHL scoring behind Edmonton Oilers forward Connor McDavid. Huberdeau agreed to an eight-year, $84 million contract extension with the Flames on August 4, 2022, nearly two weeks after being traded by the Panthers, the most lucrative contract in Flames franchise history, surpassing the seven-year, $45 million deal Sean Monahan signed with the club in 2016. Despite any NHL team losing two 100-point players for the first time in the NHL salary cap era, the moves made by general manager Brad Treliving were praised, with some commentary suggesting the Flames might be a more serious Stanley Cup contender in 2022–23.


title: Calgary Flames

text: In 1994, the Flames approached the Saddledome Foundation with a proposal to renovate the Olympic Saddledome, rename it the Canadian Airlines Saddledome and take over management of the facility. The board agreed to this proposal, and was bought out by the Flames for million as the team signed a 20-year agreement to manage the building.


title: Calgary Flames

text: Looking to fill extra dates in the Saddledome, the Flames agreed to a lease deal with the expansion Calgary Hitmen of the junior Western Hockey League who began play in 1995 and were partly owned by Theoren Fleury. Two years later, in 1997, the Flames bought the team for $1.5 million. During the 2004–05 NHL lock-out, the Flames heavily marketed the Hitmen, and as a result, the team led all professional or junior hockey teams in North America in attendance, averaging over 10,000 fans per game.


title: Calgary Flames

text: In April 2006, the Flames announced that they would be opening a hybrid restaurant, bar and entertainment facility in downtown Calgary on Stephen Avenue. In announcing the venture, Flames' President and CEO Ken King stated: "While hockey remains our core competency, we are constantly seeking new opportunities in which to grow the Flames brand and allow our fans greater opportunities to enjoy hockey. We believe establishing a location outside of the Pengrowth Saddledome to share food, fun and hockey will bring our fans even closer to the team." One year later, in April 2007, Flames Central opened to the public. In 2017, the facility reverted to its original name of The Palace Theatre.


title: Calgary Flames

text: The Flames have maintained an active presence in the community since their arrival in Calgary. Through the team's non-profit charity, the Flames Foundation, the team has donated over $32 million to causes throughout southern Alberta. Along with the Rotary Club, the Flames are helping to fund the first children's hospice in Alberta, and one of only six in North America.


title: Calgary Flames

text: The Flames are also close partners with the Alberta Children's Hospital and the Gordon Townsend School housed within. Among the many activities the Flames participate in, the Wheelchair Hockey Challenge with the Townsend Tigers has remained a highly popular tradition for both the players and the children involved. In 2010, the Tigers defeated the Flames to move to a perfect 27–0 record since the challenge was first instituted in 1981.


title: Calgary Flames

text: During the Flames' run to the Stanley Cup Finals of 2004, most of the Flames fans attending the hockey games at the Saddledome wore a red jersey with Calgary's flaming C on it. Sales of the Flames red home jersey, introduced at the start of the 2003–04 campaign, were so strong during the playoffs that manufacturer CCM stopped production on all other team jerseys in order to keep up with demand of Flames uniforms. The team set a league record for sales of a new uniform design. The tradition of the C of Red dates back to the 1986 Stanley Cup playoffs against the Oilers. Oiler fans were donning hats promoting "Hat Trick Fever" in their quest for three straight Stanley Cups. Flames fans countered by wearing red. In the 1987 playoffs against Winnipeg, the Jets responded to the C of Red by encouraging fans to wear white, creating the "Winnipeg whiteout". During the Flames' games when "The Star-Spangled Banner" is sung, fans shout the words "see" and "red" to signify the "C of Red" theme. In December 2018, Calgary rock band The Dudes and the Calgary Flames organization teamed up to release a cover of their hockey-themed song "Saturday Night" called "My C is Alright," paying homage to the C of Red.


title: Calgary Flames

text: During the Flames' run to the Stanley Cup Finals of 2004, the city of Calgary essentially became the host of a "non-stop party". The 17th Avenue SW entertainment district, which runs west from the Scotiabank Saddledome, saw as many as 35,000 fans pack the streets during the first three rounds of the playoffs, and over 60,000 in the finals. The Red Mile party received coverage in many newspapers across North America, as the parties remained peaceful and incidents were minimal despite the large number of people in a small area.


title: Calgary Flames

text: In April 2006, the Calgary Police Service announced that Red Mile gatherings would not be encouraged, and that measures would be taken to discourage them, including traffic diversions, a zero-tolerance policy on noise and rowdy behaviour, and the presence of plain-clothed officers among the crowd to ticket offenders. After meeting with the Chief of Police, Mayor Dave Bronconnier convinced the Calgary Police Service to relax their ban on the "Red Mile" and encouraged people to make their way to 17th Ave, however the police retained their zero-tolerance policy on public nudity and drunkenness.


title: Calgary Flames

text: Since 2014, Canadian country singer George Canyon sings "O Canada" and "The Star-Spangled Banner" at most home games, and he is accompanied by organist Willy Joosen. If Canyon is unavailable, Michela Sheedy is the usual fill-in. The public-address announcer is Alan Beesley.


title: Calgary Flames

text: The Calgary Flames' original jerseys retained the basic design the team wore in Atlanta: white jerseys with red shoulders and red and yellow stripes, and solid red jerseys with yellow and white stripes. In 1994, the Flames modified their jersey design, adding black to the team's colour scheme. The new striping pattern included a diagonal set of stripes from the base of the jersey on the player's right side coming up to just below the logo. The contrasting shoulder panels on both jerseys were extended down the sleeves, and contained the striping pattern on the forearms. For the 1996–97 season, the Flames reintroduced the Atlanta logo as their alternate captain's patch, and briefly experimented with using a smaller version of the "flaming C" as a captain's patch. Although the C was soon reverted to match the jersey's nameplate, the A logo patch remained in use until the team returned to their original design for the 2020–21 season.


title: Calgary Flames

text: In 1998, to celebrate the "Year of the Cowboy", the Flames introduced its inaugural third jersey design, featuring the "flaming horse" logo on a black background. Two years later, the jersey became the Flames' road jersey, while the home jersey was updated to incorporate the same V-style striping on the arms and waist of the jersey. This jersey was once again relegated to third jersey status in 2003 when the NHL adopted the coloured jerseys for the home team.


title: Calgary Flames

text: In 2007, with the introduction of the Rbk Edge jersey, the Flames updated their look once again, replacing the horizontal striping with vertical striping down the sides. To honour the team's heritage, the Flames added the flags of Alberta and Canada as shoulder patches. In celebration of their 30th season in Calgary, the Flames wore their original jersey design for five games in 2009–10, each against a Canadian opponent. The 2009–10 version of the jersey was produced in the traditional style that preceded the Edge redesign; for the following season, the throwback design was adapted to the Edge format as the Flames' new regular third jersey.


title: Calgary Flames

text: For the 2011 Heritage Classic, the Flames were matched against the Montreal Canadiens at McMahon Stadium. For this event game, the Flames wore uniforms inspired by the Calgary Tigers, the city's first professional hockey team from the 1920s, which represented the Western Canada Hockey League in the 1924 Stanley Cup Finals against the Canadiens. The Flames adapted the Tigers' black-and-gold jerseys to darker shades of their own colours – maroon and burnt yellow, with a yellow stripe across the chest and alternating stripes on the sleeves. The flaming C logo and pants were cream-coloured, adding to the "vintage" look of the uniform.


title: Calgary Flames

text: In 2013, the Flames introduced a new third jersey to replace their throwback uniform. The newest design is Western-inspired, with a script Calgary in black across the front of the jersey, and black shoulders with points on the front mimicking cowboy wear. This uniform was used until the 2015–16 season, after which the throwback third uniforms used from 2010 to 2013 were revived anew.


title: Calgary Flames

text: The Flames retained their current uniform look when the NHL switched to Adidas as its uniform provider in 2017, with the exception of player names and numbers going from an italicized to a straight alignment. The throwback red alternates were not used during the 2017–18 season due to the suspension of the third jersey program, but were restored in the following season.


title: Calgary Flames

text: The 2019 Heritage Classic against the Winnipeg Jets at Regina's Mosaic Stadium featured the return of the Flames' original white uniform in the modern AdiZero cut.


title: Calgary Flames

text: In 2020, the Flames promoted the throwback alternate and Heritage Classic uniforms to primary status, while retaining the black-trimmed red uniforms as an alternate. Also, in November 2020, along with the rest of the league, the Flames released their Reverse Retro jersey. It is very similar to the 1998–2006 alternate/dark jersey, with some slight modifications. The largest difference is that there are only two stripes, a yellow and red one, and nothing below those stripes. The black-trimmed red uniforms were retired after the season. In 2022, the "Blasty" black uniform returned as an alternate, adding the sublimated flame marks on the sleeves. Also in 2022, the Flames unveiled their second "Reverse Retro" uniform, using the 1994–2000 uniform but with black as the base colour.


title: Calgary Flames

text: The Flames primary logo is the "Flaming C" design, introduced when the team came to Calgary in 1980, and was designed by a Calgarian graphic designer named Patricia Redditt. The design of the logo has remained constant since it was created, though the Flames use a different coloured logo for the home and away jerseys.


title: Calgary Flames

text: From 1980 until 2000, the home logo was red on a white background, while the road logo was white on a red background; black accents were later added in 1994. In 2003, the NHL switched to using coloured jerseys for the home team. The home logo became black, with the road logo red on a white background. The original "Flaming A" logo of the Atlanta Flames has been restored for use as a patch denoting the team's alternate captains. The flaming horse logo, (colloquially nicknamed "Blasty") was retired in 2007 with the introduction of the new Rbk Edge jerseys. A black-outlined version of the red "Flaming C" appeared on the Flames' white uniforms between 1994 and 2020. It served as the team's primary logo during that time period. Blasty returned when the Flames unveiled their "Reverse Retro" jerseys.


title: Calgary Flames

text: Harvey the Hound is the Flames' mascot. He was created in 1983 to serve both with the Flames and the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League. Harvey was the first mascot in the NHL. Harvey is famous for an incident in January 2003 where he had his tongue ripped out by Edmonton Oilers head coach Craig MacTavish as he was harassing their bench. The incident made headlines throughout North America and led to much humour, including having many other NHL team mascots arrive at the 2003 All-Star Game with their tongues hanging out.


title: Calgary Flames

text: "This is a partial list of the last five seasons completed by the Flames. For the full season-by-season history, see List of Calgary Flames seasons"


title: Calgary Flames

text: "Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against"


title: Calgary Flames

text: McDonald and Risebrough were co-captains in 1983–1984. McDonald, Peplinski and Risebrough were tri-captains 1984–1987. McDonald and Peplinski were co-captains 1987–1989.


title: Calgary Flames

text: Boughner and Conroy were co-captains for the latter half of 2001–2002 after Dave Lowry was stripped of the captaincy.


title: Calgary Flames

text: The Calgary Flames have retired three numbers, and a fourth was retired league-wide. The Flames retired No. 9 in honour of Lanny McDonald who played right wing for the Flames from 1981 to 1989, winning the Stanley Cup as the Flames' co-captain in his final year. Mike Vernon's No. 30 is also retired; he was a goaltender with the Flames for 14 years, from 1982 to 1994 and from 2000 to 2002. The Flames retired Jarome Iginla's No. 12 on March 2, 2019; he played right wing for the Flames from 1996 to 2013 and also served as the team's captain from 2003 to 2013. The NHL retired Wayne Gretzky's No. 99 for all its member teams at the 2000 NHL All-Star Game. Although not officially retired, the Flames have not issued No. 14 since Theoren Fleury left the team in 1999, and No. 34 since Miikka Kiprusoff retired while still a member of the Flames in 2013.


title: Calgary Flames

text: In 2012, the Flames organization introduced the "Forever a Flame" programme to honour those who played and represented the Calgary Flames without having to retire their numbers. It enables future Flames the opportunity to wear the numbers of some of the Flames' most respected former players. On February 27, 2012, defenceman Al MacInnis was the first to earn this distinction, with a banner with his picture and his No. 2 raised to the Scotiabank Saddledome rafters. Joe Nieuwendyk was treated likewise on March 7, 2014, promoted as "Forever 25" for both the number on Nieuwendyk's jersey and the 25th anniversary of the 1989 title.


title: Calgary Flames

text: Several members of the Flames organization have been honoured by the Hockey Hall of Fame during the team's history in Calgary.


title: Calgary Flames

text: Eleven former Flames have been elected to the Hall of Fame, five of whom earned their credentials primarily in Calgary. Lanny McDonald was the first Flame player inducted, gaining election in 1992. McDonald recorded 215 goals in 492 games over seven and a half seasons for the Flames, including a team-record 66 goals in 1982–83. He was joined in 2000 by a fellow member of the 1989 Stanley Cup championship team, Joe Mullen. Mullen spent five seasons with the Flames, recording 388 points and capturing two Lady Byng Trophies. Grant Fuhr, elected in 2003, became the third former Flames player to enter the Hall. Fuhr played only one season in Calgary; however, he recorded his 400th career win in a Flames uniform, a victory over the Florida Panthers on October 22, 1999. In 2007, Al MacInnis became the fourth former Flame inducted into the Hall, and the third to earn his Hall of Fame credentials primarily as a Flame. MacInnis was a member of the Flames from 1981 until 1994. He is best remembered for his booming slapshot, as well as for winning the Conn Smythe Trophy in 1989 as playoff MVP. On November 9, 2009, Brett Hull became the fifth player in Calgary Flames history to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.


title: Calgary Flames

text: Hull was drafted 117th in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft by the Flames, and began his NHL career playing two seasons (1986–1988) with Calgary. On June 28, 2011, it was announced that former Flames forwards Doug Gilmour and Joe Nieuwendyk would become the sixth and seventh members to enter the Hockey Hall of Fame in the players category. On June 29, 2015, the Hockey Hall of Fame announced defenceman Phil Housley would be enshrined in the Class of 2015, making him the eighth player in Flames history to gain that honour. Housley played for the Flames on two separate occasions, (1994–1996 and 1998–2001). Sergei Makarov was informed on June 27, 2016, that he would be entering the Hockey Hall of Fame as a part of the Class of 2016. Makarov becomes the ninth Flames player to receive the honour. Makarov was drafted 231st in the 1983 NHL Entry Draft, and joined the Flames in 1989, where he won the Calder Memorial Trophy as rookie of the year at the age of 31. Makarov played for the Flames from 1989 to 1993. Martin St. Louis became the tenth player to be inducted into the hall. The Hall of Fame announcement occurred on June 26, 2018. St. Louis was a part of the Flames organization from 1997 to 2000, splitting his time with the Flames' American Hockey League affiliate Saint John Flames and the main roster. On June 24, 2020, Jarome Iginla became the eleventh player inducted into the Hall of Fame. Iginla played for the Flames from 1996 to 2013, during his time with the team he won many awards including the Art Ross Trophy, the Lester B. Pearson Award and the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy.


title: Calgary Flames

text: Former head coach "Badger" Bob Johnson joined McDonald in the class of 1992, gaining election as a builder. Johnson coached five seasons with the Flames from 1982 to 1987, and his 193 wins remain a team record. Cliff Fletcher was the Flames general manager from the organization's inception in 1972 until 1991, a span of 19 years. During that time, the Flames qualified for the playoffs sixteen consecutive times between 1976 and 1991. Fletcher was inducted in 2004. In 2006, Harley Hotchkiss became the third Flames builder to gain election. He an original member of the ownership group that purchased and brought the Flames to Calgary in 1980. He was the team's longtime governor, and hence the public face of the consortium. He has served many years as the chairman of the NHL board of directors, during which he played a significant role in the resolution of the 2004–05 lock-out. Fellow original owner Doc Seaman was similarly inducted in 2010. On June 29, 2015, former player Bill Hay was elected to the Hockey of Fame in the builders category. Hay served as president and CEO for the Flames in the 1990s.


title: Calgary Flames

text: Flames radio broadcaster Peter Maher was named the recipient of the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award in 2006 for his years of service as the radio play-by-play announcer for the Calgary Flames. Maher was the radio voice of the Flames from 1981 to 2014, starting in the team's second season in Calgary. He has called six All-Star Games and four Stanley Cup Finals. Longtime trainer Bearcat Murray was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2009 by the Professional Hockey Athletic Trainers Society and the Society of Professional Hockey Equipment Managers.


title: Pahlavi dynasty

text: The Pahlavi dynasty () was the last Iranian royal dynasty, ruling for almost 54 years between 1925 and 1979. The dynasty was founded by Reza Shah Pahlavi, a non-aristocratic Mazanderani soldier in modern times, who took on the name of the Pahlavi language spoken in the pre-Islamic Sasanian Empire in order to strengthen his nationalist credentials.


title: Pahlavi dynasty

text: The dynasty replaced the Qajar dynasty in 1925 after the 1921 coup d'état, beginning on 14 January 1921 when 42-year-old soldier Reza Khan was promoted by British General Edmund Ironside to lead the British-run Persian Cossack Brigade. About a month later, under British direction, Reza Khan's 3,000-4,000 strong detachment of the Cossack Brigade reached Tehran in what became known as the 1921 Persian coup d'état. The rest of the country was taken by 1923, and by October 1925 the Majlis agreed to depose and formally exile Ahmad Shah Qajar. The Majlis declared Reza Pahlavi as the new Shah of Iran on 12 December 1925, pursuant to the Persian Constitution of 1906. Initially, Pahlavi had planned to declare the country a republic, as his contemporary Atatürk had done in Turkey, but abandoned the idea in the face of British and clerical opposition.


title: Pahlavi dynasty

text: The dynasty ruled Iran for 28 years as a form of constitutional monarchy from 1925 until 1953, and following the overthrow of the democratically elected prime minister, for a further 26 years as a more autocratic monarchy until the dynasty was itself overthrown in 1979.


title: Pahlavi dynasty

text: In 1878, Reza Khan was born at the village of Alasht in Savadkuh County, Mazandaran Province. His parents were Abbas Ali Khan and Noushafarin Ayromlou. His mother was a Muslim immigrant from Georgia (then part of the Russian Empire), whose family had emigrated to mainland Qajar Iran after Iran was forced to cede all of its territories in the Caucasus following the Russo-Persian Wars several decades prior to Reza Shah's birth. His father was a Mazandarani, commissioned in the 7th Savadkuh Regiment, and served in the Anglo-Persian War in 1856.


title: Pahlavi dynasty

text: The former constitution of Iran specifically provided that only a male who was not descended from Qajar dynasty could become the heir apparent. This made all half-brothers of Mohammad Reza ineligible to become heirs to the throne. Until his death in 1954, the Shah's only full brother Ali Reza was his heir presumptive.


title: Pahlavi dynasty

text: The constitution also required the Shah to be of Iranian descent, meaning that his father and mother are Iranian.


title: David Frost

text: Sir David Paradine Frost (7 April 1939 – 31 August 2013) was a British television host, journalist, comedian and writer. He rose to prominence during the satire boom in the United Kingdom when he was chosen to host the satirical programme "That Was the Week That Was" in 1962. His success on this show led to work as a host on American television. He became known for his television interviews with senior political figures, among them the Nixon interviews with US president Richard Nixon in 1977 which were adapted into a stage play and film. Frost interviewed all eight British prime ministers serving between 1964 and 2016 and all seven American presidents in office between 1969 and 2008.


title: David Frost

text: Frost was one of the people behind the launch of ITV station TV-am in 1983. He was the inaugural host of the US news magazine programme "Inside Edition". He hosted the Sunday morning interview programme "Breakfast with Frost" for the BBC from 1993 to 2005, and spent two decades as host of "Through the Keyhole". From 2006 to 2012, he hosted the weekly programme "Frost Over the World" on Al Jazeera English, and the weekly programme "The Frost Interview" from 2012. He received the BAFTA Fellowship from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in 2005 and the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Emmy Awards in 2009.


title: David Frost

text: Frost died on 31 August 2013, aged 74, on board the cruise ship , where he had been engaged as a speaker. His memorial stone was unveiled in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey in March 2014.


title: David Frost

text: David Paradine Frost was born in Tenterden, Kent, on 7 April 1939, the son of a Methodist minister of Huguenot descent, the Rev. Wilfred John "W. J." Paradine Frost, and his wife, Mona (Aldrich); he had two elder sisters. While living in Gillingham, Kent, he was taught in the Bible class of the Sunday school at his father's church (Byron Road Methodist) by David Gilmore Harvey, and subsequently started training as a Methodist local preacher, which he did not complete.


title: David Frost

text: Frost attended Barnsole Road Primary School in Gillingham, St Hugh's School, Woodhall Spa, Gillingham Grammar School and finally – while residing in Raunds, Northamptonshire – Wellingborough Grammar School. Throughout his school years he was an avid football and cricket player, and was offered a contract with Nottingham Forest F.C. For two years before going to university he was a lay preacher, following his witnessing of an event presided over by Christian evangelist Billy Graham.


title: David Frost

text: Frost studied at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, from 1958, graduating with a Third in English. He was editor of both the university's student paper, "Varsity", and the literary magazine "Granta". He was also secretary of the Footlights Drama Society, which included actors such as Peter Cook and John Bird. During this period Frost appeared on television for the first time in an edition of Anglia Television's "Town And Gown", performing several comic characters. "The first time I stepped into a television studio", he once remembered, "it felt like home. It didn't scare me. Talking to the camera seemed the most natural thing in the world."


title: David Frost

text: According to some accounts, Frost was the victim of snobbery from the group with which he associated at Cambridge, which has been confirmed by Barry Humphries. Christopher Booker, while asserting that Frost's one defining characteristic was ambition, commented that he was impossible to dislike. According to satirist John Wells, Old Etonian actor Jonathan Cecil congratulated Frost around this time for "that wonderfully silly voice" he used while performing, but then discovered that it was Frost's real voice.


title: David Frost

text: After leaving university, Frost became a trainee at Associated-Rediffusion. Meanwhile, having already gained an agent, Frost performed in cabaret at the Blue Angel nightclub in Berkeley Square, London during the evenings.


title: David Frost

text: Frost was chosen by writer and producer Ned Sherrin to host the satirical programme "That Was the Week That Was", or "TW3", after Frost's flatmate John Bird suggested Sherrin should see his act at The Blue Angel. The series, which ran for less than 18 months during 1962–63, was part of the satire boom in early 1960s Britain and became a popular programme.


title: David Frost

text: The involvement of Frost in "TW3" led to an intensification of the rivalry with Peter Cook who accused him of stealing material and dubbed Frost "the bubonic plagiarist". The new satirical magazine "Private Eye" also mocked him at this time. Frost visited the U.S. during the break between the two series of "TW3" in the summer of 1963 and stayed with the producer of the New York City production of "Beyond The Fringe". Frost was unable to swim, but still jumped into the pool, and nearly drowned until he was saved by Peter Cook. At the memorial service for Cook in 1995, Alan Bennett recalled that rescuing Frost was the one regret Cook frequently expressed.


title: David Frost

text: For the first three editions of the second series in 1963, the BBC attempted to limit the team by scheduling repeats of "The Third Man" television series after the programme, thus preventing overruns. Frost took to reading synopses of the episodes at the end of the programme as a means of sabotage. After the BBC's Director General Hugh Greene instructed that the repeats should be abandoned, "TW3" returned to being open-ended. More sombrely, on 23 November 1963, a tribute to the assassinated President John F. Kennedy, an event which had occurred the previous day, formed an entire edition of "That Was the Week That Was".


title: David Frost

text: An American version of "TW3" ran after the original British series had ended. Following a pilot episode on 10 November 1963, the 30-minute US series, also featuring Frost, ran on NBC from 10 January 1964 to May 1965. In 1985, Frost produced and hosted a television special in the same format, "That Was the Year That Was", on NBC.


title: David Frost

text: Frost fronted various programmes following the success of "TW3", including its immediate successor, "Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life", which he co-chaired with Willie Rushton and poet P. J. Kavanagh. Screened on three evenings each week, this series was dropped after a sketch was found to be offensive to Catholics and another to the British royal family. More successful was "The Frost Report", broadcast between 1966 and 1967. The show launched the television careers of John Cleese, Ronnie Barker, and Ronnie Corbett, who appeared together in the Class sketch.


title: David Frost

text: Frost signed for Rediffusion, the ITV weekday contractor in London, to produce a "heavier" interview-based show called "The Frost Programme". Guests included Oswald Mosley and Rhodesian premier Ian Smith. His memorable dressing-down of insurance fraudster Emil Savundra, regarded as the first example of "trial by television" in the UK, led to concern from ITV executives that it might affect Savundra's right to a fair trial. Frost's introductory words for his television programmes during this period, "Hello, good evening and welcome", became his catchphrase and were often mimicked.


title: David Frost

text: Frost was a member of a successful consortium, including former executives from the BBC, that bid for an ITV franchise in 1967. This became London Weekend Television, which began broadcasting in July 1968. The station began with a programming policy that was considered "highbrow" and suffered launch problems with low audience ratings and financial problems. A September 1968 meeting of the Network Programme Committee, which made decisions about the channel's scheduling, was particularly fraught, with Lew Grade expressing hatred of Frost in his presence. Frost, according to Kitty Muggeridge in 1967, had "risen without a trace."


title: David Frost

text: He was involved in the station's early years as a presenter. On 20 and 21 July 1969, during the British television Apollo 11 coverage, he presented "David Frost's Moon Party" for LWT, a ten-hour discussion and entertainment marathon from LWT's Wembley Studios, on the night Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Two of his guests on this programme were British historian A. J. P. Taylor and entertainer Sammy Davis, Jr. Around this time Frost interviewed Rupert Murdoch whose recently acquired Sunday newspaper, the "News of the World", had just serialised the memoirs of Christine Keeler, a central figure in the Profumo scandal of 1963. For the Australian publisher, this was a bruising encounter, although Frost said that he had not intended it to be. Murdoch confessed to his biographer Michael Wolff that the incident had convinced him that Frost was "an arrogant bastard, [and] a bloody bugger".


title: David Frost

text: In the late 1960s Frost began an intermittent involvement in the film industry. Setting up David Paradine Ltd in 1966, he part-financed "The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer" (1970), in which the lead character was based partly on Frost, and gained an executive producer credit. In 1976, Frost was the executive producer of the British musical film "The Slipper and the Rose", retelling the story of Cinderella.


title: David Frost

text: Frost was the subject of "This Is Your Life" in January 1972 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at London's Quaglino's restaurant.


title: David Frost

text: In 1968, he signed a contract worth £125,000 to appear on American television in his own show on three evenings each week, the largest such arrangement for a British television personality at the time. From 1969 to 1972, Frost kept his London shows and fronted "The David Frost Show" on the Group W (U.S. Westinghouse Corporation) television stations in the U.S. His 1970 TV special, "Frost on America", featured guests such as Jack Benny and Tennessee Williams.


title: David Frost

text: In a declassified transcript of a 1972 telephone call between Frost and Henry Kissinger, President Nixon's national security advisor and secretary of state, Frost urged Kissinger to call chess Grandmaster Bobby Fischer and urge him to compete in that year's World Chess Championship. During this call, Frost revealed that he was working on a novel.


title: David Frost

text: Frost interviewed heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali in 1974 at his training camp in Deer Lake, Pennsylvania before "The Rumble in the Jungle" with George Foreman. Ali remarked, "Listen David, when I meet this man, if you think the world was surprised when Nixon resigned, wait till I whip Foreman's behind."


title: David Frost

text: In 1977, the Nixon Interviews, which were five 90-minute interviews with former U.S. President Richard Nixon, were broadcast. Nixon was paid $600,000 plus a share of the profits for the interviews, which had to be funded by Frost himself after the U.S. television networks turned down the programme, describing it as "checkbook journalism". Frost's company negotiated its own deals to syndicate the interviews with local stations across the U.S. and internationally, creating what Ron Howard described as "the first fourth network". Frost taped around 29 hours of interviews with Nixon over four weeks. Nixon, who had previously avoided discussing his role in the Watergate scandal that had led to his resignation as president in 1974, expressed contrition saying, "I let the American people down and I have to carry that burden with me for the rest of my life". Frost asked Nixon whether the president could do something illegal in certain situations such as against antiwar groups and others if he decides "it's in the best interests of the nation or something". Nixon replied: "Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal", by definition.


title: David Frost

text: Following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Frost was the last person to interview Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the deposed Shah of Iran. The interview took place on Contadora Island in Panama in January 1980, and was broadcast by the American Broadcasting Company in the U.S. on 17 January. The Shah talks about his wealth, his illness, the SAVAK, the torture during his reign, Khomeini, his threat of extradition to Iran and draws a summary of the current situation in Iran.


title: David Frost

text: Frost was an organiser of the Music for UNICEF Concert at the United Nations General Assembly in 1979. Ten years later, he was hired as the anchor of new American tabloid news program "Inside Edition". He was dismissed after only three weeks because of poor ratings. It seems he was "considered too high-brow for the show's low-brow format."


title: David Frost

text: Frost was one of the "Famous Five" who launched TV-am in February 1983; however, like LWT in the late 1960s, the station began with an unsustainable "highbrow" approach. Frost remained a presenter after restructuring. "Frost on Sunday" began in September 1983 and continued until the station lost its franchise at the end of 1992. Frost had been part of an unsuccessful consortium, CPV-TV, with Richard Branson and other interests, which had attempted to acquire three ITV contractor franchises prior to the changes made by the Independent Television Commission in 1991. After transferring from ITV, his Sunday morning interview programme "Breakfast with Frost" ran on the BBC from January 1993 until 29 May 2005. For a time it ran on BSB before moving to BBC 1.


title: David Frost

text: Frost hosted "Through the Keyhole", which ran on several UK channels from 1987 until 2008 and also featured Loyd Grossman. Produced by his own production company, the programme was first shown in prime time and on daytime television in its later years.


title: David Frost

text: Frost worked for Al Jazeera English, presenting a live weekly hour-long current affairs programme, "Frost Over The World", which started when the network launched in November 2006. The programme regularly made headlines with interviewees such as Tony Blair, President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan, Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan and President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua. The programme was produced by the former "Question Time" editor and "Independent on Sunday" journalist Charlie Courtauld. Frost was one of the first to interview the man who authored the Fatwa on Terrorism, Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri.


title: David Frost

text: During his career as a broadcaster, Frost became one of Concorde's most frequent fliers, having flown between London and New York an average of 20 times per year for 20 years.


title: David Frost

text: In 2007, Frost hosted a discussion with Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi as part of the Monitor Group's involvement in the country. In June 2010, Frost presented "Frost on Satire", an hour-long BBC Four documentary looking at the history of television satire.


title: David Frost

text: Frost was the only person to have interviewed all eight British prime ministers serving between 1964 and 2016 (Harold Wilson, Edward Heath, James Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, and David Cameron) and all seven U.S. presidents in office between 1969 and 2008 (Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush).


title: David Frost

text: He was a patron and former vice-president of the Motor Neurone Disease Association charity, as well as being a patron of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, Hearing Star Benevolent Fund, East Anglia's Children's Hospices, the Home Farm Trust and the Elton John AIDS Foundation. He was also recognised for his contributions to the women's charity "Wellbeing for Women".


title: David Frost

text: After having been in television for 40 years, Frost was estimated to be worth £200 million by the "Sunday Times Rich List" in 2006, a figure he considered a significant overestimate in 2011. The valuation included the assets of his main British company and subsidiaries, plus homes in London and the country.


title: David Frost

text: "Frost/Nixon" was originally a play written by Peter Morgan, developed from the interviews that Frost had conducted with Richard Nixon in 1977. "Frost/Nixon" was presented as a stage production in London in 2006 and on Broadway in 2007. Frank Langella won a Leading Actor Tony Award for his portrayal of Nixon; the play also received nominations for Best Play and Best Direction.


title: David Frost

text: The play was adapted into a Hollywood motion picture entitled "Frost/Nixon" and starring Michael Sheen as Frost and Langella as Nixon, both reprising their stage roles. The film was released in 2008 and directed by Ron Howard. It was nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, winning none: Best Motion Picture-Drama, Best Director-Drama, Best Actor-Drama (Langella), Best Screenplay, and Best Original Score. It was also nominated for five Academy Awards, again winning none: Best Picture, Best Actor (Langella), Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing.


title: David Frost

text: In February 2009, Frost was featured on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's international affairs programme "Foreign Correspondent" in a report titled "The World According To Frost", reflecting on his long career and portrayal in the film "Frost/Nixon".


title: David Frost

text: Frost was known for several relationships with high-profile women. In the mid-1960s, he dated British actress Janette Scott, between her marriages to songwriter Jackie Rae and singer Mel Tormé; in the early 1970s he was engaged to American actress Diahann Carroll; between 1972 and 1977 he had a relationship with British socialite Caroline Cushing; in 1981, he married Lynne Frederick, widow of Peter Sellers, but they divorced the following year. He also had an 18-year intermittent affair with American actress Carol Lynley.


title: David Frost

text: On 19 March 1983, Frost married Lady Carina Fitzalan-Howard, daughter of the 17th Duke of Norfolk. Three sons were born to the couple over the next five years. His second son, Wilfred Frost, followed in his father's footsteps and currently works as an anchor at Sky News and CNBC. They lived for many years in Chelsea, London, and kept a weekend home at Michelmersh Court in Hampshire.


title: David Frost

text: On 31 August 2013, Frost was aboard the Cunard cruise ship when he died of a heart attack at the age of 74.<ref name="bbc obit"/ Cunard said that the vessel had left Southampton for a ten-day cruise in the Mediterranean, ending in Rome. A post-mortem found that Frost had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Frost's son Miles died from the same condition at the age of 31 in 2015.


title: David Frost

text: A funeral service was held at Holy Trinity Church in Nuffield, Oxfordshire, on 12 September 2013, after which he was interred in the church's graveyard.


title: David Frost

text: On 13 March 2014, a memorial service was held at Westminster Abbey, at which Frost was honoured with a memorial stone in Poets' Corner.


title: David Frost

text: British Prime Minister David Cameron paid tribute, saying: "He could be—and certainly was with me—both a friend and a fearsome interviewer." Michael Grade commented: "He was kind of a television renaissance man. He could put his hand to anything. He could turn over Richard Nixon or he could win the comedy prize at the Montreux Golden Rose festival."


title: The Cannonball Run

text: The Cannonball Run is a 1981 action comedy film. It was directed by Hal Needham, produced by Hong Kong's Golden Harvest films, and distributed by 20th Century Fox. Filmed in Panavision, it features an all-star ensemble cast, including Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Roger Moore, Farrah Fawcett, Jackie Chan and Dean Martin. The film is based on the 1979 running of an actual cross-country outlaw road race in the United States, beginning in Connecticut and ending in California.


title: The Cannonball Run

text: It was one of 1981's most successful films at the box office. It was followed by "Cannonball Run II" (1984), and "Speed Zone" (1989). "Cannonball Run" and the 1984 sequel were the final film appearances of actor Dean Martin. It also featured Jackie Chan in his second Hollywood role.


title: The Cannonball Run

text: Race teams have gathered in Connecticut to start a cross-country car race. One at a time, teams drive up to the starters' stand, punch a time card to indicate their time of departure, then take off.


title: The Cannonball Run

text: At the starting line, observing from the shadows, is Mr. Arthur J. Foyt, a representative of the "Safety Enforcement Unit", who tries to stop the race because of its environmental effects and safety issues. In the car with Foyt is a photographer and tree lover, Pamela Glover.


title: The Cannonball Run

text: Beyond the starting line, JJ and Victor (driving their ambulance) come across Foyt and Glover, who have been involved in a minor accident. Glover implores JJ and Victor to help, but when they tell Foyt to enter the ambulance through the back door, they kidnap Glover and take off without Foyt.


title: The Cannonball Run

text: As the race progresses, Victor occasionally turns into his alter ego, superhero "Captain Chaos". Dr. Van Helsing and his huge hypodermic needle are also in the ambulance to "help" keep Glover quiet during the race.


title: The Cannonball Run

text: Various teams are shown either evading law enforcement, most of which deal with talking their way out of a possible ticket, or concocting crazy schemes to outmaneuver their opponents.


title: The Cannonball Run

text: The primary rivalry is between the ambulance and the Ferrari. In Ohio, Fenderbaum and Blake are able to convince Victor to stop the ambulance in order to bless the patient on board. While Blake administers the blessing, Fenderbaum flattens one of the ambulance's rear tires. JJ achieves revenge in Missouri by convincing a nearby police officer that the two men dressed as priests are actually Communists and sex perverts who are responsible for the flashing victim in the ambulance.


title: The Cannonball Run

text: The leading teams find themselves stopped on a desert highway, waiting for construction workers to clear the road. A biker gang arrives and harasses Compton and Finch. It quickly escalates into a melee. "Captain Chaos" emerges to fight the bikers. The Subaru team also joins the fight. The construction crew announces that the road is open, so the teams sprint back to their cars to resume the race.


title: The Cannonball Run

text: The ambulance falls behind the pack until Victor once again becomes Captain Chaos. The vehicles all arrive at the final destination at the same time, resulting in a foot race to the finish line. JJ hands his team's time card to Victor, then ambushes the remaining racers, leaving only Victor and one of the Lamborghini women, Marcie. Just when it appears Victor will reach the time clock first, a spectator shouts that her "baby" has fallen into the water. Victor, still in his Captain Chaos persona, rushes to save the baby (later revealed to be the spectator's dog), allowing Marcie to clock in first and win the race.


title: The Cannonball Run

text: JJ is furious and never wants to see Captain Chaos again, but Victor replies that he does not care, becoming the persona he really wants to be, Captain USA. JJ laughs and hugs him. Foyt reappears and blames everyone for ruining the American highway. Seymour offers a cigar and tells Foyt to use the lighter in his car, which activates an ejection seat when pushed. Nothing happens at first, but when Seymour presses the button, he (Seymour) goes flying into the water.


title: The Cannonball Run

text: The film continued director Hal Needham's tradition of showing a gag reel of bloopers during the closing credits (a practice he started with "Smokey and the Bandit II"). Jackie Chan says this inspired him to do the same at the end of most of his films.


title: The Cannonball Run

text: The film is based on the 1979 running of the Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, an actual cross-country outlaw road race held four times in the 1970s, starting at the Red Ball Garage on 31st Street in New York City (later the Lock, Stock and Barrel Restaurant in Darien, Connecticut) and ending at the Portofino Inn in Redondo Beach, California, in Los Angeles.


title: The Cannonball Run

text: The screenwriter was automotive journalist Brock Yates, who had conceived the real-life Cannonball Baker event. Yates had originally proposed the race as a writer for "Car and Driver". The race had only one rule: "All competitors will drive any vehicle of their choosing, over any route, at any speed they judge practical, between the starting point and destination. The competitor finishing with the lowest elapsed time is the winner".


title: The Cannonball Run

text: Yates' team was the only participant in the original 1971 running, which was named after the driver Ernest "Cannonball" Baker, who drove across country in 1927 and made it in 60 hours. Yates wrote a book about it called "The Sunday Driver". In 1973 it was reported John G. Avildsen and writer Eugene Price was to make a film based on the book called "The Cannonball-Baker-Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash". The film was not made but the race did inspire the (unrelated) 1976 films "Cannonball" and "The Gumball Rally".


title: The Cannonball Run

text: In the March 1979 race Yates formed one of 46 teams with director Hal Needham to compete with a 150-MPH van converted into an ambulance, with LA doctor Lyell Royer, and Brock's second wife, Pamela Reynolds, riding as the patient on the gurney. Although the ambulance never made it to the finish line — the transmission gave out 50 miles short of the Redondo Beach finish line — Yates made it to the movie as a race official and Needham as an EMT, as did the ambulance itself and even the transmission failure. The ambulance was stopped once, in Pennsylvania; that event made it into the movie, as did a cop stopping traffic in Kansas, exiting from a rodeo, to let the ambulance pass unimpeded.


title: The Cannonball Run

text: The Right Bra team was put together by rail-thin auto writer Judy Stropus, race driver Donna Mae Mims and Peggy Niemcek, whose husband was part of another entry, driving a Cadillac limo. In the movie, it became a two-woman team led by buxom Adrienne Barbeau driving a Lamborghini, but as auto writer Stropus said decades later, "a little editorial license never hurt anyone". Yates points out in his book "Cannonball!" that Stropus's version of the race does not mention the baptism with green fluid from the porta-potty the three girls experienced when the limo overturned.


title: The Cannonball Run

text: The characters J.J. and Victor participate in the Cannonball Run in an ambulance: a heavily modified Dodge van. In the beginning, J.J. says to himself "we could get a black Trans Am", then answers his own question with "Nah that's been done", a reference to the "Smokey and the Bandit" films of Burt Reynolds and director Hal Needham.


title: The Cannonball Run

text: In an attempt to appear legitimate to law enforcement, the team of J.J. and Victor hires Doctor Nikolas Van Helsing, a frightening, yet friendly, physician of questionable skill played by Jack Elam. They kidnap attractive young photographer Pamela Glover (Farrah Fawcett) — whom they nickname "Beauty" — to be their cover patient. Beauty vehemently opposes her kidnapping first, but eventually comes to sympathize with her captors and fall for J.J.


title: The Cannonball Run

text: Yates and Needham worked on a script and Al Ruddy became attached as producer. They wanted Reynolds to star, but he was reluctant to make more car-themed films. He was eventually persuaded by Needham's promise to keep the actor's schedule to only 14 days of filming, and a fee of $5 million plus a percentage of the profits. Finance came from Raymond Chow of Golden Harvest, who requested that Jackie Chan be included in the cast.


title: The Cannonball Run

text: Reynolds later said: "I did that film for all the wrong reasons. I never liked it. I did it to help out a friend of mine, Hal Needham. And I also felt it was immoral to turn down that kind of money. I suppose I sold out so I couldn't really object to what people wrote about me".


title: The Cannonball Run

text: A huge commercial success, "The Cannonball Run" opened June 19, 1981 on 1,673 screens and grossed $11,765,574 in its opening weekend, the fourth highest opening of all-time, but this was not enough to beat "Superman II" that opened the same weekend with a record-breaking $14,100,523. The film went on to gross $72,179,579 in the United States and Canada, making it the sixth highest-grossing film of 1981, behind "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "On Golden Pond", "Superman II", "Arthur", and "Stripes".


title: The Cannonball Run

text: It was also successful overseas. In France, "The Cannonball Run" sold 988,509 box office admissions in 1981. In Germany, the film sold 4,825,937 admissions, becoming the third highest-grossing film of 1981. In Japan, it was the second highest-grossing foreign film of 1982, grossing at the box office. The film grossed over worldwide in its initial run, and went on to gross a worldwide total of .


title: The Cannonball Run

text: Despite its box office success, most critics reviewed the film negatively. It has received an approval rating of 29% on Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes based on 34 reviews. The critical consensus reads: ""Cannonball Run" casts a bevy of famous faces as its wacky racers but forgets to give them characters to play, resulting in 90 dull minutes that feel like a marathon". Roger Ebert gave the film a half-star out of four, calling it "an abdication of artistic responsibility at the lowest possible level of ambition. In other words, they didn't even care enough to make a good lousy movie". "Variety" described the film as "full of terribly inside showbiz jokes and populated by what could be called Burt and Hal's Rat Pack, film takes place in that redneck never-never land where most of the guys are beer-guzzling good ole boys and all the gals are fabulously built tootsies".


title: The Cannonball Run

text: Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" called the film "inoffensive and sometimes funny. Because there are only a limited number of variations that can be worked out on this same old highway race, don't bother to see it unless you're already hooked on the genre".


title: The Cannonball Run

text: The film was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress for Fawcett, but lost to Diana Scarwid for the cult film "Mommie Dearest".


title: The Cannonball Run

text: On June 25, 1980, 24-year-old German American stuntwoman Heidi von Beltz, a former championship skier, stuntwoman, and aspiring actress, was critically injured in a car crash during production of the film. The original stunt person had left the production to attend an emergency family illness, and the stunt coordinator Bobby Bass called his then-fiancée von Beltz to the set for a stunt that he said was to be "a piece of cake". The car was to be driven by stuntman Jimmy Nickerson, and required him to weave between oncoming vehicles. Meanwhile, von Beltz was asked to ride in the passenger seat, operating a smoke machine, giving the impression the car was on fire.


title: The Cannonball Run

text: The car, an Aston Martin, had been beset with mechanical problems, including defective steering, clutch, and speedometer. It also had bald tires and no seat belts. Nickerson asked for repairs to the car, and while some were done, other things were left unfixed, including the lack of seatbelts. During the planned stunt the car collided head-on with a van, breaking von Beltz's neck and leaving her quadriplegic.


title: The Cannonball Run

text: When it became clear that von Beltz's personal injury lawsuit would exceed all available primary insurance coverage, the production's excess insurer, Interstate Fire (a subsidiary of Hollywood's favorite insurer, Fireman's Fund Insurance Company) sued von Beltz and her employer, Stuntman Inc., for a declaratory judgment that von Beltz's lawsuit was not covered under its policy. In 1988, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that there "was" a duty to defend, and that there was also a duty to indemnify to the extent that von Beltz was seeking recovery for mental injuries (the exclusion for bodily injuries was ruled to be enforceable).


title: The Cannonball Run

text: She was eventually awarded $7 million although a judge reduced the amount and she ended up with $3.2 million. Much of the settlement went to her attorneys and to paying off medical bills. Her lawsuit against the movie's producers led to required seat-belt use in all stunt cars and caused the Directors Guild to prohibit directors from altering stunts on location.


title: The Cannonball Run

text: The film was followed by the sequels "Cannonball Run II" (1984) and "Speed Zone" (1989). "The Cannonball Run" and "Cannonball Run II" were the final film appearances of actor Dean Martin. The film also featured Jackie Chan in his second Hollywood role, after "The Big Brawl" (1980).


title: The Cannonball Run

text: Sega AM2 game designer Yu Suzuki cited "The Cannonball Run" as an influence on his hit 1986 arcade racing game "Out Run".


title: The Cannonball Run

text: Warner Bros. has acquired the rights to the "Cannonball Run" franchise and in 2016 set Etan Cohen to write and direct a remake as "Cannonball". Andre Morgan and Alan Gasmer were hired as producers.


title: The Cannonball Run

text: Doug Liman was in early talks to direct the film from a script by Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant in June 2018.


title: Breeze Airways

text: Breeze Airways is a low-cost U.S. airline headquartered in Cottonwood Heights, Utah. The airline was founded by David Neeleman, who previously co-founded Morris Air, WestJet, JetBlue, and Azul Linhas Aereas. Breeze's operations launched on May 27, 2021, with its inaugural flight from Tampa International Airport to Charleston International Airport.


title: Breeze Airways

text: In June 2018, Neeleman planned for the establishment of a new United States airline under the tentative name "Moxy Airways", with capital from former Air Canada CEO Robert Milton, former ILFC CEO Henri Courpron, former JetBlue Chairman of the Board Michael Lazarus, and himself. They perceived that due to consolidation, all 11 major carriers in the country were profitable and had existed 20 years ago (except JetBlue, which Neeleman had co-founded in 2000) and that there was space for a new airline competitor. They also determined that the country's four largest airlines carried 80% of domestic US seats in 2017, and that due to the loss of service to smaller markets, US domestic air capacity had remained stagnant from 2007 to 2017 while the economy had expanded by 34%.


title: Breeze Airways

text: To fill this perceived gap, the airline planned to offer point-to-point flights from smaller, secondary airports such as T. F. Green Airport (Providence), Norfolk International Airport, or Westchester County Airport, bypassing larger airline hubs for shorter travel times. The airline was also reportedly considering longer distance flights to South America and Europe.


title: Breeze Airways

text: It would offer spacious seats and free Wi-Fi, like Azul and JetBlue, but charge fees for snacks and advance seat assignments, like ultra low-cost carriers Allegiant Air or Spirit Airlines.


title: Breeze Airways

text: For the launch of operations, 60 Airbus A220-300s (previously known as the Bombardier CS300) were ordered, soliciting Chinese lessors to finance 18 to be delivered from 2021 onward. However, in order to accelerate the airline's launch, it initially planned to utilize secondhand Embraer 195 aircraft from Azul in order to launch as soon as 2020.


title: Breeze Airways

text: On February 7, 2020, it was announced that the airline had officially been named Breeze Airways, as the previous "Moxy" name clashed with Marriott's "Moxy Hotels" trademark. The airline's branding, such as its logo, colors and aircraft livery, was developed by the Brazilian airline marketing specialist Gianfranco "Panda" Beting, Azul's co-founder, who was also responsible for creating the branding of Azul, TAP Air Portugal and Transbrasil. Additionally, Neeleman expressed the view that the airline would be known as the "World's Nicest Airline". On February 20, 2020, the airline established its headquarters in Cottonwood Heights, Utah.


title: Breeze Airways

text: Breeze had originally planned to begin operations sometime in 2020 through the acquisition of Compass Airlines, though the launch was later pushed back to 2021, with the acquisition being cancelled. The airline received its first Embraer 195 on December 30, 2020, and later its first Embraer 190 in February 2021, with which the airline would use to launch short-haul, regional services prior to the induction of the Airbus A220-300 for longer flights. On March 10, 2021, the airline received federal approval from the United States Department of Transportation to begin operations, and was later issued its air operator's certificate on May 14, 2021. The following week, Breeze began selling tickets on May 21, 2021 with flights planned to start on May 27, 2021.


title: Breeze Airways

text: Breeze's first Airbus A220-300 was delivered on October 26, 2021, with the aircraft entering service on May 25, 2022.


title: Breeze Airways

text: On July 17, 2018, the airline signed a memorandum of understanding with Airbus for 60 A220-300 aircraft to be delivered from 2021, with the order firmed in January 2019. The order included options for 60 additional A220s. Following the airline's revised plans to launch operations before the delivery of its A220 aircraft, Breeze agreed to sublease up to 30 Embraer 195s from Azul in order to serve short-haul routes, although the total number received was dependent on LOT Polish Airlines exercising its lease options. The airline additionally agreed to lease up to fifteen Embraer 190s from Nordic Aviation Capital. On April 26, 2021, it was announced that Breeze had ordered an additional 20 A220-300 aircraft, bringing its total orders up to 80 aircraft of the type, although Airbus listed the order under an undisclosed customer. Breeze itself did not announce the order until September 13, 2021, when it was also announced that the order was the result of exercising purchase options.


title: Breeze Airways

text: Breeze had proposed intentions to offer both a low-cost and a first-class product, in contrast to the traditional all-economy business model of most low-cost carriers (LCCs). Proposals include some common LCC features such as a point-to-point route network, extra fees for additional services, and initially a single aircraft type, but the airline does not intend to operate a single cabin class of service. Additionally, its aircraft would not feature seatback screens for its in-flight entertainment, instead opting to offer streaming of entertainment through personal electronic devices.


title: Breeze Airways

text: In August 2021, Breeze announced plans for a no-frills "Nice" ticket, and a "Nicer" ticket type offering food, extra legroom and other amenity upgrades. The carrier also announced that all ticket types were eligible for itinerary changes without additional fees. Breeze announced a "Nicest" ticket type with the delivery of its Airbus A220-300 in October 2021, which would feature a first class seat and services, and launch with the aircraft's entry into service during 2022. In March 2022, the airline announced that it planned to offer inflight Wi-Fi internet access from October 2022.


title: Breeze Airways

text: Breeze's First Class seats are only available on its Airbus A220 aircraft, and are configured in a 2–2 layout. The airline's Extra Legroom and Standard seats are its economy class product, the seats of which are configured in a 2–3 layout on the A220, and a 2–2 layout on the Embraer 190 and 195 aircraft. The airline additionally announced an alternative seating configuration for its A220s depending on route or seasonal demand, with fewer First Class seats and additional Extra Legroom seats.


title: Breeze Airways

text: BreezePoints are both the airline's frequent-flyer program as well as its travel credit system. The program is a revenue-based accrual system where passengers earn points based on the cash amount spent on travel, including base fare amounts and ancillary fees such as seat selection or baggage allowances. The amount of points earned can also vary based on the ticket type purchased. Points can be redeemed towards payments made with the airline, and expire two years after originally issued.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is an intelligence agency and combat support agency of the United States Department of Defense, specializing in defense and military intelligence.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: A component of the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Intelligence Community (IC), DIA informs national civilian and defense policymakers about the military intentions and capabilities of foreign governments and non-state actors. It also provides intelligence assistance, integration and coordination across uniformed military service intelligence components, which remain structurally separate from DIA. The agency's role encompasses the collection and analysis of military-related foreign political, economic, industrial, geographic, and medical and health intelligence. DIA produces approximately one-quarter of all intelligence content that goes into the President's Daily Brief.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: DIA's intelligence operations extend beyond the zones of combat, and approximately half of its employees serve overseas at hundreds of locations and in U.S. embassies in 140 countries. The agency specializes in the collection and analysis of human-source intelligence (HUMINT), both overt and clandestine, while also handling U.S. military-diplomatic relations abroad. DIA concurrently serves as the national manager for the highly technical measurement and signature intelligence (MASINT) and as the Defense Department manager for counterintelligence programs. The agency has no law enforcement authority, contrary to occasional portrayals in American popular culture.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: DIA is a national-level intelligence organization that does not belong to a single military element or within the traditional chain of command, instead answering to the Secretary of Defense directly through the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. Three-quarters of the agency's 17,000 employees are career civilians who are experts in various fields of defense and military interest or application; and although no military background is required, 48% of agency employees have some past military service. DIA has a tradition of marking unclassified deaths of its employees on the organization's Memorial Wall.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: Established in 1961 under President John F. Kennedy by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, DIA was involved in U.S. intelligence efforts throughout the Cold War and rapidly expanded, both in size and scope, after the September 11 attacks. Because of the sensitive nature of its work, the spy organization has been embroiled in numerous controversies, including those related to its intelligence-gathering activities, to its role in torture, as well as to attempts to expand its activities on U.S. soil.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: The Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency is an intelligence officer who, upon nomination by the President and confirmation by the Senate, serves as the nation's highest-ranking military intelligence officer. He or she is the primary intelligence adviser to the Secretary of Defense and also answers to the Director of National Intelligence. The Director is also the Commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, a subordinate command of United States Strategic Command, which is headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Additionally, he or she chairs the Military Intelligence Board, which coordinates activities of the entire defense intelligence community.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: DIA is headquartered in Washington, D.C. on Joint Base Anacostia–Bolling with major operational activities at the Pentagon and at each Unified Combatant Command, as well as in more than a hundred U.S. embassies around the world, where it deploys alongside other government partners (e.g., the CIA) and also operates the U.S. Defense Attache Offices. Additionally, the agency has staff deployed at the Col. James N. Rowe Building at Rivanna Station in Charlottesville, Virginia, National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI) in Fort Detrick, Maryland, Missile and Space Intelligence Center (MSIC) in Huntsville, Alabama, Russell-Knox Building on Marine Corps Base Quantico, National Center for Credibility Assessment at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and Defense Intelligence Support Center (DISC) in Reston, Virginia. DIA also recently completed the renovation of Intelligence Community Campus-Bethesda in Maryland, which serves as the new location of the National Intelligence University as well as a facility for DIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: Less known than its civilian equivalent or its cryptologic counterpart, DIA and its personnel have at times been portrayed in works of American popular culture. As with other U.S. foreign intelligence organizations, the agency's role has occasionally been confused with those of law enforcement agencies. DIA's parent organization, the Department of Defense, features in fiction and media much more prominently due to the public's greater awareness of its existence and the general association of military organizations with warfare, rather than spycraft.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: DIA and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) are distinct organizations with different functions. DIA focuses on national level defense-military topics, while CIA is concentrated on broader, more general intelligence needs of the President and Cabinet. Additionally, due to DIA's designation as a combat support agency, it has special responsibilities in meeting intelligence requirements specifically for the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Combatant Commanders, both in peace and at war. Although there are misconceptions in the media and public about the DIA–CIA rivalry, the two agencies have a mutually beneficial relationship and division of labor. According to a former senior U.S official who worked with both agencies, "the CIA doesn't want to be looking for surface-to-air missiles in Libya" while it is also tasked with evaluating the Syrian opposition. CIA and DIA Operations Officers all go through the same type of clandestine training at an interagency Defense installation under CIA administration, best known in popular culture by its CIA nickname "The Farm".


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: DIA is not a collective of all U.S. military intelligence units and the work it performs is not in lieu of that falling under intelligence components of individual services. Unlike the Russian GRU, which encompasses equivalents of nearly all joint U.S. military intelligence operations, DIA assists and coordinates the activities of individual service-level intelligence units (i.e. 25 AF, INSCOM, etc.), but they nevertheless remain separate entities. As a general rule, DIA handles national-level, long-term and strategic intelligence needs, whereas service-level intelligence components handle tactical, short-term goals pertinent to their respective services. DIA does, however, lead coordination efforts with the military intelligence units and with the national DOD intelligence services (NSA, NGA, NRO) in its role as chair of the Military Intelligence Board and through the co-located Joint Functional Component Command for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: Directorate for Analysis: The Directorate of Analysis manages the all-source analysis elements of DIA. Analysts analyze and disseminate finalized intelligence products, focusing on national, strategic and operational-level military issues that may arise from worldwide political, economic, medical, natural or other related processes. Analysts contribute to the President's Daily Brief and the National Intelligence Estimates. Analysts serve DIA in all of the agency's facilities and DIA has the most forward deployed analysts in the Intelligence Community.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: Directorate for Science and Technology: The Directorate for Science and Technology manages DIA's technical assets and personnel. These assets gather and analyze Measurement and Signature Intelligence, which is a technical intelligence discipline that serves to detect, track, identify or describe the signatures (distinctive characteristics) of fixed or dynamic target sources. This often includes radar intelligence, acoustic intelligence, nuclear intelligence, and chemical and biological intelligence. DIA is designated the national manager for MASINT collection within the United States Intelligence Community, coordinating all MASINT gathering across agencies. DIA is also the national manager of the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System (JWICS), the central Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) processing network for the United States, and Stone Ghost, a network for US and partner nations.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: Directorate for Mission Services: The Directorate for Mission Services provides administrative, technical, and programmatic support to the agency's domestic and global operations and analytic efforts. This includes providing counterintelligence to the agency as well as serving as the counterintelligence executive agent for the Department of Defense.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: Centers: DIA is divided into four regional centers and one functional center which manage the agency's efforts in these areas of responsibility. These centers are the Americas Center, the Asia/Pacific Center, the Europe/Eurasia Center, the Middle East/Africa Center, and the Defense Combating Terrorism Center. DIA also manages Community-wide centers such as the National Center for Medical Intelligence, the Missile and Space Intelligence Center, the National Media Exploitation Center, and the Underground Facilities Analysis Center (UFAC).


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: Further, DIA is responsible for administering the JIOCEUR and various Joint Intelligence Centers which serve and are co-located with each of the Unified Combatant Commands. Additionally, DIA manages the Directorate for Intelligence, Joint Staff (J2) which advises and supports the Joint Chiefs of Staff with foreign military intelligence for defense policy and war planning.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: DIA also manages the National Intelligence University (NIU) on behalf of the Intelligence Community. NIU and the John T. Hughes Library is housed at the Intelligence Community campus in Bethesda, Maryland and has several branch campuses at RAF Molesworth, MacDill Air Force Base, and Marine Corps Base Quantico as well as academic programs at the NSA and NGA.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: The DIA has its own police force (established in 1963), made up of federal officers who protect DIA people and property. DIA Police provide law enforcement and police services, emergency response and physical security at DIA campuses.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: DIA Police have 170 sworn, uniformed officers that protect and police the six DIA sites (Headquarters, Reston, Charlottesville, DIA Logistics Operation Center, National Center for Medical Intelligence and Missile and Space Intelligence Center).


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: DIA Police Officers are trained at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center for three months before being certified.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: DIA Police operate under the U.S. Marshal's Office Special Deputation and jurisdictional and functional authority within the District of Columbia under a cooperative agreement with the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: Due to the sensitive nature of DIA's work, all of its personnel, including interns and contractors, are subject to the same security standards and must obtain a Top Secret clearance with Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) access. Collateral Top Secret clearances granted by the DoD are not sufficient to grant access to DIA's SCI information. Additionally, the SCI access granted by other intelligence agencies, such as CIA or NSA, do not transfer to DIA and vice versa.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: In addition to the rigorous background investigations, psychological and drug screening, as well as security interviews, DIA requires that its applicants pass the agency polygraph. In fact, DIA exercises operational control over the National Center for Credibility Assessment (NCCA), which establishes polygraphing standards and trains polygraphers for placement across the entire intelligence community. In 2008, the agency started expanding its polygraph program in an attempt to screen 5,700 prospective and current employees every year. This was a several fold increase from 2002 when, according to information provided to Congress, DIA conducted 1,345 polygraphs. According to the unclassified DIA document cited in the news report, since the mid-2000s the agency started hiring contract polygraphers in addition to the permanent DIA polygraphers and added 13 polygraphing studios to those the spy organization already operated. This expanded polygraph screening at DIA continued notwithstanding documented technical problems discovered in the Lafayette computerized polygraph system used by the agency; the organization allegedly refused to change the flawed Lafayette polygraph but declined to comment as to the reasoning.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: Unlike the CIA and NSA polygraphs, DIA polygraphs are only of Counterintelligence Scope (CI), rather than Full Scope (FS) (also known as Expanded Scope Screening or ESS), which is ostensibly more intrusive as far as one's personal life is concerned. DIA administered only a handful of FS polygraphs and only for those personnel who were to be detailed to the CIA. Additionally, DIA conducted a handful of FS polygraphs on its personnel remaining overseas in excess of 6.5 years, although this practice appeared to be outside the scope of DIA's authorization at the time.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: Like with other intelligence agencies, failing to pass the DIA polygraph is a virtual guarantee that an applicant will be judged unsuitable for agency employment. In fact, according to a report published by the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense of Intelligence, while the usually more stringent NSA is willing to give its applicants several shots at passing the polygraph, DIA tends to give one or at most two opportunities to clear the test, after which the employment offer is rescinded. The same report recommended that DIA seek permanent authority to conduct more intrusive Expanded Scope Screenings due to their supposed usefulness in eliciting admissions from applicants.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: Also, like in other intelligence agencies, employees are required to take periodic polygraph examinations throughout their careers. No unfavorable administrative actions shall be taken against them however, based entirely on their results.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: DIA's budget and exact personnel numbers are classified. Classified Information is not willingly revealed to the public or with anyone that has does not have a need-to-know verified. The agency does reveal that currently, it has approximately 17,000 employees, two-thirds of whom are civilians and approximately 50% of whom work at more than 141 overseas locations. In 1994, it was revealed that DIA requested approximately $4 billion in funding for the period of 1996–2001 ($6.3 billion inflation adjusted), averaging $666 million per year ($1.05 billion inflation adjusted). The agency, however, has nearly doubled in size since then and also assumed additional responsibilities from various intelligence elements from across the Department of Defense, CIA and wider intelligence community. In 2006, at the height of Donald Rumsfeld's push to further expand the scope of military intelligence beyond tactical considerations, DIA was estimated to receive up to $3 billion annually.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: According to classified documents leaked by Edward Snowden and published by "The Washington Post" in 2013, the National Intelligence Program (NIP) component of the overall US intelligence budget contained approximately $4.4 billion/year for the General Defense Intelligence Program (GDIP), which is managed by DIA, even as it is not exclusively for the agency's use. The numbers exclude the Military Intelligence Component (MIP) of the overall US intelligence budget, which by itself has averaged more than $20 billion per year in the past decade.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: DIA is one of a few U.S. federal organizations, such as the CIA and FBI, that rely on human espionage to collect information. For this reason, the agency has been involved in numerous espionage events over the course of decades.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: In 2003, the Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's "Working Group" on interrogations requested that DIA come up with prisoner interrogation techniques for the group's consideration. According to the 2008 US Senate Armed Services Committee report on the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody, DIA began drawing up the list of techniques with the help of its civilian employee, a former Guantanamo Interrogation Control Element (ICE) Chief David Becker. Becker claimed that the Working Group members were particularly interested in aggressive methods and that he "was encouraged to talk about techniques that


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: It is unknown to what extent the agency's recommendations were used or for how long, but according to the same Senate report, the list drawn up by DIA included the use of "drugs such as sodium pentothal and Demerol," humiliation via female interrogators and sleep deprivation. Becker claimed that he recommended the use of drugs due to rumors that another intelligence agency, the name of which was redacted in the Senate report, had successfully used them in the past. According to the analysis of the Office of Defense Inspector General, DIA's cited justification for the use of drugs was to "[relax] detainee to cooperative state" and that mind-altering substances were not used.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: Some of the more lurid revelations of DIA's alleged harsh interrogations came from FBI officers, who conducted their own screenings of detainees in Guantanamo along with other agencies. According to one account, the interrogators of what was then DIA's Defense Humint Service (referenced in FBI correspondence as DHS), forced subjects to watch gay porn, draped them with the Israeli flag, and interrogated them in rooms lit by strobe lights for 16–18 hours, all the while telling prisoners that they were from FBI.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: The real FBI operatives were concerned that DIA's harsh methods and impersonation of FBI agents would complicate the FBI's ability to do its job properly, saying "The next time a real Agent tries to talk to that guy, you can imagine the result." A subsequent military inquiry countered FBI's allegations by saying that the prisoner treatment was degrading but not inhumane, without addressing the allegation of DIA staff regularly impersonating FBI officers—usually a felony offense.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: Similar activities transpired at the hands of DIA operatives in Bagram, where as recently as 2010 the organization ran the so-called "Black Jail". According to a report published by "The Atlantic", the jail was manned by DIA's DCHC staff, who were accused of beating and sexually humiliating high-value targets held at the site. The detention center outlived the black sites run by the Central Intelligence Agency, with DIA allegedly continuing to use "restricted" interrogation methods in the facility under a secret authorization. It is unclear what happened to the secret facility after the 2013 transfer of the base to Afghan authorities following several postponements.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: DIA's harsh interrogation methods at times paled in comparison to those of some U.S. special operations forces. In 2004, interrogations by Joint Special Operations Command's high-value targets special operations task forces (including Task Force 6-26) were so heavy-handed and physical with the detainees that two DIA officials complained, as a result of which they were threatened and put under surveillance by abusive military interrogators. The two DIA officials managed to share their accounts of abuse with the agency leadership, prompting DIA Director Lowell Jacoby to write a memo on this topic to the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: In 2014, Canadian electronic music group Skinny Puppy sent the Defense Intelligence Agency a symbolic bill of $666,000, after finding out that the agency had used their music in Guantanamo during "enhanced interrogation" (deemed torture by some) sessions. Their music was originally heard at GTMO by a guard, who happened to be a fan of Skinny Puppy and could not understand how his favorite music was being used in such a manner: "[Skinny Puppy's] songs are characterized by ... lyrics that call out corporate wrongdoing. The songs I heard at GTMO were heavily distorted, almost to the point of inaudibility. Even so, I would never have imagined that Skinny Puppy's music would, or could, be used for enhanced interrogation". The officer conducting interrogation sessions allegedly stating that the Canadian group's songs—which are "characterized by relentless drumbeats, panicked, convulsive riffs, synth samples"—were very effective for "enhanced interrogation."


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: Since mid-2000s, DIA has come under scrutiny for requesting new powers "to covertly approach and cultivate 'U.S. persons' and even recruit them as informants" without disclosing they are doing so on behalf of the U.S. government. George Peirce, DIA's general counsel, told "The Washington Post" that his agency is "not asking for the moon" and that DIA officers "only want to assess their [individual U.S. citizens'] suitability as a source, person to person", while protecting the ID and security of the agency operatives. The provision allowing DIA to covertly approach U.S. citizens was reportedly removed from the bill at the request of Senator Ron Wyden. It is unclear if the agency has received any additional powers since but it is known that until at least 2005 and possibly later, DIA's "personnel stationed in major U.S. cities [have been] ... monitoring the movements and activities—through high-tech equipment—of individuals and vehicles"; this occurred parallel to the NSA's warrantless surveillance that was of similarly dubious legality.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: In 2008, with the consolidation of the new Defense Counterintelligence and Human Intelligence Center (DCHC), DIA secured an additional authority to conduct "offensive counterintelligence", which entails conducting clandestine operations, domestically and abroad, "to thwart what the opposition is trying to do to us and to learn more about what they're trying to get from us." While the agency remained vague about the exact meaning of offensive counterintelligence, experts opined that it "could include planting a mole in a foreign intelligence service, passing disinformation to mislead the other side, or even disrupting enemy information systems", suggesting strong overlap between CI and traditional HUMINT operations.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: According to the agency, Americans spying for a foreign intelligence service would not be covered under this mechanism and that DIA would coordinate in such cases with the FBI which, unlike any DIA components at the time, is designated a law enforcement agency. The media showed particular interest in the domestic aspect of DIA's counterintelligence efforts due to the fact that agency's newly created DCHC had absorbed the former Counterintelligence Field Activity, which had become infamous for storing data on American peace activists in the controversial TALON database that was eventually shut down.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: Anthony Shaffer, a former DIA officer, has claimed that DIA was aware of and failed to adequately act against one of the organizers of the September 11 attacks prior to the event, in what became known as the Able Danger controversy. Shaffer's claims were rejected and later his security clearance was revoked, with the Pentagon denying any wrongdoing. Later Shaffer published his book "Operation Dark Heart" but, upon complaints from DIA and NSA that it included national security information, the Defense Department went as far as to buy and destroy the initial 10,000 copies of the book, causing the Streisand effect.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: In 2011, the German government uncovered a far-right terrorist group named National Socialist Underground, which had been linked to a series of murders, including the murder of a police officer. A report by "Stern" claimed German BfV and DIA officers had witnessed the murder of a policewoman during their surveillance of the "Sauerland" group—an Islamist organization that planned attacks on U.S. military installations in Germany—but that neither of the agencies reported it, thus enabling subsequent violent acts by the same criminal entities. The magazine cited an unverified DIA report that confirmed the agency's officers were at the site of the incident. The authenticity of the alleged DIA observation protocol, on which "Stern" based its report, was swiftly denied by the BfV, while DIA refused to comment. An unnamed U.S. "insider expert" for intelligence matters told "Der Spiegel" he deemed it unlikely that DIA could be involved in that type of operation.


title: Defense Intelligence Agency

text: During World War II, the Office of Strategic Services served as the military's joint-level intelligence service. Independent from the military services and reporting into the Joint Chiefs of Staff, it drew on the armed forces for personnel and ran programs to provide strategic intelligence and coordination during the war. The OSS was disbanded on 20 September, 1945, but elements of it were transferred to the Bureau of Intelligence and Research in the State Department and into the Department of Defense, while others were later re-constituted as the CIA. From World War II until the creation of DIA in 1961, the three Military Departments collected, produced and distributed their intelligence for individual use. This turned out to be duplicative, costly, and ineffective as each department provided their own, often conflicting estimates to the Secretary of Defense and other Federal agencies. While the Defense Reorganization Act of 1958 aimed to correct these deficiencies, the intelligence responsibilities remained unclear, the coordination was poor and the results fell short of national reliability and focus. As a result of this poor organization, President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed the Joint Study Group in 1960 to find better ways for organizing the nation's military intelligence activities.