NEW YORK — In the opening act of the documentary “The Spymasters: CIA in the Crosshairs,” former Director Leon Panetta admits to authorizing a 2010 drone strike that killed an al-Qaida member implicated in the deaths of seven CIA operatives.
“Those decisions are never easy,” Panetta says of approving the strike that resulted in unintended deaths, as he knew it might, “and frankly they shouldn’t be.”
The moral calculus of the CIA’s war on terror is the primary concern of “The Spymasters,” which recently premiered on Showtime. The film features candid interviews with all 12 living directors of the agency, from George H.W. Bush, who served under President Gerald Ford, through current head John Brennan.
“What we wanted this to be about was not just spies and covert action,” the film’s writer, Chris Whipple, said recently at the Upper East Side home of co-directors and brothers Jules and Gedeon Naudet. “We really wanted it to be about these 12 human beings.”