American Cinematographer - January 2008 - (Page 70) Charlie Wilson’s War, shot by Stephen Goldblatt, ASC, BSC, details a skirtchasing congressman’s secret schemes. by Jean Oppenheimer Unit photography by François Duhamel, SMPSP 70 January 2008 Politician ome colorful characters have walked the halls of Congress, but few have been as brash as Charlie Wilson, a hard-drinking, woman-chasing representative from staunchly conservative east Texas. In the 1980s, Wilson used his position on a House Defense Appropriations subcommittee to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars and weapons through the CIA to the Afghan rebels who were trying to drive the A Rogue S Soviets out of Afghanistan. Wilson was aided in this endeavor by an outspoken CIA agent, Gust Avrakotos, and a Christian conservative, Joanne Herring. Against all odds, the plan worked, and the Soviet Union, which had marched into Afghanistan anticipating an easy victory, found itself mired in an unwinnable war. Wilson’s plan to secretly fund the rebels sounds incredible, but, as detailed in George Crile’s 2003 nonfiction book, Charlie Wilson’s War, it
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