(Details about Maya were changed or eroded to protect her identity, which may account for the discrepancy between No Easy Day and Zero Dark Thirty on this score.) (Both names, of course, are pseudonyms.). Did Maya not have sex for ten years? Zero Dark Thirty's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack is one of the finest available on Blu-ray.This is a track of incredible nuance, heavy bass, and precision elements alike, all played . Officials said the woman was given a cash bonus for her work on the bin Laden mission and has since moved on to a new counterterrorism assignment. Why were the CIA not more suspicious of the Jordanian doctor? Once it was clear that Zero Dark Thirtythe riveting new movie from Kathryn Bigelow about the hunt for Osama Bin Ladenwould focus on a young female CIA analyst played by Jessica Chastain, comparisons between her and Carrie Mathison from Homeland were sure to follow. The internal frictions are an unseemly aspect of the ongoing fallout from a mission that is otherwise regarded as one of the signal successes in CIA history. Answer (1 of 14): No, but they do offer intership opportunities to high school aged students. For instance: there were plenty of explosions worldwide in the decade that followed September 11, 2001. She hit reply all to an e-mail announcement of the awards, a second former CIA official said. The movie suggests that those whose response to the attacks remains at the level of horror and anger are likely to accept extreme and morally repellent measures taken against anyone who seems connected with the perpetratorsand that these people hold a fanatical commitment to the death of bin Laden, a form of vengeance as justice. Best Movies about modern (post-1900) warfare/military. Bigelow is more accomplishedshe works harder to reproduce more thoroughly the events she stages and she depicts them in greater detail and with greater energybut her mode of representation is no more original. Even if there is no such connection, though, it seems remarkable that the most thoroughgoing depictions of the war on terror in both television and film are told through the eyes of characters with so much in common. He has said QAnon, the bogus conspiracy theory that Trump was battling pedophiles among senior Democrats, Hollywood and the imagined deep state, has often been correct. Over 10 years of leads from one end of the world to the other and then back to Pakistan. Only other discussion I could find seems to center around does / should the CIA recruit from high . In reality, Scheuer, who was then known by her maiden name Bikowsky, traveled to a classified CIA facility in 2002 and actually witnessed the torture of an al-Qaida suspect named Abu Zubaydah. NEW YORK -- The Washington Post ran a front-page story Tuesday about the CIA agent who serves as the model for Maya, one of the the main characters in "Zero Dark Thirty," a much-anticipated film about the hunt for Osama bin Laden. whose spare-tire cover was emblazoned with an image of a white rhino, reportedly linked Ammar to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ammar is a composite of three Al Qaeda suspects, killed in December 2012 during a rescue mission in Afghanistan. She then boards a transport plane where she is told to sit anywhere because hers is the only name on the manifest. Suddenly, liberals find themselves the biggest proponents of the thin blue line.. Overly hyped movie~ Jessica Chastain is solid as the youthful CIA INTELLIGENCE person "Maya" who recruited out of high school wants to "get ahead" in her job. As the paper noted, Danes has said that her character is loosely modeled on an actual CIA officer whom she has met at Langley. Boring, tedious and excessively attentive to minutia details while ignoring the main theme of the movie. What is a creepy fact about the human body? The Washington Post . However, the problems that no one can answer need a different way of thought, someone that is open to other ideas or thought processes. The character of Joseph Bradley is similarly based on Jonathan Banks, the then CIA station chief in Pakistan. What about the dog? 1. Purpose of the making. Anticipating that Panetta would not be impressed with the how he was going to look on screen, Gandolfini has said, I sent a note to Leon saying, Im very sorry about everything. Slideshow 2066662 by yachi Zero Dark Thirty suggests that theres a lot of violence being done in the world by bin Laden and his followers; it offers little confidence in the power of diplomacy to oppose it (as, for instance, in the scenes suggesting the betrayal of a C.I.A. Its a canny litmus test that embeds its coy ambiguities in its very form. | The naysayers who thought her previous hit, "The Hurt Locker" was a fluke/had help from her famous ex-husband James Cameron( Titanic, Avatar and others) were incorrect and hopefully this movie will shut the naysayers up once and . I got bloodied, she said, alluding to criticism of her agency in government and media reports, and kept coming back to try again and again to do something. With the exception of Bissonnette and Nicholas Cheque, who was killed in December 2012 during a rescue mission in Afghanistan, the squads members remain anonymous. Zero Dark Thirty, after earning five Oscar nominations including Best Picture, finally went wide this past weekend and immediately shot to No. Actor Stephen Dillane by The heated topic of the ethics of torture has spilled over into the upcoming confirmation hearings for current White House anti-terrorism chief John Brennan, who has been nominated by President Obama to be the next CIA director. The CIA ended up pulling him from the country. Her real-life counterpart joined the agency before the Sept.11, 2001, attacks, officials said, and served as a targeter a position that involves finding targets to recruit as spies or for lethal drone strikes in the CIAs station in Islamabad, Pakistan. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Colleagues said the on-screen depiction captures the womans dedication and combative temperament. Zero Dark Thirty ***MINIMAL SPOILERS*** Director Kathryn Bigelow has done it again by putting out a superior product. Read our extensive list of rules for more information on other types of posts like fan-art and self-promotion, or message the moderators if you have any questions. Bikowsky's identity is not publicly acknowledged by the Agency but was deduced by independent investigative journalists in 2011. kingfish-4400. Zero Dark Thirty is as much about feminist role modeling as it is about the CIA. If anything, a former CIA officer might be in academia and perhaps think Maya would've been fit for the agency, and would suggest that she'd give it a shot. I do not blame the actors rather the writer. who were pursuing bin Laden, even by means of rendition and torture? The movie has been a source of controversy since it was revealed that the filmmakers including director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal were given extensive access to officials at the White House, the Pentagon and the CIA. In Zero Dark Thirty, she is named Maya and played by Jessica Chastain, who is earning plenty of plaudits for her performance. Stills from Zero Dark Thirty by Jonathan Olley / 2012 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All rights reserved. Thriller 2013 2 hr 37 min. In fact, the CIA reportedly gave Boal and director Kathryn Bigelow unprecedented access to information for the making of the film. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. Others are public figures or agents whose true identities have already been revealed, but the film still declines to refer to these characters by their full real names. December 28, 2012. Ke Huy Quan: From the Coolest Kid of the Mid-80s to the Jake Gyllenhaal & Conor McGregor in "ROAD HOUSE" Are Steven Seagal movies just money laundering vehicles? Yes, Zero Dark Thirty is based on a true story. In 2002, red-haired CIA analyst Alfreda Scheuer, then known by her maiden name Bikowsky, traveled to a secret CIA prison to watch the torture of al-Qaida suspect Abu Zubaydah, who was waterboarded and locked in a dog box, Senate investigators reported. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. National Security Advisor (Stephen Dillane) - John Brennan. Otherwise you apply on their website just like everybody else. Update, Jan. 16: While Cheque was named as a member of Seal Team 6, the government has never confirmed whether he was involved in the Bin Laden raid. Presumably if there was anyone she could discuss it with, it would be the Director. He asks how she joined the Agency and her reply is along the lines of: "I was recruited out of High School." When he asks for more detail she says she's not allowed to say. One of the shibboleths of the modern cinema, of the liberal cinemaand of critics who endorse itis the ostensible merit, aesthetic as well as moral, of ambiguity. In the 2012 Hollywood hit Zero Dark Thirty, a red-haired Central Intelligence Agency analyst played by Jessica Chastain travels to a secret CIA prison and watches a colleague waterboard a screaming al-Qaida suspect, then lock him in a box a little bigger than a mini-fridge, to make him talk. (Photos credited to Matthews family have since been used in articles, but Slate could not be sure by press time whether any were publicly available.) The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Written by Mark Boal, the film follows the decade-long international search for Osama bin Laden following the 9/11 attacks. Just as in the film, Kuwaiti drove a white S.U.V. Maya is a CIA operative whose first experience is in the interrogation of prisoners following the Al Qaeda attacks against the U.S. on the 11th September 2001. If someone reading this was actually recruited tell us about your experience. For one, Mayas friend Jessica, who dies in a suicide bombing at Camp Chapman in Khost, Afghanistan, seemingly refers to Jennifer Lynne Matthews. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. Clarridge would go on to face a perjury indictment for his testimony about the Iran-Contra affair. Did they still go up to 007, if you couldn't yet count that high? Rated R. Our ratings: V -7; L -7; S/N -2. The implication seems to be that Jessica is that mother, whose real name was Jennifer Lynne Matthews. Described as one of the CIAs top experts on al-Qaeda, the Agency made her name public in 2010, when it honored the 12 agents killed in the Camp Chapman attack. Zero Dark Thirty Pic rivets for most of its running time by focusing on how one female CIA agent with a far-out hunch was instrumental in bringing down America's most wanted fugitive. Scheuer disputes that the CIA was at fault. Abu Ahmed (Tushaar Mehra) - Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti 3:20 PM. Rated R for strong violence including brutal disturbing images, and for language. The CIA had granted the filmmakers unprecedented access to agency officials, and outlets from NBC News to the New Yorker reported that Chastains character was patterned partially on Scheuer, citing her position but omitting her name because the agency said her work was classified. It might qualify as a spoiler to mention that in a dramatic scene about halfway through the movie, Jessica is killed by a suicide bombing at Camp Chapman in Khost, Afghanistan. Edit, That's probably poetic license on the part of the screenwriter. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. (His marriage to a Muslim woman was the catalyst for this conversion.) In the film Zero Dark Thirty, she was the persistent, conscientious CIA officer who finally tracked Osama bin Laden to his lair. His account was corroborated by two members of SEAL Team 6. What a let down. By: Andrew James, Landon Green, Ryan Randell. The movie is exciting to watchthe director, Kathryn Bigelow, and the screenwriter, Mark Boal, organize the action to maximize suspense, subjecting Maya to a range of dangers and, at the point when she thinks that she has circumstantially located bin Laden, starting the equivalent of a ticking clock that stokes the thrills even more. In his book "No Easy Day", former SEAL Mark Bassionette, who was part of the mission which killed bin Laden, mentions a female CIA agent, who he refers to by the pseudonym "Jen", who worked with the SEAL team on the mission. Does the CIA actually recruit kids high school ? Recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1999 immediately following her high school graduation, Maya, who has been solely working on the Al Qaeda file, gets her first field assignment in 2003 in Pakistan as an analyst working with an interrogation team. Bigelow and Boal's second collaboration, Zero Dark Thirty, spans a whole decade, from 9/11 to the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011, and it centres on a CIA operative called Maya (Jessica . Its revealed, near the end of the movie, that she was recruited for the C.I.A. In November 2014, Robert ONeill told The Washington Post he fired the shot that killed the terrorist leader. and has been religiously devoted to bin Laden ever since. Credited in the movie by its formal abbreviation, the compound raid crew of DEVGRU (a shortening of the long-winded United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group) is represented by several actors including Chris Pratt (who plays Justin) and Joel Edgerton (who plays a squadron team leader named Patrick). What famous person essentially cancelled themselves Press J to jump to the feed. | Meanwhile, Toby Young at The Telegraph states that Ammar is a composite of three Al Qaeda suspects, though how he arrived at this conclusion is unclear. Still, the similarities between Carrie and Maya go beyond gender. The lawsuit blew his cover, leading to protests in Islamabad. Edit, Zero Dark Thirty is a dramatized account of the decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden following the September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. The dogma of ambiguity infects much of the so-called art cinema, a talking-points cinema that passes for cinematic art, such as Michael Hanekes films (including Amour, coming out December 25th) and Christian Petzolds Barbara (coming out December 21st). Its the first interview she has ever done, she said, and she decided to speak to make clear she was not forced out of the agency but left on her own terms. A 2 hour 46 minute yawn. Edit, The focus of the scene was that there were three women in the house, meaning that there had to be at least three men, one of whom was never seen. Both women are around the same age, in their late 20s or early 30s. By Jane Mayer. A chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L.s Team 6 in May 2011. I wanted to say what an outstanding portrayal was done by the lead actress, but I got a message from eBay saying they won't allow a potty mouth so i'll suffice in calling her Jessica C. Verified purchase: Which company could go out of business tomorrow and it (Serious) What causes death more than people realize? While the SEALs are unloading and categorizing the tapes, hard drives, and other intelligence materials that they seized from the compound, Maya is led to the body bag. Was there really a dog? Not all of the heroes that night were human. In the film, Maya watches an al-Qaida suspect get waterboarded and locked in a tiny compartment. Yes, 'Zero Dark Thirty' is based on a true story. Jessica Chastain, as Maya, in Zero Dark Thirty. Since many of the characters had real-life counterparts, some of whom still had undercover identities, Bigelow and Boal purposely cast actors that looked different from those they star as. It made me wonder if there was some family connection or I-don't-know-what that would have made her the exception to be recruited out of high school. Ad Choices, as reported in the magazine by Dexter Filkins. Just like Maya, "Jen" considers the probability of bin Laden being in the house at 100% whilst others are more cautious, she observes the mission from the control room, is there to meet the SEALs when they return with bin Laden's corpse and bursts out crying afterwards.In 2014, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a report on American torture practices during the war on terror which referenced the influence of another CIA agent who was used as part of the composite character Maya. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Stills from Zero Dark Thirty by Jonathan Olley / 2012 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All rights reserved. When they finally get around to the actual raid, even that moves in slow motion. One of the last bits of casting news revealed ahead of the release of Zero Dark Thirty was that James Gandolfini would play the role of Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA who oversaw the Bin Laden raid. U.S. officials acknowledged that Boal met with Mayas real-life counterpart and other CIA officers, typically in the presence of someone from the agencys public affairs office. This movie is the true story of the hunt for Usama Bin Laden. Hollywood Catches Zero Dark Fever. So declares the CIA Station Head in Pakistan about a new arrival in 2003, a "CIA targeter and subject-matter expert," Maya (Jessica Chastain). However, with her follow-up to her Oscar-winning classic, Bigelow has delivered what will . Red Letter Media sells VHS copy of "Nukie" on eBay for Harry Melling talks about leaving Dudley Dursley behind Press J to jump to the feed. After joining Alec Station, Scheuer rose to deputy chief and then, she says, its chief. Carrie is, of course, onlyloosely modeled on an actual CIA officer,so its entirely possible that the writers of Homeland did not take these traits from their real-life inspiration, but rather added them to the character in order to propel the narrative of their series. This is perhaps one of the best examples of how accurate Zero Dark Thirty is to history. Though Zero Dark Thirty refers to Maya being recruited to the CIA out of high school, No Easy Day says that she was recruited out . The emotional excitement that the movie generates from the start, which soon becomes the protagonists own excitement, and which the movie ratchets up to a peak with the killing of bin Laden, is itself suspect. This Sunday night at the Academy Awards, Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal's Zero Dark Thirty appears poised to lose the Best Picture race to Ben Affleck and Chris Terrio's Argo, and as much as awards . Ultimately, they launch a covert mission involving the Navy SEAL Team 6. Maya is apparently horrified by the practice, but soon gets sufficiently accustomed to torture that when a prisoner begs for mercy, she flings back at him the line that hes in charge of his own fate (i.e., if he gives the desired information, hell be spared). Now out of the CIA, Scheuers career has taken a turn: She is a life coach, running a business called YBeU Beauty, focusing on helping women look good, feel good, and do good. When gun-rights advocates assert the legitimacy of self-defense, gun-control advocates champion the police. Answer (1 of 3): Towards the end of the movie Maya is eating in the CIA cafeteria and the head of the CIA joins her. Edit, Because the house was less than a mile from the Pakistani military academy, Pakistan's equivalent of Sandhurst/West Point. Scheuer called the description, which found its way into multiple media reports, false and a caricature. The character is played by Jessica Chastain. For five years, she becomes obsessed to find Osama and in 2011, the terrorist leader of Al-Qaeda is killed by the U.S. Navy SEAL Team following the lead of Maya. non-mutilation torture, e.g. What the movie makes clear is that harsh physical abuse was a part of the CIAs post-9/11 investigations. Through extensive espionage and even some secret torture, the CIA strives to track his location. During the scene where Maya is angry of at CIA that she found Osama Bin Laden and wrote its 52 days that she found the house, the BGM is from the telugu film Leader. The story is a very good one but just too long. In fact, I raised my hand loud and proud and you know, I dont regret it at all.. She is soon in the "group of " CIA types who use torture, deprivation and just about any means to get info on their quarry Osama. Theres nothing radical about the movies aesthetic; exactly the opposite: its conventionally vigorous, action-centered realism wouldnt be out of place in a movie by Sidney Lumetor Ben Affleck. The purpose of Zero Dark Thirty is to portray the trials and efforts behind finding Osama Bin Laden. The narrative centers on the elusive al-Qaeda head, Osama bin Laden, in the aftermath of the September 2001 terrorist attacks. As we learn, she was recruited out of high school to join the C.I.A. View cart for details. If that was a disqualifier, the whole National Clandestine Service would be gone.. He said, 'In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. After shes killed, a news report provides voiceover to the scene, mentioning that among the CIA employees killed in the attack was a mother of three. Oscar for best picture. She said her role was as a subject matter expert, not an interrogator. They do not recruit unless you are already in the military or intelligence community. Why weren't the occupants of the house not more alarmed at the approach of the helicopters? The real agent is having more difficulties. There is such a thing as radical realism, as in the films of Robert Bresson, Carl Theodor Dreyer, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Abbas Kiarostami, which stick all the more obsessively to the physical in order to reveal the spiritual, the metaphysical, the abstract, the symbolic, in order to create a cinema of truly radical affirmations. (about 1:50:15). pre-owned The wig, everything. . What does Maya write (or draw?) After al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden orchestrates the devastating September 11 terrorist attacks, the American government begins a decade-long hunt that culminates in the terrorist's death at the hands of the Navy SEAL Team 6. It's entertaining but unfortunately a true story. The agency is a funny place, very insular, the former official said. This movie tells the HOW and WHO was credited wit the eventual tracking down of Public Enemy # 1: Usama Bin Laden( UBL). Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. In fact, so accurate is the depiction of the events in the film that its makers had to be extra cautious during the casting process. Climate & Environment. After being given a prestigious award for her work, she sent an e-mail to dozens of other recipients saying they didnt deserve to share her accolades, current and former officials said. Copyright 1995-2023 eBay Inc. All Rights Reserved. I know the CIA has like a "internship" program for high-school kids but you seek them out. User Reviews Edit, CIA operative Maya (Jessica Chastain), assigned to Pakistan to learn how to apply "enhanced interrogation" (i.e. Have always wondered why during the cafeteria scene in Zero Dark Thirty, Maya thinks she isn't allowed to disclose the reason she was recruited straight out of high school. One of the more obvious correlations between character and real-life inspiration is the key suspect in Mayas hunt, Bin Ladens courier, Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti. There's no Cheney, Bush or Rumsfeld . After seven CIA operatives are killed in a suicide double-cross at Camp Chapman, Afghanistan-including (in a move as old as Homer) her only near-friend (Jennifer Ehle)--it's not Vin Diesel but Maya who pledges, "I'm going to smoke everyone involved in this op, and . The film is a cinematic page-turner, constructed on a simple architecture: the decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden, mainly from the perspective of a C.I.A. View in iTunes. Previously The latter was described as one of the CIAs top experts on al-Qaida and was killed in the Camp Chapman attack in 2009. Whatever it was probably has some level of classification. Much of the events in the film, including its conclusion, are based on actual historical events, and though some of the characters have been fictionalized, Boal stated that all of them depict real people. The HUNT for Osama ~ from the INTEL side~ 4 STARS~ good movie, plot: THE HUNT FOR OSAMA BIN LADIN Former CIA officials said agency enthusiasm for the film has been tempered as details about it have surfaced, including the fact that the movie opens with a harrowing waterboarding scene in a secret CIA prison. Maya is targeted by two gunmen and her position on the mission is compromised.Zero Dark Thirty: For a decade, an elite team of intelligence and military oper. The Post described how the CIA agent, who's now in her 30s, has "sparred" with colleagues, "lashed out" at them in . Excellent movie. It may be the fault of Andr Bazin, a great critic whose depth and brilliance were often clouded by doctrinaire fealty to the notion of ambiguity and the techniques (mainly deep focus and long takes) that he considered its aesthetic substrates. Zero Dark Thirty (DVD, 2012) Condition: Very good Comes with Case & Artwork Zero Dark Thirty (DVD, 2012) Condition: Very good Comes with Case & Artwork . Most notably, the central character Maya (Jessica Chastain) is inspired by a real-life CIA operative but is also a composite of multiple women who helped track down Bin Laden. And though Jessica Chastains character is called Maya in Zero Dark Thirtythe movie is based on original reporting by screenwriter Mark Boalshe is, in fact, playing the woman referred to as Jen in No Easy Day, as she confirmed at a screening attended by a Slate colleague in New York last night. In fact, the movie presents torture as a seemingly inevitable outcome of the attacks. Posted on 9/3/22 at 12:45 pm. A report in the Washington Post notes the unpopularity of Mayas real-life counterpart in the agency and describes Maya as a combative person quite a bit like the character played by Chastain. Killing Osama bin Laden himself was not nearly as important as capturing the vast number of records on his organisation he kept in the house. II. One of the merits of Zero Dark Thirty is that it takes government work very seriously and recognizes that the use of force is one of its fundamental responsibilities. Unlike the NSA, the CIA has more diverse assets that function in broader spectrums. She was, he says, our go-to analyst on all intelligence questions regarding the target. At times Chastain aka "Maya" is targeted for death for searching for OBL= Osama Bin Ladin. . Told from the perspective of the CIA agents trying to track him down, the narrative takes a detailed look at the convoluted espionage process that went into finding the real-life terrorist. I have watched this movie multiple times because there's so many pieces and they're mostly in the middle east with middle eastern names and I found I discovered something new every time I've watched it. Internal e-mails released this year under Freedom of Information Act requests showed how the agency set up repeated visits for Boal, allowing him to tour the vault where the raid was planned and even see a mock-up of the Abbottabad compound. | The most solid lead is his most trusted currier. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. CIA Director (James Gandolfini) Leon Panetta. Chances are she did something in high school that caught the CIAs attention. The Zero Dark Thirty main character is thought to be based on an amalgam of CIA operatives, including Scheuer, though she was not central in the quest to hunt down Bin Laden. Scheuer says she was recruited to the CIA while a graduate student at Tufts Universitys Fletcher School in 1988 by the now-deceased CIA officer Duane Dewey Clarridge, who founded the agencys counterterrorism center. The thrust of her message, the former official said, was: You guys tried to obstruct me. This was to avoid blowing the covers of the real-life agents whose stories are depicted on screen. Although they were suspicious, it was simply too good an opportunity to pass up, and they considered it worth the risk. Why are the SEALs rifling through the house after killing bin Laden? the SETS were incredible. dude you got lucky. "Washington says she's a killer". This is public information. Over the past year, she was denied a promotion that would have raised her civil service rank from GS-13 to GS-14, bringing an additional $16,000 in annual pay. Joseph Bradley (Kyle Chandler) Jonathan Banks. It has saved lives. Bill Harlow, a fellow CIA member, denies that Brennan had anything to do with the techniques used during 2002-2003. The targeters contacts with the Zero Dark Thirty filmmakers have also been examined as part of an inquiry, apparently by the CIA inspector general, into the information that agency officials shared with outsiders about the bin Laden raid. Is she suggesting that the attempt to kill bin Laden is a crucial element in the effort to prevent such attacks?