Burn Bag - in Pop Culture

In Pop Culture

  • A burn bag is used prominently in the movie Spy Game. In it, the character Nathan Muir uses a burn bag to hide—and subsequently destroy—documents he was keeping from the CIA pertaining to his protégé, Tom Bishop.
  • A similar document destruction system (sans burn bags) called the "memory hole" is used in the Ministry of Truth (Newspeak: Minitrue) in the George Orwell novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
  • Burn Bags are featured in the works of many military and espionage authors. The works of Tom Clancy and W. E. B. Griffin feature them prominently.
  • In an episode of the West Wing (Let Bartlet Be Bartlet), Josh asks Mandy if she's ever heard of a burn bag relating to a memo which is critical of the President is discovered.
  • The July 5, 2007 installment of the Gary Trudeau "Doonesbury" comic refers to Vice President Dick Cheney burn-bagging lawyers who have written secret legal opinions.

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