Pentagon Plan: Buying Books to Keep Secrets

[cory777]

Source: NY Times

WASHINGTON — Defense Department officials are negotiating to buy and destroy all 10,000 copies of the first printing of an Afghan war memoir they say contains intelligence secrets, according to two people familiar with the dispute.

The publication of “Operation Dark Heart,” by Anthony A. Shaffer, a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer and a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, has divided military security reviewers and highlighted the uncertainty about what information poses a genuine threat to security.

Disputes between the government and former intelligence officials over whether their books reveal too much have become commonplace. But veterans of the publishing industry and intelligence agencies could not recall another case in which an agency sought to dispose of a book that had already been printed.

Army reviewers suggested various changes and redactions and signed off on the edited book in January, saying they had “no objection on legal or operational security grounds,” and the publisher, St. Martin’s Press, planned for an Aug. 31 release.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/us/10books.html

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Uncensored, Hard Hitting, Alternative News http://activistnews.blogspot.com

[RandomThoughts]

1. Shaffer.

Isn't that Letterman's band leader?

[Ken Burch]

2. So THAT's what happened to his hair!

It dissolved during chemical warfare in Afghanistan!

[Capitalocracy]

3. Instant NYT Bestseller

OK, here we go:

If it really contains state secrets, well they shouldn't have signed off on it and have the power to censor it without buying it.

If they feel bad about censoring it after having signed off on it, couldn't they just cover the printing costs rather than buying the books?

Wasteful spending anyone? Or maybe they're actually friends with this guy and this is sort of a backdoor bailout?

From the article:

The dispute arises as the Obama administration is cracking down on disclosures of classified information to the news media, pursuing three such prosecutions to date, the first since 1985. Separately, the military has charged an Army private with giving tens of thousands of classified documents to the organization WikiLeaks.

Steven Aftergood, who directs the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, said the case showed that judgments on what is classified “are often arbitrary and highly subjective.”

Ah, transparency and accountability. :patriot:

[Downwinder]

4. First printing over subscrbed. Time for a second printing and

a paper back edition.

[Loudmxr]

5. HOLY COW!!! How can I get on this gravy train 'cause I got this little story..

It's a thousand pages, give or take a few,
I'll be writing more in a week or two.
I can make it longer if you like the style,
I can change it round and I want to be a paperback writer,
Paperback writer.

OK the original rocks more:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwap79uy1G8

They are in the studio lip syncing. Its so cool.

[leveymg]

6. Doesn't anyone here know who Tony Schaffer is? Google: "Able-Danger"

Here's the Wiki:

Anthony Shaffer is a U.S. Army Lt. Col who has alleged that the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) failed to properly evaluate intelligence on 9/11 Mohammad Atta. Shaffer's allegations subsequently became known as the Able Danger controversy. In October 2003, according to his later statement to Congress, Shaffer told the 9/11 Commission staff director, Dr. Philip D. Zelikow, that in 2000 a DIA data-mining program known as Able Danger had uncovered two of the three terrorist cells eventually implicated in the 9/11 attacks. Shaffer reportedly told Zelikow that DIA leadership declined to share this information with the FBI because military lawyers expressed concerns about the legality of doing so. Shaffer also asserted that he briefed Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet on three separate occasions regarding his unit's activities. The 9/11 Commission Report did not mention Shaffer's allegations, but in 2005 and 2006 the Chairman of the House Select Intelligence Committee, Rep. Curt Weldon, publicized Shaffer's allegations in public statements and hearings.<1>

Here's the video of Schaffer's testimony to Congress about the suppression of the Able-Danger findings and Schaffer's efforts to get information past Zelikow to the 9/11 Commission: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJvABLaMUT8

Also, Schaffer's book is not just about Afghanistan. It's about NSA domestic surveillance and how Steve Cambone, Rummy's enforcer at the Pentagon, deep-sixed Able Danger in early 2001, an action that greatly improved the chances that Atta and the other hijackers were going to complete their mission:

The classified portions of Shaffer's book, according to the Times, include "the names of American intelligence officers who served with Colonel Shaffer and his accounts of clandestine operations, including N.S.A. eavesdropping operations." Fox is reporting that intelligence officials are also trying to deep-six portions of the book concerning a classified data mining program known as "Able Danger." Shaffer—and others—have previously said that the program, established in 1999, had identified Mohammed Atta and other 9/11 hijackers well before the attacks, though an investigation by the Senate intelligence committee has determined the claim doesn't hold up.

[justabob]

13. thank you for that

Able Danger.... seems like a lifetime ago.

[leveymg]

15. Cancer usually doesn't just go away

The Able-Danger story -- how the NSA and DIA had identified Atta and several of the other al-Qaeda attack cell members after they entered the U.S. before 9/11 -- is no longer in remission. Time for more chemo and radiation.

[catzies]

18. Yes, apt. metaphor. This is metastasizing faster than they can kill it. n/t

[Robb]

16. Schaffer wants to burn someone, that much is clear.

I wonder why. :D

[leveymg]

17. Schaffer tried to get the Atta Intel to the FBI pre-9/11, but Steve Cambone put a stop to that, and

then, after Schaffer tried to get the same info to the 9/11 Commission in 2003 (but was blocked by Philip "no historical significance" Zeliko) the Pentagon tried to destroy Schaffer's career with groundless accusations about misuse of a cell phone - he was promoted, anyway, and then retired.

No good deed goes unpunished.

[Solly Mack]

7. K&R

hmmm

[Poll_Blind]

8. All of a sudden I want a copy of that goddamned book!

Hrm...

PB

[leveymg]

9. If anyone has a computer they don't mind risking, here's a site that CLAIMS to have a copy for down-

load. WARNING- THAT MAY BE A HOAX OR A VIRUS -- BUT, IF SOMEONE GETS A USEFUL DOWNLOAD, PLEASE SHARE WITH THE REST OF US ON THIS THREAD.

Here's the URL (Good luck): http://www.redown.com/bfa/rd/operation+dark+heart+download

Thanks -

[Poll_Blind]

10. It just occured to me how the Pentagon could pull a dirty trick without paying a dime.

1. Spread a story the Pentagon wants to buy all the copies of the book printed
2. Steal and disseminate a copy of the book online weeks or months before it's actually published and in the stores
3. Let the Internet run its course, kill the sales of the book for the author

Just a thought. It's the kind of thing I wouldn't put past the Pentagon.

:shrug:

PB

[Poll_Blind]

11. Then again, I just checked and the story IS from the New York times and....

...apparently confirmed by two sources. Weirder and weirder.

PB

[Uncle Joe]

12. Look for one of these books to pop up on Antiques Roadshow 30-40 years from now,

it will be priceless.

By the time the D.I.A. objected, however, several dozen copies of the unexpurgated 299-page book had already been sent out to potential reviewers, and some copies found their way to online booksellers. The New York Times was able to buy a copy online late last week.

Thanks for the thread, cory.

[leveymg]

14. There are paper copies on eBay - starting bid at $500

[Judi Lynn]

19. Afghanistan: Copies of a War Memoir Are Destroyed

Afghanistan: Copies of a War Memoir Are Destroyed
By SCOTT SHANE
Published: September 24, 2010

The Defense Department confirmed on Friday that it had destroyed 9,500 copies of an Afghan war memoir by a former intelligence officer to prevent the disclosure of what it considered to be classified information, a Pentagon spokeswoman said. Department officials on Monday observed the destruction of the books, the uncensored first printing of Anthony Shaffer’s “Operation Dark Heart,” the spokeswoman said. A second printing, with about 250 passages blacked out, went on sale Friday. A person familiar with the negotiations said the Pentagon had paid St. Martin’s Press about $5 a book, for a cost to taxpayers of nearly $50,000. Publishing executives say they believe it was the first time the government had destroyed a print run of a book to protect secrets. About 100 uncensored advance copies of “Operation Dark Heart” were distributed before the Pentagon intervened, and some have sold online for as much as $2,000.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/25/world/asia/25memoir.html?_r=1&ref=world