How Not to Censor a Book: Pentagon Makes a Best Seller - "Operation Dark Heart"

[BridgeTheGap]

On Sept. 20, the U.S. Department of Defense oversaw the systematic destruction of 9,500 copies of Lieut. Colonel Anthony Shaffer's Operation Dark Heart: Spycraft and Special Ops on the Frontlines of Afghanistan — and the Path to Victory, his account of a six-month stint as a "black ops" officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in Afghanistan. The Pentagon said it was the first time it has ever destroyed a printed book because it contained classified information — but it may not have been in time to keep the secrets from circulating.

The U.S. government purchased the entire print run of the book from St. Martin's Press for $47,000 a few weeks before its scheduled release. It did not suppress the book entirely: Operation Dark Heart has since been reissued after an estimated 250 sections were blacked out and deleted. However, before the buy-back and vetting occurred, nearly 200 uncensored review copies were sent to critics and media outlets. Some of those editions have sold for more than $2,000 on websites like eBay. How did the Pentagon overlook Operation Dark Heart until it was too late?

Neither Shaffer's attorney nor the Pentagon seem to know why the book wasn't properly vetted. The author's lawyer, Mark Zaid, contends that the Pentagon never asked for it, while the Pentagon says it wasn't made aware of the project in a timely fashion.

But Shaffer should have been on the Pentagon's radar. In 2005, he publicly claimed that the Defense Department had identified Mohamed Atta, the 9/11 ringleader, two years before the attacks but failed to release the information to the FBI. The 9/11 commission investigated the claim but found no evidence that the Pentagon knew of Atta before September 2001. In the fallout from the controversy, Shaffer's security clearance was revoked. No longer a member of the DIA, he became a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2022459,00.html#ixzz1178Ag99X

[hobbit709]

1. Like being "Banned in Boston"

[golddigger]

2. Correct me please if am wrong, is this called

the "Streisand effect?"

[raccoon]

3. I thought the book was non-fiction. nt