CIA keeps manuscript away from its own author

CIA keeps manuscript away from its own author

Before he began his 25 years of field work as an intelligence officer in the US military, Lt Col Anthony Shaffer probably didn’t think he’d be writing a tell-all book decades later.

He probably didn’t think he’d have to take the CIA to court, either.

But now as Shaffer tries to take the Pentagon and CIA to court over censorship issues involving his memoir, Operation Dark Heart, the officer finds himself in limbo as the government won’t hand back the manuscript he wrote himself — leaving him with nothing to base his case on.

Shaffer’s problems with his book began years ago. He submitted it to the US Army for review in 2003 and it took seven years for the memoir to finally hit the shelves of stores. The government granted him an okay to get Dark Heart published following a series of reactions, but revoked their permission in order to make a few more changes. By that point, however, 10,000 copies had already been printed and the Pentagon had to purchase every copy and destroy them to protect what they said was classified information. A few copies survived the snatch though, and a more heavily edited edition was eventually released..... MORE

Source:  RT.com

URL: http://rt.com/usa/news/cia-shaffer-operation-classified-713/