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Pentagon tries to prevent "Operation Dark Heart" from hitting the shelves

Quote:

Pentagon tries to buy entire print run of US spy expose Operation Dark Heart

US defence department attempts to prevent book by former intelligence officer Anthony Shaffer from reaching the shops

Chris McGreal in Washington
guardian.co.uk, Monday 13 September 2010 21.17 BST

It's every author's dream – to write a book that's so sensationally popular it's impossible to find a copy in the shops, even as it keeps climbing up the bestseller lists.

And so it is for Anthony Shaffer, thanks to the Pentagon's desire to buy up all 10,000 copies of the first printing of his new book, Operation Dark Heart. And then pulp them.

The US defence department is scrambling to dispose of what threatens to be a highly embarrassing expose by the former intelligence officer of secret operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and of how the US military top brass missed the opportunity to win the war against the Taliban.

The department of defence is in talks with St Martin's Press to purchase the entire first print run on the grounds of national security.

The publisher is content to sell the books but the two sides are in a grinding dispute over what should appear in a censored version and when it should be released.

Now St Martin's Press says it will put the partly redacted manuscript on sale next week whether or not the defence department likes it – and there doesn't appear much the authorities can do.

The army had cleared the book by Lieutenant Colonel Shaffer, about "black ops" in the Afghan war when he was based at Bagram in 2003, for publication after relatively minor changes.

But when the intelligence services and defence department officials saw it they were alarmed.

They said it contained highly classified material including the names of American intelligence agents and accounts of clandestine operations, and demanded the book be withdrawn on the grounds it "could reasonably be expected to cause serious damage to national security".

The Pentagon is using Shaffer's status as a reserve officer to block him from speaking to the press, but a source close to the publication of the book said that some of the sensitive material had been removed but the defence department was still seeking to purge it of other information that is 20 years old or even in the public domain.

For that reason, there is suspicion that the defence department is less concerned with the nitty gritty of classified material than its broader story of intelligence forays in to Pakistan and his claim that top US military leaders blew an opportunity to win the war years ago.

Shaffer describes in the book how he was part of the "dark side of the force" that operates outside the usual constraints of the military system. He led a group that called themselves the Jedi Knights and specialised in "black ops" including "striking at the core of the Taliban" inside Pakistan. He says that US forces were gaining the upper hand until the military brass involved itself, curbing operations in Pakistan and permitting the Taliban to strengthen again.

Shaffer, who used the pseudonym Christopher Stryker, fell foul of his superiors several years ago after claiming that an intelligence programme he was working with identified Mohammed Atta as a terrorist threat to the US before he led the attacks on 9/11. He was later sacked by the DIA over alleged violations of rules and excessive expense claims.

Joseph Rinaldi of St Martin's Press said that it had offered to sell the first print run to the Pentagon but the details are still being worked out. The Pentagon may yet regret wading in at all. Its plan to pulp the book has provided the kind of publicity that advertising cannot buy and the redacted but still unpalatable version of Operation Dark Heart is charging up the best seller lists even before it is released.

Pentagon tries to buy entire print run of US spy expose Operation Dark Heart | World news | The Guardian

Okay, basic question: where do you draw the line between classified material and the public's right to know?

Is the Pentagon doing the right thing here, in terms of it being in their best interests?

Is it doing more harm than good?
Is it doing more good than harm?

If the Pentagon wants to avoid embarrassment, this looks like a pretty big fail...and another embarrassment.

Talk about instant best seller!

What do you think?

That's not cool.

$20 says a pdf will be up on The Pirate Bay or Wikileaks by week's end.

Looks like a book I would want to read. My reaction is:

1) My tax dollars being wasted on this shit?!?
2) All they are going to do with the profits is print 10K more copies.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cimarron29414 (Post 2822407)

My reaction is:

1) My tax dollars being wasted on this shit?!?
2) All they are going to do with the profits is print 10K more copies.

and 3) You can't pay for this kind of publicity.

It's now going to be the most highly anticipated/sought-after book in America.

The book is listed on ebay currently.

<ominous voice>

"Read the book the Pentagon doesn't want you to see..."

</ominous voice>

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru (Post 2822408)

and 3) You can't pay for this kind of publicity.

It's now going to be the most highly anticipated/sought-after book in America.

No, it won't be the most anticipated. A small group of folks who already
suspect what this book seems so to say will read it, and that's about it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amaras (Post 2822413)

No, it won't be the most anticipated. A small group of folks who already
suspect what this book seems so to say will read it, and that's about it.

I disagree. It's the Pentagon and they're basically telling me I can't read a certain book. That makes me want to read that book. If the Pentagon of all people doesn't want me to read it, I should be reading it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pearl Trade (Post 2822440)

By all means, go for it. What I'm trying to say (apparently not very well) is
that for a vast majority of folks, if a book exposes something they would
rather not see exposed, they will NEVER read it.
Can't have our preconceptions challenged, after all.

I have to wonder about this -- I would've thought that the pentagon would have some more effective means of preventing sensitive material from becoming public.

It almost feels like a publicity stunt, or would if there weren't actual public officials seemingly involved.

Martian, very good point. If it was really damaging, you'd figure they would
break out the vatgrown ninjas and end the problem.
Don't these guys sign ironclad nondisclosure agreements? I mean, they used
his reserve status to prevent him from talking to the press.....

this seems either like a publicity stunt or something that's been made into one as a function of the grinding process of redaction. my theory is the second, that lawyers engaged by the press found a way to use the process as an advertising tool by way of some ineptly written clause or other in the agreement to sell the initial run to dod.

my anarchist side thinks that's funny. well, all sides of me think that's funny, but my anarchist side was first to take responsibility for it. or something.

Yeah something seems a little fishy about this. They cleared the book back in 2003 yet suddenly its mentioning of intelligence agents and other classified information is "shocking"? I'm not sure I really buy that, releasing classified information would be more then enough ground to arrest the author and prevent the release of the book...or at least block its release in court (I would think anyway). Bizarre.

Its rather hard to say if this would do more harm then good without knowing exactly what sensitive info is in the book.