Jose Rodriguez has almost finished writing his book. Remember Jose Rodriguez? He was the CIA agent who ordered the destruction of 92 video tapes that recorded Abu Zabaydah being waterboarded 83 times in one month in a black site in Thailand. He justified his actions by noting, “The heat from destroying [the torture videos] is nothing compared to what it would be if the tapes ever got into the public domain.” Amazon’s preview of the book describes Jose Rodriguez as a “real-life Jack Bauer from television’s 24.” Wow. Just. Wow… wow.
We’ll see how the CIA’s pre-publication review goes for Rodriguez’s likely hagiographic account of the Agency. But my guess is he’ll have a much easier time publishing his memoir than former intelligence agents who have written more critically of the War on Terror.
Take for example the Defense Intelligence Agency’s attempts to pull a “Fahrenheit 451” to stop Americans from reading former Army Intelligence Officer Anthony Shaffer’s book, Operation Dark Heart: Spycraft and Special Ops on the Frontlines of Afghanistan – and the Path to Victory. The Defense Department spent nearly $50,000 to buy up and destroy the first printing of the book. A subsequent printing redacted all sorts of information, including the fact that the author’s pseudonym, Chris Stryker, was John Wayne’s character in the 1949 film, The Sands of Iwo Jima. Of course after the DOD’s attempted buyout, uncensored editions of the book that had been provided in advance to reviewers quickly found their way to ebay. (See first image for side-by-side comparison.)
Or take The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against Al Qaeda,” by former FBI agent Ali H. Soufan. In his book, Soufan argues that the CIA could have prevented 9/11 by passing information it had about two of the 9/11 hijackers to the FBI. He also details the evolution of the CIA’s brutal torture methods which he believes were “unnecessary and counterproductive.” The FBI signed off on Black Banners, requesting only minor rewrites, which Soufan agreed to. The CIA did not. The Agency demanded Soufan cut phrases that he had used in Congressional testimony (available in print and online); not refer to overseas CIA centers as “stations;” and, most capriciously, demanded he remove references showing that the CIA had been sent a passport photo of one of the 9/11 hijackers in January 2001 –even though this fact was recounted in the 9/11 Commission Report. Speaking to the New York Times, Jennifer Youngblood, a spokesperson for the CIA, denied that the CIA redacted information because it didn’t like its content. She did add, however:
“Just because something is in the public domain doesn’t mean it’s been officially released or declassified by the US government.”
Wow. Now THAT is a sweeping claim to the information that the CIA thinks it has the right to censor. (more…)
