”Operation Dark Heart” is a publication that joins a growing list of titles that have benefitted from attempted censorship. This time it comes courtesy of the Pentagon. Pentagon reviewers contend that “Operation Dark Heart” is far too candid a documentary in areas deemed vital to the defense of the nation. To prevent its release, the DOD would like to dip into its bottomless well of taxpayer dollars, purchase every existing copy and subsequently burn them.
Documentary said to be safety threat
“Operation Dark Heart” is by Anthony A. Shaffer, a previous Defense Intelligence Agency officer and at the moment a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve. It is pages bear his personal recollections from five months in 2003 when he served as a DIA officer billeted at Bagram Air base in Kabul, Afghanistan. ”Operation Dark Heart was initial reviewed by the Army in January. The New York Times reports that the publication was given a clean bill of health at the time. St. Martin’s Press, Shaffer’s publisher, went ahead with an Aug. 31 release date. However not until July did the DIA peruse the manuscript and announce that classified information was revealed. By then, a number of dozen copies of the book had already been sent out to reviewers and online booksellers.
9/11 content brings censorship
Material in “Operation Dark Heart” deemed classified included passages about an operation Shaffer was involved in called “Able Danger” that he claims ferreted out hijacker Mohammed Atta long before the September 11 attacks. Fox News reports that an account by Shaffer where he said he informed the 9/11 Commission that Able Danger had fingered Atta in 2000, was one of the targets for Pentagon censors. Atta flew one of the planes into the twin towers and is known as the leader of the hijackers. The Defense Department said Shaffer had no proof for his claims in a subsequent report.
censors get burnt by bestselling publication
The Pentagon and St. Martin’s press are working things out. Censors plan on paying the publisher for the entire first run of the book. The Washington Post reports that the Pentagon’s plan is to destroy all 10,000 copies. A second printing, without passages disputed by the DIA, is being prepared by St. Martin’s press. Meanwhile, 10,000 copies languish in a warehouse, awaiting their ultimate fate. The Amazon hot seller list has “Operation Dark Heart” at #19. For those who have wondered why it’s listed as “temporarily out of stock,” now you know.
Further reading
New York Times
nytimes.com
Fox News
foxnews.com
Washington Post
washingtonpost.com
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