”Operation Dark Heart” is a publication that joins a growing list of titles that have benefitted from attempted censorship. The Pentagon is the benefactor on this occasion. Military intelligence officials said “Operation Dark Heart,” the memoir by a previous intelligence officer in Afghanistan, reveals classified info damaging to national safety. Cash is no object to the Government, which is preparing to write a check for the first run of the book so it can reduce each pallet load to ashes. Article source – Pentagon to purchase Operation Dark Heart first print for book burning by Personal Money Store.
Memoir considered safety risk
Anthony A. Shaffer wrote “Operation Dark Heart about his experience in Afghanistan as an officer within the Defense Intelligence Agency. He is a lieutenant colonel in the Army reserve. The book is Shaffer’s personal account of five months he spent as a DIA officer stationed at Bagram Air Base outside of Kabul in 2003. The NY Times reports that Army reviewers approved “Operation Dark Heart” in January. As planned, publisher St. Martin’s Press proceeded with a release date of Aug. 31. 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.
Author’s September 11 remarks pull attention
A DIA operation recounted within the publication dubbed “Able Danger,” carried out prior to the September 11 attacks, bothered Pentagon censors. In his book, Shaffer statements the operation identified Mohammed Atta long before. A Fox News article said that DIA reviewers ordered that Shaffer’s claims to the 9/11 Commission that Able Danger ousted Atta in 2000 must be removed. Atta flew one of the planes into the twin towers and is known as the leader of the hijackers. A report released later by the Department of Defense concluded there was no evidence to support Shaffer’s claims.
censors get burned by best-selling book
The Pentagon is negotiating with Shaffer’s publisher to purchase the entire initial printing of “Operation Dark Heart”. As outlined by the Washington Post, the Government will protect the nation by burning all 10,000 copies. A second printing is already in progress at St. Martin’s press-sans the sensitive passages. For the moment, the initial printing sits from prying eyes in a warehouse, awaiting execution. That has not stopped “Operation Dark Heart” from reaching #19 on Amazon’s hot seller list, although it is listed as “temporarily out of stock”.
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New York Times
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Fox News
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Washington Post
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