David Wise: A fundamental change in the agency means more intelligence officers are spilling the beans, but the CIA still gets the last word
[David Wise writes frequently about intelligence and espionage. He is the author of "Spy: The Inside Story of How the FBI's Robert Hanssen Betrayed America."]
WHEN "The Invisible Government," the book about U.S. intelligence I coauthored with Thomas B. Ross, was published in 1964, the CIA considered buying up all the copies to keep them out of bookstores. The book upset the agency because it was the first serious study of the CIA's activities, about which the public knew almost nothing at the time. Bennett Cerf, the president of Random House, my publisher, responded that he would be happy to sell the first printing to the CIA — but would then order another printing for the public, and another printing, and another. The agency abandoned its silly scheme.
Because neither Ross nor I had ever worked for the spy agency, we were not required to submit our book to its censors, and we did not. The publication last week of former CIA Director George Tenet's tome, "At the Center of the Storm," is an indicator of just how much things have changed since our book was released.
Five former CIA chiefs, in addition to Tenet, have written books, and dozens of other agency and former case officers have joined the literary ranks as well. Because CIA employees sign secrecy agreements, all have had to submit their manuscripts in advance for clearance by the agency, which has blown hot and cold on which books and which secrets it allows to make their way into bookstores.
There are, apparently, good secrets and bad secrets, and it may depend in part on who's telling them. For example, Duane R. "Dewey" Clarridge, a former senior CIA operative, was allowed to reveal the countries in which he was stationed in his 1997 book, "A Spy for All Seasons." But vast sections of a more critical book, "The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence," were deleted when Victor Marchetti, a former agency officer, and John D. Marks, a former State Department analyst, published their work in 1974. The authors left big spaces in the book, marked "Deleted." Among the items chopped out were the disclosure of covert CIA aid to Peru in the 1960s and a description of the supersecret National Reconnaissance Office that operates U.S. spy satellites. After the authors successfully fought back in court, half of the deleted material was included in the paperback edition. But the battle suggested that the CIA wields a heavier pencil on critics.
More recently, Michael F. Scheuer, who headed the CIA's Osama bin Laden unit, was permitted in 2004 to publish "Imperial Hubris." But Scheuer said he was required to use the pseudonym "Anonymous." The book was a harsh attack on the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies, but it reportedly was not censored much. After Scheuer began appearing on television, the agency clamped down, and his publisher said he was told there would be no more interviews without the CIA's prior written approval....
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WHEN "The Invisible Government," the book about U.S. intelligence I coauthored with Thomas B. Ross, was published in 1964, the CIA considered buying up all the copies to keep them out of bookstores. The book upset the agency because it was the first serious study of the CIA's activities, about which the public knew almost nothing at the time. Bennett Cerf, the president of Random House, my publisher, responded that he would be happy to sell the first printing to the CIA — but would then order another printing for the public, and another printing, and another. The agency abandoned its silly scheme.
Because neither Ross nor I had ever worked for the spy agency, we were not required to submit our book to its censors, and we did not. The publication last week of former CIA Director George Tenet's tome, "At the Center of the Storm," is an indicator of just how much things have changed since our book was released.
Five former CIA chiefs, in addition to Tenet, have written books, and dozens of other agency and former case officers have joined the literary ranks as well. Because CIA employees sign secrecy agreements, all have had to submit their manuscripts in advance for clearance by the agency, which has blown hot and cold on which books and which secrets it allows to make their way into bookstores.
There are, apparently, good secrets and bad secrets, and it may depend in part on who's telling them. For example, Duane R. "Dewey" Clarridge, a former senior CIA operative, was allowed to reveal the countries in which he was stationed in his 1997 book, "A Spy for All Seasons." But vast sections of a more critical book, "The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence," were deleted when Victor Marchetti, a former agency officer, and John D. Marks, a former State Department analyst, published their work in 1974. The authors left big spaces in the book, marked "Deleted." Among the items chopped out were the disclosure of covert CIA aid to Peru in the 1960s and a description of the supersecret National Reconnaissance Office that operates U.S. spy satellites. After the authors successfully fought back in court, half of the deleted material was included in the paperback edition. But the battle suggested that the CIA wields a heavier pencil on critics.
More recently, Michael F. Scheuer, who headed the CIA's Osama bin Laden unit, was permitted in 2004 to publish "Imperial Hubris." But Scheuer said he was required to use the pseudonym "Anonymous." The book was a harsh attack on the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies, but it reportedly was not censored much. After Scheuer began appearing on television, the agency clamped down, and his publisher said he was told there would be no more interviews without the CIA's prior written approval....