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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH

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From: DuckTapeSunroof	8/8/2005 7:12:58 PM
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BERNTSEN V. CIA ON PREPUBLICATION REVIEW A forthcoming book by former CIA operations officer Gary Berntsen that claims the U.S. knowingly allowed Osama bin Laden to escape from Tora Bora during the war in Afghanistan is held up in the CIA prepublication review process, and is now the subject of litigation by the author. "Berntsen says he had definitive intelligence that bin Laden was holed up at Tora Bora... and could have been caught," according to an article in Newsweek this week. msnbc.msn.com "Although Plaintiff [Berntsen] properly and fully abided by the pre-publication review requirements imposed by his secrecy agreement, Defendant [CIA] has responded in a manner that has violated his First Amendment rights," a lawsuit filed by Berntsen claims. "[CIA] has frustrated the publication of the book by failing to timely deliver his draft manuscript and by asserting unsupportable classification decisions. Such conduct violates the rights of free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States." See a copy of the Berntsen complaint here: fas.org "Gary Bernsten is a take-no-prisoners kind of guy and has certainly seized the high ground," said a U.S. Government official familiar with the case. "More power to him." TWO OTHER VIEWS OF PREPUBLICATION REVIEW A 1981 CIA inspection report described the origins and development of the prepublication review process for manuscripts authored by CIA employees and former employees. It candidly noted the perception of unfairness and bias in the handling of manuscripts depending on whether they favored or criticized the Agency. "To some, it would appear the government had far less reason to prosecute [former CIA officer] Frank Snepp [author of the Vietnam memoir 'Decent Interval'] for his breach of contract than it does to pursue [former DCI William] Colby," who released the text of his memoir to his French publisher prior to its review and approval by the CIA. See the draft 1981 CIA inspection report on the Publication Review Board here (thanks to MJR): fas.org For a more recent account, see "Secrets, Free Speech, and Fig Leaves" by John Hollister Hedley, Studies in Intelligence, Spring 1998: odci.gov

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