A former CIA analyst claims the administration ordered the CIA to cut out portions of an editorial he wrote for the New York Times. Agency spokespersons say it contained classified details; the author claims all references were to information already in the public domain. Snip from Los Angeles Times coverage:
Flynt Leverett, a former senior director for Middle East affairs at the National Security Council, or NSC, and a former CIA analyst, said the White House told a CIA censor board to excise parts of a 1,000-word commentary on U.S. policy toward Iran that he had offered to the New York Times. (…)
[He] said there were two key paragraphs that the CIA board wanted to cut. The first was about U.S. cooperation with Iran concerning Afghanistan about the time of the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.
The second dealt with an offer by Iran to the United States in early 2003 to discuss the possibility of a "grand bargain" that would settle several disputes between the two countries.
Link, and here's coverage at the NYT: Link.
