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Cia author gagged on intelligence reform Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/08/international.observers/index.htmlhttp://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/08/international.observers/index.html
CIA author gagged on intel reform
By Shaun Waterman
UPI Homeland and National Security Editor
Washington, DC, Aug. 7 (UPI) -- Mike Scheuer, the veteran CIA Osama bin Laden hunter whose anonymously-published, best-selling critique of the war on terror attacked the invasion of Iraq, has been gagged from speaking out against President George W. Bush's proposals for the reform of U.S. intelligence.
"It is inappropriate for CIA personnel to comment on current events unless specifically sanctioned to do so," a CIA official, who spoke on condition they not be named, told United Press International.
The official said that since Wednesday, Scheuer -- whose best-selling "Imperial Hubris: Why The West Is Losing The War On Terror" was published last month -- had been required to give five business days notice to the public affairs office of the CIA of any interviews he intended to conduct, and submit "a detailed outline of what he plans to say for approval."
"We will then decide what is or is not appropriate for him to say," the official said, adding that the new restrictions were intended to ensure that the "discussions focus on his book" rather than on the debate over intelligence reform.
"He has been effectively gagged," said Scheuer's editor, Christina Davidson, of Brassey's Inc., who published "Imperial Hubris," and Scheuer's first book, "Through Our Enemies Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam, and the Future of America."
"This is clearly an effort to stop him from saying what a lot of people in the CIA think about the president's proposals for reform (of the intelligence community)."
The reforms would strip the director of the CIA of his secondary, and -- critics say -- ineffectual role as the head of the other 14 U.S. intelligence agencies and give that job to a new national intelligence director, who would also take over the CIA chief's role as the president's top intelligence advisor.
Scheuer told UPI in an unpublished portion of a recent interview that he believed structural change was unnecessary.
"You need change in the leadership, and in the personnel," he said, adding that it was "nonsense" to say -- as the 9/11 Commission report said -- that the structures for information sharing between intelligence agencies were not already in place. "The FBI has always had agents inside (the CIA counter-terrorism center). Everything we knew, they knew."
Since the publication of the report, and Bush's embrace of its recommendation for a new intelligence director, Scheuer has become more outspoken.
"That's a recipe for having Sept. 11s forever," he said of the proposal in a recent interview with the San Francisco Chronicle.
Following that and other interviews where he slammed the proposal, Davidson said, CIA public affairs began to enforce restrictions on Scheuer's contact with the media.
"For the past couple of months, he just had to report the names of the journalists who had interviewed him after the fact," she said, "but it was a formality."
Now with between 70 and 80 requests for interviews pending, "the new process will be extremely arduous" says Davidson, adding that Scheuer will have to ask journalists to submit questions in advance, and then wait five business days for the public affairs office to clear the outline of his planned answers. "I'm not sure reporters will accept those conditions," she said.
If they did, Davidson was concerned that even an approved interview could be perilous for her author. "What happens if he is in a live interview, and the host goes off script, asks something that he didn't get the answer to cleared?" Davidson asks. "It's a nightmare. To be honest, I am concerned they could be setting him up to fire him."
The CIA official was unable to say what sanctions might be applied to Scheuer if he deviated from the outline approved by the agency.
Scheuer, a two-decade CIA veteran who ran the agency's Osama bin Laden unit until 1999, was required by his bosses to publish both books anonymously, and says he gave -- and has kept -- his promise never to reveal his identity. But it was widely known amongst those who follow the workings of U.S. intelligence, and he was publicly named last month by the Boston Phoenix.
"Imperial Hubris" is a bitter condemnation of U.S. counter-terror strategy. In it, Scheuer argues that the West is losing the war against al-Qaida and that an "avaricious, premeditated, unprovoked" war in Iraq has been "a Christmas present" for bin Laden.
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