Hey Pentagon - I have a secret book too!

ePntagon aims to buy up book
By Peter Finn and Greg Miller
Friday, Sep 10, 2010
The Defense Department is attempting to buy the entire first printing - 10,000 copies - of a memoir by a controversial former Defense Intelligence Agency officer so that the book can be destroyed, according to military and other sources.

"Operation Dark Heart," which was scheduled to be published this month by St. Martin's Press, recounts the adventures and frustrations of an Army reservist, Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, who served in Afghanistan in 2003, a moment when the attention of Washington and the military had shifted to Iraq.

Shaffer, who is now a senior fellow at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies in Washington, describes a number of planned covert operations, including an aborted cross-border surveillance operation using sophisticated eavesdropping technology that targeted high-level al-Qaeda operatives based in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

The operation was shut down by military officials concerned about offending Pakistan, according to Shaffer's account.

Shaffer's book was reviewed and cleared in writing by the Army Reserve earlier this year, but this summer the Defense Intelligence Agency objected to the use of the names of American intelligence officers, among other issues.

A senior Pentagon official said that the DIA obtained a copy of the manuscript in mid-July, adding that the agency "did a quick review" and found "some issues we were very concerned with." The agency then referred the matter to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, which distributed the manuscript to other agencies, presumably including the CIA, "all of whom had major objections to things in the book," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The official said the Defense Department "sent up a team to talk with the publisher some time ago," and has been negotiating an agreement that might allow the Pentagon to purchase already printed copies of the book and permit a subsequent version to go forward as long as it complies with U.S. government requests.

Both sides now appear to have agreed on the contents of the second printing, but negotiations are focused on what to with the 10,000 copies already published.

The Pentagon is now negotiating with Shaffer's publisher to buy the entire first print run, according to a source familiar with the negotiations. The Pentagon's plan to destroy all 10,000 copies of the initial printing was first reported Thursday night by the New York Times.

A new print run, without the disputed passages, is being prepared by the publisher. Meanwhile, the first printing is sitting in a warehouse in Virginia. Several dozen review copies of the first edition have already been circulated to media outlets, including The Washington Post.

"Tony proceeded through the proper review process and his manuscript was approved for release," said Shaffer's attorney, Mark Zaid. "Months later, other agencies informed us otherwise and that led to us to cooperate fully with the Defense Department to eliminate any concerns they have. There are certain things outside of our control, however. We do not control the publisher. And we do not control the fact that copies were disseminated prior to that second review process."

Pentagon officials said the books should have been submitted to the Pentagon in the first place. "It had never been submitted for a full review," the senior Defense official said, adding that Shaffer had shown the manuscript only to his unit.

The Pentagon said in a statement that the "manuscript did not undergo a pre-publication information security review as required by DoD regulation. This became known to the Department only recently, and after the manuscript was printed by the publisher. DoD has been working closely and cooperatively with the publisher, LTC Shaffer and his counsel to address the problem and any potential issues involving classified information."

Shaffer was previously known for alleging before the 9/11 Commission and Congress that a covert Pentagon task force called "Able Danger" had identified Mohamed Atta, the lead hijacker in the Sept. 11 attacks, before the assaults on New York and the Pentagon. Shaffer's claim was later rejected by congressional investigators, among others. But he repeats the assertion in the book.

finnp@washpost.com millergreg@washpost.com

I'm thinking he didn't want to have his head cut off and shown on YouTube ...

The pastor of a small US church who planned to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of 9/11 has cancelled his protest.

Terry Jones said he was calling off the event after the group behind a planned Islamic centre near Ground Zero in New York agreed to relocate it.

But the cultural centre's organisers said they had no plans to move it.

Mr Jones' plan had been internationally condemned and had already sparked many protests around the world.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates had telephoned him to urge him to reconsider his plans. The pastor had also been visited several times by the FBI.

Mr Jones, pastor of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, which has fewer than 50 members, had named Saturday "International Burn a Koran Day".

But at a news conference, he said he was now dropping the plans and urged his supporters to do the same.

"We would right now ask no one to burn Korans. We are absolutely strong on that. It is not the time to do it," he said.

If they were willing to either cancel the mosque at the Ground Zero location, or if they were willing to move it away from that location, we would consider that sign from God”

He said he would travel to New York on Saturday to meet those behind the Islamic centre, saying they had "agreed to move the location".

"The American people do not want the mosque there, and, of course, Muslims do not want us to burn the Koran," he said.

"If it's not moved, then I think Islam is a very poor example of religion. I think that would be very pitiful. I do not expect that."

Mr Jones was joined at his news conference by Muhammad Musri from the Islamic Foundation of Central Florida.

Mr Musri said he and Mr Jones had committed to travelling to New York "to come to a decision on moving the mosque".

"We are committed to dissolving the situation here and there," he said.

He also thanked Mr Jones for his "courage and his willingness to take these serious events that are unfolding".

But the organisers of the New York centre said no agreement had been reached with Mr Jones.

Leader of the New York project, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf issued a statement saying he welcomed the cancellation of the Koran burning.

"However, I have not spoken to Pastor Jones or Imam Musri," he added.

"We are not going to toy with our religion or any other. Nor are we going to barter. We are here to extend our hands to build peace and harmony."

Mr Musri clarified to reporters that no guarantees about moving the Islamic centre had been given.

He and Mr Jones had only agreed to fly to New York to discuss the location of the Islamic centre with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf.

Plans for the Islamic centre have prompted fierce debate in the US because of its proximity to the scene of the 9/11 terror attacks.

President Barack Obama had earlier warned Mr Jones the proposed burning would be "a recruitment bonanza" for al-Qaeda.

The US State Department had warned US citizens of an increased risk of attack, while international police organisation Interpol also issued a warning of the risk of violent response.

Update: Imam disputes pastor's claim:

(CNN) -- A Florida Muslim leader is disputing claims by the Rev. Terry Jones that he brokered a deal to get the Islamic center project near New York's ground zero moved if the pastor called off his Quran burning event.

Imam Muhammad Musri said Jones may have hatched the story about the Islamic center moving to "give himself a reason to call this off."

Jones "was trying to save face," Musri said Thursday night on CNN's "AC360."
Musri said he did not tell Jones that the Islamic center project would be moved away from ground zero.


'He's accusing me of lying to him, which I did not. I was very explicit with him." said Musri, who is with the Islamic Society of Central Florida.
Video: Imam shocked by pastor's speech Video: Uncertainty surrounds move Video: Pastor cancels

The disagreement between the two religious figures is the latest twist in the saga about the proposed Quran burning event.

President Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday urged Jones to call off the Saturday event, timed for the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Jones said he would call off the event but then seemed to be changing his mind later Thursday.

During the afternoon, Jones said he canceled his plan to burn copies of the Quran, based on what he said were assurances that the Islamic center in New York would be moved.
Late Thursday, Jones said he would "rethink our position" after Musri said he had never given Jones that assurance.

Jones, leader of the Gainesville, Florida-based Dove World Outreach Center, also announced he will travel Saturday to New York to meet with the religious leader behind the planned center, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, about a new location.

But that, too, was questioned.

Karzai orders probe into journalist's beheading

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Monday ordered an investigation into the beheading death of an Afghan journalist, his office said in a statement.

Said Hamid Noori, a journalist for Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) was killed Sunday, according to Abdul Hamid Mobariz, the head of an Afghan journalists' union.

Mobariz said Noori left his home after receiving a phone call, and his decapitated body was discovered about an hour later.

"The killing of Noori is a big loss for Afghanistan journalists," Mobariz said.

He added that Noori had been working as the deputy chief of a journalists' union. He also directed an educational organization that taught students how to become broadcasters, Mobariz said.

Karzai has ordered the country's Interior Ministry to investigate the killing, the statement from his office said.

According to Journalists Without Borders, a group that defends press freedom and tracks the targeting of journalists, "Noori was a well-known TV anchor who went into politics and became the spokesman of Mohammad Yunus Qanooni, an opponent of President Hamid Karzai."

"While the motives are not yet known, it is important that the investigators should not rule out the possibility that this murder was linked to the victim's work as a journalist," Reporters Without Borders said in a statement on its website.

"Although he had resigned as a state TV presenter, he continued to be a politically committed journalist and was an active member of the National Union of Afghan Journalists. We offer our condolences to his family and friends."

Today's excerpt from "The Interceptors Club & the Secret of the Black Manta.

D.I.A. agent Scarlet had driven through the night and arrived at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque just before dawn.

He easily could have ordered a military jet at Holloman to fly him to Kirtland, to do that he would have to reveal who he was on a base where Pepper may have compromised security.

Although he was dead-tired from lack of sleep, Scarlet had little time for even the quickest of catnaps because a host of Pentagon brass was waiting in the base commander’s office to be briefed about the theft of Excalibur.

During the drive to Kirtland, the military machine had been put into motion and a strike team consisting of Special Forces operatives and Federal Agents had been hastily assembled and at that moment were winging their way to the staging area at Cannon Air Force Base located in far eastern New Mexico.

There they would await instructions on how to proceed.

After his meeting with the Pentagon staff, and updating them on where things stood, Scarlet requested an immediate intelligence-gathering mission over the operations area. The Pentagon chiefs agreed and an order went out that Distant Star be dispatched at once.

A mission order was immediately sent to the commanding officer of Detachment 4, based at the super-secret Groom Lake Test Flight Center at Area 51 where a Distant Star UAV was always standing by, ready to fly.

Exactly forty-five minutes later, Distant Star launched and began winging it’s way towards Holloman.

It was ironic that Distant Star was the intelligence platform of choice for it was born in the same secret enclave as Excalibur, the Lockheed Skunkworks.

In fact, Distant Star and Excalibur were directly related to each other. Both extremely stealthy, both unmanned and both first built and test flown out of Area 51.

The two aircraft even shared the same computer systems, composite materials and some avionics, but there were major differences in their missions.

Where Excalibur was conceived as being the ultimate autonomous attack aircraft, Distant Star was designed to never carry a bomb. Distant Star was a sky-spy whereas Excalibur was a warrior.

They also looked quite different. Excalibur was sleek and looked fast even on the ground, but Distant Star could only be described as looking ungainly, an albatross of an aircraft with very long drooping wings connected to a body more reminiscent of a submarine than an aircraft.

But what Distant Star lacked in good looks, it more than made up for in performance.

Distant Star was the ultimate intelligence tool, a flying ELINT gathering sponge, able to intercept even the weakest electronic emission, process it and send the data back via satellite to a command center for analysis.

It was Distant Star that helped locate deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, intercepting a very weak cordless phone call from an aid charged with keeping him safe. Although Distant Star couldn’t pinpoint his exact location, it did know the general area he was hiding in which made it possible to dispatch Task Force 121 close to where the intercepted signal was detected.

Two days after the intercept, and acting on tip from a source code-named “FAT MAN”, Task Force 121 was close at hand and in position when it was revealed that Saddam was hiding inside an orange-picker’s house just outside of ad Dawr located near the Tigris River.

Since Saddam rarely spent more than a few nights in any one hideout, Distant Star’s intercept made it possible to preposition troops in the suspected area, ready at a moments notice to pounce - and pounce they did, finding the once absolute ruler of Iraq hiding in a “spider hole.”

Distant Star flew higher than most aircraft, above 100,000 feet and could loiter for days over an area of interest, unnoticed even by Holloman’s air traffic controllers because it was so invisible on radar.

Computer networks, cellular and satellite telephone systems and even encrypted radio communications were all vulnerable to interception by Distant Star.

On board artificially brilliant cryptanalysis computers could crack even the most sophisticated ciphers and expose their secrets.

But Distant Star was not just a passive intelligence gathering aircraft. Using powerful transmitters and an advanced Artificial Intelligence suite, it could invade and compromise computer networks, especially those attached to wireless networks.

By planting logic bombs, viruses and smart programs the computers used by the enemy could be rendered useless or come under the direct control of Distant Star or its controllers.

It was then quite ironic that a flying electronic eavesdropping aircraft would be deployed to keep tabs on the Interceptors.


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Six die in Pakistan drone strike

Six people have died in a US missile strike targeting militants in Pakistan's tribal district on the Afghan border, security officials say.

The raid took place in Dande Darpakhel village, 5km (3 miles) north-west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan.

Officials said all the dead were with the Haqqani network, a branch of the Afghan Taliban operating in Pakistan.

It is the fourth suspected US drone attack in the region this month.

Witnesses told the BBC three aircraft were involved in the raid.

One of the unmanned planes fired two missiles at the compound, they said.

Last Friday, eight people died in two drone strikes in this tribal region.