History may be written by the victors, but it is carefully redacted by the CIA.
That’s the lesson coming out of a new report today on former FBI agent Ali H. Soufan’s book detailing a missed opportunity to derail the 9/11 plot. The CIA is demanding a massive amount of redactions on national security grounds, some as small as demanding that he remove the words “I” and “me” when referring to himself, and at least one case where they demanded a statement Soufan made in open testimony at a US Senate hearing removed.
The CIA defended the moves, saying “just because something is in the public domain doesn’t mean it’s been officially released or declassifed.”
Nobody at the FBI or CIA will explain why their officials and agents obstructed al Qaeda investigations before 9/11. That is the real story. The so called turf battle is a distraction. Soufan's own agency obstructed the Cole investigation and the search for al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar.
Why should FBI and CIA personnel be shielded from public accountability by invoking national security? Why hasn't the media interviewed either Richard Blee (chief of Alec Station before 9/11) or Rodney Middleton (chief of the FBI UBLU before 9/11)?
Instead of writing books these agents should answer questions at a press conference. There has been enough secrecy.
But, but, but…if these "agents" are hobbled by the possibility that they might one day be held responsible for their actions, well, they wouldn't feel "free" to do the bad (and probably illegal) things their government requires them to do. Snark…
I'm surprised they didn't just stuff him and his book down the Memory Hole and disavow he ever existed.