The leader of the free world is blocking the publication of a New York Times Op-ed authored by Middle East analyst Flynt Leverett. Mr. Leverett served under Bush on the National Security Council.
The censored column criticizes the Decider's refusal to talk to Iran.
No word yet on what Mr. Leverett's wife does for a living.
Think Progress: Middle East analyst Flynt Leverett, who served under President Bush on the National Security Council and is now a fellow at the New America Foundation, revealed today that the White House has been blocking the publication of an op-ed he wrote for the New York Times. The column is critical of the administration’s refusal to engage Iran.
Leverett’s op-ed has already been cleared by the CIA, where he was a senior analyst. Leverett explained, “I’ve been doing this for three and a half years since leaving government, and I’ve never had to go to the White House to get clearance for something that I was publishing as long as the CIA said, ‘Yeah, you’re not putting classified information.’”
According to Leverett the op-ed was “all based on stuff that Secretary Powell, Secretary Rice, Deputy Secretary Armitage have talked about publicly. It’s been extensively reported in the media.” Leverett says the incident shows “just how low people like Elliot Abrams at the NSC [National Security Council] will stoop to try and limit the dissemination of arguments critical of the administration’s policy.”
via memeorandum
On a related note, the secretive Bush Administration is now censoring the statistics kept by the military on the number of enemy initiated attacks in Iraq. Since September, the numbers have been stamped classified.
Bush Politics Iran Censorship New York Times News Iraq
