John Bolton's book & those pesky green eyeshade government censors By James L. Bruno
I can commiserate with John Bolton. I, too, must submit my writings to government censors for security review prior to publication. All federal employees holding top secret security clearance must sign a non-disclosure agreement committing themselves to seek clearance prior to publishing anything related to their official duties. There is no expiration date on this. It's forever and retirees are as duty-bound as active duty personnel. Here's a taste of the kinds of complications Bolton might get entangled in.
These days, I'm a journalist. I must submit all of my articles relating to national security to my old employer, the U.S. State Department, for review and clearance. I have a good rapport with the folks who do the reviews. They go out of their way to expedite clearance, but occasionally I hit a snafu - as in a recent article in which I mentioned Wikileaks. State's lawyers tied that one up for a couple of weeks, ultimately requiring me to make modifications. You see, Julian Assange and Wikileaks give Uncle Sam Major Agita.
My novels, too, have hit the censorship meat grinder. The letter above addresses my Afghanistan thriller, Tribe, whose publication was held up for six months.
Upon completion of the manuscript, I phoned State to ask to whom I should send it. In return, they faxed me a letter stating, "Everything you write will be considered classified until cleared by this office."
Four agencies of the federal government needed to have a crack at it. The CIA had "problems" with it. Worse, so did the FBI. Fortunately, the NSA cleared it lickety-split. CIA objected to my description of a well-known training facility. I emailed them links to a Wikipedia article on it as well as commercially produced overhead satellite photography of facility site; I added transcripts of books which have pages of detailed information on it. See? The whole world knows about your facility, I pointed out. The Agency held its ground and posed additional objections to other elements in my book.
Then the FBI declared they had "problems" as well. But they refused to reveal what they were, opting instead to stonewall and leave me hanging. Eventually, I managed to negotiate mutually acceptable changes with everybody, but a valuable half-year had passed, leaving several literary agents wanting to see the manuscript cooling their heels.
BTW, Tribe was well reviewed by two NYT bestselling novelists and went on to become an Amazon best seller.
My book of essays on U.S. foreign policy also hit snags. The censors made some major redactions:
Nice, huh?
I often like to describe the non-disclosure commitment as a "Faustian pact." (more on non-disclosure agreements utilized by President Trump here)
The devil eventually claims his due. And John Bolton must now make a down payment.
James Bruno (@JamesLBruno) served as a diplomat with the U.S. State Department for 23 years and is currently a member of the Diplomatic Readiness Reserve. An author and journalist, Bruno has been featured on CNN, NBC’s Today Show, Fox News, Sirius XM Radio, The Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, Huffington Post, and other national and international media.
