The US military is red-faced over a Pentagon campaign to buy up a controversial memoir about operations in Afghanistan, according to Aol News.
Retired Lt Colonel Anthony Shaffer wrote the catchily titled Operation Dark Heart: Spycraft and Special Ops on the Frontlines of Afghanistan - and the Path to Victory based on his service in Afghanistan. He never expected it to be an instant bestseller with the Pentagon purchasing the entire print run of 10,000 books.
While the book was submitted to be cleared by the Department of Defense, the book seemed have gotten lost within the system and now the Pentagon is buying back. Shaffer famously spoke out about how the government ignored pre-September 11 warnings of extremist activity, so the Operation Dark Heart’s content promises to be explosive. But with review copies and advances already released several copies of the book are already seeing the light of day. The Huffington Post reports a copy on eBay going for just over US$2,000.
Shaffer’s attorney, Mark Zaid, sees the Pentagon’s actions as huge publicity for a book that would have been largely ignored. Zaid said without the pulping, “fewer people would have read the book, and most of those people would have been inside the government, or people who already knew this stuff. Now, the government has highlighted that there’s something in this book that everyone wants to see.”