Iran 69

De Guardian bericht:

'Bush accused of gagging critic of Iran policy.

The White House yesterday faced fresh accusations of tailoring
intelligence to suit its political viewpoint from a former CIA
analyst barred from publishing a critical newspaper commentary on
American policy towards Iran.
Flynt Leverett, a former Middle East analyst at the CIA and the
National Security Council who has criticised the Bush administration
for going to war with Iraq and for its handling of Iran, accuses the
White House of pressing the CIA to demand sweeping cuts to an opinion
piece he wrote for the New York Times on Washington's policy towards
Tehran.


Mr Leverett, who now works at the New America Foundation, a thinktank
in Washington, is the latest in a series of analysts and agents to
accuse the CIA publication review board of stifling criticism of the
administration or the intelligence-gathering operations in the run-up
to the war in Iraq. However, Mr Leverett goes a step further in
accusing the White House of putting pressure on the CIA to prevent
the distribution of views which do not conform to its policy of
refusing any diplomatic discussions with Iran.His 1,000-word article
was based on a longer published piece that the CIA had cleared
without demanding any changes, and that is available on the net. At
the website talkingpointsmemo.com, Mr Leverett wrote: "The White
House inserted itself into the prepublication review process for an
op-ed on the administration's bungling of the Iran portfolio."

Mr Leverett said he was ordered to drop references to Iran's
cooperation with the US on Afghanistan in the aftermath of the
September 11 2001 attacks. He claims the White House has had no
objections to similar assertions by less critical analysts.


Zie: http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1974216,00.html