But, on rare occasions, one does find a genuine exception, which brings us to the forthcoming book, Operation Dark Heart: Spycraft and Special Ops on the Frontlines of Afghanistan — and The Path to Victory by Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer (USA‐Reserve).
Shaffer is a CIA‐trained senior intelligence operations officer with more than twenty‐five years of experience in the intelligence community. Currently he is a Senior Fellow and Special Lecturer at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies in Washington, DC.
In 2003 to 2004 he served in Afghanistan, where as a major he led a black‐ops team to block the Taliban’s military resurgence. It not only planned intelligence operations to beat back insurgents, but played a key role in carrying out those operations, outside the wire, striking at Taliban safe havens in Pakistan. Those who see a similarity between Shaffer’s book title and Joseph Conrad’s famous novel, Heart of Darkness, are not mistaken. The latter served as inspiration for the former
According to the book’s Amazon page the book was supposed to be published Aug. 31. But it now appears that was premature.
It turns out that even though the U.S. Army signed off on the book’s release over eight months ago, others in the Pentagon are unhappy about some of the book’s contents. In the past the Defense Intelligence Agency had some objections, though it seems those objections actually came from outside the Defense Intelligence Agency. Hmm, outside pressure on an intelligence agency; let’s call it the Dick Cheney syndrome. Now another review is being conducted by the Office of the Secretary of Defense. For a mainstream media take on this see the New York Times article published today.
It is not clear what the outcome will be but it is possible that all the copies that have been printed up of the original version of the book might end up being pulped.
Let me quote from the dust cover, just to give a sense of the book’s contents.