Speaking Of Book Burning: Pentagon Aims to Buy, Destroy Books to ‘Keep Secrets’

by | Sep 10, 2010 | News | 19 comments

After Approving Release of Book Pentagon Scrambles to Buy Every Single Copy

The Pentagon spends an inordinate amount of time demanding changes and redactions to books to “protect national security,” but the mass destruction of a book already in print? It may sound far-fetched but that is exactly what is happening.

Having signed off on the publication (with a number of changes) of Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer’s memoir “Operation Dark Heart” the publisher went on with plans for an August 31 release. But then the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) still wasn’t happy, insisting the book still would cause “serious damage to national security.”

Which is why despite being “out” for over a week the book is out of stock literally everywhere. Because the Pentagon is in talks to buy every single copy in the world. And then destroy them.

Which seems like sort of an odd strategy, because if the book has already been cleared for publishing it seems like the publisher will just keep printing more, if for no other reason than to sell them to the military for destruction. Moreover, it seems only a matter of time before such a high-selling book, which seems destined for the oddest Best Seller list of all time, becomes an e-Book or an audio book, at which case it will be infinitely reproducible.

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