To Protect State Secrets, Pentagon Buys and Destroys Book

ABC

The Pentagon has purchased and arranged for the destruction of 9,500 copies of a book so it can protect classified information it contains.

Lt. Colonel Anthony Shaffer's memoir "Operation Dark Heart" had become a headache for the Defense Department which determined after it had gone to print that it contained classified information.  The book recounts the Army Reserve officer's experiences in Afghanistan in 2003 while working for the Defense Intelligence Agency.

An option being explored with the book's publisher was for the Pentagon to purchase the 9,500 copies of the book's first run so they could be destroyed.

Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. April Cunningham confirms that is what happened earlier this week.

"DoD decided to purchase copies of the first printing because they contained information which could cause damage to national security," she said.

According to Cunningham, "the approximately 9,500 copies of the book were "disposed on Sept. 20.  DoD observed the destruction of the copies."

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