FORMER INTELLIGENCE OFFICER SUES CIA

A former CIA Intelligence Officer, Thomas Waters, Jr., filed a lawsuit today before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia asserting his First Amendment rights are being intentionally violated by the CIA. The CIA has threatened Waters with legal penalties if he publishes significant portions of his book "Class 11: Inside the CIA's First Post-9/11 Spy Class", which is currently scheduled for publication on April 6, 2006 (and is available for advance purchase through Amazon.com). Waters participated in the first CIA training class that followed the tragic terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and served at the CIA from 2002-2004. He is now a senior intelligence contract analyst for the Department of Defense.

Waters initially submitted his manuscript for prepublication review, a requirement imposed on CIA employees through their secrecy agreements, in May 2004. By late September 2004, the CIA's Publications Review Board ("PRB"), which coordinates the classification review of manuscripts, had approved for release the entire manuscript except for requiring the deletion of four words (which was done). Waters then sold his manuscript to Dutton, which is part of Penguin Group, in December 2004. The CIA was aware of the dissemination and sale of the manuscript.

In May and September 2005, Waters submitted some additional minor modifications to the manuscript, and supported all the changes through references to public source documents or previously released materials. Although required to respond within 30 days of receiving the changes, no response was ever received. Suddenly, the CIA notified Waters in December 2005 that he was not permitted to share the manuscript with anyone. Two months later, and just weeks before the book is to appear in bookstores, on February 15, 2006, the CIA notified Waters that significant portions of the manuscript were considered classified -- the majority of which had already been officially approved by the PRB for release in September 2004.