Flynt Leverett
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Flynt Leverett (born March 6, 1958 in Memphis, Tennessee) is a senior fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington, DC. From March 2002 to March 2003, he served as the senior director for Middle East affairs on the National Security Council. Prior to serving on the NSC, he was a counterterrorism expert on the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, and before that he served as a CIA senior analyst for eight years. Since leaving government service, Leverett served as a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy before becoming the director of the Geopolitics of Energy Initiative in the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation.
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[edit] Op-ed controversy
As a former national security official granted a security clearance, Leverett is required to seek prior approval of articles from the CIA's Publication Review Board. Such reviews are conducted as a precaution to prevent leaks of classified information.[1]
On December 16, 2006 Leverett was denied permission to publish a 1,000 word opinion piece, co-written with his wife, Hillary Mann and based on his previously approved 35 page paper "Dealing with Tehran: Assessing U.S. Diplomatic Options Toward Iran". The longer paper and its shorter piece are critical of the current administration's refusal to engage in "comprehensive" negotiations with the Government of Iran. [2][3]
Leverett had intended to publish the shorter article in the New York Times. In a statement to the online publication Talking Points Memo, he disputed the official justification for the decision.
| “ | The White House is demanding, before it will consider clearing the op-ed for publication, that I excise entire paragraphs dealing with matters that I have written about (and received clearance from the CIA to do so) in several other pieces, that have been publicly acknowledged by Secretary Rice, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, and that have been extensively covered in the media. | ” |
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—TPM cafe , link |
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In the same statement, Leverett places the blame for squashing the op-ed piece on "White House staffers ...working for Elliott Abrams and Meghan O'Sullivan, both politically appointed deputies to President Bush's National Security Adviser, Stephen Hadley".
Abrams is a noted neoconservative, who some Iraq War critics accuse of also desiring a war with Iran. [4]
Abrams began his diplomatic career in the Reagan administration, but left government after his role in the Iran-contra affair resulted in prosecution. and was reported to favor a military options over diplomacy. Recently, Abrams was reported to have influenced the Bush administration's reaction to the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict by favoring Israeli military action. [5] Prior to entering the administration, O'Sullivan once advocated a continuation of sanctions against Iraq rather than an invasion of that country, accompanied by some diplomatic engagement with Iran and Syria. [6] [7]
[edit] Publications
- Leverett, Flynt (December 14, 2006). "Dealing with Tehran: Assessing U.S. Diplomatic Options Toward Iran" (PDF). The Century Foundation. Retrieved on 2006-12-18.
[edit] Video
- Leverett, Flynt. New America Foundation Discussion on Iran Issues [TV-Public Affairs]. Washington, D.C.: C-SPAN.
[edit] Books
- Inheriting Syria: Bashar's Trial By Fire a study of politics and policymaking in Syria, ISBN 0815752032
- The Road Ahead: Middle East Policy in the Bush Administration's Second Term (edited by Leverett with contributions from Kenneth Pollack, James Steinberg, Shibley Telhami, and Martin Indyk), ISBN 0815752059
[edit] References
- ^ Aftergood, Steven (September 26, 2006). CIA Regulations on Pre-Publication Review Posted (HTML). Secrecy News: from the Federation of American Scientists Project on Government Secrecy. Federation of American Scientists. Retrieved on December 18, 2006.
- ^ Goldenberg, Suzanne. "Bush accused of gagging critic of Iran policy", Guardian Unlimited, 2006-12-18. Retrieved on December 18, 2006.
- ^ "Flynt Leverett Blasts White House National Security Council Censorship of Former White House Officials Critical of Bush Policies". The Washington Note. December 16, 2006. URL accessed December 18, 2006.
- ^ Cole, Juan (2006-12-18). Bush White House Censors Op-Ed on Iran: Elliot Abrams Must Go (HTML). Informed Comment. Retrieved on December 18, 2006.
- ^ Hersh, Seymour (2006-08-14). Watching Lebanon: Washington's interests in Israel's war (HTML). Annals of National Security. The New Yorker. Retrieved on December 18, 2006.
- ^ Dinmore, Guy. "Hawks and pragmatists to mix on Rice's team", CNN, 2005-01-17, pp. 12–27. Retrieved on December 18, 2006.
- ^ Corn, David. "Who's Running Afghan Policy?", The Nation, 2006-10-16. Retrieved on December 18, 2006.
