Secret Agent Man

Tony Shaffer’s journey from Wright State University has been one filled with top-secret missions, bureaucratic roadblocks, and the honor of serving his country.

“Wright State prepared me very well to go forth and do things,” said Shaffer, who graduated in 1986 with a Bachelor of Arts in political science and environmental studies. He was also a member of the national championship mock trial team that defeated Northwestern University in front of the Iowa Supreme Court.

Shaffer’s career as a spy began at Wright State when he took time off from classes to attend basic intelligence officer training at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. He also left campus for nearly a quarter to engage in military counterterrorism operations in Europe.

Shaffer jokes that his foray into the world of espionage was “a badly kept secret” on campus. Charlie Funderburk, professor of political science, and his band once played the song “Secret Agent Man” in Shaffer’s honor at a political science honors society event in the Student Union.

Little did Shaffer’s professors and friends know what would follow in the years to come.

August 13, 2010. St. Martin’s Press hits a major stumbling block as it prepares its initial shipment of Operation Dark Heart: Spycraft and Special Ops on the Frontlines of Afghanistan—and the Path to Victory. Despite previous approval of the manuscript from the U.S. Army in January, a last-minute attempt is under way by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to block the release of the war memoir by Shaffer, a former DIA intelligence officer and lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve.

Citing national security concerns, the DIA manages over the next several weeks to have some 250 passages of Shaffer’s book blacked out. The agency also spends $47,300 to purchase and destroy 9,500 copies of the book’s first printing.

It wasn’t Shaffer’s first run-in with the DIA, nor would it be his last. Since the revised edition of the book—with redacted text—hit the shelves on September 24, 2010, Shaffer has filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court, claiming that “little to none” of the information blacked out of the second printing is actually classified and that the censorship violated his First Amendment rights.

“It was very heavy-handed,” said Shaffer of the censorship. “It was more about retribution and retaliation than any real concern for security. This could have been done totally under the radar. But instead the Department of Defense, led by the Defense Intelligence Agency, chose to be very provocative about it. I believe it was meant to send a signal—you don’t want to cross us.”

If anything, the controversy over Operation Dark Heart has helped sales of the book. It entered The New York Times hardcover nonfiction list at No. 7, jumped to the top of Amazon’s biography list, and was No. 2 on Barnes & Noble’s political list. Uncensored advance copies of the book, distributed to critics and media outlets prior to the government buy-back, have sold for more than $2,000 on eBay.

Operation Dark Heart chronicles Shaffer’s six-month tour as an intelligence officer in Afghanistan. The book’s name pays homage to a mission planned by Shaffer and other intelligence personnel to infiltrate Pakistan and take out the insurgency. But as Shaffer would soon discover, Operation Dark Heart would never get off the ground.

When Shaffer reported to Afghanistan in late October 2003, the country was “by all accounts, a done deal.” In May 2003, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld had declared that major combat activity in Afghanistan was over. “At the very time he’s talking about that, we’re in the mountains breaking the back of the first attempted Taliban resurgence,” said Shaffer.

In writing the book, Shaffer wanted to tell the story of what he calls “the tipping point” of the war in Afghanistan.

“We had a clearly defined victory, as advertised,” he said. “But we didn’t secure that victory. We didn’t understand what was necessary to win the peace.”

For Shaffer, winning the peace meant crossing the border into Pakistan and toppling the insurgency—a move that was supported by Shaffer’s immediate supervisors but then crushed by military top brass.

“We probably have the greatest military intelligence in the history of our country. We have brave men and women out doing the hard work of keeping our country protected,” said Shaffer. “More often than not, they are hampered by policy. Bad policy has killed more people than bad intelligence.”

Shaffer dedicates the final chapter of Operation Dark Heart to what he believes is “the path to victory” in Afghanistan. In his book, Shaffer writes:

Right now we appear to be barreling down the same path as the British did twice, the Soviets did once, and others as far back as Alexander have done.

All ended with disastrous outcomes.

We have to abandon the current policy.

Not listening to the lessons of history is one of Shaffer’s foremost concerns with the current strategy in Afghanistan.

“We’re not going to have a treaty signing on the deck of a battleship somewhere, saying the war is over. It’s just not going to happen,” he said. “What we have to understand is that the adversary we’re now facing has lived the way they do, with the social constricts they have, for thousands of years. Long before the Taliban showed up, the tribes were there and will continue to be there long after we leave.”

The book also gave Shaffer the opportunity to share his side of the story in the aftermath of Able Danger, a pre-9/11 special operations command mission to counter global terrorism. In 2000, while targeting al Qaeda, the Able Danger task force discovered two of the three terrorist cells that later conducted the 9/11 attacks, including lead hijacker Mohammed Atta.

Shaffer told the 9/11 Commission about Able Danger—an admission that would ultimately cost him his job with the DIA.

For Bronze Star–recipient Shaffer, the firing felt like the ultimate betrayal. “It was a very difficult time. I had spent 25 years doing stuff, often very dangerous stuff for my country,” he recalled. “I’ve come to realize there are still good people in defense intelligence. There are great Americans who do very difficult things every day. But their enemies often are my enemies. The very folks who came after me for trying to tell the truth and do the right thing are those who would sooner protect their careers and do what is necessary to preserve them, rather than preserve what is best for the country.”

Today, Shaffer is director for external communications at the Center for Advanced Defense in Washington, D.C., where he also lectures on the psychology of terrorism.

He is frequently interviewed by national media outlets for his expertise on defense issues.

“It’s been very gratifying to have been given so many opportunities to serve my country,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed it. It’s been a great adventure.”