{"id":932,"date":"2011-04-21T18:05:16","date_gmt":"2011-04-21T18:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/community\/?p=932"},"modified":"2022-09-28T10:13:40","modified_gmt":"2022-09-28T14:13:40","slug":"secret-agent-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2011\/04\/21\/secret-agent-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Secret Agent Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Tony Shaffer\u2019s journey from Wright State University has been one filled with top-secret missions, bureaucratic roadblocks, and the honor of serving his country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWright State prepared me very well to go forth and do things,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Shaffer\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Shaffer jokes that his foray into the world of espionage was \u201ca badly kept secret\u201d on campus. Charlie Funderburk, professor of political science, and his band once played the song \u201cSecret Agent Man\u201d in Shaffer\u2019s honor at a political science honors society event in the Student Union.<\/p>\n

Little did Shaffer\u2019s professors and friends know what would follow in the years to come.<\/p>\n

August 13, 2010. St. Martin\u2019s 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\u2014and the Path to Victory<\/em>. 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.<\/p>\n

Citing national security concerns, the DIA manages over the next several weeks to have some 250 passages of Shaffer\u2019s book blacked out. The agency also spends $47,300 to purchase and destroy 9,500 copies of the book\u2019s first printing.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t Shaffer\u2019s first run-in with the DIA, nor would it be his last. Since the revised edition of the book\u2014with redacted text\u2014hit the shelves on September 24, 2010, Shaffer has filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court, claiming that \u201clittle to none\u201d of the information blacked out of the second printing is actually classified and that the censorship violated his First Amendment rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very heavy-handed,\u201d said Shaffer of the censorship. \u201cIt 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\u2014you don\u2019t want to cross us.\u201d<\/p>\n

If anything, the controversy over Operation Dark Heart<\/em> has helped sales of the book. It entered The New York Times<\/em> hardcover nonfiction list at No. 7, jumped to the top of Amazon\u2019s biography list, and was No. 2 on Barnes & Noble\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Operation Dark Heart<\/em> chronicles Shaffer\u2019s six-month tour as an intelligence officer in Afghanistan. The book\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

When Shaffer reported to Afghanistan in late October 2003, the country was \u201cby all accounts, a done deal.\u201d In May 2003, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld had declared that major combat activity in Afghanistan was over. \u201cAt the very time he\u2019s talking about that, we\u2019re in the mountains breaking the back of the first attempted Taliban resurgence,\u201d said Shaffer.<\/p>\n

In writing the book, Shaffer wanted to tell the story of what he calls \u201cthe tipping point\u201d of the war in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a clearly defined victory, as advertised,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we didn\u2019t secure that victory. We didn\u2019t understand what was necessary to win the peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Shaffer, winning the peace meant crossing the border into Pakistan and toppling the insurgency\u2014a move that was supported by Shaffer\u2019s immediate supervisors but then crushed by military top brass.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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,\u201d said Shaffer. \u201cMore often than not, they are hampered by policy. Bad policy has killed more people than bad intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shaffer dedicates the final chapter of Operation Dark Heart <\/em>to what he believes is \u201cthe path to victory\u201d in Afghanistan. In his book, Shaffer writes:<\/p>\n

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.<\/em><\/p>\n

All ended with disastrous outcomes.<\/em><\/p>\n

We have to abandon the current policy.<\/em><\/p>\n

Not listening to the lessons of history is one of Shaffer\u2019s foremost concerns with the current strategy in\u00a0Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to have a treaty signing on the deck of a battleship somewhere, saying the war is over. It\u2019s just not going to happen,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat we have to understand is that the adversary we\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Shaffer told the 9\/11 Commission about Able Danger\u2014an admission that would ultimately cost him his job with the DIA.<\/p>\n

For Bronze Star\u2013recipient Shaffer, the firing felt like the ultimate betrayal. \u201cIt was a very difficult time. I had spent 25 years doing stuff, often very dangerous stuff for my country,\u201d he recalled. \u201cI\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

He is frequently interviewed by national media outlets for his expertise on defense issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been very gratifying to have been given so many opportunities to serve my country,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve enjoyed it. It\u2019s been a great adventure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tony Shaffer\u2019s journey from Wright State University has been one filled with top-secret missions, bureaucratic roadblocks, and the honor of serving his country. \u201cWright State prepared me very well to go forth and do things,\u201d said Shaffer, who graduated in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":977,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[747,4827,715,4855],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liberal-arts","category-magazine","category-news","category-social-sciences-and-international-studies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129837,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932\/revisions\/129837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}